Hiya folks!

So after 2 long years, I'm pleased to report that all our stuff is once again in the same state. I've spent the last 2 days going through boxes, and I've come to a few realizations.

Number one, Man, we have a lot of crap, and every last bit of it has now had a nice ride across the country in a Uhaul with my in-laws. Seriously y'all, I actually packed a bag of dried beans. Like, a ziploc baggie. I'm assuming I used to use them for baking pie crust (you know, as a weight). I do actually have an excuse for this one... when we left Macon, we didn't have all that much time to pack and sort and throw stuff away. Pete found out that he got in to Georgetown in late May 2009 and we moved in early August. Yes, that is a good amount of time, except that one of us was working more than full time, and the other was studying for the bar exam, so it's not like we had gobs of time to prepare. Furthermore, DC was such a drastic downsizing from even our smallest apartment in Georgia, that we probably only took 1/3 of our stuff. The rest was shoved into boxes with pretty much no thought or organization and put into storage.

Number two, our apartment in Macon was disgusting. Again, not really my fault. Specifically, all of my kitchen stuff is absolutely filthy. (Ok, it's not as bad as it sounds. The part of the kitchen where I made food was always clean. It was a very big room with lots of stuff stored around the edges, if that makes sense. That's the stuff that's dirty.) See, our washer and dryer were shoved over in a kind of alcove around the corner from the kitchen, which was fine except that the dryer didn't have a hose that went through the wall to outside like a normal dryer. We had to get one of those lint trapper things for people who live in crappy apartments (yo.), and we still ended up getting dust and dryer lint all over the place constantly. Add to that the fact that this contraption made the place outrageously humid, and the fact that we lived in Macon, Georgia (aka, one of the most hot and humid places I've ever been, and y'all, I'm from Alabama), and... yeah. I did what I could. It was liveable, but looking back I'm kind of appalled.

Taking all this stuff out again is really interesting though. Not to be overly dramatic, but when I packed these boxes I was a completely different person. It's amazing what living in 538 square feet with another person for 2 years (and through the 2 worst blizzards in 40 years or something) will do to your sense of space. With that little room, you either trip over stuff constantly (which gets old really fast, trust me), or you wean yourself off of the pack-rat hoarder mentality that so much of American culture beats into our heads. I've reverted to a few of my old suburban habits-- buying toilet paper and paper towels in bulk, for example, because now I have room to store it, and it's easier and cheaper. But so much of this other stuff-- I can't help but wonder why I ever thought I needed two egg separaters (or one, for that matter. Such a uni-tasker! Thanks AB) or two can openers or 2 sets of sheets for a mattress I don't have anymore. (Actually, I'm not sure about that one. Add to to-do list: check to see if sheets fit on any of our beds.) Or why I needed to keep a baggie full of used dried beans. This whole experience has made both of us very minimalist, as well as just a smidgen OCD.

Man, am I excited to put all this crap in a yard sale.

I am the world's worst blogger

Seriously, if there's an award for that, I would win. Or maybe lose, as the case may be.

Anyway, I'm thinking that blogging more would be good for me, so I'm going to get back in to this song challenge deal for a while.

Whatever number day it is that we're up to, today's theme is "a song no one would expect you to love."

This is mine:



There are probably other songs I love that would surprise you more, but mainly I think it's surprising that I love this song because of it's inclusion at the end of "Fight Club." "Fight Club," it may surprise you to know, is one of my most favorite movies. This surprises the heck out of me anyway.

I first saw this movie during my freshman year at Sewanee, when I had to write a paper for Dr. Peterman's Philosophy 101 class comparing it to Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil." I don't remember what I thought of it, honestly. But it's grown on me significantly over the years, which I find pretty weird. I'm not overly sensitive to blood or violence (in movie form), but generally I don't enjoy watching people get beat to a pulp. Normally, I tend to hate movies that other people think are "like, so incredible and deep, man." Normally, I find Brad Pitt incredibly irritating and don't like watching him. Normally, I hate movies that are... I don't know the word... have kind of a defeatist attitude? I don't know... movies like this one. But "Fight Club," I love. And considering the other things on my list of favorite movies are "Love Actually," "Dead Poets Society," and "The Muppet Christmas Carol".... yeah. I'm gonna go with this being at least a little surprising.

(A warning-- this is not the original video for this song. It's sort of a "Fight Club" montage, complete with... well... if you've seen "Fight Club" you know what Tyler liked to splice in to children's movies. If you're some place where that would be inappropriate, or you don't want to see some guy's junk, turn it off before the last 5 seconds. You're welcome.)

