Things That Make Me Happy: Mr. Jones Edition

This morning in the car I heard this song three times (on three different radio stations). I was lucky enough to hear it in its entirety each time too. Mr. Jones is one of my absolute all time favorite songs, so I got pretty excited. Since it's an older song it isn't really played on the radio that much anymore, and when I do hear it on the radio I seem to only catch the very end of it. Because of this, it seemed a bit odd to me this morning that I would get so lucky as to hear this great song like I did... so I decided to take it as a sign of good things to come!

Things That Make Me Happy: Mele Kalikimaka Edition, Part 2

Merry Christmas (or Mele Kalikimaka as they say in Hawaii!) everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful day surrounded by family and friends... and filled with oodles of love. 

Things That Make Me Happy: Schenectady Edition

Hmmm... OK, so you may not know it but Schenectady is pretty cool. Hehehehe! Yeah... maybe not so much, but one can dream. Anyways, I did spend four years of my life there, thus leaving me to have some sort of connection with the place. Typically my conversations of Schenectady go somewhat like this.

Person: "Oh, and where did (or do - depending on the time frame) you go to college Victoria?"

Me: "Um, Union College."

Person, with a look of utter confusion on their face: "Oh, where is that?"

Me: "Eeeee. Oooooh. Yeah. Schenectady, New York."

Person: "HUH? Where is that?"

Me: "Upstate New York, near Albany."

Person, pretending to have a clue (or at least feign interest): "Oh." But obviously this person is still confused, and really just focussing on the town's name "Ummm. How do you spell that? And oh wait... how do you say it again?"

It goes something like this S.C.H.E.N.E.C.T.A.D.Y! And it is pronounced like this sken-eck-ta-dee! Give it a try... it's kinda funny actually (but not so much when you must repeat it over and over again because that is where you live!). So anyways, due to the fact that this town has a CRAZY name, and I went to school there, I sort of get excited when I hear it mentioned in something dare I say... famous (well maybe not famous, but something mainstream). I actually sort of feel an odd sense of pride. Not because I love Schenectady, but more like because I lived there for four years... and lived to tell the tale (and yes... that I am proud of). In reading the list of the cool things "our" town (and by our I mean us amazingly awesome Union peeps) did I discovered that Schenectady has a weird tie to Christmas! Who knew? It turns out the GE plant's zip code is 12345... and I guess many a child (misguided I may add) send their Santa letters to this zip code. Let me tell you wonderful children of the world... Santa most definitely does NOT live in Schenectady New York!  

An example of "our" coolness!

Things That Make Me Confused: Fat Joe Edition

Lately several of my local radio stations have decided to play this song on heavy rotation, thus leaving me slightly confused.

         

I don't really mind too much the fact that this song has suddenly reemerged on the radio because, although I am totally embarrassed to admit it, I actually enjoy this song (I am pretty sure I even have it on a mix CD somewhere). However, this song is just not popular anymore, in fact I think it is about 5 or 6 years old at this point. So I am just really confused why all of a sudden this one random song is being played ALL the time. Did I miss the memo that said this song is the new "it" song all over again. I mean I am sure there are some people out there who have never heard it before and when they do they think "oh this is a fun new song!", but for me I hear it and think this:

2000

Far too many lonnnnngg nights at Chi Psi... dancing... like an idiot (as pictured above!). And oddly many of these nights ending with me walking home in my wonderful friend's (and housemate at the time) shoes, because after all night dancing she just couldn't bear to walk back to our house in her high heels. Since I would usually wear sensible shoes like flip flops, it just somehow always seemed like a "great" idea to trade shoes with her in order to get us home. Let me also just mention the fact that her shoes were only about three sizes too small for me. Yet at the time it really did seem like the best thing to do. Yes... sometimes I am a genius! 

Things That Make Me Happy: Everclear Edition

2000

As I mentioned before, my college freshman year roommate Lindsay and I had very dissimilar tastes... especially when it came to music. She preferred the alternative rock genre while I was drawn to basically anything that could be heard on Dawson's Creek. So needless to say this difference made for some very uncomfortable moments in our room when one of us insisted upon listening to their music without headphones. However, there was always one thing that could quickly remedy this problem. What was this thing you ask? Ahhh, it was none other then our, yes I repeat OUR, Everclear CD. This particular CD, So Much for the Afterglow, was the ONLY music that we both loved, and would agree upon happily listening to together... without headphones. The only argument that would then arise after our decision to play this CD was made, was whose copy we would use. So much of our freshman year was spent listening to this CD on repeat, because many times we just couldn't be bothered to attempt to do our homework, clean the room, and talk to each other all with a pair of headphones on. Our mutual love of this CD didn't end at freshman year though... instead it came around full circle, and capped off our senior year as well, in some bizarre twist of fate when Everclear actually came to play at our school's Springfest. While I'm pretty sure the rest of the campus was a little disappointed in the fact that this was who was headlining Springfest (as Everclear wasn't exactly popular anymore at this point), but... Lindsay and I basically felt like we had just died and gone to heaven. 

For your listening pleasure... a song off of that fabulous CD!

Things That Make Me Happy: Paste Magazine Edition

A couple of years ago my dear friend Jenna introduced me to an amazing magazine. I have since become a subscriber to this magazine (Paste), and every month I am like a little kid at Christmas time waiting for its arrival. You see not only is it a great magazine filled with lots of cool stuff BUT it also comes with a mix CD. I am only slightly obsessed with mix CD's (but I will save that for another post), so I am always eager to tear open the package and see what Paste has in store for my little ears. They never fail to put together an interesting mix of music, some of it is great, some of it not so much. Either way though it is music that I would have probably never come across on my own, and so I am always happy for the new discoveries. So, if you are a big music fan, I strongly suggest that you go check out Paste... I doubt that you'll regret it.

Things That Make Me Annoyed: Bad Day Edition

Today is just not my day! I don't understand why when you are having a bad day EVERYTHING seems to go wrong. When I have a bad day it is not usually one huge awful thing that happens to me, but is instead usually a collection of tiny mishaps (one after the other) that lead to an overall feeling of frustration. On days like these all of the most random things seem to go wrong, and no matter how hard I try I just can't seem to get anything right. So with that said, I thought I would leave you with this song for your listening pleasure, because Joe Purdy's singing makes having a bad day actually... tolerable!

         

On a side note... I would have left you with the song Bad Day by Daniel Powter but that just seems like such an obvious choice. Oh... and one of the kids I used to take care of (Morgan - featured in my post about Curtis Stone) was obsessed with that song. She would sing it for us over and over at the top of her lungs. So after listening to that song pretty much on repeat for a good three months I sort of despise it!