Challenge = [Delayed but] Accepted

Blog every day in May! Okaaaay. This will go halfway into June.

Day 14: Ten things that make me really happy
1. getting off work in time to enjoy the sunshine
2. random happy texts
3. waking up early and ready to go on a Saturday
4. travelling
5. seeing all the besties. they live far away :(
6. the smell of clean laundry
7. cuddling with puppies
8. hanging out with the coolest sibilings ever
9. exploring
10. finding cool little stores i didn't know existed

bam. done and done. and in the style of e.e. cummings, there was a delightful lack of capitalization!

Still applicable 20 years later

"And they wonder why those of us in our twenties refuse to work an 80-hour week, just so we can afford to buy their BMWs...why we aren't interested in the counterculture that they invented, as if we did not see them disembowel their revolution for a pair of running shoes. But the question remains, what are we going to do now? How can we repair all the damage we inherited? Fellow graduates, the answer is simple. The answer is...the answer is...I don't know."

-Reality Bites (1994)

Songs for the Good Days

Why I've had a good day:

I looked presentable at work.
Jammed out to some new music.
Had a delicious new kind of salad for lunch.
Got my hair done.
Took the pooch on a walk.
Visited a friend.
Got pizza.
Talked to mom.
Worked on a worthwhile project.
Listened to some Josh Turner.

I like days like this.

24 Uses for a Laptop

These may or may not be real-life examples:

1. Typing important things
2. Doing important projects
3. Typing and doing unimportant things
4. Checking the weather
5. Storing photos
6. Taking photos
7. Watching TV
8. Hiding behind it in the library to avoid someone
   Acting as a:
9. Communication device
10. Lunch tray
11. Coaster
12. Dry erase board
13. Doodling space
14. Paperweight
15. Measuring device
16. Defense weapon
    And according to the rest of the internet:
17. Ping pong paddle
18. Nutcracker
19. Stool (set it on its side)
20. Windshield ice scraper
21. Cooking eggs (use the bottom)
22. Light
23. Killing spiders
24. Dustpan

There you have it. 

24 Random Facts

List #2.

1. I've worn sweats (yoga pants don't count) out in public maybe five times since I graduated high school. 
2. Oatmeal and anything with that sort of consistency freaks me out. 
3. I've gotten a concussion one time and it was while I was snowboarding. 
4. Frozen burritos are best eaten with ketchup. 
5. I hate cold weather more than pretty much anything else...except when people are late. That's also bad.
6. My dream vacation is driving around an old Winnebago and going to cheesy roadside attractions all across the country and then exploring all of the cities on a vespa. 
7. I once starred in a YouTube video where we stabbed a pizza boy. 
8. I've recently become a big fan of doing stuff by myself. 
9. I love: Lemonheads, orange juice, rice crispy treats, and the Chex in Chex mix
10. I have marathoned: The OC, Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, Raising Hope, Parenthood, Parks & Rec, The Office, Arrested Development, Scrubs, and am currently working on 30 Rock...I need to watch less tv....
11. Which leads me to...I got Netflix as a way to deal with a bad breakup. Very healthy and mature, I know. 
12. I have a pretty bad taste in music. Some of it's good. Some of it I pretty sure never made it mainstream because it's so awful. 
13. People complimenting me makes me incredibly paranoid.
14. I met Jeff Corwin once and had no idea who he was and accidentally offended him because of that. Oops.
15. Last summer I got massive scars on both of my legs and I'm pretty sure they're never going away. One was from longboarding and the other was from falling up concrete steps in the middle of the night.
16. Most of the time all of the clothes in my closet are color coordinated by what kind of clothing they are. 
17. I don't believe in making specific life goals with timeframes. They are much too constricting.
18. I score between 22% and 32% for all four personality types (on the tests when they only have four)--on pretty much every test I've taken there's about a 5 point range of where the scores fall. 
19. From the time I was about 6 until I was 16 I bit my nails and couldn't ever break the habit. When I found out how many germs were underneath my fingernails I immediately stopped and have been growing them out ever since.
20. I really like movies and I'll find one I like and watch it a bunch of times, then suddenly something will click and I'll never watch it again. 
21. Someday I want a pygmy goat and a rabbit to live in my yard. 
22. I only have nightmares after relationships end. They are incredibly vivid and downright awful.
23. When I get really upset I throw up. Now I can't eat blue slushies, Korean food, or ribs for that very reason. I also can't eat shellfish, but that's just because I'm allergic to it.
24. I got frostbite on both of my ears really bad in high school so now I have to wear a beanie when it's even a little bit chilly out. 

