Alphabetical Music - Part 2

The continuation of my last post. I'm not sure any of you are wildly interested in this, but I'm enjoying it, so I'll appreciate the sensation of not being paid for trying to get views (fun fact: I do run the social media at my job, so that's basically what I do) and I get to write some more about music.


Unfortunately, when I came to write this post I realized that somehow I had lost the next 8 songs off my list, so I had to recreate the list. I'm trying not to repeat artists, though there will be at least one repeat on the list as a whole.

G

Good Morning Planetarium - Falling Up
Thought I ought to show Falling Up some love. I learned to love them even more after listening to the audiobook written by the lead singer. If you have some time and you're an audiobook type of person, I highly recommend it.

H

Hopeless Wanderer - Mumford & Sons
I love Mumford & Sons so much. I find new reasons to appreciate the poetry of their lyrics every time I listen through a CD. This particular song is special because when we performed Little Women a few years ago, Nadia and I had kind of assigned a different Mumford song to each character, and this was the one we assigned to Jo, whom I played. I identify a lot with Jo, and possibly even more so with this song.

I

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night - Five Iron Frenzy
Okay, this one's even more special. See, I had the misfortune of becoming a Five Iron fan AFTER they had already retired. So I put their CDs on repeat and learned to love their songs without any hope of ever seeing them or getting new music. Then a few days after one of the worst days of my life, I get home and I see the unbelievable. Five Iron is coming back, and they've released a new song. Now, I don't know that I can say I love their new stuff as much as their old stuff, but I absolutely adore this song. One of my favorite t-shirts is my FIF shirt that says "And hope still flies."

J

Just Fall - Anthem Lights
For the longest time I just liked Anthem Lights for their marvelous covers of other people's songs. Somewhere along the line I started listening to their original stuff, and as cookie cutter as some of it is, I really love quite a few of their songs. This is one that I kind of wish I'd run across a few months before I did, but it's been pretty useful anyway.

K

Kindle My Heart - A Little Princess Soundtrack
This super pretty song is in a super pretty scene in this super pretty movie. As wonderful as it is within the context of the movie, the real reason it's special to me is that this song is a lot of the reason I kept up with singing and trying to find voice lessons. Because once upon a time when I was quite young I somehow had enough courage to sing this song for someone and they told me I had a pretty voice and it was quite possibly the first time anyone ever complimented me on my voice. I really ought to do a cover of it now that I've had lessons...

L

Lift a Sail - Yellowcard
There are way too many Yellowcard songs I could have gone with, so I may have had to opt for one where I didn't have a better option for this letter. But this is one of my favorites. I've assigned it to several of my original fictional characters, and I used it as the curtain call when we performed the Voyage of the Dawn Treader a few years ago.



Alright guys, I think we'll have this done in two more posts. Let me know if you appreciate any of my song recommendations.

Alphabetical Music - Part 1

As stolen from this clever blogger friend of mine. If anything will get me to post on my blog, it's music. You can expect a few of these posts and then there's another music one I've been working on for a while. If you're looking for music suggestions, I'll be providing them here free of charge.

I'm splitting this blog into three parts because 1. Personally, I'm not going to read a blog with 26 paragraphs talking about songs. 2. It keeps me writing on my blog for a little longer.

A

Already Home - Thousand Foot Krutch
During the first music class I took at college the professor asked us to bring in a song for analyzing. Unfortunately he put a time limit on the song, so I wasn't able to bring this one in, but it was my first choice.

B

Broken Things - Ryan Kelly
I can't remember who first introduced me to this song by Ryan Kelly, of Celtic Thunder fame. There were definitely times in my life when this song was incredibly important, and it's pretty to boot.

C

Can't Live Without You - Owl City
Speaking of being important to my life, this song is actually the sequel to one of the more important songs in my life. I listened to Tidal Wave so many many times on my way to and from work during one particular year. Then my little sister informed me that one of the songs on the new Owl City CD was officially a sequel to Tidal Wave. And do you know what? This one made sense for my life in the same way as Tidal Wave did when I first listened to it. When you listen to one song after the other, you can see what an encouraging thing that was.

D

Desert Soul - Rend Collective
This song is the best in concert. I never knew that using a garbage can as an instrument could be so powerful. But the lyrics are amazing even apart from the performance.

