If variety is the spice of life, then routine is the condiment of quarantine. Really I just said that for the alliteration. Routine is actually essential, but "habit is the protein of the quarantine meal" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Every morning, I wake up and follow approximately the same routine. Make bed. Do teeth. Make tea. I pull up the shades, hoping for some morning sunlight, and I sit at my dining table. Then I start The Playlist.
Over the past 36 days*, I have developed a Spotify playlist called "every day" that I listen to--you guessed it--every day.
It starts with a Mama Cass song called "Make Your Own Kind of Music." That is the song that was playing in LOST the first time we saw Desmond in his bunker. In mid-March, I decided I wanted to listen to that song, and then I decided I wanted to listen to it again. And again. Then I started thinking about other songs that related to this experience of being by myself during a worldwide pandemic. Some are obvious, such as Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" and REM's "It's the End of the World As We Know It."
Over weeks, the playlist grew into The Playlist. Each song is there for a particular reason. Some remind me of travel. I recall to Blondie's "The Tide is High" repeatedly on the Salt Flats of Bolivia because it was the only tape our driver had. I sang along to "Brand New Key" on a cross-country road trip. Some are there for no particular reason than providing comfort. All of them bear listening to over and over. I add or delete occasionally, but I rarely change the order. And as of this past week "Movin' Right Along" by the Muppets is the final song to launch me into the day.
I've thought a lot about why I listen to these same songs in the same order every morning, and I haven't quite figured out the answer. It seems as though it would be dull to do so. As it is, there is so much repetition each day, but I look forward to this chunk of time when I am planning my day and singing along to some songs I like while sipping tea.
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Looks like other people have their own Sally the Scallion.
*Honest to God, I wrote "years" the first time I wrote this.
Every morning, I wake up and follow approximately the same routine. Make bed. Do teeth. Make tea. I pull up the shades, hoping for some morning sunlight, and I sit at my dining table. Then I start The Playlist.
Over the past 36 days*, I have developed a Spotify playlist called "every day" that I listen to--you guessed it--every day.
It starts with a Mama Cass song called "Make Your Own Kind of Music." That is the song that was playing in LOST the first time we saw Desmond in his bunker. In mid-March, I decided I wanted to listen to that song, and then I decided I wanted to listen to it again. And again. Then I started thinking about other songs that related to this experience of being by myself during a worldwide pandemic. Some are obvious, such as Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" and REM's "It's the End of the World As We Know It."
Over weeks, the playlist grew into The Playlist. Each song is there for a particular reason. Some remind me of travel. I recall to Blondie's "The Tide is High" repeatedly on the Salt Flats of Bolivia because it was the only tape our driver had. I sang along to "Brand New Key" on a cross-country road trip. Some are there for no particular reason than providing comfort. All of them bear listening to over and over. I add or delete occasionally, but I rarely change the order. And as of this past week "Movin' Right Along" by the Muppets is the final song to launch me into the day.
I've thought a lot about why I listen to these same songs in the same order every morning, and I haven't quite figured out the answer. It seems as though it would be dull to do so. As it is, there is so much repetition each day, but I look forward to this chunk of time when I am planning my day and singing along to some songs I like while sipping tea.
---
Looks like other people have their own Sally the Scallion.
*Honest to God, I wrote "years" the first time I wrote this.
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