You hear the garage door open and immediately break into a cold sweat. Your parents stroll through the door, asking about your day, and you can feel your heart rate steadily increasing. Then comes the question — that simple, well-intentioned, dreaded question that comes this time every evening — “What would you like for dinner?”
You pick at the pasta that lies before you, made with love and only the finest ingredients that Kroger has to offer. Your parents ask you what’s wrong, but you say you’re fine. They just wouldn’t understand.
Eventually you muster up enough strength to shovel the pasta into your mouth, closing your eyes as you do so, transporting yourself miles and miles away. You can hear it, somewhere in the distance: “Music…makes the people…come together…”
Suddenly, that delicious meal loses its flavor, becoming a curious concoction of what you can only assume to be a casserole of sorts. A smile returns to your face, even if for a moment. You are in your happy place. You are in Honeycomb Cafe.
In all seriousness, it’s nice to have home-cooked meals for a change, but that doesn’t mean summer can't be rough. Cities, if not oceans, separate you from the people you’ve come to consider family. The scenic brick-laden path to class has been traded for pothole-covered highways to a charmless summer job. To make matters worse, Chick-fil-A will no longer accept your CarolinaCash.
Enjoy this simple slice of USC to hold you over until August. Much like the food being offered at our campus dining halls, it may not be what you needed, or even what you wanted, but it’s what we’re serving. So, here’s a playlist inspired by Community Table and Honeycomb Café, with songs as OK as the food they soundtracked.
"Music" – Madonna
"Down" – Jay Sean feat. Lil Wayne
"A Thousand Miles" – Vanessa Carlton
"According to You" – Orianthi
"Just Like Heaven" – The Cure
"Bye Bye Bye" – *NSYNC
"Hips Don't Lie" – Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean
"Bubbly" – Colbie Caillat
"Love Song" – Sara Bareilles
"Lips of an Angel" – Hinder
"I Want It That Way" – Backstreet Boys
"Teenage Dream" – Katy Perry
"Stuck Like Glue" – Sugarland
"Breathe" – Michelle Branch
"Mine" – Taylor Swift
"Really Don't Care" – Demi Lovato feat. Cher Lloyd
"Dynamite" – Taio Cruz
"Everybody Talks" – Neon Trees