Rocking out on a Friday afternoon

When I first started my current job, I was in an office upstairs. My boss and another co-worker were the only ones upstairs with me. If I was upstairs alone, or if my boss was gone and my co-worker was annoying me, I would rock out. If she was really annoying me, I would only play hip-hop because she could only hear the beat and that annoyed her.

In February, I was moved to an office downstairs. I actually like it much better because being upstairs, and the "new" girl (I have now been there for 2 1/2 years), I didn't really feel like I was part of the gang. I wasn't in on any of the jokes or most of the typical office stories. I spent a lot of time downstairs getting information to do my job, but it wasn't the same. So, I was getting to know my co-workers, but not as well as I would have if I was downstairs with them.

Now that I have been downstairs for a few months, I feel much more a part of the company and I am a lot happier, although I wasn't unhappy to begin with, if that makes sense. The only downside, however, is that with an office in the main hallway, I don't get to rock out anymore. And some days are just better when you can crank the tunes.

Today was a rare day. Two co-workers took the day off. One had to leave early to go home and wait for a repairman and the other one with an office in the hallway leaves at 2:00. So, this afternoon, I rocked out. A couple of years ago, James set up an external hard drive that we transferred our cruise pictures and music to. Last January, I was afraid something would happen to it and we would lose all our cruise pictures so he copied the pictures and the music to CDs. Before I went to Mexico in March, I took the CDs to work so they would be off-site if the house burned down while I was away.

For some reason, I never brought them back home. There are several hundred songs on the CD, and the artists run the gamut from Air Supply to ZZ Top. I have the combination of two people's different tastes in music. I have pop. I have country. I have metal. I have hip-hop. I have soft rock. I have a little something for everyone. I do not, however, have the "Macarena."

I started off with Alan Jackson's "Chatahoochie," and moved on to Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy with it." One of the warehouse guys walked by and got his groove on in the hallway. I heard him tell another co-worker what I was listening to. Another co-worker came to chat before she left for the day-I played "Rock Me Amadeus" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" for her. She left before I could bust out the Milli Vanilli. Actually, that seemed to scare everyone off. I introduced one of the guys to Ra's "Do You Know My Name?" He was excited that I had Lords of Acids-that was from James' side of the collection. That is also not appropriate for the workplace so that was not played. The owner was present after all.

Other songs played throughout the afternoon included "Vogue," "Who Let the Dogs Out?," "Rock Star," "All Star," "Buttermilk Biscuits," "Cracklin' Rosie," "You Can't Touch This," "Keep on Rockin' Me Baby," "I'm Too Sexy," 'Whoomp! There it is," "Rumpshaker" and "Cheeseburger in Paradise." Some were played for co-workers; some were just for my benefit. I think at first my co-workers were surprised by my vast selection and in some cases embarassed for me. Although at the end of the day, a few of us were in there rocking out and I was taking requests. I think deep down they were secretly impressed and hoping I really would play New Kids on the Block.