I’ve been delayed with my posts over the holidays. For that, I apologize. But hey!! It’s a new year!

This year I am pretty resolute about my resolutions – I made none. I have made resolutions of some kind every year since I can remember and as they don’t typically stick, I decided to try something different by simply ringing in 2015 as it was.

Clifford and I found ourselves playing a hand of two-player Euchre while watching the old ball drop. Again, I’m trying to think a little differently this time around. Perhaps not being as celebratory while 2014 came to a close will be far more fruitful than a silly list of declarations that get lost in the shuffle of day to day life a few weeks into the New Year. We shall see. That said, I still want to wish everyone out there all the best in 2015! May it be the ultimate year yet!

Moving into the New Year, I’ve spent the last few weeks bombarded with year-end retrospectives, Best-of-2014 lists, and other various nostalgic throw-backs to days gone by. Though inundated by music and media ad nauseam, I found myself inspired.

Now I was never that musically savvy. I myself can’t carry a tune. I never attended many concerts or bought that many cassettes or CDs. Movies were much more my thing. That said, I was a child born in the 70s (1979 does count as being born in the 70s), raised in the 80s, and living her teen angst-ridden years in the 90s… I’d forgotten how formative music was for me at one time and how some of the greatest music ever produced had emerged from those decades.

In fact, I’d gotten away from music almost altogether over the last ten years or so. Sure, it might have been on in the background while I was driving or on in the classroom when I was teaching, but I haven’t really been listening to the music. I tuned out when I was tuned in. It was white noise.

In the last several weeks, though, I’ve been listening again. I’ve been listening to the radio shows do their little flashbacks to whenever and almost every time a tune has played from my past, I’ve been completely transported. I know they say smell is the strongest memory trigger, but these songs of my youth have me remembering moments that have been long since forgotten. Okay, maybe not that long. I am only 35.

I’ve been remembering silly snippets and meaningful moments that I haven’t thought about in years. These flashbacks are fabulous. Even the sad songs have me smiling because enough years have now passed that time has healed whatever hurt way back when. Again, I’ve been inspired.

I have been inspired to find 365 songs that remind me of people I’ve met, moments I’ve shared, thoughts I’ve had through the years. I want to find 365 songs that trigger some sort of recollection, vivid or vague, over the last 30 odd years of my life.  This is not a resolution but rather an exploration – a challenge, really. We will see where it goes.

Music played a larger role in my life than I’d remembered or probably even cared to admit. Now it’s time to go back and appreciate all of those tiny (and not so tiny) no-take-backs set to the unexpected soundtrack of classic rock, pop and grunge music (with a little bit of The Beatles and 50s doo-wop sprinkled into the mix).

What songs take you back? Where do they take you? 

To kick things off – a 90s classic …