Saturday InSpiration

Noisetrade.com has been one of the most influential new music sources for me, of late. Introducing me to the likes of:

• little people
• Fitz and the Tantrums
• Katie Herzig
• The Civil Wars
• Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors

Today, I want to share one song in particular, “Recovery” by The Dirty Guv’nahs. It touches my soul. I hope it brings you some peace and inspiration, as well.

See their page, and click the second link to hear the tune. The first one, “The Country” is another great song from their album “Youth is in Our Blood.” Hell yes it is.

Let Love

We’ve all been there, yes?–when our feelings of warm fuzzies are the reason we feel happy on a given day? I used to feel bad when my good mood would be associated with my frame of mind regarding love/affection. It felt so superficial; so high school… to let that giddy feeling of “Oh my gosh, he talked to me!” (or even just made eye contact!) to last all day and keep you smiling even if a bird pooped on your shoulder–which my mother always told me was good luck, by the way. (A hoax?)

But now–a scary number of years after high school–I’ve come to question: is it really that bad that we’re in a good mood at the same moment our hearts are open? Because that’s what’s happening when we allow the giddy feeling to come in and to take over. It means our hearts are open to what life has to offer, and to the positive attention our crushes might bring.

What exactly does it mean to have an open heart or, as us single girls like to say, to “be ready”?

…it means you believe in your best self and your capacity to share that self with someone else. It means you have faith you’ll find someone worth sharing yourself with. Not surprisingly, hope, faith, confidence, peace, openness, and forgiveness–to both ourselves and to others who have wronged us–are all a part of this desire and capacity to love. Hell, if those don’t bring with them happiness…

So, I say: it’s okay – let love say you feel alright today. After all, we are a social, pair-bonding species with an innate desire for attachment relationships. Or in a less science-y way:

“There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.” –George Sands

To commemorate the moment, there’s always a song: Oh, what a day when love came to town. Love, what can I say? I fell face down.

“Baby I’m In Love” by Seabird

I know she’s got to see, I can see she’s on to me, I can’t keep a lie, Not to save my life. 

Cause Baby I’m in love, Baby I’m in love, Maybe I’m just crazy but, Just maybe I’m in love.

Two beats from one body, My heart sings along, Waiting to be daddy, Nine months seems so long.

Cause Baby I’m in love, Baby I’m in love, Maybe I’m just crazy but, Just maybe I’m in love.

Baby I’m in love, Baby I’m love, Maybe I’m just crazy, But just maybe I’m in love.

Oh what a day, When love came to town, Love what can I say, I fell facedown, Oh what a day, When love came to town, Love what can I say, I fell facedown.

P.S. Happy Friday the 13th.

I like this.

Check out a fellow WordPress blogger and her 12 Lessons in 12 Months. I promise it will be worth your while.

Welcome, 2012!

I’ve been waiting for the year to turn since 2011 began – such an awkward number! And now that the New Year is here, only its second day seems filled with so much pressure as people wish each other well, set high hopes for themselves and loved ones, and repent mistakes–especially those involving gorging on copious amounts of holiday food.

We find ourselves asking, “How will this next year be different?” and we take the stroke of midnight on January 1st to be some symbol of starting over/fresh/anew. But instead of a year’s resolution, sure to be lost within 14 days, why can’t we pledge to live our best lives every day? Even coming up with a resolution is paralyzingly intimidating let alone following through with it. So this year today, I resolve to just plain do something, as that, for me, would be better than yesterday…

I’ve been fighting a head cold since two days before New Year’s and fighting procrastination (very weakly) since returning home for the holidays. But I can’t return to school with zilch productivity and I’m tired of being mad at myself every night come 9pm when it’s too “late” to start anything so today’s goal is to work on my thesis for at least half as long as I spent on Pinterest yesterday :) One very lucky Starbucks chair better be waiting for me.

Home for the Holidays

Puppies, chew toys, & crafts, oh my!

Every day’s agenda since I’ve been home has consisted of waking up to a pup eager to be let out of her crate…

That’s her waking up! – usually begging for a belly rub :)

And then we pee, poop, eat, and chase toys around the kitchen. She’s crazy funny with her christmas present from (her) grandma, which is essentially a teething ring of cloth with little flaps that make crinkle noises. She usually holds it in her mouth so that it’s falling back on her face and covering her eyes.

The Ring.

And then the crafts…

Made lots of handmade Christmas gifts this year for momma and for friends, including my first pass at decoupage! But I can’t post those pics yet because the gift hasn’t been given :) Made a commemorative scrapbook page for my parents of Buttons, including Mom’s favorite picture of our beloved family dog and lyrics to Mom’s favorite Christmas song. Buttons passed 14 days before Christmas.

I also experimented with Triple Thick Gloss Glaze (good name, huh?) in filling metal bezels [the gist] with personalized collages of scrapbook paper to make pendants. But I found that the glaze, no matter what I did, always seemed to discolor the papers from their original tones. I coated them in elmer’s glue to prevent ink smearing. I coated the metal in the glaze before adding the paper to reduce the likelihood of a chemical reaction. The only thing left to experiment when I get back to my place is using mod podge on the paper before inserting it into the bezel frame. Otherwise, all my creations will have a “vintage” look as their claim to fame!

[pictures to come]

Merry Christmas to all! …I think it’s fair to say till New Years ;)

Christmas Music

This song makes me want it to be appropriate to listen to Christmas music all the time: “Dreaming of a White Christmas” by The Reign of Kindo.

