Road Rage

Almost three years ago, I moved across the country from California to Georgia, and I drove the whole way by myself (well, my cat was along for the ride, but I was basically on my own). I'm one of those odd people that really enjoys long drives, so this was not a horrible idea to me. In all honesty, that 4 day drive was really one of the easiest I have ever had. I ran into very little traffic, the weather was good, the directions were clear (read: I did not get lost)-- all in all, a good trip.

Since I've been back in the south, living in both Tennessee and Georgia, I've noticed a phenomenon that I rarely experienced in sunny SoCal-- drive-by flirting. I drive a Honda (a nice, boring sedan) and I'm a normal, reasonably attractive (so I'm told) woman in my mid 30s, so not much about me is going to attract a lot of attention of the freeway, or so I thought. I cannot tell you how many times I've been hit-on while driving since I've been back. Truckers honking at me, guys keeping pace with my car so they can wave or mouth God-knows-what to me, excessive staring, etc. It's really weird. I don't really understand the purpose. Do they think I'm going to pull over and give them my number, or worse, go off somewhere with them?

This never ever happened in California. There, everyone kept their eyes to themselves (or their cell phones or newspapers) and no one ever tried to "catch my eye" while driving. Of course, there is a widespread problem with eye contact there anyway, but that's a whole other issue. In TN and GA, though, this seems to be ongoing problem. Who does that? One time, on the way to visit my parents when I lived in Nashville, a guy kept pace with me and would casually look over from time to time. Then, when he took his exit, he smiled and waved as we parted ways. I'm OK with that. It wasn't creepy, and he wasn't being lewd or ridiculous, so I didn't mind. But many, many other times, it's been the opposite-- gesturing, waving frantically, tongue wagging, truckers doing a double take when I drive by and then trying to keep up while doing all number of things to get my attention.

I just can't believe men try to cruise women on the interstate. Is it just me that finds this bizarre? Do men really think that works? Are there women that do that to men? Maybe there's a whole culture that I'm not aware of, one where people meet in their cars on the road and hook-ups or relationships are born. I think I'd prefer not to know. I just like to mind my own business, keep my eyes on the road, and rock out to my iPod. So if you see me out on the interstate in my little purple Honda, just keep your eyes on the road, buddy-- it ain't gonna happen.

Day 17- Pretty much over this blog challenge

So I'm more or less officially over this challenge business. I'm not excited about any more topics from either challenge list. I guess since I wasn't adhering to the challenge too closely anyway it doesn't really matter. Perhaps I'm actually not interesting enough to create my own topics. That would be a major bummer. I guess until I decide to quit the blog challenge for good, I will make an effort to come up with more topics.

I've decided that in order to come up with new topics, I need revert back to a time when we used to have to create topics in a real (meaning not virtual) conversation. This means, naturally, that it's time to go back to the bookstore. Early on in my bookstore days, before the economy forced us to cut schedules, we would often have 3-5 people per shift in our department. On nights that were slow, we used to try to come up with fun topics or lists to discuss. So I will rack my brain for some of those time passers to use here as blog topics.

One fun topic was Top 5 Beatles songs. I absolutely LOVE The Beatles, don't you? Frankly, I don't think I know anyone who hates them, and if I do, I may have to reevaluate my relationship with that person. The Beatles are really the cornerstone of modern music. The themes of their songs are timeless, and there is just so much diversity and depth to their music. There are so many Beatles songs that I absolutely love, so it's very difficult to choose. The first 4 haven't changed since that long ago discussion at the bookstore. Number 5 is the only one that seems to change depending on when you ask. So without further ado, my top 5 Beatles songs (in no particular order):

"Come Together"
This is such a weird song. I heard it all my life, as my parents had most of The Beatles catalog on vinyl and cassette, but I really got into it in high school. My bff Melissa was really into writing poetry at the time, and (I think) listening to a lot of Aerosmith. She would write poems and pass them to me in class. As a result, I was the recipient of a number of fantastic original poems. However, she also tried to pass off a few that weren't hers as her own. One of them was "Come Together"- the Aerosmith version.I busted her immediately since I was familiar with the Beatles version. Seeing those crazy-ass lyrics on paper reminded me how cool that song really is. "Come Together" is one of my all-time favorites, and probably one of the coolest songs ever.

