silver lining.

day 53. silver lining. by rilo kiley.

first of all. Rilo Kiley has made my early 90's dreams come true. a band with Hannah from Troop Beverly Hills and Pinsky from Salute Your Shorts is just too much goodness to handle.

this is the first song played on the radio in my honda civic - daisy - during my first drive. i was so excited that it was playing because my car is silver - and i thought "whoa, this is a sign." (like i always think). from that point on, this song will always remind me of daisy being bright & shiny new. but, because i got my car as college was ending and i was starting my first year of teaching, this song will also always remind me of bright and shiny new beginnings.

my car has been through A LOT since then. she's been hit multiple times, broken into 3, and had a complete engine failure (which i'm told happens to 1 in a 5,000,000 cars. i'm so lucky.) but if you look at daisy you wouldn't know it. we truly are soul sisters. & this is my love song to my car.

cecilia.

day 52. cecilia. by simon & garfunkel.

cecilia is always a crowd pleaser. in the days of my old blog i once listed this song in my top 5 most requested songs, and it is definitely still part of that list. i have a semi-obsession with wanting my name in a song, and since i took my confirmation name from st. cecilia, this may be the closest i ever get. i have actually read that this song is a sort of love/hate song to st. cecilia the patron saint of music, from the perspective of a songwriter. i don't know if that's true, but it makes sense.

we requested this tonight at thea's wedding and it got everyone happy. parents and children alike, and so that is how you know it is a classic. this song makes me think of dancing, and laughing, and road trips. & i don't know if paul & art realized what they were creating, but i've yet to meet anyone who doesn't love this song.

skeleton key.

day 51. skeleton key. by margot & the nuclear so & so's.

it was a happy happenstance that i rediscovered this song. god love internet radio because it has a habit of reminding me of songs i haven't heard in years.  pandora is in my head y'all.

oxford comma.

day 50. oxford comma. by vampire weekend.

there's just so much to love about this song. first of all it really speaks to my miss pawlak side. the whole oxford comma debate is a real thing. and as a teacher of the literary arts, comma placement was an important topic. and spelling. and diction. and other things that they sing about in this song. let's just say that this song unconsciously played in my head on long days.

it also takes me back to freshman year of college. to the windowwww to the wallll. which is a pretty decent song by house party standards.

lastly, we are looking at yet another song which drops the f bomb in a natural and fun way. i just told you yesterday how much i appreciated that in a song.

teacher mode is definitely on today because i just realized that i used some great transition words in this post - first, also, lastly. yeahhhh. i still got it, kids.

oh lord.

day 49. oh lord. by foxy shazam.

something i love: songs where the f-bomb is dropped naturally. sometimes it's used and you can just tell the singer/songwriter threw it in there trying to be cool. like a 7th grader who just learned what a swear word is. but foxy is cool, and you can tell that he's probably been swearing his whole life. he's also slightly strange as evidenced in this video, but i feel like that is why we would be friends.

if this song doesn't pump you up, then i would seriously doubt that you are a human. i have to give a shout out to my human friend abby on this one, too. she told me about this song because she KNEW i would love it. oh lord.

simple song.

day 48. simple song. by the shins.

this song warms my heart & oh my god i'm writing about feelings again.

um hello to the line: "I know that things can really get rough, when you go it alone. don't go thinking you gotta be tough, and bleed like a stone."

at least once a day i have someone telling me in one way or another that i need to ask for help more, or accept help when it is offered to me. but ahhhh, it is just so hard for me to do. i would rather make 10 trips to and from the car than ask for help carrying groceries.

lately i've been making it a point to not try handling everything on my own all the time. just let me just tell you, letting go of control and a tough exterior is scary. so scary. but it feels pretty great to say "this is not cool and i'm not going to pretend like it is." or "help me do this so I can get out of work on time." hello balance. this song has served as a gentle reminder lately that it's okay to let your guard down once in awhile.

don't get too excited though, because if you think this means i'm going to have daily feel good emotional talks and cry it out sessions you are taking this a LITTLE too far, okay? i'm going to limit it to 3 days a week. tops.

a comet appears.

day 47. the shins. a comet appears.

let's just kill it two days in a row with posts that talk about feelings. i'm just going to roll with it.

i'm pretty sure that my most common emotion is melancholy. this song is melancholy to me. & when i use that word, i don't mean depressed and wallowing in despair - or even the least bit sad. i mean the second most common dictionary definition:

2. sober thoughtfulness; pensiveness.

i'm known to scrawl in books i read. quotes, thoughts, and fears that normally have nothing to do with the content of the book. i underline. i add fortunes from my fortune cookie and snapshots from when i was a baby or from the time the book was read. all in hopes that when i pick the book up again in the future, i will pause to think about what I thought was special or important enough at the time. i do this when i'm feeling melancholy. i've always been this way. it's what makes me an avid reader, someone who loves to write, and i'm also certain that it is what draws me to running. i love long plane rides that mean i can sit and be to myself for 7 hours and do nothing but think. and read. and listen to music. and be melancholy. and for there to be nothing wrong with it.

a few weeks ago, i scribbled down - "still to come. the worst part. and you know it." in the book i was reading. and it seems so out of place in a book that was ending on a beautifully happy note. but i'm glad, because when i look back now, i can remember exactly where, when, and why and then write about it in my blog. and remind myself, that yes. i am psychic.