If you love me like music, I'll be your song....

When we met in 2000, I had just finished a one year stint of playing guitar in an all girl punk rock band.  At the time I was majoring in music with my violin being my main instrument.  Aaron went to a show where I was playing guitar in my new project- a surf rock band called "The Sirens."  We both loved music and had many in-depth discussions about music.  We were both music geeks! In one conversation I had complained that my name,Stephanie, wasn't in any songs.  No one wrote a song about Stephanie.  One evening we went for coffee and he brought me a whole stack of CDs he really liked, to lend to me.  It was an eclectic stack...And one CD in particular was Velvet Underground with a song on it titled "Stephanie Says."  We were still just friends at the time, but that really impressed me.
A couple days ago, I was listening to my iPod on my long commute home.  He thoughtfully put all the music on it.   He also made sure to put music that he liked in case we were riding in the car together and it was on shuffle, there would be something there for HIM to enjoy as well.  There are musicians on there like Heart,  Judas Priest (Stephanie pick), Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Who, Django Rheinhart, Ozzy,  The Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack, Berlioz, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, The Runaways, The Crow soundtrack,  The Mighty Mighty Bosstones--to name a few.  I was listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd, remembering his Southern Rock phase-feeling close to him.  I was feeling good about remembering until "Free Bird," started playing. The words that hit home were "If I stay here with you girl, things won't be same, but I'm as free as a bird now and this bird you cannot change..." It was really emotional and I actually cried.  Its not that I keep myself from crying, it just doesn't come easily to me.  It takes the right songs or moments to make me cry.  Crying is so therapeutic and for whatever reason I don't cry as much as I need to.  I really appreciate the times when I'm able to cry.
I remember the journey Aaron went on with his music and me.  He grew into an accomplished guitar player over the years.  He took lessons and even studied music for a semester.  He played Gypsy Jazz music which was very complex and difficult to play.  I remember being so proud of him when he played in a jazz ensemble at the college.  They played "The girl from Ipanema".  He was hiding behind people on stage and all I could see were his beautiful tattooed arms, accurately strumming the chords.  I felt so proud to be there for him.  He had seen me play many times...And this time I was there seeing him.   
He had always wanted for us to play together but it didn't really happen for a variety of reasons.  A lot of times being busy as parents was a huge reason.  I actually thought of playing a recital of his favorite music or pieces that were significant to us, but I don't know if I'm ready to do that.  Anyway the title of this entry is from the chorus of a Heart song.  When I hear it, along with many other songs, I think of Aaron.