Music Monday #15 The Thousands of Stars

Sometimes, I have very specific memories of music. I remember the very first time I listened to Angels and Airwaves. I was sitting in my boyfriend's car at a gas station on University Parkway, listening to the music he had playing from his ipod. I remember sneaking a look at the ipod while he was gone so I could find out what band it was. And as they say, "the rest is history" (for me and Angels and Airwaves at least).

Angels and Airwaves already had two CDs out by that point, so I had a great deal of catching up to do, but they quickly became my favorite band. For many months I listened to them exclusively. Being very formative and important years of my life, it's not too dramatic to say they got me through a lot. Even as I continue to listen to the music after all these years, I can think of thousands of associated memories. Some make me happy, some make me sad, and most always it, well, inspires me.

I think it is about time I do a Music Monday for one of my favorite songs from the band.

"Call to Arms" is from the band's second album, I-Empire. It is an amazing song and I've thought out many different interpretations for it. Today I am just going to pick out some lines.

"Have you ever felt a sad heart buried alive?/ You can do almost anything." 

The imagery in this line always gets me. In our moments of true desperation, when we feel truly forsaken and forgotten, the imagery of a sad heart buried alive begins to capture it. But this is followed directly by the line, You can do almost anything. It makes me think of a friend encouraging and lifting you up.

"And the thousands of stars come out thousands of times/ We can go, only if you believe/ Only if you believe."

A great deal of Angels and Airwaves music is centered around space and ethereal themes. Which again, makes the imagery of stars in the night sky absolutely stunning. I think back to times when I have seen the stars best. It was in isolated places, when the night was darkest. Only then are the stars most visible and bright. The stars have shown up in the night sky thousands upon thousands of billions of times. It is a pretty sure thing. The next line speaks to me about faith, believing. And how it is crucial in life.

"Do you feel like you've lost everything you can lose?/... Do you ever lay awake with a look in the eye?/ Asking God if a wish is too big to deny/ I will offer a line, and it's ready for use."

I think we've all had times in our life when even when surrounded by people we know love us, we feel so alone. This song always gives me hope. That desperation I was talking about, the feeling of not being able to lose any more than you have, are captured in these lines. Maybe it is the christian in me that likes the next bit. There have been so many times in my life where I have pleaded with God. Whether it is on my knees in prayer or lying awake at night, hoping in faith that my wish wasn't too big to be denied.

"When you can't go on, you got to get up and try/ This is it, can you feel me?/ When the bombs come down, you will make it alive/ But only if you want to believe." 

Again, I think of an encouraging friend who is right by your side. With the name of this song being, "Call to Arms" I appreciate the line about the bombs coming down, and making it out alive. Because in life we all have our metaphorical wars and battlefields. Call to Arms is a summon, an order, to take up and fight, which we all need to do to make it out alive.

This last little bit I love because I can never nail down what I think it means.

"I'd like to say, that you're my only fear/ and when I dream, it slowly disappears/ And when I wake, I'm right here by your side/ to feel your heart, beat in and out of time." 

I have a few ideas... but what are yours?

Utah Randoms

As the my summer draws to a close I have the opportunity to look back on the cool things I did, and clean up some random photos on my phone. As if my "Week Wrap Up" wasn't random enough. This is like the cliffs notes of Week Wrap Up for the whole summer. So random they didn't even make it to the week wrap up. 

#1 I have really enjoyed doing my nails this summer. It was something I learned from Brigette, and I turned into a nail polish monster while in Grenada. Here is my Fourth of July Manicure that I am super proud of.

#2 I have tried really hard to be healthy. It isn't working. Not in this state. Ross and I had been back from Grenada for a few weeks when I took this picture. I went to the store to get some nice healthy fruits. Everything was too expensive. Nothing looked ripe. I came back with two apples. That is all. 

#3 In one of my WWU I mentioned how little tolerance I have for fake problems. Here is another one to add to the list. Oh boo hoo, I have to use different doors that I might actually have to use THE ARMS GOD GAVE ME to open.

#4 When I found out that this Dr. Pepper vanilla float existed I thought I was going to have a heart attack. My favorite soda is Dr. Pepper, but I am nuts for cream sodas, and root beer floats. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, so I hunted it down and found it. 

I think it is just around for the summer but I will enjoy it while it lasts (just like I did with the Berries and Cream).

#5 Smiths is a very popular grocery store chain around these parts and this summer they have had this, "Taste of Mexico" theme going on. It kills me every time I walk into the store. Like they make a concerted effort to have fresh salsa and tortilla chips. Not only that, but they keep getting things wrong, its irritating. 

#6 Pinterest is popular. This board is not. 

The pun about physically pinning things to the board reminded me of this commercial. 

#7 While we are on the topic of "How things work" I will share with you this screen capture. 

I just love the top suggestions, Lots of important wisdom on the web.

#8 I was pretty excited to get a Justice League sticker from this machine because they were all pretty cool. You can imagine my disappointment when I got an Adventure Time sticker. Twice. 

#9 When I was engaged I didn't share pictures of my "ring candy." That now gives me the right to spam you all with ring candy now. Every year I can have my ring re-dipped, and I love how nice and shiny it is when I get it back. It kind of took a beating in Grenada so I was especially excited to have it re-done this year. 

Week Wrap Up #4: Just Hangin Around

Here I am back blogging like I do. I've been back in Utah for a week and I already have the itch to get going. Today I head out to Vernal with my friend Kelli.

Looking back on this week I can't recall anything too fantastic. Pretty normal, stranded with no car and no money.

#1 Since being back in the States I love just walking around in stores. Any stores, even grocery stores. I just wander down the aisles in amazement. I saw my brother post a picture to Instagram about some magic called ...... Dr. Pepper. I'm not a big soda drinker, but I do love my Dr. Pepper. I decided I needed to find this magic right away. And find I did. Thank you very much Maceys. I have to admit, it's pretty good.

