How to survive an 1,111-mile road trip with your parents and without A/C
I can no longer call myself an islander, which is rather upsetting. I’m in beach withdrawal, bike withdrawal, and most of all, friend withdrawal. Living with the parents, even for a few weeks, is far from my cup of tea.
But before I started staying with them again, we had to survive the trip from St. Simons back to good ol’ Tejas. This is an 1,111-mile journey, made longer by a detour to Alpharetta, frequent bathroom stops for a certain small-bladdered parent and a scoot along country roads to avoid I-20 traffic. In a 2002 Hyundai Accent. That has no A/C. Or legroom.
My recipe for success:
- Patience. In bushels.
- Smiles.
- More patience.
- Music. Some for you, some for them.
- Personal fans/spray bottles with ice water – trust.
- Freeze a dozen or so water bottles. Even 10 hours into the trip, you’ll have somewhat cool water.
- Plenty of snacks.
- Variety of reading material – newspapers, books, magazines.
- Stop every 3 hours to change drivers.
- Patience.
And a TomTom, so when traffic backs up for nooo reason, you can zoom along windy back roads looking at cows instead, but still make it home.
11 days until Austin!
6 a.m. Music Dump
It’s nearly 6 a.m. and I’ve been up for about four and a half hours. I fell asleep at 7:30 p.m., woke up at 1:30 or so, and now I’m just hoping I haven’t totally ruined my weekend with this way-off sleep schedule.
As there is little else to do at 4 a.m., I’ve been downloading new music and trying to organize some of my old music. I’ve really filled this computer up, and need an external hard drive. It runs sooo slowly. I tried to put in some Rosetta Stone time earlier today…yesterday, rather, but it kept freezing.
So, here’s a playlist I made, with careful consideration, to try to help me deal with the cavalcade and roller coaster of emotions that stemmed from I talk I had with my former boyfriend in April. I call it the “Indie Rock Guide to Dealing with Unresolved Feelings”
1. Band of Horses – No One’s Gonna Love You
2. Eels – I’m Going to Stop Pretending I Didn’t Break Your Heart
3. Bob Dylan -It Ain’t Me Babe, covered by Johnny Cash & June Carter
4. Ben Folds ft. Regina Spektor – You Don’t Know Me
5. Bob Dylan – I Threw It all Away (with George Harrison, live in studio)
6. Bill Callahan – Eid Ma Clack Sha
7 . Handsome Furs – What we Had
8. Camera Obscura – You Told a Lie
9. She & Him – I Thought I Saw Your Face
10. Chairlift – Make Your Mind Up
11. Cat Power – Half of You
12. Papercuts – You Can Have What You Want
13. Daniel Johnston – Sweet Heart
14. Willie Nelson – Heartaches of a Fool (covered by Phosphorescent)
Listening to it over and over again has been an unexpected comfort.
I’m in search of some new summer tunes though! Everything has been too slow or wholesome. I need a new MGMT! Seriously, I listened to MGMT for about a month and a half solid last summer without tiring of it. Send me something at least half as captivating, music world!
If you need to dance, may I highly recommend Buraka Som Sistema – Black Diamond (the album). I cannot listen to it and not dance. And not just bob-your-head-and-sway dance, but lose-control-look-ridiculous-feel-awesome dance.
So can we agree, also, that Robin Pecknold has a mesmerizing voice? Fleet Foxes or White Antelope, he can grab my attention.
15 books meme
Though I admit I still don’t entirely get why a meme is called a meme or how it’s even pronounced, I present to you the “15 books” meme that I picked up on from John McIntyre.
That is, list in 15 minutes 15 books important to you.
I have to start with a caveat, that while I was a voracious reader in high school, my book time plummeted to nearly non-existent in college because a) I had too much other reading to do and b) I had a blossoming social life, unlike in high school.
So, in no particular order
-Catch-22, because it has an astonishing amount of irreverance and pointed out the good that can come from challenging authority.
-The Giver. Not only did I study this book for school in 3rd, 5th AND 8th grades, I find myself thinking of its themes of homogenization when I am being contemplative about, you know, Society and Life. When I see myself going down the easy road, the one where it’s simpler and less complicated to let others make my decisions for me, I try to think of this book and the extremes to which that complacency could lead.
-The Harry Potter series, not because I find them life-changing, but because I adore the story and enjoy how much the books have wormed their way into mainstream life – I venture to guess more people you know are familiar with Quidditch than aren’t.
-Scott McCleland’s “What Really Happened” because it softened my stance regarding George W. Bush quite a bit. I went from near-hatred to great dislike, combined with a more broad anger about the administration in general and with Americans for re-electing him.
-Sadly enough, Aaron Karo’s Ruminations… make my list. I read them as a bored high schooler and they opened my eyes to a seemy, seedy, debaucherous and delightful world that soon became part of my college experience. I wonder if I would have gone down a more academic road without them.
-Eats, Shoots and Leaves – I name that book because it’s easy to remember, and delightful to read, but am using it to represent all the grammar books I’ve read. Caring about syntax is a joy best shared with the like-minded.