"Happiness is a Warm Gun"
The first time I heard this was in dance in high school. Ballet Tennessee was doing a collaboration with our dance company, and their big production was a Beatles medley. I didn't get to participate (unfortunately), but I at least got to experience watching it. The production was diverse, strange, and exquisite. I had never heard this song before and had no idea what it was really about. But I fell in love with the song and subsequently, the entire White Album. This song is on one of my random playlists on my iPod, and I never skip it when it comes on.

"Something"
This one is, hands down, one of the most beautiful songs ever. This is another one that I really remember from the dance production back in high school. I may have heard it as a child, but I didn't recall it before dance. It's just such a beautiful, honest love song, and I adore it. I think this one may even be my top Beatles song.

"Yesterday"
"Yesterday" has always been one of my favorites, even as a child. It's so sad, and so simple. I remember some point in junior high or high school when I was going through something (who knows what, at that age), I listened to this track over and over again  (I bet I was rewinding the cassette). It just said everything I felt at the time.

"All You Need is Love"
This one doesn't always make my top 5 list, but it does at the moment because it's fresh in my mind. This is one of those songs that I never really thought a whole lot about growing up. That is, until I saw Ewan McGregor sing it in Moulin Rouge. I couldn't get over the clear beauty of his voice singing those words. After that, it became a ring tone on my phone. My love for the song gets rekindled every time I see Love Actually, when it's performed by a pop-up band at the wedding near the beginning. It's such a sweet little tune.

There you have it. My runners up that sometimes rotate into the top 5 include Revolution, Helter Skelter, Across the Universe, A Day in the Life and Twist and Shout. I heart The Beatles.

Day 16- Favorite TV Shows

I love TV. Not just lately, since it's gotten so much better. I've loved TV as far back as I can remember. I loved it when I watched Sesame Street and Mister Rogers daily. I loved it when I watched Pinwheel on Nickelodeon in the afternoons. I even loved it when my mom put on Days of Our Lives and Another World while she was ironing. Watching Saturday morning cartoons was an absolute ritual, shared with my brother while I ate cereal and he recorded the audio on tape with his boom box (yes, I'm serious- we would listen to the audio playback of our favorite episodes in the afternoons when there was nothing else on TV). I love to watch, read about and talk about TV, and I always have.

My list is pretty diverse (I think) and certainly is in line with pop culture. I'm going to try to stick with my all-time favorites. These are shows that I come back to again and again or talk about often. There are shows that I absolutely love that aren't necessarily on the list, like Alias and Golden Girls (don't hate!). Those didn't make the list simply because I can't list every single show or this would go on for days. There are also shows that I am in love with right now (Homeland! The Walking Dead!) but am not ready to put in with my all-time faves. So here, in no particular order (other than the top 4, which are my ultimate faves), are some of my favorites:

Seinfeld
Friends
Sex and the City
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Dexter

Top Chef
The Cosby Show
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
Saturday Night Live (select seasons, of course)
Three's Company
The Office
So You Think You Can Dance!

I'm fairly certain I'm forgetting a few really important shows, since I'm trying to keep the list short-ish. Maybe I can revisit in another post, or do a Shows I Love post that will include all of my forgotten gems.

Day 15...too far behind to catch up

So I'm weeks behind, as it's January 28 and I'm only posting Day 15 now. Part of it is I'm not inspired by the topics lately. Most of it is time management, which means I'm back in an obsession with Angry Birds and everything else is taking a back seat. I suspect I may fall completely off the wagon and stop the challenge altogether. In any case, Day 15 is this:  put your iPod on shuffle and list the first 15 songs.

This should be amusing. One of the primary reasons I rarely shuffle my iPod is sheer volume (I have 5471 songs on my iPod) and the possibility of some really weird or jarring music mixing together. I have just about every genre of music you can think of in my collection--classical, jazz, blues, rock (classic, alternative, hard...you get the picture), rap, R&B, country, bluegrass, holiday, comedy. Unless I can just shuffle a particular genre, I really don't like to mix n' match- I don't want Marilyn Manson coming on after Beethoven or Too Short following up the Beatles. I prefer my mixes to be intentional, thank you. But in any case, here goes:

(shuffling....)

Ha! This is gonna be good:

1. Play the Game- Queen
2. Fill Me In- Craig David
3. Criminal (live acoustic)- Fiona Apple
4. Grid Iron Rap- Method Man
5. La Goualante De Pauvre Jean- Edith Piaf
6. O Death- Ralph Stanley
7. O Holy Night- Nat King Cole
8. Pack the Pipe- The Pharcyde
9. When The Last Time- Clipse
10. Five to One- The Doors
11. Author, Author- David Sedaris
12. Yay Boy- Africando
13. I Believe- Frank Sinatra
14. Mississippi- JJ Grey & Mofro
15.Vivo En El Monte- Papi Oviedo

See what I mean? It starts out looking like it will be a pretty good mix, until  you have Method Man and Edith Piaf back to back. The other problem is the Christmas music, which doesn't fit at all. This was actually a fun experiment, and I was pretty tempted to go all the way to 20. Perhaps I will use this topic as a filler to amuse myself when I'm out of posting ideas. Anyways, back to the iPod for more shuffling fun.

