Tradition

It's sort of funny how really little things in our lives can bring us an enormous amount of satisfaction if we let them.

When I bought my first laptop probably eight or nine years ago, one of my very favorite things became to make CD's. Not just for other people but for road trips and holidays and different moods. I have playlists still hanging around with titles like "Summer Jam Cam" that I did for a friend and "Late Night Summer Listening in the Dark" that was clearly meant for a very specific moment.

Well I got a beautiful MacBook Air before I moved to Boston and the only thing those sexy little things are missing is a disk drive. So my CD making days kind of died. I would still use my old one occasionally for a "congrats on your baby!" mix here and there but my days of "saturday in July" or "Welcome to my brain" musical intros for boys I was falling for pretty much dried up.

So Saturday I was running around getting ready to go to the movies with the cute girls I had talked into getting dressed up and I kept skipping around looking for super peppy songs in my iTunes. And then I realized! New baby iMac can burn CD's!!! So I did a little happy dance and picked out 18 uppers and burned five copies to give to the ladies. It was really fun when later that night both Heather and Amanda were tweeting about how much they liked were enjoying their soundtracks.

Then last night, a friend sent out a great My Morning Jacket song I hadn't heard and it made me want to put together a playlist. I mentioned to him that I had been inspired and his reply of "I wouldn't say no to a copy" has got me sitting here tonight fiddling with the order and making a few substitutions before I send it off.

I know I could just zip the files and email it to him but there is still something so fun about getting a CD in the mail and listening to it in the order someone carefully thought out. My sister still does fall mixes and Coop does a Valentine's Day mix and they consistently rank as some of my very favorite compilations.

It's pretty simple but such a pleasure that I'm delighted to be back at it. And in celebration, I'll gladly send a copy of "Bridesmaid Day" and "Haunted" to the two people who first request them : )

EDIT: If you want a CD, I'm happy to send more than two. Tell me which playlist.