"Kiss Me"

The other day I was reading the blog of a fellow widow who takes awesome to a whole new level.  She totally rocks.  In her post, she was talking about how she, a former disco queen, grew up and married a former punk rocker-two people who would have clashed when younger but connected through a shared love of alternative music.

Her story made me smile, as they often do, and got me thinking about the music in my and James' life.  We had different tastes, his leaning more to the classic rock side and mine to the soft rock side but we had enough common ground (Nickelback being at the top of the shared list) that we could listen to music together without arguing over it.  We never really had "our" song, however, which made it a bit of a challenge when it came time to plan the wedding.  He wanted our first song to be "There is Love (the Wedding Song)" by Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary.  It had been his aunt and uncle's song and he really liked it.  We probably would have gone with it; it was on the short list.

There were a couple of songs that were definitely going to be in the wedding or played at the reception which are the songs I now consider to be our songs.  The first one, "You're Still the One," by Orleans I had decided was going to be the song that played when everyone joined in for the second song played at the reception.  By the time of our wedding, we would have been together for almost 9 years and we were pretty much the "newest" couple among all the people who would have been at our wedding so it seemed fitting as it would have applied to everyone.  (I would have been an equal opportunity bride.  I'm cool like that). 

The other song that I think of us ours is the one we both agreed would be in the wedding (I totally would have gotten my way on "Still the One" when it came down to it).  We agreed that our recessional song would be "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer.  It's a song we both liked and the only part of the ceremony we finalized. 

But there's more to the story than us both liking the song.  We also liked to watch stupid comedy movies, such as those starring Rob Schneider.  (We saw "Deuce Bigalow" on our second date, which was 8 hours after the first one ended).  One of the movies James particularly liked was "The Hot Chick."  In the movie, the main character, Jessica, has a friend named Ling Ling.  Her mother is pretty over the top and at one point says the line "Ling Ling, you forgot your bling bling."  There is a part of "Kiss Me" in which the lyrics are "bring bring bring your flowered hat, we'll take the trail marked on your father's map."  Every time James heard that part of the song, he would say "Ling Ling you forgot your bling bling" and we would crack up.

I picture us walking up the aisle having just been pronounced man and wife and him leaning over and whispering "Ling Ling you forgot your bling bling" with "Kiss Me" playing in the background and me totally cracking up with the loud cackle laugh I get when I really mean it.  I picture the guests looking quizzically at each other wondering what that was all about.  And I smile every time.  And then I listen to the song-our song-again.