Flashback: Summer of 2000

Because nostalgia has made me its bitch, I can't help but frequently flashback to earlier times when life was relatively easier.

My recent ticket to Memory Lane came to me courtesy of some resurrected mix CDs I had made nearly 8 years ago; Today's spotlight falls on the fourth volume of my seasonal compilations. For those of you wondering, BLOOMED was Number 49 (Take that, NOW That's What I Call Music).

It was the summer of '00. The Y2K scare was an embarrassing thing of the past. Britney was hot, without the mess. I was able to work on my tan at the beach during my summer gig at Glen Island Park in Westchester. I experienced my first big New York City club as an underager (Exit, located on the West Side; the train ride back home at 5 in the morning was quite hazy). And my parents finally subscribed to HBO, allowing four fabulous ladies who favored cosmopolitans to enter our home and instantly win me over.

These were the songs that accompanied me throughout this time in my life, each track a particle in a time capsule I now treasure. Experience them all over again and relive a time when the War on Terror sounded like an installment in a Tom Clancy series, reality TV was just a glimmer in the eyes of network execs and the Clinton era was nearing its bittersweet end:

1. "Come On Over" by Christina Aguliera
2. "If I Let You Go" by Westlife
3. "Let's Get Loud" by Jennifer Lopez
4. "As If" by Blaque - The sassy closing theme song to Bring It On, from the poor man's TLC.
5. "Crazy for This Girl" by Evan and Jaron
6. "Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)" by 98 Degrees - Jumping onto the Latin bandwagon which was all the rage back then, the flailing boy band attempted to reclaim the spotlight shortly after 'NSync's No Strings Attached dominated the charts.
7. "Case of the Ex" by Mya



8. "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down
9. "There You Go" by Pink - A butch white girl with pink hair and a funk attitude? She'll never last...
10. "Let's Get It On Tonite" by Montell Jordan
11. "Miss You More" by BBMak
12. "Deep Inside of You" by Third Eye Blind
13. "Try Again" by Aaliyah - From the late and great...had she lived, we would have been spared Ashanti (sorry, but you know it's true).
14. "Everything You Want" by Vertical Horizon
15. "Better Off Alone" by Alice Deejay



16. "Going to College" by Blink-182
17. "I Wanna Know" by Joe
18. "Feels So Good" by Sonique
19. "Dance With Me" by Debelah Morgan