The semester from hell is over, and a countdown of sorts

Well, grades are turned in, so that's a huge relief. What's an even bigger relief is the reopening of O's daycare after almost 2 weeks. I love love love our DCP - she's essentially O's daytime mom and there have been times when O has called me by her name and I got over it, really I did - but did she HAVE to close for a week-and-a-half right at the end of the semester to move into a new house? Much of the furniture, boxes, etc. were already moved over before she closed. Ten days? Really? Sigh. We got through it and now she's open for two glorious days before the Christmas break. I am lounging on the couch doing nothing, eating bowls of cereal and watching bad television. I need a book to read.

On a completely different subject, my 20-year high school reunion is this coming summer. I did not attend any of the previous reunions, but I think I'll go to this one. Should be fun to see people, hear 20 years of condensed life, all that good stuff. I hated high school. I was miserable, my home life was pretty miserable (divorce, instability, all the good stuff), I think I drove most of my friends crazy with my mood swings and obnoxious personality and self esteem issues. I don't know that I was always easy to be around. Thank goodness for music. I don't think I would have made it through my teen years without copious amounts of awesome music and the hours spent record shopping, listening, concert-going - seriously, it freakin' saved me.

I'm going to try to post a song/video every day leading up to the reunion - songs and artists that remind me of those years, that set the foundation for my love of music, that made me laugh, cry, escape, songs that have special meaning. I'm going to start with some of the early and cheesey crap I listened to before I did an abrupt 180 and became a punk/indie/superdork music snob. I am not ashamed of any of the music I've liked - it's all good and it plays a role in my life.

So here's day one:

Rickie Lee Jones - Chuck E.'s In Love
When we moved from CA to NJ in 1982, I was in the middle of my transition from listening to whatever my parents were listening to and falling asleep with Dr. Demento on my radio, to teen-appropriate pop. I won this album by calling into a SoCal radio station just a few months before we moved to New Jersey. That move to NJ is responsible for the direction my music tastes took in junior high and high school. I don't know that I would have "discovered" the same music I did in my teen years, had I stayed in SoCal. Who knows. So I will start with the song I associate with my last memories of living in California...