on headphones and...no, i don't have any american lit writing to do, why do you ask?

I learned a lesson this morning, after I put my headphones on and heard music exclusively through the left earbud: Don't skimp on headphones.
This all came up about three weeks ago when my ancient iPod headphones finally gave up the ghost. The wire was fraying down at the jack and the sound wasn't all that it used to be and it only played music out of one earbud, but I thought that they could stick it out a little longer until the day I put them on and no music came out. So that afternoon I went to the local RadioShack (it being right next to work and all) to buy new ones.
I bought the cheapest ones. Because, I figured, what was the difference, really? When I used them the next day, I found out. They wouldn't stay in my ears! In order to use them I had to stay perfectly still and if I wanted to listen to music while walking I had to keep my head perfectly level and stationary, like some strange combination of Eliza Doolittle and Dr. Alan Grant. If I wasn't completely still and did something stupid like turning my head or yawning pop! out would come one (or both!) of the earbuds. Oh, I wanted to tear the headphones apart. I came this close to throwing them into the wild blue yonder on several occasions.

And now they're dead. I'm not going to wait until they stop working completely to get new headphones. I'm going to bury these bastards and buy new ones. And you had better believe that they'll be expensive.