A New Book for March

So, I think I found a great book to read for March. It's called "Love is a Mix Tape" by Rob Sheffield. I haven't started reading it yet, but at first glance, it looks to be a winner. It's a love story in a book - with its own soundtrack.

Now, for some of us, we probably have to strain to remember what cassette tapes even are. But it's the same premise as a mixed CD. It's like a much older version of the iPod. A bunch of random songs on one tape, CD, or iPod.

But think about this for a minute, when a song comes on the radio, do you remember where you were at that time in your life? Who you were with? How you felt about that person? How you feel about them now?

I think that's how I remember what order my ex-boyfriends go in - by when the song came out on the radio. Okay, maybe not to that extreme, but I do remember love songs and the guy I was "in love" with at the time. So, for me, love could be a mixed tape. Movies have also become a way of remembering loves gone wrong. I remember who I first watched the movie with and then every time I see it again, I'm haunted of the memory of that lost love.

In every relationship, it seems that girls, more so than guys, pick a song that becomes the theme of their time together. Weddings are famous for this. What songs will be sang, what song will play during the lighting of the unity candle, what song will they dance to as a married couple, etc. We've all said, at one time in our lives, "that's our song."

I'm glad that they continue to come out with new love songs because if they didn't, I wouldn't be able to listen to the radio anymore. I've used up quite a few of them.

One of the first songs that I used as a theme to a relationship was when I was very young. I didn't even know who sang the song at the time, but I kept hearing it on the radio and knew it was perfect. I recorded it off the radio onto a cassette and listened to it over and over and over. I hate to say that I was only in elementary school, but my on-again/off-again elementary boyfriend and I needed a song.

The funny thing...I never did find out who sang the song. I'd hear it now and again on the radio, but they'd never introduce it with the band's name or I'd turn the station to it in the middle of the song. Who sang it didn't seem as important as what it meant.

It wasn't until last summer that I finally realized the name of the band. I was dating a guy who went to see the band in concert (they're quite a bit older now). He texted me during the concert and during that song. The name of the song sounded familiar, so I wondered if it was the same song from many years ago. Of course, I went straight to the computer and looked it up on YouTube. Sure enough. The mystery was solved.

Now every time I hear that song, I don't know who to think of.

SONG OF THE DAY: "Honestly" by Stryper
I don't know the true meaning behind this song, but songs are like art. Everyone gets something different. I honestly don't know any of Stryper's other songs (off the top of my head unless I heard them), but this song has enough meaning over the past 20-some years for it not to matter. It would definitely be on my mixed tape of love.