Overexposed

I’ve been a fan of Maroon 5 for years. I guess roughly ten years, as the other day via Twitter I was informed it was ten years ago that Songs About Jane came out.

Ten years.

I’m so old.

In other news, the new Maroon 5 album came out this week. I’ve been listening to it nonstop since I bought it. Luckily, Basil doesn’t seem to be bothered by it in the least, so I guess it’s okay. It fails to induce barking outbursts. (There are certain songs *cough* *cough* “The Call” by Backstreet Boys *cough* that induce fits of barking.) 

I tend to associate albums with certain aspects. Sometimes it’s general things, somethings it’s something so precise, there is no way anything else can be associated with it. I go on length here on how I’ll always associate Songs About Jane with Glasgow. (Yeah, evidently I bought the album over a year after it came out. I’m slow on the uptake.)

Their next two albums are kind of muddled together, as I bought them at the same time (on the same day) two summers ago. I associate both of them with 10p, which I began that summer. While I wrote the story, in the fall, Maroon 5 became pretty much the band for C and G, with a little Florence and the Machine thrown in.

So, since Tuesday, I've been listening to Overexposed and for some unknown reason I'm associating it with...Sherlock Holmes. Like David Tennent kind of took over my brain for over a year, I'm pretty sure Benedict Cumberbatch (oh, poor man...that name) has hijacked my brain. And like David Tennent, it's gone passed the thing that introduced him to me. I've been consuming anything BC has appeared in. I've laughed as he played a slightly sex obsessed male who seemed to get stepped on by his brother while his other brother never went to school and Hugh Laurie heard voices in his head and I couldn't stop laughing. I've heard him talk a total of maybe ten lines in an American accent while wearing a hat. I've seen him with various shades of hair, the slightly reddish blond he sported in Tinker Tailor Solider the most disturbing. I'm not sure why I found it disturbing, other than it was straight. I've seen him with a mustache and sounding weird riding a horse. 

And I'm no where near done. There are like at least three things I haven't managed to watch online. I've only stopped because I think my head is going to explode.

And not from overload on an actor, but simply because he's never looks or sounds the same (he does walk the same in each thing I've seen so far, he's got this distinctive walk that is just...him. Does that make sense? I don't care. I don't need to make sense. I talk to my dog.) I finally watched Decoy Bride and kept thinking David Tennent's character was a hopelessly confused Doctor. It was like when I attempted to watch Hamlet and kept thinking Hamlet was...an insane, confused, mentally unbalanced Doctor. When I saw him (David Tennent) in Casanova, I never thought he was playing a... womanizing Doctor. But everything else I've ever seen him in (even his few scenes in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), he's still the freaking Doctor. 

But, back to what I started this post to talk about (honestly, I didn't start it to begin to talk about BC. Honest). Maroon 5's new album. The songs.

"Pay Phone" is the single that came out before the album. I heard it on The Voice and kept thinking, "Do most of the people who watch this show even know what a pay phone is? When I first heard the song, I was working on a story I'd first written in high school, when pay phones were still part of everyday life for me, as I used them often-- even after I had a cellular device, as I wasn't supposed to "use" the cell phone except in emergencies. (This failed, if you can guess.) When I was rewriting this story (where the main character uses pay phones a lot, as he doesn't have a cell phone even though his mother works at a freaking cell phone store), I realized he needed to not be using pay phones all the time. He only uses one still, one he worries will vanish at any moment, located in the foyer of the school. 

Though...

Do todays teenagers, the people who mostly consume popular music, know what pay phones are? Are there even any pay phones left in this country? (Yes, there are. I've seen a few. Some of them even say Ameritech or SBC, two defunct telecoms.) 

My thoughts on "Pay Phone" (other than to thank Maroon 5 for reminding the world about pay phones and the need for change)...it's okay. I've got two favorite songs all ready. "Wipe Your Eyes" and "The Man Who Never Lied." "Wipe Your Eyes" is dead sweet, yet bittersweet at the same time (kind of classic Maroon 5 if I'm honest). The other songs have a kind of dance vibe to them and I'm distinctly reminded of the 1970s for some reason I can't really understand. 

