Awesome mixtape, poem & other thoughts

Hit the Interstate around 7 p.m. Friday night from Duluth, GA, and around 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning arrived here in Kettering, OH. Whew! I nearly got knocked off the road by a wild big rig in a super heavy rain in Georgia and missed a turn in Knoxville (while talking on my cell), but now I'm here and trying to make myself sleepy so that I can catch some zzzz's before picking up Ben and Jonah later this morning.

I don't think I would've stayed awake driving if it weren't for this awesome mixtape (err, mixdisc) that Tammy made for me (all these songs can be found on MySpace and/or YouTube):

1. "Arcadia," by Ash
2. "Mixtape," by Tift Merritt
3. "My Love," by The Bird and the Bee
4. "Party With Children," by Ratatat
5. "M79," by Vampire Weekend
6. "Percussion Gun," by White Rabbits
7. "Joyriders," by Pulp
8. "Playground Love," by Air
9. "Do It Again," by Chemical Brothers
10. "Id Engager," by Of Montreal
11. "Strange Overtones," David Byrne & Brian Eno
12. "Eponine," by Ozma
13. "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing," by Jack Johnson
14. "That's All," by Clare and the Reasons
15. "I Can Change," by LCD Soundsystem
16. "Harmony to My Heartbeat," by Sally Seltmann
17. "Imma Be," by Black Eyed Peas
18. "If I Ever Feel Better," by Phoenix
19. "Do the Whirlwind," by Architecture in Helsinki
20. "Never Forget You," by Noisettes

Tammy made the mixtape for me after I created the set list. It's been a while since I've composed a mixtape, and I think this may be one of my favorites. Of course, new mixtapes are almost always my favorites. My strategy is always to have a cohesive mix that changes moods and tempo without having any songs that awkwardly stick out. Plus, I love it when the last track flows into the first track. Anyway, this mix totally received a Mission Accomplished for getting me safely awake to Ohio.

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Here's a poem for today (Saturday) to keep the poem-a-day in 2010 going:

149-Don't question your luck

Kiss on the mountain top;
kiss on the counter top.

Then, drop to the kitchen floor;
shed your clothes and kiss some more.

Don't say another word;
don't tell her what you heard

about her reputation--
block out communication.

Just get another kiss;
just give another kiss.

There's time for talking later;
don't be a player hater.

Just let your body move
and feel her body move:

what you want--now you got it;
don't try to use your logic.

Kiss on the easy chair
and kiss without a care.

Take it all and then give it.
Not dreaming if you live it.

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Observation #1: There were like a million troopers outside of Dalton, GA, pulling speeders over left and right. I've driven hundreds of thousands of miles (seriously, I have), and I've never seen so many troopers lined up the way these were. In fact, I was speeding in that area and felt kind of like R2D2 and C3PO in Star Wars: A New Hope sneaking past undetected.

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Observation #2: I noticed several cars heading out of Georgia with Ohio license plates or Gwinnett county GA plates. Since NCR recently left Dayton for Duluth, I imagined all these Ohio and Gwinnett GA plates belonged to NCR employees heading back up home for Memorial Day weekend. Made me feel a little less lonely driving up this time around to think I was part of some kind of Duluth-to-Dayton caravan.

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Observation #3: This is something I've been noticing for a while, but the billboards seem to be getting emptier and emptier along I-75. Not sure if this is a national trend and a move away from billboards for advertising, but it's interesting anyway.

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Observation #4: Last one for this post, but Lexington, KY, smelled like either a sweaty sock or a cigarette--or a combination of the two unique smells. It was not a pleasant area to be driving with the window down, for sure.

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