"I am a visitor here, I am not permanent."

Sarah from Was That Awkward

This is her.

was kind enough to let me write a guest post (or maybe I just bombarded her with an email and she felt obligated to let me), and it is officially up. If you don't know Sarah, get to know her. You won't regret it. Until that point, though, here are some things you should know:

• Favorite food: Kraft mac and cheese
• Favorite domestic animal: dog
• Favorite wild animal: tiger
• Favorite season: fall (me too!)
• Underwear preference: boy shorts

See? You want to be her best friend already, don't you?!

Ok, now go read the post and laugh about how awkward I was in high school, and have a revelation that I'm still that awkward and will always be that awkward. Go! Read it! And while you're there, read the rest of her blog. Make sure you put on a pair of Depends before hand, though. You'll need them.

"I'm winning, and I don't intend on losing again."

Guys! I'm a winner!

The oh-so lovely Lauren from The Blog You're About to Read (Go read it. Right now. You won't be disappointed.) has found it in her big heart to share with me the Versatile Blogger Award, and I'm beyond honored. Every time I hear the word versatile, I'm immediately reminded of Natalie Portman, and who wouldn't want to be associated with such a gifted human being??

Gaahhh... She's SO versatile!

Anyway, in receiving this award

This one.

I am required to 1) Link back to the person who gave it to me.
                         2) Share seven facts about myself.
                         3) Pass it on to several other deserving bloggers.

The facts, in no particular order:

• I'm Polish. My great grandparents migrated to America from Poland. (Wow, this is really hard to just think of random things about yourself that you deem worth sharing.)
• I'm obsessed with shoes. Not fancy, girly shoes, but (white) tennis shoes, Converse and Rocket Dogs.
• I'm also obsessed with female singer/songwriters. 
• I love pulling pranks on my family members.
• I could eat chicken and/or eggs every single day and never get sick of them. 
• I love to drive. I've even considered becoming a trucker. 
• I don't particularly want children. If God or my husband decide otherwise, so be it, but it's definitely not a goal of mine.

More deserving people/blogs:

Apfelicious Amplifications
All is Fair in Love and War
the Tsaritsa sez
ChunkyKnubbyNavel
Seeking to Understand (This is my attempt at getting her to blog more. For the love of everything, I hope it works.)


30 DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE
Click here to see the entire list.

Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding:

I'm not the stereotypical girl who's dreamt of her perfect wedding day since the age of 5, and who has every single detail all planned out. But I am a girl. And I have thought about certain things I'd like to have at my wedding, including what music I'd like to have played. I'm also very fickle, though, so just because I want it now doesn't necessarily mean that I'll want it when that day comes.

I heard a song by Sade a while ago, and I immediately thought "This would be the perfect song to have my first dance to as a married couple!" And then I found out that Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra had the same idea. -_-
Regardless, it's a beautiful song. I think I'd like my first dance as a married woman to have some sort of significance to it, though, not just something that I hear and think "Oooh, I liiiike this!" So, I guess I'll just say that this would make a great wedding song for someone else... (Sorry, I tend to talk in figure 8s. (Like talking in circles, but more random.))

"I'll be true Toothbrush, just to you Toothbrush, when we both use the same toothpaste."

I was at a friend's yesterday and while there, a package arrived for her from Colgate. She proceeded to tell me how they keep sending her these classroom kits containing approximately 100 toothbrushes, coupons, tooth brushing booklets, and teaching materials. She is not a teacher, and she never signed up for anything, so she has no idea why they keep sending them. She's even moved 4 or 5 times in the past few years, and Colgate always seems to find her. (Stalkers!) I of course don't know why she gets them either, but I also don't care because I made out with two new toothbrushes!

Because this was a classroom kit, the toothbrushes were child sized, but I'm convinced now that that was the best part. Contrary to what this illustration shows, I have a fairly small head, which means I have a fairly small mouth. A tiny toothbrush just fits in my mouth better and really gets into all of the nooks and crannies (aka cavities) well. My teeth have never felt so clean!

Side note: Have you ever heard of those dentists who purposely mess up your teeth that way you can go back to them and they can "fix" whatever is wrong, making themselves infinitely more money? Yeah, I'm pretty sure my old dentist did that. Ever single visit, the nurse would come into the room with an x-ray showing 5-7 brand new "pinhole sized cavities" that I of course couldn't see, but I didn't argue because I'm not a dentist. I now have a mouth FULL of fillings and two broken teeth, because they don't know how to properly fill a tooth. I'm too poor to go have them fixed/pulled, though, so now I just walk around looking like a giant hillbilly.

Thanks a heap, Caro Family Dentistry!