E

Everlasting Arms - Vampire Weekend
Okay this one is just fun. I have no deep reasoning for you behind this song. I just love to jam to it.

F

Failure to Excommunicate - Relient K
Relient K had to make it onto this list somehow, but I was trying to find songs that it's possible not everyone knows. This is here for the line "Jesus loves the outcasts, he loves the ones the world just loves to hate" alone.

Sunny With a High of 75

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9na42244ZU

If you don’t know the Relient K song, you should.

I realize some people may come to California for slightly warmer weather than that, but 70’s is perfect for me. I think it was just about the perfect day to go to the beach.

I realize I glossed over a day, so I’ll backtrack before we hit the beach. The last day of driving was spent driving through the rest of Utah, (surprisingly) Arizona, Nevada, and some California. We’re quite happily in Anaheim now.

We learned that yeah, everything out West is really big. Mostly really flat. But then suddenly you’re driving through a valley with mountains of monstrous size on either side. And there are cacti. Still haven’t seen any tumbleweeds though…

Today we went to Seal Beach to experience the Pacific Ocean. This was mostly because Nadia has come to the ocean with the goal of seeing seals. Also the internet claimed parking was free. (The internet lied, by the way.)

Despite my deathly fear of fish and other sea creatures, I do love swimming in the ocean. The water might have been a bit cold for the natives, but I think it was just about perfect. I led the charge into the ocean and unwisely just kind of stood there letting it pull me a little further in every time. It was all fun and games, but I did faceplant once or twice from some pretty big waves. I have a deep respect for surfers now.

Eventually I started to get cold (because my favorite water temperature is a little chilly so I can get out of swimming for forever) and sat on the beach to attempt to dry off. We had lunch, surprisingly unbothered by seagulls. At the end of lunch, Nadia pointed out a large shape in the water.

Nadia: “That’s a big piece of something in the water. Must be a log.”

Me: “Looks like it. Unless it’s… NADIA, IT’S A SEAL!!”

Nadia was one step ahead of me and already sprinting to get a better look at it. I followed with her phone and eventually handed it off to her because I was, once again, freezing. Eventually Nadia finished seal watching and we strolled along the pier. We had some extra time for parking (internet lied…) so we explored the touristy stuff and bought souvenirs. (I needed sunglasses anyway.)

We’ve discovered that we can walk to Disneyland/the surrounding parks from our hotel without too much effort. Our Disney expert tipped us off that Downtown Disney would be worth investigation. Needless to say, the Disney/Star Wars/Marvel nerds were pleased with the investigation. We found more souvenirs, and some excellent food as well. Personally, I acquired a Pascal – the chameleon from Tangled. Since I’ve been declared Rapunzel, I decided I needed Pascal in my life.

I ended up walking the trip from the hotel to Downtown Disney four times today, in addition to wandering around the Seal Beach area. More than a little tiring, but I am really starting to like Anaheim. It’s a friendly sort of city, and definitely very pretty.

Thanks to a tip from a California native, we got to watch the nightly Disney fireworks from the street in front of our hotel. Then I found a nice tree and had Nadia help me film a ukulele cover. Then I got stuck in a traffic jam picking Quincy up from his baseball game. We still had fun anyway.

So we’ve made it all the way here to California, what are we going to do now?

WE’RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND.

NOW We go to California!

That was what Nadia said when she got in the car at the first gas station anyway. Actually we were going to pick up Quincy on the way out of Ohio. Then we were going to Kansas City. Now we're in Utah. But the end destination is California, so the sentiment is right.

Multiple people have agreed that I should resurrect my blog for a travel blog of sorts as we drive across the country. I'm willing to give it a shot, especially since Nadia has stolen my thunder as far as posting quotes on Facebook. (Fine, fine. It's because she has a smartphone and I can't stand the things.)

First of all the basic facts:

Who:
Me, my big brother Quincy, and my big sisters Nadia and Noelle.

What:
Driving to California. Obviously, by way of all those other things.

When:
Right now. Until the end of May (for Quincy and I, anyway.)

Where:
Allllll over the place.

