About one month ago, we became the proud owners of a Sonos Digital Music System. My husband had been bugging me forever to get one of these things. But I resisted. Why can’t we just listen to the stereo? Well, apparently stereos are passe, and I’ve just completely dated myself by even daring to use the word. Seriously, you’d think I just asked for my Bee-Gees 8-track off of the car’s dash!

Music is a huge part of our lives, and that’s why I eventually relented. Well, that, and the fact that my husband is a total technology geek, and he was never going to let up. He really wanted this thing. He promised that it would change our lives. And that sounds like a really strong statement? Well, he was talking to the right person. Music has had an uncanny ability to change my life many, many times…

And so, it arrived. And my husband set it up. And I don’t even know how to explain what this little system does. I am the farthest thing from a technology geek that you will ever cross paths with. I had one of those little hand-held calendar things back in the late 90s. Remember those? Supposed to streamline your life? Except that in order to use it, you had to basically learn a new way of writing the alphabet? Go ahead, ask my little electronic planner how it worked for me. Oh wait, that’s right. You can’t. Because it’s buried, presumably, at the bottom of a New Jersey landfill. I hated that thing. Paper and pencil for me. But I will tell you this: my husband did not lie. This thing, this Sonos, has changed our lives. We now live in a home that is constantly surrounded with the sound of music. It’s incredible. Playlists from our various i-Pods, Internet stations, something called Pandora, it is always on. In fact, even in the evenings, when the girls are asleep, and I would lie down on the couch to watch a program? No more. Now I am listening to music while reading a magazine. Or even a book! Life enhanced…

Pea asked me just this morning to please turn on the music because she likes it on when she’s “making art.” Can I just tell you how freaking awesome that was to hear? Rather than asking for a Noggin show to be turned on, she asked for music. And I swear I am not kidding when I say that she was trying her best to sing the chorus lyrics to “Refugee,” right along with Tom Petty. A moment to make any mother proud.

So, now that summertime is officially in swing in this part of the country, this system is really being put to the test. While my husband had been working on speakers in all of the rooms of the house, so that each “area” is on it’s own zone, that project has been put on the back-burner momentarily, so that he can focus on outside speakers. But these outdoor speakers? He just might be taking the search for them a little too seriously. He has to do all of his research, get recommendations, troll Internet chat rooms on the subject, hone in on the perfect outdoor speaker system, and my gosh, if we’re lucky it will be set up by next summer! Nah, it’s not that bad. But I might need to light a fire underneath his bottom, because we are hosting an outdoor get-together here in just a couple of weeks. Our first entertaining event in our new home in our new hometown with our new friends. And so, we’ll need music. But for now? The lack of outdoor speakers doesn’t matter, because I crank open the windows in our great room that overlook the little patio area on the side of the house and we sit out there, playing around, for hours, the girls, the dogs, occasionally my husband, and me. And the music. It’s become something of another family member.