Crash Into Me

The unemployment office phone line is currently playing an easy listening version of Crash, by Dave Matthews Band. Previously, I listened to Tears in Heaven, by Sir Eric Clapton.

Each instrumental cover has an added element of magic that reminds me of eating at the Chinese food buffet on Cape Cod off of Route 6 in Orleans between 1999 and 2005. Give rural kids a parking lot and an exceptionally priced all-you-can-eat buffet and just wait for the loitering to ensue. I actually went on some pretty stellar dates at that buffet. And by stellar I mean that there were a variety of low-priced meats, fluorescent overhead lighting, vinyl booths that stuck to the backs of your legs, and the promise of running into your best friends or sworn enemies.

When the conversation died down to accommodate my dining partner’s concentrated feasting, I would turn my attention towards the buffet’s musical selection for the evening. Guessing the reinterpreted pop song within the first few bars became a deliciously challenging game. Genie in a Bottle, Red Light Special; a few En Vogue jams were popular.

It pleases me to no end when in my current life I am able to enjoy Top 40 hits from days gone by processed through a musical filter akin to what is used to make powdered non-fat milk. And somehow, deep down, the unemployment phone line is making me hunger for orange chicken and sandy parking lots.