This post is inspired by #letsblogoff, a blog-writing challenge I stumbled across a while back thanks to Twitter. Every two weeks they throw out a theme and bloggers riff on it, taking it in all kinds of directions. We all link to each other’s posts but I am currently having trouble getting the Javascript to run that would pull the table, so for now go look at this post on Let’s Blog Off.

The current theme is “that song stuck in your head.” Now, earworms are a common malady at our house. Even though you’ll never walk in and find us actually playing a CD, we seem to have plenty of music floating around somehow.

For one thing, I live with a daughter who performs in musical theater, so we often find ourselves humming a snatch of some show tune. I’m currently really stuck on some of the numbers from “Legally Blonde, The Musical”–she played Elle Woods in a production last December and was fantastic.

Sweet Hubs likes to plug in his MP3 player and rock out while he’s working on projects in the garage, which will sometimes entail him coming back and forth into the house to grab a coffee refill or something. When I find myself singing a number from The Police or Queen later on, it’s probably because he sang a bit in the kitchen.

Or we’ll be talking about some story from high school or college years, think of a song it reminds us of, say, “Who was that singer again?”, and go find a clip on YouTube.

These and other sources contribute the soundtrack that sometimes plays in my head as I ride my bike to work, or to errands and meetings during the day.

Sometimes the song is pretty obvious:

Sometimes it’s one that reflects my mood (watch for the bicycle at the very beginning of the video—I hadn’t realized it was there until I went to find this):

It may be something that makes me dance a little on my bike saddle, like this one (I defy you not to dance):

The Thursday Zumba class I go to at work contributed this one:

I rarely find myself in the car driving somewhere, but recently have had to do some Stage Mom duties to ferry Second Daughter home from rehearsals. If I’m not listening to NPR I find a station that plays music I listened to in high school and college, which can plant an earworm or two. I might end up with something like this:

or this:

or this, if I spot a kitty cat along the way:

And then there’s this one, which is now in my head because the Let’s Blog Off had the theme “If you could turn back time” on their list of past topics:

You’re welcome.

Related Reading

• Sing It Loud, Sing It Proud: A Fourth of July post on Bike to Work Barb, my personal blog, about sings that for me relate to being an American–some great earworms on this list too

Your Turn

What’s on your mental turntable?