Why:
Ah, that's the one you actually want to know. My generic answer is: because we can.
The actual answer is a little hazy. Sometime way back when (last year. Maybe the year before) the idea of going on a trip when I graduated college came up. Originally it was New Zealand - that'll still happen someday. But we decided California was slightly more feasible at the moment. So we started vaguely planning, then Quincy got on board and did a better job on planning. And really, at this point, Nadia and Quincy do all the planning, Noelle is here to make sure we CAN do it and to finally have a break from work, and I'm here for the adventure so yes. Thank you for planning. Makes my adventuring easier.

Long story short: I graduated. We're going to California.

Now to the trip so far:

• It was snowing when we left Sunday morning. I drove through a snowstorm. This is also why we're going to California.
• Noelle has finished two books so far, I think? Quincy finished one, but he's also doing a lot of the driving.
• Turns out that with a lot of effort I can at least write in the car. Reading might still be pushing it. This is why I drive. Or pretend to sleep.
• In addition to the awesome people we've left behind at home, we have now left some awesome people behind in Kansas City. But they were cool and let us sleep on their couch/recliner/floor like the hobos that we are.
• Colorado's very pretty. But I drove through another snowstorm.
• We've reached a state none of us have ever been to! And Utah's quite pretty too. Everything really does seem huge. O.o

Now this morning we're leaving for Anaheim. NOW we really are going to California!

That's really about it for the overview. I was going to do a section for quotes at the end here, but Nadia has posted alllllll of the best ones on her Facebook. If you don't have her as a friend... well go ahead and add her and I'll explain to her why she's got all these friend requests.

Her fault for having a smartphone. Makes you popular.

Final note: Thank you to all of you who suggested songs for the California playlist! I quite enjoyed it. I think my passengers enjoyed most of it too. And contrary to rumor, Party in the U.S.A. is definitely not on the playlist.

(Yeah, okay, it is.)

What a Novel Idea

The title is a pun. I'm just warning you.

I'll say it: it's been almost ten months since I posted on this blog. (But I did do a guest blog over here, so that must count for something.) That's a little ridiculous, I'm very sorry for that. But in my defense, I didn't have any brilliant ideas, so why force it? I still don't have any brilliant ideas, but I had a tolerable one so we can deal with that.

Fun fact you may or may not know about me: I'm in the process of writing a novel.
Follow up fun fact: I've been planning and working on this novel for something like ten years.

"But Elizabeth," you say. "Practically everyone I know is working on a novel. What makes your novel plans any different than theirs?"

Stubbornness, that's what. It may take me another decade or so, but I will get this novel done if it kills me.

Actually I'm not trying to say that my novel is more important or better than the ones your other friends are writing. In reality, I like to think of myself as the happy middle ground between literary-gold and please-stop-writing. I don't have high minded dreams of a best seller or a movie contract. (But I'm not gonna say no if they ask, you know what I mean?)

For me what it all comes down to is this: I've had characters developing in my head for over a decade now and their story desperately needs to be told. They're wonderful people. For some kids they probably could have been called imaginary friends, but I was a strange kid who didn't believe in having daydreams involving myself so I daydreamed about characters instead. So I know them like the back of my hand but they're not really my friends. Each of them is some important part of me, manifesting itself as a philosophy professor or a skater chick or a surly teenage guy.

"Okay, Elizabeth," you say. "Why exactly are you bringing up this 'fun fact' anyway?"

Good question. The short answer is: it was a random idea that struck me and I ran with it.

But I never stop at the short answer.

The long answer relates to the fact that I am a rare breed known as an Extroverted Writer. By this made-up term, I'm simply referencing the fact that almost all of my writer friends are introverts. I'm the odd one out. I'm sure this has lots of interesting effects on my writing, but the one that troubles me most often is my need for an audience. I absolutely have to have someone ready and willing to read what I'm writing or I have no reason to write. This is also why I can't journal. The idea of a potential audience does nothing. I need friends pestering me. And they can't be pestering me on principle, they have to be excited about what I'm actually working on.

As you can see, it's amazing I get any writing done. (I do have some wonderful friends who have obliged and are enthusiastic fans).

