Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Kiss's Beth

After I mailed my "Curriculum Vitae" (a long and comprehensive resume), sample chapters and so on to the London (yes, England!) agent and everything was safely in the mail today, I headed to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for a bacon cheeseburger and a Coke. (They have the BEST bacon!) Sitting at Five Guys, eating my burger, a song came on their radio that caused the thoughts flitting  randomly through my mind to instantly cease.

People's talking and orders called over the microphone seemed to fade into the background as my ears focused and eyes glazed. I am pretty sure my munching slowed as I listened to the lyrics and tune. I could almost see my memory come to life.

It was summer of 2000, the year my husband got out of the Army. Thanks to some good pre-Army work experience, he had been blessed to secure a job working as an electronics technician for a company in Austin, Texas, named Sigmatel. It was a good opportunity with a new firm dealing in cutting-edge technology, came with IPO stock options, and my hero was helping to work out the technical bugs on something called an "audio codec." It was wonderful... except... he had just gotten out of the Army and I was really looking forward to being able to enjoy some time with him -- but he wound up working an awful lot of over-time on his project and I wound up feeling very lonely as I took care of the kids and our home. (Honestly, he worked such long hours at Sigmatel that I think I saw him MORE when he was in the Army!)

Eventually, an administrative assistant position opened up at Sigmatel and my husband encouraged me to apply for it so that we could spend more time together. I got the job, but we wound up working in different buildings most of the time. I was in the old building, helping out the team of engineers responsible for developing the tiny chip that is in most MP3 players on the market today. My hero was in the newer building, still working on the team with the audio codec. (When finished, the codec went into Dell laptops. Note: Audio = Sound.)

One day, sitting at my desk in the "old building," I received an email from my lover (AKA husband). It was just a link to an audio file with the words, "I love you," typed below it. Confused, I clicked the link. Tears filled my eyes as I listened to the song that played. It was as if Pete Criss, the drummer for Kiss, had written it just for our situation and for me, personally. The song that transported me into my memories today in Five Guys was that very same song, "Beth:"



This song has pretty much become my reminder of how very deeply my husband loved me for many, many years of our marriage. It warms and deeply touches my heart every time I hear it, bringing back memories of times past.

Now I know my family loves me -- and so do my readers, but it just doesn't feel the same as when my husband used to do sweet things like send me his love in a song. But I have an idea.... Will you help me out with it?

This blog is listed on Technorati, several other blog directories and a few blog exchanges. It receives hundreds of GLOBAL views --and growing-- each week and I don't care if you can sing or not. Whoever will Youtube themselves singing, or even just playing, this song for me (my name, Beth Durkee, should be mentioned somewhere in the video. eg. "Sending this song out to Beth Durkee"), I will embed that Youtube into a post and tag the post with your name (or the name of your group, if applicable) so that search engines will find it.

So please cut the song with or without your own unique stylings (instrumentals are okay if you don't sing), post it to Youtube and send me your Kiss. No expiration date for this as long as I keep blogging. Just post your link in the comments section right here at "A Writer's Blot" or email it to elizabeth.durkee@yahoo.com, include your name or group's name (the one you want tagged for search engine optimization), and I will put it in a blog post on my site.

Fun! I cannot wait to hear all my serenades!! :-)

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