Ride Wit Me by Nelly

We are on a motorized cable car, cruising down Pine St in San Francisco on St.Patrick's Day in 2001.  One of my co-workers had invited me to join her and 30 of her college friends on a cable car pub crawl.  I invited another 10 of my friends and it was the best St. Paddy's Day ever.  The cable cars were stocked full of drinks (Guinness, of course, 7&7s, which I did not drink but I didn't know what the other 7 was, and the very "in" drink of the time, Rock Star & Vodka).  The cable car stopped at 3 different places: a bar in China Basin that I cannot remember the name of for the life of me, the Bubble Lounge, and finally the Velvet Lounge.  The cable car itself was a blast and a half. Dancing, drinking, high-fiving people in their cars as we worked our way through Friday-night, St. Paddy's Day traffic.  I was having the best time, surrounded by friends and strangers, many of which were very cute boys indeed.

The song of the moment was Ride Wit Me by Nelly.  I had heard the song before, but never really liked it.  I obviously needed the right moment and this was it.  We were all in this together, singing loudly and exuberantly: Must be the Money!!  I didn't want the evening to end, but after closing down the Velvet Lounge, it did.  I remember Pam kissing a boy, saying goodbye, as I waited in the cab.  I had lost track of the boy I had been kissing somewhere in the Velvet Lounge.  It was around this point that we discovered Pam's wallet was missing, but this story had a happy ending.  Some kids found it on the Embarcadero (must have fallen out of the cable car during the dancing) and we spent a fun morning shopping in Marin where we met them and the wallet. 

No St. Paddy's Day has compared to that one and I doubt one ever will.  There is simply no corned beef in the world that can compete with cable cars and Nelly. 

I Want a New Drug by Huey Lewis and the News

We were supposed to be coming home from Pinecrest today, but because of the 7th largest forest fire in California's history happening a mere 20 miles away from Pinecrest, we elected to stay home.  Why don't travel back in time to get to Pinecrest, back in the summer of 1983 or 1984.  Probably 1984 after a quick internet search reveals that Sports hit Number 1 on the Billboard chart in the summer of '84.

My mom and I were walking near the lake, probably not around it as I was pretty young, but just near it.  Maybe we were going back to the car, maybe we were just on a walk, not sure.  I seem to remember she was already upset about something, so she was listening to Huey Lewis on her Walkman to get a moment of peace and I was being just an extraordinary pest.  I wanted to listen to it, too.  I wanted to listen to it RIGHT NOW.  Please Mom.  PLEASE MOM.  She would shoo me, say no, but I was relentless.  I remember even feeling like I was being a brat, but I couldn't stop.  I am pretty sure she finally gave in and I remember it not feeling like that much of a victory because she was upset.

Mom, I apologize many years too late, but I am really really sorry!  First of all, I now know that you were most likely upset because you been (once again) left alone at the campsite with 2 kids, while everyone else was off fishing.  You probably really needed that quick decompression.  I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND NOW.  Be assured, Dexter is making sure that payback is a ... well it's not great.  I should've been less of a brat.  Nothing of mine is sacred.  No privacy, that's a given.  I can barely finish a phone call because he wants the phone, he wants to HOLD the phone, he wants to walk all over the house with the phone, pressing mute, making any phone call impossible.  If I am reading, he wants to read, too, and turn the pages before I am ready.  He wants Up, Up, Up Mommy, even if I am tired, even if my back or arms ache.  Mommy is eating a peach?  He wants the rest of that peach.  Sometimes I say no, but I am finding myself saying yes too often.  He is just so darn persistent...I wonder where he gets that from?

Comfort Eagle by Cake

After 18 years, Tammy Q. still says and does things that surprise me.  You would think that at some point I would realize that and stop saying, "that is so surprising to me that Tammy would do/say such a thing" and instead start thinking, "oh that is SO Tammy, such a Tammy thing".  I like being surprised by Tammy and I think that is just one of the many fun things about her!  Comfort Eagle is Tammy's song. 

