The Boxer

When I'm at work and I have a tedious task that I need to get done, I like to listen to music. There is something about it that allows me to drown out all distractions and focus on the task at hand. Today it was excel work. So I decided to listen to the new Mumford and Sons album. Derek has pretty much had this on repeat since it came out, and the more I listen to it, the more I like it.

The first time I heard one of the songs on the album I got really confused and said to Derek, "Hey! This is a Simon and Garfunkel song!" I grabbed the iphone, and sure enough, it was "The Boxer" featuring Jerry Douglas and Paul Simon. I managed to impress Derek with my knowledge of music that came out before I was born, although the real credit goes to my dad.

One summer when I was younger, I can't remember which one exactly, but I think it was between my 4th and 5th grade year, my dad, my grandma and I drove to California. We loaded up the car (I think it was my grandma's Saturn but it could have been my dad's, I don't remember) and drove across the country for 4 days. In anticipation of all the time in the car, my dad copied a bunch of his favorite CDs onto cassette tape, since we had a CD player at home, but there wasn't one in the car. We had hours of Simon and Garfunkel, the Moody Blues, James Taylor, Crosby Stills Nash & Young and many more whose names I can't think of right now, but if a song came on I would probably still know all the words.

I remember sitting in the backseat with a little pink tray that sat over my lap so I could color in coloring books or whatever else would keep me occupied. I remember vowing to hurt someone or myself if I ever had to see another soybean. I think this was also the trip where I made up the Waffle House song. I also remember playing a game with my dad where we would guess how long it would take for him to pass the semi that was miles ahead of us. That was a great game to play in Kansas.

I remember when we got to California going to see the house my grandparents built in Lake Tahoe. I remember staying at the houses of old family friends, and waking up to sun streaming into the window. Lots of the people we stayed with had pools, which I thought was fantastic. I remember visiting relatives who that would be the only time in my life I would ever get to meet them. We went and saw the redwood forest and San Francisco and the pacific ocean. I remember thinking it was a waste to have an ocean that you couldn't swim in.

The 29 year old version of me wishes I knew what a cool experience that had been. I think I tried to journal about a little, but I wasn't very consistent, nor was I very detailed. (As a side note, Derek has the spiritual gift of finding all of the random stuff I wrote as a kid when we visit my parents house, and he LOVES to read it to me. It is pretty hilarious, and I vaguely remember reading entries from the California trip. I started off strong but then it just ended.) I'm sure there are pictures somewhere. But I wish I had a better memory of all the details, the people I met, and the things I saw.

My dad and I flew back to Columbus after a week of being out there. My grandma stayed out there visiting with friends and family, and a few weeks later my dad and younger sister flew back out, my sister got to visit for a week, and then the 3 of them drove back to Ohio. She got to visit a ranch in Wyoming, which I'm totally jealous of, although I'm sure I wasn't at the time.

I remember on the trip back there were bad thunderstorms in Chicago, and my dad and I had to get a hotel room since our flight was delayed til the next day. We didn't have our suitcases because it was a connecting flight. That was the beginning of my dislike for O'Hare airport, and now I never connect through O'Hare due to multiple bad experiences.

It's funny how one song can bring back so many memories. Next time I'm in Columbus I'm going to go searching for some pictures of the trip. I'll be sure to scan them in and share them if I find any.