Helplessness is...

Taking a (rather lengthy, obviously) break from the song challenge game. I do actually have the next day's post written, just haven't gotten around to posting it yet.

Today, there's something more important.

As of right now (1:39 p.m., EST) CNN.com is reporting that 247 people died yesterday in storms across the Southeast. 162 of those were in my beloved home state of Alabama. I'm sure the number will grow, unfortunately. The videos and photos I'm seeing, particularly from Tuscaloosa, have left me absolutely stunned and speechless.

Tornadoes in Alabama are nothing new. I can't think of a spring or summer from my childhood that didn't have at least one big one. There was even a bad one right before Christmas when I was in high school. When I was about 7, I remember driving to school with my dad and seeing the top of a funnel cloud in our rearview mirror. I reached a point where I could look at the color of the sky over downtown-- even at night-- and tell if we needed to worry when the sirens went off. (Sirens go off if there's a tornado spotted anywhere in the county, but it's a big county and storms rarely come that close to where my parents live.)

In short, we think we know what to expect. But... wow.

I realize I'm like 1000 miles away, and there's nothing I can do if it gets bad, but I like to keep tabs on it when I hear there's going to be bad weather in Alabama. I pulled up the live stream on Abc3340.com as I was about to leave for the park to run with Pete. As I was about to walk out the door, I heard James Spann say there was a massive tornado in Tuscaloosa County. My brother lives in Tuscaloosa, at the University of Alabama. (He's fine, thank the good Lord.) I texted him quickly to say I was sure he already knew to get underground, but to be careful, and went on my merry way.

After my run, I got back in the car and almost immediately my phone rang. It was my Mother-in-Law's best friend, who hysterically told me to call my parents-- she was watching the news in Atlanta and they had a live picture of a giant tornado coming at Birmingham. I drove home as fast as was (mostly) legal and called my dad's cell phone. Nothing. Mom's cell phone. Nothing. Brother's cell phone. Nothing. House. No answer. I am about to throw up. Meanwhile I'm watching James Spann again, who's citing some tornado damage index I've never heard of and saying although they didn't think this number could get higher than 10, this storm is a 13.4. Just as I was about to call a friend whose parents live around the corner from mine, my mom called back to say everyone was fine.

While I am so incredibly thankful that my family and friends are alright and without any notable damage, I realize that there are far too many people out there who weren't so fortunate. What I've always found so terrible about weather is the randomness of it. You can work for years to build a house and life and it's gone in a matter of seconds. You can do everything right and go to the innermost room on the bottom floor and still get blown to the next county. And it's so frustrating to sit here warm and dry in my house on the other end of the country, enjoying the rain as the last little bit of this storm blows through my neighborhood. All I can do from here is donate money to the relief efforts, and I don't even have much of that. I can't help move tree limbs or hand out clothing or offer a couch to displaced friends. (I mean, obviously if any of you are ever displaced by a natural disaster or anything else you're welcome to stay on my couch. I'm just saying, Connecticut is a bit of a haul.) I know I'm rambling. I just hate being so far away and so helpless.

If you're in the Southeast, please take care and be safe. Let me know if there's anything I can do from here. Please, I mean it.

Next day!

Whatever day this is, the theme is "a song that's a guilty pleasure."

Here's the deal: I hate the phrase "guilty pleasure." I recognize that I really enjoy a lot of crappy music, but I refuse to feel guilty about what I enjoy. (Actually, I kind of hate the word "guilty." As a feeling, I mean. It seems to always mean "I enjoy this but society-or whoever- says I shouldn't, so I'm going to feel bad about myself for it." I don't like that.)

Let's revise the title to something that irritates me a little less-- "a song that is pure brain candy."

Back up a little-- it is a little shocking to most people that I have only recently started watching the TV show "Glee." For pretty much as long as possible, I was that kid in school who was in every choir possible. Not half as annoying as, say, Rachel Berry (I hope), but you'd better believe that if my high school had had a show choir, I'd have been all up in there. I'm that adult that has a showtunes station on Pandora, and likes to occasionally play it loudly when cleaning the house. (When nobody else is home.)

However, the first few episodes I saw of "Glee," I didn't enjoy it that much for a simple reason-- I didn't know the songs. I've never really listened to pop music, and when I heard it on the radio (like at work) I didn't typically enjoy it that much.

Then this episode aired, and in the roughly 2 and a half minutes it took the Warblers to sing this song, I became a fan of both "Glee" and Katy Perry.



