I'm back from Thailand! The wedding was beautiful, the whole trip was aMAZing, so perfect, so much fun. Grace and Steve should get married every year in a different place. I'll write more about it later, but woke up a bit early this morning (hope it's not jet lag) and thought I'd try to finish this up. Didn't have time to do this before I left, obviously. I got home around midnight last night--was supposed to get back earlier, but had a few travel snags. Ending up stopping over in Taipei and Anchorage. Door to door, from hotel in Bangkok to my apartment, the trip took 30.5 hours. I don't know if Suzie made it back yet...we got separated in Bangkok, they put me on a flight to Taipei that was full, she hadn't gotten her new flight yet.
It's good to be back, the trip was a perfect length for me, but yeah, part of me still wishes I was swimming in the waters of Kata Beach at sunset again. Especially since it's cold and rainy in NYC.
17. Peter Gabriel - Here Comes the Flood
Geez, I thought I'd just whip through the last three songs, but this one is kinda heavy. I'm not going to go into too much detail, doesn't feel right to right now, but maybe I'll write more later. Basically, this song is appropriate thematically for last year: news-wise, I think Katrina dominated. This is also the song that was playing on my iPod the day I found out that my friend and former mentor/coworker Steve died. I found out that morning via all-employee email. Apparently he had been self-medicating a disease he had with alcohol, went on a last bender, and was found a few days earlier in a gutter in Boston with his organs failing. Steve was a dear friend, the guy in the office who knows everyone, likes everyone, and everyone likes. He was my first mentor at work, and was also my softball coach. He had an adorable son who he was crazy about, now 6 years old. It's tragic that alcoholism took this man's life, takes so many people's lives.
This song played that night after work as I was sitting on a bench outside of the Time and Life building after work, waiting for a friend to come meet me. I was feeling sad, and then this song came on and seemed to match my mood. I love how music does that.
18. The Shins - New Slang
I wanted to put a Yacht-rock song on here to represent the time I spent over at the 37th Street loft this year, but gee, don't own any true yacht rock, so I thought this song would do. This played on the speakers at the loft of few times. This one time it played, and as I often do, I pretended to know the words in order to sing along, but Jared actually does know all the words to this song. So this song reminds me of slow dancing drunk with Jared at the loft with him singing something about gulls taking to the wind.
This song also reminds me of my road trip with a fellow children's book editor Nancy up to the Poconos for a writer's conference. We rented a car, brought music, talked the whole way. I brought the Garden State soundtrack. It was a fabulous time.
19. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
I already blogged about this song here:
http://alvinaling.blogs.friendster.com/i_probably_wont_post_a_lo/2005/10/beyond_the_yell.html
Okay, whew, year-end wrap-up is finally done. Let me know if you want a CD. And as I've said, there are many more memories than this. All my traveling, all my friends who got married this year (I still owe most of you gifts...you'll get them soon, I promise!), crazy adventures with old and new friends, family reunions, visits from friends and family. I hope this year is as fulfilling, eye-opening, and fun as last year--if the Thailand trip is any indication (man oh man), it promises to be. For those of you still out there traveling, have fun and be safe.
17. Peter Gabriel - Here Comes the Flood
Geez, I thought I'd just whip through the last three songs, but this one is kinda heavy. I'm not going to go into too much detail, doesn't feel right to right now, but maybe I'll write more later. Basically, this song is appropriate thematically for last year: news-wise, I think Katrina dominated. This is also the song that was playing on my iPod the day I found out that my friend and former mentor/coworker Steve died. I found out that morning via all-employee email. Apparently he had been self-medicating a disease he had with alcohol, went on a last bender, and was found a few days earlier in a gutter in Boston with his organs failing. Steve was a dear friend, the guy in the office who knows everyone, likes everyone, and everyone likes. He was my first mentor at work, and was also my softball coach. He had an adorable son who he was crazy about, now 6 years old. It's tragic that alcoholism took this man's life, takes so many people's lives.
This song played that night after work as I was sitting on a bench outside of the Time and Life building after work, waiting for a friend to come meet me. I was feeling sad, and then this song came on and seemed to match my mood. I love how music does that.
18. The Shins - New Slang
I wanted to put a Yacht-rock song on here to represent the time I spent over at the 37th Street loft this year, but gee, don't own any true yacht rock, so I thought this song would do. This played on the speakers at the loft of few times. This one time it played, and as I often do, I pretended to know the words in order to sing along, but Jared actually does know all the words to this song. So this song reminds me of slow dancing drunk with Jared at the loft with him singing something about gulls taking to the wind.
This song also reminds me of my road trip with a fellow children's book editor Nancy up to the Poconos for a writer's conference. We rented a car, brought music, talked the whole way. I brought the Garden State soundtrack. It was a fabulous time.
19. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
I already blogged about this song here:
http://alvinaling.blogs.friendster.com/i_probably_wont_post_a_lo/2005/10/beyond_the_yell.html
Okay, whew, year-end wrap-up is finally done. Let me know if you want a CD. And as I've said, there are many more memories than this. All my traveling, all my friends who got married this year (I still owe most of you gifts...you'll get them soon, I promise!), crazy adventures with old and new friends, family reunions, visits from friends and family. I hope this year is as fulfilling, eye-opening, and fun as last year--if the Thailand trip is any indication (man oh man), it promises to be. For those of you still out there traveling, have fun and be safe.
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