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!