The Beauty of Love As It Was Made To Be

The title of this post comes from the lyrics to a Mumford and Sons song.  That line from "Sigh No More" really sums up my feelings about life right now.

(If you haven't yet discovered Mumford and Sons, go look them up and join the joyous bandwagon of happy ears.  They're amazing.  And they love Jesus on top of it all, not that they're all "Ima hit you over the head with Jesus as I sing to you" but rather they're like "Ima sing this awesome song and there is a Jesus reference that you can ignore if you must, but it's up to you."  Their sound is hopeful, heartbroken, and folksy.)

My cousin and his wife are expecting bundle'o'joy #2 any day now, and the beautiful love flowing in and around that family absolutely delights me.  Her charming blog describes the excitement and joy that they're feeling while waiting on baby Wiley (how about THAT for a precious southern name--I love it).  Watching their family grow in love and in numbers is such a blessing.  Seeing it in a third party kind of way makes me miss, love, and appreciate even more my own immediate family (who I get to see in about 48 hours :D).

Exhibit B of "the beauty of love as it was made to be" makes me smile real big and blush a little.  I'm delighted to say that I'm blessed with a Christ-centered relationship with a charming, sweet, humble, loving man.  I've never met anybody like him--it took about 2 weeks before I conceded that he was a real person.  I'm also delighted to say that he has a very high friend-approval rating, something that I've learned is incredibly important, especially considering how rock-awesome my friends are.  I could talk on and on about this subject, but I'll save you the sap ;)

Exhibit C of beautiful love is, actually, my dear friends.  First off, this is the best living situation I've ever been in, and they've been getting progressively more awesome since freshman year.  If you'd told me freshman year that I would end up joyously living with 3 other theatre girls in a house, with 3 of us sharing a rather small bathroom, I would have given you the eyebrow and laughed in your face.  But that's where I am now and I absolutely love it.  Three better roommates you've never met, and this house is super cute.  I also may or may not have a really precious black kitty cat who lives with us.  Who may or may not currently be lounging behind my computer watching the cars go past outside. 

Anywho.  Other dear friends, such as Lindsay, Meg, Mollie, and Karen, make life more vibrant for me.  I love the different ways that each friend helps, influences, or encourages me.  My community really is like the church when it's called "the body of Christ"--every person plays a role based on the gifts and talents that they have, and each one strengthens the body as a whole in a unique way.  What would I do without Mama Syd's prophetic words of wisdom?  My sweet Jane is hundreds of miles away, but my sister Meg is right here in Fort Worth!  And I can't go a week without getting an update from Lindsay, even if that update always involves an illness.

Basically, today I was overwhelmed with gratitude at this awesome place I've found myself in, and I want to encourage you to consider the sweet little message in this song (that I loathed for years, but now I see why God snuck that one into my life):

Taking stock of what I have
and what I haven't
What do I find?
The things I've got will keep me satisfied

Checking up on what I have
and what I haven't
What do I find?
A healthy balance on the credit side.

Got no diamond
Got no pearl
Still I think I'm a lucky girl
I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night
Got no mansion 
Got no yacht
Still I'm happy with what I've got
I got he sun in the morning and the moon at night

Sunshine gives me a lovely day
Moonlight gives me the milkyway

Got no checkbooks
Got no banks
Still I'd like to express my thanks
I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night
And with the sun in the morning and the moon in the evening
I'm all right

On my lunch break

Mumford and Sons is caressing my ears at the moment.  I could listen to them forever and ever.

I'm hoping to resolve my ipod issues this evening.  I've been doing some research on the technological process behind transferring music from ipod to computer.  I'll keep you posted...

3 exams and a paper coming up.

Oh and another wedding (but this one promises to be significantly more fun for me, which is totes what matters, right?).

After this coming weekend, I think I'll have had enough wedding hooplah to convince me to elope.  Nothing against joyful nuptials at all!  They're just a tad overwhelming.

