It was July of 2003, I was barely twenty years old and I had made the move out to Los Angeles to go to music school, but just for the summer. Back in Arizona however, remained my boyfriend, "Dave Ray CPA" (thats what I call him, he finds it embarrassing, not to mention, me telling this story on my blog) he made trips back and forth every other weekend to visit me... trying our hand at a long distance relationship. They say "absence makes the heart grow fonder... or wander", we were put to the test. Rewind a bit, I remember the day that I told him that I was going to California, that I needed to figure some things out, that I needed music back in my life. "Music?" he inquired with somewhat of a puzzled look? We had been together for nearly eight months at that point, and I had failed to mention to him that I kinda, well... sing... kinda. And I guess that was because I really wasn't so sure at the time myself... I associated singing with the the experience of heartbreak and my deepest insecurity, so I had walked away from music, closed that door... so I thought. Truth was I was walking around with this big vacant space in my soul, I had some unfinished business to take care of... And here we are nearly eight years later, still taking care of that business. Unbelievable actually. Anywho, if I recall correctly, it was towards the end of the summer, I had written a few songs, started playing the piano and singing simultaneously and all the sudden my whole world revolved around music, and I knew, despite what I told my boyfriend, that I wasn't going back home. There was one particular weekend that he came out to visit, and I finally sat down at the piano and played him one of my own new original songs "the way things used to be", my hands shook I was nervous. This was a new Brooke to Dave, a new Brooke to me. Weeks went by, we continued to date, 400 miles between us. The summer was turning to fall, I told him I had to stay, he said he knew. What did that mean for us? It was a Friday night and I went to go pick him up at the LAX airport, and we drove down to Marina del Ray, my favorite beach, the one I went to every friday after school. We got out of the car and sat on the sand. The next part is gonna sound completely cheezy, but it actually was maybe one of the sweetest things that my non-emotional, hockey playing, number crunching, canadian man has ever done, He sang me a song, acapella... "To make you feel my love", the garth brooks version. He said he practiced it in the bathroom stall at work that day. amazing. He prefaced it by saying "i'm nervous cause I can't carry a tune in a bucket", I would disagree, he carried the tune just fine. then he told me quite simply that he believed in me, I needed that. It really wasn't cheesy at all. A few months later we got engaged, he moved to California, we danced to "to make you feel my love" at our wedding and the rest is history. I am artsy fartsy and he's an accountant, we are different, but that night he stepped out of his box and expressed his feelings (manly feelings I might add) in a way that I could understand... music.
TO MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE
originally written and recorded by Bob Dylan. Famously covered by Garth Brooks for the Hope Floats soundtrack. Adele also does a pretty darn solid version... there is a slew of em out there. None of them though, quite as good as Dave Ray CPA.
bummer, I can't find the Bob Dylan version anywhere, or a good Garth video on you tube, so enjoy Adele...
Remind me to tell you the story about my mom and "show and tell"... classic. That would be my runner up for this category.
how about you?
