The last verse of “So Close” is totally ad-libbed, and i had been trying to get Gina to sing along for about a minute at that point, so that’s why we both descend into giggles at the end. I don’t think she’d ever heard it before, so she was endlessly confused by the changing lyrics to the third verse (the only constant word was ‘contrast”).

“So Close” is from the end of Winter’99, which was just about when Senior Year began to really suck. As the story goes, my highschool was (and is) the best one in the state, yet i was being decidedly rejected from all of my top choice colleges that i had been convinced i’d get into with my school’s name as a calling card even though no one outside of Philadelphia knows what the hell i’m talking about when i mention Masterman. So, anyhow, i was miserable, and the entire Senior class was either ecstatic or as miserable as i was and no one was really in the mood to talk about anything except for college, but none of the miserable people wanted to talk about college to any of the other Seniors because it inevitably made them more suicidal in their college-lust. And there was this girl. But, i’ll be talking about her a little later. I was starting to fall out with her too by this point, and one day it snowed and it was the first day i had off for snow since i moved into my new house, i think. And so this is a snow song, and i do not trickle down at all like the ice on the back roof even when i’m melting away.