Despite this need for an audience, I am terrible at trying to acquire one. People ask me about my novel and I go "That information is on a need to know basis." They ask for general information and I waffle a bit, deciding if it sounds stupid when I explain it out loud. Heaven forbid you ask for specific details, because then I'll just tell you they're spoilers and you'll have to wait and figure out. I think that even by average author standards I'm pretty bad and the average author lives by this principle:

So here you are, a group of people who are willing to read my writing whenever I get around to a blog post. You might be willing to read a novel if I wrote it, right? But I guess you won't be able to begin to answer that question unless you have some sort of idea what I'm writing.

So down here, at the end of this longer-than-it-should-have-been-as-always blog post, I'm making you an offer. I'm making it down here because it means you actually bothered to read all the way through so you're more deserving than most. If you 1. Would be willing to read a work of fiction of significant length written by yours truly (aka: a piece of my soul) 2. Would like to help me finish a project I've been working on since middle school. 3. Are just a curious sort of person in general.
If you meet any of those criteria, you have my permission to ask me any question you like about my novel. This includes those people who already know about it and have been pestering me for answers for ages. This includes the people who don't have the faintest idea of what I'm writing (it's not fantasy, I'll tell you that much). This includes anyone who stumbles across this blog and has no idea who I am. You're free to ask me anything. I'll do my best to actually answer the questions, but I'm not promising to never withhold information on the basis of spoilers. There's a comment section here on the blog. There's a comment section when I post it on Facebook. Don't be shy.

But also don't feel terrible if you look at the various comment sections and nobody asks any questions. I can survive on trolling my existing audience. I just figured I could give them a break.

10 Things I'm Thankful For

Don't worry. They're not normal things. Since both of my blogger friends whom I regularly follow did this I decided I'd join in, since I could just write this without too much thought. In no particular order:

1. Other People's Cars - My car has been in the shop about six times since the beginning of the semester. I like it when my friends and family have working cars.

2. Sheetz - Most Mount Union students will agree with me.

3. Acapella Groups - I can never be bored as long as I have YouTube.

4. Cover Artists in General - I can never be productive as long as I have YouTube.

5. Inside Jokes - The best part of practically any friendship.

6.  Book to Movie Adaptions - They can be blasphemous, but I think Hollywood is doing a surprisingly good job recently and it makes me incredibly happy.

7. Fancy School Computers - I certainly wouldn't be able to do overly complicated fan art and photo manipulations without them.

8. Fun French Words - All right, I didn't want to learn French. But I have learned some surprisingly fun stuff.

9. Paper Towels - I used to hate paper towels. A wet paper towel is still sickening to me. But... I've worked as a janitor for the majority of this year. Paper towels are my best friend.

10. Word Wars - It's the middle of November, they're on the mind. I would not have 50+ pages of my novel written if I didn't have so many writer friends who have been ready to battle nightly for the last 26 days.

Happy Thanksgiving, be sure to thank God for all your tiny unimportant things in addition to your friends, family, and fandoms. (It was alliterative. I had to.)

10 Things You May or May Not Know About Being a PK

This seems like such an obvious idea for a post so I decided to humor it. Welcome to a little glimpse into the life of a pastor's kid. A lot of you may relate to this, even though I realize I have very few friends who are actually PK's. As usual, this is in my (ridiculously) blunt style but I think I've avoided offending anyone.

Also I decided it'd be fun to insert GIFs for once. I admit two of the items stumped me for gifs though.

1. You're automatically great at singing, acting, public speaking, and whatever else the church requires.

Whether you actually are or not. The church needs it, so you can provide it. Now, I've spent a good amount of time acquiring acting and singing skills. However, unlike most of my siblings, I stink at public speaking in general. But don't tell some people at church, they won't believe you.

2. Over the course of your life you get to learn pretty much the entire hymal

I feel sorry for modern PK's who probably don't get this joy. At this point if you give me practically any hymn in the United Methodist Hymal I can sing it for you and might have all the lyrics memorized. Including the verses that no one ever actually sings. Those are my favorites.

3. You get to know the inside of a church/lots of churches/every church

I'd like to say that I've been in so many churches now that I can automatically figure out the layout of any church. While some things are consistent in most churches, fortunately churches really are all designed differently so there's always something new to find. I love exploring churches. And playing hide and seek in churches.

