chosen chaos

You can find Babe’s pre­vi­ous entries here.

I have a gift for you!  I’m so pumped about this offer­ing that I’m forc­ing an out of order post – and you know how our host loves break­ing sched­ules….  So here it is, a song list (see end of post).  But not just any song list, it comes with directions. 

1.  Stop (seri­ously, freeze).
2.  Read the list.   
3.  Don’t judge. 
4.  Imme­di­ately down­load each song. 
5.  Put them on a play list in this exact order. 
6.  Gather your kids (age is unim­por­tant). 
7.  Press play. 
8.  Start danc­ing (no moves required). 
9.  Thank me.
10.  Repeat.

Some con­text….  I woke up this morn­ing rough around the edges, due to Friday’s irre­spon­si­ble over-​​consumption with friends and fam­ily (col­lege bas­ket­ball was the excuse, not that one is typ­i­cally required).  So when my wife announced she was head­ing out the door for morn­ing box­ing, I was still in my PJs (box­ers and the shirt from the night before) with hair disheveled and the cof­fee flow­ing fast and furi­ous.  To be frank, my ini­tial thought was “how in the hell am I going to sur­vive the next 2 hours with these 4 won­der­ful kiddies?” 

And then, like a gift from the music and hang­over gods (a pow­er­ful sub-​​committee, chaired by our dear friend Molly, I dis­cov­ered a CD in the kitchen titled “Spring 2012, JNW”.  I froze (see direc­tion No. 1).  I did not judge (No. 2).  I pressed play (No. 6).  MAGIC.  I was imme­di­ately sold with a smooth ver­sion of Sun­day Morn­ing, which inspired me to clean the kitchen for my wife (that’s going in the “good deeds” book).  The whole time I was danc­ing like a com­plete fool and my girls were watch­ing intently while fin­ish­ing their bananas and milk.  They felt it.  They were bob­bing their heads.  They wanted in. 

Once the kitchen was clean, it trans­formed into a dance club for one stinky, 33-​​year-​​old man, two boys with moves that required them to spin on the floor (a lot), and of course the princesses.  I slow danced with my girls.  At one point, Princess B laid her head down on my shoul­der and almost fell asleep.  Princess A got the next slow dance (not to a slow dance song).  She laughed hys­ter­i­cally at the turns and crazy arm move­ments.  Next, all three of us danced on the floor, while the boys danced around us.  THIS WENT ON FOR ALL 17 TRACKS.  No skip­ping.  We pre­tended to be a band to Cold­play.  We pre­tended to be 15-​​year-​​old girls to Miley Cyrus.  What didn’t need “pre­tend­ing” was the pure joy we all felt in shar­ing this time together.  It ended up as one of the best morn­ings of my life.  Strong state­ment.  I mean it. 

Here is the exact text I sent to my wife when track 17 finally played out:  “I don’t know who is respon­si­ble for the CD mix play­ing in our kitchen, I sup­pose its you or Mol, but THANK YOU!!  We (the 4 + dad) just started all 17 songs over again.  I’ve break danced with my boys, slow danced with my girls, and gen­er­ally used at least one Dave Matthews dance move with every song.  This was one of the best morn­ings of my life, the mix had me at Sun­day Morn­ing.  And we never had to skip songs!  Yeahhhhhhhh!” 

Can you feel the energy?  Go get your­self some…. 

The List:

1.  Sun­day Morn­ing, Maroon 5
2.  Not Your Fault, Awol­na­tion
3.  Christ­mas Lights, Cold­play 
4.  Brighter Than The Sun, Col­bie Cail­lat 
5.  Blow Away, A Fine Frenzy
6.  Shake It Out, Flo­rence + The Machine
7.  Some­body That I Used To Know, Gotye fea­tur­ing Kim­bra
8.  Maybe, Ingred Michael­son
9.  Beau­ti­ful World (We’re All Here), Jim Brick­man fea­tur­ing Adam Cross­ley
10.  Time To Pre­tend, MGMT
11.  Party In The USA, Miley Cyrus
12.  What The Water Gave Me, Flo­rence + The Machine
13.  Unthought Known, Pearl Jam
14.  Fidelity, Regina Spek­tor
15.  Oxford Comma, Vam­pire Week­end
16.  Give Me Every­thing, Pit­bull fea­tur­ing Ne-​​Yo, Afro­jack, and Nayer
17.  Life in Tech­ni­color II, Coldplay

Bonus Track (I’m an even num­ber guy):

18.  Amer­i­can Music, Vio­lent Femmes

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