divergent

I like Pink. Not the color (though I’m kind of a fan of that too), but the singer. I don’t listen to all of her songs, but the ones that click with me? I love them. They are windows down, volume up, singing along, watch out other drivers because here I come songs.

Unfortunately, Pink doesn’t always choose the cleanest lyrics to express her passion so I have to be careful when making selections from Spotify (internet music) to look for the “radio version” because my 3 year old loves Pink too. One day she kept asking for “a little bit,” “a little bit” over and over again until she started crying because I had no idea what she was talking about and kept exasperatedly asking “A little bit of what?” It was only later in the car when I put on the music and I heard these lyrics:

Just give me a reason
Just a little bit’s enough
Just a second we’re not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again

When it finally clicked: “Just a little bit” like in the song? That’s what you wanted?! She nodded and beamed at me from the rearview mirror.

There’s something about driving around this island with Pink cranked up that makes me feel powerful. Maybe because religious Muslims aren’t allowed to listen to or play music so I’m a rebel? Maybe because I’m in a big old car with the windows down and that makes me stand out even without the music? Maybe because the music makes me forget where I am when I’m sitting in traffic? Whatever it is, the weather cooling down (low 90s) has made living here much more enjoyable and driving around with the wind in our hair has become our thing.

(The tank top isn’t exactly appropriate wear here, but I took off my sweater for driving). 
So the other day we were driving along, playing my favorite song and we passed a Saudi family. 
I’m presuming Saudi based on what he was wearing and the fact that the women were completely covered, including veils over the face. (I have no clue if it was mother and daughter or 2 wives.) Their maid was covered too, but her face wasn’t veiled. Just as we passed them, the chorus of our song started blasting and I can only imagine what they were thinking (or would have been thinking if they understood English) of us singing loudly:
So raise your glass if you are wrong
In all the right ways
All my underdogs, we will never, never be
Anything but loud and nitty gritty, dirty little freaks
Yep, Meelie and I sing our hearts out to maintain our sanity. This is actually a two way street. Tough luck to you if you want to come the opposite way during certain times of day. This is definitely a “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” kind of situation because if I stayed to the right I would sit there all day long while everyone else uses the left lane for merging. 

See my green light? Does it look like I’ll be going anywhere anytime soon? This happens because one block to the right there is a major intersection where they have a guy manually switch the lights during peak periods. He gets sidetracked either texting or chatting and the traffic backs way up. Then people start honking and then he remembers it’s time to switch the lights and then the intersection clears until it happens again a few minutes later. This is when all the songs with swear words seem appropriate (just kidding). It’s no wonder that people run red lights here because it might be 5 minutes before the green comes around again. Time for one more song!