Once in my early 20s, a cheating buttwad of a boyfriend lent me his grey Toyota Tercel hatchback. I drove it from Los Angeles to my family’s home in San Diego and planned to meet him there because he was a marine and often stayed at my mom and dad’s place between his Camp Pendleton duties.
What a dick.
But the point is, as I was driving with my left hand and searching through his console with my right, I found a mix tape from someone named “Ruby.” It was a Memorex. It looked oft-played. There was a heart drawn on it.
That total dick.
At any rate, I popped the cassette into the tape deck. “Ruby” professed her love in a ditsy little girl voice, then apparently put the tape player next to the shower so my dickhead boyfriend could hear her splashing and um, other stuff, under the pulsating water jets.
I may have concocted that whole last clause in my head, but it’s how I remember it.
Then, a lovely song began to play. “The Promise (When in Rome).” Hmmm, I thought, this “Ruby” wasn’t half bad. The playlist that followed charmed me, even if its intent was to lure my boyfriend away.
That’s when I fell in love.
With the mixtape.
The dick stayed a dick and now he’s a dick with some other woman.
So today’s PROMPTuesday:
You’re making a mix CD. Who do you make it for? What do you put on it?
Please post your submission in the comments OR post in your blog and leave a link to your blog in the comments.
And also — First time to PROMPTuesday? Welcome! Read a bit about this weekly writing exercise here.
(Want to see what’s been written in the past? Catch up on the PROMPTuesdays archive here.)
(Thanks to this excellent place for today’s inspiration.)
I really like your mixes. I only make them now as soundtracks for my year-end Girl Scout troop DVDs. What have I become? Gah.
I hardly ever make playlists anymore, but some of the ones I remember best are the one I made to listen to while in labor with my son (I didn’t listen to it – it all went too fast, but I did make the playlist!) that had Brazilian music like Joao Gilberto and Chico Buarque, and also Johnny Hartman and Etta James.
Apparently I don’t ping any longer. But I did it.
I remember driving to New York from florida for a straight through 20 hour drive when bitchy cheating spanish girlfriend put in a 120 minutes mixed tape all in spanish from Miguel Angel…I pulled it out of the tapedeck casually , her sister was looking in fear and when I saw that I just chucked the tape out the window on I95 and watched it disintegrate in my rear view mirror.. and told my old girlfriend, “tell him next time he spends a few hours making you some bullshit love tape before we go on vacation, he should at least have the courtesy to do so while babysitting your son” which is what I did a lot at that time…yup, long ride it was. LMAO …and they had an eveb longer ridw back …alone !! HaHahah
What a dick. But seriously, how many old boyfriends does that sentence apply to? Um, for me? Pretty much all of them. Mix tapes or not.
This is a great prompt, I might actually jump in on this one, but I have to ponder first. I’ve got the who and the what, but I don’t have your eloquence in making it interesting to anyone but me : )
What a story! I miss the mix tapes…I still have some from college in my basement.
I forgot about those years. Making tapes and the heart fluttering joys of receiving them. I actually think that I still have some in the closet somewhere.
What did he say when you told him that you found it?
Lucy
Hey Triscuit, I love you, this post and the prompt, AND I LOVE MIX TAPES!!! I have butterflies in my stomach just thinking of all the mix tapes I could write about; all the loves, lusts, crushes and dicks that I made tapes for over the years. About the days when I had to request a song on 96.5 and wait for it to play and then record it from my radio to my cassette player. Songs like Time and Tide and
Seasons Change. Gurgle, Flutter–that’s the sound my tummy is making as I think about those boys and my annoying, dramatic sentimentality. My favorite but most heart breaking mix tape from the 90’s had “MisGuided Angel” and “Fare Thee Well”– Which I know you know well. Sniff, sniff.
I am so slammed for time right now but I may have to squeak out a proper post about this sometime this week.
BTW, do you have “Poseidon and The Jitter BUg” by IG? and if so, is it good? I need some new music.
So I just did my FIRST EVER PROMPT. It took me, ummm, a week. So? Shut up!
Thanks, SDM : )