Life's Soundtrack

You know how sometimes you can hear a song, or smell a smell, or eat a certain food, and it evokes a feeling, a memory of that certain point in your life when you heard the song, smelled the smell, etc.? I love that feeling. I especially get it with music. See, I LOVE music. It has to be a part of my life. In fact, I took a personality/aptitude test a few years ago at work, and it essentially said that if I can't work directly with music or the arts, that I needed to have it incorporated in my daily life somehow in order for me to be truly happy. So while I don't work directly with music, I almost always had it on in my office (back when I had one), and my 8 GB ipod Nano is almost full.

So anyway, Matt and I are going on a road trip this weekend to the Cameron Highlands. The last time that Matt and I drove together was on our honeymoon in Tahiti. We rented a car one day to explore the island and wanted some local island music, so we picked up a Tahitian CD by Bobby & Angelo, local musicians. And we listened to that thing all day and during our entire honeymoon. So when we started planning this little getaway, I decided we should take that CD, since it evokes such memories of a relaxing, wonderful time and we certainly feel the need to "get away from it all" this weekend. But then....I couldn't find the CD!! I was so bummed. I looked everywhere for it. I knew it made it to KL with us, but that was before we got our household shipment, so I figured there was no telling where I put it.

So after searching high and low, and even looking to see if I could replace the CD or download songs from it off of iTunes (no luck on either), I decided to search one last time. And it was right there where it was supposed to be, which is probably a first for me - in it's own case in our CD cabinet. Seems obvious, right? Well, if you know my home organization skills, it's not surprising that I didn't think to look there the first time. I'm sure I have Matt to thank for putting it in it's rightful place.

So as it's about to pour here in KL, I am listening to my Bobby & Angelo CD and loving it. Takes me right back to Tahiti; I can smell the ocean and feel the breeze...

Other random songs that take me back:
"Free Fallin'", Tom Petty - takes me back to playing darts in a friend's garage in Texas. We did it every weekend and always listened to Tom Petty and Bob Seger.
"Informer", Snow - I wonder if anyone else remembers this song? Reminds me of cruising around town in high school. Same with "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega.
"Africa", Toto - Reminds me of playing in our den (we called it the New Room, since it was converted from a covered patio). I can still smell the way the new room smelled then, over 20 years ago.
"Minute by Minute", Doobie Brothers - reminds me of my dad, patting his legs to the beat, the change jingling in his pocket, jamming on his ginormous headphones that were cool circa 1984.

I could go on and on...

So what songs take you back?