AKA Music also has something blaring very loudly when i am shopping there. The first time i ever walked in they had Keep It Like a Secret playing much louder than i had ever heard it, and i took it as a good omen and proceeded to spend $100 dollars there. Subsequent trips have produced equally loud music and large expenditures.

The music is always especially loud in the back by the used section because one of the waist-high speakers is located right next to used soundtracks. That’s about where Rabi had gotten in her browsing, while i had drifted over to where ‘Y’ and ‘I’ face each other — alternately looking for Hum and Neil Young’s Decades. I was saying something, and then she was saying something, and then the music turned off and i found that we were standing in the middle of a record store screaming something at each other from across and aisle in a (suddenly not-so-) futile attempt to be heard over non-existent blaring music.

“Rabi, we’re shouting!”


It only felt a little like Clue, but everyone was watching us and we were yelling something stupid about records and it was hilarious. I left with an Ivy record, a Tori single that i quite enjoy, classic NIN from $4, and a Bright Eyes EP at a Rabi approved price. Rabi left with stuff i didn’t even vaguely recognize the name of. Otherwise, there was a lot of walking, kvetching about lemonade, talking about crushes and of ears, and giggling. Oh, and the couple on the bench next to ours at Rittenhouse did a lot of making out. All in all, it was a wonderful evening.

The trees were lit up with colored balls that we spotted from blocks away, and as we spoke my gaze kept wandering away from our wooden bench and out into the forest of glowing spheres. I can’t believe i’ve only met her four times. I can’t believe it’s been an entire year.