The S&J-Team
Occasionally, when I turn on my car, the theme song from The A-Team will begin automatically playing. I enjoy this for several reasons.
But first, what even is the theme song from A-Team? Does anyone know? If it is deep in my memory, it’s made even more distant in the background by the forefront visions of playing with play dough or my sit ‘n spin behind the couch in the TV room as I was like four years old when it was on TV. This is a fun kind of memory. Like a background memory. Kind of like my memory of watching It whilst peering around the couch late at night, pushing through a building feeling of regret. This memory is less fun though.
It happens because when I turn on the car, it automatically connects to Sean’s bluetooth on his phone and immediately begins playing the first song in his music. This fact by itself pleases me.
It creates a bit of a situation for Sean, though, who works from home. If he’s on a call, it’ll immediately transfer over to me in the car. Sometimes the person he’s talking to is in the middle of speaking and they have no idea. I have to make an effort not to respond/blurt out something weird because I could. It’s my call now. It’s a somewhat tedious task to switch the bluetooth connection or disconnect it and in my panic, I resort to other possibilities:
Sometimes I have this wild thought to listen and then report back what the person said. But that’s insane. How would I do it? Frantically, simultaneously transcribe-text Sean? Try to disguise my voice and guess what he might say in response, like the secretary in Ferris Buhler’s Day Off? I quickly move to another option.
Often in my scramble to fix the situation, I’ll just wildly punch the “end call” button which dumps the call with no explanation. Then I get the hey out of there.
Or, instead of hanging up or doing anything at all about it, I’ll just quickly peel out of the driveway and get out of range as fast as I can (which is probably, ironically, a total A-Team move, to loop that back in).
It’s funny because Sean and I both know what’s happening but we don’t communicate and it’s not consequential enough to bring up later. And I like this little side detail of our relationship culture, kind of like silent thermostat wars where no one says anything, but funny. But yeah, I’ve dumped several work calls he’s on and I’m sure he knows it. Sorry, Sean. You’re the best. Do you need anything while I’m out?
When he’s not on a call though, as his phone automatically connects to my car speaker, it immediately and automatically switches on his music and blasts the A-Team. It’s hilarious to me and surprises me every time. Do you expect the A-Team to come on when you start your car? Though I know it’s just a weird thing about the car bluetooth choosing the first song on the list, I like imaging Sean listening to it, like it’s his favorite song, and I keep interrupting it.
The best part of it is, after I get over my initial alarm, I feel super pumped. An unbidden abrupt theme song to my life in this moment. I’m like, YEAH! HERE I COME! CONQUERING THE DAY. And I drive like I’m on the A-Team, going off to save someone/solve a mystery/bring down the bad guy(?) All I know is that Mr T was in it who was… a wrestler? Details are fuzzy. But it doesn’t matter. It suits me. If you need a driveway theme song to add to your morning, I highly recommend.
You may be wondering why Sean has the song in the first place. The answer to that is: backyard olympics. But that’s a letter for another day…
(I don’t actually know what that subscription button does)