Road Trip

Today I am spending eight hours in the car with my mother so we can go to my cousin's baby shower in upstate NY (four hours to and then four hours back).  I don't care about the weather (snow in the forecast), about being in a car that long (I looooooove long drives and road trips), about anything but... what will we listen to?  I can't drive without music and I don't have a selection of my mom's favorite: country music (yech, not my style).  If we were driving four hours south, this wouldn't be a problem.  I've driven to Baltimore so many times that I could pick the Top 40 stations as we went down there... but going north?  Past the NYC metro area?  No clue.

I figured my best bet was to put together a playlist on my iPod and then hope that the station I play it through doesn't change too often while driving up there.  Even then, though, I don't generally listen to the same music as anyone I know - husband, friends, family.  There's always some overlap, but not enough to cover several hours.  The hubby will tolerate my music for hours in the car (and I, his) but I don't expect the same from my mom.  On a long drive up to the Finger Lakes in NY in 2007 I had a friend ask me, "Where's all the happy music?"  I gave her a boggled look and said, "I don't understand the question."  (There is happy music on my iPod... just not a majority.)

The top 10 played songs on my iPod (not entirely accurate since I cleared the history for some reason a time ago, but a fairly good representation):

1. Womanizer - Britney Spears

2. The Story - Brandi Carlile

3. This Train Don't Stop There Anymore - Elton John

4. To Life - Alfred Molina (Fiddler on the Roof)

5. Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple

6. Labour of Love - Frente!

7. Fools in Love - Inara George (Grey's Anatomy)

8. Flightless Bird, American Mouth - Iron & Wine (Twilight)

9. I'm Yours - Jason Mraz

10. Hot N Cold - Katy Perry

It's actually not as bad as I anticipated, probably because I know my iPod can go on random Morrissey kicks and play five in a row or more R.E.M. than anyone I know can stand.  I put together the playlist - heavy on Abba, Beatles, John Mayer - generally slower, inobtrusive songs... This way they kind of blend into the background.  In total, the playlist has 162 songs for 10.3 hours of music - more than enough to cover the trip there and back, barring traffic or getting lost (which shouldn't be a problem since I have a gps).

Life is a highway... and I'm gonna drive it all day loooong.