The one issue I have: "Wasted Years." The first time I heard it, I thought it sounded familiar. The second time I heard it, I knew it sounded familiar, so I looked at the songs I had all ready and found it'd been released on something called Live-Friday the 13th. The third time I heard it, I was like, "Okay, why do I not know the words to this song? I've been listening to it for six years (at least)." 

They changed the lyrics. It finally hit me last night what was wrong with it. It really throws me. But, I guess it is their song, so they can do whatever they want. 

All in all, I do like this album quite a bit. (I usually don't put something new on repeat for four days straight unless I like it.) 

I just wish I'd associate it with something other than Sherlock Holmes, because it makes NO SENSE. Even I know it makes little sense and I've been trying to rationalize it for the past four days. I haven't even WATCHED SHERLOCK this week. (I don't think. I can't remember.) I did start reading Sherlock Holmes. Because my dad told me I ought to give it a shot. Seeing I made it through Jane Eyre, he seemed to think Sherlock Holmes would be easy. (I've "read" only one Sherlock Holmes story and I didn't actually read it, I listened to it and I really feel like I've put this story on the blog all ready. So, I'll just shut up all ready.)

The World Turns, I Get Older

Last year, I kind of freaked out about turning 27. And by freaked out, I spent the whole day feeling old and...unaccomplished. Or I guess disillusioned would be a better word.

Well, I'm 28. And...I'm pretty much in the same spot I was last year. Only, I have more hair. And five pounds around my middle. (It comes with getting old, or so I am told every time I complain about it.) We also have more snow on the ground than we did a year ago. And I didn't shovel it. Unlike last year, when I went outside in a thin sweater and shoved the driveway without gloves. I whined this morning I can't find my gloves, so I can't do it.

Like last year, I am thinking about ten years ago. Why? Because I remember being 18, just as I remember being 17. When I turned 17, I honestly didn't remember being 7, as I don't remember much about being 8. Other than I had long hair. Useful, I know.

Anyways, when I turned 18, the following happened:

1. Monsters Inc came out. It was the ONLY thing I wanted to do for my birthday. Really, I want to go see a movie? On opening night? That's a cartoon, fine. It was all I wanted. I didn't get it. Due to teenage drama, the showing I wanted was sold out. So, I didn't see the movie till the following weekend and I was cranky. Because...of teenage drama. Today is Wednesday. No movies come out today I want to see. I have no desire to see movies. Because...I am old. And I am a hermit, so I'd rather stay in my house and use Netflix.
2. My best friend gave me a SUPER SIZED Hersey's bar. Seriously, it was like two pounds of Hersey's bar. And I kept it under my bed. Why? Because that is where I kept junk food when I was 18: under my bed. Gross, I know. Now days, at 28, I keep plastic bins, suitcases and boxes of junk that never got unpacked because it should have been left in Del Rio. (The Hersey's bar remained under the bed till the spring when my mother was like, WILL YOU DO SOMETHING WITH THAT?! So I made cookies. Or something. I don't remember. I just remember it was under my bed for the longest time and I was honesty tired of chocolate by the time I finally smashed it up to make cookies.)
3. I got my blue book back. Which I am currently staring at. Because a few months ago I had my mother send it to me along with all my other journals. I was a writing fiend as a teenager, especially at 18. I don't keep one now. I tried, but, I'm so boring and...not filled with teenage angst. I find keeping this blog hard enough.
4. I remember what I wore that day. And the fact I spent three hours curling my hair into tiny, tiny cork screw curls. The very ones one of the teachers asked me, with a look of awe on her face, "How long did that take you?" It took three hours and by the end of the day, my head hurt from the tug of the ponytail I wore my hair in with the complicated rolls I wore on top of my head. It was a very complicated style and I only wore it twice in my life. It was a total pain. And actually, kind of looked stupid.
5. I had never been in love. I thought I was in love at 18, but I really wasn't. I read a book last night that described falling in love perfectly. (Well a few, but this book really resonated with me, I'm not sure why, but I'm going with it.) You fall. You do not think about it. I just happens and requires no thought or doubt. At 18, I was filled with thoughts and doubts (I have five volumes of journals telling me so much). At 28, I just know. The first time I fell in love, I just knew. It wasn't dramatic. It was the simplest thing in the world. (The falling part, after that, not so simple.) At 18, I felt no relief, only angst and drama. I worried. I was paranoid. I listened to songs and the more angsty the lyrics, the more dark, more drama...the better. I...don't do that any more. I don't see relationship with Pilot Boy in angst-ridden, dark, dramatic songs. Now, I just see CHARACTERS that are in my head in songs I like. Seriously. I no longer have songs, my characters have songs. Stories get songs. My life, not so much.
6. Point six is mixed in with point five.
7. 18 was the first birthday I viewed as a total disaster that I remember. I honestly don't remember turning 15, 16, 17 or anything before that. Those just happened. 18 is the first birthday that burned itself into my mind and refused to let go. And until I turned 21, I had horrible birthdays. They were just...horrific. I always had a horrible day, there was always some sort of drama that unfolded that left me feeling like total shit by the end of the day. When I turned 21...nothing happened. I am serious. I was also deliriously happy, but on the actual day of my birthday, honestly nothing happened. Well, things happened, but nothing that happened due to the fact I was turning 21. I got up late, missed my first lecture, walked to my room in the early morning cold, changed for lunch and then just went about my day till I returned to my room on a hill and fell face first into my bed and fell asleep for an hour. I then woke up, made a Chinese instant meal, ate it in my freezing cold room, was dragged to a party downstairs for like five minutes and then fell asleep. It was...the best day ever. It was the day I fell in love with Glasgow. From that day forward, Glasgow was the best place on earth as far as I was concerned. So much so, I still write love stories about it. And...it's Glasgow.
8. I have something in common with my 18 year old self, though. At 18, I still thought, deep down, I'd be a writer some day. I was beginning to give up this goal, as I had realized sophomore year there was no money in it and I wanted lots of money, but I didn't really give up the writing dream till much later on in my life. And I didn't pick it up till roughly a year or so ago. And since then, I've been working. While Pilot Boy might not think I am "working" I think I am working. I might not be getting paid at the moment, but I write, edit and revise daily. I read for research. Hell, I do research. I never did that before. I just wrote. I thought writing was just about writing the story. I always wrote what I knew, but even doing that...research is needed. I have spent the past year researching colleges, cities, staring at maps of Glasgow, London, Dublin and Chicago. I research names, last names, first names, middle names, back stories, houses, floor plans, and meanings of words in dead languages that no one knows how to speak. I draw maps, I look at maps, and I create entire universes in my head. I spent a whole day figuring out the Scottish schooling system and then another four hours making a freaking class schedule for a character. I spend time scouring the internet for snip its of Scottish/English/Irish/French/Southern American/Etc in order to be able to write out what I hear. I read books I would never read in the name of research. My 18 old self...read Harry Potter.
9. I didn't feel any different when I turned 18. I was an "adult" and yet I did not feel very adult like. I honestly felt like I was not old enough to do the things that 18 year old kids are allowed to do. I didn't think I was old enough to be voting in elections and I had no desire for cigarettes or any of the other things 18 year old kids can buy. I still don't honestly feel like I am old enough to do some things. Something happens after you turn 25, though. You forget how old you are. I walked around this past year, when I was 27, thinking I was 28. Pilot Boy tried to convince me the other day he was only 25 and I was 26. I had to actually do the math to figure out how old I was. And was really confused to find out I was 27. I did the math like five times. At least, this year, while thinking I am 28, I'll actually be 28.
10. 18 year old me burned herself with the curling iron. Often. 28 year old me burns myself, but not usually with the curling iron, as I don't use one as much as I used to. I do, though, usually burn my fingers because I refuse to wear that stupid heat proof gloves that came with the rod thing I bought and use because it makes the most natural looking curls. No, 28 year old me (who was 27 when most of these things happened) just burns herself on the oven, the stove, and the iron. And sometimes the hair dryer. But not as bad as when I was 15 and I dropped it on the back of my neck. I used to balance it in a tissue box over the side of my dresser and then sit under it and blow dry my hair straight and flat. (This was before I knew what a straightening iron was.) One day, the blow dryer fill, right on my neck when I had my head bowed to dry the back of my head. (This was the year of the mushroom hair cut, so I had short hair.) Least to say, I had an ugly red mark on the back of my neck that looked alarmingly like a hickey. And I had no boyfriend to give it to me. I had to go to church and everyone saw it, as I didn't know it was there till I got to church. No one believed I had burned myself either, as it was on the back of my neck. How do you drop a hair dryer there? I had no clue why no one believed me, either, as I thought it was rather well known I had no boyfriend.

