Music is one of the essentials of living, right up there with books. It’s probably one of the most overt emotional manipulators I can think of. I turned on the radio after dropping my daughter at school the other morning. I wasn’t particularly down or upset about anything, but when Spriral Staircase singing More Today Than Yesterday came on–how can you NOT turn it up really loud and smile? It’s an instant mood booster that brings back memories of shagging with my daughter at a beach restaurant on Tybee Island and keg parties on Friday afternoons at UGA. :hehe:

I used to require absolute quiet to write but in the last year or so, I’ve gotten to the point that I really need the music on when I’m writing. I know some writers put together sound tracks for particular books. I don’t do that, but there always seems to be a selection of cd’s that wind up staying in my cd player for the duration of a book. The down side to that is there are certain songs that just make you want to get up and dance– Sting’s Brand New Day, Steve Winwood’s Spanish Dancer, DMB’s Crash Into Me. Fun for me–pretty frightening for my neighbors. :O

Embarrasing to admit that I got an MP3 player for Christmas and have only managed to download one cd onto it. The instructions that came with it are lousy and I’m lousy at following instructions–not a stellar combination. So, I run to the same cd every time I go out. I have a Pavolovian response now to DMB’s Listener Supported, cd one. I hear it, I think I need to break into a run. Luckily, I have no pride and admitted my technological ineptness at the soccer fields yesterday. The 12-year old brother of one of my daughter’s team mates is going to teach me how to use it at the next practice. Humiliating? Only a tad, but as I said, it’s a good thing I have no pride. :doze: