first things first. some things that have happened this week:
- John released yeswecanhas.com, a lolcats site devoted to the obama campaign. check it out!
- feeling guilty about my sodium consumption, i tried low sodium soup, and found it shockingly disappointing. i figured i’d mention that in case it saves anyone else the experiment.
- i bought a poster that’s an advertisement for diet redpop. it was made in the 70s. it’s so midwestern/amazing i can’t even believe it.
and now for something (not so) completely different.
i don’t play a lot of u2 in my day to day life, but often when i’m feeling lost or upset, i’ll listen to it like it’s my own personal lullaby. it calms me and helps me put things in perspective.
many of you already know that my associations with u2 are inextricably tied to my associations with my father, since he’s the fan who played it when i was in the womb, when i had my first flu, when he was teaching me to drive at age eight, and again at age fourteen. I was only ten when we stood in line to get our copy of zooropa, which we took home and listened to before a long discussion about why i loved it, why he hated it. Mom bought her first new car and we all went for a drive, just to drive, listening to the cd again, just to listen. I sang the praises of Dirty Day, ever trying to evangelize. Dad sped up the car on an abandoned road and stuck his head out of the sunroof, screaming his face off, trying to give us a scare. Mom played along in mock terror as Pete and watched from the back seat and laughed so hard it hurt.
u2 always reminds me about the best times of my life even though i usually only listen to it in the worst.
i wasn’t feeling especially nostalgic or dependent today, but i got a strange and very compelling urge to hear In a Little While and was shocked to find that it wasn’t in my ipod. That did nothing to quell my need to hear it, though, so I looked on youtube and found this:
i was surprised at how emotional this video made me—it was almost as good as getting valentine’s day wishes from Dad himself. it seems paradoxical that one song could simultaneously make you miss someone you love and remind you that beautiful times are still ahead, but i think that just about sums it up.
happy valentines day, everyone.