Well, there. My birthday entry. Today has nothing speical in store. Other than some eating. I ought to eat lunch today before three pm. Which was when I ate yesterday. Because I forgot. 18 year old me always ate lunch at 10.30 am. As I had fourth hour lunch. 28 year old Ireland, has no lunch time. Sometimes she forgets to eat lunch.

Confession

I've all ready started listening to Christmas music.


Mostly because my iTunes player on random, mostly plays Christmas music. Any computer or music playing devince, when set to random, always seems to play Christmas music.

Well, that is, if is owned by me. I bet your player actually plays regular music more often than not. Mine just seem to like Christmas music. I gave in and since it looks like Christmas out there and the world has given up on Thanksgiving, I decided to be British and just celebrate Christmas after Halloween.

So there.

cannot forget, refuse to regret...

Maroon 5, I just realized, have played a rather large part of my life. Large part meaning their songs are accessories in events of my life. And I just realized it. I am serious. I am currently sitting around watching FUSE and the Maroon 5 Take Over special they are playing at the moment. I just finished watching an interview with Adam Levine and Jess Carmichael. (I think that was his name.) And it just kind of hit me that I think Songs About Jane is the most listened to disk I own. I am serious.

I bought Songs About Jane while I was in Scotland. I went to a music shop on Byers Road I think after I was Done. (Why is that capitalized? Well, because I was Done and it was a big deal. And in being Done, I was through with the strange, made no sense to me not relationship I was having at the time. I was just Done.) I went to the music shop to buy the McFly CD. I had been hearing the McFly song on the radio every morning and decided I liked the idea of British surf rock. I was standing in the music shop and was all ready holding the McFly CD and was staring at the Maroon 5 CD and thought, "Hey, I'm Done, I'm buying both and a latte."

So I bought it and a latte and went to lunch.

The McFly CD wouldn't import on to my computer (Jess, the Evil Laptop), but the Maroon 5 CD did. I ended up importing it and listening to it in one go and then watching the music videos that were on it. I had all ready bought three songs by Maroon 5 off of iTunes when I was back in the states, as "She Will Be Loved" was the theme of the past summer. I ended up falling in love with almost all the tracks on that disk and "Through With You" became one of the most listened to song on my iTunes on Jess the Evil Laptop. For years. I bet if I opened it up now, it'd still in the top ten. The next summer, the disk was ALWAYS in my disk player in my car. It was always in the car and when I would re-discover it I would stick it in and it'd be the player until my husband removed it. When I had the s40 with its 6 CD changer, it was ALWAYS in the player and I was sad when we got the 4Runner, because it only had one spot for CDs.

Today, I realized, while in college I bought bought almost anything Maroon 5 had put out, I had not bought anything since. I had stared at their last CD a lot, but had never bought it as it always was 13.99 and I just never had 13.99 when I saw it.

I have 13.99. iTunes is also no longer dumb. I today, I finally bought their last CD they put out, but did not pre-Order their next disk. I need to hear a few more song before I jump onto the next disk.