Since that point, I've seen a lot more of "Glee." More often than not, the songs they sing are things I didn't particularly enjoy on the radio, but now love because of the "Glee" version. It's possible that I cried like a girl when the kids sang Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" to Kurt at his dad's wedding (and during the Christmas special when they sang that song from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"). It's possible that I have danced around the house like a nut during more than one performance. It's possible that I want to go buy all their albums.

So I guess it's less that this is a guilty pleasure, and more that somewhere in the past, 17-year-old me is judging. Hard. Oh well.

Hullo there!

I'm finally settled in Connecticut, with the internet up and running, and whatnot. On to the next day... I think we're on 12?

Day whatever-it-is is "a song from a band you hate."

Here's the thing. I hate very few bands, and really I can't think of one that I dislike so much that I would never listen to anything by them. People evolve, and whatnot. However, I am totally unimpressed by this one. I don't know when they first appeared, but this is the first of their songs that I ever became aware of. This was popular during my freshman year at Sewanee, when I didn't have a tv and didn't own a radio, and I was still sick of it after a few weeks because it was played so much. That should tell you a thing or two.



Also, everything of theirs that I've ever heard kind of sounds the same. Lame and whiney. Not awesome.

Actually, I just like the video

Sorry for the absence... I've been making the rounds in Georgia. I visited Pete's family, saw some dear friends who are expecting a sweet baby girl any day now, drank margaritas on Katie's porch, and had a flashback afternoon in Macon. However, I did not take the laptop with me, which means we are only now reaching Day 11.

Day 11! A song from your favorite band!

This is actually not my favorite band. They're up there, but not #1. My actual favorite band is Cast Iron Filter, who are apparently not "big time" enough to be on YouTube. (There are a few crappy live performances and covers but I don't really think that counts.) You've probably guessed that my favorite... music performer, I guess, is Bob Dylan, but he isn't really a band, and also he's already shown up like 3 times in the last 11 days. ("days.")

So, without further ado-- Internet, I give you Weezer.



Isn't this video cute? I think my favorite part is when the dude is drumming with the little orange tabby kitties. They look like Hank, if he were very small, and also a drummer.

Ain't it just like the night...

Day 10 at last! Hurray!

It's not that I'm thrilled for day ten in particular, or anything. Just that keeping this up for 10 days seems like an accomplishment, even if it has taken me like 3 weeks to do it.

Ok. Day 10, a song that makes you fall asleep.

The reason is that I used to listen to this one CD to go to sleep in about Jr. High, because there was a lot of quiet acoustic folky-type music on it. (Bob Dylan, Biograph box set, disc 2.) This was the first song on the CD. (I realize it's a little weird to listen to Dylan to go to sleep, but I need something to focus on. Lyrics help that. If it's Beethoven, or something, my mind keeps racing and I get all wound up. Trust me, I've got a system that works well enough.)

Any-hoo, all that aside, I. Love. This. Song. If "Like a Rolling Stone" had never been written (see Day 1), this would be my favorite song ever. It holds the #1 spot in the category of "Songs you love so much you'd name your child after them." (Don't worry, Pete has already vetoed that. But at minimum, I will someday have a cat named Johanna.)



I don't know what this song is about. I don't care. I've heard that it's about Joan Baez, which doesn't really make any sense, but whether that's true or not it just makes me like it more. J.J. Abrams (of "LOST") apparently loves this song, and it's said that he listened to it all the time on the "LOST" set, and said that if you understood that song the show would make sense. That didn't help at all, on either side.

On a... production-type note, I guess, this is not the original version of this song that you hear on "Blonde on Blonde." This one is live, and more stripped-down. I don't know if it's the same live version that I used to fall asleep to on the afore-mentioned CD, but it doesn't really matter. Any one would work.

This is the Picture Definition of Ridiculous.

Day 9 already! And only like 20 days after we started! Amazing.

Day 9 is "a song that you can dance to."

I considered choosing a song from the rotation at the Lambda Chi house. "Cecilia," "Like a Prayer," "Magic Carpet Ride"... all fine choices. But, I feel like really, that's more a controlled hop than a dance, generally speaking.

I do actually know the official dance to this song. I know it from my year on Camp McDowell summer staff, because my campers taught it to me during the Senior Camp lip sync. (We came in second. We were robbed.)



I will say, at least, we didn't look nearly as ridiculous as Mr. Ice does here. And by the way, if rhyme was a drug, I'd sell it by the gram. Just so you know.

