Nashville on the down low

Here's the truth of it; I'm a closet Country music fan.

There are few that will admit to it. Country music is something you hide in your CD collection, waaay back behind even 90's pop. It occupies a obscure, but not forgotten folder in your computer's music files. It is present, but never mentioned in our music lives.

Country music is too whiny to be cool. The whole banjo, cowboy hat, 'everyone died and my cat ran out of me too' story line is just a bit much to cross over into something we will publicly own up to liking. But the thing is, every now and again, everyone needs a little country music.

When you're curled up in bed, missing your family or your someone special. When you've had a rotten day and you're sure everyone and everything was put on this planet to ruin you. When you feel ugly and your hair is a fright and your whole world seems one big shade of grey.

That's when the cowboy hat, banjo, violin and crooning (if but slightly whiny) voice can make music that sounds exactly like what you're feeling; a big pile of sentimental mush with no real logical reasoning behind it.

So if you'll excuse me, I need some Tim McGraw and Faith Hill right now.

The whole Venus/Mars thing again

Girl: I like this. It's so comfortable. We fit so well together.

Boy: Yeah, just like Lego.

Cue laughter.

(Shared with permission of those concerned)

Everyday People

We have an extraordinary ability to adapt. I don't mean in the scientifically proven sense of evolution, but in the way that we get used to changes in our situations, possessions, people, etc.

Wherever we are, we build a network of everyday people. They are not necessarily soul mates or best friends, but they become such an ingrained part of our lives simply because at a point in time, we have a shared location.

And then you move, or they move, and you find new everyday people, as do they. You keep in touch and write long emails, chat for hours on the phone perhaps.

Or maybe not. Maybe these people who you saw everyday, ate every meal with, spent some of your best and happiest times with, maybe they just fade away into oblivion. A memory you call on occasionally, if at all, with no great emotion attached.

Here's to all my everyday people, who are still slipping away as I'm writing this.