Rae's Song
Hey there. I'm Rae, usually found here. I've only done a guest entry once before, so I'm a bit nervous. I was going to have this whole introductory bit about me, but I'm far too modest. *cough*readmydiary*cough*. I mean, I'd never push my diary on anyone. *cough*andleaveacomment*cough*
Hey, Dom, mind if I look around for some cough drops? It is really dry in here. Wait, never mind, I found the booze. Even better!
*pours a Jack and Coke and settles in*
There. Now that I've finished my diary pimping introduction and have gotten comfortable, lets go on to the actual entry, shall we?
So, Dom, I gotta tell ya, this picking just one song business has been tough. But it's also been a great idea. I mean, for one, with all these guest entries, your diary actually gets updated...and two, your diary actually gets updated. (Hmm, yes, this coming from the girl who has updated once during the course of about two months. Hypocritical? Me? Never!) But, I digress...
I had a hard time narrowing down a tune to put here. Did I want to go happy and peppy? "Do Your Thing" by Basement Jaxx never fails to make me bounce around with a silly grin. Childhood sentimental? "Every Breath You Take" by The Police is the very first pop-song I ever learned all the words to. A good friend (the only people I've known longer are my parents) taught them to me when we were seven. He also taught me to name all the Ninja Turtles and their signature colors and weapons. I can still name some of them. I know, you're like, totally jealous.
Anyway, the more I thought about it, the harder it was to pick a song. I'm kind of like Smed in that I'm very much a music-of-the-hour kind of person. This is what is moving me now, so it is therefore my favorite. Needless to say, I have a lot of "favorites". But, I do also have some actual favorites, the songs that I relate to most, or play most, or whatever the defining factor is. One artist that is always on that list is Ani Difranco. I really wanted to pick an Ani Difranco song, as whatever new fav pops up, they always have to share the spotlight with Ani. I thought about using "Joyful Girl" because I've been listening to this song a lot on my drive in to school in the morning. It's a lovely song to start the day with, and I like to think that I am a Joyful Girl too. And then I thought, well, if I'm going to use Ani, I should pick "Grey" because I was listening to it during a turning point in my life when I was taking the first step out of a downward spiral. But that particular part of my life no longer defines me. Obviously, I had more thinking to do.
And then, on the ride in to school one morning, it hit me. It wouldn't be Ani, it wouldn't be Basement Jaxx, and it wouldn't be the Police. It would be Bjork.
4 years ago, I moved away from home for the first time, to a new and much larger city: Milwaukee. After three months of knowing all of 3 people (the couple I lived with and a girl I'd been pen-pals with for a couple years previous), I got invited to a party. It was a hiking trip at a state park and I was thrilled and incredibly nervous. I had a pretty limited social life growing up (granted, being the brainy/super-quiet kid with self-esteem issues didn't help), and this new city was my chance to start over. Everything before then is sort of hazy now. But that Saturday in October of 2002 is still very clear. It is my first official memory of Milwaukee:
So, I show up at the arranged meeting place, and the house is packed. I'm introduced to everyone and I was doing my best to file away names, but it was a losing battle. I remembered maybe 5 names by the end of the day. Ashley, the girl that invited me, walked back to my car with me to help me carry some things in. On the way back into her house, she stopped to introduce me to one more person (who ended up being indirect encouragement to get back into writing, my editor, my first real crush, and my first real heartbreak. ) But this memory is not about him. Its about what came next.
Ashley split up the car-groups and put me with two complete strangers. I didn't know at the time that they would both become two of my dearest friends: one amazing girl named Lula and a skinny dude with an alcoholic cartoon frog on his tshirt--Dom.
Dom and Lula talked through the music in the front seat, catching up on the latest news. They tried their best to make chit-chat, but I didn't really know what to say. They ran out of their news and turned up the tunes. Lula requested a song I'd never heard before: "Oh So Quiet" by Bjork. They sang along like it was the only song they'd ever sung. Lula's arms waved in the air and Dom's fingers danced on the steering wheel, and I smiled to myself in the backseat.
The rest of the day was fun and on the way home, I talked more than I'd ever talked before. That night, I was the happiest I'd been in a long time. I knew my life was going to be very different. And it was. Oh, how it was different. Since that Saturday in October I've made so many amazing friends who mean the world to me. They helped me get closer to being the person I want to be. Their friendships have given me the courage to reach out again once I moved back home and find even more friends here. I have been truly blessed.
And now, every time I hear that song, I remember those waving arms and those dancing fingers and how very good life is.
Posted by puter-chique
2006-05-17
go back | random brainstorm | go forth
Rachel Ray - 2009-05-03
The cold wind was the reason - 2009-03-02
The Collected Wisdom of Angela Chase - 2009-02-15
All's well that ends well. - 2009-01-07
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - 2008-10-04
