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 |  Entries to the Soundtrack to Your Life Challenge |
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| In 2012 I began running just for the hell of it. I had decided I wanted to run an obstacle course race called the Warrior Dash, but I had never run a day in my life. I got a membership to the local YMCA and mounted the treadmill expecting to be the next Usain Bolt, and was humbled rather quickly. 3 miles was A LOT. It was long. It was boring. I was very disheartened and ready to give up on the idea that I'd ever complete a 5k. That was when something magical happened... The Zombies, Run! app had just come out. It was a new app that interjected a post-zombie apocalypse story into your running distance. I wasn't sure what to expect, so I downloaded the app, plugged in my headphones, and set out the door to give it a shot. Oh. My. God. It was love at first kilometer. The only way to progress the story was to keep running. What better motivation is there to press on than that? The story was compelling. The characters were relate-able. It was everything this zombie geek had hoped for. As I approach just 6 weeks from my first half marathon, I have Zombies, Run! to thank for keeping my passion for running up and keeping those long, long miles of training from being so boring and dull. Dance Band's Stagger Slide is a staple on my playlist, and even better, this video was taken at a local Zombie Pub Crawl in Minneapolis. _______ Stagger Slide - Dance Band Guilty Pleasures [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| At a very young age, I was groomed to believe – as many were – that beer was a man’s drink. Women who drank beer were portrayed as being trashy, ugly, fat, unladylike specimens, while dads who guzzled can after can while hanging out on the alley with their buddies were true blue manly men. I have very clear memories of seeing women drinking beer in movies dressed up in provocative, ill-fitting clothing with too much make up on, smoking, with big hair and ugly beer guts. Obviously beer was something I should never want, unless that was the kind of women I wanted to be! I took to wine easily enough. It was cheap enough to afford in college, it was fruity, and after all… It’s what ladies drank. I never fancied myself a lady, but I wanted to be seen as one nonetheless, so every party I went to, I brought wine and scoffed at the beer drinkers while I prattled on about how long the legs of my 2005 vintage were. No, I’m not talking that pale yellow swill Budweiser calls ‘beer’ simply because it contains malt, hops, and yeast. I’m talking GOOD beer. Small batch craft beers have become a passion of mine, and I feel no shame in saying so. I love how beer brings people together. I love how there are so many styles and so much creativity a brewer can unleash when creating their next batch. Beer festivals, tastings, and events have become such a joy in my life. I don’t feel like the beer community judges me the way the wine community did. If I say I like a beer because it tastes good, they need no further justification. My wine fridge now contains one bottle of white wine, a bottle of champagne, and is packed to the gills with bombers of beer and mixed six packs of all kinds of interesting brews. It’s so exciting to open the door and try and decide just which one will fit my mood the best that day. I have a smug little place in my heart when I approach a bar dressed to the nines and the bartender assumes I want a cocktail or a glass of wine, and I get to smile at him and politely ask what kinds of local beer are on tap. Yes, sir. As a matter of fact, this lady likes beer. ___ I Like Beer, Tom T. Hall Guilty Pleasures [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| Kids often do silly things. It’s all part of being a kid. Whenever I hear Cotton Eye Joe, I can’t help but remember the summer me and my best friends got ahold of the Jock Jams CD and spent hours creating our own cheerleading routines to each of the songs. That summer, we had all been enrolled in a two week day camp at the local high school that taught the basics of cheerleading. We were all about the age that we could try out in the next year or two, and we were thrilled. Who hadn’t spent hours watching TV shows, seeing all the hot, popular cheerleaders make their way through school like queen bees and didn’t want to be just like them? We spent hours going over our routines with Jock Jams blaring in the background the entire time. “Ready? OK!” we’d shout, moving into formation and chanting some silly spirit-inspiring words we’d made up. When it was time to be silly (after all the serious cheerleading practice business), Cotton Eyed Joe was our goof off sound. We made up a little 8 count dance that went with the song and we’d see who could do it the longest. We’d jump and bounce and do-si-do ourselves into laughing fits. To this day, I can’t hear this song without immediately wanting to start our Cotton Eye Joe dance. ___ Cotton Eye Joe, Rednex One Hit Wonders [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| I fell in love hard the first time. The first time it was real, anyway. We were inseparable – we just understood each other in a way that was so incredible and so pure. There was a connection that anyone around us said was undeniable, and I was so certain I had found the one soul in this world that mine belonged with. When I met Sean, everything changed. Her pursued me relentlessly and always made sure I knew how he felt. There was no doubt in my mind that if I had said ‘jump’, he’d have said ‘how high?’