Day 14- Death row meal

Well I'm now officially WAY behind on the blog challenge business. But since I'm not actually adhering to the challenge guidelines, I guess it really doesn't matter, does it?

Today's topic is an interesting one. A bunch of well-known chefs actually wrote a whole book about this- a book I have yet to read, but am dying to have as a coffee table read (and because I'm practically a celeb chef stalker).

As much as I like to think I'm a foodie, I really haven't had an opportunity to try very many "foodie" type items. So the food for my death row last meal is all regular stuff. After giving it a lot of thought, I have to go with my favorite type of meal.

Breakfast is my favorite type of food, hands down. I love to go to breakfast and brunch, and I like to eat breakfast food any time of day. So I would have to have a sampling of some of my favorites. A waffle from Waffle House (of course), a breakfast burrito from The Only Place in Town in Sierra Madre, CA, crispy bacon and grits from Hominy Grill in Charleston, biscuits and gravy from Cracker Barrel, a Bloody Mary from Le Richilieu hotel in New Orleans, a mimosa (with expensive champagne) and coffee (with chicory, naturally) with cream and sugar.

I would of course also require cereal, my comfort food/snack of choice. A small sampling of some of my favorites, along with some cold 2% milk, will do. I'd outline my favorites here, but my adoration of cereal is epic enough to deserve its own blog post.

Seem like a lot? Who cares, it's the last meal I get to eat, right? I can be as gluttonous as I care to be. Luckily, there is slim chance that this will ever come to pass. Anybody hungry now? I could go for some breakfast.

Day 13- One thing I do everyday

There is definitely more than one thing I do everyday. Plenty of boring stuff, like brush my teeth, wash my face, drink coffee, etc. I feel like this topic should be about one thing other than your daily routine that you do everyday.

In my case, one thing I do (or at least try really hard to do) everyday is read. I just feel better with a book in hand, or at least nearby. I tend to get frustrated if I can't figure out what book I want to read or if I can't get into the one I'm currently reading. I'm a magazine junkie as well, so I'm also happy to get in a little magazine time. Even if I can just sneak in a few paragraphs here or there, I feel like my day is better if I get to read a little. And if I get a big chunk of uninterrupted time to read? Ahhh, heaven!

Day 12- A quote you love

I'm a collector of quotes. I love how quotes can perfectly capture a feeling. I have a notebook filled with quotes, as well as a folder in my email. Sometimes if I see a quote somewhere and am unable to write it down, I will take a picture of it with my phone.

It's difficult for me to select just one quote, but here it is:

"It takes a certain, rare revolutionary spirit to abandon one's home and family, however bleak the conditions, and hurtle oneself into the unknown."- Marisha Pessl

This quote is from a book, Special Topics in Calamity Physics. The book garnered huge buzz at the time of its release, and aside from a super cool title, the book itself was only OK. I did, however, collect a number of meaningful quotes from the novel.

This particular quote is special to me because I feel like it captures the beginning of my journey to California. I decided to move to LA for acting (go figure), so I planned the move about a year in advance. I was 23 at the time and I knew exactly 1 person in LA, a college friend, so I absolutely was "hurtling myself into the unknown". Moving all the way across the country to a place I wasn't familiar with seemed like no big deal at the time, probably because it was not a unique story in a place like LA.

Looking back, though, I realize that it was a huge deal, and that's why this quote resonates with me. "Rare revolutionary spirit" is not something I thought I possessed at that age. I was (and still am) "Miss Responsibility", so a drastic move like that was out of character, in a way. It became even more clear what a huge step that was when I found out later just how many of my friends and family did not think I would actually go through with it. I finally started to see what a monumental thing I did at such a young age.

10 years later, I called upon that revolutionary spirit again when I moved back home to GA. I talked about moving home "at some point" for several years. I finally decided that 2010 was the year to do it, and once I had that in my mind, I did it. I'm not sure I would have the guts to do anything like that again, but at least I have my quote to remind me that I had that gumption not once, but twice in my life.