Musical Memory Lane

I was running along the lake last week listening to my iPod shuffle.  There aren’t many songs on my shuffle, and I basically know the playlist by heart, but I hadn’t listened to it in a while, so one song caught me off guard.  It was one of Beyonce’s songs from her latest album, 4.  While the song is an upbeat and fun song, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with a déjà vu-like feeling.  Of course for the rest of my run I was stuck thinking about this post, and how much I associate music with different situations.

 

I have a bad habit of becoming obsessed with songs and albums.  You know how when you turn on a top 40s radio station you can count on one of three songs being played at any moment?  That top 40 radio station is my life.  I don’t only listen to top 40s hits, but I do obsess over songs and albums.  At any time in my life, I can pinpoint the three songs I was listening to. 

I had a coach in college who told me about life soundtracks she made.  For certain semesters, seasons or years she would make a soundtrack.  As soon as I heard this, I wanted to steal the idea.  But as soon as I went to put it into action, I realized my problem.  I couldn’t create a soundtrack, I could create a single, and an EP if I was lucky.  I quickly gave up that plan, and went on with my music obsessing ways. 

When Beyonce’s beat started filling my ears, I was in Garden City.  I was running.  I was running as many laps as I could before I absolutely had to go into John and Jane’s house to shower.  I didn’t want to get ready for another funeral.  I didn’t want to wear another black dress.  I didn’t want to be in St. Joseph’s again.  And I really didn’t want to cry anymore. 

It’s a bummer, because I loved that album.  I loved that album until I ruined it.  At the time, it was the best thing that could have happened to me.  I must have listened to Schoolin' Life on repeat over 15 times while I ran one morning.  It kept me from crying, but now it makes my heart hurt. 

I have songs that remind me of everything.  And it’s what makes putting my iPod on shuffle so much fun.  So, let’s take a little trip down Meaghan’s Music Memory Lane.

The Ben Folds Live album:

This album will always remind me of the summer after my junior year in high school.  I am sitting in Jen’s black VW Cabrio.  The top is down, and I don’t know where we are going, but does it matter?  We are in high school in a convertible, and there aren’t parents around.

Milkman:

Milkman is what is known as a mash-up artist.  Take completely unrelated songs and mash them together and you ended up with some of the most awesome and fun music to party to.  Josh introduced me to Milkman while I was in Thailand, and of course I went through my obsession.  Now I cannot listening to a song without being transported to my 625/55 house in Piman Chon 1, listening to the music especially loudly on my impressive sound system and drinking Leo beer with Cait and Paul. 

James Taylor's New Moon Shine Album:

This is the song that Garvey and I had a dance to.

This album throws me back to Annapolis, dancing in the family room.  I can feel the afternoon sun beaming through the windows as Garvey and I performed our choreographed dance that he refused to remember the steps to, in hopes of making my parents laugh, and infuriating me.  Then there was the JT concert the family attended at Tanglewood, and one of my favorite weekends in my entire twenty-five years. 

Brett Dennan:

Somehow I came across Brett Dennen immediately before I began traveling alone last fall.  I had four albums downloaded and loaded on my iPod before I took off for Koh Lanta.  As I lounged on the beach, studying for my scuba exams Brett Dennen filled my ears.  And now I cannot listen to that red headed artist without seeing the Thai coastline, tasting the plastic of a regulator in my mouth, feeling the sun on my face, and glancing down at my arm hoping to see freckles that have long gone since my return to a non tropical locale.

Like a G6:

There was a brief period of time in Thailand when I had a cool phone.  Cool is a relative term as my students with iPhones quickly began to outnumber those without.  I thought my telephone was cool because it held music and had a small speaker.  So, when Paul and I both became obsessed with the song Like a G6 it only seemed logical to illegally download it and put it on my phone.  When Paul and I got into his Suzuki Caribbean on our way to pick up Cait for a coworker’s party with our matching telephones and playlists, the stereo wasn’t working.  What else was I to do than play Like A G6 on repeat from my phone?  And when the car broke down, I continued to repeat the same song.  Looking back, I’m surprised that Cait continued to be my friend after being forced to listen to that noise in a AC-less car for over two hours...