Any Good Therapist

Catching reruns of Frasier on We TV this morning whilst cleaning up the apartment. See Episode 16, Season 1: “The Show Where Lilith Comes Back.”

The following dialogue between Niles and Frasier (brother psychiatrists, for those of you who don’t know) is just classic. I can’t wait till I’m this good of a therapist…

(If you’d rather watch it: http://bit.ly/umdSO5 Cue ~ 12:54)

*–*–*–*–*

Niles: It appears you have come to some sort of a crossroads.

Frasier: Oh, that’s a nice tidy little way of saying I’m in hell.  Niles, I have a life here that suits me, and yet I can’t help wondering if there is still some chance for reconciliation, if it’s worth exploring the feelings that—that I’m feeling.  Do you think I should see her again tonight?

Niles: Frasier, like most patients who come to a therapist, you already know the answer to the question you’re posing.  You just want me to agree with your decision and support you whether I share your opinion or not.

Frasier: Yes, but I don’t have an opinion in this case.

Niles: I’m sure you do.

Frasier: But I don’t.

Niles: Well, then I can’t help you.

Frasier: All right, all right.  I think in my soul, I’m leaning toward taking the next step and, uh, seeing if there’s anything… there.

Niles: That is what you should do.

Frasier: Why?

Niles: You know why.

Frasier: Damn it, Niles!

Niles: Frasier, you know why. [Niles looks at Frasier expectantly.]

Frasier: All right.  We have a long history together, we-we have a son that we both adore.  There were some good times, and when they were good… Hoo-ah!

Niles: Well, it seems our minds are pretty well made up, aren’t they?

Frasier: Yes, they are.  Thank you, Niles.  I don’t know what I’d do without you.

Niles: Yes, you do.

Frasier: Drop it!

Hilarious :)

Absolutely LOVEly

Stole this from friend’s Facebook wall. It’s too special not to share… Also amusing because a fellow clinical psyc student asked me for descriptions of love for her client. Too bad I didn’t have it last week!

What Is Love? Some Really Smart Kids May Have The Answer

My timely favorite:

“Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” -Bobby, age 7

 

Lending Books is Tricky Business

Last year, when I was still an undergrad at TCU (Go Frogs!), I lent a book to a barista at the B&N/Bookstore Cafe named Tony. The book was Daniel J. Levitin’s This is Your Brain on Music.

It’s fantastic. Used it to write a final paper for one of my honors colloquia classes on the fine arts. It provided great joy… A sampling:

“The appreciation we have for music is intimately related to our ability to learn the underlying structure of the music we like–the equivalent to grammar in spoken or signed languages-and to be able to make predictions about what will come next.

…

Composers imbue music with emotion by knowing what our expectations are and they very deliberately controlling when those expectations will be met, and when they won’t.” (p. 111)

The sad part of the story enters when you hear I lent the book to him some time in April and haven’t seen it since. How did I know, at the time, that sharing the joy this book brought me and being thrilled at someone else’s nerdy expeditions to better understand daily processes in terms of the mind would land me into such heartache over the loss of this book? As frustrated as I am, I’m reminding myself that it is indeed just a book and that I have the fortune to be able to buy another if I really want it… but the principle of the fact kills me.

I went to get it from him personally before I graduated, even the summer after, I visited during arranged times only to find he’d left the book at home. Once I left Texas for grad school, I had faithful friends hunt him down, too! All to no avail. And when I was finally ready this afternoon to make a Valentine’s Weekend plea to return a lost love, I find his phone number has been disconnected. [Insert expletives of frustration here.] I’ve found out that he’s also left the Fort Worth area and so I can’t even milk other connections I have to the bookstore in order to chase him down.

I suppose the best I can hope for is that the read was completely worth it for Tony. I won’t even entertain the question of him not finishing it.

So the final question: Do we lend books or not? My recommendation–learn from my stupid mistake and don’t give a book to someone who you only exchanged numbers with for the purpose of getting your book back, i.e. don’t give a book to someone you don’t actually know! I have two other books out right now (Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love and Brain Weiss’s Only Love Is Real) that I trust I will get back. There is something that’s different this time: I know where they both live.

Hence, I would definitely request a tour of the house before you let your book(s) rest on anyone’s shelves.

The Coffee Shop

It’s been my dream for a long while to make my living through food. In fact, that’s an item on my bucket list. Most likely, that will take shape in the form of a 24-hr coffee shop in the vicinity of my undergrad, TCU (Go Frogs!). I didn’t have anything like that in my fours years spent in that corner of Fort Worth.

The on-campus coffee shop, Panther City, was totally inconsistent and much too grunge for a wide variety of TCU students to feel comfortable. Hence, it crumbled. It’s now turned to a techie+coffee gig and I haven’t been in since. Next, we have the B&N Cafe at our bookstore, a glorified Starbucks that closes before anyone’s even ready to do homework in the evenings. Third is the moderately-sized Starbucks driving distance away, without late-night hours to make it worth it. There’s also the downtown Starbucks with red comfy, high-back booths, but the space is limited and there was never even a full 2 hours they’d be open by the time my friends and I were ready to make the trek.

I found my options very dissatisfying. Thus, it’s my dream to give back to my undergrad community with a coffee shop that’s close and that’s actually open after dinner. I love generating ideas to keep my energy going, knowing that this dream is a minimum of 15 years away. The disclaimer is to acknowledge that the posting of ideas on this blog are intended as a personal outlet and document, and of course to get feedback from interested parties–not for ideas to be taken away from me and the distant dream.