I seem to recognize your face, haunting, familiar yet, I can't seem to place it.

You can tell the school year is ending when my reading grows exponentially. I just finished a book that I ended up enjoying quite a bit called "Then We Came to the End" by Joshua Ferris. I went in hoping for the literary equivalent of The Office, and I'm not sure it delivered (but could that ever really happen anyway), but I did like it. I ended up getting attached to the characters, the dysfunction of their workplace, and I loved how the book ended.

I'm also halfway through a new book too that I just picked up at Indigo today when I was buying a gift for someone (isn't it funny how I always end up throwing in a gift for myself?). I can't believe that I haven't read this book before. It's called "Love is a Mix Tape" by Rob Sheffield. It basically tells the story of a rock journalist who unexpectedly loses his wife. It goes through his life, their relationship, etc. and links it to mix tapes he's made/had given to him throughout his life.

One of my goals this summer is to make some awesome mixes of my own for a select few friends and well-wishers. I love how in this book the author describes the different kinds of mix tapes there are. He brought up the radio tape, which is a compilations of songs from the radio. I used to be the queen of the radio tape in grades 6/7/8-ish. I remember making a mix tape where I would add Alanis' song "Too Hot" whenever it was played, and it made it at least 3 times per side. Radio tapes are fun for the unavoidable snippets of ads/chatter etc. that make it onto the tape. I actually have a bootleg copy of the Killers' "When You Were Young" that I downloaded way before the album came out. I love it because it is recorded from the radio and has the name of the station at the beginning of the song, during the song, and the DJ saying the name of the song at the end. It has always made me think of the days of the radio mix tape and thus, I've kept this version around, even though I'm sure I could get myself a "cleaner" version.

When making mix tapes for myself as a kid, I was always big into repeating songs on the tape (see Alanis example above). I remember a specific grunge tape that I made in about grade 9 that had Pearl Jam's "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" multiple times on the tape. I've always been one to listen to songs a lot constantly. I can download some random song from iTunes, and notice that two days later, I've listened to it 80 times. I don't know if this just means I have a simple mind, but I do love repetition.

The other thing I'm enjoying about this book, is the author's appreciation for the 90s. I loved that decade. On my to-do list, is to throw a kick-ass nineties party where plaid shirts, bad jeans, and Doc Martens are required wear, and I make the best 90s playlist ever. In fact, I should even dig out mix tapes that I made in the 90s and play those suckers. I guess the drink of choice would have to be Mike's Hard Lemonade, which was my beverage in the 90s. I'm not sure if my elderly stomach could take it, but I'd try. Anyway, I gotta throw this party. Of course, when it comes to parties, I have a long list of parties that I need to throw: my blender party to use of the rum I bought in Cuba in 2006 (still gotta get a blender for this), oh and in September it's gonna be mine and Becca T's 10th anniversary, and a cheesy, corny party is required for this. Hmmm, maybe I could merge that with my 90s party since we *did* meet in the 90s.

The last thing I'm going to say about mix tapes, is that they were so cool because so much care and time had to go into making one. You had to sit there and listen to every song, unless you had one of those cool dubbing tape decks, which I did not. Sigh, okay, enough about mix tapes.

All right, I think I'm done blogging. I'd like to do more, but I spent like three hours tonight on the phone with various people, so I might have just used up my allotment of words for the day (or week). It kind of made me feel like a teenager again, talking on the phone so much. I remember talking on the phone for hours and hours with my friends, who I most likely had chatted with all freaking day at school. And I was probably making a mix tape while chatting.

Ahh, the 90s. That was a random post, eh?