I'm just a little black rain cloud.

A list of random things that have made me cry about my father's death (months later):

• A Glidden paint store hat
• The selling of his Barracuda
• The new Star Trek trailer
• American Pickers
• Adopting Vera
• A sunset
• Little Debbie Cakes (Oatmeal Pies = His favorite)
• Painting Mom's living room
• Having paint-speckled forearms after painting at Mom's
• Resaving his last voice mail on my phone
• Coffee
• My apartment
• Father's Day 2013
• The thought of having children
• Chipping a piece off of my bookcase that he'd painted for me while I was moving it
• Recommending his chiropractor, who was his best friend, to a friend
• His work building full of tools and boxes
• Grilling hamburgers
• My wedding anniversary
• Hugging my father-in-law
• Seeing a bunny hop across Mom's lawn
• Removing him from my emergency contacts on my work profile
• The photo I had set for his contact photo in my phone showing up when Mom called me because she'd changed her profile photo on Facebook.
• Driving his truck to the shop to be worked on
• Ensure
• Not remembering the last time I bought a battery for my car
• The first warm day of the year

...and, for some reason, today. Just because.

Mixtape Monday #3: Childhood

To say I've been slacking on my mixtapes would be an egregious understatement. I'm no good with commitments, so I don't know what was going on in my brain when I decided a weekly mixtape would be a phenomenal and simple task. Oops.

Today, I bring you the mixtape of my childhood.

These are my comfort songs. They're the songs that Mom danced to while she was cleaning our old apartment, the songs that Dad cranked up in the back yard when he was mixing paint for his new client's house, the songs that don't sound the same without the soft pop and crackle of a needle on a vinyl groove. They're the songs that can't be played loudly enough, and until the past three months, the songs that never made me cry.

What are songs that remind you of your childhood? What songs bring you comfort? What songs feel like home?