Green Day mood

I have been in a kind of funk lately. I think this less-than-good-mood was brought on by a number of factors, including job boredom, frustration with weight loss, desire for financial stability, etc. I have analyzed this mood and the possible reasons for it for the past month or so. Last night I realized that I had overlooked one very important possible component.

I was driving to BH's house with my moon-roof open and the newest Green Day album (American Idiot--awesome, by the way) blaring when I realized that I don't really listen to music anymore. I listen to a talk-radio station (or NPR) in the morning on my way to work; I listen to another talk-radio program on my home from work, and I listen to the television when I get home. Somehow, I have managed to obliterate music from all parts of my life. My closest encounter with a melody comes when I'm on hold and subjected to elevator tunes. Maybe this musical oversight has something to do with my lack of peppiness. Science has established that a lack of sunshine can cause depression... maybe a lack of music can do the same.

Some of my happiest teenage moments, the moments I felt most free, were driving aimlessly in deep-unpopulated-west Texas with (forgive me for this) Ace of Base or Concrete Blondes or Green Day's Kerplunk booming through my cheap 1992 Cavalier speakers. Something about the pounding of the chorus and the acceleration of the car came together to make all my worries slip away along with my hearing. How could I have forgotten that long-ago feeling of freedom? How could I have forgotten that I can get lost in guitar riffs and feel my pulse race when a drum solo shakes the car? For a moment last night, while listening to a Green Day album that brought me back to my years of high school, I remembered. And for that moment, I was happy. Truly, freely, teenage-kind of happy.

I'm going to strive to re-introduce music into my daily life. I have a feeling that I need it as much as I need the sunshine. And if by some miracle of the blogging world Green Day ever sees this... thanks.