And she also keeps the cards that read...

Short post today. I'm on reserve battery power on the laptop, and I don't feel like finding a place to plug it in.

Day 8 is a song you know all the words to.

This is kind of cheating, since I don't think I can start at the beginning and recite it without the music, but I can sing along with the CD. On a side note, sometimes when I'm really nervous and just need to think about something else for a while (like on airplanes, like last Monday), I try to remember all the words to this song in my head. Usually it doesn't work, but what can you do.



This isn't the album version-- it's a live performance, I think from England in 1966. (I have it somewhere on a CD, and that's my best guess as to which one.) Pretty sure all the verses are there, though. Also, did you know My Chemical Romance covered this at some point? Their video is only 3 minutes long on YouTube, so unless they sing really fast, they left out a few words. :)

I love this song. Enjoy.

... But I am afraid of spiders

It's been just a few days. I'm on vacation, pretending I'm a college student on spring break and hanging out with my parents. (Ok... maybe just a lame college student. Whatever. I had fun back in the day.)

We're now on Day 7 of our song challenge. "A Song that Reminds You of a Certain Event."

As we've discussed, most songs remind me of a specific place or time or person. This is the most recent event-specific one that came to mind.

Last October, Jon Stewart came to town. You may have heard about it. Or you may have gotten stuck somewhere downtown while the 250,000 people who attended his little gathering on the National Mall attempted to get home, or to their hotel rooms or friend's dorm or back to the train station. The Rally to Restore Sanity was probably the most *insane* day of my entire life. It was an amazing, awesome experience and I'm so glad I went, but it's not something I'd ever do again, mostly because it should never take you 3.5 hours to get to your apartment 3 miles away.

That said, I'm pretty sure that no matter what else ever happens, this is something I will always remember. I got to stand a mile or so away from Cat Stevens while he played half of this song to a crowd of a quarter million people. That's pretty awesome.



Take it down a notch for America, y'all.

Let's get together, before we get much older

Well folks, a lot has changed since the last entry. I am now a resident of Connecticut, and am waiting in the Hartford airport to catch a flight down to Birmingham for an extended visit with my parents. (Also I have to get my car.) Check out my other blog in a while for a "goodbye to D.C." post, but for now, back to the song challenge at hand.

It's pretty appropriate that today we reach Day 6- "A Song that Reminds you of Somewhere."

I've kind of struggled with this challenge game as a whole, because I associate most songs with some place or some person or some emotion. Likewise I can link some song to most people or places that I know. It's just how I think.

This time, though, I have to follow the crowd. This song makes me a little sad, but it's that good nostalgic kind of sad that makes you feel at home. I will never be able to hear this without thinking of the Lambda Chi house at Sewanee, and the friends I made there.

Coincidentally, this was also what I listened to as I drove down the Mountain for the last time as a student. (Or... the last time after graduation when I moved out of the dorm.) I don't remember if it was on purpose or not. Probably-- I used to plan specifically so I'd have an appropriate soundtrack to the gorgeous view from I-24. ("Used to" nothing. I still do that, actually.)

Somehow, I associate this more with "Sewanee as an adult" than with, say, sophomore year. This reminds me of fraternity dance parties, campfires, and PBR, but it's also one of the songs that I associate with the end my senior year. It's kind of a hard thing to put into words, but I really appreciate the relationship I have with my college friends as an adult. I feel like with some people, that was starting as school was ending, and that's what it makes me think of-- those friends that are really family, standing around the campfire out back like it's the kids' table at Thanksgiving. It ties me to that place and those people, and in a very strange way makes me feel like I'm not alone. Probably that's a lot more than what the Who meant to do with this one, but whatever. This song means a lot to me. And y'all are welcome at my kids' table at Thanksgiving any time :).

Ecce Quam Bonum. Yea, Sewanee's Right.

Sweet Home Alabama

Day 5! "A song that reminds you of someone"

This song reminds me of two someones, actually, who I could not possibly be more excited to see next week! My 2 younger brothers play this on the guitar together, and it made me love the song even before I knew Dylan wrote it. (They knew though, and liked it anyway. It's possibly the only time that's happened. :) )

As a side note, if you've heard this song before, it was probably at a crappy bar somewhere. Bands you've never heard of who play in crappy but awesome bars tend to love to play this song. Whenever that happens, I tend to get a little teary and send a text to the boys. They probably think I'm weird.