Vince J., Tammy, and I all really love the band Cake.  (CAKE?).   They are a somewhat local band from Sacramento that is very down to earth.  They get real and sing about politics, the environment, and pop culture.  They are also very entertaining in concert and I have seen them twice.  Once was at the Oakland Art & Soul Festival and it doesn't get more legit than Oakland!  Comfort Eagle has this great driving beat, pun intended, but I was still surprised when Tammy said she got her one and only speeding ticket driving down the road, listening to Comfort Eagle.  (So Tammy!)  I love this so much.  It's not great that she got a speeding ticket, those things are crazy expensive, but I love that she was A. Speeding and B. to CAKE.  She was probably late to something because she was stuck in Silivon Valley traffic or maybe she had just been freed of it and was driving fast from the relief and joy to be out of it.  I like to imagine when she got pulled over, she said to the officer: "DUDE!  You need to widen the corridors and add more lanes!"

I recorded a bit of this song at the concert so I could send it to Tammy.  I think of her every time I hear it in the car and I instinctively allow the speedometer to tick upwards....but not too much.  That would be just so Tammy and I remember the tale of the ticket. 

Box of Rain by the Grateful Dead

When we subscribed to Netflix, it changed the entire face of TV viewing for me.  I was never much of a TV watcher until I moved into my first apartment.  Granted I didn't have a TV until then, but even as a kid, I was never a big TV watcher.  I was more interested in books.  When we got Netflix, I realized I could rent entire series from the past!  One of these series was Freaks and Geeks, an amazing series produced by Judd Apatow.  I love especially how the actors reappear time and time again in Judd Apatow movies and there are little inside jokes referencing other movies and shows.  The series only lasted 1 season, but it is a good one!  It takes place in 1980 and there is just a ton of great music from the 70's, mostly classic rock.  There was one episode when Lindsay was introduced to the Grateful Dead and it was my introduction to the Dead as well.  I had never been interested in listening to them and I never got the whole Deadhead thing.  But the music is great!  You do not have to be high to appreciate it - it is just mellow, easy listening, catchy, good stuff! 

I was very excited about my new musical find, which is silly as I was decades behind the time.  I remember telling my next door neighbors Paul and Glen about it and they agreed - good stuff!  We were living on the second floor of a 4-unit building on the Piedmont/Oakland border.  We met Paul and Glen while we were viewing the apartment and luckily, there were 2 units available because we were competing with them.  It was a tiny apartment (700 sq ft), but full of charm and within walking distance of 30+ restaurants, bars, nail salons, bookstores, a library, and so much more!  It was a wonderful 2 years. 

Living next door to Paul and Glen was exactly like living next door to Kramer.  You might be coming up the back stairs and Paul says hello because he can hear you coming up the stairs.  You realize he is calling out to you from the bathroom where he is likely sitting on the toilet with the window cracked. He would often knock while already opening the door to come inside.  They frequently left their door open when they were running an errand, but it was Piedmont, so no big deal.  The walls were pretty thin so they could hear us and vice versa.  We found this out after we had been gone for a couple days and came home to find out the automatic kitty box had malfunctioned.  It just kept going back and forth across the box, scooping litter, but never resetting.  It was loud and annoying.  It went on for days and poor Glen had to sleep on the couch because the sound was keeping him up at night.  We felt so badly for him!  Our bathtub clogged up...and theirs overflowed soon after.  You could say it was close quarters.  One time we were out of a certain condiment.  We looked outside and the door was open.  We called out and no one was home.  We went over and looked in the fridge, but they didn't have what we needed.  I don't think we ever told them we went over there.  They were nice guys with interesting life stories and we often had dinner together or BBQ'd or just hung out on the back stoop talking.  It was a great first apartment, full of fond memories. 

