Love Is A Mix Tape

Dean and I bonded many years ago over music. Dean and I share a sick love. We love Ryan (I know you all know who I speak of, so I will omit his name) Dean has this book called "Love is a Mix Tape." It is one of the only book he read from cover to cover (in a long time.) The concept is nice. I think it is about a couple that traded mix tapes throughout their relationship and then the girl dies. He finds love again and tell the story of his new relationship through mix tapes. Cool, huh?

I have been making mix tapes since elementary school. I remember, quite fondly, my maroon stereo with the dual tape deck and turn table. I used to record my LP's with this elaborate microphone/tape deck system because I didn't have the ability to record an LP. Then cd's came along (my grandma bought me my first CD player for christmas in 1997) and I continued my microphone/tape deck recording studio. The work we had to do before iTunes!!

Mix tapes rule. I still have cassette copies of mix tapes I exchanged back in high school. I found this awesome tape with a recording of this church lock-in I went to with an old boyfriend. We made mix tapes for one another with snippets of the conversations between the songs.....sigh. Young love.....

I feel that a mix tape is one of the most personal gifts you can give. As a grown up I have taken to elaborately decorated liner notes and cool vellum envelopes. I wake up in the middle of the night with setlists swimming in my head. I think I might be obsessed with the mix tape!

My new job sent me to Boston where I met 10 incredible new people. I bonded with 3 in particular because we shared a car (Pete, Lea and Em.) We spent a week training during the day and playing at night. Our rooms had a cool kitchenette set-up at our hotel and I would invite my new pals to my room. I made yummy dinners and snacks, Lea would drink red wine, Em would mix up some wildly strong vodka cocktails and Pete drank beer. We listened to music, traded stories, played therapy. It rocked. We all shared a car and spent our time singing along to the radio and acting like complete morons. So, we were a group bonded by music (and love for Pete's NY style driving skills.)

The next weeks sent us to Chicago. Most of May was a haze. Our group stayed in this incredible condo in Lincoln Park. It truly was the "real world Chicago" complete with drama, late night drinking, laughing until we cried, and a fantastic story of drunk cycling (this was not me.) Trained all day (once again) and played at night. The first night in the house I pulled out my hello kitty ipod player and we washed dishes and harmonized in the kitchen. We went to a cubs game, walked the town, and I made many a meal for very grateful people. One of the best parts of these weeks goes back to the mix tape phenomenon. Pete and I would hang out on our fabulous porch, with our laptops until ungodly hours. We would take turns playing DJ and share songs with one another. It was such a blast. We had a huge exchange night with at least 6 people and their music. Cheryl brought her external hard drive, many of us had our laptops and we all traded jump drives. It was literally a 200G mixtape-o-rama.

After we all went back to our lives, the music lived on. I made Lea a little album of mix cds. There were mood cds and theme cds. She nearly tinkled when I gave it to her. It wasn't just me. Cheryl made some awesome cd's and passed them around. When we all reunited in Boston for our company meeting there was a world-class sing along on the way to the airport. Cheryl, Lea, Brian and I were jamming to some old school Salt'n'peppa, a little "Baby got back" and my personal favorite "Wild Thing" by Tone Loc. It was a blast to share a nostalgic mix cd with a bunch of people who are my age. The very small group of those who can remember these songs during middle school dances grows smaller by the minute. Long live 1974 and 1976!

This past week I made a special mix cd for our trainer. Andrea lives in my old neighborhood. We share a love of squealing, laughing, pedicures and gossiping about bad dates. (a couple of drunk dialing text message stories have been swapped) We are both from Michigan. When she conducted a phone interview with me, we spent literally 90min talking. I think that at one point she has referred to me as her twin (I wish I had her hair!) I wanted to make her an extra special mix to celebrate her 30th birthday. (After all, 30 is the best year ever!) I made it all pretty with decorative paper and sent it off to her.

The IM's started after she heard the first tracks. I could nearly hear her squeals in her frantic IM's. "I love Ben Lee!" "OMG Rachel Yamagata!" "Uncle Tupelo!" The girl went nuts. "Do you have a camera in my living room?!?" and my favorite "This is the soundtrack of my life!" I don't think I have ever seen this type of response from anyone.

That dude in the book Dean read was right.....Love is a Mix Tape. I am happy to spread the love. It feels soooooo good!