Call Me Maybe:

This is our HBB version, check it out.

I was first introduced to this song through facebook stalking.  Heather had posted the video on Cici’s wall, and, well, the rest is history.  I was quickly obsessed with the song along with the rest of the world.  And in similar fashion, I preferred the Justin Bieber lip syncing version to the actual music video.  When my boss at Hot Blondies Bakery began talking about her love of Justin Bieber, I immediately shared the video.  Who doesn’t love the Justin-Selena romance?  Sure enough, Laura was hooked.  And when Lorin returned from vacation she was thrilled to jump on the bandwagon.  When the cinco de mayo party rolled around, it only made sense to create our own music video, German videographer/ commentator and all.  For the rest of my short-lived career as a baker, the song was a constant presence in my brown sugar- filled life, and will always be associated with my days at HBB.

Fergie's The Dutchess:

I went through a ridiculous time during my sophomore year in college.  As though taking 18 credits and rowing for more than 20 hours a week wasn’t enough to keep me busy, I began working at the Starbucks on campus.  I absolutely loved my job.  And when I developed a minor crush on the fitness center’s evening supervisor, I would do anything to pick up hours.  And when my minor crush became a serious flirt fest, I would do anything I could to stick around the fitness center after I had closed the coffee shop.  Naturally, I took to working out even more.  After I would finish closing up I would bat my unimpressive eyelashes and head to the locker room to change into possibly my third workout outfit of the day.  I would then jump on the elliptical and listen to Fergie’s album, The Dutchess.  I would sweat a little, jam out to Fergie a lot and hope that Matt would come to “check on the floor."  The album played a pretty big role in the rest of my life that year, from dance parties to driving to practice, but from the moment I hear one of those songs begin I am transported to the same elliptical, crushing hard on a completely unavailable boy.  I think I’m still crushing…

I have many more songs to add to this post, but I think that is enough for now.  Maybe a second installment?

Out of Retirement

Those of you that keep up with my twitter feed (it's on the right side of the page) may have read that I have come out of retirement. Yes, as of today, I am no longer retired. I am back in New York City and back at Hot Blondies Bakery. We are Going to be featured on Good Morning America on Friday with gilt.com, and things are crazy. Everything in Saratoga is packed and ready to go, so I don't have much of anything to do there! Having time off sounded like fun, but I get bored too easily. All of my friends are working every day, including my sister and my mother, leaving me without much to bide my time.  I had discussed the possibility of this happening with Laura and Lorin before I left, but I wasn't sure how busy I would be and how feasible it may actually be.  When I received an email from them last week asking me if it would be possible, the wheels were set in motion.  This morning I left my house at 6:15 to drive to Albany. From there I jumped on the Megabus without working wifi and fell back to sleep. When I woke up we were about an hour outside of the city and it was pouring rain. Shoot! I forgot my umbrella!  There was lots of traffic going through the tunnel, and the rain seemed to slow us down, so we arrived about 30 minutes late. I grabbed my bag, rolled up my pants, and I started walking. The bus stop is only about 15 blocks from the bakery, so I put my hood up, my head down, and I walked.  I arrived at the bakery, keys in hand, to find that the door was being propped open by a delivery man. I snuck in behind him, walked up the stairs and into the disaster zone. I gave Laura and Lorin quick hugs and spun around in a daze. Boxes we piled higher than I am tall. There was only a small path from the door to the front of the shop where I was going to leave my bags. There were hundreds of pounds of flour, sugar and brown sugar leaning against itself in the corner. Billions of calories of butter were stacked near the door.  "Holy smokes! This is crazy!" "Haha.  Welcome back. This is nothing!" I didn't think they were serious when they said that it was nothing. Boy, oh boy, was I wrong! About two hours later, or 400 blondies and brownies later in bakery time, the bell rang. The delivery man on the other end asked Lorin to go downstairs. All of thirty seconds later she was back upstairs in a rage.  "He's refusing to bring it upstairs. There are too many pallets. We have to bring it up ourselves." And so, the bakery that I thought was packed to the brim when I arrived, was about to become a lot more cozy. 17,000 units more cozy, to be exact. We ordered boxes like you wouldn't believe.  For the Gilt sale Laura and Lorin had to agree to be prepared to ship 5,000 shipments within three days. 5,000 shipments means: - 5000 box bottoms - 5000 box tops - 5000 shipping boxes - ridiculous amounts of tape - multiple humongous rolls of paper for stuffing - more red ribbon than Santa and his elves could ever imagine And that is just the packaging materials! I took a brief break from baking peanut butter chocolate chunk blondies to organize the 17,000 new additions to the bakery. I felt like I was playing Tetris. But losing this game of Tetris would be a problem. I wasn't going to get a "new game" option when I accidentally boxed myself in. Or boxed us out of the bathroom, for that matter!   Miraculously, we made it happen, and I hit the ovens.  Now, at 8:15 pm, I am on the train to Garden City. Aunt Jane just called to tell me she is taping The Bachelorette and has spaghetti waiting for me! Dinner, trashy television and an early bedtime are on the agenda for the evening. Tomorrow morning, I'm back to baking. Gosh, I just love this!

