mandalay

but when from a long-distant past

as i was driving to dinner yesterday, it was all rainy and cold outside and the only logical thing to do at such a time seemed to be to listen to the chris isaak album "forever blue." it's not so much the rain that i associate with this particular cd so much as the cold. the funny thing is, it started this chain reaction of sensory memory of a church ski trip i took in 1997. hand-in-hand with the memory of the intro guitar chords to "somebody's crying" was the feeling of wearing after-ski boots at the end of the day, my feet feeling light as feathers and my body not quite grounded. and then there's the icy wind against bare skin still hot and chapped from the clothes and the cold. i hear those songs and i can taste raspberry honey which i ate out of a little jar from the gift shop. i ate it on the elevator.

when i listen to tool's "aenima," i can never really separate it from driving with my friend Mary in high school in the summer of 97. we'd cruise through the sweltering west texas heat with the windows down, because how else could one possibly appreciate "eulogy" but with the dust blowing and the sun beating down? and summer rain always makes me remember jumping on a trampoline on a choir trip with the rain pouring down, with "silent all these years" and "happy phantom" by tori amos playing through the open window.

can someone remind me why we have to grow up and work again? spend 40 hours a week in front of a computer screen? does anyone have a trampoline?

posted by amanda @ 9:36 PM