It’s been pretty dull the last couple of weeks, if I’m being totally honest. It’s work, bike, eat, sleep, repeat…over and over. I really need some novelty.

However, lacking anything novel, on Thursday afternoon, after spending way too many hours on meetings with briefings heavy on references to the U.S. Code and various federal policy, I racked the bike and took a nice ride in the warm, but slightly overcast weather, as I’m likely to do; gotta stay healthy, and keep the stamina up for that century ride in two weeks…

Anyway, somewhere in the middle of a brisk twenty-one miles, my mind wandered, which is kind of what I’m going for; just disappearing into the ride…

…but sometimes, strange things get dredged up from the subconscious, like the first song on the playlist below, which was a staple of middle school dances in central Pennsylvania in the 80s….

Anyway, it sent me down a Spotify rabbit hole, and the following mix got spit out at me with minimal searching. Most of the big ones are here; if Mötley Crüe’s “Kickstart My Heart” or Aerosmith’s “Angel” were included, this would hit pretty much everything. That one at #5 made us feel like we were getting away with something, and #13, I’m pretty sure what was playing during my first awkward slow dance with a real girl in sixth grade.

And yeah, we got rickroll’d – deal with it:

1. “Da Butt” – EU
2. “Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go” – Soft Cell
3. “Everything Counts” – Depechhe Mode
4. “Time After Time” – Cyndi Lauper
5. “The Roof Is On Fire” – Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three
6. “Just Like Heaven” – The Cure
7. “Take My Breath Away” – Berlin
8. “Private Eyes” – Daryl Hall & John Oates
9. “Careless Whisper” – George Michael
10. “Modern Love” – David Bowie
11. “(I Just) Died In Your Arms” – Cutting Crew
12. “Never Gonna Give You Up” – Rick Astley
13. “Always” – Atlantic Starr
14. “Dancin’ With Myself” – Generation X
15. “Don’t You Want Me” – The Human League
16. “Jump” – Van Halen
17. “Twist of Fate” – Olivia Newton-John