Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Sound of Silence

My neighbor has started listening to music while he is in the bathroom in the mornings. Now I have absolutely no proof that my neighbor is a he but based on the type of music being played I'm going to assume it's a he (loud, heavy metal sounding or strange African drum songs). And for a guy, he's in there a really long time. I can usually get done what I need to in less than 30 minutes but the music is playing in there for an hour at at time. So with this addition to my morning ritual I realize that as I am getting older I have a better appreciation of silence (especially in the bathroom). Don't get me wrong, I love music and always have but it's now noise that I'm having a hard time tolerating (example: I spent almost two years wearing ear plugs to bed every night because my neighbor would play music from midnight to 5 a.m.).

I digress...

As a young girl I would spend hours listen to albums like Donny and Marie, K-Tel disco albums, and the soundtrack to Mary Poppins . My sister and I would sing along (as the older sister I was always a little bit country and my sister had to be a little bit rock and roll) and performed dance routines to Shaun Cassidy's Da Doo Run Run Run in the backyard (I still remember the moves to that one).

As I got older, my tastes changed and expanded. As a teenager I loved Duran Duran and the Go-Go's but a friend also introduced me to jazz and expanded my taste in classic rock (thanks Jim). Back then I listened to music all the time: in the car, doing chores, cooking, studying, or just lying on my bed. I could spend hours just listening to music, sometimes the same song, over and over again. The times have changed. Just a few years ago I had a car that didn't even have working radio or a stereo system. And while I still have all those vinyl albums I don't own a turntable to play them on. The car I drive now has a radio and CD player and I still have all my vinyl albums, cassette tapes and CDs but most of my music is now on a MP3 player (everything for Simon and Garfunkel to Mozart to P!nk) and I can hook it up to some speakers if I don't want to use ear buds.

Sometimes I listen to music at work but I don't get radio reception at my desk and am not allowed to stream music on my computer. Plus I get interrupted a lot and am out in the open so I don't listen all that much. These days I don't put music on when I'm cleaning or cooking and I find that I don't just lie on my bed and listen to music like I did as a teenager. I could be listening to music while I'm writing this but I'm not. I kind of like the silence better (that is until someone's car radio starts blaring outside like it did just now). I still love music but I like silence a lot more than I used to (especially in the bathroom - did I mention that?). Wait, did you hear that? It's silence.

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