pause...rewind...play

With Christmas and the season of gift giving fast approaching I started to think about gifts that used to be considered "thoughtful".  These gifts didn't cost a lot of money, but you knew someone put a good amount of time or effort into it.  For example, your favorite homemade dessert, a personal drawing/painting/photograph, or a personalized mix CD.

A well planned mix CD was a thoughtful gift in my book because there was some real work behind it.  You had to look through all of your CDs, pick the perfect songs, and then burn them one at a time onto a blank disc. Lets not even dig up the days of making someone a mix tape.  My god...what a nightmare.  Do you remember sitting by the radio waiting for your favorite new song to come on and then quickly recording it all the while trying not to tape that annoying DJ talking right up until the song started? 

OK, so there was a big difference between regular, mix tape/CD making people and me.  So, my first serious boyfriend was during high school and I thought we were the greatest couple ever.  I mean he was good looking and nice to me, my friends liked him and my parents didn't...what could be better, right?  Well, he is not The Husband, so we all know how that relationship turned out.  Anyway, I once made him a mix CD, but with it came a binder.  Oh yes, a binder!!  What was in that binder you ask??  Well, the lyrics to every song that was on the mix CD...obviously (and some pictures for that added personal touch)!  I'm pretty sure we weren't dating at the time, so I didn't want to give him the wrong idea, but it was a lot of songs that had some sort of meaning. A lot of thought went into every song on that CD.   I do remember the work that went into typing up all of the lyrics though, because this was before lyrics.com.  If I was lucky the CD had an insert with all the song lyrics, but I'm never that lucky.  There was definitely a lot of pause...rewind...play going on.  I remember having the hardest time with all the weird lyrics to Stairway to Heaven.  I should be more embarrassed right now, but I no longer have any shame.  Sometimes I just made shit up if I had no idea, like he EVER read the binder...

Speaking of making up lyrics to songs, I find The Husband doing it all the time.  Well, he isn't making up words as much as he's pretending to quickly mouth the words he doesn't know.  A few examples of our lyrical improv are:

I was a highway man
Along the coach roads I did ride
Thorn and thistle by my side

Chiggity China the Chinese chicken
You have a drumstick and your brain starts lickin'
Watching X-Files with no lights on
The dolly may's on
I hope the smoking man's in this one

And one of my personal favorites from an old friend...

Simmian the whale  (oh the whale)
Simmian the whale  (oh the whale)
Simmian my whale
(that would be Send Me On My Way by Rusted Root)

If you're still reading...this is your chance to tell me what lyrics always throw you off.  I know it's hard to think of things on the spot, but I have faith.