Hot Air Balloons

Whenever I listen to certain songs, I automatically think back to the first time I heard them. In some cases, that makes me like the song even more. In others, the associated memories are so negative that I can't listen to them. For example, I haven't listened to "Virus Alert" by Weird Al in several years because that's the song I was listening to in the hospital when my grandpa died. It's an automatic response-I can't get rid of the association because it keeps cropping up like one of those flashy, immortal pop-ups that appear on the computer.

Most of the associations create more meaning for the song. I first heard "Summertime Clothes" by Animal Collective on a very warm day in July at theater camp. I've been listening to that song more often now that it's getting colder because it reminds me of summer. Likewise, I listen to "Oh Comely" by Neutral Milk Hotel more often in the summer because it reminds me of snow.

First impressions of a song can really change your perspective on it. The first time I heard "Hot Air Balloons" by Owl City was at 3 a.m. in Chicago. One of my roommates on the Chicago trip had set her phone's alarm so we would wake up at the righ time. For some reason, I was the only one who woke up when the phone started blasting "Hot Air Balloons" at that ungodly hour. I turned it off, but it went off three more times. Eventually, groggy and unreasonable, I slammed the phone against the wall. When that didn't work, I decided the next logical thing to do would be to place the phone high on the bathroom shelf, smothered under a pile of towels. The sound of that phone was like the sound of the Telltale Heart to me-maddening.

And now, I can't stand the song "Hot Air Balloons". I hope I never have to hear it again. If I do, I will think back to that cold night in Chicago when I, exhausted, was nearly driven mad by a phone. And it won't be pretty.