Sunny Days & Sing Alongs

I’m at the point in my life when Friday grocery shopping has become a high point. It’s my break from what can become the daily grind. It’s my time to get in the car, drive while listening to a podcast, or as I did today, crank up the radio and sing along to whichever songs shuffle through my playlist. These Friday trips are my time to slow down, browse if I feel like doing so, and welcome the weekend on my terms.

So, when I hopped in the car to head out for today’s trip and felt the sunshine on my face, I knew it would be an epic car concert kind of trip. I don’t have much of a story to tell, but the songs that were on today’s playlist tell all kinds of stories: about me, about the world. So that’s where today’s writing is taking me.

Friday Shopping Trip: A Playlist

It starts with some Dolly (and yes, I absolutely sang along, because who in the world doesn’t love Dolly?!)

• Jolene
• Here You Come Again
• 9 to 5
• Islands in the Stream (quite possibly the prettiest dirty song I’ve ever heard! I’m still wondering how in the world parents never complained when this was a roller rink staple…)

After Dolly, my college years came roaring back with Sarah McLachlan and the Indigo Girls…

• Angel
• Galileo

And then it was back to my childhood, cars with 8 track players, and the Doobie Brothers

• China Grove
• Listen to the Music

(In case you’re wondering, the drive to the grocery store is almost 30 minutes – lots of car ride karaoke time!)

The gravelly perfection that is the voice of Dave Matthews up next – the one artist that connects the dots from high school to who I am today…

• Stay (Wasting Time)
• Old Dirt Hill (a song whose hook I strongly feel should be rewritten based on MY interpretation…I still kick myself for not suggesting my revisions to Dave  when I met him on the Erie Canal trail years ago…seriously, he introduced me to Tim Reynolds, so I’m pretty sure that makes us best friends.)
• Lie in Our Graves

A little silliness from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

• Downtown (First, how can you not love a song about mopeds. Second, it allows me to flex my singing and rap muscles – try not to spit out whatever you’re drinking right now!)

And as I near the turn off for my first store, my current favorite cover, courtesy of Weezer, a song that I’m not sure I’ll ever really understand (and don’t pretend you really get it either), but one that I love because it just sounds so damn magical.

• Africa

As I pull into the parking spot, I wait out the end of the song, already excited for the trip home. Singing in the car is something I haven’t really done in a long time. It felt good today. It’s something I need to make time for more often, especially on sunny Friday afternoons.