Filling up the Zen

I remember reading about companies that will load your music onto your MP3 player for you -- for a price -- and thinking ha ha! I would never need such a thing. But here I am at T minus almost 30 days of Zen ownership and I still have 4 of my 5 gigs available for tunes. All I've loaded is an eclectic (some would say downright nutty) collection that includes:

Abba "Gold" (inspired by seeing "Mamma Mia")

Goodness "Anthem" (the major-label debut, and, unfortunately, finale of an amazing Seattle rock band of the '90s)

Various Artists "Disco Fever" (two discs worth, thank you very much)

Heart "Greatest Hits" (well, some of them ... "All I Wanna Do" isn't a greatest hit to me)

Shawn Colvin "Holiday Songs and Lullabyes" (Cheryl has hooked me on Shawn Colvin, who I once thought rather breathy and light, but now appreciate more deeply)

The Carpenters "The Singles 1969-1973" (oddly, the Zen program categorizes this as "acoustic pop" -- does no one remember the electric guitar solo on "Goodbye to Love" and the way that it revolutionized the place of electric guitars in ballads, for better or worse?)

Four "Lost" podcasts

and random tracks from the likes of Justin Timberlake, Paul Carrack and U2.

Now loading: The Indigo Girls, "Rarities."