Me & U Do It To It with Buttons while you Hate Me with the Lips of an Angel ... and Other Top 20 on 20

I had a very, very busy day of work today. (Which, by the way, still isn't over. I expect to still be working on importing our salary changes -- it's merit increase time!! -- at 2:00 am. Oh well... at least I have a good excuse for staying up that late tonight!) It was one of those days that I didn't even have an opportunity to get up & do anything (including take a shower until REALLY late in the day!). So, I ended up staying in the bed, alternating between lying down and sitting up, with the ultra-hot laptop (oops... I mean notebook computer) on my lap, on the bed, etc., in my pjs. A couple things I thought of while writing that sentence: 1) Have you seen those stories about the Dell laptops spontaneously combusting (story 1 and story 2)? Man... as much as my computer is on my lap, I sure hope I don't have one that's prone to catching fire. But, as hot as the darn thing gets, I wouldn't be surprised! It would probably be a pretty funny sight... kind of like the time I pulled a cookie sheet out of the oven with a dish towel and accidentally dragged the towel over the elements. Here's me standing in the middle of the kitchen floor while Haley & Jon scream at me that I'm on fire. It slowly dawns on me that my hand is getting hot & I quickly drop the on-fire towel (and the cookie sheet... along with the darn cookies!) onto the floor. Good reaction, huh?! Stop, drop, and burn the vinyl floor. Anyway... I can only imagine my reaction if my notebook computer exploded in my lap. 2) I did grab 2 seconds today to run to Chick-fil-A for a quick lunch. I did not, however, change out of my pjs (tank top & shorty shorts). Although they're not the same ones I talked about earlier, it did bring to mind Lis' comment from a couple days ago. Lis, what do you mean? I ALWAYS wear my pjs out in public! I may not get out of the car (all my fave places have drive-throughs), but I'm technically in public. The funniest part of your comment, Lis, was that it popped into my e-mail WHILE I was out in public in my passed-the-sniff-test-but-still-dirty pjs.

Anyway... the reason I even started this post was to talk about the music I've been listening to today. When I get really busy & don't get out of bed, I usually eventually think to turn on the TV. But I cannot allow myself to turn on video... because I would easily get sucked into ANYTHING (hello, ADD... I'm reminded of Thursday nights in State College when Lis & Jon would get so irritated at Jake & me watching whatever was on TV instead of listening to & participating in the conversation... hello, I can't look away from the pretty picture... and if you don't want me watching it, turn the darn thing OFF!). So, I frequent the XM satellite channels on DirecTV. And instead of flipping between stations to find good songs, I usually end up picking the Top 20 on 20 station. I thoroughly enjoy it, because I'm usually a fan of the top 20 hits. But it is funny that I sit here listening to it ALL DAY. I've heard the "top 20" songs (there are actually a few more than 20!) a million times today!!! My favorites include:

- Buttons, PSD -- one of my faves for the past week... I attribute it to Calliente's bust-a-move moment at the water fountain in front of half her office
- Me & U, Cassie -- so that's where Jami got her MySpace tune! can't help but like it now that I recognize it so easily... hard to ignore a ooh-I-know-this-song moment
- Do It To It, Cherish -- I'm reminded of Leafy @ Granville... Kasey would say "do-do-do", Ash would say "do it to it"... SUCH FUN TIMES
- Snap Yo Fingers, Lil Jon/E-40/Sean Paul -- geez... WHY do I have to like an E-40 song??? Please... no one tell Jon. Same as Cassie's song... sooo easy to recognize!
- Crazy, Gnarls Barkley -- dang that Marco... he'll always be the person I associate with Gnarls Barkley since he's the first person I know of who "found them" on MySpace. Speaking of Marco, how small is the world when the Internet's involved? I had to leave Haley a comment last night at 2 AM to discuss the pure WEIRD that is Marco and Richie in the same mental image frame in my mind (thanks to Callie's blog post).
- Promiscuous, Nelly Furtado -- I really didn't even believe this was fly-like-a-bird Nelly Furtado when I first heard it. I enjoy the song, but it's JUST NOT NELLY. But I guess it is... and I'll just have to get over it.
- Unfaithful, Rihanna -- Easy to learn, hard to listen to
- Ain't No Other Man, Christina -- eh... regular old reformed-XTina song
- London Bridge, Fergie -- LOVE Fergie (um, and Josh D.) ... don't necessarily love this song. But it grows on ya. I still don't get it, though. And no, I don't want any of you to try to explain it to me.
- SexyBack, JT -- ha ha... JT. Yep, he's back. And I'm listening again. :-) So, the first time I heard this I agreed with some random person I saw comment about it... he said SexyBack was just JT's latest prank... proof that he could get the radio stations to play anything he put out (even the stuff he wrote while strung out). But, once again, JT's growing on me. LOL
- It's Goin' Down, Yung Joc -- Another MySpace popular
And finally... the worst of all of my guilty pleasures... I'm so embarassed to even admit that I halfway-enjoy this song. Oh, what the heck... y'all don't read this anyway... and if you do, no way have you gotten all the way down here!
- Stars Are Blind, Paris Hilton -- Please, someone tell me Paris was in no way associated with this song... that she's lip-syncing and they only hired her to "act" in the video & plaster her name/face on the album!!! I just cannot take it if I actually like one of her songs. Luckily, I've already started seeing speculation that she's not really the mastermind behind it. Whew... what a relief.

The other thing I find interesting is the way in which the top tunes (#1 especially) change throughout the day. At 12:25 tonight, it's Ashley Parker Angel (Let It Go). Earlier today, I remember #1's including: Nelly's "Promiscuous" and PCD's "Buttons". Just seems like different tastes prevail at different times of the day. Eclectic, I like to call it. And I was also pleased to hear that KT Tunstall and James B. are still making periodic appearances in the top 20. Love them. Miss them when they're not around.

Anyway... Mary made it in tonight, albeit a little late and a little perturbed at the not-so-friendly-skies crew that kept her & the other passengers seated through most of the 6 hour trek across the country. You know, I've noticed it lately myself too -- the pilot seems to be keeping that seat belt sign on unnecessarily. And, thank you very much, if we're flying along steadily, I think I'll chance it instead of holding it as Miss-Terrible-Manners-Attendant may so rudely suggest.

OK, time to wrap it up & get on with posting these merit increases. Just a few pics before I go: ... the fabulous job we're doing keeping up the outside of Forsythe (and turning the pretty lights on when it's dark); a better (well, I like the flowers better) pic of the dining room (red room!); keeping tabs on our next door neighbor's house (there's still plenty of time to get in on this...okay, we'll discuss later); and finally, the spectacular colored sky from yesterday's dusk. It was simply unbelievable.


- Much luv -