There is too much great music in the world

[glatt]

I don't listen to music like I used to. I used to really LISTEN to it, but now it's usually just on in the background.

I pretty much only really listen to music when making dinner with my wife. We have speakers in the kitchen, and we'll select a CD, pour some wine, and just listen to the tunes while making dinner. That's nice. I really hear the music then. But that's pretty much the only time, and there's a compromise because it has to be something we can both agree on.

In high school and college, there was so much free time. I could just be by myself, listening to music and really focusing on it for hours on end.

Now, pretty much the only time I'm alone is when I go for a walk or when I'm commuting. I don't like earbuds or headphones during my commute. So many sounds from the outside world leak through them and my mind focuses on identifying those outside sounds. It's all so distracting. I even modified a set of earbuds to be more isolating, but that just made it worse because I needed to focus on the outside, so I still wasn't focusing on the music.

So I find myself listening to the safe old music that both my wife and I can agree on. Actually, she's alone at home for much of the day, so she listens to music a lot and winds up getting in to newer stuff and influencing what I wind up listening to. May sound like I'm bitter, but I'm not. It's just the way that it is.

Funny thing is, we have the best sound system and the greatest choice of music that I've ever had in my life, and we aren't taking full advantage of it.