Wonderwall by Oasis

It was the first week of college or maybe it was even the week before classes officially started.  I had walked down to the campus computer store to pick out my computer.  This was in the early days of the internet, pre-online shopping.  I think it was actually the student store. I bought a Mac, or were they still called Apple Computers in 1995?  I bought it, the whole kit and caboodle, and then hopped in a cab to transport several thousand dollars worth of equipment back to my dorm.  What I did not account for was getting the heavy boxes out of the cab and into the dorm.  I wasn't naive enough to think I could leave them in the cab as I ran them back and forth to the dorm.  I was starting to panic, when I saw two people pushing a cart up the street towards my dorm.  The cart was loaded down with the exact same computer I had just purchased!  This person had put some thought into this computer purchase. She graciously helped me transfer my boxes onto her cart and into my dorm room.  That's the story of my meet cute with Pam. 

Pam and I became really close friends for many, many years.  She was (and I'm sure still is) one of the most independent, driven, fiercely motivated people I have ever met.  She became an ambulance medic while going to Cal.  I cannot remember her major, but I want to say it was something in the sciences.  I remember taking an elective or two with her, most notably Music Appreciation.  She was in the Orchestra at Cal and I was in the Cal Band.  We had a ton in common and always had enormous amounts of fun together, complete with so much laughter.  She was in love with the Oasis hit Wonderwall.  I remember walking arm and arm up Bancroft, singing and harmonizing at the top of our lungs, likely embarrassing anyone who knew us.  It was our song and I always think about her when I hear it. 

After graduating from Cal in 4 years, she then got a job with the Oakland Fire Department and became a Paramedic.  We lost touch, but I do know she later moved to SoCal to attend med school and is now an ER Doctor.  I cannot imagine her working in any other capacity.  The song says it better than I ever could and I think anyone she treats should sing it to her: 

Because maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me

And after all, you're my wonderwall

Another Night by the Real McCoy

The Koelner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) is a sight to behold.  You truly cannot comprehend its splendor and height until you are standing right outside, craning your neck up...up...up.  It stands right outside the train station and as you approach, you catch a glimpse, but you literally cannot see the top until you ascend onto the plaza.  There are plenty of buildings that dwarf the Koelner Dom today, but imagine being the designer, in 1322, of this beauty that took well over 200 years to complete, with a 400 year pause until it was finally completed in 1880.  You never lived to see even a fraction of your masterpiece built.  Imagine that this masterpiece was built completely by hand with none of the safety, machinery, and technology available today.  It is a true testament of Catholicism and intimidation.  When you stand next to it, you feel the power of the church, which was entirely the point.  When I saw the Dom for the first time in the summer of 1993, I fell in love.  When I learned that our junior year class trip was to Koeln, I was thrilled!

There we were, 2 classes of German 16-17 year old students, and me, packed into a train, garnished with streamers.  Think school bus, but the actual Deutsche Bahn (German Railroad), aka public transporation.  We were all surprisingly well behaved and arrived in Koeln together and in one piece.  The field trip was a combination of chaperoned and unchaperoned events such as the theater, the art museum, and a trip to a brewery.  That alone speaks to how different this was from an American field trip, but also the freedom we were given throughout.  A few things stand out in my memory. The first was gathering in the famous Frueh Brauhaus (Brewery).  It was a group of boys from our class.... and me.  There was a toast made and it was sweet and I was happy.  There was also an unspoken contest called "Who will end up with the most Koelschglaeser (Koelsch glasses)".  To clarify, these are glasses we stole.  There are 26 varieties of Koelsch, which is a beer brewed in.... you guessed it, Koeln.  It is served in a 0.2ml glass and each variety has their own logo on the glass. The servings size is so cute and perfect, really a tasting.  They continue to serve you until you put your Bierdeckel (coaster, also branded) on top of your glass, indicating you are done.  I ended up with at least 3 glasses, all now sadly broken.

The other memory and purpose of today's story, is of scaling the Dom with my classmates.  There are 533 steps to the top and they wind up a circular staircase with no windows.  It's intense.  We came up with a song to entertain ourselves to the tune of a big hit of 1993:

Another stair, another step, but always down

It's like a vision of circle that seems to go round

Another stair, another step, but always down

In the Dom I think we'll reach the ground.

