Things I Like: Music Edition!

Photo Credit: Unknown

Currently thankful for: Sun shining through the clouds on an otherwise cold, rainy day; being productive; inside jokes; listening to the random conversations that occur on third floor Humanities; unexpected opportunities

Finals week: time for more procrastination! Yay! I only have one more to go, but I am so unmotivated, like I can't even begin to say. Hence the reason I'm writing this. I'm pretty sure you all know by this point that I like music...a lot. It's pretty much impossible for me to pick all-time favorites, but I figured I'd share some stuff that I've been liking lately (I've may have mentioned some of them before, so sorry in advance for any repeats!). So, in no particular order...

1. Matthew Mayfield

"Sing 'til you mean it and love 'til you feel it
'Cause I still believe in your heart
Don't let the waves push and pull you away
Now you're free and it sets you apart."
- Matthew Mayfield, "Now You're Free"

 I love those lyrics! Ever since I got his Now You're Free album off of NoiseTrade (best site ever!), I've been a pretty big fan. I like his sound a lot, and the lyrics are pretty great, too!

2. The Walla Recovery
They're not very well-known, but I've really been liking their folksy, cello-driven sound lately (but really, when don't I like folk music? Especially when it includes an instrument like a cello? Yes, please!). Their songs have a lot of great spiritual themes without being cliche about it. Their song "Spoils of Warring Hearts" is excellent.

3. Andrew Belle
I love his music so much! It's a perfect balance between happy and contemplative...at least that's how I feel about it. He has so many good ones, but this song is one of my absolute favorites:

I'll admit, I don't completely get the video...but it's still kind of cool (and I still love the song).

4. Hymns in general
I know this is kind of odd, but I have been absolutely loving old hymns this semester. "Be Thou My Vision" has pretty much been my theme song since like, September, and I still sing it all the time. Others include (but are not limited to): "In Christ Alone"*, "How Firm a Foundation," "Solid Rock," and "Jesus Paid It All."

So. Freaking. Good.

5. Mat Kearney
This guy is just awesome. His Young Love album is amazing. It's so upbeat and happy and I just can't help but love it! I'm actually going to see him in concert with some friends next month, and I am super excited about it. A few of many favorite songs of his: "Ships in the Night," "Down," "Count on Me," and "All I Need" (from Nothing Left to Lose).

That's all I have for now. After tomorrow, I am free until January!(!!!!) Half of senior year: DONE. Scary thought!

*If I could choose one song to be my absolute all-time favorite, "In Christ Alone" would probably be it. For me, it says it all.

Summer 2010: Pre-Craziness

Camp JOY Preparations
Today was my last day of work until camp actually starts! Holly & I drove around the ghetto of Columbus, delivering flyers about camp to all of the housing projects. Definitely an interesting experience. Fortunately, we didn't have to walk door-to-door like we initially thought we would. Thank goodness. It was fun getting to know Holly a little more, though. We had a few little adventures, like being stopped by the same train 4 times (and accidentally driving back behind some theater neither of us knew existed...). Good times. Oh, I did find out that I'm only getting paid like $5 an hour for all of this. Not exactly what I was expecting, but since God kinda gave me the job (no, for real--He did. I'm not just saying that), I figure I'll be okay. :) And really, I can't complain too much--at least it's a job, and the type of job I really wanted at that!

Trip to Europe!
One week. I am so excited! For real, I can't wait. It's going to be awesome. I'm ready for lots of adventures and new things, and that's pretty much guaranteed. It's also going to be fun getting to know some new people. More friends is always a good thing. :) Let's just hope that it doesn't rain the whole time, like it's currently supposed to... However, if it does, please don't do it on the day we visit Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Apparently, when they've visited in the past, it's been too cloudy to really see anything, but seriously, I am dying to see this in person:

That view right there? Number one thing I'm excited about. I'm getting the urge to jump up and down just thinking about it. You have no idea! So seriously, rain and cloudiness--take the day off on June 9. You deserve a break.

Classes. Ugh.
Unfortunately, before I can even think about hopping on a plane to leave the country, I have...

• Approximately 1,100 pages of psych books & articles to read
• About 20 or so pages to write on said books & articles
• 18 hours of class to sit through

All by next Thursday. Funnnn. Then, of course, there are the post-trip assignments. But whatever--I get a trip to Austria, Switzerland, & Germany out of it. It's totally worth it. (Just making my life a little more stressful than usual at the moment. Heh.)

