Songs of My Life

***Post inspired by MamaKat’s prompt: List the songs that tell your life story (so far).***

You know I love me some music. I have weird and varied taste in music. I love it all if it’s good. I don’t care if it’s not cool, I don’t care if it’s not popular, if it’s a good song, I want it. Funny enough, I always think about songs that would be in the soundtrack of my life. I always have.

When I was little, my sister and I would constantly make up dances. We took dance lessons but this was more than that. We made up dances in the basement, in the front yard, in our swimming pool. It was constant. Thank God youtube wasn’t around back then, right Hilary? We loved Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Madonna. We wanted to dance with somebody, we wanted to feel the heat with somebody, we wanted somebody to love. Like a Virgin had no meaning to us except that it was a great song. Material Girl had to be about someone who wanted to buy a lot of fabric, which was weird, but man could we jam to that one with our lace half-gloves on. And Michael. *Sigh* I was so in love with him.

Junior High dances were my favorite. I feel like we had them all the time! I danced with a boy for the first time to Gloria Estefan’s Words Get in the Way. My friends and I would get in a huge circle and take turns being in the middle spotlight during Salt-n-Pepa’s Push It and Supersonic by J.J. Fad. We knew all the words and I could still sing right along today. I would lay on my bed and pine after boys and listen to Is This Love by Whitesnake and dream of kissing them and falling hopelessly in love.

High school for me was during the Seattle grunge era. We wore giant flannel shirts and baggy jeans and Doc Martens and baseball hats. We were hot. We listened to Pearl Jam and Nirvana and Ace of Base. We danced constantly; school dances, our homes, on the sidelines of the football games. My friend Julie and I once listened to Gin Blossom’s Hey Jealousy at least 20 times until we knew every single word. When my heart was broken by the boy I loved, Whitney Houston’s I’ll Always Love You was the track of my tears.

College was one of the most fun times of my life. I had the best friends I’d ever had in my life. True friends. I loved them so much, I still do. We danced in the hallways of our sorority house, at clubs and at parties. I’ve forgotten how much I loved to dance. I will never forget dancing to Hakuna Matata with my friend Angela in the hallway. We thought that was the cutest song and loved belting out the lyrics. At the clubs, we slam danced and partied and sang at the top of our lungs. Escape by Rupert Holmes was a favorite that made us laugh. I’ll never forget my friends Molly and Beth doing “their dance” to Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees. I loved watching them dance; they even did it at my wedding.

I used to ride on the bike trail and listen to Toad the Wet Sprocket and dream of marrying Matt. Our first dance at our wedding was Leann Rimes “How Do I Live?”. Cliche, but I love it anyway. After my miscarriage, when I was desperate for a baby and missing the one who died, I would listen to Celine Dion’s That’s the Way It Is. I listened to it over and over and over because it gave me hope. It did. It also reminded my that I had no control over what was happening. I’m terrible at being out of control. After Olivia was born, there are so many songs I could list here that helped me through. Another Celine song, A New Day Will Come, always made me cry happy tears. Phil Collins’ song, You’ll Be In My Heart, from the Tarzan soundtrack will forever make me think of Olivia and bring tears to my eyes. I used to nurse and rock Gabe in the middle of the night and Keith Urban’s You’ll Think of Me was always on. Always. Matthew was very sick as a baby so I didn’t sleep much and I loved listening to Home by Michael Buble. It felt like we were finally home after having Matthew. We were complete.

Since then there have been so many songs that will forever remind me of this time in my life. Anything by Josh Turner, who we all love, all the way to LMFAO’s Sexy and I Know It will always play in my head when I think of this crazy, sticky, smelly, exhilarating, joyful time of raising kids and hoping I’m doing it right. I look forward to all of the songs that will play on the journey ahead too.