I have to confess that I’m absolutely fried today after a high-energy weekend of wedding planning. I’ve taken to referring to it as my second job—my days spent as a cog in the wheel that is PresbyLand, my nights and weekends taken by such tasks as discussing which florist to hire and tying 140 little ribbons into knots. Who knew printing on vellum paper could be so hard? Why the heck won’t our baker return my phone call??

But on my way home last night from David’s parents, the song “Unbelievable” came on the radio. You remember it? It is probably an early 1990s song, although I don’t know the artist. I think Major League Baseball used it in a commercial for several years.

Perhaps that’s why I always think of Ken Griffey, Jr. when I hear it. Griffey was the beloved center fielder of the Seattle Mariners in the 1990s, before he defected to the Cincinnati Reds, in, say, 1998? That was when Seattle had some of the premier players in the American League—that Yankee sellout Alex Rodriguez was a number one draft pick for the M’s back then, Griffey was captaining the ship, and of course, Randy Johnson was freaking batters out with “Mr. Snappy.” So when I heard “Unbelievable” on the radio last night, it took me back to days when the height of happiness was a trip to the “Concrete Monstrosity,” the Kingdome, when the first sign of spring was after-school softball practice.

Songs mark epochs in our lives, really, record the mood of the times. Why do you think the Forrest Gump soundtrack was so popular with our parents’ generation? I don’t know what people will say about our times, looking at some of the junk played on the radio today (perhaps we just don’t hear the junk from the 1960s and 1970s—maybe it has been relegated to some back closet, only to be drug out on Christmas Day… wait, that’s Christmas pop music). But I know that I always think of my freshman year of high school when I hear Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979,” eating an entire box of Cheese-Its with Kendroid as the band bus drove over to Seattle for the state basketball tournament. Or of Casey and I trekking over the Rocky Mountains and across the Great Plains in the ‘Stang when I hear Jason Mraz. And although David will hate this, I think of the heady first days of our acquaintance when I hear Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love.”

As for NNPCW, I’m not sure what song will trigger memories of you all—it isn’t like “Humna” is a huge radio hit. But one day in church, singing “Be Thou My Vision” or the like, I think I’ll send a warm fuzzy thought your way.

“For every matter has its time and way, although the troubles of mortals lie heavy upon them.” --Ecclesiastes 8:6

Kelsey