Death of the radio: 2002

Not many people are aware, but the radio died in 2002. For me at least, and it should be for everyone else. Some may make the argument that it died the second the first britney spears/nsync/backstreet boys (you get the picture) song hit the airwaves, but there were other radio stations. The 'cool' ones that played throughout colleges across the country. The ones who weren't afraid to play Rage unedited at three in the morning. The independent radio stations that didn't have a selected play list, they just play what they felt like. The radio stations you tuned into your parents cars while you were driving only to find them changed back the next time you drove. The stations parents didn't want you to listen to. Back when alternative meant Beck (and Bush to some extent) not Maroon Five.

Maroon Five...the band that killed the radio...for me. I was in college when Songs About Jane came out. The songs were catchy, but still felt a bit outside the box. The songs then started to sound the same after they released a few of them. *Ironic moment: Maroon Five just came on the ipod...awkward* I remember walking across campus one day not too long after 'This Love' was released and it was everywhere. On the radio, now Mt. Pleasant didn't have too many modern music stations, so it was flooded with the songs that were popular at that moment. To that extent it was on VH1 and mtv. Yes, back when those channels played music videos.

Anyway, as I was walking across campus I stopped at a road and up pulled this sorority girl in her parents (allegedly) little sports car with her windows rolled down and stereo blaring. Blaring Maroon Five on the local pop radio station. She was getting all into it singing, head bobbing, and even moving her hand all around in that uncomfortable, you know you can't dance so while you're in the car you're gonna 'dance' using your hands. Most people will just play the air drums or tap on the steering wheel, but she wasn't most people.

The radio died that day. It was a sunny spring day on Central Michigan's campus. There was a slight breeze in the air, the kind of air that makes you want the weather to stay in the fifties all year just so you can enjoy it. As that sorority brat drove away in the car too expensive for any college kid to afford, she unknowingly drove the radio's hearse.

drained.

I am now starting to feel the effects (affects?) of working two departments by myself in the mornings. It is getting harder and harder to get up at five and easier and easier going to be before ten.

I have trouble finding the excitement in going to work at six. The only nice thing is that the day ends before three in the afternoon. But I manage. I still love my job, I just want someone to work with me that'll be productive.

conversations and monologues

Anyone who really knows me knows that I enjoy to write a little bit. I took a couple of classes in college, but it was just to have a mental release I guess. So I started keeping bits and pieces of writings in a notebook I entitled 'Conversations and Monologues'. Not real conversations, just things that pop into my head. I thought that I may share them periodically just to have something different on this. To take away from the monotony of my complaining about work and other people. Sometimes, I'll wake up at one in the morning with these thoughts racing through my head and have a need to write them down. These aren't the things that will take long to write, or even to read. They are just there, I guess.

Monologue one:
Beep. Beep. Beep. Be...
Silence
Groggy awakening postponed for nine minutes. Then eighteen. Then twenty-seven. Then...SHIT!
Late again.
The covers fly off.
Rushing to dress.
Hoping time slows to catch up, but you know it won't. No breakfast, no shower, no clean teeth.
They feel fuzzy from cigarettes and beer.
----
Conversation one:
'I love the sound of rain. On the windows, car roofs, tent canvas. It's so...zen.'
'Do you know what zen is?'
'Does it matter?'
'If you find someone who cares about it, yes. It could, in fact, matter.'
'Do you care about it?'
'Not necessarily.'
'Then what's the problem?'
'I was just saying. You generalized. Generalizations can be bad. That's all.'
'Right.'

Sweats...not just for sleeping or working out any more.

At what point did it become okay to wear pajamas outside of the house? I see people wear sweat pants and sweat suits into the store all the time. It just isn't college kids either (that'll be subject in just a bit), but its the forty and fifty year olds too. Did I miss the memo where it was stated that it was 'cool' to look lazy and unkempt. I don't see these people in their sweat suits and think 'wow, they must feel comfortable, and god they are so cool and trendy'. I think 'they must have spent more time on their hair and whore-like makeup than the time they took to get dressed'. Why? How much work is it to put on a pair of jeans? I just don't get it. I understand wearing sweats around the house. No one sees you at any point. If you are expecting company, you'll put on normal pants and shirt, etc. But A brought up a good point...college.

Many people I see walking in and out of the store, and the main culprits, are college age people. Either too lazy or too hung over to give a shit. No one notices in the class room, in fact a good portion are probably wearing the same kind of clothes. But dude, out in public, people notice. Looking like a bum...not good.

It is just above my head I guess. I don't have a tendency to wear my pjs until I get ready for bed, but some people are just wired for lazing around the house in theirs....and thats cool, whatever turns your crank. But it just isn't for me. I have a need to wear jeans during the day, for whatever reason. I still haven't figured it out.

The cold is in your mind

At work today, I was approached by this rather bitchy person complaining about the store being cold. 'This building is cold. Everyone is cold.' I was fine, the temperature didn't bother me. Nonetheless, my response:

'Okay.'

What the hell. First off, you are standing in the freezer aisle. Yes, its going to be cold. Second, fuck off. I don't look remotely like someone in charge of anything really. In actuality, we have a huge thermostat in the back room to control the temperature of the building. Yup, we just want you to be miserable. You don't look miserable enough, what with your too tight jeans and your leathery skin from too much tanning. Go bitch to your yuppie husband, I don't want you in my store anyways. We want you to be cold.

In my next life, I want to control the weather and make it cold everywhere. Just because.