I don’t like to clean but we have a trick to motivate me in our house — blast out the CD changers. We’ve got two linked 400-CD changers that shuffle back and forth. Today while cleaning up the kitchen and doing some laundry, I knew what I needed to hear.
Duran Duran.
It’s still blaring in the background as I type this – a compilation of non-hits from my various LPs in our vinyl collection that my husband was nice enough to gather for me in one place where I can sing along feverishly and think back to earlier, easier days. I didn’t know it then at age 13 and 14, but thiswasthe easy life. Being the nerd I was, I was usually stressing about some project because it felt like I was doing homework — all the time. Well, I was actually. But there were so many things I didn’t have to worry about – the weekly menu, house maintenance, car maintenance, the lawn, the mortgage payment. Then, it was basically three things I was responsible for – keeping up my grades, tending to my daily entertainment needs (music, television, movies, Judy Blume books, etc.) and trying not to look too dorky. I wasn’t so good at this last one. Case in point.
Yeah, that’s me at age 13 as Emily Dickinson for a school project. Nothing like picking the life of an exciting poetry-spewing spinster to highlight how coooool you are. I call this one “I’ll Be Home and Emily Dickinson for Christmas.” I think it’s catchy.
I find whenever I’m really stressed or wanting to cower in a corner and shave off a few decades or three from my age, the sounds of my childhood and mild-mannered teen angst help me do that – and at that moment, out come the U2, Crowded House, Split Enz, Fixx, Men at Work, Oingo Boingo, Squeeze and Duran Duran albums.
Perhaps by the end of the long weekend I will want to be 42 again. Or maybe not.
I’m not crazy about 42 myself, but 13 was a lot harder for me and if given the choice I’ll stay 42. Still, I wish I knew at 13 what I know at 42….