24 Songs I've Listened to on Repeat for at least a Day

In honor of me turning 24 I'm going to make lists of 24 things. Here's the first: 

1. Passenger Seat by the Summer Set*
2. Twilight by Thriving Ivory
3. Sunrise by Norah Jones
4. Beautiful Day for a Getaway by The Clintons
5. The Resolution by Jack's Mannequin*
6. More Time by Needtobreathe
7. As Long As It Takes by The Spill Canvas*
8. Our Song by The Spill Canvas*
9. Running out of Reasons to Run by Rick Trevino*
10. Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker*
11. Lost in My Mind by The Head and The Heart*
12. Sleeping Sickness by City and Colour*
13. Memories by Panic at the Disco*
14. Just Stay Here Tonight by Augustana*
15. I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons*
16. Mountain and Sound by Of Monsters and Men*
17. Anna Sun by Walk the Moon*
18. Can't Stop, Gotta Date with Hate by Lostprophets
19. Petals by The Honorary Title
20. Big Machine by The Goo Goo Dolls
21. Summer '79 by The Ataris
22. The Animal Song by Savage Garden
23. What I Didn't Know by Athenaeum
24. Fast Car by Tracy Chapman 

Bonus: Only You by Yaz.

Happy birthday to me!

Here is the whole lot of them (minus the Clintons. PS I want my life to be like the Anna Sun video)



*This means they're pretty much my fave songs Of. All. Time. 

On Growing Up

I've wanted to write this post for awhile, but it was never quite right. Today I think it will be.

While growing up, most kids are afraid of something. Some are afraid of spiders, some are afraid of swimming, and some are afraid of dogs. My personal demon was the dark. Everything about the dark--including the potential for what it held--terrified me. Out of all of the things the dark could hide, I was scared of two more than the others--monsters and ghosts.

As I've grown older, the dark has come to be less terrifying, but I've come to realize that monsters and ghosts are real. However, instead of the boogey man, ferocious animals, and disembodied beings, monsters and ghosts are the realities of the choices we've made and life simply happening. Monsters take the form of losing loved ones too early, grey hair at 22, friends being HIV positive, heartbreak, abuse, families falling apart, body image issues that don't go away with adolescence, cancer, voluntarily going to therapy, miscarriages, and emotional breakdowns on a random Tuesday. Everyday we have to deal with ghosts of the past--past relationships, consequences of past choices, and memories (good and bad) of all our favorite places and we can't wipe any of those away. All of these things become a part of us and become what a lot of people like to call "Baggage".

On that note, here's the song of the day: "Your Biggest Mistake" by Ellie Goulding.

Ten Songs That Saved Your Life

I found a website today that has a bunch of people answer what Ten Songs Saved Their Life and decided to give it a go myself.

1. Summer '79 | The Ataris
2. Running Out of Reasons to Run | Rick Trevino
3. More Time | Needtobreathe
4. Scream | Hedley
5. From Where You Are | Lifehouse
6. Perth | Bon Iver
7. Camera One | Josh Joplin Group
8. As Long As It Takes | The Spill Canvas
9. Elephant and Castle | Houston Calls
10. Resolution | Jack's Mannequin

This may be updated later.

Words of Wisdom for a Tuesday

"Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come."

 -Joseph B. Worthlin

Full text available here. 

Here's the Happy Trifecta!

DANG IT! This was supposed to be posted on Sunday but the scheduling thing didn't work...Here's the post I wrote:

Heyo! It has been THREE years, THREE months, and THREE days since I started this blog! WHOOOO!!!! That was a lot of capital letters and exclamation marks.

In case you missed it, here is a link to the first post, which explains the name of the post and a bunch of random other stuff. Since that time, this bad boy has gone through a lot of background changes, a month of ugly sweaters, a trip to Europe, a plethora of costume pictures, and a lot of my thoughts about the world.

You should probably go read the post so this picture is in context. I think somehow I have not put picture evidence of this up yet.

Anywho, that's that. Nothing else new here.