Winter, the Flu, and Music

First of all. Its officially winter. Winter is my 4th favorite season, as far as weather goes. The foot of snow that we so graciously received last week put an end to the lives of the vibrant leaves. Blessed, wonderful, magical October autumn is over. Cold, hard, lifeless winter is here, bringing with it flu season, icy roads, and shorter days. It’s miserable I tell you, and I have the immune system of an AIDS patient. I had to invest in a humidifier. Rough life. On the bright side, God had mercy on those of us living in the US of A, by strategically placing all of the best holidays in the winter season. (EXCEPT the 4th of July, which is obviously my favorite.) Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years Eve—those all make the top 5 holiday list. Anyways I am trying to get on board with Christmas season excitement – and Justin Bieber’s new Christmas CD won’t make it hard, but I do mourn the loss of those brilliant leaves.

In other news, it is time to start creating my seasonal playlist. And the winter one is always so easy to construct. The only promise I can make is that Bon Iver will be featured multiple times. I’ve said it before on this blog, and I will say it again. Good music is the absolute core of my existence. It, for me, is blatant proof of a divine creator God.

In fact, if I could write songs that didn’t suck, I would be a songwriter for the rest of my life. And I would be musically inclined to play music on a guitar, piano, or hell--a violin. There is something about good lyrics that send me into another realm, a place where wanderers can gather and find that they are not alone in this life. Something about putting music to words makes me believe that others can understand the voice of my heart a little more clearly.

Music usually picks me up from my desk at work and takes me to some alternate reality. It flows through my body like a warm cup of hot cocoa on a cold day (like today…when snow is in the forecast YET AGAIN). Most of the time, it carries me to a simpler time from my past that was likely not as simple as I remember it seeing that I am a chronic over-sensationalizer when it comes to the past. For examples:

“Yellow” by Coldplay takes me back to Andrew - my high school boyfriend’s - game room, with all of my freshman friends as we sat around in our homecoming dresses with flaming ice cream and listened to Andrew’s brother’s band play the song “Yellow” over and over again. It was their one hit (remake) wonder. I was wearing a maroon dress with beads at the top, and I was nervous about tripping all night long. But I was head over heels in love with the gangly boy with shaggy brown hair who was leaning against the wall, and he just so happened to be my date. I laughed at everything he said and even stayed late to hear the band play Coldplay one last time.

“Ache” by James Carrington takes me back to my bunk bed during work-week at Kanakuk in 2007. I was skipping my work duties and was sprawled on that tiny bed crying my eyes out blaring the lyrics to “Ache” as my heart was breaking in two. It was an excruciating time for me and somehow, James Carrington was the only person who really understood.

“Revelry” by Kings of Leon takes me back to Austin City Limits in 2009 when I was as happy as I can ever remember being. I had Savannah and Beef on either side of me and we danced in the rain as the music played on Friday night at ACL.

“Good Life” by One Republic puts me back on the roads between College Station and Austin, Texas for many, many road trips. It seats me back in my unreliable black xTerra, with ripped interiors, the windows down and my sister in the passenger seat. And it makes me feel free.

“Ants Marching” by Dave Matthews Band takes me to a boat in the middle of Caddo lake, dancing and singing the lyrics as hard as I could with my high school friends, the summer after college ended. It takes me back to a fake microphone and Coors Light. It makes me smile and reminds me that good can be found in any situation. And that you’re always 17 in your hometown (God forgive me for using the lyrics to a country song to make my case and point)

“The Cave” by Mumford and Sons takes me back to the magical fairy tale of a drive from Telluride back to Denver, an hour of complete silence next to my new friend Bethany.

“How Bizarre” by OMC takes me back to High School when Emily Middleton and I snuck out of Ali Burrow’s house to go back to see our Homecoming dates at 2AM. We left the door open hoping to not set off the alarm, and crept out the front door to make our way back to Sean’s house to sit around the fire. Brent and Jason were happy to see us and we lived up the night before we got back to find that we had not succeeded in “sneaking” out.

“Colorblind” by Counting Crows takes me back to the rickety yellow bus after a basketball game at age 14. Sitting next to Leah Camp and looking out the window at the lights as they passed. I didn’t have a deep thought in my head, but I still appreciated the slow melodious music that permeated the air after a freshman year Varsity victory.

“Fast Cars and Freedom” by Rascal Flats puts me back in a black Mazda Tribute in the parking lot of Pleasant Grove High School at 7AM, as the “fab five” arrived early to get our parking passes for senior year. We wanted to make sure that we got the front row, and since the assigned parking was first come first serve, we had a big sleepover the night before and arrived before everyone else just to find that the Jamie Curtis and the theatre department had somehow gotten special rights to the first few spots. We blared country music as loud as we could before those doors opened one last time for schedule pick up.

“Brooklyn Blurs” by The Paper Raincoat takes me back to morning boot camp at 6AM, driving to the Texas A&M Rec Center to hangout with a theta buddy and do endless amounts of hills up and down the ramp under Wellborn. It calmed me down as I was usually late, and in a panic to eat my breakfast while driving and putting on my shoes simultaneously.

“You and I” by Ingrid Michaelson and “House of God Forever” by Jon Foreman both take me right back to the same place, crammed into a tiny house in Costa Rica as we waited for the dinner crew to finish our evening meal. 10 YWAMers and I sat around playing cards every night and listened to Ingrid and Jon every single night, and pretended to be a big family.

“Collie Man” by Slightly Stoopid takes me back to the West Campus Parking Garage as me and Becca and Grubb strapped rollerblades to our feet and rollerbladed down the ramps of the garage and screamed because its exceedingly hard to turn on rollerblades when you get to the bottom of a ramp going at such high speeds.

“Cropduster” by Pearl Jam just makes me want to kiss my boyfriend at age 16. Let's leave it at that.

“Meteor Shower” by Owl City takes me back to Passion 2010, another one of the best weekends of my life. Savannah, Megan, Brittney, and I crammed ourselves into a white astro van with FBC Texarkana to drive 12 hours through the night to Atlanta, Georgia to hear Beth Moore, John Piper, Chris Tomlin, and David Crowder put on a Christian Conference for about 40,000 young people. It was one of my favorite memories, to date. I laughed so hard and learned so much.

“California” by Phantom Planet will forever remind me of one of the greatest TV shows of all time—The O.C. and watching it with my littlest sister all summer long. It was the means by which we became such close friends after years of me being a punk to her. That show also persuaded me to pursue Architecture at Texas A&M and I will forever hate Kirsten Cohen for being my role model into a world of death.

I could think of about 400 more songs that are equally as important, but with the cold came the flu symptoms and therefore I am going to make a grand exit from work a couple hours early. Go listen to some winter music and drink hot drinks (lattes) out of trendy coffee cups, grab your snuggie and put on your fuzziest socks. I recommend watching “The Holiday” while you’re at it. That’s what I’ll be doing tonight as those little white flurries of death begin to fall.

Here is to making the best of the winter season!