I don't need culinary school?

When I moved to New York I was looking for jobs here, there and everywhere. One of the websites I spent a lot of time perusing was goodfoodjobs.com, thanks to Amanda's recommendation.  In only a few weeks I was able to score myself two interviews.

The first interview I went to was for a brand new internet startup.  The interview went very well and I was quite interested in what they were doing.  My job, as an intern, would involve just about everything. But, after speaking of my experience with blogging, albeit limited, was enough for them to want me.  The owner hired me on the spot and told me he could offer me $50 a day.  I thanked him and left to wait for his email telling me when to start.

The very next day I went to Hot Blondies Bakery to interview for an intern position as well.  As soon as I walked in, I knew it was a place I wanted to be.  Both of the owners, and the blondies of Hot Blondies, were kind, laid back and awesome.  They told me that they were done hiring interns, but when they saw my resume and read my brief story of buying an oven in Thailand to bake, they knew they had to bring me in.  The two also hired me on the spot as an intern.  They would be unable to pay.  I accepted the position immediately.

My mom wasn't exactly thrilled when I informed her that I would be turning down the paid internship for the unpaid one, but I had my reasons.  I was willing to give up the $50 bucks a day to do something that I could really learn from.  I knew that working at the bakery would be the perfect place for me, and in a lot of ways, I was right!

I get to spend every day there doing what I love.  I bake all the time!  I run errands, make deliveries, package items and I even made a spreadsheet, but mostly, I bake.  I can't tell you how many times I have called Bri just to tell her how much I love working there.  I just keep saying, "the more time I spend at Hot Blondies, the more I love baking!  All I want is my own place."

I work at HBB with a handful of other interns, with a handful of different backgrounds.  One girl is a substitute teacher without too many teaching gigs.  And one girl recently graduated from a pastry program at a culinary school in the city.  When I heard that, I sucked in my gut, put my shoulders back, and tried my best to look like I knew what I was doing.

What I have learned from her is this: there isn't a better way to crack eggs than how I do now, there isn't a special way to melt butter or chocolate, there isn't a special technique for stirring or blending mixes and there isn't a trick for tinning batter.  I am just as capable, if not more capable, than she is at working in the bakery's kitchen!

About a year ago Paul and I were talking about my future bakery.  I told him that I was considering pastry school, but I was concerned with its price tag.  He looked at me like I was crazy.  Then he said, "Meaghan, are you kidding me?  You don't need pastry school!  I don't care if you have a degree in desserts or not.  If the things you make taste good, then I'll come to your bakery and buy stuff."

After working at HBB I have realized that this is completely true!  Neither of the owners went to pastry school or have "degrees in desserts," but they make delicious stuff, and people buy it!  Now, that is me.  I work in their kitchen, and I help to make delicious stuff, without a dessert degree.

So, even though I am headed out of town for the wedding, go and order yourself some delicious and degree-free treats!  There are Easter specials right now!  Go.  Order.  I'll be back to baking next week.