I was all set to talk about Canadians today but I got stuck in traffic so my Canadian post will have to wait until Monday.
I love Def Leppard. There is no better band to rock out to in a car or anywhere you can play the music really loud. With arm or without these guys can rock. I went to several of their concerts back when they first started touring, before Behind the Music, the drugs and break ups. I saw them open for Queen, one of the most awesome shows I have ever seen. I can’t remember who I went to these concerts with but I know I have never stopped loving their music.
I went to visit my mother this morning. Normally a 40 minute drive one way. It’s a 40 minute drive one way because I take the path least traveled and go all around the metro area. I probably add 10 miles to my trip this way but I can drive 70-80 mph the whole way.
As most of you know I live in St. Paul. People from St. Paul don’t usually go to Minneapolis unless the have to. There aren’t that many good reasons I can think of that would warrant my need to go to Minneapolis except to visit my mother. My mom lives in a suburb clear on the other side of Minneapolis, which means that Minneapolis is smack dab between where I live and where my mother lives. I can’t avoid it, I have to go through it. Which is why I visit my mother after rush hour.
On the way back I decided that I was wasting a lot of gas trying to avoid Minneapolis so instead of going around it I decided to take the crosstown, highway 62, which goes right through the city I have been trying to avoid all my life. The crosstown was built to get people from one side of town to the other quickly. It has never been my experience to get from point A (St. Paul) to point B (Minneapolis) quickly using the crosstown because as long as I can remember the crosstown has been under construction. However, because I don’t actually drive on the crosstown I really have no way of knowing if it is under construction. It might have been years ago, the last time I drove it, but there is really no way for me to know. So I decided to take the crosstown which should have reduced my trip from 40 minutes to maybe 15.
I don’t even know why I am typing all of this out for you. Just watch the video.
I’m sure the Canadians don’t have this kind of traffic.
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Woo Hoo, I'm first. I take pleasure where I can, ok. My husband drives 50 miles to work every day (bless him). He has to drive from Maryland into Virginia, skirting Washington DC. It generally looks like a parking lot, no matter what the time of day. Very often it takes him 2 hours to get home. About the only thing that rattles that man is traffic (and spilled drinks?!). Def Leppard helps.
It was great to hear your voice. Now when I read your posts, I can hear your voice in my head.
Like dat Minnesoooota accent der, eh?
It's really hard to write the accent.
I couldn't do that everyday, twice a day. Your husband must be a patient man.
Love the accent!
This reminds me of the opening credits of Office Space. All it's missing is the guy in the walker… I hate traffic.
I hadn't thought of that, though I love that movie. However, I did see the new and improved Jesus from the movie Dogma on the dashboard of someone's car. It was even funnier because I was just talking to Kathy of The Junk Drawer about her Jesus Band-aids and I wanted to know if it was regular Jesus or the Dogma Jesus. It was a regular Jesus on the bandaids
I wonder if Jesus knew how many kinds of Jesuses we'd be making of him.
WOW you did a VIDEO! I am SO PROUD OF YOU! Alright, stalker that I am I mean good friend that I am, I played and paused until I could catch the image in the rear view mirror to see if you had a flip. (Wow was THAT a runon sentence) All I can see is your fingers… looks like a video camera or phone?
This reminded me of my video where I'm driving and filming… we are rebels. We are dangerous women. HEAR US ROAR.
A flip? Like the hair style from the 70s? What the hell are you talking about?
I took the video with my phone.
A Flip Mino recorder… i asked for one for xmas… they are TOTALLY cool. Pop it in your purse, then take it out and turn it on – you take a video in less than a minute. 🙂
I like hearing your voice too, although I'm probably one of the lucky few to have talked to you on the phone. Remember? God, what was the conversation about anyway? WordPress? Anyway, I know people will hate me when they find out that I get angry when my normally 12- minute drive to work turns into 15 because of traffic. If for some reason it's twenty minutes, I'm a raving maniac when I get home. I know. I'm spoiled.
My commute consists of about ten feet, not including the stop in the middle for the bathroom break. It's a brutal commute.
