Queen of the Mix Tapes

I'm kind of in transition right now... I've been unofficially living with my boyfriend for several months and recently we've decided to sublet my apartment for a few months. It's been a tough pill to swallow, paying rent on my apartment downtown, but only staying there a couple times a month. (Dog, how many times can I use the word "month" in a paragraph??) I can stay at the Hotel Del or The W for less than that...
Then, as luck would have it, one of my friends happened to come upon some hard times and needed a place to stay. What was a temporary solution for him has now become a convenient partnership. I'll sublet him my furnished, cheap apartment downtown and he'll let me stay there when I need a place to crash. It's divine.
Anyway, the transition period I was referring to is me living with one foot in each household for the last few months. I started out with a little overnight bag at Mike's house and the bulk of my possessions at mine. Now, all the things I use everyday are at his house and I use my place as a glorified storage space. It's time to do some culling and complete my move.
I went by last night to pick up some papers and came across some old tapes I had bought as a kid. Music has always been a big deal to me, so I've kept many of my recordings from the pre-cd era. I went through and picked out a few that I wanted to hear (my 97 Jetta sports a tape deck). What did I grab? Some Loggins & Messina, Boys II Men, old Ani Difranco, Tori Amos, and several mix tapes that were labeled only as such. When I got in the car, I broke out some of the mix tapes, wondering what could be on them as I had neglected to make a track listing. In high school, I was the queen of mix tapes. I made them for friends, I made them for myself, I made them for my mom... Anyway, it really took me back. I was soon singing along to songs I hadn't heard in years and re-living the times they represented. From swing dancing at the Del Mar Fair, Monty's and Neiman's, to taking a trip into Zion, Utah with a bunch of veritable strangers, to my dad singing to me and my brothers while in the car... talk about a trip down memory lane.