My New Default Song

I have a new default song, to go along with "Getting Jiggy With It." This default song comes from my son's favorite video, entitled "Big Jobs."



For a while we thought we had lost "Big Jobs." We lamented it, and looked everywhere for the video, but to no avail. "Big Jobs is gone," I told Holden, and he started to cry. Then, one day out of the blue, I was looking through the videos at my parents' house, and--lo and behold--there was "Big Jobs" right in its case, right where it belongs. No wonder we couldn't find it. We never put anything back where it belongs. It was more likely that we would find "Big Jobs" stuck between the bath towels piled in the living room than in its case on a video shelf. I was so thrilled to have found the video that I yelled "BIG JOBS! I found Big jobs!" Holden went nuts: laughing like a wild man and dancing around. I even called Mike, who was on his way to Mexico: "just calling to give you the good news," I said, "we found Big Jobs!"



Anyway, since then we have been in a "Big Jobs" honeymoon period, with Holden watching it every chance he gets, asking for "Big Jobs" stories at night, and calling everything a "Big Job ___." For example, "we need to get a 'big job fire' going." And of course, I have been singing the catchy "Big Jobs" songs for two weeks straight.



The concept behind "Big Jobs" is that there are some jobs that, dadgum them, are just big. For example, construction work, fire fighting, and farming. For each of these "big jobs" there is a theme song and a cartoon dog named Winston that takes us through all the big equipment, their names, their uses, etc. Holden watches because he "loves the machines." I watch because I love the catchy rock 'n' roll. My favorite theme song is the construction work song, because it goes like this: "There's a mountain of dirt, gotta move it far--big jobs, big TRUCKS" and when the man sings "big trucks" he does it in a really low voice and sometimes I like to sing "big jugs" instead, which I know is kinda crude, but I still think it is really funny and Mike thinks it is funny, but sometimes he gives me a mean look, like "you shouldn't sing that to a children's song" and he is right, but sometimes I just can't help it. I hope you don't think less of me now.



But I do come from a long line of replacing innocuous words with funnier, more gross words in songs. For example, it was my sister Kacy who changed "but it rings, and I rise, wipe the sleep out of my eyes" to "but it rings, and I rise, wipe the sweat off of my thighs" in the Monkees' "Cheer up, Sleepy Jean." I follow in her footsteps in every other sense--blogging, getting a Masters in English, etc.--why wouldn't I do it with songs?



So that is my new default song. It is far less cool than "Getting Jiggy With It" but provides far more opportunity for laughter. Hope you can hear it some time.