I don’t even remember the year, but I had this totally crappy job helping my Dad clean up a restaurant late at night, after it had closed. It was my job to vaccuum the joint, while he cleaned the kitchen. The job really wasn’t that shitty, I just generally hated everyone and everything at that point in my life. I hated the job with a passion, and even remember forcing myself to throw-up in an attempt to get out of working. It never, ever worked.

To get through the evening (it was a big restaurant), I made myself a little tape featuring The Replacements. I didn’t even have a Discman yet, just my trusty old Walkman. On one side of a tape I had “Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash” and on the other side was “Tim.” I have no idea why those two, that’s just the way it was. Perhaps I didn’t even have “Stink” yet. I can’t remember.

I would listen to that tape so loud that I couldn’t even hear the roar of the vaccuum. It was the only thing that got me through. I remember so much just loving the tape, because the ‘Sorry Ma’ side would pump me up, make me laugh, and then the ‘Tim’ side ending with Here Comes a Regular would just decimate me.

One more ‘Sorry Ma’ aside. I think my favorite song was “Customer.” I worked at this crappy gas station across the street from my parents’ house. I was like 24 or 25, living at home, and just about the loneliest girl that ever lived. The best part about working at that gas station is that I could listen to any CDs I brought in.

When I worked my 3 to 11 shift, I have the The Replacements turned up so high that I could hardly hear the customers asking for their Camel Lights. Every blue moon or so, someone would recognize the ‘mats. It was always a guy. I would then spend the rest of the evening fantasizing about him coming back and singing “I’m in love with the girl who works at the store, but I’m nothing but a customer.”

Nobody ever came back.