I sit through movies sometimes and become the person I'm watching. The movie ends, the lights come up and I'm mildly shocked to find that I am still Ashley. I feel just like whomever I was observing for the past hour or so.

There are times, however, when you watch something that becomes an emotional experience that you don't leave. You take it with you for weeks, maybe even a lifetime. I say "watch" but it could just as easily be "read." I know I have read books that have changed me deeply inside. For starters, Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. Followed by Atlas Shrugged.

And music. Music really gets me. I will never forget watching Phantom of the Opera in Kansas City with Kyle, who was my boyfriend at the time. Or Les Miserable when it came to my hometown. And Rent...I love musicals. The incredible combination of spectacular music, spectacular vocalists and an engaging, emotionally gripping plot. I immediately run out, buy the CD, DVD and piano music so I can more fully OWN the music myself.

My latest love is Mamma Mia! Laugh if you want, but I borrowed the movie from my mom and have already watched it 3 times. I am obsessed. I confess to being rather ignorant of Abba's music, with a few exceptions (Dancing Queen!). So I sat down Thursday afternoon while the kids were sleeping and popped it in. From the opening strains of music, I was enraptured and in love. For starters, anything with Meryl Streep and Colin Firth is a sure thing.

I have since made Kyle watch it and now Brooklyn's requesting it. She loves music, too.

And the best thing is how abandoned it makes me feel! I find myself dancing around my house completely uninhibited, choreographing my own day, singing and making up my own "musical" lyrics to the daily goings-on of my life....making cookies, doing laundry, putting PJs on...they all become parts of my own personal life musical. Brooklyn loves it, August giggles, Kyle joins in. Man, I really can't tell you how much fun it is to live with a healthy degree of abandon. And music. Right now, that music is ABBA!