Ricky Martin Forever Ruined?

A coworker once told me this story regarding wretched stomach issues and Ricky Martin. She was in France for an athletic competition of sorts when she came down with the stomach flu or food poising or something to that effect and had to stay in her hotel room to recuperate. At the same time, France was hosting the World Cup and Ricky Martin’s song “The Cup of Life” was the anthem. As she laid, sick in bed, she would hear the fantastic song blasting everywhere and thus forever associated this song with food poising.

She mentioned this story after hearing my ring tone that festively played The Cup of Life, a song I had selected to celebrate the best competition in the world. At the time, I thought to myself that it was so unfortunate that something so random could ruin quite possibly the best song ever written. Me personally…I would blame the evil belly on the controversial France win of the cup, but you say tomato and I say tomatoe…

Well during the week spent in Mecca my phone rang every minute of the day requesting one thing, demanding another to the point that as soon as I would hear the “Tu y yo ale ale ale” my heart would start to race and my palms would sweat in sheer panic. Ricky Martin’s song now had the same effect as it had on my poor colleague…it reminded me of food poisoning, or worse, work poisoning.

A few weeks have passed since my trip, but I still cringe when I hear the song. I am hanging in there, and keeping the ring tone, in the hopes the Pavlov’s dog effect it has on me will wear off.