Same old song, but with a different beat since you've been gone.

So the Remix and I were mutually daydreaming last night, rolling along with ideas for beach vacations and hotel room sex, and we stumbled over a thought. She asked one of those questions, the ones she knows she shouldn't ask and I know she can't resist. Did you go there with {ex-wife}?

It raises an interesting thought. The town I grew up in is full of places I made memories with the Remix on the original release--places I avoided like the plague with {ex-wife}. The town we both went to college in was full of ghosts, restaurants and bars that belonged to us, not to whomever we were with at the time. By the same token, the places we went with other people are never going to be ours again.

Songs, books, movies, vacation spots--these are the biggest things you lose when you move on to someone else. Whether consciously or unconsciously, if I took the Remix to Cabo San Lucas, I'd be trying to live up to my honeymoon. (Or trying not to, if you knew anything about my honeymoon. next week, I'll fill you in.) The ex would never hear To Make You Feel My Love the same way as I do, because that one is always going to make me think Remix, whether she's around or not. Harvey the Wonder Hamster will never be quite as meaningful with anyone else as it was with the girl I dated when I was 15.

As per the norm, I don't really have a point. It's another little way to protect myself, to make sure I keep my favorite things unattributed, so that I'm never stuck associating Anchorman to an ex-girlfriend or having Confederacy of Dunces become someone else's favorite book.

I guess that settles it--the Remix will have to live with the fact that Predator is just never going to be "our" movie. While it hurts me to think how disappointed she'll be, I just have to keep some things for myself.