Mix Tape

Dear Bono,

Remember mix tapes?  I loved making them.  Recording songs I loved off the radio.  I remember permanently having a blank tape in one of slots on my 2 deck sound system just in case something great came on.  I probably still have that tape somewhere with the Hollywood remix of "Desire" and the extended mix of "Two Hearts Beat As One."  Somehow being able to just go to iTunes and download any song takes some of the fun.

I've been trying to put together a care package for my sister in law.  What do you give someone who will be in the hospital getting chemo for a month?  So far I have earrings (what woman wouldn't want gorg Kate Spade earrings), a hat (Beaker from the Muppets.  His perma-panicked expression matches my feelings most of the time), the Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie collection on DVD, and plans for some macaroons, lip balm, lotions, socks.  I was thinking what else to get, and then I thought about a CD.  But then my thoughts went back to iTunes, and how nobody buys CDs anymore.  Screw it.  I made a mix CD.

My husband made me a mix CD 11 years ago.  This was before we were really dating.  We were still in that "friends" "hanging out" phase.  He dropped it off at my college apartment before he went home for the weekend.  I wasn't home and was surprised when my roommate showed me the gift.  I always thought I liked him more than he liked me.  To that end, I tried not to read too much into the CD.  Not long thereafter, we actually started dating.  At some point, I made him a mix CD (pre-iTunes, post Napster era).  I put all kinds of great songs on it, and some special rarities including one of your own 1976 demos.  I put this at the end of the CD, knowing he loved U2, and thinking he may have not heard it.  Unfortunately, it was titled "The Dream is Over" (whoa whoa whoaaaaaaaaa) and he, unlike me, read a lot into each song on the CD.  Oops.  He still won't let me forget that (though I won't let him forget the time that before we were dating he had me order a Freur album off Amazon, even though I said he could borrow it from my sister who already had it (random), and he never paid me back).

Because of this thing that people do of apparently finding meaning in mix CDs that really the only meaning is "here, I hope you like this" I spent several hours stressing out over what songs to put on this CD.  Obviously, it needs to be uplifting.  And Phil Collins never hurts ("I have two ears and a heart, don't I?" Which, come to think of it, should be the title of a Phil Collins biopic, should one be made).  Any other recommendations?

-JP