My iPod makes me feel cool.

It’s very seldom when I feel the idea of cool is personally applicable to me. For instance, such as when I put on a Friday-night outfit and see that it really only looked better assembled in my head. Sometimes though, elusive Cool will pop out of a nowhere with a right jab to the chin while I stare at her staring back at me in the mirror, leaving me with whiplash so hard that I can see into the next century. There are moments like those that I relish, that make me utter, Damn, I am hot shit!

I had that moment yesterday.

I stayed up till 1:40 a.m. listening to the shuffle mode on my iPod. If you’re like me (and in fact, I’m jealous if you’re not), you’ve loaded a megaton of crap onto your iPod that you didn’t know about until the shuffle mode threw them in like rocks through windows. I boycotted the shuffle mode a few months ago after it pulled up one inferior song after another. Yesterday night, out of indecisiveness that inevitably plagues all people who have too many choices, I shuffled.

I got all weepy at the heaviness of personal cool that slowly enveloped my heart. Slowdive followed by Ellen Allien after Eagles of Death Metal after My Bloody Valentine after Joy Division after Billie Holliday. And then another My Bloody Valentine tune -- out of the 4,000 songs in my sonic arsenal, it gave me My Bloody Valentine twice? WTF? I hadn’t even listened to MBV in at least six months. What a seriously gratifying mix. Simply decadent, unremittingly perfect. Congrats to me for having great taste in music. Congrats to me for knowing what great music sounds like.

Now it’s noon the next day and I’m back to feeling like the uncool person that I am. And it feels great.