The Pink Shoe Diaries

In my opinion, the best thing ever (except for the fact that in my dream last night it was Monday so when I woke up I thought it was Tuesday and was SO happy to realize halfway through my shower that it is, in fact, FRIDAY) is when you re-buy an album from your youth. One you used to own and listened to so much that it basically wore out, and that somehow between then and now you gradually grew out of and forgot about. Then one day you hear a song, or a snatch of conversation that reminds you of it and you immediately Must Have It Again.

There are several albums for me that fit this description. The one I am talking about today is Indigo Girls "Rites of Passage".



When I was 14, and a senior at overnight camp, everyone had this album and everyone was always singing songs from it. I had never even heard Indigo Girls but by the end of the month I knew many of their songs by heart just from hearing other girls singing them. For Christmas that year my parents bought me that album and for that whole year I think that is probably all I listened too. The song "Ghost" was like my angst-ridden teen anthem about loving and losing, although at the time I had never been in love but that song made me feel like I had been.

And that year, all my girlfriends and I had these blank journals we called "Nothing books" and we would fill them up with quotes and song lyrics and you better believe 1/2 of these Nothing Books were page after page of Indigo Girl songs.

Later that year 1200 Curfews came out, a double disc album that had some of the songs from Rites of Passage as well as some new ones I had never heard of but soon came to love. And you know when I think about 10th grade (it was not the best year ever because my sent me to private school that year to escape the "bad influence" of public schools, meanwhile I didn't ever do (or even SEE) a drug or drink booze until i went to private school), all of the good times somehow involve listening to the Indigo Girls. Sitting at my friend Kate's house with a bunch of my girlfriends, eating chicken salad sandwiches from Bueggars, gossiping and leafing through magazines; driving down Route 3 in my friend Matt's convertible (who was nice enough to always let me blast whatever music I wanted); play practice late at night huddled in the corner with a radio and the rest of the "Chorus"doing homework/totally not doing that at all.

My point is, Indigo Girls for me have always been associated with awesome memories, never mind the fact that they are two of the best songwriters and classical guitar players around. So the other day when I was at work and "Least Complicated" came across my yahoo streaming music, I knew what I had to do and that night I went out and bought myself "Retrospective" (they didn't have 1200 curfews OR Rites of Passage, but as a "Best Of" kind of album, Retrospective is pretty kickass). And let me tell you, my commute the past few days has been SO much better when I have "Kid Fears" and "Power of Two" to sing along with.

If you are not familiar with Indigo Girls, I highly suggest you go and download some songs right now. My favorites are Ghost, Prince of Darkness, Mystery (esp. the live version) and Kid Fears. But really I think I love them all.