Highest highs and lowest lows…

Let’s start with the low so that I can end this entry on a high note:
R.E.M. says goodbye.

I don’t even know what to say about that… For 31 years, R.E.M. has provided the soundtrack to my life. If you put it in perspective, R.E.M. has been in my life longer than either one of my parents. Even if you discount the early days, before I was a die hard fan, that’s still 23 years. Three years shy of how long my father had been in my life. “Green” (1988) was definitely the album that made me declare my fandom. Before that I didn’t even know such a thing existed.

Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables, Pageant, Document, Green, Out of Time, Automatic, Monster, Hi-Fi, Up, Reveal, Around the Sun, Accelerate, Collapse…  Ask me, and I can name at least one song from each that i’d classify as a favorite. Press me harder, and I can tell you exactly what songs were playing at very definitive life-changing moments.

I completely applaud their decision to do it their way but it doesn’t change the fact that there is a huge void in my musical life now…

(And yes, I know, we broke up. That doesn’t change a damn thing.)

Now for the high note:
I had said a while back that I had let someone read a short story of mine, and that I was terrified of their reaction.

I am a silly, silly, little bunny.

It was wonderful!  You use such great language and it flows so well.  The dialogue was so good I started to tear up a little at parts but don’t tell anybody that!  (Oh crap, I just told people that! Oh well. No one knows who actually got a chance to read it.) You shouldn’t be shy about your writing, you have a strong voice and you should be proud of that.

Seeing how that person was an English major, I’m taking that as very high praise.