heavy metal bovine

I work with a very young girl. It is well-documented that hers is the perfect first (or early) job to have - I think that The Cat, J.R., Sam, and Gayle would agree, since they started out doing the same thing. The girl (whose name is not but I have a major problem not calling her "Harley", so Harley she shall be) is very young. Shy, quiet, deferential...sigh, I think I was like that once. Anyway, she's a HUGE music fan. Loves it. Wears t-shirts for her favorite bands, can talk endlessly (but only when provoked) about the intricacies and differences between those bands, most of which are way out of my league, interest-wise. In short, she's sort of adorable about it. We talk (when she's properly motivated to get over her extreme shyness) on that subject pretty often.

A few weeks ago, I had the devil in me at work (hee) and decided to burn a copy of a couple of my favorite CDs for her. I didn't want to turn her off out of hand, so I didn't make a Sister Hazel retrospective or give her any of the NM's (that's code for the maudlin love-story music mixes that I misguidedly made for K). Instead, she got The Dodgeball Mix, made years ago by J.R. and still one of my all-time faves, and also one that I had made for Sleek while he was a colleague, called Bruises, a.k.a. the Snark Mix or something along that line. When I gave them to her, she turned 18 shades of red and could barely speak. A couple of days later - the next time we worked together - she made a point of screwing up her courage, coming to my office, and thanking me again. It was lovely; she is clearly intimidated, but she was charmed and inordinately pleased. A few days after that, I found a note in my mailbox.

She was so touched by my generosity (and I think she was talking about my willingness to share with her as much as in the gift itself) that she wanted to give something to me. She'd found an item that represents the small area where our musical tastes overlap: a Metallica keyring.

Adorable, yes? I'm grinning like an idiot, remembering how sweet that seemed. And still does.

So. That's where I got my Metallica keyring. I keep it in an area of 'most favored odds and ends' near the spot where I can most often be found in my apt., next to the lighter end of the couch. And I wanted to share it with y'all.



Thanks, Harley.