you know how some songs that, the first time you hear it, you immediately love it?

well, this is one of those songs for me. and it wasn’t even the recorded version i heard that very first time.

i was with jeff and his friends in his van. on our way to the city to go clubbing, although that is a very pretentious thing for me to say. because while they ticked off all the characteristics that define “clubbing” with their individual signature dance moves on the floor, all i ever did was down one shot after another after another after another. just one drink short to getting drunk but not getting drunk. because i’m awesome like that. lol.

anyway, so there we were in the van, yeah? one of the guys brought a guitar and somewhere between the small talks and their excitement to show off their dance moves (while i silently cursed the gods for not giving me that particular talent), they suddenly sang this song a capella. well, technically an a capella because i heard somebody mention that the guitar lacked a string or two and the ones that weren’t broken were hopelessly out of tune so they were practically ukelele-ing it.

but, wow. i was sitting there, right, and i know this sounds exaggerated but i swear on my great-grandmother’s grave i’m not kidding. I WAS BLOWN AWAY. cross my heart and hope to die.

i was like, “i wonder what the title of that song is and who’s the artist. because i sure as hell am illegally downloading that shit as soon as i get home!”

i was too shy to ask, though. because back then, i was still too shy, period. because, you know, introvert fresh off the boat from woop-woop.

so imagine me being blown away — again — when i found out that they actually made that song. like, they were actually the actual artists. i was an instant fan, minus the fanaticism because they were jeff’s friends and asking them for an autograph would have been awkward for all of us. so i played it cool. act the part of a nerdy kid invited to sit in the popular kids’ cafeteria table who couldn’t care less but was actually suffering a minor heart attack on the inside. (how many times do i have to say actually before someone shoots me?)

raquel, with her trademark red hair, was really nice. she was the one i talked to most of the time, on account of us being the only girls in the group. if my memory serves me right, the whole song started when she was ironing clothes while humming random lines and her husband (who’s also a part of the group) was like, “we should make a song out of that!” the rest, obviously, is history.

holler to everyone err won who can relate.