day makers

guys, I AM IN THE WEEDS.

lots of things to do (like right now) and little time to do them makes me feel overwhelmed and grumpy.  i'll spare you the details because there is an end in sight (thankyoubabyjesus).  so this morning when i was leaving the house and the chain on the garage door popped which made it impossible for me to back the car out, i could've very easily let it ruin my morning.  because that's exactly the kind of funk i'm in.  but my dad was nearby and saved the day and off i was to work like nothing happened.

and just like that, the sun was shining, the lights were green, my windows were down, and this song came on the radio and planted a big fat smile on my face.

you see, this song reminds me so much of my momma and today is her BIRTHDAY! 

how perfect is that?

she's a young momma.  she gave birth to me at 20 years old after having been married a couple of years (can you imagine?)  she was a teenager in the seventies and is a music lover, which explains my ridiculous knowledge of and devotion to the likes of todd rundgren, fleetwood mac, the doobie brothers, elton john and al green.  is music memory genetic?  because she can hear a song and immediately recall a memory attached to it.  and my memory of this song is riding in the car with her with this song turned up LOUD.

thanks for those memories, momma.  happy birthday.

and THEN, to make my morning even better, i was sitting at a stoplight on the way to work and noticed the car in front of me bouncing.  i rolled down the window to hear what was going on when i discovered the driver was dancing, wait for it, to beyonce.

as in she was dancing like no one was watching.  except that i was (like a creeper) and it made me so happy.  i tried to pull up next to her to wave or thank her or smile like some kind of weirdo, but we never made eye contact.

so thank you happy dancing lady, whoever you are, for spreading joy this morning.

she was dancing to this song:

  what made you happy today?

xoxo

p.s. other things that always, always remind me of my mom:

this song

and this movie (and sound track).  it took adulthood for me to understand why she loved it so much.  now it's one of my all-time favorites, too.

have you read lena dunham's article about 'the big chill'?

it's so good.

"There is so much you can’t imagine. You can’t imagine your parents on this weekend, dancing around the kitchen to Motown as they cook a big meal, moving their butts jauntily and leading with their shoulders. Many years later, at your bat mitzvah or your cousin Stephanie’s wedding, the way they dance will make you want to kill yourself. But if you could see them over this weekend, all together, if you trained a camera on them and let them dance back and forth, you would understand: they were young once too, and this is how they learned to dance, and now every time they dance that way they feel young again, even if you’re scowling at them from across the room and wishing they would explode."

read the rest here.