4. You learn a lot of patience (and how to entertain yourself)

"Oh, Mommy is busy so you guys need to come with me? You can come sit in on my trustee meeting!"
All right, Daddy was always very understanding and let us go amuse ourselves in the nursery or something. But between meetings and visiting and tons and tons of services you do develop a high tolerance for long slow things. Services aren't usually a problem but when you have two services and you have to go to both eventually it gets to you. I'm not saying I doodle constantly in church but maybe you shouldn't look too closely at my bulletin. Or look at my bulletin from a great distance. Ignore my bulletin.

5. You're expected to know the answer to every question in every lesson. Ever.

I mean, I'm not going to deny that in general you can depend on my siblings and I to have an answer to everything. Whether it's right or not. (Okay, that's mostly me.) But it gets a bit tiresome when the teacher and all our fellow students automatically stare at you during the awkward silences when no one is answering. That's what you get for breaking the awkward silence one too many times, people start to depend on you.

6. It feels like you're automatically either the coolest kid or the least cool kid in youth group, Sunday School etc.

So this is just from my personal experience, I don't know about my siblings. It's also an exaggeration, don't take it too seriously. The thing is, you get a lot of "street cred" so to speak from having influence in the church. Your friends can depend on you to answer all the questions (ahem), know where everything is in the church, and convince the youth leader that playing laser tag will be highly beneficial for your spiritual lives. But, quite simply put, at the same time your friends assume you're going to be shocked and scandalized if they do anything slightly against the rules so if they want to do something slightly different you get excluded.
I admit that as a teenager I totally would have been scandalized. Good call, friends. But it still got depressing to get excluded, I have to admit. (It's all right, friends, I still love you.)

7. There is apparently at the very least a 60% chance that you're going to end up working in ministry

That highly scientific number is taken from the number of my siblings who are old enough to have a job and how many of them are doing something ministry-related at the moment (whether paid or unpaid). I didn't even count the fact that my every weekend is filled up with church goings-on and Bible Quizzing. Please, take my scientific number as fact, it will amuse me.
But the point is, it's in your blood. You can't escape it, and in general you don't really want to either.

8. People automatically assume that you're either really awesome or really messed up

So far from my experience, they aren't wrong. (My family is all in the really awesome category, for the record.) I like to point to the entertainment industry; you would be amazed at just how many singers, actors and famous people in general have at least one parent who is a pastor. Notable examples: Katy Perry, David Tennant, Denzel Washington, the Jonas Brothers, and pretty much at least one member of every Christian band ever. Being a PK does lend itself to the performing arts a bit. If you want something exciting done in certain churches you have to do it yourself, or at least start it yourself. (Then you end up running it forever, so it amounts to the same thing.)

9. You get to know some of the coolest people ever

I mean, you also meet the crazies, but you get those anywhere. You just can't beat the church for the most awesome people. This is where you find the bikers and addicts turned evangelist, the little old ladies whose families have been in the same church since before the church actually existed, the little kids who have more talent than you have on your best day, and all the rest.
Did you know that L.M. Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables, was a pastor's wife? While she didn't get married until after the first two books in the series were published, you can see all throughout her works what a perfect grasp she has on human nature in general. Her wonderful portrayal of over-the-top characters remind me of people we've run into at various churches. I can definitely see how many of her humorous vignettes were probably inspired by her experiences being married to a minister.

10. You learn to stick a point on the end of anything

When you're writing last minute skits incorporating the entirety of the Emperor's New Groove or making up a children's sermon on the spot you have to learn to get a moral out of anything. "I've got some toothpicks in my bag, what sort of moral can I get out of those?" While it sometimes makes you feel a bit like Marmee in Little Women (Oh, you've gotten yourself into some sort of trouble, daughter? Here's what you can learn from it.) it's really a very helpful skill to have in life. At the most unexpected moments when I think I'm about to go absolutely crazy I suddenly get this big-picture view of life. I see, yeah, this is terrible now, but look what I've learned from it.

If I were to tell you everything I've learned (and am still learning) from being a PK I would have to write at least a six volume encyclopedia. As it is I may have to do another one of these because I had a few ideas I didn't use. But at the moment it seems this is one of the biggest lessons I've learned: God is always working in your life and no matter what the situation you can always find him.