More signs you're getting old:
More signs you're still on the youngish side of things:- There's this mix CD your old college boyfriend made you during the summer of 2002. First of all, 2002 was seven years ago, holy crap. Second of all, there's this lyric of one song on the mix that goes, "When July is gone/I'll be 24." The song comes on your iPod's "Shuffle Songs" playlist during a long bus ride home from Boston and you remember when 24 seemed really freaking old.
- You just emailed your friend to remind him to send you those recommendations for cordless drills. You're really excited about buying a cordless drill.
- You're about to sign a new lease and, since signing your last lease, the following things have changed:
- You no longer need your parents to be guarantors.
- Your BFF is now an attorney who is qualified to look over your lease for you and give you like, real, live, legal advice.
- You wore sort-of fishnets to work today because you knew they'd put you in a silly mood even though you knew you probably should've stuck with basic black tights instead.
- That BFF who's now an attorney? Yeah, you guys have matching tattoos.
Signs you're getting old:
Signs you're still on the youngish side of things:- You go to bed when you're tired.
- You stop drinking when you start to feel drunk
- You thought Bella's dad in the "Twilight" movie was way hotter than Edward Cullen
At a birthday party, you and your friends spend the night inventing a game where the goal is to clip as many clothespins on people's clothing and hair without them knowing. Everyone loves it and it's the best part of the night.
You know that song? The one that goes do do do do doo...do do do do doo...? No, you know it. Have you ever seen Say Anything? John Cusack is all excited because he's falling in love with Ione Skye (who wouldn't have in 1989?) and he's giddily telling his friend, played by the amazing Lili Taylor, all about it in this guitar store. He picks up a guitar, and plays the opening lines to that song. Yeah, that one. You know, do do do do doo...do do do do doo...
During the first few weeks or so of freshman year of college, Kate and I ventured out late one night to the old Tower Records on the corner of Newbury Street and Mass Ave. to buy a copy of Say Anything. We were 18 and craving some Lloyd Dobler, or John Cusack circa 1989, or both. Sadly, we must have known that we would eventually part ways as roommates, because we both bought a copy on VHS.
We watched the movie in our cramped dorm room, 820C of Warren Towers, and became obsessed with that scene in the guitar store. For the next three years we could often be found half-muttering, half-humming do do do do doo...do do do do doo... or accosting random friends and strangers with do do do do doo...do do do do doo... The lyrics, or at least the chorus, always seemed to be on the tips our our tongues. We were certain someone must know what song it was. But in the movie, he doesn't sing a word -- he only plays the opening bars.
More than three years later, I was waitressing when the song came on the oldies station that someone had set on the satellite radio. I took out my notepad and frantically scribbled down whatever lyrics I could catch, so I could Google them when I got home.
Later that night -- at probably 3 a.m. after many beers at Solas on Boylston Street followed by a slice of greasy pepperoni pizza from Natalie's in my neighborhood in Allston, as was my lifestyle in early 2004 -- I Googled some lyrics and found the everloving goddamn song.
It came up on my iTunes playlist tonight:
"She marches to the beat of an instrument that might not even be a drum."
