I thought I would post James Blunt songs but I have been watching The Longest Rideevery day for about a week now and every time I hear the country music, it makes me think of Barwis and all of my Barwis trainers with fondness so I thought to add a few of my faves from the soundtrack to my May Faves:
Category: Tunes
Highlights from the soundtrack of my life.
Not Quite an, “Incredible Journey”
I belonged to the Columbia House music club when I was an undergrad in college. You know, the one where you get 10 CDs for a penny? I stocked up on a whole bunch of CDs then! I still have over 200 CDs in a box somewhere in my house, I think it’s in the basement. Who listens to CDs now?!
I will never forget the fact that one of the last CDs I purchased for a penny was a greatest hits album by Journey. I thought it was called “The Incredible Journey” but I was wrong. I have since learned that the album was titled, “The Essential Journey.”
I had just moved into my first apartment before I began working and just after I graduated with my bachelor’s degree. I received this Journey album in the mail. I was excited so I opened it up and put it on in my car to pick up my Mom. I don’t know where we were going.
When she got into the car, she liked the music and a showed her the album I had just received. She simply said, “I’ll have this.” I had JUST received the album but what else are you going to do when your mom says she wants something?! I gave her the album not even listening to the whole thing once. She did this another time even though she denies it but even Sean knows about the Pyrex set when we moved into our first apartment! But alas, it’s water under the bridge!
Journey is the soundtrack of my childhood! My Mom would always listen to them when she cleaned the house or when she cooked dinner. I can still hear her singing all of the words to many of their songs. I also remember looking up at her with tears welling in my eyes when she would exclaim that she loved Steve Perry! I would look at her incredulously and ask, “What about Daddy?! She would laugh but I could not understand that love because she was married to my Dad!
Yesterday, my Mom and I listened to her playlist while we completed a routine and we heard TONS of Journey songs! Now that I am older, anytime I hear a Journey song, I have to belt it out at the top of my lungs because I know so many of the words from hearing it so many times in my youth!
It shows you how different times are now. Sean and I were driving in the car when he must’ve been about 11 or 12. It was Bono‘s birthday (May 10) and the DJ told us about it. I exclaimed as I always do, “I LOVE BONO!” Like my Mom used to exclaim about Steve Perry when I was a kid and all Sean said was that, “He’s old!” When the DJ told us how old he was. Maybe it’s because I am not married? He was, by no means, threatened by my love of Bono like I was about my Mom’s love for Steve Perry!
It was really fun to sing songs with my Mom because we both know the words! I thought that we could replay the excellent song choices from yesterday by listening to her playlist on shuffle again but that was not the case. We did, however, hear, “Oh, Sherrie”
We must’ve heard five or six Journey songs and I loved it! When I told my Mom that those songs are the soundtrack of my childhood, it got me thinking about what are Sean’s songs from his childhood. I asked him and he told me this song:
Maybe it’s not as epic as journey but I really do dig me some Gavin DeGraw!
“This Is Mine, You Can’t Take It”
I’ve really been in a slump for the past few days. I think I started getting out of it yesterday but today I felt a lot better! My Mom and I were listening to the playlist I made for her. We started to laugh as we heard the Stevie Wonder songs that were in Happy Feet.
I put the playlist on shuffle and today we heard a lot of the Stevie Wonder songs that I chose for her. I was feeling in better spirits because we laughed so much at the movie theater memory of three-year-old Sean watching Happy Feet. Then I heard this song:
I was immediately taken back to my parents’ house and Sean had to be about two months old. My parents weren’t there and plans fell through so it was just Sean and me at my house. I was kind of bummed out but I remember being in the front room of my parents’ house and turning on the stereo loudly that they had on the top of a shelf in the living room.
I held him up over my head out in front of me and danced in my parents living room singing this song. Of course I cried today! But I think those tears were remnants from my low points a couple days ago and the grief of thinking about me dancing and holding my baby over my head. Yeah, I obviously can’t do that now! But I appreciated remembering this day and thinking about dancing with my little baby, Sean.
My Dad’s Name Is, “Dad!”
