I don’t know what you did during Thanksgiving break, but I wasted most of mine trying to order an impossible list. 

I also ate pie. (Though not nearly as much as I wanted).

Ok, first things first, I went into Thanksgiving vacation with plans to do jack shit. There would be intentionally bad Netflix choices and lots of sitting around in my PJs, of course, but not much else.  After the a few traumatic years— three with a cancer-stricken mom worrying/enjoying through what would potentially be the “last one” and then last year trying to rally through the traditions as an orphan who never even liked “The Holidays” in the first place —this was the year of togetherness with my emotionally exhausted nuclear family expending as little effort as possible.

The thing about having no schedule and no place to report to is that it frees up a lot of time and headspace. And I’m sure if you’ve been reading my column, I’ve told you already that being alone with thoughts is not my favorite.

So there had to be some kind of task to occupy my mind while remaining as physically idle as possible.

Somehow I decided refining one of my playlists in iTunes would be an amusing time suck. Jen’s Top 500 seemed the obvious choice.

I know, just the title sounds daunting, but honestly when I threw 500 songs into a playlist over the summer I didn’t think much about it. I captioned it, “The playlist to be played at my funeral or really any event where you are celebrating me.”  But it wasn’t really in any order.

Because who would be daft enough to rank 500 of their favorite songs?

Well, me, last weekend. And when I say last weekend, it took all four days and then I spent a more than a couple hours messing with it this week too.

The list is public on Apple Music and you are free to giggle and gawk at it. I’m not claiming its the 500 best songs, but they are my ordered favorites. Though crafting this list gave me very little pleasure.  It was hella stressful. (And I remind you that pot is legal in California).  Continue reading “Beat JENeration #015: The Jen 500” →