Do you hear what I hear

Most people who know me, know that music is a huge part of my life.

It's everywhere I am.

If I'm cleaning, walking, mowing, the earbuds are in.

If I'm driving, a CD is playing.

If I'm at work and they don't play soft rock all day, I'm humming or whistling a tune.

Music is my life.

But for the people who might not know, I'd like to show you.

I love all kinds of music.

Seriously, all kinds.

But I hate music labels.  

When I hear a song that I like, it's not because it's heavy metal, or country or rap.  It's because it evokes an emotion within me.  I could care less how it's marketed.

So here is a little collection of songs that make me feel.

This song was my grandmother's favorite.  So every time I hear, I stop.  I think of her and smile.

This song changed my life forever.  It was the first Metallica song that I had ever heard.  (Yeah so I'm slow).  Up until then, I had listened to mostly top 40 type of stuff.  A little classic rock and country from the 70's was mixed in with that.  But this was heavy, dark and made me want to rip my hair out.

In short, I loved it.  Pay attention around 4:34 cause that's when shit gets real.

So let's switch things up a bit.

This next song is on many of my playlists.  It makes me feel invincible, like I could fight off vampires with nothing but my wit and a stake.

Every once in awhile I will find free music on-line.  Nine times out of 10 it's from an artist I don't know and it's usually crap.  BUT...sometimes you can find awesome gems.

Here are a few of them...

Jesca Hoop's "Feast of the Heart".  Found this as a free song on Zune Marketplace.

Love the lyrics, love the bass line, love her voice.  Love!

Meaghan Smith's "Heartbroken".  I love the simplicity of this song.  The lyrics are so depressing, but the song still makes me want to skip around my yard.  Weird how that works.

Laura Vier's "July Flame".  This has to be one of my favorite 'free' finds.  I love the drum beats and the simple guitar part. (Is that called a riff?  I get so confused by actual terminology...lol) And the claps at the end...ah...claps get me every time.  

And how cute is this video???

Sometimes I find great music through soundtracks.  That's why I love them...they are literally all over the place with different styles.

My absolute favorite find has to be Florence and the Machine.  Their song "Heavy in Your Arms" was on the 'Eclipse' soundtrack.  And I loved it so much, I did a YouTube search and found the most amazing stuff! Flo and 'Chine remain one of my favorite bands and I suck up everything I can find that they have done.  You should do the same...right after you check out what started it all.

There are other ways that i find great music.  XPN is an amazing radio station that plays things you just don't hear on mainstream radio.  You can also stream on-line at http://www.xpn.org/.  On that station I have found great artists like Lissie, and The Civil Wars.

There is also a great television channel here in Central Pa called 'The Cool TV'.  It's videos...ALL DAY!!!

I've heard great artists like Gotye, Of Monsters and Men, and Woodkid.

In fact, let me leave you with this:

Great music and an incredible video.

As you can see, my tastes run all over the place.  And this is just a sampling of what my brain enjoys.

So tell me...what are some of your favorite songs?

Puberty. The Second Coming

I love winter.

Not just because I hate, hate, HATE, being hot; but because it gave my skin a break.

My facial skin, that is.

In the summer months, my face can get so oily that if I washed it 5 times a day, I still wouldn't need to apply lotion.  

Gross, I know.

But the winter months gave a bit of reprieve.

One washing a day (not counting my shower, thank you very much) was all I needed.

But something has changed.

Suddenly, my skin is so fucking dry, a cactus has taken up shop on my right cheek.

Seriously...I'm putting actual oil on my face to try to get it somewhere near healthy looking.

It sucks balls and I'm ready for this weird mid-life puberty shit to be over.

Now someone turn the AC on; I'm having a heat flash.

Decisions decisions...

I am a good person.

I am also fallible, vulnerable, and still figuring out who I am.

Sometimes I'm even a bit too high strung for my own good.

But I am a good person.

We all do things we wish we hadn't and say things we wish we could take back; in short, we make mistakes.

But mostly, we are all good people.

We are making things up as we go and changing the rules as we learn.

Humans.

We are amazing fuck-ups.

For that reason alone, we deserve to be respected, loved and missed when we are gone.

For reasons I'd rather not get into here on the big Internet, the last few weeks my brain has been in turmoil.  There is a decision to be made and it isn't easy for me.  

It's not all about forgiveness; that has mostly been done.

But the moving on part isn't always as easy as some would have you believe.

So I've been trying my best walk a mile.  

To figure out how I would want to be treated if I was on the other end of this proverbial stick.

It's a scary place to be.

But like I said, I too am fallible.

How can I possibly hold another human being up to standards that I myself sometimes breach?

Humans.

We are amazing fuck ups.