My Mom picked me up a new charger cord from the gas station up the street yesterday. My phone was not holding a charge so we laid it flat on the kitchen counter to keep it charging while we completed our morning routine. Since I got the new cord, we could keep my phone close to us so we could listen to her playlist on my Apple Music.
I don’t mind listening to these songs because my Mom will give me tons of history pertaining to her and my Dad with each song. I like to hear her talk about her and my Dad‘s younger days! I like the faraway look she gets in her eyes when she recalls her past. A past that I haven’t ever known until my adult years.
When this song comes on the playlist, my Mom will tell me about when she bought my Dad this single on a record. I remember My Aunt telling me that his entire family was sick of this song because he played it over and over again!
One thing that my Mom will do when she is reminiscing is that she will call my Dad, “Ray.” I have an older brother with the same name. Growing up, we would call him, “Ray” even though he goes by, “Ramon” now. When my Mom will tell me stories of being in high school or a young married couple, she will get lost in the story and call my Dad, “Ray.”
I constantly will have to remind her that my Dad‘s name is, “Dad!” She will laugh a little bit but it definitely helps with the confusion for me! I’m sure I will have to remind her of this fact forever but I will because my Dad’s name IS, “Dad!”
ALMOST Forgotten Tune #50
Matty once told me that his sister liked to listen to, “Electrical Storm” because I was talking about the best of 1990-2000 album I was listening to a lot then when we would work in the drive-through together at dfcu financial.
I can’t hear this song without thinking of him having an uncomfortable look he had on his face when I exclaimed, “I love u2!”
He graduated a year after me in 2001 and he went to Livonia Stevenson high school. I even recycled the name I used to call him. I think that is one of the reasons why I call Matthew Stafford, “Matty.” Because I was older than the three guys I worked with, I called all of them: Craigy, Matty, and Corey. I didn’t have to add anything to Corey’s name and I don’t know if these names bothered them but that’s what I called them.
I’ve been trying to find Matt on Facebook and Twitter but to my dismay, I wasn’t able to yet. So Internet, do your thing! I’m looking for Matt Davis.
One-Crutching It
Yesterday, I was sad. I missed my old life! This new life (with MS and post-meniscus surgery) is difficult! It hurts! I was tired of it last night. I am pretty much always tired of it nowadays. I didn’t participate in my family’s Easter celebration again.
Today, I tagged my friend, Jaci, on Facebook. I tagged her on my latest post on my blog that I share on Facebook. We conversed via the comments section. She told me that James Blunt reminds her of me. I used to listen to that album a lot in my first year of teaching!
Jaci and I worked together. We were hired in the same year. We were in the same, “Freshman class.” There were five of us hired in that year, (the 2005 2006 school year). NONE of us work there anymore. Our conversation sparked me to search Back to Bedlam on Apple Music.
I was grateful that Sean left to get a haircut. He’s on spring break this week. As soon as I was alone in the house, I started playing the album from the beginning. At first, I sang a little bit with the song, High.
I only got about two lines in before I started to cry. When I say cry, I mean CRY! I am talking shoulders shaking, sobbing, SUPER ugly cry-face crying! I would start to compose myself a little more than halfway through this song but when the next song would begin, and the crying would start all over again!
I used so much toilet paper because I kept blowing my nose! And yeah, I can’t afford a frivolous things like Kleenex boxes so toilet paper will have to do. But I use Quilted Northern 3-ply toilet paper so it was soft enough! I didn’t hold the tears back but rather I let them flow so as to get some of this lingering negative feeling out of me!
The album was released in November 2004 but I recalled, one-crutching it (walking into the store using one Canadian crunch, my right one because I am left-handed) into 7-Eleven. I am remembering it being summer time and I would get the tea before working in my classroom before school started.
This memory had to be after my Dad died because I remember living in our second apartment. But I used to listen to the album a lot on loop in my car. My memory is of buying my no carb green tea at 7-Eleven. I didn’t understand that carbs were the devil until after my Dad died.
