Quote of The Month: February Edition

Happy February 1st/Happy Friday/Happy 2-Hour Delay/Happy Day Before Groundhog's Day and My Great Grandma's 90-Somethingth Birthday!

I've decided to put my Pinterest obsession to a nice use. I'm always finding these great quotes and I would like to start a regular posting of them. I originally wanted to do either a daily or weekly quote but let's be honest, I'm a busy (lazy) person so realistically, I'm only going to have time (remember) to do this once a month. So at the start of each month, I'm going to copy my favorite quote of the time period to this blog! Here's this month's quote:

New Playlist

If you haven't figured it out from some of my previous posts, music is a pretty big deal in my life and I like to think that I have a pretty profound taste. Fortunate for you, I thought I would share a slice of my musical knowledge in case you were bored with the stuff you have right now and were looking for something new. Just made this playlist the other day.

1) The A Team - Ed Sheeran
2) Ain't No Rest for the Wicked - Cage the Elephant
3) All I Want To Do - Sugarland
4) Amsterdam - Imagine Dragons
5) Angel With a Shotgun - The Cab
6) Animal - The Cab
7) Another Me - The Cab
8) As Good As I once Was - Toby Keith
9) Autumn Leaves - Ed Sheeran
10) Back For You - One Direction
11) Bad - The Cab
12) The Bad Touch - Bloodhound Gang
13) Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson
14) Beat the Devil's Tattoo - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
15) Beautiful Goodbye - Maroon 5
16) Beginner's Luck - Eels
17) Better Together - Jack Johnson
18) Big Night - Big Time Rush
19) Boondocks - Little Big Town
20) Bottle It Up - Sara Bareilles
21) Bye Bye Bye - 'N Sync
22) C'mon, C'mon - One Direction
23) Calm the Storm - Graffiti6
24) Can't Stand It - Never Shout Never
25) Change - Churchill
26) Change My Mind - One Direction
27) Chelsea Dagger - The Fratellis
28) The City - Ed Sheeran
29) Demolition Man - Rizzle Kicks
30) Did It Hurt? - Never Shout Never
31) Down With the Trumpets - Rizzle Kicks
32) Dreamers - Rizzle Kicks
33) Drunk - Ed Sheeran
34) Endlessly - The Cab
35) Even On a Rainy Day - Rizzle Kicks
36) Fallen - Imagine Dragons
37) Faster - Matt Nathanson
38) Feel Again - OneRepublic
39) First Dance - Never Shout Never
40) First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
41) Fish - Craig Campbell
42) Free - Graffiti6
43) Girl On Fire - Alicia Keys
44) Give Me Love - Ed Sheeran
45) Give Me One Reason - Tracy Chapman
46) Gold Rush - Ed Sheeran
47) Goodbye Geoffrey Drake - Graffiti 6
48) Grade 8 - Ed Sheeran
49) Handlebars - Flobots
50) Harmony - Never Shout Never
51) Heart Attack - One Direction
52) Homeless - Ed Sheeran
53) Homewrecker - Rizzle Kicks
54) How Do You Like Me Now?! - Toby Keith
55) How You Love Me Now - Hey Monday
56) I Knew You Were Trouble - Taylor Swift
57) I Would - One Direction
58) I'd Rather Be With You - Joshua Radin
59) I'm Finding It Harder to Be a Gentleman - The White Stripes
60) I'm Not Over - Carolina Liar
61) Intergalactic - Beastie Boys
62) Intoxicated - The Cab
63) Jump On My Shoulders - AWOLNATION
64) Jump Right In - Zac Brown Band
65) Junk of the Heart - The Kooks
66) Kiss Me - Ed Sheeran
67) Kiss With a Fist - Florence + The Machine
68) Kiss You - One Direction
69) La La - The Cab
70) Learn My Lesson - Rizzle Kicks
71) Lego House - Ed Sheeran
72) Liar Liar - Never Shout Never
73) Little Bird - Ed Sheeran
74) Little Lady - Ed Sheeran
75) Little Things - One Direction
76) Losing It - Never Shout Never
77) Lousy Truth - Never Shout Never
78) Love You Like a Love Song - Selena Gomez & The Scene
79) Lovesick - Never Shout Never
80) Lovesick Fool - The Cab
81) Mama Do the Hump - Rizzle Kicks
82) Maybe - Ingrid Michaelson
83) Misery (Acoustic) - Maroon 5
84) Misguided Ghosts - Paramore
85) Miss Cigarette - Rizzle Kicks
86) The Motto - Drake
87) Never Change - Chase Coy
88) Never Look Back - Graffiti6
89) Lie to Me - Sara Bareilles
90) Living Louder - The Cab
91) Lonely Boy - The Black Keys
92) Loved You First - One Direction
93) New Shoes - Paolo Nutini
94) Nine In The Afternoon - Panic! At The Disco
95) Nobody Compares - One Direction
96) Over Again - One Direction
97) Picturesque - Chase Coy
98) Piggy Bank - Never Shout Never
99) Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae
100) Relax My Beloved - Alex Clare
101) Rock & Roll - Eric Hutchinson
102) Rock Me - One Direction
103) Round Up - Rizzle Kicks
104) Same Love - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
105) Saturday - Ed Sheeran
106) Save Me - Gotye
107) She Hates Me - Puddle of Mudd
108) She's Not Afraid - One Direction
109) The Shit Getz Old - Never Shout Never
110) Small Bump - Ed Sheeran
111) Soul Wars - AWOLNATION
112) State Into the Sun - Graffiti6
113) Steady As She Goes - The Raconteurs
114) Still the One - One Direction
115) Stone In My Heart - Graffiti6
116) Stop With the Chatter - Rizzle Kicks
117) Stubborn Love - The Lumineers
118) Stutter - Maroon 5
119) Summer Love - One Direction
120) Sunburn - Ed Sheeran
121) Sweet As Whole - Sara Bareilles
122) Sweet Perfection - Never Shout Never
123) Take a Walk - Passion Pit
124) Taylor - Jack Johnson
125) Teenagers - My Chemical Romance
126) Temporary Bliss - The Cab
127) Ten Thousand Hours - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
128) That Look You Give That Guy - Eels
129) They Don't Know About Us - One Direction
130) This - Ed Sheeran
131) Thnks Fr Th Mmrs - Fall Out Boy
132) Thrift Shop - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
133) Time Warp - The Rocky Horror Picture Show Original Cast This one is just for fun :)
134) Tongue Tied - Grouplove
135) Traveller's Chant - Rizzle Kicks
136) Trouble - Rizzle Kicks
137) U.N.I. - Ed Sheeran
138) Victory Lap - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
139) The Vowels, Pt. 2 - WHY?
140) Wake Me Up - Ed Sheeran
141) Wayfaring Stranger - Ed Sheeran (This is a free download if you sign up for the mailing list on Edsheeran.com)
142) We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Chase Coy (Also a free download if you go to the official music video that he posted on Youtube)
143) We Intertwined - The Hush Sound
144) Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
145) What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction
146) When a Heart Breaks - Ben Rector
147) When I Was a Youngster - Rizzle Kicks
148) White Walls - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
149) Windows Down - Big Time Rush
150) Wing$ - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
151) You Fckn Did It - Jason Mraz
152) You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us In Prison - My Chemical Romance
153) You Need Me, I Don't Need You - Ed Sheeran
154) You're a Fool - Cisco Adler
155) Your Biggest Fan - Never Shout Never
156) 6 Foot 7 Foot - Lil Wayne

