Update: I wrote this a while ago, but never posted it …

OnJune 13th, Alanis Morissette is releasing an unplugged version of her first real album”Jagged Little Pill.” This is awesome news because I loved the first oneand prefer the acoustic versions of most songs. It’s being released to commemoratethe ten-year anniversary of the original Jagged Little Pill and I can’t believeit’s been so long.

This CD was one of those soundtracks that I grew up to. So many memories permeatethat album. I first heard it when my neighbor Julia played the tape for me on herold school boombox. She was both literally and figuratively the girl next door.Every time I hear All I Really Want I’m instantly drawn back to her bedroomon that summer afternoon. I can vividly remember the silence in the lyrics “whyare you so petrified of silence / here can you handle this … did you think aboutyour bills, your ex, your deadlines.”

Then there was Beth. I was so infatuated with this girl. She brought the CD on a churchretreat and I can remember her singing (one of my all-time favorite songs) “HeadOver Feet.” Somehow that weekend I convinced her to sign a contract that she’dshow up on my doorstep on my eighteenth birthday to sing me that song. Unfortunatelyshe never fulfilled said contract :( Fortunately around the same time there was that othergirl I totally ended up falling head over feet for and could relate every wordof that song to.

Lastly there’s “Not the Doctor.” It brings a smile to my face every time Ithink about those summer Wednesday nights at church singing “I believe that oneand one make … two” to Dawn and Ashley. Who would have thought that you couldchoreograph an Alanis Morissette song?

Oh, and there’s also that not-so-long-ago girl that was my “Hands Clean.”

Good memories; amazing girls. I’d go back to seventeen in a second if I could. Myonly wonder is if I’d do anything differently … >