Can I Get Some of THAT?

I’ve been obsessing over Jimmy Fallon, not him in particular, but his late night show.  I go through these spurts of obsessing over things and going all over the internet to find anything related to that thing.

I went through (although this is kind of ongoing) a Jane Austen phase where I was looking for any books and movies that had any references to Jane Austen and her books.  I might write a separate blog post on this– I didn’t realize how much is out there paying homage to good ol’ Jane!

I often go through a recurring phase of looking for bloopers reels on youtube.  I love watching old TV show bloopers reels, like Seinfeld and the Cosby Show.  It’s wonderful seeing these great actors being human and silly.  I get a kick out of that.

So lately my obsession has been Jimmy Fallon and his late night show.  It started when my cousin showed me this:

I was dying!  And I watched it a few more times with him and then I’ve shown it to multiple friends and family since.  There are so many things I love about this clip: the amazingness of the Roots playing this whole mashup live (no records or DJs!), the fun JT and Jimmy are having, the skills they have, and just the electric vibe of joy in that space.

Then I found that they had done this several times, though I think history of rap #2 is the best.

Just recently, I got back interested in JF when this video went viral:

Once again, more awesomeness by all these guys and the Roots (how cool to have them as your back up band, just playing the soundtrack to your life??).  Again, joy, fun, love of what they do.

Then I stumbled on this precious clip:

Love it.  You can do more searches of JF with other celebrity singers singing and the Roots backing them up on classroom instruments.  Robin Thicke, Carly Rae Jepsen, Mariah Carey…

And then it’s easy to just get sucked into all the other clips on JF’s channel.  His other currently viral video about hashtags back with JT.  His thank-you notes.  His game show activities with his guests.

So what I love about this is that Jimmy Fallon has found what seems to be HIS dream job.  It’s so obvious he loves what he does.  And it’s obvious he’s grateful and even a bit starstruck by himself.  Like he can’t quite believe he is where is.  I could be totally reading into this, but he seems to still be a grounded, normal person who has skyrocketed to fame, but more importantly, landed a situation where he is joyful going to work.

I heard him on Terry Gross’s Fresh Air a few weeks ago, and there seemed to be some of that disbelief that he, a normal guy, is where he is today.

I want me some of THAT.  To find a job, situation, place in life where I get to bring together all my loves: food, social justice, education, that outdoors, people, love, hope… change.  I’d be curious to sit down with JF and ask if he had any vision of what his life would be like.  Right now, I don’t feel clear on my vision; but I am clear on my loves.  And maybe that’s what he’d say, just be clear on your loves and keep them front and center and keep moving toward them and with them.  You’ll get there.  Or maybe you already are there.

I have landed me a job!  I’m not sure if it will bring me the kind of joy that the late night show brings to Jimmy Fallon, but I’m moving along, keeping my eyes open.

Preparations

The days are getting closer until my departure for the other side of the world. I spent all morning and early afternoon calling places and going online to do things like changing my mailing address, making sure credit card companies knew I would be possibly using cards abroad, paying bills in advance. I can’t believe how much time that took!

And then I’m bracing myself for tomorrow when I’ll be culling through my huge music collection to determine what I will download on to my iPhone and iPad so I can be sure to have the music I want to listen to when I’m traveling and farming and feeling homesick. I have well over 3000 or so songs on my computer and an external hard drive. And since I’m bringing neither with me, I need to spend the time needed to organize that essential part of my life. 🙂 I think my music collection would be one of the top things on my list of what I would take if I were to be left on a deserted island. No joke. I could make it for a long time with just my music (and of course some way to eat).

Then the last big thing I need to do is pack all that I need for three or so months into two bags. Will that be possible? Here’s a bit of the progress I’m [not] making in that department:

Step 3 (a few steps happened before this) A scattered mass of stuff.

Step 4: Making a big pile of what I’m hoping to take (with some thought that I may still need to cut down…)

Where all that stuff needs to end up and still be carry-able on my back without killing me…

This is definitely the part of any trip that I hate. Questions like

• What will the weather be like? What clothes will I need?
• What kind of toiletries should I stock up on and what should I just buy when I’m there?
• How many pairs of underwear and socks do I REALLY need?
• How many pairs of jeans should I take? They’re so gosh darn heavy and hard to handwash (which I think is what I’m going to be doing for some parts of my trip).
• What other little things do I need, or at least will help make my trip a little easier and more enjoyable (like nail clippers, a compass, nice smelling lotion…)

I guess when it comes down to it, I’ll be able to buy whatever I forget, so I shouldn’t worry too much. But I don’t want to “waste” money on things that are easy to take that I just forgot to pack.

So some unusual things that I’m definitely taking that might be helpful tips for you who will be traveling for an extended period of time, roughing it more than doing the touristy thing:

• passport pictures– I’m told that these are needed for visas if I need to get them
• gardening gloves for WWOOFing– thanks to my youth– I have four pairs ready to go!
• a small bottle of dishwashing soap and laundry detergent
• clothespins and string to hang clothes to dry
• a sewing kit with a needle and thread to repair clothing
• extra ziploc bags of varying sizes

Making progress…

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Road Trip, Day Two

Made it to Chicago in one piece.  Today was our long driving day.

Itinerary: Niagara Falls, Ontario to Chicago, IL by way of Detroit and Ann Arbor, MI
Miles driven: ~525 miles.  That’s a lot of miles!!!!
Driving conditions: downpours of rain and lots of clouds in Canada.  Finally got some sun once we got into Michigan.
Food eaten: Tim Horton’s coffee and donut holes, Snyder’s honey mustard pretzel bites, baby carrots, amazing Reuben and salad at Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, MI, and deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s in Chicago.

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We’ve really had lots of good food on our trip.  I would highly recommend all of those places if you ever visit those towns.  Look it up on yelp!  Thanks to friends for recommending Zingerman’s and Lou Malnati’s.

Thank goodness for this device that a friend lent me.  You plug it into your cigarette lighter and then plug the other end into the headphones hole of the iPhone.  Then you set your radio station to a station that doesn’t have music already and set the device to the same station and voila, you have your iPhone music playing over your car speakers!  This is for me who only has a CD player in my car and no bluetooth or USB outlet because my car is over 10 years old.

I really wonder what life would be like without music.  I need to have music playing in the background all the time.  S made a 497-song mix for the trip and we’ve been singing (or at least humming for me because I don’t know lyrics– I just know melodies and harmonies) all along the way.  Good tunes are key for a good road trip.  Besides the mix made by S, I also got a set of CD mixes from one of my co-workers– another great mix of lots of great songs.

It’s been hard figuring out what I want to post on Facebook, what I want to post on this blog, and what I want to just keep to myself about this journey.  Adding photos makes it more challenging because I take a ton of photos each day.  And I don’t just want a slew of photos on each blog entry.  Also, I’m trying to get used to updating the blog on my iPad, which is definitely not as easy as updating the blog with my laptop.

Things are getting closer to the day I leave for New Zealand!  Can’t believe how quickly the days are passing.