Potpourri for $1000, Alex

So it's about 11:30PM (check local listings), which means I have to hurry up and post to keep my consecutive days with a post streak going. I've been driving in my car by myself for the past five hours. I tried to come up with topic for tonight's post, but all I ended up with is a lot of random thoughts that aren't really connected to one another. So tonight's post is just going to be a list of things that I thought about tonight on my drive.

1. With all of the funny stuff that happens on a daily basis in our country, there's no way that what Bob Sagat/Tom Bergeron put on ABC every Sunday night is really a comprehensive collection of America's funniest home videos. Somebody had to be taping some of the really funny stuff, they just didn't mail in the tape. I don't have a video camera. If I did, I'd probably use it. I think I could find something funnier.

2. If anyone tells you that they were in the band in high school, but that "band wasn't like it was at other places...band was cool at their high school" - they are lying. Nothing against the band. I'm sure you had fun and there were great people in the band, maybe even some lifelong friends, but band was not 'cool' at your high school. It's high school, so probably football and cheerleading were/are/always will be what the cool kids do. Unless you're going to Grambling, School of Rock with Jack Black, or Juilliard, the band is not cool. And I think one of those is a college and another doesn't really exist.

3. I think that blogging is the equivalent of the safety school for people who want to write a book or start their own business. It lets people write stuff or potentially make money without having the risk of either of their top choices. I'm still not sure about the making money thing. At last check, Google tells me I've made $11.83 on this blog. Not quite enough to retire on. 

4. People always talk about wanting to drink a beer with the president. Or wanting to play basketball with Michael Jordan. If I was going to play the "pick and celebrity and pick an activity" game, I think I'd go grocery shopping with Jessica Tandy. I came up with a few reasons why...a) I always feel out of place and uncomfortable at the grocery store, and Jessica would help me fit in b) I enjoyed watching Jessica grocery shop during Driving Miss Daisy, so I know she's good at it c) when people swap their celebrity encounter stories, I don't think anyone could top grocery shopping with Jessica Tandy. It would replace meeting Phyllis from The Office at the airport. And yes, I realize that Jessica has passed away. 

5. I've rethought my dream job. Previously I was going with two jobs - Host of Man vs. Food during the winter (basically just traveling the country and overeating to get my picture up on the wall at random diners) along with annual The Biggest Loser contestant in the Summer. I always thought the two would go together really well. But I thought about it tonight and decided that my heart would probably explode. So now my new dream job is "Guy who comes up with conference room names for companies." Every office has conference rooms. All conference rooms should have a consistent naming theme. I think I can come up with awesome conference room names. Can't find that one listed on CareerBuilder right now.

6. There should be some sort of rating system for gas stations so that you know at the time you pull of the interstate if it is the kind of gas station where you feel like it's okay to use the bathroom. They've got plenty of extra space on those blue highway signs. They should use that space to give some sort of star rating to the gas stations. Or maybe somebody could write a book/list of gas stations with clean bathrooms. This would make my life so much easier. Kate holds me personally responsible if I stop for gas and it turns out to be a dirty gas station. How am I supposed to know this when I get off of the interstate? All I see is the gas station logo on the sign and maybe a billboard. That's really not enough for me to make an informed decision.

7. Nobody seems to know why "Virginia is for Lovers." I've heard the slogan for years, and nobody can give me a good answer to this one. I asked the guy behind the counter at the dirty gas station, and he couldn't help me at all.

That's pretty much all I thought about tonight on my drive. I also had thoughts like "I forgot to DVR The Biggest Loser tonight" and "Why didn't I fly to Richmond instead of driving" but those aren't really blogworthy. 

11:47 EST. The streak is still alive.