been thinking...

“Raining in Baltimore” - Counting Crows

I think we both know you’re going to mock me for this one.

But seriously, take off your snob hat for five minutes and just listen to this one again.  It’s surprisingly earnest and so sweetly quiet and…restless. It’s just terrific.

Once I had a high school boyfriend named Rob, who wore a long black skirt and Cure t-shirts and combat boots.  He had crazy, kinky black hair that fell around his face in this effortless wave of cool and I was nuts for him. Well, for the idea of him…and the way he quoted Thoreau and Morrissey in letters. I met him at summer camp and he lived three hours away. The last time we spoke, in the fall, I think, we were arguing over the phone…and I remember lying on my back, twisting that old rubber yellow cord of the phone and he said, after a enormous sigh, “Look, Molly….”

As my name is not in fact Molly, I hung up in fit of indignation.  I think he wrote a letter after that, but by then my friend Amanda had already told me he HAD in fact been flirting with a girl named Molly who worked at the roller rink and knew all the best indie bands.  That’s hard to top, people.

My mom bought me a used bass guitar and a crackly old amp and encouraged me to turn my anger into art.  I think I learned to play “Little Brown Jug”. Which is not very rock and roll.

But dumb old Rob did put this song on a mix tape for me once and so he is good for that. Also, it was kind of fun kissing a guy in a skirt.