Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

I'm returning to the scene of the crime. I'm "fixin" to head back to Texas, y'all! You may have already heard, oh, once or twice by now, that I'm staying in Canada another year (!). I'm really only just slightly excited about it much (yippee, yahoo, woo hoo, wahoo, backflips, handstands, pogo sticks, bouncy balls, lollipops!!).

What spine-tingling fun will I be having in H-town, you ask? Check it: Mexican food! Margaritas with salt! Celebrating my parents' 41st wedding anniversary! Target run in a currency worth something! Breaking fingernails from packing up my condo! Shoving all my worldly goods into a 10x10 air conditioned box! Finding a renter in tanking economy! Wait a minute.....

(P.S. if anyone wants to come hang and help me pack, there's liquor in it for you. We might have to drink out of yellow Solo cups, but it's free. We can work our way from business drunk into lampshade-on-the-head drunk. Just be careful with my stuff.)

I'm getting my iTouch all charged up and ready to go with some tunage to get me through the week o'hell, er, I mean fun (sorry mom). I'm adding a snippet of the playlist that I'll be rockin' out to while enduring splinters from the eleventy-thousand cardboard boxes I'll be packing. Thanks to a pretty fantastic Canadian radio fan I know, I've been listening almost exclusively to CBCRadio3 lately (except in my car where I am still (Sirius)XM loyal, but quickly losing patience. Come ON - Huey Lewis has no place on the 80's channel. Or any channel for that matter). CBCRadio3 is a nationally broadcast Canadian radio station that rocks all Canadian music by all Canadian artists all the time. Rock, pop, hip hop, alternative, electronic - if you like it, they're playing it. The best part? Their streaming is gratis. I think it's quite possibly the world's greatest radio station. People - stop listening to Britney, Taylor Swift and flippin' Uncle Kracker and do yourselves a favour - check out some good music.

A'hem...without further ado, my playlist, set to the tune of "Smack My B*tch Up" but entitled "Pack Yo Sh*t Up".

1) Help, I'm Alive - Metric (I am so digging this song right now, I can hardly stand it. Get the acoustic version free on their website)
2) Some Are Lakes - Land of Talk
3) The Reptiles and I - Shriekback
4) Hands on Fire - The Stills
5) Land of Giants - Hooded Fang
6) Sonnet - The Verve (this song makes me happy like a schoolgirl getting felt up under the bleachers)
7) Mr. Wendall - Arrested Development
8) By Your Side (Naked Music Remix) - Sade ft. Miguel Migs
9) We Are the Hunters - The D'urbervilles
10) Everything Counts - Depeche Mode
11) 14 Forever - Stars
12) Rushing - Moby
13) Ebow the Letter - R.E.M.
14) Until the Night is Over - Timber Timbre
15) 100 Days, 100 Nights - Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
16) Queen of Hearts - Juice Newton (aw yeah! Flashback!)
17) Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
18) Never Let Me Down Again - Depeche Mode
19) Where Do I Begin - The Chemical Brothers
Tie for 20th place:
20a) Jesus on the Radio - Guster
20b) Closedown - The Cure

Talk to you guys next week. Big Texas-sized hugs!

Side note: total shout out to Continental Airlines. I was scheduled to fly through Newark to Houston on the same type of prop plane that, very sadly, went down in Buffalo last week. And, there is supposed to be a rain/snow mix the day I leave. Ugh. I'm not usually a flying wimp, but I was having serious heart palpitations about getting on that plane. I called Continental and asked if there was anything they could do because, honestly, I would have been totally devoid of my sangfroid had I been required to fly on that plane in the snow (I know, I know...I live in Canada.). To my surprise and delight, they were more than accommodating and to boot, super cool about it. They changed my flights to non-stop jet service without - shock of the century - ANY ADDITIONAL FARE CHARGES OR CHANGE FEES. Continental: thank you, thank you, thank you. You guys rock. This is why I love you so.