Project 52 - week 4

Earlier this week Riley and I were reading The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. It was a favorite of mine as a kid, although that might be because it was one of the few books we owned (my parents were not big on the books). As we were reading the book it reminded me of a video by Dido for "Thank You" in that there was a little house in the middle of the big city. Although, now that I re-watched the video I realize there are some distinct differences between the book and the video.

At any rate, because of this I decided to rummage through Jesse and my old CD's which are collecting dust in a closet. Riley listened to a lot of kid's music for so long, but is finally embracing adult music and I would like to foster that a little more for my own sanity and to expand her interests. Grandma introduced her to Adele quite awhile ago so she's still a favorite. In fact, Riley occasionally asks if Adele is in this 'real' world and if she can meet her. Maybe one day, kiddo.

Riley's had a chance to listen to a lot of Jesse's favorites on the way to and from school lately. It's funny to me to now get into the truck with them and Riley asks for "Elephant Gun" by Beirut or "Right Now" by TV on the Radio. She knows what she wants.

So there I am trying to find my old Dido CD and actually found two of them - apparently Jesse was a fan too. We also had a lot of Radiohead, Pixies, Slayer, Tricky, Portishead, Tracy Chapman, Rob Zombie, Mason Jennings, Sarah McLachlan, Morphine and so on... I found myself so lost in the '90's. Some of this music feels like it's probably dated (and maybe not so cool anymore, I don't know), but so many feelings just thinking about them. There were a number of nights you could find me hanging out in my bedroom after a late waitressing shift with a glass of red wine, still smelling of restaurant grease, and the Pixies playing in the background while I simply took it all in (just thinking and not surfing the internet - seriously). I'm pretty sure I lit some candles too.

I even found one cassette tape my high school buddy, Dan, made me. Side A is called "Angry Anglo Angst" and includes such favorites as Bikini Kill, Joan Jett and The Pharcyde. Side B is called "Kick Ass Multi-Cultural Mayhem" and includes Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, Santana, and Sergio Mendes and the Brazil '66.  Ahh, maybe I can't listen to the cassette tape anymore, but luckily I can find them on YouTube and relive my mixed tape days.

Besides being a trip down memory lane I found so many other CD's that I thought Riley would like and now there is a huge pile in her bedroom near her CD player. She's already knocked through a few including Sixpence None the Richer, and a City Pages compilation that she seems to enjoy. I love that she is embracing this.

Side story: Riley was with her grandparents and heard "All About that Bass" on the radio. She really liked it so grandma and grandpa went on a search to find the single to give to Riley. They finally found a store willing to burn that one song onto a CD for her. Grandma and grandpa were so excited to get this and be able to give it to Riley... until they listened to it and discovered it was clearly not the radio version and very much not appropriate for a 4 year old. Lol. Love them for trying.

So anyway, the CD reminiscing got me thinking about what else I have hidden away in closets just collecting dust and the next thing I know I am pulling out old games like Chinese Checkers, Yahtzee, and Jenga and we are in full on game mode (while listening to one of the CD's, of course).

And in the midst of it I realized that I wanted to capture the moment. I quickly snapped off a few pictures and it seemed fitting that it would represent this week. I know you are probably thinking that a picture of those CD's might be a better representation... and you might be right, but they were already back in the closet. In the end, though, those CD's felt like a memory of the past, while playing these games felt like a new memory I was making with my daughter.

Riley and I had that tower pretty high, and then Jesse came up, made one play, and sent our Jenga tower flying. Riley and I were just relieved that we weren't the ones to do it.

I see many game nights in the future where we can make new memories together. Now just to figure out what music to listen to next.