An imaginary conversation about owning a song

You know, I hate it when I lose songs when a relationship ends.

Lose songs? What?

That doesn’t happen to you?

I have no idea what you are talking about.

You know how certain songs seem to just belong to how you feel about a certain person?

Like my first boyfriend and “Brick House?”

Uh. That is an interesting one.

He loved that song.

I’m thinking more along the lines of a song that has a lyric that describes your relationship, or that was “your song” or that you listened to together all the time, or something like that…

Ohhhh. Like how I associate you and that Elvis Costello song about angels and red shoes.

I do have a lot of red shoes. And yes, just like that. Only with looooove.

So how do you lose a song? It’s not like you have to stop playing it just because someone does something shitty.

Not legally, maybe, but they do get harder to listen to.

You mean like those songs that make you cry when you hear them even though you love them because they remind you so strongly of someone who isn’t around anymore?

That is what I mean. It drives me nuts that I can’t listen to most of James Taylor because someone was a dick to me. I really like James Taylor. I don’t want to skip past “You’ve Got A Friend” when it comes on because it has bad associations now. It’s not the song’s fault.

What would you propose doing about it?

I would make not being a dick to me mandatory. Legally.

That would be an interesting piece of legislation to pull off.

Yeah. Luckily, there aren’t that many people capable of ruining songs for me like that. Sadly, there are probably more critical issues for the legislature to work on than preventing two or three people from being assholes to me.

Perhaps. But it does suck to lose a favorite song.

It’s almost worse than losing the person, to me. I did read something that gave me hope– apparently it’s mostly only songs that you form attachments to as a teenager that have that super strong effect. Adults supposedly don’t form such tight music-emotion bonds. Although…that leaves how I feel about the Lumineers unexplained.

On so many levels.

Don’t judge me.

Did I mention how easily entertained I am?

I am having another excellent weekend after my two day work week.

At lunch on Friday, it occurred to me that the imaginary band that the Boys started should have a website. So I snagged the domain Ruinedmothers,com for it.

On Friday after work, I down to EUG and had drinks with a couple of my favorite men–Kyle and Rocky. Kind of a lot of them. Drinks, that is. Only 2 men. I suppose I didn’t need any more men than that. Those two are pretty great. Back to Kyle’s after for cigars and rehydration. Ice water.

Saturday, I hung out with my folks and while they watched football I started the Ruined Mothers website. And a Twitter feed. Every imaginary band should have a website.

Saturday night, with Rick and Chelle both in town, there may have been some more hijinks. Dinner and drinks at Sharkey’s again. We missed Kelly, with only two of the three Ruined Mothers there. Back to Kyle’s after with the Boys. More drinks. Stargazing. Music. Laughing. Up very, very late.

Thanks, Kyle.

You’re right, it is always fun when the whole crowd gets together.

We know the best people. I always feel very lucky to know all of you.

See you all next week at the tailgater. Then my seasonal Go Ducks focus will be back!

Hall of fame

You can go the distance
You can run the mile
You can walk straight through hell with a smile
–Script/Hall of Fame

When I get into a workout kick, it is always cardio. I love the breathlessness, and the sweat, and the way you have to continually talk yourself into continuing.

While I was on vacation, I took some spin classes. I had completely forgotten how meditative an in gym cardio workout can be.

Now, bear with me a second. A lot of you are thinking that doing cardio is the most boring thing in the world. You are wrong. It is like meditation for me. I don’t get distracted by my surroundings. I don’t have to worry about traffic. I don’t have to watch where I put my feet so I don’t fall down. It’s just me, music and a spin bike or elliptical or whatever. I find spinning to be particularly meditative because you can get as much of a workout as you need right that minute.

Everyone who knows me knows how picky I am about music. That can be a problem, because in a spin class the instructor picks the tunes. That can be spectacularly awful or serendipitously great.

Or cathartic. I am not afraid to admit that I have gotten teary in spin class. Blame P!nk. I think the elevated heartrate and breathlessness make me more vulnerable to feeling whatever it is that I am feeling at the moment. Other people in class don’t seem to be responding in the same ways so that might be a quirk that is all mind.

Cardio does get me through hell with a smile, so maybe that is enough to expect.