Color Me Impressed

Minneapolis at night

Originally uploaded by jpnuwat

This town, this city, this crowd
Stand up on your feet, put your worry down
And everyone of you all around
Come on y’all, lets take this town
Lets take this town

Freeway driving at night is refreshingly calming sometimes. Tonight, the smell of the almost-rain was absolutely hypnotic. Windows down, music blaring, Minnesota night air twirling in and out of my car. You know that almost-rain smell, right? Some mixture of water and grass and earth and wind… and dirt.

Maybe it’s the dirt.

So these senses, these smells, these feelings coursed through my veins as that song came on.

For the last two hours, my mind had been racing with all sorts of happycrazyhighfeeling and this realization that had FINALLY set in:

Miranda is getting married NEXT SATURDAY. My little sister, my PCK, my Sly, my Irish twin.

Married. Next week. To an absolutely amazing man. I couldn’t have hand-picked a better brother-in-law.

They’ve been together for three years – we’ve known they’d get married for just about all three of those. They’ve been engaged since Thanksgiving. This just all seemed natural. This is no surprise.

Tonight, when she offhandedly mentioned the music that would be playing during the processional and the order of the people walking down – it hit me.

Little sister’s getting married.

And then I got all proud and happy and sappy. And then we ate our grilled pizzas, drank our wines and beers, and then we all left.

And then I drove home.

I have to be honest, I have a lot of these *moments* when I drive back into the city at night like this. There’s always just the right song playing, the weather’s always just perfect, and my mood is always just reflective enough.

Tonight was no different except it was like every other of those nights on steroids.

The song quoted above (OAR, “This Town”) came on, and I cried. Not like cry cried, but yeah. Something hit me. I was overwhelmed for so many good reasons: my family, love, friends, the ability to travel right now as much as I am and as much as I can, my life right now, the new people I’ve met, the old friends I have.

The old friends I have.

I texted him at some point on my way home, knowing he was still working, but hoping on some off-chance he wasn’t. I just wanted that connection, but I drove on.

This night, this city, this crowd…

So I let myself have that moment. Let myself ask myself how did it get this good. Let myself ignore the reality that it won’t always be. Inhaling the almost-rain smell and the early night air.

When the song ended, and I decided I’d had enough of my moment, I switched the station. The Current had just ended one song and was beginning another.

I’d never heard the song before, but I recognized the guitar.

I recognized the drum beats. Only one band I know sounds like that.

And as soon as that voice uttered those first few words, I laughed out loud, and in a BIG, hearty, life-is-overflowing-right-now kind of way.

Paul Westerberg, your timing, your beautiful voice that melts me every single time, your presence tonight was absolutely PERFECT.

Color. Me. Impressed.

Music has a way of making me crazy. Good crazy, but absolutely crazy. When the right song comes on at the right moment under the right circumstances, I get goosebumps.

When song after song after song and weather and thought and mood accurately becomes the soundtrack and the backdrop of my life at that moment? I get positively crazy.