#2 I found these beauts on a {separate} trip to the store and I want to let it be known that it is perfectly acceptable to buy these for my birthday this year.

#3 My brother's birthday is this week and I decided to make him a superhero ice cream cake with a city skyline. I bought some fancy cake decorating tools and made a batch of the Pinterest famed marshmallow fondant. It turned out fantastic. Tastes way better than normal fondant and was easy to do. I learned an important lesson today. Or rather, something to add to my mother's list of "Sometimes the Extra Money is Worth It" list: Expensive food coloring/ gel. I thought for sure my hands would be stained after squishing, molding, folding, and kneading the black dyed fondant, but to my absolute glee, it washed right off. Miracle of miracles!

#4 Thursday evening I saw the most beautiful moon. I think I saw an article about it that gave this particular moon a special name. Of course the picture does not do it justice. It was so large and I could see the texture on the surface of the golden glowing moon.

#5 This week brought a couple gloomy and rainy days, which made me a little melancholy. But I was able to catch up on some crocheting and Community so it wasn't too bad.

#6 After watching the X-Men: Days of Future Past on Monday I asked Teo if I could borrow his X-Men movie collection. Friday I finally got around to a mini movie marathon. Yes, it was as perfect as it appears.

#7 I had a bad day this week. Just the feeling of a caged bird and I'm getting sick of life being Grenada Pt. II. But at least I was able to acknowledge my bad mood and move on.

#8 Friday night I finally got to hang out with my awesome nieces. I've been out of town when they were here before. It blows my mind how much older they are, turns out the world kept turning while I was in Grenada. :/ 

I had a ton of fun hanging out with her, talking, singing to Katy Perry, doing nails, and playing at the park with the family.

#9 My beautiful, kind little niece has taken to decorating this tortured doll with nail polish, duct tape, and sharpies.

Seeing my creeped out response only motivated her to "decorate" it more. She'll sit in her room perfecting the doll's latest look, then come out, wave it in my face and say in the creepiest little kid voice ever, "My name's Chuckie, wanna play?" I think I need to talk to this girl's parents...

Late Saturday night Ross and I returned to see this creeeepy doll glowing in the dim light. Pretty much the scariest thing of my life. What a way to end your week. Thanks kiddo.

QW #21: Super Powers

I spent the last two nights staying up ridiculously late reading a comic Teo let me borrow, Final Crisis. It's pretty intense, and knowing I am not equipped to write a review for it, I am not even going to attempt.

 

 

Teo told me that it was a must read. Especially before I started the next Flash Comics. Here are some of my favorite moments from Final Crisis.

 

 

First Frame: Super girl (Cass) with Streaks (Synge). Cass asking Synge to not pee in the laundry basket (again) while she is gone saving the world. Sheesh Streaks/Synge!

 

Second Frame: Flash Family.... isn't it about time?! Flashes know that when the entire multiverse is avalanching into oblivion, family comes first. Keep it solid!

 

Last Frame: Black Lightning says, " ... formal education enriches and provides a tried-and-tested framework to help us get the most out of those (street/ real life) experiences." It really bugs me when people try to say that comics are worthless and just violent garbage. They are so much more than that.

 

 

This brings me to the quote I chose for "QW" today.

 

 

"We're not about the names people call us, we're about what we do, don't you think? You have powers, use them for what you know is right and leave the labels to history and the media."

-Black Lightning

 

To me, this encapsulates so much about being super. Sometimes I get wrapped up in the adjectives people use to describe me. I feel I need to prove to them, to the world, that I am NOT that. That I am so different from what they think and say. But what is truly important is what I do.

 

Not all of us have heat vision, not all of us have super strength, nor can many of us run lightning fast, but we all have "powers" so to speak. I'm constantly reminded of what amazing people grace my life. Normal people, with super powers; super kindness, super attentiveness, super flexibility, super perception, super understanding, super acceptance. Whether they know it or not, they are listening to Black Lightning and use them for what they know is right. Not for glory, not for laud, not for titles and fame, just to make this world a better place for everyone in it. 

 

Anything But the Monday Blues: Pizza & Hot Moms

Monday was a fantastic day because my big brother played hookey and hung out with ME. I've missed him a ton and I love spending time with him. We went and saw the new X-men movie at a nice theater, with apparently, the best popcorn in the world. Need to check that out next time. 

After that we made our inaugural visit of the Summer 2014 Utah Pizza Tour. SLAB PIZZA, Provo, UT.
 

Slab is a pretty hip little place, nestled beneath an age old apartment complex. You get "just one" slice of pizza. And by that I mean about a quarter of an extra large pizza.

There are different tiers of fanciness in the different pizzas. Teo got a Thai pizza (minus the scallions of course). And I got a lasagna pizza which was amazing. The "single" slice of pizza is roughly two times the size of my head.

Teo dropped me off and decided to rub it in my face by getting some Man of Steel/ Amazing Spider-Man ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Since I want to do pretty much everything he does, I convinced Ross to take me to get ice cream after he was done studying. The first location didn't have that flavor but I wasn't about to just settle. Nope. So we pressed onward to location two and luckily they had it. 

 

In between hanging out with Teo and ice cream I tried out water aerobics with my sister in law. It was supremely cool. I wasn't sure what to wear because I knew I'd be really cold. So I opted for the Million Dollar Baby hoodie/ robe look:

There were a ton of people at water aerobics, mostly grabby hot moms. One mom brought her chubby-ish pre-teenish daughter to class. And proceeded to yell at her to try harder every time she whined that she couldn't do it. Hot daughters make hot moms sweetie. Get with it.