Songs About Jane is an awesome disk and if you do not own it, you totally should. But that is just my opinion. I tend to think about various place in Glasgow, Scotland when I hear it, so maybe that is why I like it so much. "Through With You" tends to remind me of the stairway in the Adam Smith Building. "Tangled" for some unknown reason reminds me of crossing the street from Kelvingrove Park to University Ave. "Not Coming Home" reminds me of my dorm room. "This Love" reminds me of sitting in that same dorm room with L and watching the music video with her and her informing me Adam was hot. "She Will be Loved" will always remind me, not of Glasgow, but of Galena, IL, as that was where I first heard it and began to cry while sitting waiting to go somewhere with my family. During my senior year of college I decided I wanted "The Sun" to be the first dance at my wedding (I did not have dancing at my wedding, but the music play list I had made to play during dinner had it on there.)

Certain lines of the songs really stuck with me during this point in my life. Almost every song on there I felt was pertinent to that point in my life. Not many CDs can do that, in all honesty. The McFly CD was just fun music. The Muse CD I bought while I was over there, while much loved by me, did not fit perfectly into my line of thought. (Other than "The Small Print" and maybe "Falling Away With You.")

That is all. You may now go about your won lives again.

Jumping the bandwagon

I first heard Micheal Jackson was dead from someone's facebook status update. Thinking it had to be a joke, I went to Google News, which only told me he was suffering from a heart attack.

At some point yesterday, he was dead. Declared dead, confirmed dead. He was dead.

Last night, BET was playing Micheal Jackson videos. For lack of better things to watch, my husband and I watched Micheal dance one last time, for as you well know, now that he's really dead, the music video is truly dead.

The music video has been dead for awhile. It died at some point at the dawn of the new century, when MTV and VH1 ceased to actually play videos and moved on to playing the dumbest, stupidest reality TV shows. Micheal Jackson made the music video into an art form. Have you seen "Thriller?" MTV was made into what it was supposed to be by that video. Jackson's videos all had plots in them. There was always a story in there, usually having to do with what the song was babbling about. His dancing was always perfect and went along with the music. I have seen many Micheal Jackson videos (I know I have not seen them all, as this morning when VH1 and MTV finally played some, I did see a few I had never seen before). However, I have seen many. I've seen them mostly on "Pop Up Video" which is one of my all time favorite things in the word to watch, as I could watch music videos all day long and having random tid bits of information is just all the better.

Last night, as I watched the "mini-movie" that "You Rock My World" and I began thinking, "There is a lot of Micheal Jackson in Justin Timberlake." I did not realize at the time, that video was from 2001, so it might have been the other way around, but as I watched this mini-movie music video, I realized the music video was dead.

When you think about it, what is the last music video you've been excited to see? When was the last time you stopped what you were doing in order to watch a music video? When was the last time you actually saw ALL of a music video? When was the last time a music video debuted on prime time television?

I think I might have been in first grade or second grade, when the Dangerous Album came out and "Black or White" premiered on prime time TV...I think on TGIF Friday maybe? I do not exactly remember, but I do remember everyone at school being excited to see it on TV that night, and one just had to watch. I do not remember much about watching it, I do remember it was the most popular song at the talent show that year. Of course, I had no idea what the song was about or why it was such a big deal until I saw the video when I was in junior high or high school on "Pop Up Video."

I also remember being shocked when I found out Micheal Jackson was black, as throughout my childhood as far as I knew he was a funny looking white guy. I think it was my mom who pointed out that the black child who was the lead singer of The Jackson 5 was the same Micheal Jackson who had the little nose and white face. I also really figured this out more when I watched the movie/long tv show/drama thing about the Jacksons.

As I entered junior high and the boy bands all started coming out, I remember thinking Micheal Jackson wasn't cool. I did like his song, "You Are Not Alone," which to this day is the only Micheal Jackson song I own, as it was nominated for a Grammy, thus on the Grammy CD I own. That was the music video with Lisa Maire Prestly and I couldn't figure out how they had made it when Jackson was showing so much skin.

There will always be an elephant in the room when we think of Micheal Jackson, because his crazy, mixed up personal life over shadowed his talent as a performer. However, that talent is perserved in the countless music videos he made. His crazy personality does show through in most of the videos, so he is not totally lost.

