This was an old post from my myspace blog. I brought it over because I enjoyed writing it so much. And since writing it originally, back in the summer of 2006, one more song has come along that needs to be added. It'll be the second to last one...
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It's funny how a song can bring you back to a moment so specifically and so effectively...
'Little Red Corvette'...hanging out with my big sister...the coolest person in the world, feeling so lucky that she would choose to spend time with me, trying to absorb as much of her coolness as I could...
'Santeria'...riding in an open jeep in the sunshine, feeling the sun on my face, feeling beautiful for the first time in years, feeling like my life was about to change, but not being sure why or how...
'Little Plastic Castles'...sitting in the window of my tiny bedroom my senior year of college, taking a break from writing my thesis, dreaming of how completing it was going to change my life, and of all the great writing I would do later on...feeling like my life was ahead of me and I could do anything...
'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee'...driving across campus on my way to a NASA meeting, fire in my belly over all I'd learned about the real history of the country...
'Inside Out'...driving from Norcross to Buckhead to my first job in GA, wondering what in God's name had made me move so far from home, but feeling comforted by my sister's presence next to me in the car...
'As Cool As I Am'...my first year teaching, going on a blind date, realizing I didn't like the guy half as much as the one I already liked, and that I was okay with that, loving the mix tape my best friend had made me, missing her so much it ached...
'Praise You'...sitting in a darkened living room in Los Angeles, watching smoke curl its way upward from a lit Camel Light in the ashtray, realizing what, exactly, it feels like when your heart breaks...
'Honeysuckle Blue'...sitting on my parents' old sofa in an apartment in Georgia, drinking hunch punch with a bunch of southerners who'd adopted me as one of their own, feeling like these people would always be in my life...
'Dilate'...subway in NYC, heading downtown to a job training, feeling like this was the coolest, best place I'd ever been, loving how easy it is to blend into a city where anything goes...
'Fallin'...Washing my hair in my new apartment in Allston, wondering if the world would ever again feel as normal as I did singing along to this song in the mornings...
'Short Skirt, Long Jacket'...Looking up at a shaft of sunlight above me, smiling and feeling, for the first time in my life, that I was sexy enough to pull off a look like that...
'Closer to Myself'...Walking up Comm Ave in the sunshine, feeling like I'd found the secret to happiness, knowing deep down I was wrong, but hoping like Hell I wasn't...
'Hands Down'...Singing to myself in my apartment in Beacon Hill, feeling all angsty about when, if ever, I was going to have a date that good...
'Burn'...singing along with Usher at the top of my lungs and knowing just exactly what he meant when he sang the shit out of those lyrics...
'Tessie'...the absolutely intoxicating mix of my team finally winning and my own finally finding that right person...there was never a better week than that one...
'Suspicious Minds'...Ironically, dancing at a wedding, finally knowing what it was like to feel truly loved by someone who wasn't required by blood to feel that way...
'Only With You'...looking my brand new husband in the eye and knowing he was my past, present and future. Knowing I was safe and loved and was finally someone's favorite.
'Power of Two'...knowing my dream had finally come true and nothing had ruined it and I could exhale.
'No One'...Singing to my brand new son while watching VH-1 in the middle of the night, feeling an intensity of love and protectiveness I wasn't aware I could feel until just then...
'You Are My Sunshine'...a lifetime's worth...sitting on my grandfather's knee, dozing, feeling like everything was just right...missing him when he'd gone, being comforted that this song would continue to link us, somehow...dancing with my father, both of us crying both with joy and with the ache of missing my grandfather on a day he would've loved to be part of. And finally, singing to my son to calm him during restless moments, being amazed each time how quickly that song could quiet him, as if he knew instinctively how important it was...
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