I've been listening to The Swing Years and Beyond on NPR. I do this every Saturday night from 7- midnight. I love to clean to NPR. I clean the kitchen in the morning to This American Life. I sweep and mop the living room to the Swing Years and Beyond.
My dad was older than most of the other dads on my street when growing up. He had been in WWII and loved Glenn Miller. I grew up listening to that music and at night when I listen to it, I imagine myself in another year, another life. I disappear into my mind when this music is on. It's like going on vacation each week.
I also have a very old tube radio that I like to listen to for the same reason. The music doesn't sound like it does when it comes booming out of a stereo, instead it's a little cave-like with a slight hum and buzz of static of 1954. Late at night, I get a French station from Canada as well as a Spanish station that I love. I love to have it on while reading a book of poetry. Sometimes I make myself a piece of cinnamon toast and a pot of peppermint tea. I can see the ferry lights, the lights of other houses of people who are still awake. I feel a thousand miles away immediately.
How do you take a vacation in your own home?
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I've been telling people I've purchased a settee, but what I've purchased a brick red chaise. It's cozy. It begs for books, it wants its own reader.
This is vacation furniture, a new place for me to sit and disappear in a book.
