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Today’s edition of “I <3 the ’80s” is dedicated to my friend Eric. After a few months, Eric and I had the chance to catch up a little today over IM. We talked about work (both of us in are newspapers), friends from 10 years ago (where are they now?), some of the craziness he saw when he tried to vote in New York City. Eventually, the conversation got around to him asking, “So, are you happy in DC? Is this what you thought it would be?”

I paused for a minute before I answered.

“No, it’s really not. But that’s not a bad thing. This certainly is as far from where I thought I’d be at this stage in my life as it could be.”

I love:

The oddly uncertain energy in the air here. It doesn’t really feel calm to me. I like chaos.

My job. I love what I do. I’m having a great, great time doing it. I’m starting to feel like I’m growing into it, I’m making friends, I’m learning more every day.

WTOP. Sure, it’s no 1010 WINS, but for our nation’s capital, it’ll do just fine.

Having that 45 minutes at the end of the day to be alone in my thoughts on the train. It’s a good way to shake off the work day so I don’t bring it home with me.

The future. Who knows what it holds here. That’s what’s exciting. For the first time in many, many years, I feel like I don’t know what’s coming next and it’s actually put a little spring in my step.

I don’t love:

Honking. Seriously, people. Honking all the time. I promise you nothing has ever happened faster because you lay on the horn. Trust me on this one.

Everything costing twice as much as it did at home. That’s mostly because I’m cheap.

Four words: Fourth floor walk up.

How much I miss my family and friends from back home. I always said Charleston I could live without. It was the people IN Charleston that made it tolerable to me.

Maryland taxes … on everything.

All in all, I don’t know what I was expecting when I made a snap decision with absolutely no forethought that sure, I’d pack up the only life I’d ever known to carve out a brand new life in a place that twice as many people in the metro area than my entire state had. But now that it’s been almost six months since I made the jump, I’m happy I did. Even if my time in Washington is short-lived, I’ll always look back on how much I learned and grew during this time and how thankful I should be that I had this once in a lifetime chance to see what I could do here. I could have taken the easy way out and been afraid and happy in complacency, but I decided to hell with being satisfied with “just enough.”

I did it. And some days, I’m actually good at it. And some days, it feels like it’s the same as it ever was.

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Today’s “I <3 the ’80s” takes a bit of a twist to share B-Dub’s contribution. In today’s edition, we’ll show you two videos: The original … and then if the video just said exactly what was happening.

First, the original, classic video “Take On Me” by A-Ha. Easily one of the most spoofed and replicated videos ever.

Now … if only they were actually telling you what was going on …

I gotta be honest, I could get used to videos telling me exactly what was going on rather than leaving it up to interpretation.

and now, a clip

This is from one of my top five favorite movies. One of the five movies I could watch every day for the rest of my life. This, also, reflects how I’m feeling at the ol’ office today.

The movie, “Haiku Tunnel” was loathed or loved. It just made Josh Kornbluth my hero. In this movie, we share so many similarities, it’s scary.

we’ll be back after these messages

Tonight’s in-flight entertainment is brought to you by Meatwad.

(Provided I get to GO home from work tonight, more in a live report.)

brilliant.

Man, this is beautiful. This … is brilliant.

If The 2008 Presidential Election Was A Sitcom – Watch more free videos

this guy freaks me out

Vince Offer makes Billy Mays look relatively timid and tolerable.

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This is among the first videos I can remember seeing on MTV. When I was growing up, my hometown didn’t have cable to speak of, but my aunt and uncle had a satellite … and teenage sons. I’d spend my summertime afternoons at their house swimming in the pool, putting on plays we’d write for each other and watching MTV. I remember this video and the first time I saw it like it was this morning. I can smell the chlorine from the swimming pool and the goosebumps from coming into the air conditioner.

This is just a fun song, too. There’s nothing you can’t love about this one.

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I’d be a failure if I didn’t put this one up here.

Ah, the one phone number that everybody knows. Disappointingly, it wasn’t real. However, you can bet that the second I live in a place where my exchange starts with 867, I’m offering to pay extra just to have the number.

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I can almost promise that 90 percent of you haven’t heard this song in 15 years, if not longer.

You’re welcome. That one’s going to be in your head for the rest of the night.

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After whittling through a few candidates tonight, I present your winner.

I watched my finalists in a row and this one ended up winning because of production value alone. I’m actually somewhat amazed at the production that went into this video for 1983. I don’t know artists in 2008 who would put this much effort into producing a music video. I mean, a lighted floor, dancers, weird lighting effects.

Sure, it looks like something the local summer stock theater group put together with the local high school’s AV Club, but still … I do enjoy this video a good bit. And I’m willing to bet some of you haven’t even THOUGHT of this song or video in years.