So yeah. That's a lot of music. I apologize for the abundant amounts of One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Rizzle Kicks, Never Shout Never, and The Cab. I put their whole albums on this playlist. I can vouch for Ed Sheeran, Never Shout Never, and The Cab because I have almost all of their songs memorized. They are all spectacular. I recommend them all. However, I just recently got into Rizzle Kicks and One Direction. The really great songs I've found by Rizzle Kicks so far are "Traveller's Chant", "When I Was a Youngster", "Miss Cigarette", and "Mama Do The Hump" (which has a dance to it if you look up their music video on Youtube). Still figuring out One Direction as well but I haven't heard any bad songs by them so far.  Every other song was carefully selected in this playlist. I was trying to figure out what genre I consider this mix to be but it really has a bit of everything so I hope you can enjoy it because I think there is something for everyone in it. Happy listening.

Lifelong Goals

It is now one month into the new year and my birthday has officially passed. Sadly, I did not complete any more of the goals on my list of 19 Things To Do Before I Turn 19. I have decided that maybe it was a little unrealistic to complete that many things in only a year's time. So instead of creating a list of 20 Things To Do Before I Turn 20 (which by the way is a super scary thought. Only one teen birthday left. I don't want to grow up yet!!), I would create a list of things that I hope to do in my lifetime. Along with these goals, I will include a rating of how likely it is to happen.