-All the President’s Men. It may have an unfair advantage in making the list, because I’m reading it right now, but I’m kicking myself for not having read it before. So much devotion to the job, so much dogged perserverance, so many anonymous sources. So much fun!
-Slaughterhouse-Five and other Kurt Vonnegut books. I can’t put a finger on the exact reason why, but they provided the same sort of derision of the status quo that I was feeling in high school but couldn’t express in the way he so masterfully did.
-Hard Times, David Copperfield and Dombey and Son. I can’t say enough about Charles Dickens. Love, love, love the man’s books. These are all such touching tales (more so than Great Expectations) about rising up from poverty and challenging the rich establishment. They probably have something to do with how intimidated I can be by wealth.
-Confessions of a Shopaholic: It may have somewhat legitimized my love of shoes.
Oh and I’m just out of time. Only got 10 in. This is why I’m bad at internet memes, and also probably why I never did the “25 random things about you” list, although, who knows, it’s not like I”m going to get less random with age.
New songs of the…arbitrary time unit.
I realize I update this blog almost never, but it’s usually just easier to twitter or, easier yet, just tell a friend whatever I’m thinking.
However, I feel like it’s time for some Songs of An Arbitrary Time Unit. I have undertaken some new music gluttony in the past few weeks, and want to share some songs that I love.
-Hello Seahorse! – Won’t Say Anything. I listened to this song over and over again for about an entire weekend, and many times on my drive to Philly. I’m kind of over it now, but it’s poppy and upbeat and damn catchy. Hello Seahorse! is from Mexico City, and the two albums of theirs I listened to (the names of which I, of course, forget) were decent.
-Alaska in Winter – Close Your Eyes. There’s the original version of this song on Dance Party in the Balkans (2007) and a remix on Holiday (2008). I dig it hard. It’s kind of haunting. It has that dude from Beirut on it (Zach Condon? Yeah.) And I highly recommend both of those albums. Not many words, but such a good sound.
-Ladyhawke’s Paris is Burning and Friendly Fires’s Paris (Aeroplane remix) are both good. (Paris is Burning takes like a minute to get to the good part). They’re making me consider making a Paris mix cd.
There’s a lot more, but it’s all escaping me at the moment. I am gravely concerned, however, because this morning when I was sorting some music, all of a sudden, all my music that started after “I” disappeared. There’s a LOT of good stuff after I. I have nooooo idea what happened, and I left for work desperately hoping that when I come home, it will all be back.
Songs of the day
Dangerous Muse – The Rejection http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxuYZnlG8Oo
Fischerspooner – The 15th http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0xglCPwqco
I had two Fischerspooner songs in my music library since high school and loved them but at the time had trouble finding the rest of the album to download. I rediscovered the band this summer, especially the album #1. The song The 15th especially, I love. It makes me get up and dance in the morning instead of groaning as I get out of bed.
I discovered Pandora the other week and totally.love.it. Of course I had heard of Pandora but never used it. Now that I’m often in the office at my computer without my iTunes library for much of the day, I finally have a reason to listen. I expected it to be Last.Fm style, where I plug in all my favorite bands and it recommends new ones to me, but I actually like the Pandora system better. You enter a band or song you like, it finds music similar to that. You have different “stations” based on the favorite song. While at first I thought this was annoying, to have so many different stations to choose from instead of one, it’s actually perfect for someone like me, who has a range of musical tastes and for whom the concept of a favorite band is hard to realize because my favorites change from day to day, sometimes from hour to hour.
With all that background out of the way, I set up a fischerspooner station a couple of hours ago and have been totally digging 85 percent of the songs that come out of it. Especially the Dangerous Muse song I posted above.
So enjoy this dance-friendly tunes and go set up your own Pandora station. Then tell me about the badass song or band you discover through it.
Some things I missed in college
Things I wish I had done in college, as made clear to me by recent life experiences and a visit back to Columbia.
-Taken a logic course
-Gotten some preparation as a broadcaster. (As this painful-to-watch debate shows, I have no idea what to do in front of the camera.)
-Gone to the Columbia Museum of Art. Seriously, how did I get through four years and never go?? I went Sat. and had a lovely time.
-Drank more ESBs from Hunter-Gatherer.
PSA: Register to vote
Today is the LAST day to register to vote in the presidential election.
So get off your lazy bums if you haven’t already, and register! Actually, you probably don’t have to register; many states allow you to register online. It couldn’t be easier. So do it, and no complaining tomorrow when you forgot.
These nice people will help you register if you can’t figure out how to do it yourself.
Links of the day
For women, it pays to think you deserve equal pay across genders. For men, being a chauvinist is better for your bottom line. [Freakonomics blog]
Democrats who received donations from the financial sector were far more likely to support the $700B bailout than those who didn’t. [Open Secrets]
An absolutely hilarious fake Sarah Palin facebook page. My favorite part: She friends and de-friends “Katie Couric” in the same day. [Shenanigans]
Songs of the Day
TV On the Radio – Dancing Choose
“He’s a what? He’s a what? He’s a newspaperman!”
If that line’s not reason enough to watch, the video is pretty sweet.
Another dork-tastic selection, but it combines two great things: Colin Meloy and political scandal. Live in Portland.
