On the association of girls with music

One of the reasons I love Wong Kar-Wai is that any time I start to get interested in a girl, there is a 95% chance it ends in ruin, depression, and humiliation for me as I go through the process of acquaintance, infatuation, and subsequent rejection once I get up the balls to make a move. Also, in one memorable instance (thank you Megan), before I got up the balls to make a move. Pre-emptive rejection - it makes for a funny anecdote.
Anyway, the piece that is always the most interesting and terrifying, the infatuation, in the best cases, leaves behind a legacy for me in the form of the one song that comes to express that girl to me. What follows is a list in no particular order of those girls and those songs. Enjoy.

1 - Jen, "Umeji's Theme", aka the main waltz from In the Mood for Love.
How did Jen, who I never even tried for because I was too busy crashing and burning with Bethany, end up being linked in my mind with what I consider to be the most romantic piece of music I know? Simple answer - we danced to it. It was after one of the winter dances, we'd just watched the movie with B&S, and the theme is of course what plays on the DVD menu. Jen and I went out to smoke in the driveway of the Mustard House - the snow was drifting down through the light, big flat lazy flakes of it like you see in a John Cusack movie, the cello was aching its way out through the open upstairs window, she looked brilliant wrapped up in her coat with snowflakes melting in her hair, and we ended up waltzing in my driveway. A perfect moment, absolutely disconnected from the rest of the year.
God knows I'm a moron with women, but I'll settle for being a romantic fool and end this first one with a WKW quote from Chungking: "If memories could be canned, would they also have expiry dates? If so, I hope they last for centuries."

2 - Bethany, "All That Jazz", Chicago Soundtrack.
This non-relationship's already legendary (it was responsible for Prizio's great double-disc mix on un-requited infatuation he made for me out of pity that year, along with a few other moments I know there are stories about), but I spent a fair amount of time that year drinking at Bethany's place watching her, Jen, and occasionally a couple of others dancing around belting out the lines to accompany the CD. In fact, I'm pretty sure I was there when she bought the damn thing. It's funny, I didn't have a song in my mind for BB when I started this post, but then this popped up. The association isn't as strong as some of the others, but it's there.

3 - Lexy, "Don't Feel Right", Game Theory by the Roots.
Mostly just a simultaneous timing thing here. I've been listening to this album pretty much non-stop the last couple of months, thinking about whether or not it was viable as brainy dance music, and at the same time I was wondering that, I was wondering if there was anything except the alcohol talking when Lexy and I were flirting by text message for a couple of weeks.

4 - Megan, "Sweet Child of Mine", Use Your Illusion by Guns'n'Roses
This is a call-back to a band I don't listen to much anymore, because this one lasted a good 8 years with me skirting the issue before she finally dropped the pre-emptive rejection (and who can blame her? 8 years is a long-ass time to wait for a guy to finally ask you out so that you can clarify the issue by saying no.) This song first crystallized as being Megan (and was also the first time a song became inextricably tied to a girl) for me when we were in D.C. for Senior Trip in High School. I remember sitting on the steps outside the National Cathedral, having ditched the tour to get some alone time, listening to Use Your Illusion on my walkman, and feeling that great, sweet rush of terrified yearning that I would eventually feel towards so many women through the years. All centered on one brown haired Hispanic-Irish girl in my class in H.S.
Ah, the good old days.

5 - Katie, "Girlfriend is Better", The Talking Heads.
Katie's dating Dan right now, and I'm very happy for both of them and have zero regrets. But two years ago, I'd spent a few months quietly crushing on Katie, getting some vague but positive-seeming signals back, and we ended up making out for an hour on the dance floor at a gay nightclub in Chicago. That ended up being the breaking point for what might-have-been, but the next morning, driving out of Chicago, I remember feeling pretty damn happy, pumping my fist in the air while I blasted this song on the car speakers. Whenever I listen to this now, I remember that drive, full of adrenaline, happiness, and crisp February air shooting through the open car window. It was a pretty damn good drive. :)

6 - Ariana, "Beautiful Day", All That You Can't Leave Behind by U2.
For Ariana, there really isn't a song that encapsulates it. I mean, it was 2 years of her being my other half, there's a thousand things associated with her. The one relationship that actually went somewhere, even if it didn't work out in the end. I can't sum all that up in one song. But this song does always bring her back - it was the tail-end of soph. year, Scott was out somewhere, and we spent an hour just lying in my bunk in the dorm kissing each other. It was back when everything was still fresh and new and wonderful and tender, and I remember her liking the album way more than I did, but I was happy that she liked it, so I liked it.
Eh, what can you say about that? I think this is a good place to end.