Musical Musings

I love music. Whether I'm cooking, showering, on my way to work, at work, working out (which is like never) I always have music playing.

I am by no means a musical expert and really have no musical background - in fact, I'm kind of tone deaf. But I do love listening to anything from rap to indie. (Please note: I hate country, minus Taylor Swift which doesn't count as country.)

Lately, I've literally been listening to nothing but The 1975 - you can ask my roommate, it's all that has been playing in our apartment. They sort of sound a bit like a mix of Two Door Cinema Club, Walk the Moon, and Foster the People in my opinion. While I honestly love all of their songs that I've heard, my favorites would have to be Sex, Chocolate, and Menswear. Below is the music video for Sex (don't mind the nip at 1:59).

Additionally, I recently had the opportunity to see one of my friend's sister's perform. I know it's very cliche to say that an artist has their own unique sound and "doesn't sound like anyone else," but I seriously don't know of an artist with a sound quite like Jaqui Grae's. If I had to pick, I would say a bit like Florence and the Machine - but definitely a lot more 80's rock sounding.

She also just did a really great job putting on a show. Super relaxed on stage and almost conversational on stage. Hope Comes and Home (which you can watch here) were definitely my two favorite songs.

Recent Reads: The Fault In Our Stars

Another one of my goals is to read more. Growing up I loved reading and I constantly had book or series that I was engulfed in. However, as I got older I found it harder to find time for read to pleasure and I found it hard to find books that interested me. Last year, I think I read a grand total of 3 books. Pathetic.

So in an effort to read more, and read more interesting reads, a friend and I have started a two-woman-long-distance-book club. The first on our list of books is The Fault In Our Stars. I got it on Monday and I've had trouble putting it down.

It is truthfully a very easy read but it is thought provoking. I won't summarize it because I dislike book summaries for several reasons (1. They ruin the book. 2. I don't like putting words in the author's mouth. 3. You should be free to make your own unbiased judgments and assessments of the true meaning of the book.) But I will say the book deals with cancer patients, however, it is not depressing - well at least not yet, I'm only halfway through it!

I would definitely recommend reading it and am looking forward to seeing the movie when it comes out in June.

Goals&Such.

Recently, one of my best friends and I had a conversation about making lists and goals for ourselves. Honestly, until recently this was not something that interested me. In fact, I was kind of against. I'm a strong believer of "living in the moment" and "going where the road takes you" and the idea of planning your life seemed to take adventure out of it.

However, I realized that really my entire life has been about goals and planning and all of it has so far been a great adventure. When I was in college I had goals for each of my classes and semesters. I had projects and deadlines to work towards. I had rowing which provided its own set of goals each year. And I had that overall goal of graduation.

Post-graduation I was out in the world without any real goals. Yes, I had a good paying job - but I found no real value or interest in my job. In fact, I hated it. I was living in a suburb of Detroit - an hour from where I went to college and 2 hours from my grandparents house. And don't get me wrong, I love my friends to death, but I wasn't making anyone new ones - I wasn't branching out.

I felt stuck. I felt lost. I felt confused of what was going to happen next, of what I was supposed to do next.

A lot has changed since then. Just over six months ago I moved out to Boston to pursue a career in public relations.

Another thing that has changed is I've realized I can't just sit and wait for things to happen. I have to make them happen. Thus, my recent list/goal making. By setting goals for myself (even if they are vague or very far into the future) I feel like I have something I'm working towards, something to look forward to.

So here is my current list of goals:

• Be promoted in one years time.
• Travel to at least one new city this year.
• Visit Europe within the next few years. (This is a big one for me. I've never been abroad and have a million places I'd like to visit.)
• Live out West for a period of time. (I don't think the West Coast will ever be my permanent home, but I want to have the experience at least.)
• Become a consistent runner this spring. (Running is not my thing. But I always feel good after I do it. I want to get into and stick with a consistent routine.)
• Learn something new. (This is very vague, I know. But I realize that by no longer being in school I need to make the effort to constantly be learning.)

My hope is for this blog to be a documentation of my adventures in trying to accomplish these goals.