What is totally lost is the music video. The last music video I watched in full was Britney's "Have U Seen Amy." It casused a buzz because of its "dirty" chorus, which I guess I'm stupid becasue I don't get it. I also didn't really get the video. Most of todays videos I don't get. Most of them are tasteless and stupid. None of them are truely sexy or artful. While I have a hard time taking Michael Jackson as sexy, his videos are artful and thought provoking. There might be sexy, artful videos out there, but I'll never seen them because MTV, VH1 and the various other "music" channels don't play music videos, as they do not think people want to watch music videos. I used to not be able to live without MTV and VH1 for the music videos. Now, if I did not have these channels, I wouldn't notice, as I do not watch them any more. I think a lot of people feel as I do.

I believe Micheal Jackson changed music, he used music videos to do this. I don't think he would have become what he did, professionally, without music videos. He gave us the form of the music video that was copied for years. He created stories in his videos, they were not just him standing around singing, there was always a theme.

Some poeple out there think he's getting too much attention and he shouldn't get it due to the elephant in the room. Farah Fawcett died on the same day as Micheal. However, we all knew she was going to die, as she's been fighting cancer for awhile now and it was rumored she was getting worse. Micheal came out of left field and caught us all off guard. If you look at the two of them, I'm going to have to say that Jackson had more of an impact than Fawcett. She gave us a hair cut, one season of Charlie's Angels and a poster. Jackson gave us countless music videos, years of high jinks, and music that shaped a whole generation (and then some) lives. Everyone's got a memory linked to a Micheal Jackson song. I can't say I've got much linked to Fawcett other than the fact my mother told me she couldn't get her hair to do that Farah Fawcett cut. I'm not saying Fawcett should not be mourned, I'm just saying the world's reaction to Micheal Jackson's death is expected. At least, Fawcett will be at rest and her passing will be more peaceful with the world's glare focused on Jackson, who always lived for flash.

so you say its your birthday?

Today is my dad's birthday.

It also happens to be Paul McCartney's birthday as well. I bet it is other people's birthdays as well, but when I was 12 years old it only mattered that Paul McCartney shared a birthday with my dad.

I "discovered" the Beatles when I was about 12 (I think...I might have been 11?) when the Beatles Anthology came out. I watched it on TV with my parents, who had both grown up in a world dominated by the Beatles's music and presence. I think I managed to fall in love with them when we were watching a clip from the opening of "Help!" and my mother said something about George Harrison having nice hands and long fingers.

I was hooked on his hands. I was hooked on the Beatles from that moment on. It became my closet obsession for the rest of 6th grade. I did not want anyone to know that I liked the Beatles. I did not want anyone to know I listened to the oldies station rather than the cool station. I always had Beatles songs stuck in my head that I wrote in code all over my notebooks. People would always try to figure out what the things said, but no one ever caught on to what I was really doing. A few times I would slip up and say something about the Beatles, which would also cause the person I was talking to to get rather excited because they also liked the Beatles.

I failed to realize that everyone liked the Beatles and there was nothing to be ashamed of. Well, okay, no one liked them as I did, as no one could spout off the random information I could and I doubt no one carried a biography from 1964 around with them as I did. (To the point the book fell apart and the cover no long stayed in once piece, but those were such minor details when I was 12.)

Every Sunday my dad taped Breakfast with the Beatles with Kitty Lolley (or whatever her name was.) I went to church, he taped it and I listened to it constantly. When I was in 6th grade my parents would threaten to take away my Beatles tapes. It got to the point I bought a lock for the box I kept them in, so they couldn't take them away. I got my first CD player when I was in 6th grade and I would annoy the whole world singing along to the CDs at the top of my voice. I have always found it hard to listen to music and not sing along. I was always singing it seemed when I was a kids.

The manic obession with the Beatles really only lasted a year. By 7th grade I was branching back out into the real world of music. I knew what was going on again, though I still did not listen to the "cool" radio station. I just tended to watch VH1 and MTV a lot. The Beatles still ruled my mind, and I still recieved Beatle themed things from my uncle (I still do actually, so I am still collected Beatle music).

