All day today I’ve had that Kenny Loggins song stuck in my head: Meet me halfway / Across the sky… Mind you, I haven’t had the verses there, just that chorus. All day.

Walking up the stairs to my classroom in the morning, unthawing: Meet me halfway. Rushing to the bathroom between classes so I don’t have to pee in the middle of class: Across the sky. Making copies before lunch: Up where the world belongs to only you and I.

During lunch: “I have had this cheesy 80s song stuck in my head all day!”
Colleagues: “what song? She drives me crazy, OOO OOOOooo?”
Me: “um… no. Meet Me Halfway.”
Them: “I don’t know that song.”
Me, melodramatically singing, but at half volume because I’m half ashamed: “meet meeee halfway… across the sky… out hmmm mmmm mmm”
Them: “Yep, don’t know that song.”
Me, thinking maybe it’s because I am not in any way a trained singer: “Hang on, I’ll look it up.”

On the way home, I turned on 90s on 9 and heard George Michael’s Freedom ’90. Later, on the way to basketball, we listened to Lauryn Hill croon: you’re just too good to be true – can’t take my eyes off of you.” We got to basketball: MEET ME HAAALFFFFWAYYYY…

My brain does some really weird things that I’m not sure too many others do. One thing that happens is this: old song comes out of nowhere and sits in my brain, percolating until another one takes over. When the new song starts up, my brain will do a mash-up for a while of the two (or more) songs. For example, in the shower on New Years Day, I had the Star Wars theme rolling over “It Feels Good” by Tony! Toni! Toné! Yeah. That really happened.

The songs just roll through my mind, like clouds across the sky! Sometimes, they are little fluffy clouds that move along, changing form as they drift. Other times, like today, they are cumulonimbus clouds that take over the horizon and rain down over my consciousness all day. This is actually why I get so annoyed when I hear someone humming or whistling: the song either doesn’t jive with my brain, or the song takes over. Then I have a new, uninvited song, thanks to the stranger whistling his way through his grocery shopping.

Maybe they have some deeper meaning in my psyche. Maybe I am feeling the need for people to meet me halfway. I have been overwhelmed with *things* and not sleeping especially well (see last post). Maybe I need to meet people halfway more. I can be pretty stubborn sometimes. Maybe it’s just that everything feels new and different. I did have a moment of surreal weirdness today that I was in the wrong place, even though I was doing exactly what I needed to. Or maybe I heard someone hum something that sounded like an old Kenny Loggins song, and it stuck.

The chorus ends like this: Meet me halfway / across the sky / make this a new beginning of another life. It’s cheesy as hell. But as I’m starting the new year at a new school after a decade and a half, it kind of works. Here’s to new beginnings.

And hopefully a new song tomorrow.