Some of my favorite songs have great opening lines. The title of this post, the first two lines in Jill Andrew's A Little Less. You and I Both by Jason Mraz starts off "Was it you who spoke the words that things would happen but not to me? Things are going to happen naturally." Music is so much a part of my daily life. When I'm home, I'm listening to music. I always have my headphones in on the bus and most mornings I wake up with some song in my head. The store I work at has a pretty decent soundtrack and I have even broadened my music collection because of it. It only seems right that I would become friends with musicians. One of my closest friends in the Bay area is a drummer. He's a Reggae drummer who, when I first met, looked the part to a T. Long, scraggly beard, long curly hair. These days he runs around more closet cut, clean shaved and it makes me break out into a huge smile seeing him because his appearance doesn't affect how amazingly he plays or how he can make me laugh and cheer me up when I'm in a crappy mood. We became friends after my friend Jami and I attended one of his shows, a show where I danced my ass off more than I have since then. Although I enjoy being friends with the band and going to shows, going to the show of a friend is different. I feel as though I'm on display sometimes, that I can't fully relax and just enjoy the music, that I'm being watched just as much as I'm watching them. Interesting how identity and not just being a random person in a crowd makes us reconsider our movements.
But my, do I love going to shows. I love live music and like the idea of having my calendar filled with show dates and venues. At some point in my life, I want to travel around for a summer, going from festival to festival. Laughing, dancing, smoking, drinking and repeat. I can not explain the feeling of dancing, barefoot on grass or kicking up dirt and dust, or laying on a blanket and looking up at the bluest sky ever or a sky filled with stars, and listening to music, live music, shaking your core, touching the deepest part of your soul, to favorite songs, forgotten songs, or discovering music that will change your life forever, that will accompany your life for the rest of it, that will become your soundtrack, your favorite songs, your favorite moments...
There are certain songs that are so tied to specific events in my life that I can listen to a song and be instantly taken backwards; to a cold living room in Tallahassee, dueting with a bestfriend... or to nighttime in Palm Springs, riding shotgun in a Toyota Tacoma listening to the same two songs over and over again and singing at the top of our lungs. I could conjure up so many other memories like those, memories and friendships that I hope will be with me for years and years to come.
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