what's happening to me?

you guys. lately, i've been listening to...country music.

i'm speechless.  and a little confused.

mainly, i blame nashville.  its music is just sooooooo good.  for example:

now.  these songs are not traditional country.  they're more bluegrass or folk-y.  they say nothing about trucks or dogs or hunting or beer.  and there is nary a honky-tonk guitar riff to be heard.  they are just beautiful, beautiful love songs sung by beautiful, beautiful people.  with a country twist.  in nashville.  seems innocent, innocuous enough.  and so i downloaded them, put them on a playlist, and played them into oblivion.

then, i heard about a little tv show called friday night lights, and subsequently fell in love with tim riggins in all of is cowboy-boot-wearing, country-loving, texas-forever glory.  behold.

can you blame me?  good.  me neither.  his little drawl and ability to ping-pong between drunken looser and resident wiseman drew me in and stuck me fast.  he made me feel safe and secure in the country.  he made me want to slap on my wranglers, jump into the cab of his truck, and yell, "let's head to the football game, y'all!"

looking back, i think that this was the point where i lost control.

after i found tim, i downloaded this song:

don't let taylor swift's ability to jump from one genre to another fool you.  she's nothing but a country queen in this little ditty, a country queen partnered with two country kings.

then, i downloaded this song:

ladies and gentlemen, miranda lambert is a country music artist.  nothing more, nothing less.  in the last week, i downloaded a straight-up-no-chaser country song.

and, the final straw.  when i heard this on the radio this morning, i thought, "this is awesome."

yes, nelly does blow this track up.  but.  i thought the song was downloadable before i knew nelly was on it.  that means i listened to two verses of twang before there was anything even rap-ish whatsoever about it.  when a song's lyrics are, "in this brand new chevy with a lift kit/ would look a hell of a lot better with you up in it," that song is all country, all the time.

i am befuddled.  i am bemused.  i need to take a time out with this remix of remix to ignition and think about what i have done.

(thanks g for the much needed breath of sanity.)

one car poorer

this one time in march, i was driving on foothill drive at approximately 9:20 am.  due the herds of cars stampeding to research park or the university of utah, traffic is treacherous at that place, at that hour.  and when traffic stops, it stops quickly.  and that morning, stop quickly it did.  it happened like this:

a light turned red.
people screeched to halt.
i was one of those people.
i thought to myself, "self, that was a quick stop.  i hope whoever is behind me stops."
i checked my rearview.
"self, that car is not going to stop."
boom.
i got smooshed into the car in front of me.
i then got pushed into the next lane of traffic.
the car i hit hit the car in front of her.
he hit the car in front of him.
the total number of cars affected was 5.
the total number of damage to my car was totalled.

so, i am down one car.

i took the passing of my elantra harder than i thought i would...though i never thought about losing it before i lost it.  i didn't come by my car of my own volition.  it was my dad's idea.  he gave it to me for my undergraduate graduation combined with the "gift" of a credit history (aka- i had to pay a lot of it off).  i wasn't super excited about the payments that rolled around religiously each month.  but, the car grew on me.  i loved the way it handled in the snow.  i loved that it was a stick shift.  i loved that it had a hatch-back.  i love that i kind of felt like i was driving a silver bullet.  and now, all of that is gone.

when i went to pay my last respects and gather my belongings from its remains, i was more emotional than i expected.  in that moment, i decided that i should have named it Hi Ho, Silver (think of how punny that would have been), and i felt really bad that i never did.  i remembered how often i complained about paying for it.  i remembered how many cool trips it took me on.  i remembered how easy it was to park.  and i was sad.  i've never felt more like a boy in my life.

i guess the upside is that i have a huge sunglasses collection.

for the time being, until i find my new car, i'm driving around this sweet lil' thang:

it belongs to my grandparents, and, no lie, drives like a dream.  but, the hands-down-best part of this champion of a 1995 baby blue ford taurus is how my grandpa attached the registration stickers...

the original timeline.  way to go, grandpa.