Have you ever wondered how certain songs get stuck in your head? Sometimes it's obvious. It's one of the tunes to the album you've been listening to all week. Or maybe it's something you just heard on the radio. I often find myself even starting a song in a specific place, several times in my head throughout the work day. I notice the same lyrics continuously floating past like a marquee in the eyes of my mind. And I think to myself, "Why these lyrics in particular? Did they mean something to me subconsciously?" Not usually. Lately, I've found that those lyrics playing through my mind all day are the exact ones that play when I unpause the music after getting back in my car at the end of the work day. On some level of subconsciousness, my mind simply wanted to continue the song.
I have a lot of time to think at work... lots of mental breathing room. That also means I have a lot of time to have songs stuck in my head. Something other than the continuing-the-song-from-the-car trick has been going on in my brain. It's weird.... it's Christmas music... and it's June! What business does Christmas music have in my head in late June? Actually, I've noticed this happening since April when I started working at Columbia. I haven't listened to Christmas music since, well, Christmas! Why is it still in my head? And not just one artist, it's the whole shebang - literally everything I usually listen to at Christmas time. So what's going on, brain?
And then it struck me like that poor grandma that got plowed by Rudolph. The reason I have had Christmas music in my head during this non-Christmas time, is because that's where I left off. That's where I got out of the car - out of my life on the East Coast - and left to start life somewhere else. We left for our journey on December 23rd, and for some reason, my mind still thinks I'm just waiting to get back in the car - back to the East Coast - and start where I left off... unpause the music, and spend Christmas of 2010 with my family in NJ. These Christmas lyrics in my head are the subconscious yearn for continuation of my East Coast life.
Oh there's no place like home for the holidays.
For no matter how far away you roam,
If you long for the sunshine of a friendly gaze,
For the holidays, you can't beat home, sweet home.