They are going to have to make a new law against videoing while not driving now lol.
Have a good weekend too Jen!
I LOATHE the Crosstown….for years I had to drive that same stretch of highway from Eden Prairie to Richfield TWICE a day. I truly hope that they are fixing it like they have some of the other spots in the Cities that needed it, like Hwy 100.
I had my own exciting commute today….I was about to leave for work in St. Paul from where I live in Coon Rapids when my ex calls to tell me she accidentally locked herself and our daughter out of the house with her casserole for a potluck in the oven. So now I have to drive to Bloomington to open the door for her, only to realize about halfway there that in my haste to reach them quickly, I had left my laptop (which I use at work) at home.
I drive 35 minutes to Bloomington, unlock the door and then drive 45 minutes back to Coon Rapids, and then another 30 minutes to work. UGH. Sometimes the traffic in the Cities just “appears”, like they suddenly dropped 100 cars out of the sky right in front of you. Never understood it. And then you get to the cause of the congestion, and it is car sitting on the shoulder, with its flashers on. Not an accident, not a closed lane, or a even a person driving really slowly….just a car sitting at the side of the road and EVERY single car slowing down to see “what's up?” Makes me want to hit something with my car to REALLY screw things up for people. LOL
Oh, and I agree with a few of the others…it was fun hearing your voice and now being able to put it to the words that you write.
That's just too much driving. And it does seem as if hundreds of cars just dropped out of the sky. I get mad when I find the car that is causing all the trouble and yes, they are usually just sitting on the side of the road with their blinkers on. I did make the mistake of doing this driving around 11am when all the retired people are on the road heading to their luncheon appointments. Thank goodness it wasn't yesterday which is beauty parlor day for everyone over the age of 65, I wouldn't be home yet.
I leave a spare key at my neighbor's house, both of my neighbors, because I do stuff like leaving a hot dish in the oven all the time.
You sound just like JD to me. Do you have the same accent?
JD and I are both Midwestern so our accents probably sound similar to you. However, she is in Chicago and they sound different to me. We drop a lot of our Gs and and elongate our vowels, they do too now that I think about it, but we still have a slightly different accent.
Close enough for me not to hear the difference then 😉
Only seven hours by car, as long as the roads don't look like they did
today.
Oh my! In just a few more hours you could drive from top to bottom of Britain!
I had the exact same thought when I heard Jen's voice, too!
Vocally, they could be one and the same!
I married a Canadian. I can't wait to hear what you have to say.
I'll post it on Monday. I love Canadians, we talk just like them, eh.
Traffic, eh? Oh, you mean like that time I left the igloo to get some caribou meat from the really big igloo we call “Igloo-mart”, and I loaded up the dogsled and after only a few days, I came to a dead stop because there was this herd of moose, eh, and they were crossing the trail and wouldn't you know it, there was Mike with his dogsled and Jepeto too but they were all in a frenzy, eh, 'cause they had been waiting for the moose to finish crossing and the dogs got bored and started playing and then got all tangled up but in the end it only took us a couple of hours to untangle the dogs and then a just a couple more until the moose finished crossing and we were all back on our way, and boy did my man and I laugh when I got home a week later with the whale meat 'cause they were out of caribou meat, which happens a lot when there's a sale, eh, and I told him about the “traffic”.
Can't wait to read your post on Monday! 🙂
Well hell, I don't need to write it now. eh?
Have you ever been cruising along and then wham! Stop and go traffic for miles. Then just as suddenly it's wide open and you're cruising along again and there's no evidence of an accident or anything. WTF? Where the hell do all the cars go? Does an alien ship suddenly beam them up?
I LOVE Def Leppard, too!
I feel your pain with the traffic jam. I take the bus into downtown Cleveland, Ohio because I don't want to deal with the traffic and rush hour. I want to avoid road rage within my self. haha
That's the most boring video I've ever seen. Nothing happens. And yet I watched it. Twice. It took me a while to realize why. I've never heard your voice until today. And so it was fascinating–a peek behind the curtain of your life in Moscow on the Mississippi and Mill City. Anyway, thank you kindly for the traffic report.
