Free isn't always a better option

I recently told my husband I have found three things that aggravate my morning sickness since becoming pregnant with our second baby: getting too hot, getting too hungry and FM radio.

I'm actually serious.

As I was driving with my son the other morning, Beyonce's "Single Ladies" song came on, and I actually thought I might have to start looking for a place to pull over. Instead, I turned the volume down a few hairs -- and the heat -- and the nausea subsided.

FM radio is something I once swore by. As a kid, before the days of iPods, Internet and satellite radio, I'd stay up late with headphones plugged up to the stereo listening to hits countdowns practically every night, my finger on the record button of my cassette player so I could tape my favorite songs.

I've always been a music lover, and some of those songs I've come to think of as the soundtrack of my life: Hearing one can bring back so many memories in an instant.

When Sirius and XM radio started coming onto the scene, I felt a certain loyalty to FM radio. I liked that my stations could also give me my local weather, traffic and news.

And to be honest, my main decree was "I won't pay for something I can get for free."

Of course, back then I was only in the car for a few minutes out of the day. Flash forward to 2007, and I'm driving at least an hour and a half each day.

I lasted about a week before I changed my course and admitted to my husband that maybe satellite would be pretty nice.

A few days later, he surprised me by coming home with a shiny new XM radio.

It was love at first listen. As I've gotten older I've become even more of a music lover, but not just Top 40. There's so much more out there, and satellite radio offered options like bluegrass, alternative rock and folk acoustic, along with many more.

On a day not too long ago when traffic backed up on the interstate, I did switch over to the local FM station for a traffic report. When they said all was clear, I felt any little bit of admiration I had left for FM radio start to vanish.

When I recently became a "full-time" mom, however, I made the difficult decision to end my satellite radio subscription. Since I wouldn't be in the car nearly as much, or bringing in income, it no longer seemed like a justified expense.

To my surprise, my first few car trips without it were kind of nice. It didn't take long before I heard a few of those songs from my youth I mentioned earlier. It had been awhile.

But, a few days in I realized that the only reason I hadn't listened to those songs was because I wasn't often tuned in to FM. It wasn't long before I was hearing the same songs over and over -- the ones I used to get sick of for the same reason.

I'll learn to adjust, maybe find some favorite FM stations again. At least for now, I just might have to turn the volume down from time to time to keep from losing my lunch.

• Contact Jessica Wiant at jwiant@nvdaily.com