1) Move to a big city. Top 6 cities in specific order include London, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, Seattle. I know six is kind of a weird number but it felt wrong to leave any of these cities out. Likelihood (3.5/5)

2) Be bilingual. Already almost there with English and Spanish. We'll see if I can keep it up. Likelihood (4.5/5)

3) Be able to sight read piano. The sad thing is, I don't really know when I'm ever going to have time to practice this. Likelihood (3/5)

4) Learn to play guitar. I think guitars are beautiful. Same concerns as the piano goal. Likelihood (3.5/5)

5) Get a tattoo. Haven't really had any amazing ideas for this yet. I guess nothing has really impacted my life enough for me to get a tattoo about it so far. Still waiting. Likelihood (1.5/5)

6) Backpack across Europe. Don't know when this is going to happen or who with but I'm dying to see the world, especially Europe. I better invest in lots of safety devices though or I'll end up like that girl in Taken. Likelihood (3.5/5)

7) Adopt animals from the Humane Society. I am a huge animal lover. My life would be so different if I never had pets growing up. I'm a softy for softies. Likelihood (5/5)

8) Skydive. I am sooo afraid of heights. Like a lot. I would love to be able to conquer a fear someday. Likelihood (1/5)

9) Find a charity to support. I love helping people and giving back to the amazing world I live in. Likelihood (4.5/5)

10) Run a marathon. I already love running as it is. I have completed many 5Ks and one half marathon. Likelihood (3.5/5)

11) Become a vegetarian. Like I said, I am an animal lover. Eating meat makes me feel upset. I know many people argue that animals were put on the earth for eating but I can't help that it makes me sad and I believe everyone should be happy in their own life. Hopefully I will become less picky of an eater someday and be able to create a diet of non-meat items. Likelihood (3/5)

12) Learn to knit. I love sweaters. I love scarves. I love being crafty. I just need to get some free time to sit down and figure it out completely. Likelihood (4/5)

13) See Aurora Borealis. I think these natural lights are just beautiful and like to think the pictures I see don't do the real sight of them justice. Likelihood (2.5/5)

14) Learn to snow ski. I have ALWAYS wanted to do this. Still hasn't happened yet. I need to find an outdoorsy boy who has the patience to teach me such things. Likelihood (3.5/5)

These are the best things I could come up with as of right now. Of course I hope to do typical things like get married, have children, be debt free, and just overall live a happy life but I thought I would specify the goals that make me my own person. I'll keep you posted on their status.

My First, Last Final

So I have previously mentioned that I am a student at the University of Kentucky. Well this is my first semester of college EVER and its coming to a close quite nicely. However, there is one slight problem. My sleep schedule is way out of whack. The beauty of finals week is that there are no classes, bad news is there are finals. Fortunately there is more good news. I got lucky with the classes I picked this semester and wound up with only two real final exams. Sadly there is more bad news. My first final was on Monday. My second and last final is tomorrow, Friday. Seeing as I had Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to do pretty much nothing with finals, that's exactly what I did. One night I even stayed up until 6 a.m.! That was not a problem though considering I did not have any finals the next morning. Unfortunately tonight, it is 4:30 a.m. and I have to wake up no later than 8:30, giving me only four hours of sleep maximum, assuming that I fall asleep right this very second, which sounds great to be honest.

One of the things I have learned over the years is that there are three different stages of sleep. Sure they have technical names but for the sake of not making this a lecture, we're going to call them pre-sleep, light sleep, and hibernation. So pre-sleep lasts roughly 30 minutes for me. This is when I'm drifting off to sleep and just letting my thoughts run wild. Then we have the light sleep. This is my favorite sleep particularly because I am a night owl. This sleep is the best because it can be used to my advantage. It basically works as sort of a time bomb. Once I fall into this stage of sleep I can be woken up any time after I fall into this stage and not feel tired. However there is a time limit. It usually limits to somewhere between 5 and 6.5 hours. Once the hibernation stage of sleep has begun, let's just say, you don't want to wake up this angry bear because it gets ugly.

