iPod/iTunes problems - restore. Anyone speak Apple?

[JerseygirlCT]

I can never make heads or tails of their directions.

The nano told me today it needed to be restored. Or at least I think that's what it said, as the light didn't work, either. Makes it hard to read...

I opened iTunes, plugged the iPod in, and hit the restore button. It seemed to do that, then said it was syncing my music. Except it only did about half of the music in my library.

Now the library looks the same, but if I click on any of my playlists, or even just "music", I can see what music is still there, but not in dark print - it's all ghostly. And the pod still says not to disconnect.

It's been like this a few hours, so I'd guess the battery is all charged up. I'm tempted to close iTunes and re-open it to see if that helps, but then again, don't want to wreck things.

Almost all of my music is from my CDs, so not a whole lot would have been lost - it's just such a PITA to redo.

So, anyone conversant in Apple with some advice?