....And eventually we did!

Somewhere Now by Green Day

I was driving down 680, windshield wipers going, tears pouring down my face.  I was on my way to an appointment with a therapist and it probably wasn’t raining.  The rain simply adds to the drama of the situation, like any good country song, except that it wasn't a country song.  You get my point. 

I had recently ended things with the first steady relationship of sorts I had been in since my divorce.   I say “of sorts” because it wasn’t exclusive (at least for him), which I knew, and we weren’t meant to be in the long term, which I also knew, but it still hurt.  He behaved badly in the end and he later apologized and made up for things.  However in the moment, it really hurt and I did not take it well.  I was also very disappointed because he was supposed to go to the upcoming Green Day show with me and had booked an AirBnB.  It was going to be an epic show held at the UC Theatre, with a capacity of a mere 1,200 people.  I was going to get to see Green Day, in a very small venue, in a town where they wrote several songs.  I was honestly still in shock that I had managed to score the tickets. 

I had been listening to their new album on repeat in anticipation.  That’s how I found myself driving, tears pouring down my face, listening to Somewhere Now.  “I’m on my way to somewhere now…. I don’t want to be.  Where the future and promises … aren’t what it’s meant to be.  I never wanted to compromise or bargain with myself.”  In spite of my current state of misery, I was suddenly struck by the scene.  I could’ve been in a movie at that moment, blubbering and crying and singing in the car about such a sad, sad moment.  It was so very dramatic!  Our heroine sadly didn’t meet the man of her dreams in the waiting room of the therapist’s office… nor did she get pulled over and the handsome cop took pity on her.  She simply went to her appointment at the horrid Kaiser offices in Walnut Creek where she sat in a chair, not even a couch, an uncomfortable chair, and blubbered for about 45 minutes.  She then picked up the pieces of her life and kept going.  Or as the song says: "Hallelujah she found her soul under the sofa pillow!  Congratulations she found her self - Somewhere Now."  She also had the time of her life at the show.  Logan is the world’s best wing woman – together we pulled up our boots (over the knee for her, original Doc’s for me), let down our hair, and rocked out in the pit, close enough to see the band’s facial expressions.  Unforgettable night. 

The Humpty Dance by Digital Underground

"Alright stop what you're doing", I say to my children for not the first time today.  And just like that I am transported back to 7th grade, biting my tongue so I don't continue singing the wholly inappropriate lyrics.  Mind you, the lyrics were no less inappropriate for my 12-year old self.  It's a song about a guy with a big nose who has a lot of sex...in a lot of places....in a lot of positions.  My favorite lyric was about him having sex in a Burger King bathroom.  I'm thankful to say I honestly didn't understand most of the innuendo back then. I grew up naive and am forever grateful that I did.  What I did know was that the song was naughty.

What was even more shocking to me was watching my friend dance to it in my living room.  I remember standing there, mouth likely agape, watching my friend move around in a decidedly sexual and far too mature for us kind of way.  I honestly felt a little uncomfortable watching her because it just felt inappropriate.  I don't know where she learned it - her family didn't have a TV and this was well before the internet.  Perhaps she was already hanging around with older kids.   I don't think it was the actual Humpty Dance, which I can say now with authority because I just googled it.  I also googled "what came before twerking".  I am going to describe what she was doing for you as a combination of freaking and grinding.  To this day these are not dance moves I am capable of pulling off with any hint of seriousness.

Right around the time that song was very popular, I remember being in San Francisco on Pier 39 with my family or maybe on a school field trip.  My dad brags to me that he just saw the Humpty Hump guy.  He said you can't miss the nose.  It would've been a better sell if my dad had said he saw the guy coming out of a Burger King bathroom. Talk about a missed opportunity.  And also, it turns out the big nose was fake - he wore Groucho glasses as part of his alter ego.  Thinking back on all of this, I think it's probably highly unlikely that the Humpty Hump guy would've been wandering around Pier 39, of all places, dressed as his alter ego.  At the time though I chose to believe my dad was just that cool and a keen observer.  In fact, my dad was probably hoping I would go up to him and ask if it was really him. That's my dad's sense of humor in a nutshell.