I have thought and thought about what my top seven songs would be....it was frustrating as the list differed depending on my perspective on the topic. Nia once made me an "Ann's Mushy Mix" but that is too mushy for here.

So I give myself ten songs that evoke powerful memories from different times in my life....because I can.

1) String of Pearls (Glenn Miller) makes me smile and "shoulder dance" just like my Mom used to if she would hear it when she was cooking dinner.

2) Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple) reminds me of every single dance in high school.

3) Another One Bites the Dust (Queen) is all about football games in Garnet and Black.

4) Triumphant March from Aida --the processional when I represented my hometown in the Grand March. Hoop skirted formals swirling in a ballroom. When I hum it I feel young and beautiful!

5) Trumpet Voluntary (Clark) the attendant processional at our wedding...whenever I hear it I feel that same sweet anticipation. It makes me cry at weddings now...not the marches.

6) Sweet Life (???) is all about us, first he and I, now us four.

7) Whispering Hope (???) has brought me through grief, time and again.

8) The Living Years (Mike and the Mechanics)speaks of my living through and beyond my upbringing...learning to value and forgive...poignant regret of the things I never shared.

9) Ironic (Alanis)always makes me sing out loud and now Kate and Chris love it too.

10) What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong)just sums up how I feel...lucky, lucky me.