Pandora

I like Pandora. I like the the randomness it brings within my musical specifications. I listen to it at school during my prep. It helps keep me awake and productive (though never productive enough to get ahead, but that's part of the job, I guess). Not only is it random, but totally obscure. Today, the first song that played was this: The Samples "Indiana."




I've never put "the Samples" on any Pandora playlist, but somehow it's in there. This was cool! I love this song! I had one of those reminiscent experiences for a few moments. I was into the Samples at one point. They have literally 20+ albums, though, the only real link between them is Sean Kelly and his naturist, always stoned, weirdness (youtube "Sean Kelly African Ivory" for a taste of the weirdness . . . "for every button that we push, there's an elephant bleeding behind some bush" Rock on!). During the time I followed what the band was doing, I got weekly digest e-mails of their fan page and read as the band constantly lost and added new members. I have probably 4 or 5 albums and like some more than others.

My sister and I saw them open for Sting once at the Canyons (formerly Wolf Mountain and formerly formerly Park West). We saw them one other time at Kingsbury Hall, but I was disappointed because each meaningful 3 minute ballad changed into a 20 minute weirdo jam session.

Once I actually drove through Indiana (with my sister, of course). We had the song queued up on our cd player (hooked into the Golf's tape deck with a long cord - we were so cool!), but the traffic in Chicago was terrible and although we could see the sign that said "Welcome to Indiana" in front of us, it was still minutes away. We kept hearing, "I remember the first . . . I remember the first . . . I remember the first . . . "until we finally passed the sign and could listen to the rest of the song.

I'm sure Annie was driving. She did the day shift (I tended to doze off in the mornings) and I took the night shift (she couldn't see at night and had knee pain or something). I'm pretty sure it was daylight when we crossed the border, because that same day we went to Valparaiso to find a t-shirt (they made it far into the NCAA tourney that year), but unfortunately got there too late and the bookstore was closed. We may have made it to South Bend and Notre Dame that same day.

. . . Weird what I song can do for you!

Halloween . . .

. . . is coming soon!
(from Molly and the Monkey).



One night James was playing with Molly on our bed and I was doing something downstairs (probably laundry or cleaning up dinner, but I don't remember) when all of a sudden Molly started SCREAMING bloody murder. I went upstairs to see what was going on and James was playing some cruel game called "See the monkey . . . Scream! Don't see the monkey . . . Stop! See the monkey . . . Scream! Don't see the monkey . . . Stop!" I don't know what scared her that night, but she was petrified. Since then, however, she has warmed up to the monkey and they have become quite good friends.

This reminded me of one time in Yellowstone. Elliott was little (during his helmet days) and was getting restless while we were eating at the good pizza place in West Yellowstone. I took him to a gift shop next door to stall while everyone finished and I played a similar game with him and a little black bear stuffed animal. It was quite hilarious at the time. I didn't think it was cruel. Sorry Elliott, I guess I see things a little different now I'm the mom. I'm sorry if I traumatized you for life, but I think swinging you around at the football game yesterday made up for it, right?