Whole Lotta Love

I live in a musical house. I have my violin. Mike has his guitar. One of us is usually playing our respective instrument at some point on any given evening. And some nights, we'll play together. Not actually together, not as in we know and rehearse songs together. We will each play our own instrument and our own music in a different room. It's a real treat for our neighbors. Bach and Led Zeppelin at the same time!

Mike is a lot better about just picking up his guitar and playing than I am with my violin. His instrument is always sitting in the open in our second bedroom/computer room, whereas mine lives tucked away under our bed. I am not usually surprised when I'm watching TV, brushing my teeth or loading the dishwasher to hear his strumming a room away.

I know most of the songs in his repertoire, but every once in a while he'll surprise me. A few months ago I was vacuuming in the living room and could see him strumming away and singing in the bedroom. I turned off the vacuum and heard he was singing a little ditty called "Amy is Vacuuming." You may not have heard it before so let me tell you how it goes.

Amy is vacuuming. (high chord)
Amy is vacuuming. (low chord)
Amy is vacuuming. (high chord)
Amy is vacuuming. (low chord)

Catchy. I'm sure you'll be singing it all day.

I often try to make jokes at Mike's expense for having grown up in Texas because really, that's all I've got. He constantly makes fun of Michigan knowing by doing so he's demeaning where I'm from. Since Mike was quite the nomad in his youth, I gravitate to Texas being it was the place he spent a considerable amount of his formative years.

Tonight as we were squabbling over some little insignificant nothing, I went to my old throwback and called him a hick from Texas. "Oh yeah," he said. "Well Texas is doing better than any other state these days. Unlike that Michigan."

And then he proceeded to sing me a song called "Shitter Michigan."

When his song was over, I complained the he's always mean, and he's the meanest of the mean meanies and why does he have to be so mean. So he said he'd sing a song about whatever I wanted. I requested a song about how I'm so pretty and how much he loves Oscar. Then he very sweetly sang me a song about how my eyes are so blue and how I'm the girl for him, but I have this cat, and he's oh so fat. And his name is Oscar. But he never once mentioned how much he loved Oscar.

Songwriting may not be his greatest talent, but at least he's honest.