If you truly want to understand a person, find their music selection. It doesn't matter the type, just find those mixed tapes, burnt CDs, or those mp3 playlists and give them a listen. Those personalized, hand-picked with delicate thought, selections of music will tell you more about someone than anything you could ever ask them.
About a year ago Military Dad (MD) and I downloaded the Google Music app, which is awesome. It takes those hundreds of CDs you have taking up space and puts them out there in the wonderful web's space. In the process of downloading millions of MB, or whatever the techno term is, we have gotten rid of literally hundreds of CDs and their cases. We no longer fear the kids getting their sticky fingers on one of our cherished CDs in fear of scratching...or breaking. (You'd think virtually indestructible would mean lasting through an encounter with Little Dude, but it doesn't.)
During this upload I let my husband do most of the work, just like a good wife should. This meant that some of his CDs from before my time were uploaded, as were a few of mine. I caught a lot of hell for my love of Megadeth; but let me tell you, when you are playing "Doom" on the computer, Megadeath is the perfect soundtrack. Plus I also went through a horrible phase where I actually enjoyed listening to country. Not that old, country music (that MD grew up listening to) but evidently the new cross-over stuff.
So as the upload progressed we learned a lot about each other's musical tastes and how they changed throughout our past: before, during and after our marriage. There used to be a time when MD would put on any Counting Crows' album and I could be passed out, asleep before the first track was done. He found it insulting, as they are his favorite band. I on the other hand found that they had this lulling quality to their music that helped a high-stressed individual find some relaxation. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.) However, as the years went by and my tolerance to the Counting Crows' music grew, I found that I actually love their music. (I do use it on my children though, it works wonderfully when the kiddos need to calm down a little.)
Almost 11 years have gone by, our musical taste has melded together and we enjoy the same things, most of the time. For the most part, our playlists are interchangeable.
Then one day I had the opportunity to actually listen to his entire workout playlist. As I have said before, I have to be tricked into exercise because I just don't enjoy working out. I've tried so many things, that I started to lose hope that I would ever find a way to get healthier.
(Insert that dun-dun-dun music here.) Then I found the recline bike at the YMCA. I can sit on my butt and pedal away. Since I don't have great knees, bike riding is supposedly preferable to my joints than running, walking, blah, blah, blah. I have an elliptical machine at home, however those machines you actually have to pay attention to what you are doing. Otherwise the stupid arm bars can pack a pretty good wallop or worse you can walk right off the platform. Either way, I enjoy losing focus and zoning out, so the recline bike is perfect. I get my exercise and a weird sort of meditation period.
One of these meditation/exercise occasions, I grew bored with the TV screen that is somehow built into this bike and started playing with the Google Music app on my phone. I knew my husband has good "workout" songs, with good solid beats, so I let it play. Normally, I only ride the bike for 30 minutes or 6 miles whichever comes last. However, that day I was feeling really good and kept pedaling.
Here I am, in my pedaling zone, spacing out, when my playlist just plays a song I was not expecting to be on my husband's playlist. For the sake of his embarrassment, I won't post the song. I will even go as far to argue, that once I got back on the bike after my sudden stop in pedaling, the song did have a great beat for working out. Even after people turned to stare at me and give me strange looks, I kept on laughing (probably louder than I thought, due to the headphones) and pedaling.
For the sake of my poor feet being caught in the pedals and people giving me looks, I think I will stick to my own playlists from now on. At least then, if I put my own weird song in, I will know it's coming. The sneaky part of me wants to add a few songs to his playlist, so he enjoys the same thing I endured. However, unlike him, I don't lift weights. I would feel horrible if he hurt himself because of some song I added. It would also be equally horrifying if somehow his headphone cord came loose and now he is blaring some song like, Christina Aguilera's "Fighter" in a room full of weight lifters. I doubt they could appreciate that the song has good, strong beats....gets you through recline biking like a champ!
If you truly want to learn more about your partner, then take a listen to their playlists. I would not recommend exercising without a preview first, just for health reasons.
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