Ipods, Disco Balls & Belly Button Lint

I've been busy these days fighting with my iPOD Shuffle and making a Madonna-popping-out-of-a-disco-ball for MJagger's birthday. In addition, I've been trying to get this little crusty out of my belly button piercing hole, but I am not having much success. Let's take these in orders so I can whine appropriately...

My shuffle no longer shuffles, which is traumatic for me because I LOVE my iPOD. I've spent like 50 hours trying to fix it--everything from downloading crap off the Apple website to swearing at it. Nothing works. I miss my little white ear buds in the morning. How the hell am I supposed to work without music? (No, I do not listen to my iPOD when I am doing counseling--only when doing paperwork, you silly beasts.) I can't exactly buy a new one--that budget thing again--but I am going to have to do something or I will soon break into tears. Thankfully, making the disco ball took my mind off of my misery for an hour or two. I'll take some pictures of the finished product it and post them for your viewing pleasure. MJagger seemed pleased enough. I mean, how can you NOT love a Madonna disco ball for your birthday?

As for my belly button, I'm not kidding about this. See, when I got my appendix out, they made me take out my belly button ring. Since then, there is this hole (actually, two holes) that serve no purpose (in my belly button region, that is--I like to think my other holes serve purpose). Anyway, I noticed this little crusty thing in the lower piercing hole and I'm hear to tell you it's like impossible to get out (due to the angle, need of trifocals to see, bad lighting). I'm afraid I may have to get help to address this. Here's a photo of a hairy belly button (not mine, sillies):

When I look at that damn belly button piercing hole with no purpose, I get bad flashbacks of the actual belly button piercing. I let myself believe these two teenagers tell me it didn't hurt to get it done. They both had pierced belly buttons and it looked good; I figured, why not me? They accompanied me to the tattoo parlor to get this done and stood by my side as the procedure occured. I watched in horror as this pierced specimen of a man held up this chunk of rusty metal the size of a railroad tie stake and the POUND it through my abdomen skin, muscle and fat. YYYYYEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWWWW! Those rat bastards LIED to me! It hurt like a bitch! They laughed and told me I was purple. I choked out the only two words I could get out, "YOU LIED." The teens laughed and admitted yes, they did indeed lie to me. I swore I would die with that thing pierced. (My appendix had another idea. Sigh.) It took TWO YEARS for that belly button piercing to truly heal. Two years!! Anything that takes that long to heal cannot be goof for you. (I thought it looked good, tho. Ah, the price of beauty.) So, I'll keep working on that little fuzzy or crusty or whatever it is. ( Don't worry--it's just probably part of my guts oozing out. Blech.) Perhaps tweezers and a flashlight would help.

Anyone wanna buy a used iPOD?