Also, I think if everyone that I cared about had a blog, I'd never look at facebook ever again.  Unless I need to check up on a homeboy that one of my friends was considering dating.  That's when I'm glad I've got access to, oh, all their information and interests.  Might as well have submitted their resume with a formal request!

Social Media Ban - Joyful!

This article about Harrisburg University inspired my digital religion professor to present such an opportunity to us in class.  Would we want to go without any digital social media for 5 days?  No facebook, twitter, myspace, instant messenger, etc...

The whole class responded with a resounding YES! LET'S DO IT!

Ok, maybe we weren't all THAT enthusiastic, but we did all say yes, we'd do it.  Voluntarily.

Which is why, until next Tuesday at 2:00pm, I am not logged in to facebook (pretty much the only social media site that I've ever been into).  This is actually a bigger challenge than it may seem.  Checking facebook has become my default.  I'm currently at work, and it feels weird to not have a facebook tab opened.

I love it.

See, there's not an official block on the sites like Harrisburg U has--I could just hop on facebook now if I wanted to, but that's the thing!  I don't want to!  I really enjoy being free from it!  It's kinda like having a boat-load of homework, but being at work, so you CAN'T do your school work.  It's just not time for that.  You've got other things to do.

(See?? Just now I was one click away from going to facebook.  Not because I want to or because I just oh so desperately desire to get on, but because it's a habit!  Rather than just close my email tab, I always navigate to facebook and then close the tab.  Why?? There's no sense in that. Ugh.)

I'm hoping that these 5 days will break me of those weird procrastination-aids.  I'm hoping I journal more, study better, and work on a dang paper that's due really soon, and maybe study for the 4 exams in my near future.

Meanwhile, I'm listening to Pandora.  Because my ipod is in ICU.  Gotta get it fixed/get a new one soon.  I'm going crazy without music.

Listening to:  Sufjan Stephens, Band of Horses, Iron and Wine, Indigo Girls, Angus and Julia Stone, etc.

Have a lovely weekend :)
ILY

Music playlist

Music on the link below!

Music To My Ears

But how do I make that into a gadget on my blog??  I want to bless you with the sound of music!

:)

Music Neuroses, or Cole Needs iPod Assistance

Hello there my lovelies :)

Ok. "My lovelies" will always sound like it's coming from a creepy old woman. I apologize for putting you through that.

So lets get right to the meat of the problem--my iPod may be on its last leg.

I can't remember how I functioned without this little machine. Poddy and I have been through so much together. Remember when I first fell for Regina Spektor? Yeah. We were together then. It was even with me when I got this computer!

Which means there's music on Poddy that's not on this computer.

Which means if Poddy dies, I will lose the Moulin Rouge soundtrack and other beloved music that makes me nostalgic and smiley.

It means I'll lose To Catch A Thief and several audiobooks that I got from my dad's computer (which is technically connected to the same account, but I can't access the things I purchase on that computer on MY computer. Even with the wonders of the Internet. Apple fail).

Basically, this ipod is a work of art that I've carefully crafted, song by song, playlist by playlist, for about 5 years. And it's threatening to die, taking all of that with it.

I CAN'T LET THIS HAPPEN!

So how do I take the music/movies/podcasts/audiobooks/etc from my iPod and put it on my computer? I don't know how to do these things. You might. If so, share your mental wealth with those less fortunate.

PS, I run iTunes on Windows. No mac for me. The charming Gentleman Caller knows how to transfer tunes to his mac from Poddy, but knows not the wonders of Windows. Enlighten us.

Also, my computer crashed about 6 months ago, sending me into a panicked state, but almost everything was recovered--at least file-wise. The info on the music, like when I first added it to my computer, was lost. I keep track of music like it lives on a timeline of my life. Losing that "date added" is still hard for me to talk about. I got those songs at that particular time for a reason. It was almost like someone tore out all the pages of my journals, erased all the dates, put the entries in alphabetical order by first word and handed the pages back to me, as though nothing had really been affected.

