You'll Always Be My Baby

The other day driving back to work from lunch, I heard the tail end of the song on the radio.
I dropped my speed just so that I could linger onto it before losing the radio signal by driving into the parking garage.
I'm not particularly fond of Mariah Carey.
But that song...sheesh, it did something.

I had the doo-do-doo's stuck in my head for at least two days. I found myself wishing that I would hear the song again and listened to that station only--wishing and hoping.

Again, it played. This time I was at Starbucks. Wish, granted. I sat there and listened to the whole Muzak track. I didn't want the song to end. Ever.

Naturally, the doo-do-doo's were back in my head. This time, I needed to hear the song again. I'd do anything. Yeah, what was wrong with me?

I told Erica, she said it was simple: the song (as sad as the lyrics were) makes us happy. ?!? She had a theory that we all have that one song that takes us back. A song that came out when we were naive, impressionable, young girls when the song came out, that hearing now took our (my) psyche back to whatever year it was...I thought hard, I didn't know what year it was...I was gonna look it up.
Yeah, I guess it was a good year. Most importantly, it was way before we cared about prom dates/dresses, finding an identity in college, graduating, getting a job; an apartment, and bills. Basically before finding out we needed to be responsible.
So for me, the song that took me back to that time is this Mariah Carey diddy. Hmm... Whatever. I thought.
Erica likes to get deep like that. You just have to agree and get out of the conversation, sometimes.
Seriously, I was on my way to Target, I wasn't calling for deep convo, to be had in between the Tara Jarmon sale racks.
By the end of the conversation she was too wanting to hear the doo-do-doo's. Life went on. But the song?

I still needed and yearned to hear it...yeah, I could just download it, right? Ah--but your pal here just got a home laptop and wireless internet, hence the after(work) hour post.

Today, song forgotten, I was eating dinner, alone at the bar of Jake's (best burger, ever). Oh, and don't feel sad, sometimes dinners are meant to be solo, shoot I meet more people alone than with a bunch of girls.
Yes, I met a Chris, but right now there is too much on my plate. As I sat there, I heard faintly the doo-do-doo's and sat upright, "Chris, do you hear that?" Yes! It was the song. I was happy. Very happy. Now I could see Mariah in her cut off jeans swinging from the tire swing, the butterfly belly necklace, the young kids, everything. You get it.

I went home skipping to the beat, smiling. And bam! I remembered, I own the CD. So I blew off the dust to my CD book holder thingy and prayed as I flipped the sleeves: there it was, the single, with 5 different versions of the doo-do-doo's. I was way into buying singles and not the entire CD back then.

And the year was 1996. I was just graduating high school, guess it was a good year, according to Erica. So is it the song or the time in our lives? I got it on repeat right now and I have to say its the song, it makes me smile and that's enough.

Not just any smile: a naive, impressionable, young, not responsible, giddy smile.


**oh and the interview went well, 2nd one is already lined up.