Back at work!! Woohoo! I'm so glad that the shutdown has ended. Although, part of me does feel that all the major issues have just been kicked down a road a bit. I wouldn't be shocked if this happened again in January...
But! I have pulled the together days 12 through 16. I made one last video this morning since technically I wasn't back at work until 10:00 am on day day 17.
I will admit, it was getting really difficult towards the end to think of up new songs! But thanks to all my friends (Teresa, Tommy, Tim, Michelle, Stefanie, Rich, Brittani, Lisa, Jay, and Dave) who supported my shenanigans and helped make my furlough not so bad. You guys are great friends, sponsors, supporters, singers, dancers and people. Love you :)
a: a period of time when a soldier is allowed to leave
the place where he or she is stationed
b: a period of time when an employee is told not to
come to work and is not paid
c: a period of time when a prisoner is allowed to
leave prison
2. furlough transitive
verb
a: to grant a furlough to (someone)
b: to put (a worker) on furlough
I am currently experiencing definition
1b. I haven't been to work since Monday, September 30th because of the
government shutdown. I decided to use my first day off to bust out a bunch of
errands and make a serious dent in my “to do” list. After spending way too much
money on grain free dog and cat food, I was in the parking lot of Petsmart and
I had the DAY-O BANANA BOAT song playing in my head. But instead of
“DAY-O” I was singing “furlough” to myself. It made me laugh, so I figured it
would give my friends a laugh as well. I recorded my 10 second rendition of
DAY-O via snapchat and off it went. I remember thinking to myself, “Since this
shutdown can’t possibly go on that long, it doesn’t hurt to keep it light and
be funny about it.”
Then day two came with absolutely no
resolution to the shutdown. I heard the PARTY ROCK ANTHEM on the radio and the
inspiration was almost too easy: “Everyday I’m furloughing!” I snapchatted that
genius and shared it for a laugh. Very shortly afterwards, I received a
response from a friend that said, “You need to get a job” which was probably
very true. But since Congress and the POTUS didn’t see NASA as essential
personnel, I was furloughing it up.
By day three, I had enough of listening
to the garbage politians were spewing on CSpan Radio. Listening to CSpan and
reading the news did nothing but make me depressed about the furlough situation.
So, I took a vacation to Austin for Austin City Limits (ACL). This trip had been
planned months in advance and so the timing was purely coincidental but I
called it my furloughcation. I decided to keep my head up about the situation.
I thought it would be entertaining to make 10 second furlough videos and share
with friends via snapchat. I would make one every day until I was called back
to work.
I never imaged the shutdown would last
this long and I’d make it through 11 songs! But it’s crazy how many songs there
are that have lyrics where furlough can be substituted! The Cure and Lionel
Richie both performed at ACL this year and I definitely used a couple of their
songs as inspiration (which was kinda perfect). Around day eight or
nine, I realized that I should probably just share all these funny videos
on the Internet because the world needs some laughter, especially now. I went
ahead and combined my first 11 songs into the video below. I am a terrible
singer and have absolutely zero musical skills. But hopefully you’ll find them
all entertaining and get a good laugh out of it.
Day 1: Day-O Banana Boat Song, Harry Belafonte
Day 2: Party Rock Anthem, LMFAO
Day 3: Firework, Katy Perry
Day 4: Friday I'm In Love, The Cure
Day 5: Hold On, Wilson Phillips
Day 6: Easy Like Sunday Morning, Lionel Richie
Day 7: Manic Monday, The Bangles
Day 8: I’m Different, 2 Chainz
Day 9: Low, Flo-Rida
Day 10: Blurred Lines, Robin Thick
Day 11: Creep, TLC
Looks like I’ll need at least 3 more
songs to get me through the weekend. So if you have any requests or ideas, let
me know!! And let's hope this shutdown mess comes to an end soon...
Special thanks to Stefanie for filming
me during days 5-9 and to Dave for the inspiration on day 9 J
