I was trying to be cool, working on my laptop at Starbucks. But I'm pretty sure I blew my own cover when I started belting En Vogue's "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)."
Call it a hunch.
See, Big Doodle had his cancer treatment today, or as I like to think of it, BLADDERRAMA!. And BLADDERRAMA! takes place at the holistic vet office that's a solid 45 minutes from our house. Last week, I dropped him off, drove home, then turned around and picked him up, then drove home through rush hour. It was not efficient, unless my goal was to get all road ragey.
So, today, I packed up 57 pounds of laptop, notebooks, and printouts, and camped out at Starbucks near BLADDERRAMA!. I am not typically a work-in-Starbucks kinda gal. I don't drink coffee, and it's so easy to just people watch. So, I guess I was out of practice and ill-prepared.
I just wasn't ready for Starbucks to be blasting the music of my youth, the tunes of my peoples. Instead playing some horrible CD they were hawking, they had some sort of Pandora station set to the 90s. Oh, the 90s - when I graduated from high school and college. When I wore flannel shirts, body suits, and high-waisted jeans and considered Bud Light the ultimate classy beverage.
In the grand scheme of things, I feel like the 90s weren't that great of a time to come of age. The one time in my life I had a rockin' bod, the style was oversized everything. I weighed less than 100 pounds and wore XL sweatshirts. It was just morally wrong. Plus, I didn't remember the music being that great.
Until today.
I was trying to write a website about Medicare. But then, I was all bopping along to Jamiroquai. And trying not to sing along to Big Head Todd or Deee-Lite or New Radicals. I realized there were probably a gajillion girls who lost the big V to Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You" - although I wasn't one of them. And whatever happened to Lisa Loeb?
I really was trying to write about Medicare. But writing that website was a concern of Adult Becky. And Adult Becky had left the building. In her place was College Becky, who rocked those high-waisted jeans and hoped she could find a date to hayride. College Becky was really into "Counting Blue Cars" and knew on some level that these were good times that she'd look back on with fierce affection.
The thing about musical memories is that trying to share them is like forcing someone to listen to your dreams. It just doesn't translate. Musical memories are intimate, yours and yours alone.
Although I will tell you that "Counting Blue Cars" makes me want to stick my hands out of a sunroof and sing at the top of my lungs. Like you do when you've just turned 21 and everything is great and will be indefinitely.
What song triggers memories of your youth?
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7 comments:
I grew up in a small town and we would "drag main". My friend Sharon got to drive her Dad's new Buick (can't make this stuff up) and we would ride up and down the center of the town listening to the Eagles Hotel California album ( the cassette tape) for hours. Any song from that album makes me want to go cruising.
When Stairway to Heaven plays, 35 years later I still feel a little drunk and dizzy because when that song was popular I was busy drinking bootleg Coors (there was no light) and riding around with forbidden older boys. Ahh, good times. Bell bottoms, long hair. So cool. (now, crying over how old I have become)
I graduated in 1988 so right on the cusp of the 90's but I loved music of the nineties because that is when I was getting drunk and dancing in the clubs.
I mean, if we are being honest here.
I was a flannel shirt, clunky shoe wearing girl in the 90's and I may have been known to wear wool sweaters into clubs and get looks from girls wearing skin tight velour dresses.
I am a gem.
Ahh the days.
Think I will go put on the movie Singles and cry.
My mom just moved into a retirement community/apartment building and they play music in the hallways. Last week they were playing Wham. yes they were. They actually play a lot of music from my past life. Which is kind of nice and disturbing all at the same time.
Ohmigosh. I love you guys so much.
Patti? I would totally love to drag main with you. And for what it's worth? I listened to Heart's cover of "Stairway" four times in a row the other day. I just neeeeeeeded it.
Kari? You are a gem.
And what is it about getting older that DOES make you want to cry when you think about the past? Because I feel it, too. So bittersweet.
Slow Panic? I just ... what? Wham? At a retirement community? I'm alarmed at how oldies stations continue to expand their definition of "oldies" ... but Wham? At a retirement community? Maybe it's a away of marketing to us now, before we'll need a retirement apartment. "Oh, Silver Lakes? That place isn't so bad. I heard they have a Bon Jovi cover band on Friday nights."
I just had to comment today because you all are my people. Sadly though, the Starbucks was probably playing that 90s music ironically because it's considered "the oldies." Punks.
You should be proud to have come of age in the 90s. I was an 80s girl myself, and I shutter to look back on the fashion of the day. Neon? Really? Acid washed jeans?
Slow Panic -- I had no idea a retirement community enjoyed the musical stylings of Wham. But if they are playing a Bon Jovi cover band on Friday, sign me up and I'll see you there. :) Big hair 4eva!
Oh how often I have thought that the 90's were wasted on my tight body, too. Funny that you think that!
The music of the 80's always transports me to summertime, especially that Top Gun soundtrack. The. Best. Music. Ever.
Hope your pup is doing okay.
I love that you belted out in Starbucks.
Top Gun soundtrack, yes! (Thanks, Green Girl!) Add in a whole lot of Rush, some Scorpions, Def Leppard, Heart, Foreigner, Loverboy, Triumph.... I could go on.
I graduated from high school with a guy who went on to become a member of Pearl Jam. We were grunge before grunge happened (jeans, flannel shirts) when I wasn't buying spandex pants, double-wrap studded belts, and animal print shirts. (Hair bands were just coming "in" back then.
My dad's assisted living place plays lovely music, but it's all Big Band.
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