I do my part every morning to save the world (and money) by commuting from Midtown, Houston, TX to work at the Texas Medical Center on the Metro Lightrail. Little did I know, each morning would be an eye-opening experience.
Lately, the light rail has been full of the same stuff I always blog about. It’s the same old homeless people asking for change/food/phone numbers, and the same fat people taking up multiple seats.
Alas, something new, yet related to trains to blog about.
If you’re like me, you enjoy commercials. When I watch TV with people, they feel like commercials are a good time to have a conversation, but unfortunately this is not the case. I probably enjoy commercials more than the actual show. Superbowl? I don’t care who is playing..I just want to see the commercials (until they stopped those awesome pepsi ones).
One thing I have noticed, along with many other people (especially @KeithStoeckeler), is the excessive use of “Hey Soul Sister” by Train. I’m sure you know the song, but for people like my Mom, here it is:
Now after wasting time watching that video, you know EXACTLY which ads use this song. In any given commercial break, you’ll hear this song a good 5 times. That is 5 more times than I really want to hear it.
Do us all a favor and join the movement. If you work for an ad firm, or if you make home videos, please do not use this song. It is old, overused, and we all know that somebody’s lipstick is somehow stained on homeboy’s brain.
This weekend, I flew to Chicago with my roommate and longtime friend for her birthday. She played soccer at an out of state Big 12 School, so most of her friends are dispersed throughout the Midwest. Four of her college friends met us in Chicago for the Dave Matthews Band concert at Wrigley. She’s a HUGE DMB fan and has been for as long as I can remember, so it was the perfect way to celebrate her 25th birthday. We took a cab most of the time, but I did have a chance to ride the train a few times while we were in the city. The first ride was to Wrigley field on Saturday for the concert. This ride was pretty boring. I was kind of disappointed and already missed my Houston randos.
The concert was incredible, but the line for the red line after was just incredibly long. After pushing through crowds of people, we made our way to the platform upstairs. I have issues with standing too close to people so I moved down the platform a ways. I thought Erin and crew were following. They didn’t so I figured once the train arrived, I could just walk to where they were inside the train.
Unfortunately, this was not the case…We were in two separate cars. The train was super packed so I decided to stay in place and meet them at our destination. I was standing next to a group of what looked like Justin Bieber look alikes. I’m not even kidding you…all different shapes and sizes- dudes in skinny jeans with Bieber fever…with the exception they just came from a Dave concert. I’m old, so standing forever listening to music wears you out..especially while consuming a little booze in the process. So normally, I would find these kids conversation entertaining, but not tonight. They begin to have a conversation about their favorite youtube videos. The “hide ya kids, hide ya wife” video came up. Now, I think the video is hilarious, but when a group of 10 high school aged kids start singing the song really loud word for word, it gets annoying.
Yes, THIS is the song they were singing over and over again. I don’t know if high school kids just like to beat a horse until it’s dead, but I’m already tired of this video and ready to move on to the next viral video. Fortunately they DO move on to the next video..
Now, this next song the kids decided to sing made me a little uncomfortable. They were singing this song really really loud and I was next to this old lady (well, relative). This song is a few years old, and you may have missed it back in the day….warning, this is DEFINITELY NSFW.
By this point, I remembered I had NO idea which stop to exit the train once we hit downtown Chicago. I started to freak out…phone was dead and I could no longer see Erin and crew through the door to the next car. I was tired of listening to Youtube and decided at one of the next stops I would hop off and into the car that Erin was hopefully still in. This stop happened to be the same spot these high schoolers decided to exit the train, allthewhile singing “What what in the butt”…yes, another NSFW, if you have not seen it.
I was so happy to see Erin in the next car, needless to say. Her’s was quiet and calmm thankfully.
Moral of the story: Chicago, you were alright…just too cold for my liking and too obsessed w/ youtube. Where were all my crazy homeless folks and people doing dances like on the subways in NYC? Maybe next trip…
Today on the light rail, I realized I should get one of those recorders you take to class to record a lecture. I was overhearing a HILARIOUS conversation, so I attempted to video record the conversation on my phone to share with you folks. Unfortunately, the sound quality is a little off, but I’ll highlight some parts of the video after.
So here’s the deal. This flamboyant man and this woman were chatting about coach purses prior to my videoing. She wanted a new purse and all I remember was him saying with a mouth full of taco bell:
“Girrrlll you needsa make him buy you a Coach purse. That one you gots there ain’t classy enough for a woman like you.”
And then another big bite of Taco bell.
My favorite part of this video is when he pulls his pant leg up…he was giving her advice how to show sex appeal. Yep. That just happened. Oh and then her sigh “oooooooo Jesus!”