Do the Bartman by the Simpsons

We are still hanging out in Junior High, a little later in the day than Mr. Thomas' class.  I was the second chair clarinet player in Advanced Band.  Between moving up to become one of the best musicians and the fact that I was generally very friendly and outgoing, somehow I had become a very popular person....at least in the band circle.   I had tons and tons of friends that year.  I always had a fun group to eat lunch with, I received lots of Valentine Candygrams, I was constantly passing notes to both boys and girls.  I still didn't have a boyfriend, but I was very well known and well liked.  Truth be told, all of these things served to give my ego a well-needed boost, but it also gave me a pretty big head. 

Mr. Short, our beloved band teacher, may have contributed to some of it.  For example, he offered me the Drum Major role for the Christmas Parade.  It was a coveted role and remains one of the things I regret today, for I turned him down.  I was enjoying goofing off in the last row of the parade and flirting with my crush.  All of my friends were shocked that I turned it down so I rushed back in to take it back...but it was too late.  So that was my first clue that I was well liked and talented.  Mr. Short also supported and encouraged healthy rivalry and competition amongst the band members.  We were allowed the opportunity to challenge the person ahead of us to a playing duel, if you will.  The loser had to wait 2 weeks to challenge again.  There were challenges here and there throughout the band, but none more rigorous than between me and Art (the more frequent #1 chair).  We literally were challenging every 2 weeks.  I will never forget the day.  Mr. Short ended class a few minutes early.  He normally listened to challenges either before or after class, but perhaps he was feeling the drama.  Everyone, literally EVERYONE, gathered around our 2 chairs.  Art chose the 4 bars of music and when he got to bar 3, I knew I had it in the bag.  He had the rhythm wrong.  He finished, quite proud of himself, and I began playing with a grin on my face.  When Mr. Short declared me the winner, it was like I was a rock star.  I had taken down Art.  It only lasted 2 weeks, but victory was sweet.

Then I got mean, I am sorry to say.  People picked on Art, not to an extreme degree, but there was teasing.  For starters, he played very athletically, moving his elbows up and down with the music.  That is no excuse for what i did.  I created verses to the tune of Do the Bartman... but I called it Do the Artman.   I likely honestly thought I was teasing, more than being mean, but when no one really laughed, I should have realized it wasn't really in good taste.  Luckily, that is about as far as I went...besides painting our shared band folder purple.  Totally girly.    When he asked me to dance at the 8th grade dance and later invited me and all of my girlfriends to his pool party later that summer, I knew there were no hard feelings.  He had the last laugh in the end:  when we got to high school, he was in the first row and I was way back in the third.  Do the Artman: everybody flap your arms and fly away!

Pray by MC Hammer

If you were to ask me who my favorite teacher of all time is was, off of the top of my head I might tell you Mr. West or Profesora Losada.  Most challenging would definitely be Mr. Ohman or Mr. Hinds and certainly Mr. Julien.  The most memorable teacher is Mr. Thomas, although I would have never said so at the time.  Today, without a doubt, he wins most memorable and I even would even say he is one of the most creative, out-of-the-box teachers I had. 

Mr. Thomas taught 8th grade Advanced Language Arts.  It was my first class of the morning and I was never late because I was in Jazz Band during the 7am slot.  We all gave Mr. Thomas a really hard time for some reason.  I am still not sure why.  Maybe it was because he challenged us.  Maybe because we got the sense that he tried too hard and trying too hard is something that 13 year olds can sense and immediately distrust.  The thing is, the trying too hard is what made him so awesome!   Once a quarter, if you ever decided you didn't care for an essay topic, you could write a "Sad Story" that was entirely fictional (although I suppose it could have been true) about why you couldn't write your essay.  I wrote this hilarious piece about my cat stealing my paper titled "And There was my Cat, Smashed Flat".  I know it was hilarious because Mr. Thomas spilled coffee on it, laughing so hard.  He had us journal every day, which I loved.  If we ever felt the need to write something private, we just had to tell him and he would not read that entry.  He was a published poet and he also acted and he would often incorporate these types of things into lessons.   He shared this film with us that was a one-man comedy act and it was hilarious.  I wish I could remember what it was called because I would love to watch it again.  Towards the end of the school year, we had to decide if we would take either Speech, Journalism, or "regular" Advanced English in High School.  He brought high school students in to share their experiences in each class.  What a nice thing to do for us, to help us make the right decision! 

