ATC in NYC

What makes me smile on a Wednesday? I would have to say that today it is a combination of (a.) hopelessly cheesy 80s pop music and (b.) heading to my big-boy job amidst the hustle and bustle of the big city knowing that somewhere back in Nashville kids are pretending to be interested in their syllabi and hoping they have at least a few friends in their classes this semester. I offer to them a haughty chortle… and this playlist that I will be listening to while making my way to the R train.

1. 9 to 5 | Dolly Parton | 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs | If Dolly lived on the East Coast, I suppose she would have named this song “10 to 6.” But, then again, an East Coast Dolly is as close to an oxymoron as you’re gonna get. This bouncing confection was almost enough to keep the musical of the same name open through the end of the summer. Wah Wah. You’ve got one week left if you still want to catch it in the lamest house ever erected on Broadway.

2. You Make My Dreams | Hall & Oates | Voices | Never mind the molestache in their creepy cover art, this 1980 Hall & Oates classic was recently brought back to the limelight with its key placement in the I’m-trying-so-hard-not-to-be-indie film 500 Days of Summer. For me, the most lasting image from that movie is Joseph Gordon-Levitt traipsing through L.A. to this song, full-on Disney musical style. I should have his choreography down pat by the end of the week.

3. Uptown Girl | Billy Joel | An Innocent Man | I’m admittedly late to the game on this one, but my obsession du jour over the past few weeks has been none other than Mr. Billy Joel. I mean, have you listened to this CD? It’s flawless! Mix 50s rockabilly goodness with 60s doo-wopping genius and you get a record that just barely missed the Best Album Grammy (it lost to some set named Thriller…). This song in particular makes me excited for the return of the modern-day uptown girls.

4. Escapade | Janet Jackson | Rhythm Nation 1814 | I think Janet was at her peak when she was wearing oddly apocalyptic military gear and strutting around with her snazzy Paula Abdul dance moves. Don’t you? This track is as fun and effervescent as they get. Funky and sweet in all the right places. Like me. (Ha!)

5. Get Out of My Dreams (Get Into My Car) | Billy Ocean | Tear Down These Walls | Admit it. You are a fan of songs with titles that feature self-important parenthetical information. Well, I am too. And this Billy Ocean gem is no exception. It’s a tricky one to find, though. I scoured iTunes for days (months, years?) before finally finding it on Amazon (the website… not the rainforest). This song would make me miss my beloved Honda Civic if it weren’t so dern catchy.

I bet you thought I was one of those people who got on a really self-important blogging kick, making great posts rather frequently and getting you addicted just in time to promptly drop off the face of the earth and never post again, eh? Hardly. I have a very legitimate excuse to explain the lack of NYC-rific blogs over the past month: Homeboy got robbed.

You heard me correctly. I was robbed! Burglarized, to be specific. After living in the city for a month. I’ll spare you the gritty details for obvious security reasons, but suffice it to say those suckers made away with a lot of my crap… including my computer.

Anywho, I’m back on my feet now. New computer and all. But the experience was one that hit me in a way I really wasn’t expecting it to. You know how some people go through post-partum depression? Well I had legit post-burglary depression for at least a week after the event in question. I couldn’t get out of my head the idea that someone thought it was completely fine to break into my apartment, take things that I had worked very hard for, and deprive me of years of files and photos that represented some of the best years of my life.

But I digress, the event was actually a good thing on a number of fronts. It made me realize how much I needed to get renter’s insurance. It got me and the rooms to install not one but two new locks on our door. It helped me learn how to navigate the local police/detective system. And it made me recognize that I can live quite a long time without TV and internet. In short, it was a forceful shove into adulthood that I don’t take for granted. Call me Pippi Freaking Longstocking, but being robbed blindly actually has a few select advantages.

Sure, it would be nice to have all my photos and writings back. And it’s going to suck like wo that I have to reload my entire music library one CD at a time (Word to not pirating music! I actually still own all of my music in hard copy form…). But it could have been a lot worse… they could have stolen my plucky spirit and can-do attitude. Too bad I didn’t let them. Huzzah!