“Now I know what a fool I’ve been,
but if you kissed me now I know you’d fool me again.”

My very own “guilty pleasure” (though I do not feel guilty about it, no, not one bit) holiday song. You know you have on, too – what is it?

My senior year, it was early December and my Mother and I took a trip to Hawaii. It was the one and only trip we ever took together, as in just the two of us. She still makes fun of me from that trip, how I was always dodging the sun, ever trying to protect my “pale goth-girl glow“.

I know she really enjoyed the trip or she would not keep teasing me about it; trust me, that is how my family is.

We rented this piece of crap car that was rusting from the bottom up. It was the only thing we could afford, and, because of the sight of it, all the locals thought we were local, too. One morning we woke up and decided we would try to drive all the way around the island of Oahu. Of course, they do not make it all the way round, but we did get pretty damn far.

We drove through this particular piece of road that looked over the ocean right as this song came on. We both sang-a-long, loudly, singing our hearts out, and for whatever silly reason, it is the one thing I most vividly remember of that trip. My Mom and I, singing at the top of our lungs to George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.

Last Christmas :: Wham!