Memory Lane

Warning: I am aware that I may sound like an angst ridden teenager, but bear with me, I have been listening to a lot of Dave Matthews Band tonight…

Let me set the scene for my stroll down memory lane: Kids are in bed, Jeff is exhausted and passes out early and I have been stuck at home with the kids for 3 days. I am restless. It’s 9pm, so I decide to get in the car and listen to my favorite old school, drive aimlessly in the dark music while smoking cigarattes. I feel like I am in high school again, driving around in a friend’s car, windows down, blasting something awesome with no particular destination. I have very specific songs that I attribute to many of my friends from high school; where we were, what car we were in, what we were angsting over, the mood, the dark streets illuminated only by our headlights as we drove aimlessly around Spring. These memories conjure such specific details that I wonder if anyone else remembers these same moments quite as vividly. Now, I won’t call anyone out with my specific memories because truthfully, I wonder if I these scenes mean more to me than the other friend involved. Would they remember what an impact those songs and their friendship in that moment meant to me? Maybe, although most likely not. I guess we all carry with us our own memories. But listening to 50 miles worth of music tonight brought back a ton of  long nights with some of my best friends.

Some of these people I am still friends with, some I am just Facebook friends with and some have slipped through the cracks. OccasionalIy I wonder if we would even recognize each other on the street. Not to toot my own horn, but I am pretty good about keeping up with old high school friends. I would say that I actively keep in contact with 10 people and actually see 3 or 4 friends on a semi-regular basis. In fact, when I plan my birthday every year the first people on my invite list are 2 high school friends. We make it a point to stay in each other’s lives even if just for birthdays, weddings and baby showers. I feel pretty damn lucky that I can still talk to this group after 15 years and pick up where we left off. There is a comfort in knowing someone’s history, their parents, the street they grew up on, their braces, their terrible homecoming dresses and their first kisses.

So, now that I have thrown that out there- What songs make you think of high school?

xoxo