Every day really seems to blend into the next in a constant stream of forward motion. Of course, it’s not like we’re going anywhere and lots of times it doesn’t feel like I’m accomplishing nearly as much as would be implied by how busy the days are and how tired I am at the end. It’s a bit like running on a hamster wheel. Like, a giant, human sized hamster wheel, of course. A full grown adult running on a regular hamster wheel would probably hurt your foot and do some serious damage to the hamster wheel.
Anyway, saying that one day blends into the next feels like something I’ve probably already noted about 58 times in this blog, wherein one post probably feels a bit like it blends into the next. But onward.
It was another pretty day around here. Erin and I both had a ton of work to do, and it turned into one of those shocking and surprising days that all parents hope for and seldom ever encounter. It was a day where, for the most part, the kids peacefully entertained themselves.
It feels weird even writing that, because events like this are so rare, it feels like the most delicate gossamer that will unravel and disintegrate at the slightest touch. I worked, scarcely wanting to acknowledge how good they were being for fear of jinxing it and inspiring a full on battle or tantrum.
But good they were, and they spent a long time playing pirates in the new “pirate ships” they had built. I was restocking the closet and Amelia saw the box I had with me, and asked if she could use it to make a ship. I said sure, and soon Henry was asking for his own box. They grabbed the crayons and markers and got to work.
It was adorable. I love to see them using their imaginations like this, and they spent the majority of the day in those boxes. It is also undeniably funny that the box Amelia wanted was from the recycled toilet paper supplier we use, so she is setting sail in the dining room aboard the HMS Who Gives a Crap.
When the end of the work day came, and I at last pivoted to cooking some dinner, I wanted to listen to music and couldn’t for the life of me decide what I wanted to listen to. So I tried the always risky “shuffle all” option on my phone.
I have a ton of music on my phone, and my taste is extremely eclectic. Almost every time I try “shuffle all,” I wind up getting Christmas music and 10-minute long buried bonus orchestral tracks from various Disney soundtracks I downloaded for the kids. But today. Today, this day of miracles where the kids played nicely with no intervention, this day had one more surprise for me. A shockingly excellent, long stretch of jams that perfectly fit whatever mood it was that I was in.
So I had a nice time cooking, and jotting down each song as it came up so I might at some point use it as the building blocks of an actual on-purpose playlist. Here’s what went down:
Jim’s Accidental Playlist:
- Gimme Some Money, Spinal Tap
- Fat Bottomed Girls, Queen
- One Life Stand, Hot Chip
- Zombie Dance, The Cramps
- Venus in Furs, Velvet Underground
- Iris (Hold Me Close), U2
- Dig Dis, Hank Mobley
- The Only Way, Jim Noir
- Come Back Jonee, Devo
- Sing, Blur
- Pop Goes the World, Men Without Hats
- Girl Sailor, The Shins
- Cells, The Servant
- Gary Gilmore’s Eyes, The Adverts
When every day feels a little bit the same, and the world is crazy all around us, I humbly believe it’s important to grab on and appreciate every miracle, big or small, that comes into our days. This was a day I had three. Peaceful kids, rockin’ tunes, and this sunset.
Life is challenging and often weird, but life is good.
