thinkin 'bout something

I meant to go to bed at midnight. An hour and fifteen short minutes later, I am still awake grooving to Hanson's new CD, Shout It Out. Though the album does not come out in physical CD form (or in the downloadable form, for those of you tech-savvy ifolk) until June 8th, AOL has kindly provided all the tracks online. Yay! This is bad for my sleeping habits, but good for my Hanson devotion, as I feel that they only continue to improve with age. I'm only on their fourth track so far, so here is my incomplete assessment of the newest CD: It isn't nearly as activism-driven as their last release, The Walk. Of course this is slightly disappointing for me, but good lord I could listen to their bluesy harmonies all day long whether they're urging me to pay attention to the fire on the mountain or some weird ass dude from Milwaukee. This album is so much... fun! That's the exact word that I would use to describe it. I'm now on the fifth song, and every single one has had me shimmying around and tapping my feet to the beat. So it isn't as deep and existential as when they were dying to be alive and looking for a song to sing. Who cares? Not this girl.

In other non-related news (although seeing as my life has been lived to a Hanson soundtrack since 1996, maybe it's all more related than we know) I now have a job rolling burritos and getting food to the masses near my house. I will not mention the name of my new employer, not because I'm afraid I'll say anything bad or that they'd be upset, but because in my Service in Women's Studies class everyone seemed to agree that mentioning the name of the company you work for on a blog was a big no-no. I guess unless you work for the government, decide to cook your way through Julia Child's cookbook, and eventually get a book and movie deal. Then it's OK. Anywho, this is my new occupation. It's weird. I somehow expected this summer to be different, but it's exactly the same. I'm still at a minimum wage job that requires little to no analytical brain power and a lot of chipper excitement about activities that seem otherwise unexciting. I do hope that Cat was right, and that these experiences will one day provide a chapter of hilariosity in my memoir. This chapter will most likely be called: 1-2-3...shoot me. If you worked where I work, you would get it.

Man, this Hanson CD rocks. I can't wait to buy it on June 8th. I am so serious. It isn't just because I'm a huge, huge, monstrous fan. It's because this is the perfect summer CD to listen to with the windows down and bright yellow sunglasses on. It is also the perfect CD to dance around a new NYC apartment in, and I can't wait! It will also be sweet to be able to say I have 8 Hanson CDs. Yup. Cannot wait!

I feel like I had all of these profound commentaries I wanted to make, but the upbeat tracks are completely distracting from all the feminist angst that was previously building up. I feel like one thing I did want to discuss is that new commercial for tampons that claims to be revolutionizing the way we talk about periods by revolutionizing the tampon. So, I googled "tampon commercial" and it turns out I'm not the only one trying to figure out the point of this new marketing ploy. I'll be the first to admit that my gut reaction was pretty predictable: how can continuing to use tampons, which treat your period like something you don't want to touch and need to dispose of while putting you at risk for TSS and polluting the planet, be revolutionary? Once I found the site responsible, I was pleasantly surprised by the 'cause.' Of course, I'd rather all of the girls taking kotex's pledge to be real about their periods and bodies and to develop a more healthy relationship with their bodies and their cycles get a diva cup instead of neon tampons. But anyone who wants to normalize periods is fine with me. I just like Vinnie's way better. I'm always a little wary of a big, established corporation that claims to have women's best interests at heart. But, if their 'campaign' convinces just one girl to think that her period isn't gross, I approve.

I'm going to tear myself away from the last four tracks of Shout it Out (or maybe just fall asleep listening to them) and go to sleep. I have off work tomorrow (yay!) and will get to go do friend things. That's what the summer is about anyways, right?

Until later, I am yours in sisterly solidarity and would like to leave this song from SATC 2 (which will, hopefully, be the focus of an upcoming post) as a parting gift.