Sunday, September 16, 2012

It's been a weird year, for me, for a lot of people. Some good weird, some bad but in the end, or today at least, I'm feeling optimistic and healthy. I'm sitting at my favorite Fort Collins coffee shop listening to the Silversun Pickups and basically enjoying life.

Recently, I felt like the pieces of some giant puzzle have fallen into place.  I have a sense of calm that's palpable. This week I read a book about getting your financial shit together and I realized that I've just been playing around with this determination to eliminate my debt. I've riddled off excuses as to why I have it in the first place and being single sits at the top of the list. That's a silly excuse. Getting rid of this debt will be a challenge but I feel like I have the tools to do it now.  I estimate it will take me two years to get rid of it ALL, once and for all.  I've also realized that writing about it can be kind of dull. 'Ooooh - I made a payment on my credit card today - how exciting!'  Instead, I think I'll write about whatever I feel like.  There are no rules to this thing and really, it's just for me anyway, so who cares, right?

So, today's topic is music.  I'm dismayed that my local NPR station changed it's schedule and I can't listen to World Cafe at noon and 7pm anymore.  Quite the bummer.  World Cafe is where I hear a lot of new tunes and now instead of just hearing them come out of my computer at work or on the radio while I cook dinner, I have to go in search of said new tunes.

I have a coworker that's in her early 60's and she still enjoys cranking out the tunes while driving. She listens to classic rock mostly and I bought her the latest Tedeschi Trucks record from last year, which she loves. She told me the other day, after driving me somewhere, that she thinks she needs to start listening to music more appropriate for her age group.

What is appropriate for my age group, I wonder? I thought about this the other day while driving home singing along loudly to the Gaslight Anthem.  How foolish does one look, at 44, singing along to a rock record?  After thinking about it for like, a second, I realized I could care less about what is appropriate. Who determines 'appropriate' anyway?  I hope that when I'm in my 60's I'm still listening to whatever appeals to me at the time and not trying to adhere to some societal appropriate playlist.

This all makes me think of something my ex-boyfriend did many years ago when we were in our early 30's. He had bought this new-to-him old Subaru which apparently didn't have good enough speakers in which to crank out his record of choice at that time in his life - Kid Rock's Bawitdaba.  He took the speakers out of the house and hooked them up in the back of this Subaru wagon and drove around with the windows down and Kid Rock blaring.  I was so embarrassed at the time but I would congratulate his crafty nature if it happened now.

And, I'm super excited about seeing Rise Against and The Gaslight Anthem next week in Denver. I know I won't be the oldest one there and really, who cares anyway?  I still rock out with the best of them!