Writing, Visualization, and Music Stuck in the Mind

Firstly, I would like to announce that I've finally hit 45,000 words.

I want 50,000. Now.

Well, not now, but soon. I intend to have it by Monday night at the latest. Nothing like a last hurrah for April. And then...May. And June. And July...but I really do want to have the thing done by May 31st. It's already almost a month past its due date. When I started the file on January 1st, I put a little note under the title: "I will finish this by March 31st." And I haven't changed it yet, because I feel like I need that little reminder, that little "...whoops. Dropped the ball on that one."

I think, though, that when I hit 50,000, I'll be able to change the March to May. Weird how things like this work. 50k is a bit of a magic number for me, though, with my NaNoWriMo "training." And it'll definitely be past the halfway mark, because the chances of this thing surpassing 100k are absolutely miniscule, and do you know why? Because I won't let it. And because I don't think there's enough content to carry it that far.

But on to other things. I was working on Friday morning, on something that required at least a little bit of concentration. I was going just fine until the song "Court of Miracles" popped into my head and would not leave. Now, I love "Court of Miracles." It's quite possibly the neatest, darkest song in any classic Disney movie (Hunchback of Notre Dame, for the curious) and it's definitely the darkest I can remember, but it's also got such a lively spirit to it...it's odd, but I love it.

So I had accepted the fact that it wasn't leaving and was going back to my task, but soon I realized that I was reading the same paragraph ten or twelve times without taking in a word of it, because I was too busy listening to the music in my head.

I tried replacing it with other things (a succession of Japanese songs and eventually "Savages" from Pocahontas), things that I've worked around before, but nothing would depose it. This song was completely in control of my brain.

I was pretty desperate to get it out at this point, so I visualized a CD player and mentally hit the stop button.

The really weird part? It worked.

Have you ever had a specific song running through your head? How do you get rid of it? Have you ever resorted to forced visualization in a situation like this? Are any of you quite as crazy as I am?