Sunday, August 07, 2005

the key to my heart lies in the mix

i have now made a complete nocturnal transformation, being unable to fall sleep before 6 a.m. for about two weeks. and last night/this morning, i made it 7:30.

i dragged myself out of bed at 3 p.m. after having hit the snooze for two hours. just enough time to eat, shower and hit the road. i was welcomed by the bazillions of people who do not work late into the night on saturdays headed out en masse for food, entertainment and the company of loved ones or potential loved ones.

i could only follow that black suv monstrosity with a catchy-but-forgettable vanity plate for so long, and re-enacted the title sequence of 'office space' -- wherein the main character continually tries to escape the stoppy-lane by merging into an even more stopp-y lane, only to watch the first stoppy lane become un-stopped -- for too long.

i made several phone calls and even took a moment to untangle the godforsaken hands-free device that makes it impossible to hear the other party unless i hold the earpiece against my ear canal. even when the dangly part of the wire is strapped across my face and hooked over my other ear. which makes me look like i'm holding a phone to my head and will probably result in my being stopped and fined at some point, with the amount of time i spent on the godforsaken highway. needless to say, i didn't reach anyone and left convoluted messages, during which i realized i probably shouldn't be infecting people with my nasty mood anyhow.

i reached for my lemonade bottle and knocked it into the floorspace of the passenger seat -- just short of the farthest reach possible while still keeping my foot on the brake. it proceeded to roll under the passenger seat where it will probably remain until the smell of furry mold has me clambering around with a bottle of 409 under there.

things weren't looking so good until i rummaged around and pulled out a cd i hadn't heard in awhile. i popped it in.

'show me that smile again...'

you can't help it. the themesong from 'growing pains' is a perfect opener. this cd, culled together from the soundtrack of my college experience by someone in the know, was just what i needed today. i couldn't help but sing along with madonna, mana, biggie, missy and even the odd stylings of bobby mcferrin's cosby theme. but what really did it for me was rolling all the windows down and sharing 'inspector gadget' with my gridlock counterparts at full volume. sigh. i even threw in the part where Dr. Claw says, 'i'll get you, gadget,' while stroking his evil cat.

so thanks, pal. you really brightened my day.

9 comments:

  1. Yet another CD I read about on the blogs that should be available for purchase somewhere...glad it cheered you up.

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  2. Seriously, nothing makes an off day better than locating a mixed CD you haven’t heard in awhile. And because I like to mix it up a little, you know, to keep people on their toes and whatnot, I’m going to comment on another post here too.

    When I was a kid, I practiced tirelessly, climbing in and out of the car through the window. I daresay I became quite good at it. Sliding across the roof, well that was a little tougher, but the window entry and exits were a thing of beauty. It’s not the gearshift you need to worry about; it’s the steering wheel. I do it with ease now. But that comes from years and years of practice. I cannot fully explain to you how unnecessarily cool I feel when I do it, which is not often enough these days. That’s the trouble with having a car you don’t want people to steal. You just can’t leave the windows down. I’m exploring the possibility of having remote control windows installed. Heck, they have keyless starting cars, why not remote window roll down?

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  3. cadiz, its 4:45am and i am still up and have just watched that strange english comprehension soap opera show with the guy from all my children in it. in facct i wouldnt have known it was that show unless you mentioned him and i found myself watching ... waiting.... for what i dont know. but it seems to have a very serious tone for an instructional series...

    anyhow im on day two of working on the weekend until 11pm starting at 11am.. and i am starting to realize why you could be up till the wee hours... you just need to have your time to unwind no matter what time it is and what you "have to do" the next morning....

    so anyhow this weekend i feel you. oh yea and then sat night im going home in a taxi and driving past people going out and thinking damn i sure am so disconnected from this "going out" thing.. kinda sad and kinda good at the same time.

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  4. there will be a carnival on your street soon! guaranteed- you better be looking cute and ready all the time as you may walk out of your house straight into a party...

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  5. glo: i know, it should be available for purchase -- putting a cd together like this one would take a lot of work; and i'm sad because 'careless whisper' is starting to skip.

    jon: but wouldn't you have gotten to the car by the time the window was fully rolled down? i'd imagine you'd need a running start for window-entry -- bo and luke always did. wouldn't that kill it?

    kaiya: welcome to my world, (on both levels) pal. anytime you find yourself up that late, you know i'm probably online, drop me a hello. and i'm so jealous! i just figured out that connect with english is only on saturday and monday mornings, and i sat through so many episodes just to see Mateo, and never have. i told you it was a story about love and loss; pretty serious stuff. i'll have to try and catch it next week.

    and yeah, i drive home with the drunks every weekend. and if i had better vision, i'd be able to read weaving license plates without getting too close and be calling the cops on a weekly basis. going out seems like a foreign concept to me. hell, getting up before noon seems like a foreign concept to me.

    ale: is this my horoscope? carnival on my street? are you kidding? does that mean you're coming to visit?

    vespa: i was disappointed, too, especially because alan thicke wrote so many good themesongs and sang the 'diff'rent strokes' one. growing pains is one of the best. that song is on there to celebrate the person who made the cd and my mutual love for kirk cameron.

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  6. the mix cd. is there anything better or more personal than a mix cd? it's the borderline equivalent of sharing a piece of your soul with someone. nowadays it's so easy to throw together a bunch of songs for a mix cd, but the mix tape...now there's a different story. just imagine you don't have the song you need and you decide to be a cheap bastard and tape the song off the radio without the damn dj's voice on the song. now there's some handiwork in that art. after this post, i feel like i should start another blog just talking about mix cds, the songs, and the stories that go along with them.

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  7. Inspector Gadget. That's gold! I never would've thought that theme songs and show tunes would be just the remedy for rush hour rage...

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  8. it was so good because of all the inside jokes and funny stories.

    lucasj, you totally should. i have a couple that are pretty funny.

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  9. I once had a 'best of sitcom theme songs' that I bought on an infomercial super late at night. Nothin says lovin like the Good Times theme song.

    Inspecter Gadget, Dr. Claw...hilarious!

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