Buckle Up, Simple Plan, We're Going on a Road Trip

Remember back in middle school when Simple Plan was a thing and we all connected with the lyrics, "I'm just a kid, my life is a nightmare" on a level we're embarrassed to admit because we were super uncool and unspeakably lame? Yeah, me neither.

I raise the pimply ghosts of years past because I currently sit next to my sister on a cross country road trip from LA to Nashville listening (and NOT singing, just to clarify) to more alternative punk rock from middle school than I think I've ever actually listened to. I'm taking Green Day, Bowling for Soup, Sum 41, My Chemical Romance, Blink-182, Simple Plan, Good Charlotte--that's right, the classics. No, I don't remember the lyrics to these songs. No, I'm not belting at the top of my lungs. No, I don't have the desire wear enough black eye makeup to look like the Winter Soldier. Why would you think that? 

I mean, there are worse things to listen to for four straight hours for the first leg of the journey to Las Vegas, right? Ah, yes, "Why are you going to Nashville, Sammy?" Glad you asked. I was beginning to feel awfully insecure and broody. (I wonder why.) My sister, Emily, and I are driving her to school in Tennessee. The car is going to stay there with her with the rest of her life that she's packed up in the back and I will hop on a plane back to LA. Of all the ridiculous things I've done this year - including flying from Venice to London, driving to another London airport and flying to Dublin in a single morning mostly by myself - this is higher up on my list of crazy.

The plan is thus: by Monday, drive over 2,000 miles through eight states, the Rockies, five major cities, and over thirty hours of driving with my little sister listening to almost every genre of music except for country and classical. The last time I did a road trip, Lizzie McGuire had finally kissed Gordo and A-Team was the music of choice. You heard me right.

Buckle up. It's going to be an(other) adventure, ladies and gentlemen.

Now, if you don't mind, I have some whiney, teenager angst to listen to and feel wildly misunderstood.