I don’t even think that I wore sunglasses back then. My eyes weren’t so damaged from my Optic Neuritis at this point. I was walking and I remember having a dollar in my front left jeans pocket. This tea was $.99 and I used to put the penny in the center console of my car. I used to keep the windows down and back then I had a sunroof.
I can’t imagine NOT wearing sunglasses whenever I am outside (regardless of whether) now! I haven’t worn jeans in years because my body has betrayed me and I no longer can wear jeans (too difficult to put on). I no longer drive and I can’t stand wind being on my skin. Physically, I am so far removed from where I once was that it just added to my tears!
I think these tears were a bit cathartic and I also believe that I needed them! I am just not at that point I was at earlier but MS and recovering from meniscus surgery having MS has proven to be quite difficult and painful! I appreciated listening to this album today. I needed it!
ALMOST Forgotten Tune #49
I tagged my friend, Jaci, on Facebook in the post I wrote yesterday. We reminisced about laughing at me setting my alarm to wake up to watch David Letterman in order to watch U2’s musical performances, arriving to work very early, and how she is reminded of me with James blunt. I DID listen to him a lot during our first years teaching.
We were hired in the same year. There were five hires in our, “Freshman class” as I call it. I was one of the last to leave and now none of us are teaching there anymore.
Sean left to get his haircut so I am by myself in my house and I added Back to Bedlam to my Apple Music playlists and proceeded to listen to the entire album. (I need to gather my thoughts and I hope to write about it in a little bit) but I heard this song and given how I handled listening to that James Blunt album, this song seemed fitting. I almost forgot about it:
“What’s Up with the Depressing Music?”
So today, in the late morning hours, I was feeling some U2 music! I pulled up my U2 playlist in Apple Music and was trying to decide what song I wanted to hear. I scrolled through the EXTENSIVE playlist and randomly chose songs I wanted to hear. Any U2 song has the power to transport me back to a different place, time, and circumstance. The songs I chose were largely from one of the best of albums:
I listened to this album a lot on my way to work when I worked at DFCU financial while I was in college, just after Sean was born. I am reminded of Matt Davis. We were both working in the drive-through and I was thinking of songs I heard on my way into work and I just exclaimed, “I love u2!” Matt looked kind of uncomfortable and asked me why I said that. I laughed and told him I was talking about the band.
This album was spring of my freshman year at WMU and driving down E. Pond Dr. after just leaving my dorm and living in Kalamazoo.
This one was my first year teaching. U2 was the musical guest all week long on the David Letterman show. My friend and former colleague, Jaci, thought it was so funny that I would go to sleep at my normal time during the week and I set my alarm to watch David Letterman. Because I was 26 at the time and Dave’s target audience was 18 to 25, I didn’t really dig that show as much as I used to when I was younger. I didn’t find it as funny as I remember it being. So on Tuesday and for the rest of the week, I set my alarm for just in time to see u2 perform their new music.
This album is really special to me because the few new songs that are on it, speak to me! I listened to one of these songs right after my Dad died and I drove to work crying and would wear my sunglasses into the building give me those sun was not even up to hide my red and puffy eyes.
Sean was in his room and asked, “What’s up with the depressing music?“ I laughed and told him it was NOT depressing! I guess I was choosing more of their mellow tunes but I didn’t mind at all!
I’ve said before how I do not share my U2 songs with anyone because I don’t want negative memories to cloud my music. Then I listened to a song that I don’t listen to often because I do not appreciate so much the time, place, and circumstance I am transported back to. But this song is fitting because it’s Easter!
Sweetest Thing
Yesterday, I had to do some Easter shopping because this may be the last year Sean gets an Easter basket! He hasn’t had one in a couple years because I haven’t been working but this year, I wanted to do this for my Beeb.
My Mom loaded me into the car and we left. This song played right when I got into the car!:
This song has been my jam for almost 20 years! I thought it was going to mean it was a good omen but… I will write about it in a bit.
ALMOST Forgotten Tune #48
So, I’m feeling like poop today but as I sit and watch a cheesy Hallmark movie (which I LOVE!) that I have never seen before, the guy talked about Night swimming. Of course I thought of this song and had to share it! I have not thought about this song in over 10 years, probably about 14…