Music, music, music
For some reason, music is so much more enjoyable for me to listen to during the summer (and that's saying something, but I really enjoy music all the time). I don't know why. It's weird, I know. But anyway, like I said in my last post, I've been listening to Mat Kearney a lot. "Closer to Love" is definitely one of my favorites. I also really like "All I Have," "Where We Gonna Go From Here," and "Here We Go." Good stuff. I've also been listening to The Postal Service quite a bit. I didn't used to like them all that much. I'm not really sure why though, because now, I like them a lot! Oh, and one of my favorite songs of the moment (I had never heard it until about a week ago, but I discovered it hiding on my computer): "The Fear You Won't Fall" by Joshua Radin. Sooo pretty! I love guy/girl harmony and I love really chill music like that. Good combination.

All that being said, I am going to be super, super busy for the next month. I'll try to update you guys about my trip and camp and such ASAP, but that may or may not be until July. We'll see, I guess!

Bookstores and adventures!

Listening To: "All I Have" by Mat Kearney
(For whatever reason, I've been semi-obsessed with his music lately. I like his style and I like his lyrics. His album City of Black & White is my favorite at the moment. Good stuff.)

I love bookstores. I could stay in them for hours on end and not ever get bored. I've done this twice within the past week, and still don't feel like I was in there long enough. I get so inspired in them--I like and am interested in so many different things and there just isn't enough time to get to all of it! Every time I go, I have to restrain myself from buying out the whole store. (My bank account does not share my love for bookstores. Heh.)

A couple of days ago, I had to go to Barnes & Noble to get a book for my psych classes before my trip. This resulted in my spending a good amount of time in the psychology section. The book I had to buy was Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I'm pretty sure I would have bought it anyway, even if it wasn't required. It's basically about his experiences in a concentration camp during WW2 and then he kind of talks about it from a psychological standpoint. Very interesting. (I've always been fascinated by the Holocaust. The fact that I'll be visiting Dachau on my trip was a major selling point for me! Speaking of Dachau, I'll be there in two weeks! Yessss.)

Anyway, after wandering throughout the store, I found the children's section. Best. Section. Ever. I absolutely love kids' books, especially the classics (i.e. Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, stuff like that). I discovered a copy of A Little Princess and absolutely had to buy it. I had never read it, but always wanted to. It is sooo good. I love stuff like that. I also found The Magic Treehouse series that I LOVED when I was a little kid. I read those books countless times in second grade. They are what first inspired me to visit the Amazon Rainforest (it's still very high on my list of places I want to visit). They tended to make me feel like I've been feeling today: dying to go on some sort of adventure!

Reason I've been feeling that way today: I spent the afternoon sitting in the floor at Books-A-Million reading this:

I would've bought it if it hadn't cost $25. Pretty much every single thing in this book looks awesome and I want to do all of them. Well, almost all of them (I could probably do without going to Antarctica, as cool as it would be to say I've done that. Not high on the list). But for real, that is the kind of stuff I am dying to do. There are so many things that I want to try--I just haven't had the chance to (yet!). Seriously, that's pretty much the only reason I would want to have a high-paying job: to travel and do awesome stuff like that (I kind of hate the fact that every sport I would actually really enjoy are the ones that are ridiculously expensive to do). Sigh.

My other find of the day wasn't all that spectacular, but it did make me really happy to see. I was in the travel section (one of my favorites) and picked up a book about Tennessee. They had a section about the Cherokee National Forest, including a short mention of Chilhowee--picture included. The picture (not the one to the right--that one is mine) just so happened to be from the Sugarloaf overlook, which is my absolute favorite place to watch the sun set. Kristi, Mike, Jon, and I were up there a couple of weeks ago, just before the semester ended. I think it was one of the best nights I had all semester long--maybe even all year. Definitely one of my favorite memories. That fact just made finding the picture even better, because it was of the picnic table that Kristi did her homework on that night, and you could see the rock that Mike and I sat on to watch the sunset in the background. Ahhh, good times.

Edit (05/24/10): I didn't really want to write a whole new post just for this, but this picture is awesome (click to make it bigger--it looks better):

Credit

How cool is that?! I just wanted to share. :)