I'm apparently weirdly attached to my music. I didn't realize this wasn't normal until the Gentleman Caller gently called me out for being a mild nutcase about my ipod.

Ok so one more technical issue. Because my computer crashed and I had to restart iTunes, it says I can't access my purchased music because I've already registered my max # of 5 computers. But this IS one of the 5 registered computers! It just doesn't recognize it because it got a face lift!

I'M RIGHT HERE ITUNES! YOU KNOOOOOOOOOOOW MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

What do I do? I can't access the other computers to deactivate my account on those.

1. One's a long gone friend's computer (I was young and stupid. I didn't understand the "register on this computer?" thing then, and now it'd be super weird to call her up and be all "oh hai, we haven't talked in, oh, 4 years. Can you deactivate my account on your computer? kthnxbye!")
2. one's on a dead laptop (like, dead and gone. RIP)
3. one's on my dad's computer (this is allowed. He needs good music. Amen.)
4. one's on this computer, but iTunes doesn't know that, because of the whole crash-and-frankenstein-back-to-life thing,

and who knows where the other one is. Probably in the same realm as the long lost friend thing.

This is a weirdly long post.

I just wanted technical help.

Was all this necessary?

*the resounding chorus of 3 people who've made it this far scream NO! SHUT UP ALREADY! WE'RE LOST IN YOUR NEUROSES AND WE CAN'T GET OUT!*

So throw me advice, God bless you, and have a fabulous and productive week.

Early

Ok, so it's not actually early. It's early to be writing a blog post. Or late, if you consider that I should be well on my way to being ready for class, and I'm kinda procrastinating that process by writing to my poor neglected reader(s).

Regina Spektor has lulled me awake the past week. Not with her standard stuff, but with the things you'll find under "live" or "demos" on respektonline.com. Enjoy. You're welcome.

PS, I skipped class yesterday to love on my family. Legit excuse since they drove 9 hours to be loved on. I miss my sister already. So I bought a red tea kettle. Speaking of, I need to go get ready and make my morning tea. With my new red tea kettle. I may or may not have made English Breakfast Tea at midnight last night. Hey, it was naturally decaffeinated. Don't hate on me and my obsession with honey-laden warmth and happiness.

Speaking of, slam poetry makes me feel good. Very good. It makes me feel like the world caught jazz like an illness, and this handful of people poked their heartbeats with the sharp edge of a brassy horn blast and BAM out flowed this tumble of words and pain and love and vulnerability. Right there pulsing on the cool brick ground for the crowd to marvel at, saying, "That was INSIDE your HEART? What ELSE is in there??" And the poet takes that response very seriously. It makes or breaks a night, it mends or breaks that poor poked heart. It's a self-sacrificing act, to slam and be judged by more than snaps and "Mmmm"s. Those are generous and encouraging, but judges and numbers are not. That makes the outpouring of heartbeats a win or lose game with a lot on the line. The loss of the $4 entry fee aside, the loss of a poem hurts like a breakup with yourself, so you are gruesomely exposed to both sides of the pain.

I could go on, but Theatre History II calls. :)

Studying in the school bookstore

They've got some atmosphere music playing.

"Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka.

Let that just sink in and get good and stuck in your head.

In other news, a storm's a'brewin'. The swaying light pole outside the window and the shifting and squeaking of the building is making me a tad nervous. Are electric lines supposed to swing around like jumpropes in the wind? No?...

Makes me think of the first part of The Wizard of Oz. You know, the part that's not in Technicolor. "It's a twister! Auntie Em! Auntie Em!"

That may be my celebratory "finals is over" movie. I love Judy Garland so very much.

Music on my mind

Ingrid Michaelson - Men of Snow


Regina Spektor - Dance Anthem of the 80s


Rilo Kiley - Breakin Up



Rehearsal time :) Enjoy those in the meantime.