Happiness hit her like a train a track...

Ok, did you watch this?? It's been playing through my mind for the last week ever since Glee remade it for the most recent episode. Personally, I like the original version better. Never mind the kind of trippy artistic direction going on in the music video, close your eyes if you must. Doesn't this song make you want to get up and dance?

Although the beat is addicting and the melody is oh-so-singable, the words to this gem are what really fascinate me. Disclaimer: she's singing about the "Dog Days," not the "Dark Days." I know, I was confused too. Anyhow. According to the always reliable source Wikipedia, "Dog Days" are the hottest, most sultry days of the summer. They can also be a period of time that is "stagnant, or marked by a lack of progress." You might be asking yourself as you nod off, "Self, why is Abby giving me a boring history lesson?" Well, wake up! Because the dog days are OVER! It's a good thing, people.

We all have dog days. Frankly, it's much easier to have them than to not have them. You let yourself get swamped down with the tiring details of life and you can't step forward in any direction. I know this because I do it all the time. I'm much too prone to getting overwhelmed and letting it blind my big-picture vision. However, my friend Florence makes a great point when she says, "Leave all your love and your lovin' behind, you can't carry it with you if you want to survive." I suppose you could look at that in a sort of lonely way, but as this is my post, I reserve the right to promote my own lyrical interpretations, so there.

We all have dog days, and many a time it's because we're holding on to something from the past. Our failures and rejections morph from something that used to be an event that simply happened into a being that smothers us. Why? Because we used to love those things. A school we didn't get into, an estranged relationship, a job we missed out on, a loss we didn't expect. And you really can't carry those with you if you want to survive. Keeping your head above water is hard enough, and harder still if you have rocks tied to your feet.

Anyhow, I really just love this song. Because it's one of those that gets me singing when I'm tired and because I want to be able to say these words and really mean them. Just please don't smack me if I'm still humming it the next time I see you.