Just Beat It

I'm entirely, one hundred percent convinced that Patrick Martin Stump has the best voice ever known to man.

Click here to have a listen.

p.s. I'm so unhealthily overjoyed about this song, it's ridiculous.

piano

My school had a convocation on Friday. For all the music students. We have a new piano player this semester and he played Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C sharp minor. And he put so much passion into that piece it gave me goosebumps. It seriously affected me for another couple hours. He played it so so so beautifully. Here's the best rendition I can find on youtube, but it still doesn't compare to what I saw live, everyone should really see something like this in person. But this is the video I connect with the most. I love how he's wearing a jersey. Musicians are always wearing tuxes and black dresses, I say revolt! This is going to be me... well, my style anyways.



And then the one of the other piano students, Naomi, played this beautiful Chopin piece - Etude Op. 10 No. 12 "Revolutionary". I can't believe she has the stamina and discipline to learn something like that. That is one of the most difficult pieces to learn on the piano, because of what the left hand has to do. I also found the best rendition I could find on youtube but again, it still doesn't compare. Check out the left hand!



Leaves me feeling so inadequate. Argh!

Everyone needs to watch this.

My favorite part is the old lady going "Ya yaa"

Randomness

Ok so I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and jot down some random fact about my lovely self. Enjoy!


I want to know how to dance. I mean, get lessons from a professional, kind of dance. I don't think it matters what kind. I like more some than others, like, salsa, or swing, or even break dancing (don't laugh)... But I'd like to know how.

I love school

I hate homework

I hate it when people don't keep their commitments, and don't do what they say.

I learn just about everything really fast.

I hate disappointing anyone. Because of this, I've turned into somewhat of a people pleaser. I often spend a lot of my time hanging out with someone that invited me somewhere when I'd rather be doing something else.

I seriously would LOVE to play violin. It's on my list of things to do before I die.

I want to sky dive too.

I want to be in a band, and tour the world. Oddly enough I don't even want to play piano in it. I'd rather play bass.

I have been to every Panic! At the Disco tour ever.

I don't like to go to Best Buy because every time I do, I get sucked into the cd section and walk out with an armload of cd's.

I love the smell of books and libraries.

I always have to have 2 pieces of gum at a time. Never just one.

I don't like sleeping in the dark.

I have to sleep with a blanket over one part of me. Even if it's sweltering hot, I still have to make it cold enough for a blanket.

I find sleep a nuisance. I could get so much more done without it! But it's oh so comforting to lay in a soft bed at the end of the day...

I love driving fast.

I hate shopping. It takes too long, it's hard to find what you want, it's tiring.

I hate clothes shopping especially.

Which is probably why I love shopping online. I can find exactly what I want when I want, and by the time it actually comes in the mail, I've probably forgotten what I bought and it's like opening a present every time!

I LOVE Amazon.com

I spent my whole life never paying the least attention to commercial music. My senior year in high school, I was so oblivious to the world, I didn't even know who green day was, or coldplay was. It was bad. I discovered Fall Out Boy that summer, and it sucked me into the world of music. I now have something over 20GB of music, and go to at least one concert every couple of months.

I would love to write movies. I come up with plots all the time for movies. Really good ones.

When I started getting piano lessons over 2 years ago, my piano teacher taught me the correct way to play. As a result, I have had to keep my nails super super short. Since then, I can't stand having any kind of nail. It drives me nuts.

I am one of the few girls I know that does nothing to my toe nails. They forever remain plain.

I sometimes imagine myself as a fashion diva of punk or funky clothes and hairstyles. I don't know if it will ever happen.

There are moments in my life when I find myself completely uninhibited and the life of the party. I wish I could be that person all the time.

These are the moments of my life that I feel like I can achieve anything.

I was always the quiet kid in school.

Since then, I've been constantly trying to shed that. It is a constant struggle for me.

I LOVE songs that have the perfect beat and just make me want to dance.

I can't wait to be a mom.

I can't wait to have a husband.

I have never been in love.

I love thunderstorms. Especially when they make the electricity go out. In the middle of the night. And I love finding broken trees in the morning. It's so cool!

I LOVE Arizona. I used to hate it. I used to hate the desert and the brownness and heat. But I've slowly come to love and appreciate it. I love the desert. It's beautiful. And I love our rocky mountains. And as long as my car has air conditioning, I love the sunshine, and warmth, and beautiful sunny days. Arizona is beautiful.

I love animals. I always have. I actually thought about going into the animal care field.

I HATE cheesy movies. If a movie has any touch of cheesiness it's ruined for me. I want quality!

My favorite movie of all time is Hook with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman. It has to be the best movie ever made.

I love songs that bring back memories.

I love really good memories.

It pains me to think that some of those happy memories are over. Like my summer in Hawaii. I didn't realize how much I missed it until one time in my Art class 8 months later, we started going over Polynesian art and it reminded me SO MUCH of Hawaii and I wanted to go back SO BAD! I bawled like a baby all the way home.

I have a soft spot for songs with piano in them. Any songs whatsoever. If there is a piano used, I automatically am more open to liking it.

My idea of a good time is dressing up and going to a Cirque de Sole, or going to Orpheum Theatre downtown, or spending it going to all the art shows in downtown Scottsdale, or going to a Musical, or going to a museum of any kind.

I love the fancy city life. I would LOVE to live in Manhattan and wear designer clothes, and go to Broadway shows, and play classical concerts at the Carnegie Hall.

I don't like being touched. I'm painfully aware every time someone touches me.

My room has a balcony open to the roof. Sometimes I'll go to the highest part of my roof and just contemplate life.

I love the stars. I love Astronomy. I would love to go into that field too.

