Do You Want Until a Song is Over?

On my way to the gym yesterday morning I was listening to the XM 70’s station and it played song after song that I remembered and could sing along with. Just as I was pulling up to the intersection where I turn off the Carpenter’s Top of the World came on. Like most pop tunes from that era, it is of rather short duration but it wasn’t quite finished as I pulled into the parking lot and into a spot, so I sat in my vehicle, head bopping and singing along until the song was through before getting out. And I wondered, how many people sit and listen through to the end of the song before exiting their vehicles? I know it probably depends on the day and whether or not a person is crunched for time, but since I am chronically not on time anyway and have really no earth shattering obligations beyond my husband and our family, I usually sit and wait for the song to end.

It was a good song too. Happy and upbeat. Anyone who might have been watching me could have well wondered what I had in my tea at breakfast. (A bit of honey and vanilla rice milk, actually) Although Rob would be horrified, the lyrics suited the two of us in a way, and it felt good to be able to identify with them.

I remember once back when I was teaching middle school we had a student teacher, I think, who would often sit in her car for a while after she arrived in the morning. When someone finally asked her what she was doing, she replied that she was singing along with a song that hadn’t quite finished and that sometimes she would even “play” the drum part on the steering wheel and even if she was running late, she always waited for the song to end. At the time I thought, how totally cool to be so young and to have such good priorities. For a while after I made it a point to sit and listen to songs I liked. But then, life got busy and sad and I stopped. I had forgotten about her until today. I am going to try not to forget again.