199 Days - Copperhead Road

Today I woke up feeling tired and grumpy after another night of being cuddled and licked by our kitten, Clyde. I tried very early in the evening to put he and his sister, Bonnie, out of our bedroom. This plan never works because they always manage to get back into the bedroom to remind us that they require love and attention at 3 am. On this particular evening, putting them out was a particularly bad idea. Apparently, Clyde did a broad jump onto the kitchen counter last night and jumped into an open cupboard (our mistake) and decided the muffin cups and napkins needed to be on the floor. It was a nice surprise that was waiting for me in the kitchen this morning. For those of you that have met my little Angel of Menace, you can see that it is difficult to stay mad at him He is fluffy and has tufts in his ears, which make him one of the most adorable kittens alive. Also, the cupboard was left open by us and Clyde is a very talented vertical jumper (I am thinking of sending him to the NFL Combine. He would do quite well.), which is a bad combination and we should have known better. So after cleaning my kitchen at 7:30 am, I kissed Sam goodbye, pet the Angels of Menace, turned on my iPod, and set off for work.


Normally, this kind of morning would set the tone for the rest of the day, but thankfully, my iPod came to the rescue. . .





In an instant, I first heard the bagpipes and it was then I knew that my day would get better. It was Copperhead Road by Steve Earle.  Some songs just turn your day around and this song is a very good example of such a song. 

Copperhead Road is extremely special to me. From 7th grade until my senior year of high school, the girls’ gym class line danced for a month every winter. For those of you that know me and my girlfriends from home, you would recognize that this particular month was usually quite awesome. We loved line dancing and most often upon mastering a certain dance, we would always try to “improve” it somehow by adding leaps and twirls. In the case of Copperhead Road, we danced it “River Dance” style and it quickly became one of our favorites. This meant we required our gym teacher, Ms. G, to play it during every gym class. I had gym class every day my senior year. If you do that math, that’s A LOT of line dancing and a lot of Copperhead Road.

Since high school, my girlfriends and I have remained very close. We have shared in each other’s highs and lows, weddings and graduations, buying homes, and moving across the country. We don’t see each other as often as we would like, but we make an effort to be there for each other, both in person and in spirit, during the big and small events in our lives. On particular joyous occasions when a DJ, band, or iPod is present (e.g. our weddings), we require our song to be played. It has been nine years since our senior year of high school, but we still know the steps to Copperhead Road, and we have danced it together at each of our weddings, “River Dance” style, of course. Like the father-daughter/mother-son dance, dancing to Copperhead Road is a special way that my girlfriends celebrate each other and our friendship, which now spans 23 years! I love my girlfriends and I feel blessed to have them in my life. It is memories of us that can turn a day that started off pretty lousy and turn it into one where my face hurts from smiling.

With that being said, I am not sure at what point Copperhead Road will play during Sam’s and my wedding reception, but it will most definitely be there!
P.S. For those of you that don’t know how Sam and I met, we were introduced after Sam’s friends started cheering for my sister and me while we danced to Copperhead Road. . . It’s just one of those things. :-)