My daughter said the same thing. She told me my video won't get any stars on
Youtube and people might make fun of it.
I <3 Def Leppard, seen them twice wayyyyy back in the day. But once when I was around 18 I walked into a friends house and her little brother and his friends (who were about 15 y/o) were watching a nasty ass sex with animals video and dontcha know ANIMAL by Def Leppard was playin in the background. Here, this one…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBqsRXdzk8c . I was scarred for life. Cant listen to that song anymore. lol
Anyway, I will travel 20 minutes out of my way like you, just to keep moving. I abhor traffic. Plus I've been spoiled. Once you've parted the red sea in rush hour traffic while driving an ambulance to a call, sitting in it thereafter just makes you bitter. =)
Great video lol. I'll go give it a star on youtube. 😉 Sorry such a long comment. I had a lot to say lol.
I'd be scarred too if I saw a video like the one you describe. Animal was never one of my favorites but it's on my Best of Def Leppard CD that was playing in the car during the video. My favorite is Pour Some Sugar On Me just for the beginning alone, the misheard lyrics are fun too. I love the song Hysteria just because it's a great song but I tend to be partial to the heavy drum songs of Def Leppard. They are all awesome.
You obviously have never driven anywhere near Philadelphia… it sucks….
very impressive that you got a video on your blog.. I don't know how to do that yet.
I haven't. The farthest east I have driven is Chicago, which is really not too bad. The worst traffic I have experienced was in Seattle. At least here we can take different routes to reach our destination, in Seattle there is only I 5 and everyone is on it, not moving. We don't have those mountains to get in the way so we can put a road anywhere.
Yay! Canadians!
In Montreal we have some of the crappiest roads, and shittiest highways. We have an expressway that was built for Expo 67 and was outdated the second it opened. The joke is that the “expressway” is an oxymoron, cause there's nothing express about it.
I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who totally still loves Def Leppard..they are also awesome to do housework to!
I'm really glad to hear that you love us Canadians eh! To have traffic like that you'd probably have to be around Toronto. Luckily I'm out in Alberta where Bob and Doug Mackenzie got their start…would you like another beer while we watch the hockey game eh? lol!
I can almost see Canada from my backyard and we watch a lot of hockey here too. I had to look at a map of Canada to figure out where you were, I didn't realize how big it is. Canada is everywhere.
Def Leppard is perfect for painting, house work, cleaning the garage. Any boring job that needs to be energized.
Looks just like the 101, or the 405 here in Los Angeles. The 101 goes through the San Fernando Valley, just over the hill north of L.A. and the 405 cuts a swath through the Westside. Which explains why I live in Northeast Los Angeles and avoid all other parts of the city.
Oh, and for the record, I would be listening to Nirvana. Or the Black Crowes. Or maybe Slayer, because I do think traffic is evil.
My cd collection in my car consists of Sarah MacLachlan, Sister Hazel and lots of kid music. There are more but they are all mixed tapes and I have no idea what is on the cd so I just go with the ones that are labeled. It wasn't a Sarah Maclachlan kind of day since the sun was out. The only other labeled cd was The Lion King and it's been played so much it's kinda scratched. My son has the Nirvana cds. Black Crowes for sure but Slayer? You don't strike me as a Slayer fan. How funny.
When it comes to the heavier stuff, I actually lean more towards vintage Metallica or more obscure acts like Voivod, but in the 1980s I did review one of Slayer's discs for the L.A. Times, and even wrote a publicity bio for them. They're actually goofballs in person, and not very devilish. Sort of like Alice Cooper is a nice, conservative businessman when he's not wearing streaky black makeup and pretending to be guillotined onstage.
I feel your commute pain. When I lived in Florida I use to have to drive through Tampa to visit my mother, including driving through:
a) the spot affectionately known to all Tampons as Malfunction Junction. They basically merge all 6 lanes from 2 highways into 2 very narrow lanes right at the heart of downtown Tampa. Brilliant planning, Mr. Engineer.
and
b) around the International Airport area which is directly beside the exit to the causeway to the beaches. Again… brilliant, Mr. Engineer!
