Bree Housley - We Hope You Like This Song: An Overly Honest Story about Friendship, Death, and Mix Tapes

advance praise for

we hope you like this song

Bree Housley tells a story that is touching, funny, and completely inspiring. Reading it, we cant help but think about our own resolutions, our own losses, and the friends and loved ones whove given meaning to our lives.

Jeffrey Zaslow, bestselling author of The Last Lecture and The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship

Brees story is like an addictive power ballad for friendships between women. Her voice sings with a pleasing combination of ups, downs, out-loud laughter, and out-loud tears. Youll want to crank the volume on this one.

Pam Thomas, award-winning director of Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives

Housley has managed to write a book thats devastating, touching, and flat-out hilarious all at once. Its a great read, and Housley is a fine new voice.

Michael Benoist, GQ

We Hope
You Like
This Song

an overly honest story about Friendship, death, and mix tapes

For Shelly, Courtnee, and Eric: my best friends Also for Hailey (when she grows up)

Authors Note: Although this book is based on true life experiences as I remember them, the names and certain identifying features of some people portrayed in it have been changed to protect their privacy... or to spare me embarrassment. Bree Housley

2012 Bree Housley

Published by Seal Press
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
1700 Fourth Street
Berkeley, California

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review.

Photos courtesy of the author, except: title page and chapter backgrounds Domini Dragoone, pg. 3 Warner-Medlin, pg. 64 Olan Mills (Davenport, Iowa), pgs. 206 and 209 Devin David Photography-Chicago, pg. 237 Courtesy of Rogue Art Photography (Indianapolis, IN).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Housley, Bree, 1979
We hope you like this song : an overly honest story about friendship, death, and mix tapes / Bree Housley.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-58005-473-7

1. Housley, Bree, 1979- 2. Bridgewater, Shelly Warner, 1979-2005. 3.

Best friendsIowaBiography. 4. Bereavement. 5. Consolation. I. Title.

CT275.H6589A3 2012

977.7034092dc23

[B]

2012008699

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover and interior design by Domini Dragoone Printed in the United States of America | Distributed by Publishers Group West

Bree,

Here is a little description to go along with the CD. You may have noticed that it is a musical tribute to our friendship. Here is why I chose the following songs:

How Much Is That Doggie in the Window This classic started it all off. Our vocals started at a young age shortly after a choral concert. After the drinking fountain song, we sang this for hours. And our friendship blossomed.

Manic Monday Our choreographic talents really appeared during the Making of the Video on this song. We spent days carefully planning each step of this oldie but goodie. And to think someone wrote Bangles suck on our dorm room door!

I Fall to Pieces Although this is a Patsy Cline classic, nobody could belt out the tune quite like us. Our original facial expressions that we created to go with this song were impeccable. Who couldve asked for cooler babysitters... ?

Hit Me with Your Best Shot Not even Pat Benetar could match our vocals on this one. It takes me all the way back to high school... cruising around town... nothing brought us together quite like this one did.

Step by Step New Kids! Need I say more?

Vibeology We just couldnt get out of our choreographing stage, as this continued through our first year of college. I must say, this one was definitely a hit... good thing we performed for half our dorm floor!

If I Had a Million Dollars The Barenaked Ladies concert was the best... brings me back to our macaroni and cheese days...

Play That Funky Music Every time I hear this song from this day forward, I will forever think of you at a bar. Bet youre glad to hear that one... Ill make sure to pass that one to your kids one day!

Up in Here This era reminds me of your gangsta side. I think this song is what prompted the creation of the Breester... could I be right?

Miami My first trip ever... and Ill be coming down to see you there again soon. I had a great time and couldnt quit listening to this song before we left!

Tiny Dancer Admit it, my lyrics were better than Eltons anyway.

I hope you like your CD! I know youll miss Iowa sometimes, so I thought you could listen to this and think of all the fun times that are yet to be had!

B/F/F,
Shelly

Glossary of Friends

Shelly [shel-ee]

My inspiration. Best childhood friend from fourth grade until her death at age 25. Boy crazy, friend crazy, love crazy. She was an outgoing, hyper, spazz of a girl who would do anything for the people she loved. She ultimately proved this by giving up her life for her daughter, Hailey. She was a teacher, a sister, a wife, a friend, and a mother. A pregnancy condition called preeclampsia killed her. I would stab it in the face if I could.

BFF quality: Unconditional devotion, pre and post mortem.

Courtnee [kort-nee]

Older, wiser sister who means more to me than taffy. (Taffy means a lot to me.) Shes a video editor, married to her high school sweetheart, Eric. She supported me through all the years of devastation following Shellys death, proving her ultimate big sister prowess. Oh, plus shes my co-conspirator in this little adventure.

BFF quality: We share the same parents. And sometimes, it feels like we share the same brain.

Eric [er-ik]

Hes the cool kid in class, slumming it with a nerd (i.e., my boyfriend). He hails from St. Louis where he went to an all-boys high school and attended Mom Prom (this is highly entertaining to me). Hes a commercial photographer obsessed with sneakers, jackets, and gadgets.

BFF quality: True love. (Also: entertaining, handsome, understanding, smart, and athletic. But mostly, true love.)

Amy [ey-mee]

This ones from Indianapolis, though I met her in South Beach. We attended Miami Ad School together and became close friends out of necessity (we were the only non-exotically-beautiful Colombian girls in class). If I have an embarrassing admission, her ear is the first thing I grab.

BFF quality: Funny as shit.

Foxy [fok-see]