Goodbye, Jane Austen

So here's something weird that happened:

Eric and I went to a nice restaurant across the river for our anniversary dinner (using a very excellent gift certificate from that May Basket raffle I won), and when I started the car to go home, the radio came on.

Fun fact: I am not a big fan of the radio. My age is showing, but you guys, pop music is so bad. I have Jane Austen, my original 2009 8-gig iPod Nano, always plugged into my car's auxiliary jack. That way, I can listen to all the Linkin Park and Chevelle and Anberlin I want.

Jane Austen looks like this.

The only time the radio comes on is when Jane Austen is not connected. And, as we've just established, Jane Austen is pretty much always connected.

I mean, sure, her internal battery is getting kind of weak, so I have to charge her more often than I used to. And fine, her screen is getting some kind of weird... like she's losing her color or something on the upper lefthand side. She's old, she's earned her eccentricities.

She's kind of my baby.

So when the radio came on, Eric and I just kind of looked at each other. I was all, where's Jane Austen? And he was like, are you sure she's here? And I'm like, I was listening to her while I ran errands this morning. And he's all, she's not here now.

We looked around for her, under the seats, in my purse, in the glovebox, but she was gone. Jane Austen AND the auxiliary cord. Poof. Gone.

Nothing else was touched. Since my big girl camera was in the trunk, I was ever so happy about that.

But it makes me wonder--why would anyone even want Jane Austen? She can't have any street value. She only has music. She has a scroll bar, for crying out loud. She's been discontinued! Why take her and not the radio?

I just don't get it.

I am sad.

UPDATE: Jane Austen (and cord) have been found! On the floor of the backseat, for some reason. (Thank you, Johanna!) This still doesn't explain WHY Jane Austen was in the backseat, or HOW she got there, and I'm kind of questioning Eric's and my combined sanity because neither of us remember tossing her back there... but hey! Happy ending!