Oh how I hate hold music.

Posted by random olio

How often do you call your cable company, or your credit card company and either have to listen to a zillion annoying little prompts to get to where you want to go, or you wait on the line for what feels like eternity only to listen to their hold music?

I can adamantly say that I have never once said to anyone: “Oh, xxxx company has the most amazing hold music.” Why is that? Why is waiting on hold to be helped so excruciatingly painful? Do they hope that most of us will hang up the phone out of boredom, anguish, and insanity and instead go online and send them an email? I try to do that as much as possible, but there are just certain things that need to be handled by a live person. I will give you a few examples:

_When your cable company (ahem, Comcast) continues to screw up your bill every month since you moved in 10 months ago. No email will ever be able to truly shed light on your true frustration, only duking it out with a live person will hopefully grant you the discounts and offers you deserve.

_Anything having to do with financial information, credit cards, and bank accounts should be handled online. Yes I am old school. I prefer a live person to mess up my account, then a live person behind an email. At least I can ask for my phone call to be escalated, and hopefully my phone call was “recorded for quality purposes.”

_You enjoy connecting with other people, making their day, and generally being the world’s nicest customer. I know a few people who fit that description, and they are the cream of the crop. If only we could have their patience.

I digress. This all started out being about hold music. I still do not understand why they have not invented hold music that connects you to Pandora or Spotify and lets you jam to your current selection. Maybe customer service representatives will find their customers happier, more patient, and generally not going insane by hearing the same song for the 37 minutes they waited on hold. Of course that song was interspersed with a few ads for lower interest rates, or how you could be saved money, with the additional message of how many other customers are in front of you in the queue.

#needmorepatience4holdmusic

Mumford? Um. Yeah.

Posted by random olio

Last week we had the opportunity to see Mumford & Sons in concert. We really only knew a few of their songs before we saw them, yet after an hour and a half we were converts. They are amazing musicians. It had been a while since we had been to a concert in a big venue with thousands of other people. They are not my cup of tea. I like the more intimate interaction with musicians when they are playing in a smaller venue.

I was impressed with the lead singer, Marcus Mumford, his unique sounding voice, and the endurance he had throughout the entire concert was astounding. It has been a long time since I have witnessed a true musician that you can tell in your bones is doing it for the love of the art, and the joy of the music. They were there to entertain, and I had a hunch that even though they have been touring in larger venues, that it had not gone to their heads. It felt genuinely big and real to them.

Last Sunday I did quite a bit of baking and cleaning in the kitchen (about the only things I do in the kitchen) and through the many hours, I had Mumford & Sons playing in the background. Their songs all have such variety, some make me dance and sing, others have a somber feel, and even others an eerie effect that stays with you. Seeing them in person made me respect them tenfold. Marcus might be playing the guitar and then run to the back and play the drums. The bass player might be playing then head back to the drums. A versatile and interesting team of musicians.

If you do not listen to Mumford & Sons, I definitely recommend taking the time to seek out their music, and if it interests you at all see them in concert. They are in the middle of their US tour. You probably already know “I Will Wait” and “Little Lion Man,” but be sure to listen to “Ghosts That We Knew,” “Whispers in the Dark,” and “Roll Away Your Stone.”

You will not regret it.

Transported by a song?

Posted by random olio

We listened to music in the kitchen a lot this weekend. A song came on Spotify and instantly I was transported to October 2012, while on a run in my new neighborhood. We had yet to fix our treadmill after our move so I instantly got to know the homes and street in our neighborhood. The song that was constantly repeating on my iPhone while I ran? “Shine bright like a diamond” by Rihanna. When I hear that song, I instantly think of moving into our new home.

As I mixed ingredients to make cookies, my mind started to wander to other moments in my life when a song was on repeat so much that a specific event always brings a song to my mind. I remembered a job I had almost 11 years ago. I was a recruiter at a staffing firm, and over and over was asked to lie to potential clients in order for the company to make the most money out of each placement. I would go to my car at lunch and cry. I would go home at the end of the day and cry. Honesty and integrity are the core of my identity, and I struggled so much to be me at this job. The song that was on repeat in my car, on the way to work, during lunch, and on my way home? “Clearest Indication” by Great Big Sea. Interesting that the title is Clearest Indication, could it be any clearer to me? Yes, it is about someone who has been left by another, but somehow I think it was what I needed to hear. I needed to leave, and I did.

Every time I hear the song “Always on my mind” by Pet Shop Boys, I think of my mom and my brother. I remember when my mom died in the hospital. On one day that week I was with my brother in his black Chevy Blazer and this was the song he had on repeat on his car CD player. If I remember correctly it was on repeat for weeks. I knew it was what he needed to hear as his heart ached at the loss of our mom. That song will always remind me of those days surrounding my mom’s death.

We all have songs that leave memories ingrained in our thoughts and hearts. It might have been the song playing when you met your life partner, or what you selected to play at your wedding, it might have been during that aha moment in your car when you made the decision of your life. Music impacts us sometimes in ways we do not even realize until we look back and ponder how we have been changed by it.

It’s Not a “Teenage Dream”

Posted by random olio

When I met my husband, I was not interested in dating. I was hard-core into women’s rights, had been burned multiple times by guys, and just was not sure men could be trusted. After spending many months working with Chris, I began to soften. He was a good one. A keeper. He was genuinely caring, patient, and trust worthy. I gradually began to break down my barriers, or to paraphrase the words of Katy Perry: “my walls came down.”

I am often known in my family for singing the wrong lyrics in songs. The other day I heard “Teenage Dream” on the radio and remembered how much I liked these three lines. I had to Google them to make sure I was hearing them right:

“You think I’m pretty without any make-up on
You think I’m funny when I tell the punch line wrong
I know you get me, so I let my walls come down, down”

These lines are me to a T. I really dislike make-up. Maybe I got it out of my system when I was a kid. My grandma use to let me put on her blush, blue eyeshadow, and usually some gross colored coral lipstick. She would allow me to leave the house with it on, and never laughed at me. She just let me do it. I probably had no idea of how gaudy (her word) I looked. She just let me feel pretty and run our errands with me existing in my make-believe world. Fast forward to high school and college and when it was a normal time to wear make-up and I was not interested. Had I already done that and did not care anymore? Or was it watching my mom put on foundation to cover the sickness that showed on her skin? At the time, I thought make-up and foundation was a cover-up, it meant you were hiding something. Either way, I have not ever had much interest in make-up and always wanted to feel pretty (not sure by whose standards) without any make-up on.

Just as I sing the wrong lyrics in songs, my brain is often going to fast that I tell a punch line wrong. My husband loves it. Just as mentioned in my blog last week about making up my own words, he will often alert me that I got the punch line wrong on a joke. He always tells me while laughing (usually with me laughing along too), and reminds me later of the joke.

Can you see these lyrics in Katy Perry’s song resonate with me? Thank you, Chris, for “getting me” and bringing my walls down!