A Decade of Favorites

So, I wouldn't be a true blogger if I didn't write a post to commemorate some of my favorite things from this decade. So here goes. My favorite things of this decade, in no particular order (other than that in which I thought of them):

1) Being a teenager. Because who doesn't love teen angst? And goodness knows I had my fair share of it!

2) The OC. I just love it, there's really nothing else to say. You can read my other post to get my more in-depth feelings on the show.


3) Pixar. Though Pixar didn't begin in this decade, they made a lot of great movies in it, from Monster's Inc. to Up!. Hopefully this trend continues for decades to come!


4) Aéropostale. It was basically my favorite store from the age of 11 to the age of 14.


5) Children's Ballet Theatre. Though it was the source of much of my teenage angst (see number 1), it was also the source of six and a half years of performance experience and great memories.
6) Jump5. My favorite musical group until I was about 14, and the first concert I ever attended.


7) Relient K. Though technically formed in '98, the really gained success in this decade. They are still on of my all time favorite bands, and I hope they continue to create awesome music forever and eternity.


8) Hilary Duff/Lizzie McGuire. I was a pretty huge fan.


9) High school. Glad it happened. Glad it's over.

10) Middle school. Even when you're home schooled, it's still awkward.

11) Braces. It only took four years for my teeth to look as good as they do today!


12) Epic movies. From Pirates of the Carribean to Lord of the Rings, you can't deny that this was a great decade for great epic movies.


13) Avril Lavigne. Before she went all blonde and pink and got married. Great background music for my teen angst (see number 1).


14) Digital. Photos, videos, you name it. Feeding the flames of our instant-gratification culture.

15) Facebook/YouTube/the Internet. These things totally changed the way we live. Anything funny that happens on camera is an instant candidate for a YouTube hit. Any picture taken has to be reviewed by it's subjects (immediately after it's taken, thanks to number 14) and deemed worthy or unworthy for Facebook. And of course, my favorite: everyone knows you're not really dating someone until it's Facebook Official (I would not be a bit surprised if this term showed up in a dictionary in the near future).

16) The iPod. I think it would be safe to say this is one of the best products of the 2000s.
17) Children's/Young-Adult Fiction. From Ella Enchanted to Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants to Harry Potter, I read a lot of good books in the past ten years!


18) Reality TV. I can't believe I almost forgot this decade's greatest gift to mankind: the reality television show. From American Idol to Survivor to all those "reality" shows on MTV, I think we can all agree this is a defining product of the past ten years.

19) Tom Izzo and the MSU Men's Basketball Team. They're awesome. Period. Even Sports Illustrated acknowledged this fact.


20) Top 40 Hits. If you know me, you know how anti-Top 40 I am. But sometimes, you just can't help yourself. And this decade has been full of some great chart-topping hits. Or if not great, at least songs that you just can't get out of your head no matter how hard you try. From Usher's "U Got it Bad" in 2001 to Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" (my personal anthem), we certainly have a decade full of hits that we can look at ten more years from now and reminisce about.

So there it is. I'm sure as soon as I post this, I will think of a million other things, but I'm satisfied with this list of 20. Leave a comment with you're favorite memories/products/musicians/movies/etc. from the past 10 years!

End of the year, end of the decade

For those of you who already follow me on twitter, the following statement will sound familiar.

I still remember, very vividly, being ten, and having someone tell me "you're a decade old!" It is absolutely insane to me that I am (in 7 months) going to be TWO decades old! Where has the time gone? I cannot believe that on my next birthday I will be turning 20. I certainly don't feel mature enough for that. Even now, 20 sounds so old. Ten years ago, people who were twenty were adults. They were mature. Do the ten-year-olds I know know look at me that way? I certainly don't look at myself that way.

The end of a decade. It's a weird thing to wrap your head around. Ten years. A lot happens in ten years. I grew up in those ten years. I came into this decade a child, and I came out an adult (well, kinda, see previous paragraph). But even more important than all the changes that happened in the past 10 years, I want to take this chance to say one more time how much my life has changed in this single year, 2009.

If you are a loyal reader of my blog, first of all, thank you, and second of all, I'm sorry, because you've heard all this before. This year, 2009, has been, probably, to use the current vernacular, the most epic year of my life. It's weird to think that in January 2009, not that long ago in the scope of things, I was going to school in Ohio. Exactly a year ago, on New Years Eve, I made the decision to transfer back to MSU. One of the hardest decisions of my life. I was full of uncertainty about the whole thing, but here I am a year later, and I can proudly say that it is impossible for me to be happier with my decision. So that was the big thing that happened to me this year. But there are a lot of little things too.

Little things like performing in my first opera. And the things that some people might overlook, like the movie nights, beach trips, summer days at the pool, and long talks. Staying up until three in the morning listening to choir music, or studying for music theory. I have amazing people in my life, and I am so thankful for every single one of them. So that's how I want to remember this year. Not for all the drama (and oh, there was drama!), the theatrics, or the emotional roller coasters. I want to remember the people. And the time I spent with them. Because that was the best part. Those are the parts worth remembering.

So to wrap it up, I would just like to say I hope you have a Happy New Year. I hope you have as many happy memories from 2009 as I do, and may you have many more in 2010!

Toy Story 3...OMG!

Thanks to one of my favorite blogger/vlogger/internet people Eric Striffler, I found out about this amazing sneak preview for Toy Story 3! I cannot wait for this movie!

The end will justify the pain it took to get us there...

I feel like I've been doing a lot of music blogs lately. Perhaps this is a new niche!

