Memory Lane

The strangest thing happened today, while I was getting ready (at 3pm because it was a lazy Sunday) I decided I would like to listen to my iPod Nano. Not that big of a deal, it just had been awhile since Bryan and I both use the "app" Pandora on our phones a lot. I rummaged through one of our drawers, found it, and docked it on the station that plays it through the speakers, and instantly I found myself strolling down memory lane.

Before I got any further you have to understand that I have music ADD, just when I think, "Ah, I like this song", and start singing the lyrics, I decide, "but I'll probably like the next one better!" 

This was the case today. One of the first songs that happen to come on as I stepped in the shower was the live version of "Beautiful Disaster" by Kelly Clarkson. A-mazing song if you haven't heard it, it was one I had a friend of mine burn to a CD for me from the Internet (because heck if I knew how to do it, and I still don't!) and I played on repeat whenever I had the chance. I hadn't heard it in a while but wasn't surprised I still knew all the lyrics, after all it had been one of my faves :) That one played in it's entirety not just because I was in the shower and the music ADD couldn't take over, but because it made me feel a certain way, and think about the time in my life when I absolutely loved that song. 

As I stepped out of the shower, I was greeted with a different tune, one of Kenny Chesney's songs from the "No Shoes, No Shirts, No Problems" CD's, this instantly changed my mood. This happened to be the CD that I listened to on repeat when my first serious boyfriend and I had broken up. I would sit outside the high school, in my van before class started and have a mini pity party for myself and listen to this CD over and over again. I look back now, and can't help but wonder why I was such an emotional cutter? Maybe it's better sometimes to do those things that make you cry just to get it all out? I don't know but either way, every time I hear ANY song from that album, my heart twinges a little bit because I remember how sad I was, and what those songs represented to me.

However, the very next song that came on happened to be one that reminds me of a completely different and happier time in my life, and that was a Yellowcard song. Ah yes, Yellowcard, my first real concert (not accompanied by a parent and in Seattle) and one of my first great and vivid memories of when Bryan and I first started dating. I remember Kyle, Bryan's step brother and best friend at the time, told me to wear black because there were some "hardcore" bands opening for Yellowcard and apparently I needed to try to look the part and fit in with this rougher croud. Well silly me, the only black thing I owned was my Kentwood homecoming shirt and a black hair ribbon, sure enough that's what I wore. I wish I had a picture of their faces when they came and picked me up, the look of, "Is she really wearing a ribbon in her hair to this concert?" LOL Yes boys. Yes I am. Anyway, that entire night was wonderful and full of awesome memories, whenever I hear one of their songs I am instantly whisked away to that night and to an easier time in my life when things were much easier.

Do you have a song or genre of music that does that for you? Like whenever I hear Tom Petty, Simon and Garfunkle, The Eagles, or Tracy Chapman, I think of my dad, and the many weekends growing up we spent up at our cabin. I remember thinking, are these the ONLY CD's he has? Because we listen to the same ones every single weekend we come up here. Which is funny because now some of these are my "go to" songs to cheer me up when I'm sad or upset. Or how listening to James Taylor now has a double positive meaning for me, it was feel good music growing up that my mom listened to, and became some of mine and Bryan's favorite music as well, in fact we've seen him in concert together, twice :)

I think it's kind of crazy and special the way music can do that for some people, including me. It's important to take the good with the bad memories/songs I've come to realize, they've both helped shape the person you are today. 

Whew, this was a lot to think about on a lazy Sunday, I should probably end this and hit the hay, it's two minutes until Monday, gah! 

<3 Amanda