Shiny Disco Balls by Who Da Funk

Drugs.  Rock N Roll. Bad Ass Vegas Halls.  Late Night Booty Calls.  Shiny Disco Balls.

Those are the only lyrics in the entire song.

In late 2000, I was so excited to be getting out of a bad roommate situation and into a good one - with my SISTER!  She was transferring to SF State so she could live with me.  I didn't even care that we were in Daly City because San Francisco was prohibitively expensive at the time.  We had our own apartment and our own rooms.  We had a view.  We decorated it together.  I was excited to shoulder 2/3 of the rent because it was my sister, a college student, and she wanted to live with me.  It was going to be awesome. 

It mostly was, but I think she was mad at me a lot of the time.  I was going through a hard time in those couple years, but I always felt like she was there for me.  I honestly didn't realize until later that she was mad at me.  I mostly noticed the good stuff.  We had a show we watched together (Gilmore Girls).  I had a blast cooking dinner together, but I especially loved it when we would pick up Chinese to go at Ranch 99 market, always way too much greasy and oh so delicious food, and eat it at the coffee table.  I could always find something to wear in Cato's closet and since she had the full length mirror on the back of her door, it totally made sense for me to go in her room.  We went to parties together, hosted friends at our apartment, had mani-pedi dates followed by daytime cocktails.  It really was a fun couple years, something we'll never get back and something I am so grateful to have experienced.

Unlike me, Cato had a bunch of jobs in retail (Papa Murphy's, the Wherehouse, Peninsula Beauty).  She would get bored of one place and literally walk next door and get a job there instead.  She got her first "real" job by sending a fax to a job posting in the NEWSPAPER.  Seriously!  She either has the best luck or the best instincts, but that kind of approach never worked for me.  Also she is very brave!  I think she actually heard Shiny Disco Balls playing while working at the beauty place, not the Wherehouse.  They would play a lot of trendy music and she would come home singing.  I thought the lyrics were ridiculous, but then I heard the song, liked the beat, memorized those ridiculous lyrics, and it became our thing.  We'd play it in the car on the way to the store or just around the house.  One last thing that bears mentioning because I thought it was so cute - Catherine would get ready in the morning by blaring music on her stereo in her room.  I loved that.  She didn't do that when we were in high school so it seemed out of character, but I found it so endearing! 

You Can't Count on Me by Counting Crows

Williams-Hamilton dinners date back to 2005.  It was something you could count on every month.  You never left a dinner before scheduling the next dinner.  Each one was a much anticipated event.  There was a food theme for each dinner (Argentinian, Indian, Japanese, and Moroccan, to name a few).  The hosts usually provided the main course and some drinks...the visitors usually provided appetizers, sometimes desserts, and more drinks.  It was an all night affair, full of talking over each other (all 4 of us doing this at the same time), board games, laughter, and friendship.  It rolled over into the morning with breakfast and more story telling and more laughter.  And of course, there was music.  I put a lot of thought into the music I would play at each dinner and if you look at my iTunes, you will see playlists titled Hamilton Fun and More Hamilton Fun.

I had never been a big Counting Crows fan, I know, sacrilege. I am supposed to feel a strange loyalty to them.  But I didn't.  A friend of mine had an extra ticket to the concert back in the Spring of 1996 so I went with him and I was unimpressed and also concerned because Adam Duritz was so stoned I worried he would fall off the stage at any moment!  And also, they played Mr. Jones, the one song I enjoyed, in slow motion, like a remix, but not in a good way.  Scott H. really liked Counting Crows though and even suggested going to a concert.  I said no, I was not a fan, etc, but I wish I had said yes in retrospect.  Live performances are FUN and now we have kids and when will we ever be going to a concert together now??  It was probably at their house when I heard some Counting Crows that I wasn't familiar with and started to hear them in a different light.  I downloaded a couple songs and later burned the CDs that Scott had.  My favorite song is You Can't Count on Me.  It's kind of cheerful sounding, but the lyrics are anything but cheerful.  Regardless.  I think it's become clear so far in my life soundtrack that I don't listen too closely to the lyrics.   I started incorporating some Counting Crows into my Hamilton mixes.

Over the years we added two rambunctious dogs to our dinners, which only served to raise the volume considerably, as there were now 6 voices talking over each other.  The years went by and we added 3 kids to the mix.  Dinners turned into lunches and most recently a day trip.  Still fun, still much anticipated, but no more themes, no more overnights, and much less drinking.  I still create a music playlist when it's the Williams turn to host.  Speaking of which, I need to email Karen H. to plan our next get together!

Warming Up the Brain Farm by Lo Fidelity Allstars

It was the fall of 1999.  It was my first Cal football season as an alum, but I didn't have season tickets.  Kat R. had received some tickets from someone or maybe we bought them, but she and I decided to go to the game.  I took BART from San Francisco to Rockridge and walked up to her apartment on Broadway.  It wasn't until years later that I realized what an awesome neighborhood she lived in during those first few years after college.  I had fallen victim to San Francisco snobbery shortly after moving into a flat in the Mission District.  I didn't notice that she was within walking distance of Zachary's or that years later, I would spend many an afternoon window shopping, brunching, and hanging out in her neighborhood.  Of course, she no longer lived there by then, making it slightly less fun. 