So as you can now understand, the light sleep stage is my personal favorite. But tonight, I am just not tired at all. At this point I feel like I would be ready for sleep somewhere around 6:30 a.m. and that's not even getting sleep with how early I have to wake up. That's more of a nap. So I have officially made the executive decision to pull my first college all-nighter. Hold the applause. In honor of this special time in history, I have done a little research on how to pull the most effective all-nighter ever (because let's be honest, this all sounds great in theory but its easier said than done... I'm gonna poop out in a few hours and that's really gonna be the time where I just need to get my head in the game and pull through to make this all-nighter happen). So without further ado (and perhaps some consultation of search engines on how to pull a super effective all-nighter), I give you my plan of action:

Step one: Turn on all the lights in the dorm. This is to ensure that I am alert and awake. Nobody can sleep with all the lights on.

Step two: Coffee. Fortunately since it's finals week, the library Starbucks is staying open all night. Wait, who am I kidding, I'm a lazy motherfucker. I'm just gonna use my handy dandy keurig. Too bad I already cleaned out the fridge which had all of my creamer... Hm... I hate black coffee...

Step two: Coffee. Hot chocolate from the keurig! I wish I had some of the tiny marshmallows to put on top...

Step three: Various distracting activities. First plan of action is to finish season 7 of How I Met Your Mother on netflix. I have 8 episodes left. While this sounds great though, my attention tends to wander a little. So to keep me busy while watching How I Met Your Mother, I plan on doing my nails and writing a letter back to my cute little cousin who drew me the most precious picture I have ever seen. The doing my nails idea works as a double whammy actually because I can't get into bed with wet nails. These should keep me busy for about two hours. This puts me at 7 a.m.

Step four: Play music. Upbeat loud music. Perhaps even dance a little. To get my blood pumping ya know? This is going to be the most critical time of my all-nighter. If this doesn't work, I'll have to jump to step six a little early.

Step five: Shower time. With music though. For some people, showers wake them up. For me, they chill me out. However, it needs to be done. I was planning on taking one before my morning exam anyways. Might as well get it out of the way.

Step six: Coffee (for real this time). Since this is the crucial part of the night where I may decide to just take a little nap, what would be better than walking around in the cold and then topping it off with some hot coffee, filled with caffeine?

And hopefully by this time, it'll be 9:00 a.m. which is about where I needed to be to get my day going. Hopefully this doesn't put a damper on my final final exam of the semester and my three hour drive home. If I can make it through those things, it can finally be nap time and thus ending my crazy second all-nighter ever. My first one was from playing World of Warcraft all night with my cousin. Fun fact, I'm kind of a nerd.


Toodles!

A Complete List of 50 Celebrities and Characters That I Would Date If Presented The Opportunity (In No Specific Order)…

So during finals week, I have had some down time and while I was surfing Pinterest today, I came across so many attractive male specimen. This got me thinking that if given some miracle chance to meet these boys, I would totally date them. Well some of the people on this list are a little old for me but basically what I am trying to say here, is all of these guys are Class A husband material.

1. Josh Hutcherson
2. Christian Bale
3. Eddie Redmayne
4. Neil Patrick Harris
5. Ed Sheeran
6. David Tennant
7. Peeta Mellark* (Hunger Games)
8. Prince Eric * (The Little Mermaid)
9. Barney Stinson* (How I Met Your Mother)
10. Thomas* (Pocahontas)
11. Batman/Bruce Wayne* (Self Explanatory)
12. Chase Coy
13. Beau Mirchoff
14. Matty McKibbon* (Awkward)
15. Joseph Gordon Levitt
16. Conan O'Brien
17. Health Ledger
18. Robert Buckley
19. Chris Hemsworth
20. Alexander Hamilton
21. Logan Lerman
22. Draco Malfoy* (Harry Potter)
23. Christian Grey* (50 Shades of Grey)
24. Ewan McGregor
25. Anakin Skywalker (Pre Darth Vader Days)*
26. Legolas* (Lord of the Rings)
27. Tobias* (Divergent)
28. Oliver Wood* (Harry Potter)
29. Adam Levine
30. Harry Styles
31. Liam Payne
32. Asher Book
33. Mr. Darcy* (Pride and Prejudice)
34. Mark Cohen* (Rent)
35. Flynn Rider* (Tangled)
36. Edward Cullen (Pre-Film Days)*
37. James Bond* (Self Explanatory)
38. Mitt Romney
39. Paul Ryan
40. Sterling Knight
41. Cato* (The Hunger Games)
42. Alexander Ludwig
43. The Doctor* (Doctor Who)
44. Captain Jack Harkness* (Doctor Who)
45. Michael Buble
46. Justin Timberlake
47. Sherlock Holmes* (Self Explanatory)
48. Austin Collie
49. Hercules* (Self Explanatory)
50. Marcus Junius Brutus* (Julius Caesar)

