I like making mix CDs. And that's not just because I've read High Fidelity.

I like themed mix CDs, too. CDs with songs about food that include "Magic Chicken!" by the Aquabats or "I Like Food," by the Descendents. CDs with songs about bicycles that include "My Bike" by Ghoti Hook or Queen's "Bicycle Race." CDs about not wanting to get up to go to work with songs by Sublime and Dancehall Crashers and the Living End.

But the mix CDs I make don't always have themes. Sometimes friends of mine'll just ask to get a mix CD and, hey, I like it so much, that I'll make myself a copy, too. I have a friend really into hip hop music whom I made fun of for listening to James Blunt (look, no offense to people who like James Blunt - to each his own, right?). So he told me, hey, fine, I listen to James Blunt, and if you've got some better music, fine! Make me a CD!

Hm. So I did. I titled it "The Best Mix CD of Your Life! Love, Lisa."

It was, by the way. The best. The best of your life.

It had the following on it:

I had the local favorite Margot on there, that Killers song that's on their British album but not on the US album, that Sublime song they did with Gwen Stefani back in the day, that beautiful song DJ Shadow put together, one of my favorites by the Cincinnati band Moth (hey, Cincinnati's my hometown), and who can blame a little self-promotion for the Peggy Sues?

That up there? A fantastic mix. I just dare you to find those songs and make one for yourself.

The point, though, is that I made this CD for my James Blunt-lovin' friend, and we met up at the Wellington for a pint when I gave it to him.

And he left the Best Mix CD of Your Life at the table we were sitting at, the ungrateful loser face.

So once we'd had a few drinks at the Alley Cat and realized he'd left it, I made him go back to the Wellington to get it.

IT WAS GONE!

It wasn't at the table, the bartenders didn't find it. Someone's running around Broad Ripple with the Best Mix CD of Your Life. Made by me. Lisa.

And I just think that's great. I really hope whomever found that little mix CD I made likes it, doesn't think it's lame, that they found a song or two they really enjoyed, that they're wondering who this Lisa person with this fantastic music taste who made this mix CD is. I really hope they didn't throw it out. Maybe they wandered into the Wellington that night, saw some empty pint glasses and a few cigarette butts, and this little CD. Read a few of the tracks and thought, "Hey, I've heard of that band, but never heard these other songs before," and snatched it up, went to their car at the end of the night, stuck it into the CD player, rocked out on the drive home from Broad Ripple. Wouldn't that be just phenomenal?

I think so. Music's supposed to be shared, enjoyed by everyone. Even from stranger to stranger. Even if you lost your music somewhere in the Wellington.

So enjoy it, stranger. Because I do constantly.