30 DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE
Click here for the entire list.

Day 22 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad:

I'm not one of those people who likes to listen to horribly depressing music when I'm sad so I can curl up in fetal position and cry my eyes out for hours. I don't like to dwell on things when I'm upset. I just like to pretend that nothing happened and go about my business. I know that's not necessarily the most healthy thing to do, but it works for me for now. If I'm sad about something, you're much more likely to find me listening to something happy, or funny, like this. 

Lately, though, I have re-fallen in love with a song by Shawn McDonald and it ALWAYS makes me feel better about whatever situation I'm in. It helps me to remember to fully rely on God and to let Him handle things. I don't always have to fix things on my own.

Even if you're not a believer, I would highly recommend giving it a listen. Just the song itself is crazy good.

"Now I'm free, free falling."

A few people have asked me lately how to pronounce "beanditch" and what the meaning is behind it, so I thought I'd take the opportunity and blog about it, killing two birds with one stone.

Firstly, it's pronounced like bean-ditch. Not be-and-itch, as a few people thought. (I'm looking at you, Sara and Whitney.)

Secondly, I'm being REALLY lazy right now, and don't feel like typing this story up, but I love you guys so I guess I will.

Picture it. Michigan. 2003... Some friends and I were on our way home from the mall, and decided to take the back roads for a while. 1) We just really liked doing this, and 2) we once caught a glimpse of really hot guy doing push-ups in his front yard, so we kept driving by trying to see him again. As we were driving, I asked what was growing in the field to the right of us, and when they answered "soy beans," I thought "Soy beans are totally edible! I need out! I need to try one!" Nevermind pesticides. I NEEDED to try a soy bean straight from the source! I was so excited that I took off on a dead run for the field. Apparently, some very tall weeds had recently been mowed down in front of the field, so what looked like flat land was actually weeds covering up a giant ditch. The second I reached the stupid thing, I dropped straight down, and of course my friends erupted in laughter.

Now, I'm all for making a fool of myself to garner a few laughs (just ask my family about my Beyonce - Single Ladies impressions) but this was ridiculous. I could have died broken a leg!  As I collected what was left of my pride and climbed my way out of the ditch, I realized that I had two huge grass stains on my favorite pair of pants. Talk about adding insult to injury.

My friends quickly decided that this little incident needed to live on in infamy, and decided to nickname me beanditch. I now use the name for everything on the internet, because I know it's always available. I got so sick of the Stacey8549303746 usernames. Beanditch is just so much easier.


30 DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE
Click here to see the entire list.

Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy:

I listen to a lot of songs when I'm happy. A lot of songs make me happy. I was listening to my mp3 player on random last night and came across a song that I had forgotten how happy it makes me. It was one of, if not the, big song off of the album, and I became kind of sick of it, so I would always skip over it when it came on. I'm kind of glad that happened, though, because I was able to have that small euphoric moment last night.





I thought I'd throw this one in for the heck of it. Go ahead and judge me. I don't care. I loved this song as an adolescent (nostalgia = happiness), I love it now, and I truly foresee myself always loving it. You should too.

"Please don't make me cry."

I have been nothing but a big ball of emotions lately. I'm sure some of it can be attributed to PMS, but it's more than the average hormonal imbalance. A few people reading this can probably testify to that. I've professed my love for more people in the past few days than I probably have in the past few months, I cried because I was heart broken for someone else, I cried because I saw something cheesy on TV, (I should interject and say that it doesn't take much to make me cry in general, but it has been ridiculous lately.) I've gotten uber warm fuzzies over cute animal pictures on Tumblr like this, this and this... Basically, I've been out of control.

Oh, I also literally spent HOURS the other night trying to make a gif of Lor eating a Koala Yummy. Nothing was working and it was late in the night, so I kind of gave up and went to bed. The next day I took what I made on Windows Movie Maker and uploaded it to YouTube, that way she could at least see how it would look if the gif worked. Then, a moment of genius. I took that video and uploaded it to GifSoup, and VOILA! A gif! I was so excited that I gasped, my heart was racing. and I had a gigantic cheesy grin consuming my entire face. (See, it's not all sad emotions!) My hours of hard work had finally payed off!

Sheer awesomeness.

Then my mom decides to pull some crap tonight and tell me this story:

She and my dad (and baby me) had a cat, Nicky, when they lived in Oklahoma. The cat ended up dying right before they moved back to Michigan. The day they moved our dog Butch went missing, but my dad eventually found him in the back yard where they had buried the cat, crying.

 

I jokingly over-exaggerated my cries and we all laughed, but I actually had real tears in my eyes. That was one of the sweetest stories ever. He was such a good dog.

So, is this just me, or has anyone else been overly emotional lately?


30 DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE
Click here to see the entire list.

Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry:
 
Finally, a question a have a definite answer for!

