So today I got another package from Tucson and it included another one of my Case Logic CD binders. This one was “Jurassic 5 – Souls of Mischief”. It rests alongside “Ryan Adams – P.J. Harvey” and awaits the arrival of such brethren as “Akinyele – Jeru the Damaja” and “Imogen Heap – The Verve” and the other two-thirds of my collection.

What really sucks is that it seems like I’ve got the worst third of the collection in my possession. I mean, yeah I’ve got Nas, Biggie and Little Brother’s debut, but I’ve also got Lil’ Cease, N.O.R.E. and the worst of Slum Village and Leaders of the New School. I may have The Roots, but I’m missing Common, The Beatnuts, Ghostface and Jay-Z. I’m even lacking Kanye, Tribe and Wu.

And while I’ve got Foo Fighters, I’m without Queens of the Stone Age. For every Ryan Adams album I’m missing a Radiohead classic. And I’d be completely lamenting the lack of Elliott Smith and The White Stripes… if I didn’t have all their stuff on my iPod. It’s true what they say—you always want what’s beyond your grasp.

Wait, I’m not sure anyone’s ever said that.

Anyway, I’m sort of like a kid in that if I’m not thinking about what pains me, it doesn’t. I can go all day bopping along to The Odd Couple instrumentals, but the second I’m in the mood for something that’s not in my current possession, I’m caught in a downward spiral of, “Man, I really wish I could hear (fill in the blank).” It’s a trouble condition.

But on the plus side, at some point in the future this will all be moot. I just wish that that future could hurry up and become the present, so then I could lack back on this present as the past, and be able to listen to whatever I want.