During this period in my life, I was dating a girl named Penny. I remember we always had this annoying conversation about how you get sick and she used to tell me that the cold weather doesn't make you sick. I mean, how do you argue with stupid logic like this? During this one occasion, Penny and this other guy were talking about it being cold outside and the conversation went around to being sick because of the weather. Penny smartly recited off her response about how you couldn't get sick from it being cold outside. I rolled my eyes and shook my head because I was so tired of hearing this, because maybe she was technically right, but if that was the case, people would be outside all the time when it was cold and they wouldn't be bundled up like astronauts just to take the trash out. The guy that Penny was talking to yelled back,"WELL IT SURE DOESN'T HELP!" I was like, "THANK YOU!" Finally, someone told her what I had been thinking for the longest time. That was the last time I heard that stupid logic and the first time I began to appreciate Sheryl Crow.
Eventually, although it would be a few years, I bought Tuesday Night Music Club. It's one of my favorite albums, but similarly to most old music, it has retreated to the bottom of my CD stack as newer music has entered my collection. This week, I found myself going back to this and thinking about what has changed in the 17 years since that day in the breakroom when I first began to appreciate this talented musician. Sheryl Crow had some very public romances, most notably with Lance Armstrong. She has released 6 more albums, and there has been a lot of good music within these collections.
***I feel like there is more to say here, but I cannot for the life of me think of where I was going with this***
Despite this, I go back to the Tuesday Night Music Club. What a great collection of music! I started to give a run-down of the songs and what I liked about each, but then I thought to myself there is so much to say. My favorite is definitely "All I Wanna Do". I swear, I could listen to that song a hundred times in a row and never get tired of it. Instead of breaking down each song, what I will say is that this album brings me back to the time when I first moved out of my parents house and began my life as an adult.
I went with my grandma to look at apartments that I thought I could afford. There was this one townhome styled place that was in the downtown area. The 4 walls inside of this place were really nice. The rent was $250 a month, which was about all I could afford at the time. There were a lot of unsettling things about the place though. There were a lot of people that were just standing around checking things out. It wasn't like they were casing the joint, but just making a presence to "mark their territory" or tell me that this was their area. Then the surrounding units, which each had an external entrance into a small courtyard, were littered with toys and personal belongings everywhere. I wondered if they were having a yard sale or something. STUFF WAS EVERYWHERE! To her credit, grandma didn't say too much. She let me make the decision and even though I was eager to get out on my own, I didn't feel like this was the place to do so. I settled on the place by the reservoir and loved it! If I could, I would have lived there for years. I had so much fun with my life. It wasn't sustainable though. I had 2 part time jobs and was barely making ends meets.
You know how when you're young you really don't understand fear? You do things without thinking about the consequences and when people try to explain them to you, you just don't get it. Well, the apartment that I lived in was on the 2nd floor of a house that was divided into 4 apartments. It was surrounded by a warehouse and was relatively private. I had a deck in the back of my apartment that stopped right by the slanted roof that led to the upper roof of the structure. Upon examining this, I noticed that the upper roof was pretty flat and that if I could get up there, then I could lay out there and peacefully enjoy the day. So, I grabbed my boom box, some blankets and a few other things and climbed up there. In order to do this climb, I had to get in the seated position with my back against the roof. I took off my shoes and used my hands and feet to inch backwards up the slanted roof, which was probably at a 30-40 degree angle. It wasn't hard at all. Once I got to the top of the roof, which was probably about 30-35 feet off the ground, I spread out a blanket, turned on the boom box and laid down. It was at this time that the Tuesday Night Music Club had been out for about 2-3 years and I was starting to enjoy all of the songs on it, and not just the ones played on Kiss 98.5. I would listen to as much as I could up there and think that life was perfect. I could see into Canada from the top of my roof and I didn't have a care in the world. Sheryl Crow took me away to a place where I didn't have to think about what would happen in 5 years, or 10 years, or 17 years.
I look back to the cover of this album and I see an interesting smile on Sheryl Crow's face. The type that says, "I'm not Sheryl Crow, just yet. I'm just Sheryl." You look at this and see an innocence that has no idea what the next 2 decades are about to bring her. And, maybe that's ok. Too many people look at where they want to be instead of where they are. When I first got hired as a Merchandise Assistant, the Divisional who hired me probably could sense that I was going to advance in the company and cautioned me not to come in looking at what I was going to do next. She advised me to take the Merchandise Assistant position and be the best that I could be at it. Maybe that's the problem with life. People aren't thinking about living in the moment, they all want to get rich. I can be rich without making a lot of money. Like, I think, Sheryl is saying on this album - Life's a party, get into it or it'll be passing you by.
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