The Random Post Of Epic Randomness

Let me start by saying that I realized yesterday that having the captions under pictures doesn't flow very well in a blog format, so I will be putting them ahead of pictures from now on.

Second, this particular post will sooooo seriously live up to it's name.

To start off the randomness I have to mention that as of five today I will officially be unemployed for a solid month. Honestly it was just time to move on after almost four years at the same part-time job; and my bosses totally understand that. I'm going to miss my colleagues like crazy but I fully intend to stay in touch. Now, the point of this post it that despite the fact that I will have my days free, I fully intend to not spend them on my butt. A sedentary lifestyle will end with nothing but me gaining ten pounds and going out of my mind with boredom.

So, to make sure that I keep with the goal of being active I've been getting up early lately to make sure I'm accustomed to it. I fully intend to spend my brief period of unemployment helping my grandparents with the house and yard, squeezing as much use out of my cursed gym membership as I can before I'm finally rid of the damn thing in January, reading on our porch swing (the swing I campaigned for a year to get through statements like 'you know a swing would look really good' and 'you know we should get a swing' and 'I want a swing' to the point where I think my Dad took the one offered by my Grandparents just to shut me up :) ) and other like activities. To that end, I was up bright and early this morning and after a breakfast of a homemade muffin and a yogurt I read the new Jen Lancaster book, made an attempt at an ab workout, and then put on my short and tank top to work in the yard a bit.

Now let me tell you, I am radnomly handy. What do I mean by this? I'm randomly good at random things and randomly suck at random things. I'm a pro at weeding and anything that involves brute force . The later is rather strange considering that I top out at a height and weight that lends itself more to half grown bean pole than mighty strong tree; however I employ what my mother has always called the 'get a bigger hammer' method and just muscle crap into doing what I want. Case in point, the entire path of pavers that I pried up almost single handedly with nothing but gardening gloves and a shovel.

Mowing the lawn is most definitely not my forte, as evidenced by the fact that the last time I tried my father finally offered to finish for me because it looked like a wino with vertigo had a go at the grass as a result of my handy work. And lets not even talk about the carrots I planted in the garden. (Okay so M.C. Escher would cringe at the complete lack of straight involved in that line.)

Back to the point, this morning I went out and weeded the vegetable garden, which went perfectly well. Then I headed up to the front to work some on the rose bushes, and let me tell you that was a freaking trip. We have this rose bush that's planted right by the driveway, and when it blooms it's this riot of color and the pretty pink petals blanket everything. When it's not in bloom, it likes something out of a Tim Burton movie; and I'm not talking Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I'm talking Edward Scissor hands in the creepy mansion. It is currently in that half scary, half pathetic phase. I mean just look at it!



It's so sad I feel bad for it. So after I worked on that one my Grandpa asked me to trim down the rose bush behind the fence down by close to two feet. See, this is a good job for me; that whole very little finesse and lots of brute force thing. Well, everything was going fairly well other than the fact that the fence forced me to get up close and personal with the bush. Then I was like, ow something hurts, and looked down to see an entire stem stuck to my leg via the thorns in my skin. IN MY SKIN. I would have taken a picture had I not been swearing to high heaven. Then when I went to take the cut rose branches to the garbage, I scrpaed my shoulder to hell on a tree, resulting in this....



Incidentally I have a scar just below that scrape which I received while trying to wrangle cocker spaniel puppies in from the backyard when a rather sudden thunder storm blew in. I got in a fight with the screen door and lost. I never have awesome stories for how I injure myself. I mean, I once pulled a muscle doing the Boot Scootin' Boogie. Who does that?

Moving on, I have to give myself some points because despite the scrapes and the like, the bush looks much better. Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?



So when I finally went into the house I had Embry with me. Not two minutes later he was eating something that had a decidedly plastic crunch, and when I dove to get it from him, I received this spectacular case of rug burn.



I also managed to jam my finger at the Chevron while retreiving my Peace Tea and smack my head on the under side of my desk while plugging in my laptop, so I'm on a roll today.

In other news, my Dad watched So You Think You Can Dance with me last night. He actually seemed to like it once I explained the whole random concept they have going on this season. Also last night, Jackson and Embry got their ears cleaned out. Neither of them particularly enjoy this, but last night they took it to a whole new level. Basically what Embry does is struggle, struggle harder when the ear drops enter his ear, tip his head to spill said ear drops all over me and the closest surface, and make me cry 'don't shake your head yet!' Jackson on the other hand is quite gentle about just about everything, and I'm almost completely convinced that he is actually the sweetest animal ever put on this planet. Which makes it difficult to clean out his ears when he spends the experience looking at you with huge brown eyes and crying. I mean really, would you look at this face?