Catching Up

So it's been quite some time since I've created my list. After my first semester of college at the University of Kentucky, I can't say I've completed many of my goals, however I have made some progress. Here is an updated list of my 19 Things To Do Before I Turn 19:

19 Things To Do Before I Turn 19

1) Maintain a 4.0

2) Kiss a stranger

3) Drink only water for a month

4) Volunteer at a food pantry

5) Make a blog

6) Learn to cook and perfect an extravagant meal

7) Go one month without ice cream

8) Learn to drive a stick shift

9) Learn to knit

10) Invest my money

11) Kiss in the rain

12) Learn to ski

13) Give my number to a cute guy without him asking first

14) Improve an instrument skill

15) Pick a major

16) Read a classic novel

17) Go camping primitive style

18) Take an overnight trip without any parents

19) Have a real New Year kiss.

So as you can see, I definitely still have some progress to make on this list. However, there are some pretty nice stories to go with the goals I have completed. So to keep you entertained until I complete more things on my list...

1) So I didn't realize how high of an expectation this would be. I figured that if I barely tried in high school and managed to pull off about half A's and B's, I would be able to at least do the same in college if I put in a little effort. Boy was I wrong. My expected GPA at the end of the semester is probably going to land somewhere around a 2.7. Definitely going to have to put in a lot more effort next semester or my parents will be putting me in a community college in Indiana next year.

2) So the weekend before Thanksgiving Break, I decided to go to my first Water Polo team party. This time was a time of firsts for me. For example, I had just recently had my first jello shots and those are pretty great. This party was also the first party I had really been motivated to go to since things with this near perfect college guy I dated for roughly a month and a half ended. So naturally I went HAM. Another first, I played my first game of flip cup, which I happen to not be very good at. So after a few jello shots, a few rounds of flip cup, and some other shots in general, I found myself chatting up an Irishman that I had never met before (he was actually just of Irish heritage, not actually used to live there). So in my drunken state, one thing led to the next and people were cheering him on while we were making out in the middle of the dance floor/living room. 

3) So at the beginning of the semester, I was feeling really motivated; I really wanted to challenge myself That was when my roommate and I decided we were going to attempt to drink water for a month. Long story, short: it lasted two and a half weeks. I figured this would be super easy considering I hardly drink anything other than water as it is, but the hardest part was the coffee. I began craving it incessantly. I first broke after two weeks and had a coffee. I just decided that I would add an extra day to my "month" without drinks. Then only five days later, I decided it just wasn't worth it.

15) Although I am technically an Undeclared major still, I am fully intending to make English my official major very soon. I don't know how I didn't see it before. I have this huge love for books and now I'm planning on being a book editor someday. It's the perfect job for me! 

16) And on the subject of books, I just finished The Great Gatsby. This is a classic American literature novel and showcases a wonderful tale of folks in NYC just before the Great Depression. It was a thrilling read, and now I can happily go see the new movie adaption of it due out this month with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Nineteen Things

So in honor of my ever-nearing birthday, I decided to start a tradition that I plan/hope to continue for a good portion of my life. At least until I'm 40 or 50. This list is also the inspiration for the beginning of this blog seeing as it is one of the criterion on my list. Every time I complete something on this list, I will re-post it along with a short summary of my thoughts of it, and perhaps pictures. So without further ado, I give you the list:

19 Things To Do Before I Turn 19

1) Maintain a 4.0

2) Kiss a stranger

3) Drink only water for a month

4) Volunteer at a food pantry

5) Make a blog

6) Learn to cook and perfect an extravagant meal

7) Go one month without ice cream

8) Learn to drive a stick shift

9) Learn to knit

10) Invest my money [in progress...]

11) Kiss in the rain

12) Learn to ski

13) Give my number to a cute guy without him asking first

14) Improve an instrument skill

15) Pick a major

16) Read a classic novel

17) Go camping primitive style

18) Take an overnight trip without any parents

19) Have a real New Year kiss.