Music for Mother and Me

When mom was visiting, we took atrip over to the library and checked out 20 CDs, everything from Madame Butterfly to Loretta Lynn. I now have the job of copying them and mailing them to her. She did the same thing when visiting with my brother. In fact, this has been going on for about a year. When my brother was visiting her, he took her to buy a new VCR and she said she wanted a CD player also. She bought 2 or 3 CDs and has not looked back. I have no idea from where this interest in music has sprung, but I'm all for it. I took it upon myself to nurture this and copied a few things I thought she would enjoy. Now she makes requests, I try to find them through the library system, copy them and mail them to her. She even bought herself a portable CD player which she keeps on her night table for when she has trouble sleeping. We found this case for a CD player and about a dozen CDs in the basement and offered it to her and she was so happy. Now she can take her music with her when she travels. As happy as I am that she is enjoying all this music, it is difficult to fathom. I think my parents had about 10 record albums in the house when I was growing up, and I played them far more often than they did. I didn't care what I was listening to, I just played them and learned to appreciate them all, from Tchaikovsky's piano concertos to Man of LaMancha. If she had any computer savvy, I would buy her an iPod! That would be a hoot.
Yesterday I endulged my own music habit on iTunes. Those Apple people got it right. It is so easy to explore and buy music. I ended up buying a mix of old and new. Here's what I added to my playlist:
Taylor -- Jack Johnson (Live)
Better Way-- Ben Harper
Tom's Diner-- Suzanne Vega
We Belong, Promises in the Dark, Love is a Battlefield-- Pat Benatar
Take on Me-- a-ha
Cruel to be Kind-- Nick Lowe
Ain't Nobody-- Chaka Khan
Everything Falls Apart-- Dog's Eye View
As I Lay Me Down, Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover-- Sophie Hawkins

BTW, I ran 4.5 miles today indoors. I got tired of waiting for the weather to improve so I went to the gym and got on the hamster wheel, uhhhh, I mean treadmill. Got it done. A few minutes after I got home a friend called looking for someone with whom to share a big pot of vegetarian chili. How lucky am I? I made the salad and the rice and prepared some "mix-ins" (cilantro, cheese, scallions), found half a bottle of wine and we had a wonderful dinner.