I love math. And I'm very good at it. But I took Calculus in high school and have never had to take it since.

I have never failed a class. As much as I don't like working for it, I cannot stand getting bad grades. It makes me completely stressed out and depressed when I do.

I love to design and decorate my room. I have tons of ideas of how my future house is going to be. It's going to be hot stuff.

I have really good fashion sense. No joke. Roxanne and Melanie and even my Mom all ask me for fashion advise. For both clothing outfits and just decorating around the house.

There was a point in my life when I actually wanted to pierce my tongue. But thankfully that passed.

I hate cooking, and I don't really care for eating either. But I do like food.

I love Mexican, Seafood, and Arizona Fair food. And of course chocolate.

Everyone NEEDS to get what is called the Brownie Obsession at T.G.I. Friday's. It's the BEST desert EVER. Your taste buds will thank you.

I can only focus on one thing at a time. I cannot multitask at all. It drives me nuts to have two people talking to me at the same time. My brain can't handle it.

My room is always a mess. It's my worry free space.

I worry about a lot of things. Almost everything.

I burned roughly 400 calories yesterday just practicing the piano.

Unlike a lot of people, I really enjoy spending time by myself.

I always have to be doing something with my hands. Pick at my nails, tap something, play with my phone, SOMETHING. It gets bad in church.

I love feeling the texture of sand and beads and rice and anything thats small in large quantity.

This past year is the first time ever I feel like I truly have my own group of friends. I've always had friends. But not my group of friends. It's been a whole new experience for me. I love them all too. :)

I love to travel. I take every opportunity I can. And I have a long list of places I want to go. With Israel at the top.

I want my life to be grand, and full, and I want to do everything and experience everything and see everything. It pains me to even consider that it might not happen.

Valentine's Day

I decided two weeks ago that I didn't want to be alone on Valentine's Day. And if no one is going to make it happen for me then I'm going to make it happen for myself! So I invited everyone I knew to go to dinner on Valentine's Day, because, come on, no one should be alone on Valentine's, it just helps define just how single you really are.

We went to Garcia's (yes I stole the idea from a certain someone), and 13 people ended up coming! It was fun!









I bought myself a Valentine's gift too. :) It's THE biggest reeses I think I've ever laid eyes on. It was amazing...




...look it's from my secret admirer! what a nice surprise! :)

I think I just might make this into a Valentine's Day tradition. It was fun!

Read!

I love reading. Love love love it. I don't know where it came from because all my other siblings hate it. But I LOVE it.



When I was little, my mom always took me on the city bus (because my dad had our only car), in the hot summer sun, on the stinky bus, to the public library. We would come home with arm-loads of books. I would always do that summer reading program too at the library. I always loved getting the cool prizes. And they probably weren't even that cool. I bet they gave us library pencils and bookmarks. I always got the big old ribbon at the end though.

I read SO much in middle school. My mom thought I'd turn out like Suzanne and have everything read already by the time I was in college! But my appetite for reading somewhat died out when high school came around.

And I don't know, I still have enjoyed reading but I've just fallen out of it. It's hard sometimes when life is so busy.

Well last semester I read the Book of Mormon all the way through for the first time. And then I got this hunger for some more reading! Not long after that, a couple months ago I was at Deseret, and I saw a book that one of my seminary teachers had mentioned in my Sophomore year in high school. It's called History of Joseph Smith by His Mother Lucy Mack Smith.


And I remember I had always wanted to read it. Brother Franklin had always told the most interesting stories from it. So I bought it. And I loved it, I recommend it to everyone! Learned things I never knew...

THEN, all of my friends have been RAVING about these Twilight books (by Stephenie Meyer) lately.


And while I was in Mexico this Christmas, one of the girls had the first book Twilight there and so I read it. And LOVED it. So I went to a Bookstar and bought them all.

Since then, I have found my library card (a miracle in and of itself) and have read ALL my favorite books from middle school, and started to buy some new ones. I have discovered something. I love Teen Fiction/Fantasy. It's an easy read, and the subjects and settings are always ones I enjoy. I don't know, maybe because I don't feel like a grown up yet, or maybe because for some reason I was deprived as a teenager and I'm trying to live it out through my books. Or maybe it's because I can't get through a depressive, melodramatic, broken family book. I don't like books that focus on human psychology or are just a focus on human life. Reading is something I do to escape life, I don't want to read more about it! And I've always loved fantasy. Everyone who's anyone knows I used to draw unicorns 24/7 when I was a child. :)

But those aren't my only favorite. I love page turners as well. A good Michael Crichton or John Grisham novel will do the trick.


I love exciting books that have you surprised at every corner. That you can't wait to find out what happens next, or how it turns out. Ones where you cannot possibly see any way for the situation to resolve itself in the end. And yet it always does. I think that's what compels me to finish books, too, is the desire to find out what happens, no matter how bad the book.

Something else I have discovered... I seem to enjoy collecting series of books. I have 6 different series (counting the one I just bought). Well, theres this series called Sweep that aren't my favorite, I just want to find out what happens, but there's 14 books! And I only have 5. And it's not like the library has them all, they just have the first one. So I think once I have them all and find out what happens I'll sell them all. Or save them for another 6 years until I completely forget the story and have to read it again to find out what happens...

This is a map of my series of books:

Apparently I have a weakness...

I completely cannot comprehend how you cannot enjoy reading though. For me, it's an escape from everyday life. It's a chance to get sucked into a world unlike your own, better than your own, more magical than your own.

Not that I'm completely happy with what I have... but sometimes, don't you just wish you could put spells on people? Or save your world from destruction? Or fall in love with a prince?

It's only in a good book you can find that.