But today is Paul McCartney's brithday. It is also my dad's birthday. I almost can't wait till he turns 64 so I can send him the recording of "when I'm 64" by Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney's all ready turned 64, but my dad's got a long while before he hits that land mark.

a detective without a case

First: Hotel Manners

First off, do they still exist? I am trying to figure out if they do or not. As a child I was told to be quiet in hotels. You do not run the TV loudly, you do not SCREAM in the hallway. You do not carry on loud conversations at two am in the hallways. You do not run in the hallway, no matter the time of day. In hotels, at all times of the day, someone somewhere is trying to sleep, so you always use a quiet voice.

This must have died in recent years. Or at least in the last year. The last hotel experience I had in Austin was terrible. Besides being over charged for parking and more than likely the room, I was awoke the two nights I was there at least THREE TIMES due to LOUD CONVERSATIONS AND SCREAMING at the wee hours of the morning. A few times these conversions were clearly caused by alcohol, but still. The Fancy Downtown Hotel is not a dorm room. If you wanted to stay in a dorm room, I have a feeling if you waked six blocks the other way, the University of Texas would have happily put you up. I remember nights like the ones I had this past weekend when I was in college. It annoyed me then, but it was weekends on a college campus, I couldn't expect any less. (Of course when people would stand outside my window and rap at two am on a Wednesday morning when I had to be up at eight for class, that pissed me off.)

So, in the future, please remain quiet when staying in hotels. They are not party dorms. Some people are trying to sleep so they don't look like the waking dead the next morning.

Second:

I bought the new Franz Ferdiand album. Before I bought it, I read some reviews. I had been unaware that the last album, You Could Do So Much Better, basically tanked. I was unaware of this. I guess it did not tank at Beloit College, as I heard it everywhere not just my own room. I really liked that album. Especially the songs "Walk Away" and "That Boy." Adored those two out of all the FF songs I know. Anyways, I bought the new album and enjoy it.

Third:

Is it bad I want Britney Spears to stop failing at life? I want her to succeed for some odd reason. I am not sure why. Usually, I do not care.

finding spirit

So, my mom introduced me to Straight No Chaser, who had been "making the rounds" in Chicago or something. So I hit the link, as she sent this shortly after my post about finding new Christmas music. I found new Christmas music. However comma, I have yet to drive my husband nuts with it, as he has never been around whilst while I was listening to it. Anyways....

I go through phases where I love the holidays and hate them with a flaming passion. Until I was 16 and had a job, I never understood why ANYONE would not like Christmas. However, once you work retail, you learn to loath the holidays. Longer hours, more angry people throwing checks at you and other things. My first Christmas holiday working, I was learning new skills and being heaped on with all this new stuff while people didn't understand I was in the mists of being "trained." So they did a lot of yelling and throwing things at me. I am a fast learner, but the first day I was stuck up there was the day after Thanksgiving, after having a "quick" lesson on Wednesday. I caught on by the end of the day, but least to say I was frazzled beyond all known belief.

Two Christmases at the same retail store, sucked the life out of me. There wasn't enough time to do my Christmas shopping and wrap things. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, I do not remember when, I became the wrapper in the family. Everyone save my mom gave me EVERYTHING to wrap (except my own gifts, thus I always knew which ones were mine by simply looking at them.) When I did not have a job, this was FUN! I loved turning on my music, singing and wrapping and making my own bows. After I got a job, it was less fun for various reasons. One, I was tired of Christmas by December first and I had this "social" life and it was hard to wrap presents and curl ribbon while holding a stupid phone to my ear and listening to the latest drama of the day. Then I started college.

