FUEL

Another Wednesday lunch out with the teen. Today we went to the local Greek diner, which as you would suspect, offered of kind of mashup of Greek/breakfast/lunch staples. My son was trying to get me to order some gyros but as I had not had any breakfast nor coffee yet I settled for the reliable tuna melt. I drank down the coffee as fast as they would return to fill the bright green chipped mug. Fuel.

Teen was in a good mood today and his eyes danced and sparkled as we discussed the latest funny stuff going on. I told him an old story about being sick and befouling a bathtub which he particularly enjoyed, and he waved a green pepper from his Veggie Grinder at me in retribution. Good times.

We talked about what he is going to do after school is done, which is really soon. I see a bit of sadness come into his eyes, but instead of getting defensive or withdrawing, he is able to discuss it a bit, which I thought was a good sign. I don’t know if it will last, but for today it was good. I kept my message brief and calm – that he needs to be looking for a job now, or figure out an internship/volunteer position. Not in June, now. I tell him he might as well try to up his odds of trying to do something he would enjoy rather than leaving it to the last second and having to take a default job washing cats or being an apprentice cadaver or something.

I start telling him about an internship I, his ol’ mommy, would love to take, just for the experience and local connections. He listens, and says well, you can’t do that, you have kids, there’s just no way! And he is right. The logistics would be near-impossible to pull off without pretty much just taking a seven-month sabbatical. I tell him I just wish I could figure ways to do all the things I would like to do, and I get frustrated and sad. Sometimes I think he and I are a bit in the same boat, 30 years apart, but looking out into the same wide, vast, and choppy open sea.

We get to talking about the little Zooey song I made a couple of weeks ago, and he asks me why I am not selling it on iTunes. This time it is me who says well, you can’t do that, there’s just no way! He says oh yes there is Mawm, go check it out, you should do it. Weehhhhhhhhellllll. The total and utter absurdity of this idea thrills me to no end. Someone with no other agenda other than to have fun can sing and play their goofy-ass song into a computer, and a few weeks later said song can be available for purchase anywhere in the world. HAHAHA! ALRIGHT!

So we get home and I do a little Googling. It is not quite as easy as he thought, but DAMN! It is indeed possible! So get this, folks -- within one to six weeks, and for the grand fee of TEN BUCKS and a storage fee of ten more bucks a year, my little ditty will be available on:

* iTunes U.S.
* iTunes Australia/N.Z.
* iTunes Canada
* iTunes UK/European Union
* iTunes Japan
* Rhapsody
* Napster
* eMusic
* GroupieTunes
* Amazon MP3
* Lala
* Shockhound
* Amie Street

I had to copyright the song, convert it to a .wav file, photoshop some cheap-ass artwork, get a UPC code, but that was pretty much it. I suspect that I will not make back my ten bucks, but I don’t care at all. Just the IDEA of this, seeing it on all those places is worth far more than ten bucks. THAT ME! It is a little fun, something to say well, I did that, haha.

Later on, as I am driving my younger two home from school, “Praise You” by Fatboy Slim comes on the radio and I turn it up. My daughter starts copying the drums almost immediately, banging her hands on her legs, going CHH CHH CHH for the snare drum, perfectly in time. There are little pieces of fuel everywhere.

Fatboy Slim -- "Praise You"