I've mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of the car line at my daughter's school. Luckily, I only have to go through this hell once a day. In the mornings, we can walk our children into school and since I'm an overbearing, overprotective father, I use this option.
But others aren't as neurotic smart as me. They choose to drop their kids off in the car line.
The drop-off area is about six cars long. However, the doors to the school are at the back of the drop-off area, so it's quite tempting for a parent to stop his car in front of the doors and drop his kids out there instead of driving to the front of the line. People do it all the time. And it pisses off the teachers who are manning the drop-off line, waving the cars on.
Last week, I watched a mom stop at the doors instead of pulling up to the front of the line. She saw the teacher frantically waving for her to pull her car forward, but the mom ignored her. Her child got out of the car as the teacher waved. Her child shut the door as the teacher continued to wave (seriously, I thought she was going to take flight). And then the mom s-l-o-w-l-y inched up to the front of the drop-off line until her car was right next to the teacher.
And then she flipped off the teacher!
YES!
I would never have the balls to do this. Sure, I flip off fellow drivers on a regular basis. But I wouldn't flip off a teacher. Even if it wasn't my child's teacher, there's a chance that Zoey or Zed might be in her class somewhere down the line. And you know all the teachers talk, anyway. There would be retribution. You don't want your kid to go through elementary school known as "The Kid Whose Mom Flipped Off Ms. Crabapple." But it would probably get you out of all PTA obligations.
So I lived vicariously through this mom. She had done what so many before her had longed to do. I was so enamored with this hardcore mom that I flagged down her car and made out with her.
Song Of The Day
Guess what, kids? This week, I decided to give you a break from the hairbands, early 80s hits, and mainstream alternative that occupy this spot every day. I asked Greg Barbera from hopeless cases to man the DJ booth this week. Don't know Greg? Let him introduce himself:I've seen a lot of bands in my day. I've interviewed a lot of bands in my day. I have a lot of records and CDs that my wife would like me to get rid of and yet I always seem to find more records that I want. My love for music is so intertwined with my daily life it would be hard to imagine a life without it. I currently sing and play bass in a band called Chest Pains (it can be argued that I can do neither).
Greg will be here all week. So without further ado, here's his first selection:
I believe it was around 8th or 9th grade when I first got exposed to underground (ie: noncommercial) music through my bmxin' and skateboardin' friends. One of my friends lived in a neighborhood called Flower Valley and there was this guy who drove a VW Bug and wore Vans and – if I recall – had a mini-ramp in his backyard. His name was Peter Murray and he was in a band called Marginal Man. Another guy, a quirky dude with bad fashion sense, worked at the movie theater at the shopping center near my house. His name was John Stabb and he was in a band called Government Issue. Seeing these two guys around shattered that fourth wall for me and showed me that you didn't have to be or act like a rock star to be in a band. I would eventually end up seeing those two bands many times during high school and they would be the doors that opened me to punk rock and the D.I.Y. aesthetic. There was this other band from my neighborhood that the long hairs liked called The Obsessed. Their singer was named Wino and he looked like Lemmy from Motorhead. It can be argued that The Obsessed gave birth to the metal subgenre doom rock. Wino went on to play with St. Vitus, Spirit Caravan and Hidden Hand. Back in the mid 80s they were one of the few metal bands – possibly the only – that would play with bands in the punk scene. There's a great documentary floating around the internet that's worth checking out.
Song of the day: Streetside by The Obsessed