Once in while, he would play music and sometimes we could bring our own music.  I remember very specifically the day I brought in a cassette with Pray by MC Hammer.  I remember watching everyone to see if they would be impressed by my taste in music (they were).  The cassette had been eaten and there was a part in the middle of the song that was all muddled.  To me, it had become part of the song and how it was supposed to sound.  I got a kick out of watching people's faces during the quick muddled bit of song.  At the end of the school year, a couple of the boys wrote in my yearbook and they all mentioned that we "survived" the year with Mr. Thomas.  I always went along with the crowd, even though I didn't always agree (peer pressure in action!).  But looking back, I can't stress enough that it wasn't a year to survive, it was a year to enjoy.  I think I should pay Mr. Thomas a visit someday soon to say thank you.  I hope he hasn't retired yet!

Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall

I was sitting in my parked car on Townsend St.  I was pumping myself up for a job interview, taking a last look at my makeup, gathering my thoughts and my things.  I had been laid off shortly after getting married and while it was fun being the little woman, cooking and cleaning and creating a little home for my new husband, the time had come to get serious about going back to work.  I had landed an interview with the San Francisco Giants!  Talk about perfect - it was sponsorship management with a professional baseball team.  I would have to go to work at the ballpark every day!  I would have to go to all of the home games!  Heaven!  My last job title was Sponsor Services Representative so I was certainly qualified.  I was wearing a new suit and I was listening to Suddenly I See.  I was pysched!

I had read somewhere that you should have a song to listen to on the way to an interview so you can get out of your head in those last minutes.  More importantly, you get into a positive mindset.  I had recently binge watched the first half of the first season of Ugly Betty.  At the very end of the first episode when she landed her first job, she was walking down the streets of New York City in slow mo to the tune of Suddenly I See.  The lyrics continue:  This is what I want to be!  Suddenly I See, why it is it means so much to me.  It fit perfectly and I totally pulled this song from Ugly Betty. It really was a great show that first season.

The job interview wasn't great.  I remember saying a few things that made me cringe in the moment and many times later on.  The kicker though was when he dropped the salary bomb on me.  $32K.  Some general benefits, but no parking.  In San Francisco.  No perks to speak of.  It was apparently supposed to be enticing enough to be granted the privilege of working for MLB.  I did not have an inflated view of myself, but I did have an MBA and experience in the field.  $32K.  I think he saw it in my face, but for whatever reason, I didn't get a call back.  It wasn't what I was meant to be!

I Love It by Iconapop

This past Memorial Day, we took a little road trip down to Camarillo to see our good friends Ed V., Christine V., and Mattea B. We hadn't seen them in ages.  The trip always seemed so long, but by moving to Fresno, we shaved 3 hours off of the trip.  It was a wonderful weekend spent catching up, talking, laughing, exploring, eating, swimming, and relaxing.  Christine even worked out with me so i wouldn't miss a single day of my 30 day challenge. One of the wonderful things about these dear friends is that they welcome not only us into their home, but also Jack.  And I mean they honestly welcome him, not just tolerate him.  It really helped me relax so thank you to them for that!

They humored me by taking me to LA to see the stars (I am just slightly starstruck crazy).  We actually saw a couple, but I didn't recognize any of them.  I always have fun in LA and then I forget how much fun I have there.  I do not think I would fit in there or enjoy living there, but I really love visiting.  It is truly a different world, different lifestyle, different attitude.  It's something else!  Mostly though, I am glad we are closer to LA so that we can hopefully see these friends more often.  Ed is the person that introduced me and Nick and without him, there would be no Dexter.  Ed is also the first person I told about this blog!  I told him my idea, he encouraged me, and just a few days later, I began writing. 