. Sean would show up on my doorstep after me casually mentioning that I hadn’t been out for Chinese in a while and whisk me away to a Chinese restaurant. He was full of life, fun, adventure, spontaneity… I didn’t mean to fall for him. In fact, I did everything to push Sean away for the sake of my relationship with my boyfriend. Still, as they do, things quickly got out of hand and I found myself smack-dab in the middle of a love triangle. I didn’t love my boyfriend any less. I wasn’t unfulfilled in any way that I could tell. I just… fell in love with Sean. I remember the first time I heard Why Can’t I by Liz Phair. I had to pull over I was crying so hard by the time it was over. It struck such a chord with me over how blindsided I had been with my feelings for Sean and how horrible I felt for having this huge secret to keep from the other man I deeply loved just as much. Hours were spent in my mom’s bedroom crying over what to do. I never wanted to hurt my boyfriend. I never wanted to be without him… but Sean. I felt so passionately about both of the men in my life that it was very near literally tearing me apart. Years later, as things have culminated and resolved themselves, I still look back at this time in my life as one of the best. I learned so much about me, so much about what I want in life, so much about love and heartache… Through all the turmoil, I wouldn’t trade that away for the world. _____ Why Can't I, Liz Phair One Hit Wonders [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| In college, I received an email from a very dear friend who was living in another state asking me if she could vent to me about something she didn’t want made public. I knew she and her boyfriend were going through some difficult times, and figured it would be a typical girl to girl talk about how to make things good again and told her I would always be there and I would never judge her. A few days later, I received a very long email that I was not expecting. She and her boyfriend had recently found out that they were pregnant. They were young, they had nowhere to live, no real jobs, no steady income, and she was beside herself in fear for what this meant for her. She talked for pages about how she knew they would be married someday, but this was just not the right time for them to start a family. She explained how they had used birth control, how it failed, how she KNEW they were responsible, but it just happened anyway. In her words, I could feel her pain, her confusion, her sadness, and her fear. She asked that I not judge her as she went on about how she had scheduled an appointment at the clinic later that week. She begged that I didn’t hold it against her that she and her boyfriend had spent hours, days, weeks talking about this, and they kept coming to the same conclusion. My heart broke for her. I wanted to hug her. I wanted to tell her it would be okay, that I’d never judge her, and that her secret was safe with me. I wanted to crawl through the computer screen and cry with her and hold her hand. A few weeks later, she wrote back telling me that the procedure had occurred. She said she felt numb. She was scared she’d never be able to have children after this, and then she would always wonder if she made the right choice. We talked through a lot of depressive nights, and through some days where she felt really guilty for feeling good about her choice. Eventually, as time passed, she went back to living her life without feeling like she had done some horrible thing society would always hold against her. Years later, we talked about her abortion and she still believed she made the right choice for her life and how grateful she was to have the support of her friends to help her through such a stigmatizing event. When I received the invitation to their wedding, I was elated. A year later when their daughter was born, I cried. I remembered the secret she shared with me, her fears, and how she was just so scared. I was so at peace finally seeing that her heart hadn’t lead her astray. __ Brick, Ben Folds Five One Hit Wonders [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| It can be said that girls are mean. Often, they don’t even realize what they are doing is outright bullying, but