Tera's Blog

When I was a little kid, my Dad worked at 'Gasland' in Saugerties, NY. Gasland eventually became a Hess gas station where Dad was a manager for several years.

Every year at Christmas, Dad would buy a Hess truck for my brother. Now, he buys one for my brother, one for each of my daughters and one to drop off at M&T Bank's "Toys for Tot's" bin.

This year, Dad didn't have a chance to buy the trucks until it was too late. While he was still able to buy all the trucks, the 'Toys for Tot's' had already been distributed. On Christmas morning, he told my Mom he was taking the extra truck to Kingston Hospital to see if he could give it to a child there.

At Kingston Hospital, he was told that there were no kids in the hospital today. (They try to make sure that any kids in the hospital get to go home for Christmas). They send him over to Benedictine Hospital, where there are also no children. At Benedictine, they suggest he try the homeless shelter in Kingston.

He takes the truck to the homeless shelter, where there is one little boy. Dad gave him the truck.

Posted by at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During one of the 'carpool' conversations, we got on the topic of 'pop culture'. 'Carpool Dan' (as he is now know, as to distinquish him from 'My Dan') tried to use the Dukes of Hazzard as an example of pop culture knowledge from his childhood that he thought was useless. I tried to point out that I'm sure he thought it was the best thing ever when he was a kid. Which he conceded, but now it was just taking up valuable cerebal real estate.

Here's how I proved him wrong. I told him about an episode of 'Smallville' where Clark Kent's Dad (played by John Schneider) goes to open the door of the car driven by his friend, the state senator (played by Tom Wopat). The car happens to be an older model Dodge Charger. As Mr. Kent attempts to open the door, the Senator points out that the door has been stuck shut since he bought the car and he should just climb in through the window.

Carpool Dan says "Really? They did that?" and then starts to laugh. Which made my point. If he had no clue who Bo and Luke Duke were, then he wouldn't have got that little inside joke as it played out 25 years later on a tv series about the teenage superman - and laughed.

I love pop culture/inside jokes like that. Next time you run into Kristi K., and you want to see her break out into giggles, just say "They were cones!!!" and then follow it up with "Chaka Khan!!!"

Anyways, I told you that story as a lead in to this, "The Evolution of Dance". You can tell that the audience is full of children of the 80s based on their response to certain songs.

If you don't know 99.9% of those songs, you lead a VERY sheltered childhood.

Posted by at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Pretty, catch on your tongue snowflakes.
Oh, crap starting to stick to the grass, not pretty."

- Dan

Posted by at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm commuting to my new job and in order to save on gas money, I've started carpooling with a coworker. He immediately invoked the 'carpool rules' that had been in place in his previous carpool. I should mention, his former carpool partner decided she didn't want to carpool with ANYONE ANYMORE. This probably should have been my first hint that this was going to be...interesting

The rules included things like "Eating in the car determined by driver" and " Driving alternating days", which were completely understandable. But the "no small talk" rule kinda threw me. What constitutes small talk? Am I expected to limit my conversations to "the Social, Economic, Environmental Impacts of genetically modified cotton on cotton growers in Third World Countries"?

Add on top of that, the "driver picks the music for the day" rule and it can make for a down right torturous drive. I just can't imagine he actually likes most of this music. One minute we're listening to "Switchblade Symphony" and the next it's the techno/club remix of the theme from "James Bond". Yesterday, it was two hours of Tori Amos. Now, I like Tori Amos. But not for two hours straight. At this point, I think he's choosing his playlists just to see me squirm.

Now it's my turn. The trick is to find music that I would want to listen to for the duration of the carpool, but based on his tastes, would make him cringe.

Here are the playlists I've put together so far.

Songs That Get Stuck In Your Head.
White & Nerdy - "Weird Al" Yankovic
I Wanna Be A Cowboy - Boys Don't Cry
Our House - Madness
Super Happy - Rob Paravonian
Mr. Roboto - Styx
I Ran - A Flock of Seagulls
Ritalin - Rob Paravonian
Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode
Tarzan Boy - Baltimora
My Sharona - The Knack
Here It Goes Again - OK Go
Do You Want To - Franz Ferdinand
Dragostea din Tei (aka The Numa Numa Song) - O-Zone
I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness

I Love the 80s
Love Is the Drug - Roxy Music
Flash's Theme - Queen
Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
Our House - Madness
Be near Me - ABC
Avalon - Roxy Music
Affair of the Heart - Rick Springfield
More Than This - Roxy Music
Girl You Want - Devo
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
One Vision - Queen
The Look of Love - ABC
Kiss Them for Me - Siouxsie and The Banshees
Tainted Love - Soft Cell
Princes of the Universe -Queen

The Emo Carpool
Everyday Is Like Sunday - Morrissey
Dear God - XTC
Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together - Morrissey
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Warm Wet Circles - Marillion
Suedehead - Morrissey
Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
Pseudo Silk Kimono - Marillion
Kayleigh - Marillion
Lavender - Marillion
Script For A Jester's Tear - Marillion
Chelsea Monday - Marillion
Take Tomorrow - Butch Walker
Joan - Butch Walker
Just Good Friends - Fish
Cliche - Fish

I'm also thinking of a playlist made up entirely of Weird Al Yankovic's Polka Medleys. Though that may just send him off the deep end...

Any other suggestions?

Posted by at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)