For those of who you don't know, Relient K is without a doubt one of my favorite bands of all time. I don't think there is a single one of their songs that I don't like. It always amazes me how every single lyric they write speaks directly to me and what I'm going through. "Let it All Out" from their 2004 album mmhmm has definitely gotten me through many of life's rough patches.

"And you said I know that this will hurt/But if I don't break your heart, things will just get worse/If the burden seems too much to bear, remember/The end will justify the pain it took to get us there."

Gets me every time! I am happy to say, however, that I have been lucky enough to experience some of that end justification that they are talking about, and boy, was it worth the wait. :D



Edit: I almost forgot to mention that one of the things that makes this song extra awesome is listening to it in sequence on the CD, because the song before "Which To Bury, Us or the Hatchet?" transitions right into it, and it's totally amazing. Listening to "Which To Bury..." with out hearing "Let it All Out" after it is actually really jarring, because they are pretty much meant to go together. Just a little music nerd fact for you. :)

Hallelujah

Hallelujah (originally written by Leonard Cohen) is without a doubt my favorite song of all time. With as many times as it's been covered, you would think the shine might wear off, but the opposite is true. With every new performance I hear, I fall more and more in love with the song. Everyone has their own unique interpretation, but all are equally beautiful and filled with so much emotion. My friend Emily posted this version on Facebook today, and I am once again blown away at the power of this song. It is awesome in the awe-inspiring sense of the word.

Guilty Pleasure

I have a confession to make. I was, and still am, a huge fan of The OC. I think it's safe to say that it was one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I realize that not many people liked the show (although someone must have, because it did make it four seasons), but I always seem to pick the shows that no one else likes (i.e. Friday Night Lights). I had somewhat forgotten about how much I loved the show, but this weeks episode of Gossip Girl (which was created by Josh Schwartz, who also created The OC) caused me to reminisce, and I just had to watch an episode. Man, do I love The OC. I thought I would highlight for you just some of the reasons I love the show:

1) It had, by far, the best soundtrack of any television show ever. Every song is perfectly chosen and perfectly placed in the episode (perhaps the music directors for New Moon could have taken a few pointers from Alexandra Patsavas).

2) It has the perfect mix of drama and comedy (it is, after all, a self-described dramedy). Much of the comedy is thanks to number three...

3) Adam Brody as Seth. He is absolutely hilarious, and basically, I love him. He has some of the best lines in the show, not to mention the fact that he invented Chrismukkah ("eight days of presents, followed by one day of many presents").
4) Sandy and Kirsten Cohen. They are some of the coolest TV parents of all time (right up there with Mike and Carol Brady).
5) There are a million other inexplicable reasons I love this show, but I wanted to keep this relatively short.

So basically, if you like dramedy and haven't seen this show, I suggest you give it a try. I think it is definitely an acquired taste, so you just need to give it a chance. Also, if you are out Christmas shopping and happen to see a DVD box set...I'm just saying, I don't own any of them...yet. ;)

The End of the World

On The Safest Ledge - Copeland

So, I've been thinking about life a lot lately (I say that as if it's a new development). I've been in a funky mood the past few days, and, as usual, I have tried to psychoanalyze myself. I feel like I've been doing a lot of psychoanalysis in these past few days. As you know from my previous expository posts, I have been in a genuinely good mood pretty much non-stop for the past 3 months. Lately though, I feel like it's wearing off. Maybe it's the arrival of winter. Or the darkness and the bitter cold. But anyway, that's not really the point right now. The point is that I've been thinking about life, and people, and the way people handle situations, and the way I handle situations compared to other people. So you know, complicated stuff. haha.
This is what I've realized: I used to (in middle/high school) get really stressed out about a lot of little stuff. I treated everything like the end of the world. I cried a lot over a lot of totally petty stuff. I overreacted and over-dramatized (probably not a word, but I just made it one), and basically, I was a teenage girl. Most of the time, there has absolutely no justification for my extreme emotional turmoil, but I convinced myself there was.

I think that last year was probably the first time in my life when I actually had any type of justification for my feelings. My life was totally changing, a lot was happening, and so yeah, I think I had a right to be a little bit of a wreck emotionally. But I made it through, I came out on the other side, and I like to think that I'm a better person for it. The biggest thing I have learned from that experience, and just from life experience in general, is that nothing is the end of the world. With the exception of nuclear fallout, nothing that happens is going to cause the world to end. So, yeah, (pardon my French) shit happens. But life goes on. Not to be cliche, but this planet we live on is not our home. Our lives are just specks on the time line of eternity. Our time here is too short to get worked up over every little thing that doesn't turn out the way we wanted. And in reality, even the things we feel went "wrong" are part of God's plan for us. And when you have that perspective, it seems just a bit ridiculous to be upset about anything. Because He knows what we need way more than we ever could.

I'm not trying to say you should never get upset. Of course I still have times when I get disappointed about stuff. But I then I remember that I am not ultimately the one in charge of my life. And so if God wants to take something away from me, or give me something different than what I wanted, there's really nothing I can do about that. I know that this concept is hard for some people to grasp. It's hard to hand over the controls. But the truth is, we were never in control to begin with. So we might as well embrace it because there's no use in ignoring it.

So, that's my philosophy. I like to call it the it's-not-the-end-of-the-world-it's-God's-plan philosophy, or INTEOTWIGPP. If it doesn't work for you, I understand. I still have my over-dramatizing tendencies, and I understand what a hard habit it is to kick. But I encourage you to give it a try, because it's totally liberating.

I feel like I need a cool catch-phrase to wrap up my posts. Like on Glee: "and that's how Sue...sees it." Any ideas?