Kat was living with her boyfriend and I was, quite honestly, pretty envious.  She got to decorate the apartment however she wished (I had a horrible roommate at the time) and she had this really cool boyfriend.  I know that this particular morning it was just the two of us.  I think her boyfriend was still in college, still in the Cal Band.  Kat is really a blast, full of fun ideas, adventure, trying new things, going new places.  We were just hanging out, taking our time, we no longer needed to be at the field, instruments in hand, just after dawn, hours and hours before the football game.  She showed me around the apartment and played some new music for me.  The song was Warming Up the Brain Farm and it was totally weird, but I loved it.  I didn't know at the time that I actually knew another song by Lo Fi (Battle Flag), but once I bought the CD, I realized it, making the purchase all that more satisfying.  Kat is like that - always showing you something new and cool.

We were really late to the game, we might've even stopped for a beer or some other refreshment along the way.  We took the 51 bus up College Ave, all the way to campus.  We enjoyed the game, we cheered for the Bears, we visited our friends who were still in the band.  It was the perfect way to return to Cal Football and helped me feel less nostalgic and sad about being a graduate and no longer a living piece of Cal history.  I was now merely history, but making new memories that would become a part of history.  

Porcelain by Moby

It was shaping up to be one of the very best summers of my life.  I have had some excellent summers, but this one was really becoming a contender for the best of the best.  So far.  I was only 22 that year in the summer of 2000.  It was the halcyon days of tech which meant I was finally meeting my sales quota with some regularity.  I scored a corner seat in the new office and a computer which meant I could download songs at work.  I loved my sales team and my clients.  We were young, making money, and living in San Francisco.  We regularly went out for drinks after work that often turned into dinners.  I was also back to my fighting weight, I had lots of suits and heels, a new hairdresser and blond highlights.  I had met a very cute boy at the beginning of summer and was looking forward to a trip to Hawaii with him at the end of August.

But in the meantime.....there were summer BBQs to host and attend.  My Spanish roommate Jordi C. had emailed me to ask if I could pick him up from the airport....in Los Angeles.  That was 300 miles away from me and I did not have a car, but I flew down to LA to spend an awesome couple days with Alex F. and Pam S.  That is a story for another song.  I went to family BBQs and pool parties.  There was a trip to Santa Cruz where I attempted surfing.  I even crammed in a camping trip to Silver Lake.  It was fun times after fun times. 

My sister introduced me to the Moby Play album that summer.  I had heard some earlier Moby stuff that was more doz-doz techno kind of stuff.  It was ok.  But this album was amazing.  I fell in love with it and listened to it over and over.  The thing is, the music made me feel incredibly sad.  Or maybe melancholy is a better word.  I just looked it up and it is definitely the right word:
melancholy: a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause.

This is probably what he was going for as the lyrics are incredibly sad.  In my dreams I'm dying all the time.  I never meant to hurt you.  So this is goodbye.  Another song on the album is called Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad.  SAD!  Super sad stuff!  It's funny that in the middle of all the awesome that was that summer, I would obsessively listen to an album that made me feel melancholy. There's probably some juicy stuff in there for a psychologist to figure out.  

Like I Love You by Justin Timberlake

When Justin Timberlake first came out with his solo album it didn't make much of an impression on me.  N'Sync was next-generation boy band and I didn't listen to them much at all.  I would see pictures of Justin and Britney and think that the curly hair and matching denim outfits were totally dorky.  I didn't even care for his solo music much.

Flash forward a year to Monterey, CA.  I think it was the very first week of school and a bunch of my classmates decided to go to Doc Rickett's for $1 beers and dancing.  I know I have referenced the crazy Danes before, and this night was no exception.  I remember walking in to the place and finding my friends.  There were Kent H., Nis H., Morten J., Peter D., who I am missing?  They each had ordered $20 worth of beers (that's 20 beers at $1 each and I cannot believe that they were allowed to buy so many at one time!) and the table was just covered with beers.  It was hilarious and I happily accepted their offer of a beer or 3 and later contributed to the table.  There were many, many others there that night... I remember Holly S, Mark F, Stacy H, Nina L, it seemed just about everyone was there.  Doc Rickett's had this reputation for being pretty divey, a total meat market, and full of jar/jug/whatever you call em heads.  Monterey is home to both the Naval Postgraduate School and the Army's Defense Language Institute.  I suppose that if I was at Doc Rickett's as a single gal, going out dancing with my girlfriends, it might've had a yucky vibe, but I was with 30 of my newest, most favorite people and we were having a blast.

There was a big projection screen on the wall playing music videos and Like I Love You by Justin Timberlake came on.  I recognized the song, but as I said, I'd never really been a fan.  I was dancing, totally getting into the 3-4 beers in-I love this song!-mode.  I was watching the video and .... Justin Timberlake is HOT.  H-O-T-T Hot!  The video was seductive and risque and, it bears mentioning again, hot!  The music was clever.  Catchy.  I became an insta-fan!  I remember telling Holly that I had no idea that Justin Timberlake was so hot!  I was really really excited about this realization!  When I got home I downloaded both the video and the mp3.  10 years later, I tried to get tickets to his 20/20 tour...and it was sold out.  Apparently I am not the only one to realize all the awesome that is JT.