One morning last week, I parked my car and started my 5-ish minute walk to my office. As soon as I stepped out of my car, I heard the first few notes from Curtis Mayfield's song, "Superfly." I really like that song (and the whole "Superfly" soundtrack, actually), so I got pretty excited! In fact, had there not been other people walking in the parking lot, I probably would have started dancing. And though I could clearly hear the music, it wasn't very loud, so I was having trouble telling where it came from. But frankly, I didn't care.

About thirty seconds of walking passed before I started wondering why the volume of the music wasn't changing. I took a quick look around, there were 4 people close enough to me for me to assume that one of them was wearing headphones and had their music turned up way too loud. They may blow out their eardrums, but at least they had good taste.

A couple of minutes later, two of the people close enough had veered off. Right around this time, "Superfly" finished, and "Use Me" by Bill Withers started. At this point, I'm about ready to go nuts. You know the feeling when you're listening to the radio, and two songs you really like come on in a row? Well this was way better than that, because I wasn't listening to the radio, I was walking to work! There was no expectation of any music, not to mention good music.

So anyway, I'm walking with the dude with the loud headphones and an older lady. At this point, I'm quietly singing along. Out of my peripheral vision, I see the guy glance up at me. I looked over, preparing to give him my nod of approval, when I realized that he didn't have headphones on. I got confused, because there was no way this lady was listening to music this loud in some headphones! I tried to glance quickly at her, but it was awkward, because she was a half step behind me. She caught me looking.

"You're too young to know songs like that," she joked.

I let out an embarrassed chuckle. She must have heard me singing, and was taking the opportunity to hit on me, Mrs. Robinson style. Sheesh, didn't she see the wedding ring?

"Isn't that from the American Beauty soundtrack?" asked the guy.

"It was on that soundtrack, but it's originally from the early 70's," I replied. I was dying to ask if they knew where the music was coming from, but I didn't want to look like an idiot.

By now, I reached my building and went in the door, while the other two kept walking. When I still heard the music, I finally realized that I AM an idiot, and that the music was coming from my pocket. I have one of those Sony Walkman phones, and I forgot to lock the keypad. I must have bumped the right button sequence when I was getting out of the car, and it started to play those songs, which I loaded on there 8+ months ago (I almost never use the walkman features of the phone).

I'm so glad I didn't ask those people where the music was coming from.