Really, how could you not feel bad about upsetting that sweet little face? It also doesn't help that cocker fur is particularly prone to tangles and mats and right before the ear incident I had to cut a mat off of him, so he was upset to start with. It took turkey jerky for a treat to get him to willingly come within a foot of me again. Thankfully Jackson and I are buds again today and Embry is no worse for the wear from his ear cleaning.

See, now didn't this live up to the random? I knew it would!

Song of the Moment: 96,00 by the cast of In The Heights

Music Means To Me...

Awww, isn't that just the pithiest little title you've ever heard? Sometimes I just can't help myself :)

So the question is this; what does music mean to me? The short answer would be that music means everything. Now, that may sound melodramatic, but it's the God's honest truth.

I love to listen to music, I love to dance to music, I have a veritable jukebox in my head and a psychotic ability to remember song lyrics that baffles even me (not to be confused with my freakish knowledge of incredibly random pop culture trivia that means absolutely nothing to most people). Most of all, I love to sing. My whole life, singing has been a constant. I wanted to be a dancer, a writer, a linguist, and for a brief period of insanity a cheerleader; but through all of that I have always wanted to be able to sing. Even now that I have one BA degree in History and am working on a second in Psychology, I still want to sing. I'm making up resumes, getting head shots done, and writing down audition times and dates because this is what I want to do.

I want it so badly that sometimes watching the Tony Awards is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand I'm always thrilled to see the amazing talent that comes out in force every year; but on the other hand I'm sitting there wondering if I'll ever be even marginally as successful as those people.

You may be reading this wondering 'well can this kid even sing?' The answer is yes, yes I can. That is, if I'm able to trust the response I've gotten over the years. My family does not lie. They tell me the truth whether I'm amazing or so flat that you can hardly stand it. I've also participated in several competitions and done very well as well as having been asked to sing at several different functions. I don't bring any of this up to toot my own horn, as it were. I simply mention it because I know I have at least a vague modicum of talent :)

Getting to the point, I've been reminiscing about the songs that have been milestones for me. Yes, I know the post about song lyrics was somewhat similar; so sue me. I get wordy when I get nostalgic ;)



The movie that started it all. This would be the one that I came out of singing at the top of my lungs, prompting my Godmother to look at my parents and said something along the lines of 'you are in so much trouble.'




Ahh, the song that for so many years was my nemisis. You may recall that I once mentioned running from the room when I was supposed to sing this song. Indelible effect on my life, I tell you. I did get a chance to sing it with a choir later in life.




Another song that I had issues with. There I was, dressed in the signature pink gown (handmade by my loving mother), in a wig and everything.... and I choked. I sang the first verse and ran away to cry in the bathroom





Don't Laugh At Me by Mark Wills was the first song that I sang that made somebody cry. I recently sang it again for an event and heard some of the nicest words ever in response.



Somewhere Out There was probably my first really solid solo performance. I can remember being terrified and then being proud when everyone began to clap



Over The Rainbow somehow became my signature when I was younger



The Sound of Music got me into Jazz Choir Sophomore Year at Cottonwood



Oh What A Beautiful Morning got me into Oklahoma at Cottonwood



Valentine by Martina McBride got me my very first award at an international level



On My Own first completely tanked me when I went too theatrical for the judges to get it; but then it got me a second place medal at an international competition many years down the road



Popular from Wicked. What can I say about this song? I freaking love it, and it got me so many laughs and compliments. It was the first time I went comedic pretty much ever and it was a smash hit with the crowd.



For Good is also one that has done amazing things for me and the girl I've always sung it with.

Last but far from least....



Don't Rain On My Parade ( A la Lea Michele as Rachel Berry, not Babs) was my audition song for the Glee open casting call.


Song Of The Moment: Home by Michael Buble

More Of My Favorite Things

First off let me say that the 4th of July weekend was completely awesome. It was full of friends, movies, good food, fireworks and family and I had a blast. Second, I've decided to post a few more of my favorite things, because the first post just didn't cover it all. Honestly, I'll be up front and say there will probably be a lot of these posts :)



The color purple!! I will seriously buy something for no other reason than it happens to be purple


Converse of every color and design. The only thing I won't wear is high tops


As far as I'm concerned, the best freaking movie ever!! What's with today, today?


Okay, so we constantly cover him, but honestly the man is literally my hero


Popsicles! Particularly those of the Otter Pop-ish variety


Peace signs. It's an obsession really; there's a purple one tattooed on my back :)


In my world Sephora is something akin to heaven on earth; and we finally have one!


Any Nora Roberts book. This is a photo of her newest release, which I am currently reading.

Song of the Moment: My Confession by Josh Groban