More than 31 flavors.

I guess I should officially declare August to be "Music Month." It seem like music is always on my mind lately, or at least it has been the only 'blog-worthy' thing on my mind. In the middle of last week I managed to exceed my 40-hour monthly music quota on Pandora. This would have been around Aug. 10 or 11. At any rate, it was a new record. Forty-hours of music in about 7 days if you take out the weekends.

I often show up to work in the morning, fire up my computer, pour a cup of coffee, and start up Pandora. Pandora can be summed up in one word:

greatmusicplayinginthebackgroundandIdon'thavetomesswithithardlyever

Yes, I love my Pandora account because I can go there, pick a station I have custom made to fit a certain style of music, and then just let it play in the background as I work. The only times I ever really have to mess with it is to pause when someone comes into my office to talk, to tell it I really don't like the song it picked out (not likely), or to tell it that it should play more songs like the one it just played (I usually only do this enough times for it to get the idea).

I have 18 different Pandora stations. I know that my title said "More than 31 flavors," but I lied-- 31 sounds better. Anyway, picking a station to listen to in the morning is like asking myself, "Hmmm...what flavor should I pick today?" Like picking out ice cream, it really depends on my mood and how I feel. For example, this week's menu included dixieland/jazz today, gypsy punk/ska on Thursday, the kind of stuff you hear at Starbucks on Wednesday, "old vocals" like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Perry Como (<----odd one out?) on Tuesday, and Monday was 80's music. I'm surprised that the musical side of my brain hasn't been turned into blended mush with all the different kinds of music I throw at it.

For the curious, my current favorite is the Starbucks blend. It's really catchy, but still relaxing. I can tap my foot, but it's not hard-driving rock or chair-bouncing jazz. I give it my "Best Flavor for the Workplace" rating. Speaking of work...

Here's to Days Just Packed with the many flavors of music! (just not all mixed together at once, because a "music blendie" may be a horrible, horrible thing).