The Past in My Rearview Mirror
As I was sitting in Chicago traffic yesterday afternoon, slooowly inching along, I kept myself entertained singing along to a multitude of songs, all of which sent me right back to sophomore year in college. And I mean I flew back there. I bopped along, singing my heart out, not even caring that I wasn't moving...and then "the song" came on.
Everyone has at least one. You know it. The ditty that represents a moment; epitomizes a period or person. And mine was playing...straight from 1993...Pearl Jam's "Rearview Mirror." It's not a great song, and it certainly was never one of my favorites. But I can still remember begging my boyfriend at the time to perform for me, screaming his lungs out to the song for my pure entertainment. I could picture it so clearly as the song blared in the car: Lovely, silly, Schmooshie standing in the middle of my room, me lounging in bed as he held the liner notes containing the lyrics in front of him, trying to keep up with Eddie Vedder and belt out a tune with gusto and passion (and not much rhythm).
It makes me laugh just thinking about it. Not because it was stupid (even though it sort of was), but because here was a guy who would do anything I asked of him because seeing me smile and making me happy and keeping me satisfied made him happy, regardless of what sort of fool he had to be or what silly things I asked of him. And he wasn't whipped (well, maybe a little), and he wasn't a sad pussy. He was just a genuinely nice guy.
Of course, this is one of the happy moments (and there were many of those). There were some that weren't, and then it ended. Seems that making each other happy wasn't tops on our list.
That was a long, long time ago, and I haven't thought about him in ages. Until yesterday when that silly song came on and I was immediately taken back to my 19-year-old self and that night when I was immensely entertained by a nice guy singing off-key just because I wanted him to do it. Memories are grand.
Everyone has at least one. You know it. The ditty that represents a moment; epitomizes a period or person. And mine was playing...straight from 1993...Pearl Jam's "Rearview Mirror." It's not a great song, and it certainly was never one of my favorites. But I can still remember begging my boyfriend at the time to perform for me, screaming his lungs out to the song for my pure entertainment. I could picture it so clearly as the song blared in the car: Lovely, silly, Schmooshie standing in the middle of my room, me lounging in bed as he held the liner notes containing the lyrics in front of him, trying to keep up with Eddie Vedder and belt out a tune with gusto and passion (and not much rhythm).
It makes me laugh just thinking about it. Not because it was stupid (even though it sort of was), but because here was a guy who would do anything I asked of him because seeing me smile and making me happy and keeping me satisfied made him happy, regardless of what sort of fool he had to be or what silly things I asked of him. And he wasn't whipped (well, maybe a little), and he wasn't a sad pussy. He was just a genuinely nice guy.
Of course, this is one of the happy moments (and there were many of those). There were some that weren't, and then it ended. Seems that making each other happy wasn't tops on our list.
That was a long, long time ago, and I haven't thought about him in ages. Until yesterday when that silly song came on and I was immediately taken back to my 19-year-old self and that night when I was immensely entertained by a nice guy singing off-key just because I wanted him to do it. Memories are grand.
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