I was gone till a few days before Christmas now. And they still saved the gifts for me to wrap. I don't know if my family knew this, but college was very hard on me. I was ALWAYS stressed out twenty four hours a day, yet I did not know it. When I came home for breaks, I was usually brain dead and wanted to fall over and die. And I come home to a room full of unwrapped presents. Freshman year there was the added....uh, not sure for the word for it, but my boyfriend of the time (who I was growing tired of) was living in the house and was ALWAYS around. It drove me nuts that I had no space, had to wrap these with him sitting there staring at me, jealous that I was paying attention to boxes and ribbon than him. Sophomore year, he was gone, long gone, but I was about ten pounds lighter due to stress and was about to crack. As the years went on, my wrapping got less complicated to the point where I would just stick pre-made bows on them, as I was over annoyed that no one besides my mom could wrap any more.

My dad, bless him, buys things year around and then "hides them." He hides them from himself (my mom is guilty of this as well). So, as the season drags on, he "finds" his gifts. So I will have a wrapping session and he will later find a slew of things. Sometimes, on the day of he will find presents for my grandparents and go into a tizzy about me wrapping them before they arrive for supper.

Last year, I made and wrapped all the presents. My husband watched TV, played on the internet and later helped pack up the ones to be shipped. This year, I wrapped everything and made bows. Last year I don't think I made bows. However, I am currently under no stress and have a ton of time to wrap things. I did not go as nuts as I did during my hay day wrapping, as I do not have the money to do this (nor my dad's money). I reused last years paper of gold and silver and bought ribbon that can be "reused" over and over and over. I made bows how I learned to make them whilst I interned at Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the RACVB bow. It was a useful skill in reality. I figure maybe my husbands step mom and my mother will save the bows, but I tried to be eco-friendly. I usually do bags now, but it just didn't seem right to use bags for everything at Christmas time.

it is that time of year

I have been listening to the same Christmas music since I was about fifteen or so. I know, lame, but it is true. The bulk of my Christmas music comes from 'N Sync and 98 Degrees. I only have 98 Degrees because I drove my parents nuts listening to the 'N Sync CD nonstop for almost three weeks straight or something insane like that. To save themselves, they bought 98 Degrees. I am not sure why they did this, as I was never a big 98 Degrees fan or any sort, but I enjoyed it none the less and added it to the Christmas rotation.

Also, I stole a few CDs from my dad, one being the Barbra Streisand CD. I know, weird right? But it gets weirder. I stole it when I was maybe ten or so. I listened to it, along with the Disney CD and the "fun songs" Christmas CD, which we got simply because it had "I'm Getting Nothin' For Christmas" on it. When I got into 'N Sync and boy bands, I kept Babs, but got rid of Disney. To this day, I do not know where Mickey and Friends are. I added the "fun songs" back into the rotation due to the fact I needed something other than boy bands and...The OC Chrismakka CD, which I got for Christmas whilst in Scotland. It only has 12 songs, so I needed to pad out my selection during my working days. I had a 45 minute drive, and boy bands wore me thin after a week. I had added a few free songs off of iTunes since this time, but not many. I have many copies of "O Holy Night" as I adore that song, along with my all time fav, "First Noel." I am not sure why I enjoy those, other than I enjoy singing along with them.

I married a man who has a birthday a few days before Christmas, so he likes to be a kurmudgen and not do anything Christmas like before his birthday. So to annoy him, I listen to Christmas music year round. Due to this, I realized I need to expand yet again my collection of Christmas music, as it is limited. However, I have no idea where to begin. There is just so much. I do not have any all time fav artist I want to have a Christmas album from, so I am not sure what to do. Also, I live in a dirt hole, so the only place to buy CDs is Wal-Mart. Not that I'm into buying CDs, but I always find it helpful when I am at a loss on what to do, I need to be able to hold things and look at them. Surfing iTunes or Amazon leaves me befuddled and confused. Or buying too much, or buying stuff I later decide I'm not too crazy about. Like Christina's "O Holy Night." While I adore the song, I'm not totally crazy about hers, or that Hanson track I bought. I don't even like Hanson, but they covered "O Holy Night" and "First Noel" I think in one song! What could be wrong with that?!

Well, it was Hanson, and I forgot for a moment, crazed by Christmas music, that I'm not their biggest fan. Oh well. We will see what to do on a later date.