the person they victimize certainly knows. I became a “popular” girl in 6th grade. New school, new friends, and I somehow ended up getting taken under the wing of the coolest girls in our class. This was a big change for the braces wearing, glasses donning, big haired dork I was in elementary school. The POPULAR girls liked me! One afternoon, I was on a call with my new friends and we talked on and on about the boy at school that I liked. I gushed about him and about how embarrassed I’d be if he knew I liked him. “What do you think about that, Bobby?” Erica said suddenly. My heart plummeted. They had three-way called the boy I liked and had him muted on the phone the entire time. I did my best to play it off while he replied that it was ‘weird’ and ‘creepy’ and that he didn’t feel the same way. I laughed and brushed it off as best I could until I could finally get off the phone. I was heartbroken. Not that Bobby didn’t like me, but because my friends had betrayed my trust so boldly just to get a laugh. I laid in my room for hours, crying while listening to Jann Arden, desperately wonder how people could be so insensitive to one another and beating myself up for letting my guard down so much. Girls are really, really mean. __ Insensitive, Jann Arden One Hit Wonders [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| School dances are awkward. In 1999, I went to my homecoming dance with a boy I had started dating over the summer. He was older than me, so I had diligently followed the rules and submitted the paperwork to allow him to accompany me to a dance where he wasn’t a student, and off I went dress shopping. I bought this shimmery cornflower blue dress that reminded me of Ariel at the end of the Little Mermaid. My hair was freshly dyed auburn and for the first time, I felt like I was actually pretty. I’d spent a lot of my adolescence being the awkward boyish one, and heading off to this dance, I felt like that part of me was starting to break away. The night went on, we danced, we had food and drink. It was one of those nights that just felt good. Near the end of the evening, my date started jumping up and down when Ice, Ice Baby came on. He rapped the whole song from start to end, dancing the whole time and obviously having a great time. I was mortified. Shy, quiet me was standing in a spectacle that was quickly gaining lots of attention. When the song was over, I went to the bathroom and cried because I was sure everyone was going to think “wow, that girl’s date is nuts”… …And to my surprise, everyone was entirely impressed that I was dating such a cool guy. __ Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice One Hit Wonders [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| In middle school, my best friend’s parents let us set up a “hang out” in their garage. We had a fridge, sink, a couple of couches, and best of all, an awesome stereo. I very distinctly remember spending summer break hanging out, drinking soda, and just being kids. Of course, then boys came along. Boys began to be invited to hang out with us as we spent our days lounging in the garage. Suddenly all of my friends would spend time ‘getting ready’ to come to the garage, donning make up, tighter clothing, and doing their hair to obviously impress whoever might be joining us that day. I sat back, sipping a soda while my friend Stacy danced in front of her latest crush to Lovefool, wanting to sink into the couch and disappear. Maybe I was a late bloomer, but these demonstrations of peacocking wore on my nerves and eventually lead to me choosing to spend my time at home, rather in that garage any longer. ___ Lovefool, the Cardigans One Hit Wonders [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| It was no secret that I struggled as an adolescent. Depression, anxiety, low self-esteem… It was a constant battle. The first time I heard Tracy Bonham’s ‘Mother, Mother’, I immediately had to go home and use Napster to download it. I listened to the song over and over, shut away in my room. It stirred so many emotions in me and made me feel like I wasn’t the only girl in the world struggling to find her place and make sense of it all while trying to look cool, calm, and collected to everyone else. This whole song is so sarcastically biting – it’s the things we say to make those around us believe we have it all together. We’re fine. Sure we’re okay. Never better… The epitome of fake it to make it. So often I heard, “you could be happier if you tried”, or “you’re such a downer”, and other various spins on the same tale. It became apparent to me that if I didn’t find a way to appear ‘normal’ again, that all of my friends would leave me behind. I put on a happy face, stepped into the oncoming traffic of life, and hoped for the best. ___ Mother, Mother - Tracy Bonham One Hit Wonders [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
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