Even though I am a self-proclaimed hater of '80s music, lately I have been much more in touch with my '80s self. Or something. I have been listening to the '80s station all of the time. I can't explain it. Right now I have "You can dance if you wanna dance..." running through my head.
Speaking of which, I can't find my notebook from high school anywhere. This is my memory book that, typically, I didn't actually finish. But it is so cool because it has stuff like notes from friends and song lyrics and all of that in there. There is an entire 2pac quotation section, because I was all about 2pac in 1995. I did my senior paper on rap music. I had a fun time doing the research, let me tell you.
I think it's funny how music isn't as important to me as it used to be. I mean, I still love listening to music, but I'm not as obsessed. I used to memorize the lyrics and write them everywhere and it was SO important to me to know who every song was by and impress everyone with my musical knowledge. I remember this kid in my class being all impressed with me because I had the Keith Murray CD and he wanted me to tape it for him. Oh! I know you did this! You know when you would get the tapes that didn't have the lyrics in the sleeve? I used to sit down next to my stereo so I could write out the lyrics by hand so I would be able to sing along and memorize them. You know, I'd have to pause, rewind, pause, rewind. I could do this for hours. I also was queen of the mix tape making. I loved making mix tapes with random interludes interspersed between songs. Now I can't stand the interludes on CDs, but they weren't always so common. Now it's like every other song on the CD is someone speaking to someone on the phone or something stupid.
Speaking of phones, my favorite other thing to do was put songs on my answering machine. I'm sure I mentioned this, but my sophomore year my two best friends got their own phone lines. I guess we weren't that poor that year or something, but I had to have my own phone line, too, and I got it. I think we actually got rid of cable to do it (my mom has never been big on TV, so she was probably glad). Anyway, the best kinds of songs to put on there were ones that either had to do with some crisis I was going through with a boyfriend ("Where did our love go, has it gone away to stay?") or ones that somehow were phone related. I distinctly remember putting some of the answering machine messages off of one of the Mary J. Blige CDs. Then there was this boy my friend Mary liked and he had that song "Mary Jane" (I think that was it?) on his pager message. Anyway, we interpreted it to be a sign that he liked her and called it over and over listening to it. I put it on my answering machine, too. Oh, how I loved Mary J. Blige. I still have this tape of all of the videos I recorded off of MTV and BET back then. Oh, yeah, and remember the BOX? How you could call in and request a video for $1.99? And for some reason whoever requested songs was constantly requesting "Stroke It" by Clarence Carter?
Speaking of phones...I know that I wasn't the only one who used to do the listening in on three-way business. You know, when you have to find out what someone really thinks of you, or you're trying to help a friend out for moral support by being on the line. I know I'm not the only one who was supposed to be quiet but got so pissed off at the one-who-didn't-know-I-was-listening that I blew my cover and started talking. We also had this trick where three people would be talking on three way (usually your friend and the guy you liked), and then the guy said something that you had to make a comment on to your friend. So what you would do is tell them to hold on, you got another call. You then would get on your other line and call your friend so you could tell her what you were thinking about what the boy said. She would click over because she got another call, and that call was you. I know you did that. I hope you did that.
Sometimes I look at the kids and I remember exactly what it was like to be them.
