We Are Young

          I  bought a new CD that I am really enjoying.  Yes, I do mean an actual disk that I can hold in my hands.  I am Old School like that.  Or maybe I should say Old Skool.  Which way makes me sound cooler?   Read it the cooler way.  Does the fact that I have to ask which way is cooler illustrate the fact that I am not cool?!  Okay, scratch that.  I am so phat that I sometimes buy CDs.  Yikes, that doesn’t work.  Just accept that I am sooo cool that the right words to express my coolness have yet to be discovered.

         Maybe I just need to invent my own coolness indicator phrase?  Do I start with phrases from my youth and reinvent them?  “Totally Rad!” could become… “Perfectly Profound!”  Or maybe “Gnarly!” could be “Contorted!”.  Can you tell that I am using a Thesaurus?  Shoot.  I think cool people would not need to use a thesaurus… 

         So (focus) ANYWAY, I bought a whole cd called Some Night by the band Fun.  (I have to point out here that I bought it the week that it came out.  See? Cool.)   It’s fun and fluffy music. It’s great for the car.  It’s a bit like Queen rolled around in some other bands and is great for loud car singing.  Which my kids love!  Especially when I pick them up from school.  They get to show their friends just how cool I am! Luckily for them, it’s still chilly out.  Otherwise, I’d be rolling up to them scream-singing with the windows open…  They would feel so proud!

         My favorite song on the album is called "We Are Young".   I know it’s a good song but I think I like it even more because I get to scream-sing my favorite line: “We are young tonight!”  You know, to self affirm that I am young and I am going to “set the world on fire”.  I mean my private life is pretty glam but for some reason I don’t know that it would work as well in lyrics… “I am fighting middle age!” and “Am going home to clean up guinea pig poop and burn dinner!”   I don’t think sing-screaming that would make me feel quite as good.  But I am not really sure why…

         What is it about music in the car that makes you feel so good?  I love those first few warm days of spring…  Because rolling down the windows and playing some good music puts me right back to my High School days, it makes me feel happy and young.   It reminds me of the days when I had control of the radio. Now I can only play what I want from 9-3 during the school year.  (And, yes, I am the grownup.  I could force my radio choices on them but it’s sooo not worth the grumbling.)

         SO, when I am running my exciting errands and I have a good song on and the sun is shining, I feel great!  When I get to blast “We are young!",  I feel even better!  I just know that everyone is wondering who that cool chick is and why she knows such great music.  And, then, I catch my reflection in the glass of a storefront.  It’s like that moment in a John Hughes movie where the dork walks in and the record scratches to an abrupt halt.  Sh@t! I am so NOT cool.  I’m in a minivan with a bunch of school decals on it and my hair sticking up.  Reality bites me in the ego and I turn the music down.  Until the next good song comes on and dupes me again.  When am I going to learn?  (I hope never because those 3:30 odd  minutes feel soooo goood!)