Mattea is about to head off to college in just a few weeks and it was so interesting for me to get a peek into the teenage world today.  At the risk of sounding old, and I know I do, things are so different today!  It's nothing like when I was a teenager!  What I find particularly fascinating is how they communicate.  There is this whole electronic world of communication out there and frankly, it is exhausting to me.  I have to constantly check email, texts, Facebook messages, Meetup comments, LinkedIn requests, Twitter, Instagram.....I am missing about 100 different mediums, I am sure.  Mattea is super talented in so many ways and of course, she is also tech savvy.  Like, it blows me away.  She gets amazing grades and on the side, she also composes music, performs, posts her videos on YouTube, and creates her own music videos.  And the communicating with the friends, that too.  She shared her latest creation with us which was a video for I Love It.  It's a song I didn't particularly like, but I will now listen to it with a smile, remembering Mattea's video.  She performed in it and it was creative, funny, energetic, in step with the music.  It was great.  What was also great was her pure joy and enthusiasm in sharing it with us and pointing out her favorite parts.  Thank you for sharing this with me.  And in fact, I DO care AND I love it!

P.I.M.P. by 50 Cent

It was one of those epic, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas kind of trips.  Nicole F. and I were both Retention Managers for good old Allegiance Telecom.  She was in So-Cal and I was in Nor-Cal, so we spent a lot of time talking on the phone about "work" while at work.  She is so much fun and when we finally met in person on a business trip to Dallas, we totally hit it off.  In fact, we had so much fun together, that we just knew a trip to Vegas was the perfect way to hang out in person again.  We obviously spent a lot of time at work and on the phone together planning out every last detail.  Hotel?  (Tropicana.  Not super trendy or even super nice, but the price and location were right).  What to do?  (We discussed a variety of nightclubs, bars, hotels, and restaurants we might check out).  Flights? (I was flying and Nicole and her friend Eryn G. were driving and meeting me there).  The day before the trip, our boss told me that we could go out to a $150 dinner, on him, a little bonus for being such great employees.  We were beyond excited.
I got to our hotel room first and anxiously awaited the girls.  We talked until the wee hours and in the morning we kicked off our Vegas adventure.  There was the pool, drinks, cute boys, the spa, restaurants, walking the strip.  Poor Eryn got food poisoning that very first night and Nicole and I were on our own.  Except that we weren't on our own at all.
The weekend prior to our trip, I had met a guy at a party in San Francisco.  We got to talking and it turned out that not only were we both headed to Vegas that weekend....we were staying in the same hotel.  He was off to a bachelor party, so Nicole and I spent the evening hanging out with a very cool group of guys.  There was lots of drinking and lots of dancing.  We danced on top of the bar at the Coyote Ugly, singing Bon Jovi at the top of our lungs.  We closed down the club and continued our search for music, drinking, and dancing.  The next club was playing P.I.M.P., a song that I'd never heard.  The boys sure had and they were singing along with great enthusiasm.  After I got home, I wanted to put together a Vegas mix of songs that we'd heard that night.  I found P.I.M.P., but the lyrics weren't quite the same as the boys had sung.  I must've spent weeks looking for the remix version of the song, only to find out later they'd made up their own verse. 
We finally made it back to our hotel around 6am and headed straight for breakfast.  Eryn joined us, fresh from a good night's sleep, and mostly amused at our antics and behavior after an entire night out.  I randomly and spontaneously busted out the entire second verse of Parents Just Don't Understand by DJ Jazzy Jeff.  I will never forget that one of the guys had ordered a greasy breakfast...and a glass of milk.  We girls all found that simultaneously weird and hilarious.  The following night, we tried to recapture the magic of the first night and while it was still a lot of fun, it just wasn't the same.  What happens in Vegas....