After a few miserable drives I experimented and ultimately found a lovely drive using all back-roads through the country. Technically, it added about 20 miles, but it saved me 2 hours of sitting in traffic jams!
But no Def Leppard for me, thanks! I used my 90 minutes of driving time for listening to my audio books!
I know this wasn't the focus of your comment but I am stuck on it. You really call yourselves Tampons? The idea of driving anywhere in Florida scares me. Do you have any kind of rail system or are you dependent on your cars to get from one point to the other?
Hahaha! It's just a nickname I call them. I think the actual term
Tampanians. Amtrak is there, but I never used it. We always drove. You learn
to avoid commute time or take the back-roads. I lived in Tampa from
1975-1994. Hated every minute of it and moved to a smaller city when I
decided to get a divorce. I hate traffic so when that city got too big I
moved to Georgia. I've been here 4-1/2 years and so far I still love it.
Funny that I'll be retiring near Tampa, St. Cloud actually. But there will be no commuting, well, except for the short jaunt to Millennia? Mall in Orlando.
I loved listening to you! But so sorry you had to sit in all that. There's nothing that gets my goat more than traffic like that. Ugh. I can't stand it. Wish I could've seen the people passing you by and wondering what you were up to!
I too love Def Leppard! In fact, a friend of mine from Ireland married a guy from here who did the lighting for their concerts. We got VIP passes and got to sit with the lighting crew during the show. Fun! Loud! Anyway, it looked like SF traffic to me! Also, you don't sound like you have an accent to me, but when I tape something I always sound like I'm a Jersey girl. (Since I was born in San Francisco that surprises me.)
You sound just like I thought you would!
I think I'd hate traffic a lot more without great music…oh and a camera to make videos. I was worried for a minute when you were doing zero and had your eyes off the road. Reckless!
Either you finally got home or you just colonized a piece of the Crosstown. Can you get pizza delivered out there?
I don't know about pizza but I am pretty sure Jimmy Johns would have found
me.
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Def Leopard rocks and I am a true fan of 80s music. All of it! But for traffic jams (which I only get when traveling somewhere), or just plain wanting to release some raw angry moments, Kid Rock works for me.
I am a psycho when it comes to driving. Certifiable psycho. I don't even think “Pour Some Sugar On Me” would help. I just want to get from Point A to Point B as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Home from vacay and ignoring the laundry and the suitcases, just catching up with my pals. Good to be back!
I missed you. Looking forward to hearing about the vacation.
You are entirely too calm on there. I woulda been cussin up a storm. I hate traffic. I used to work in Washington DC and It would take me an hour and a half everyday each way in traffic that looked just like that. Now I avoid it at all costs.
I don't get caught in traffic usually. And most of the time I don't mind it
because it's just more alone time for me. Provided my kids aren't in the car
with me. That would be totally different and road rage would ensue. I'm
pretty sure DC traffic is a lot worse than Minneapolis suburb traffic.
Holy Crap! That's just like the darn New Jersey Turnpike! What a TRAFFIC nightmare! I laughed out loud at your speed-o-meter “Gee, how fast are we going? ZERO”
BTW – I loved hearing your voice!
I lived off the Crosstown near Lake Nokomis 20 years ago and I think it was under construction then.
Where are you now?
I'm so glad I never have to go to the cities! The only time I go down: the airport, Mall of America, visiting my aunt in Woodbury, or visiting my daughter @ her college. I can NOT believe you tried that on a Friday! LOL Reminder since we're coming into fishing time, don't use the freeway on Fri nite or Sunday nite! 🙂
~Mimi from the Round Up
I know! I should have checked one of the traffic sites or news sites. What
was I thinking? We go to the lake on Fridays but I always leave before three
or after six. Other wise I would just spend those hours in traffic on 35E.
Thanks for stopping by, it's nice to see another MN gal here.
Def leppard are great, they are kinda like Bon Jovi but they never did TV commercials in Japan LOL like Bon Jovi
http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/bon-jovi-japanese-tv-commercials/