Yesterday, my friend Betsy from Chamonix and Paris adventures posted a picture of Heidi, her, and me as her Facebook profile picture.
Seeing the picture made me miss Betsy.
Missing Betsy made me think of all the funny things we'd done together in Europe.
Thinking of the funny things we'd done together made me remember specifically when we had listened to "High on a Hill was a Lonely Goatherd," in her tiny Paris apartment, while we inhaled Nutella on crackers.
Thinking of the Lonely Goatherd made me WANT the Lonely Goatherd for my very own.
Wanting the Goatherd prompted me to download the Sound of Music soundtrack off of I-Tunes.
Listening to the Sound of Music soundtrack MADE ME FEEL HAPPIER THAN ANYTHING ALMOST EVER.
I'm listening to it right now, for inspiration for this blog. There are doorbells and rainbows and shnitzel with noodles bounding out of my laptop screen. Packages tied up with string. Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, there is EVERY GOOD THING in the world wafting around my bedroom with bold mountain-top flourishes and sparkling bounces.
I had forgotten how amazing this movie is. THIS MOVIE IS BETTER THAN DISNEYLAND I THINK. I can't believe the magic it works on my mood-- seriously, every time I listen to these songs, I feel like doing pirouettes and skipping and bounding up hillsides. I want to BE Maria. I want to swing my guitar case while skipping and clicking my heels down an Austrian avenue. I want to bounce Gretel on my hip and wink at Kurt after I catch him almost doing something naughty. Oh-- but I also want to be Leisel in the gazebo with Rolf, leaping around the benches and then saying, "Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!" when he finally kisses her. Oh!!!
The Sound of Music is joy incarnate. It IS. What would the world be like if, instead seeing violent video games or overly grown-up shows like Sex and the City, we were all exposed to nothing else but Maria, the Captain, and his curtain-clad children until, like, age 30? I'm convinced we'd all be better singers, number one (Do Re Mi), and we would LOVE nuns, and we would just like nothing better than climbing trees and tipping over in canoes, and everyone would get along. We would learn right from wrong, and we would be kind and happy and we would love climbing every mountain.
Call me a dork, if this makes me a dork, I WILL SO GLADLY ACCEPT THAT TITLE. I love love love these songs, and I'll be renting this movie to watch again, the next chance I get. Julie Andrews: thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Christopher Plummer: way to be. And Gretel: you are as darling as you ever were.
That's my Friday post. Oh-- and as I sit and type about the Sound of Music while listening to Maria trill, "I have confidence in ME!", this is what I'm wearing:
I'm on my way to a 90's party, and the closest thing I had was this neon purple track suit. It's just exactly what my elementary school gym teacher always wore. Don't ask me why I have a neon purple track suit. But isn't it amazing?? And! The short hair wonderfully complied with a French braid: go short hair! I have the tiniest little nubbin ponytail to finish it off.
God bless Maria, and God bless my theme-party-throwing friends. Don't you love being ridiculous??
