I Am 32 Flavors and Then Some

Driving down Market Street tonight, I happened to be listening to one of those mixed CDs I made a few weeks back. Alana Davis' cover of Ani DiFranco's "32 Flavors" came on just as I pulled up to an intersection under the glow of the red light. It's funny how a song just takes you back to a moment - a moment you'd forgotten existed. But suddenly, it was my freshman year of college about this time of year on a Friday night. My roommate had gone out with friends, and I lay on my bed alone in the room with the Christmas lights strung around the room plugged in and no other light on. And I laid there and cried, thinking about being jilted by this guy who just stopped calling one day. It was one of those moments that I think you are required to have your freshman year of college - feeling the absolute depths of brokenhearted loneliness. I remember eventually getting my keys and driving around campus and I listened to this song - "32 Flavors" - and felt some revenge because this guy who jilted me loved Ani DiFranco, but I thought that the more cutting words of the song were from me to him.

Incidentally, I saw that guy in Athens one time when I was at home just after I started grad school. He was wearing an apron and smoking outside a Papa John's.