Summer Hits of the 90s

Where are my Pandora fans at? (And because the word ‘Pandora’ stirs up enchanting memories of flight from Animal Kingdom at Disneyworld, I feel I should clarify that I am talking about the music app.) We have quite the mix of stations on our account: Boot scootin’ Radio, Showtunes Radio, Kidz Bop Radio, Red Rocks Worship Radio….and Summer hits of the 90s Radio. This last gem was one created by Ryan-he found quite the diamond in this one, I must say.

So a couple of days ago I was by myself at the house getting ready to go to my best friend’s baby shower and I turned this station on while I showered. Jamming some great old songs that I still know every word to even though the majority of them have not graced my ears in many years, it was nostalgic to say the least.

‘Closing Time’ came on and I started having flashbacks of all the dances and places I have been when that song wafted through the room beckoning the fun to end. It summons a sombering and sentimental cloud on a crowd that was, 15 seconds ago, completely careless.  How is that?

Next I hear a song that preverbially flips a switch and I am jumping around singing stupid words to a Blink 182 song ‘What’s My Age Again’. I was a pretty serious Blink fan in the day-my posters didn’t just grace my walls, they were framed. That’s the seriousness I refer too.  

Isn’t it amazing what music does to us? The way it can pull out an emotion with the pause of a chord. I love the power of music.

Doesn’t it stun you that the 90’s didn’t just happen? Guys, its been a hot minute since the 90s. I love reminiscing about the memories, frequently spurred by stupid decisions, that I haven’t laughed or cried about in years.

My inner child is yelling “With our powers combined…” (For you youngin’s that’s a Captain Planet reference, I’ll tell you about it when you’re older)

When you bring these two together it is magical, and lets face it, I’m a sucker for magic. I can spend hours going through photo albums, I can listen to music and tell stories about the past for days but sometimes we get so caught up living in the present that we forget the stories of our past.

Don’t get me wrong, we have to live in the present-for multiple reasons. And there is no reason why we shouldn’t. Healthy is having a balance in the past, present and future.  Using the past to enjoy the present and plan the future. We left our lives for months and travelled in a schoolbus-we know about living in the present, trust me. No one should be so stuck in the past that they can’t ever move in the present, this helps no one. It’s detrimental, it’s downright torture sometimes! If you are always planning for the future, then you may be sadly disappointed with the way it turns out NOT according to plan. Balance.

We’ve been going through pictures and dishes and piggy banks and a slew of other things at my grandparent’s home. We found a box of pictures that are from right around the turn of the century and almost none of them have names or dates or anything at all written on them. We don’t know these people. We started comparing them and matching the ones we think are the same person but we then just have a stack of the same person…that we still don’t know. It makes me sad that I’m holding a piece of my family tree with my dad right next to me while sitting at the table that I have eaten countless family dinners at with my grandparents.  It’s like holding all the pieces to puzzle and getting to the end and you are missing pieces. I’m missing their stories.

We found a couple of old documents and started getting excited but we are still piecing something together that honestly just makes us ask more questions!

With the first child you typically make a baby book, then the 2nd child gets a little less, and then you get to 6 (what, just me??) and you realize you don’t even have a picture of them, let alone dates for milestones! I have been pretty diligent about making family yearbooks for us to look back on each year and the adventures that we have had. We use them for reference actually quite a bit.  And I so love watching my kids get them down and look through them. We have stories, and I want them to carry on to the next generation. And then to the next. And if I’m lucky to the next and …you get it.

So this morning I am tempted to put on my Pandora and jam or sway to a song but instead I am going to listen to squeals and cartoons and giggles.  To first words, to fights between sisters, to whining about who touched who and to the smell of a diaper that needs changed. I’m going to soak up the smell of cereal and eggs (and that diaper, yes), the feet running down the hallway and my body not feeling like it did in the 90s.  These are my music today, and probably tomorrow and next month and maybe even 5 years from now. But these are the Summer Hits of my 30s and one day I will stand in the shower and cry and jump and elicit every other extreme fluctuation of emotions as I did to Oasis and Weezer the other day.  What’s your soundtrack today?

xo Chrisitna