I adore the band Trapt. Great music, great lyrics, and Chris Brown (what an unfortunate name) has such a sexy voice! Their song, Hollowman, is the PERFECT song to belt out when you really feel like injuring someone. I couldn't begin to count how many times I have driven around, song blaring, aggressively singing my little heart out. So therapeutic! ☺

"I don't ever want to see, I don't ever want to be like you, Hollowman."

"I'm just beginning. The pen's in my hand, ending unplanned."

I was over at the Tsaritsa sez the other day and came across this really cool handwriting meme. I thought maybe I'd end up doing it myself and, low and behold, Apfel tagged me in her own post! I don't know why I'm so excited about this, but what can I say? I'm a big nerd. Whatever.

Anyway, these were the questions I had to answer.

1. What's your name/your Blogger name?
2. What's your blog's name/URL?
3. Write "the quick fox jumps over the lazy dog"
4. Favorite quote?
5. Your favorite song?
6. Your favorite band/singers?
7. Anything else you want to say?
8. Tag 3-5 other people.

As if my handwriting isn't sucky enough, the picture had to be blurry too. Sorry.

Tagged: Kaylee
              Victoria (For the love of everything holy, DO NOT call her Vicki!)
              Lauren
              Becky

30 DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE
Click here to see the entire list.

Day 19 – A song from your favorite album:

Picking a favorite album is just as hard for me as picking a favorite song. There are SO many good ones. If I HAVE to pick, though, I'd probably say Fiona Apple's Tidal. That CD kind of began my obsession with "good" music. My favorite song from the album, and possibly just my favorite Fiona song in general, is Never is a Promise. It's only real contender for all time favorite Fiona song would be Love Ridden. We'll just call it a tie.☺

"We'll cut out bodies free from the tethers of this scene, start a brand new colony."

I've really been trying to come up with something interesting to blog about over the past few days. Any time something strikes me (usually something that annoys me) I think "Oh man, I have to remember to blog about this!" And then I don't. I don't know, it just hasn't felt right. Then I got a text tonight from someone (we'll call her Friend #1) and it annoyed the crap out of me. I was all set to blog about what set me off, along with what I consider proper text etiquette. Friend #1 was coming over to watch a movie and I literally kept thinking to myself how badly I wanted the night to be over so I could blog about her annoying texting ways. Shortly after she arrived, I received a text from someone else (Friend #2). I felt kind of like a jerk for texting Friend #2 while Friend #1 was being entertained annoyed by the little sister, but frankly, Friend #2 was more important to me at the moment.

Friend #2 and I have connected lately over some similar life experiences and I really treasure the talks we have. It's nice to know that you're not alone in your struggles.

God has blessed me with this unexpected friendship. We are separated by so much, but are connected by much more; connected by spiritual things that mean more than the physical separation. After the chat tonight, I kind of came to a realization. The more I thought about this blessing, I realized how much I truly take for granted on a daily basis. I focus on so many trivial things, things that most likely wouldn't get to me as badly if I didn't put so much energy into stewing over them. These things are meaningless in the long run, and if I spent more time appreciating the blessings I've been given (no matter how big or small) I'd be a much happier person. Now that's not to say that I wouldn't face trials, that I wouldn't have my down times, but I'm almost creating these bad days for myself. It's like I have some sick desire to be grumpy all the time and it's becoming quite exhausting. I don't want to be that person. I want to be the carefree, less bitter person I used to be. I want to be happy because a friend is excited to talk to me, not get pissy because they don't follow some unwritten text rule that I've written.

I just want to be better.

I've kind of begun the journey already, and some recent events have led me to believe that I'm on the right path. I feel like I'm being tested, and I can't help but think that Satan wouldn't feel the need to butt his nose in if I wasn't resisting him more than in the past.

SO. If you see me being a major downer or grump or whatever, feel free to tell me what's up. Criticism, of any kind, is always welcome. It's too easy to get caught up in myself. Outsiders' perspectives are necessary.


30 DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE
Click here to see the entire list.

Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio:

I'm a bit of a music snob. I get mad when a band I hold near and dear ends up getting a lot of radio play. I feel like people should have to do the work to fully appreciate music. Talk to friends who have similar musical tastes, research on Pandora or Grooveshark or something of the like, dig through your parents' old albums... Something, anything, other than having the Top 40 channels shove songs down your throat. I tend to think that a lot of people only like certain bands/songs because they're essentially being told to like them.

"Listen to this song we play 500 times a day! It's great!"
"Oh, you know what? It really isn't that bad!"

I'm not saying that musicians don't deserve recognition and lots of money for the hard work they put in, but I think people would be less bored with music in general if they had a greater personal investment in it.

I honestly do not have an answer for this question so I'll just leave you with a song that I'm currently listening to. But go. Find some new music. Music you can get excited over. You won't regret it.