Random Thoughts on me Drive to Work

(Sorry, I've been watching too much SpongeBob and I think I'm Mr.. Crabs.)

I turned off the talk radio this morning and turned on the XM/Sirius 80's station. I realize now how much more my wind can wander and unwind when I am listening to music instead of a talk show host tell me how f'd up the country is.

Am I the only one who is totally transported back to my youth when I listen to the music from it? I also realized this morning how stupid the lyrics are to a lot of 80's songs. For instance, this morning I got to hear "Every Rose has it's Thorn" by Poison. Ah, Poison. I thought they were girls the first time I saw them and even when I realized they were actually men, I was still jealous of their complexion and make-up jobs. Anyway, one of the lines in that song is, "Every rose has it's thorn, just like every night has it's dawn." So are they vampires? Because I thought a thorn was a bad thing and a dawn after a long dark night was a good thing. So how are those two things alike?

Then I heard, "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul. Sweet! I loved that song when I was 14. But what about the line, "Straight up now tell me are you gonna love me forever? Or am I caught up in a hit and run"? Right. I guess I understand what a hit and run is.

While I was pondering the 80's and my youth, I came to a stop light. I have to travel about 8 miles on a residential but busy two lane road with many stop lights along the way (about half my drive), it's actually kind of nice. I like to see houses on my way to work instead of billboards. This is actually the long way, but I prefer it over the expressway. So I was sitting at the light and I see this boy, probably about 11 years old (I'm guessing based on my limited knowledge of children), and he is riding his bike across the busy road. He's smart enough to cross with the light and he's wearing a helmet, but he is obviously on his way to school, he had his backpack on his back. But for some reason it made me sad. Probably because I struggle everyday with the fact that my kids have parents (all four of us) who work and I feel guilty. They come home to an empty house at least twice a week and when they go to their mom's house she mostly lets the tv babysit them. But that being said, they never have to get themselves off to school in the morning. Sam gets driven to the bus stop and Becca's bus stop is right in front of our house and either myself, Dave or his mom or my dad is always there to see her off. I don't think I could put my little boy on his bike and send down a busy street to school.

Now I understand that there may be a lot more to the story then what I perceive just from seeing the kid riding him bike down the street, but that is the reaction I had to it.

Okay, so I kept driving after seeing the little boy on his bike and I continued to jam to the 80's station. My mind wandered to such topics as Aqua Net hairspray, braces, jelly bracelets, jelly shoes and Madonna (The boy toy Madonna). Then I looked down and realized that I was almost out of gas. I stopped for gas, leaked it all over my hands, whoops and then came to work to find out that there was yet another round of layoffs going on. This involved two people that I have worked with since I started here 7 years ago (one of which has 5 kids).

I'm sad. Again.

You couldn't pay me enough to go back to being 14, except when I hear Bruce Springsteen singing Glory Days.