"Ain't it funny how a melody can bring back a memory..."

"...take you to another place in time, completely change your state of mind." This Clint Black song was one of my "leaving high school, going to college" anthems. I would play it over and over again with my freshman roomate on our trips back and forth from home to college together. If you are a music lover, then you know of which I speak. We create the soundtracks of our lives, year by year, era by era, milestone by milestone. In my case, it was also roomate by roomate in college. I was pretty fortunate in the roomate department. My freshman roomie (FR) was a good friend from high school, and we still meet and speak periodically throughout the year. We can go months without speaking, but put us in the same room and it is like we've never skipped a beat. I love friendships like that, especially since I suck at keeping in close touch. Counting Crows, Gin Blossoms, Garth Brooks, Clint Black, and Reba are the artisits that immediately remind me of her.

My sophomore roomie (SR) was a sorority sister, and someone that, prior to living together, I barely knew. She was all sporty-cool and laid back, while I was still, admittedly, pretty uptight, prissy, and very shy. We shared an apartment with 2 other girls from a different sorority. One girl was awesome and one girl was psycho, but we had lots of fun. That year was soaked in alcohol, chips and salsa, forbidden cookie dough, and silly songs/sayings. (Also with bizarre Christmas tree decorations and a beer cap bulletin board.) SR introduced me to all forms of fabulous music, Dave Matthews, Hootie, Edwin McCain, Indigo Girls, and Billy Pilgrim. Sadly, midway through our college experience, she left for a boy and another college. A large part of my musical personality was shaped through SR, so I find myself smiling and thinking about her and college silliness whenever I listen to my favorite music.

My senior roomie, the infamous GuinnessGirl, and I were also in the same sorority and, at first, we had SR alone in common. Once we moved in, however, we were more alike than roomates probably should have been. You couldn't see the floor in our room because it was so sloppy and messy. Laziness and indulgence abounded. We drank contraband boxed wine on the balcony of the sorority house, beneath the sorority president's window, about whom we gossiped LOUDLY. GG introduced me to tarot cards and took me for my first reading. We would set up shop down at the bar down the street and try to drunk read tarot for all of the people walking past. She is truly the master of all musical, and rounded out my core repertoire of music love with Guster, Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLaughlin, Cake, and Vertical Horizon.

Since I had an eight hour drive to the beach and back home, I willingly conjured up the ghosts of my musical past with my Counting Crows, Vertical Horizon, Billy Pilgrim, Edwin McCain, and Toad the Wet Sprocket CDs in my car stereo. It definitely worked to set the party mood, the primary reason for playing those songs, but it made me very nostalgic for my old roomates and the simpler life of a mere college student. The girly weekend was everything it was cracked up to be and more. We drank margaritas, we sang karaoke, we saw Edwin McCain and Angie Aparo in a little tiny bar, we soaked in the pool, and we hung out on the balcony overlooking the ocean. We ate too much and drank too much and talked more than anything. I am hoarse from all of the singing and talking and drinking. I miss having close girlfriends. I am going to have to make a better effort to keep in touch with the great women that have already shaped my life and who I am today. Luckily for me, a few of them read this blog, so that is a great start!