Grace #7: '80's Music

By now it's probably a cliche, the late-thirty-something woman listening to her '80s music and teasing up her bangs. I don't care. I love '80s music. My favorite songs at the gym are all the '80s songs. I listen to '80s music on the radio and through my cable TV at home. I can't decide if the music is really more attractive to me or if it's the incredible sense of familiarity I have whenever I hear it. Like many teens in the '80s I logged hours listening to my clock radio. I patiently waited for the DJ to announce when the song would be played, held my tape recorder just so close to the radio and groaned with frustration when the DJ talked over the music thus destroying my perfect recording. I don't know where any of those tapes are anymore. I imagine there's probably a box in my mom's attic that contains carefully lettered tapes detailing all the songs for that week, month, decade. I imagine on those tapes there are probably other things as well: my mom calling me for dinner and my irritated reply "Mo-om! I'm trying to make a tape!" or one of my brothers banging on my bedroom door and the sound of me striking them as Boy George croons "do you really want to hurt me?" My baby sister asking me a question while the Go-Gos insist that their lips are sealed.

Steve is around college kids all day, so he is way more hip than me (does using the word 'hip' kind of prove that?) and my daughter hasn't ever met a Jonas Brothers or Cheetah girls song she didn't like, but me, I'm loyal.

And I'll always party like it's 1999.