Category: Memory

Music…

Promise Me

Show Me

The Cover Girls

and Words

It’s been so very long
Since you held me in your arms this way
And all this time that you’ve been gone
I’ve thought about you each and every day

So now you’ve returned
And you want to try our love again
But frankly I’m concerned
That you will hurt (Hurt me) like you did then

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

It was the summer of 1986.  Looking back, I remember very little from that summer.  Everything from the moment I graduated high school until the time I started college was little more than a blur.  I occasionally waited on tables, although I wasn’t very good, pathetic actually.  I may have had more jobs, though I don’t know where or when they might have been.  There was also my first real car, a 1966 Mustang, painted metallic blue; I loved that car, although she broke down more often than I care to admit.  I remember dancing the night away at parties, occasionally until the sun rose.

Continue reading “One dance that lasted four years” →

Music…

Come Here

Finally

Kath Bloom

and Words

And it says that loving takes this course
Come here, come here
No I’m not impossible to touch
I have never wanted you so much
Come here, come here
Have I never laid down by your side
Baby, let’s forget about this pride
Come here, come here

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

We live in an age of excess.  We anticipate the big moments, the grand gestures like the winning Olympic medals.  “Go big or go home”, they say.  It’s almost as if our lives are meaningless without these moments.  We’re collectively aspire for the grandiose gestures…  The chocolate fountains at birthday parties…  The gifting of new cars for presents…  We idolize athletes and celebrities.

It’s an illusion.  An extraordinary life is full of ordinary moments.  Brené Brown speaks to how we spend so much of our lives chasing the extraordinary moments, that we miss the simple moments.  This post is a gentle reminder about one of those moments.

Continue reading “Living ordinary moments extraordinarily” →

Music…

Our House

Madness

Madness

and Words

Father wears his Sunday best
Mother’s tired, she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister’s sighing in her sleep
Brother’s got a date to keep
He can’t hang around

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

It was early in the year; it was either late January or early February.  We had talked about getting a place together and thought we might start looking.  Meanwhile, a friend mentioned new construction at a nearby neighborhood.  However, we weren’t looking seriously; it’s not as if we had specifics on square footage or neighborhood or the like… nor did we really think about the price range.  Certainly, we simply knew that we wanted to be together.

During a sunny weekend morning, I program the address into the GPS.  I subsequently follow the cryptic directions, but it takes us nowhere.  Quizzically, this isn’t even remotely close to what the address describes.  Next, I pull over and ponder for a bit; it takes me a couple of minutes to piece it together…  My GPS is a few years old, and this is new construction; this road is not on the map yet.

Continue reading “In the middle of our street” →

Music…

Carry On

Crusader

Chris de Burgh

and Words

Whatever the words that you hear
Somehow the meaning is clear
We’re all on the same ship together
Moving on

From the first time that life could be heard
To the last sounds of men on this earth
The question is always the same
Where are we going? where are we going?
Carry on, carry on

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

The scene starts quietly in a recording studio.  A few notes start to sound from the piano as Tom Sullivan holds the microphone as if it were his lifeline.  He sings the first few verses; you notice his eyes looking into the distance as he focuses on his words.

Tom was born prematurely in 1947 and was put into an incubator.  This procedure saved his life, but doctors didn’t yet know to to appropriately calibrate the equipment.  There was too much oxygen in the chamber and the developed a film over his eyes that robbed him of sight.  Tom was not born blind, but he has been blind his entire life.

Continue reading “If you could see what I hear” →

Music…

Feels like the First Time

Foreigner

Foreigner

and Words

…

It feels like the first time
Feels like the very first time
It feels like the first time
It feels like the very first time

I have waited a lifetime
Spent my time so foolishly
But now that I found you
Together we’ll make history

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

It was 1982; I was a freshman in high school.  I knew next to nothing about baseball.  Popular team names, like the Dodgers and Yankees, sounded familiar but that was about it.

And then something happened to capture my interest.  A little team called the Atlanta Braves had a dismal record the year before yet started their season defying the odds.  I was lucky that Ted Turner, the then owner of the Braves, used his television network TBS to broadcast most of their games.

Continue reading “A Season of Faith’s Perfection” →

Music…

Bringin’ on the Heartbreak

High ‘n’ Dry

Def Leppard

and Words

Gypsy, sittin’ lookin’ pretty

The broken rose with laughin’ eyes
You’re a mystery, always runnin’ wild
Like a child without a home
You’re always searching, searching for a feeling
That it’s easy come and easy go

Oh, I’m sorry but it’s true
You’re bringin’ on the heartache
Takin’ all the best of me
Oh, can’t you see?
You got the best of me
Whoa, can’t you see?

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I was riding the 545 express bus one morning on the way to the office from Seattle.  I listened to music on my Zune HD.  Browsing through the music, I turned to a playlist of ‘Everything I had liked’ and started it.  I continued to listen to music on my pair of Etymotic headphones which drown out most outside noise.  I looked quietly out the window while we passed different landmarks in the city.  The playlist, currently on shuffle mode, starts to play the next song.  In this case, it was Def Leppard’s “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak”.

Continue reading “The birth of an idea” →

Music…

Please Mr. Postman

環球萃取升級精選 許冠傑3

Sam Hui

and Words

Wait!
Oh yes, wait just a minute Mr. Postman
Wait!
Wait, Mr. Postman

Please Mr. Postman, look and see
Whoa, yeah
Is there a letter in your bag for me?
Please, please Mr. Postman
It′s been a might long time
Whoa, yeah
Since I heard from that girl of mine

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

We arrive at Wild Ginger early on a weekday evening.  It’s an Asian fusion restaurant and one of our favorites.  The bar runs lengthwise along the front façade of the restaurant, save for the entry.  Small circular tables line the windows that overlook the street, Bellevue Way; they sit opposite the bar.  As we enter, we head directly to the bar area, where they have open seating.  We select two adjoining seats in the bar and place our bags in an adjoining seat.

Two shallow shelves line the entire wall behind the bar, each discreetly lit with LED strips that emit a magical luminescence.  These shelves display the distilled liquors, both flavored and straight.  The subtle light shines through the colored bottles like a kaleidoscope, beckoning you to have a taste at the hands of their mixologists.

Continue reading “A decades old postal delivery” →