This song could also fit the category of "great songs with incredibly awful music videos." What the crap is going on here? And is that really what this band looks like? Because that's not remotely what I imagined.

Where can I find a woman like that

Hey y'all, I got back to you before Wednesday! It's Day 4 of the Song Challenge. (Notice I'm not saying 30-day anymore. This is gonna take way longer than 30 days.)

Day 4 is "A Song that Makes You Sad."

You can laugh at me for this one, it's ok. It's not actually the song, but again, the memories I have of it. It reminds me of a friend-- someone I was really just getting to know when he passed away suddenly and tragically, at way too young an age. My sadness pales in comparison to those that had loved him for years, but I will always regret the fact that I didn't get a chance to know him better.

That's the short version. I remember hearing this song at his funeral (still one of the greatest parties I've ever been to, and yes- that is totally appropriate), and to this day if it catches me in the right (wrong?) mood, I will cry like there's no tomorrow. But still, it's ok to laugh at me. He probably would. :)

Miss you, friend.

I can't think of a title

I've been hung up on Day 3 of this song challenge deal for a few days and haven't posted. Sorry. There's a lot going on. I'm moving in 8 days.

Ok. Day 3. "A song that makes you happy." Well, lots of songs make me happy. That's why this is hard.

I've narrowed it down to 2. Is that cheating? Too bad.

This is the first:

I don't think you can hear this song and not smile. It's just so hopeful, but without being at all cheesy. It reminds me of the first day in March or April that you leave work without a coat on when it isn't pitch black dark outside. Or the first day you realize that you're actually really happy in a new situation that seemed really scary a month ago. Or the first day you feel like things might actually work out for the best after three very long years watching your spouse get his J.D. Just as an example. ;)

The second is this:

In this case, it's more that this song reminds me of one of the best times of my life-- singing this in the space for which it was written with some of the people who will forever be my best friends. (Better than this group too, I might add. I don't like how they break up some of the phrasing. Oh well. They're still the best YouTube had to offer.) I think I could do an entire separate 30 day song challenge with Anglican choral music (ooh! project...), but this needed to be included on this list, as it will always be one of the greatest memories I have.

Hopefully I'll get to Day 4 before Wednesday, but realistically I'm not making any promises. Have a good weekend, y'all!

Put the Phone Down and Go to Bed. Alone. Please.

Day 2 of the Thirty Day Song Challenge. This was actually kind of a struggle. I have a lot of pet peeves and petty irritants in my life, don't we all, but there are actually not that many songs that I really hate.

However, this one, I am not into. I've started listening to the radio again during the past year, because we leave it on at work. I've liked most of what I hear, and think that somewhere in the past, 17-year-old me is judging present me for the amount of pop music I enjoy. Blame Lady Gaga, or maybe Glee, I dunno.

Anyways, I hate this song. I realize that's totally sacrilege, what with them winning every award under the sun. And it must be pretty popular because I've been hearing it 3 million times a day for the last 6 months, which totally helps and makes me like it more. Not really.

Here.

Soooo....

What up, people?

It's been over a year. I'm aware. I apologize. But obviously I'm not that sorry or I'd have done something about it long ago. I'm a terrible blogger, and most of you probably have already figured that out. You knew what this was. :)

Anyways, all the cool kids on my Facebook are into this 30 Day Song Challenge business, and I want to play along. However, I'm doing it here because I'm a little late to this party, and also I just don't feel like posting it all over Facebook. Honestly, it seems a little too public. Music choice is kind of a private thing for me, oddly, and I dunno, it seems weird. Anyway, better late than never. (And really? I'm normally *really* late for such things. See also: how I decided in November 2010 that I don't hate the band CAKE, and also how I had never heard of Mumford and Sons until last week.)

Without further ado: Day one. My favorite song of all time.

I actually have several, but I'm reserving the rest of them for later days in the countdown. This has probably been my favorite song since the 8th grade, so I think it's probably fair to list it in this spot.

I have this theory about great art-- that you should be able to see/hear/watch/read it over and over and over and find something new every time. (Not necessarily like on repeat for 15 years, but like every now and again over a long period of time.) That's how this is. It has so many parts and sounds so complicated, but really it's just total chaos (which is appropriate, given the lyrics.) Also, a funny story: the reason the organ part sounds like it does (which is one of the best parts, if you ask me) is that the kid who's playing it wasn't actually an organ player, and didn't know the song but was just following along with everybody else, hence the delay. Again, I find that somehow appropriate.

Oh right, the actual song. Here ya go. Enjoy.