Latest Music Likes

Music to my Ears

I made a post a while back letting you guys know my favorite alternative songs at the time and I just wanted to make another one! I still love all of the songs from my other post but I've discovered new (and not so new) songs that I also love and want to share with you guys! They are in no particular order, just an equal liking of all of them :) 

10. "Death of a Bachelor" by Panic! at the Disco

"The lace in your dress, tingles my neck. How do I live?"

9. "Work Song" by Hozier

"Cause my baby's sweet as can be, she gives me toothaches just from kissin' me."

8. "Figuring It Out" by SWMRS

"Thirsty Thursday, I drink away my demons."

7. "2AM" by Bear Hands

"Can't turn back it's too late, I saw you drink the Kool-Aid."

6. "If I Believe You" by The 1975

"If I'm lost then how can I find myself?"

5. "Life Itself" by Glass Animals

"She said I look fat but I look fantastic."

4. "Heathens" by TwentyOne Pilots

"You're lovin' on the psychopath sitting next to you. You're lovin' on the murderer sitting next to you."

3. "Ammonia and Bleach" by Emily's Army

"We go together like ammonia and bleach at the end of the day we got a secret to keep." 

2. "Good Grief" by Bastille

"What's gonna be left of the world if you're not in it?"

1. "Water" by Judah and the Lion

"You feel the water rising up. Come on, come on down." 

Week from Hell

Y'all I have had what feels like the roughest week in a long time. I tweeted yesterday about how it felt like everything that could possibly go wrong had and I'm pretty sure I can affirm that. Let me just give you a run down of all of the random weird problems that have come in my life this week.
First, I came home on Monday from Northwest Arkansas and noticed some strange bumps on my stomach. At first we thought it was heat rash from being outside for the concert and A's senior pictures, but over the next few days, the bumps spread to my chest, neck, and back. We still really aren't sure what they are but they're mildly itchy and just a pain in the butt to deal with. I also have ringworm on my shoulder and don't really know where that came from either. Then on Wednesday, I went to watch some of my cheer babies at practice and on the way there the cold air in my car went out. Why it went out on the hottest week of this summer I really couldn't tell you but it did. The kicker with that is that they shop can't get my car in to look at it until tomorrow so I have been without A/C for almost 5 days. Then on Friday, I had to take my dog, Winnie, to the vet because her cough has been getting worse and the medicine she had been prescribed wasn't working anymore. The vet gave me the sad news that her heart murmur is worsening and he prescribed her some hydros to hopefully help the cough get better. While I was at the vet, I think I picked Winnie up in a weird way and pulled a muscle in my back. I haven't been having back pain since I retired from cheerleading and now it is hurting really bad once again. My work schedule has been packed this week, with me on schedule from this past Thursday every day until Tuesday. Sitting in the snowcone stand has been hard the last couple days with my back hurting has been miserable and today I'm working a seven hour shift so please say a prayer for me. Also, just to have something else to complain about, my favorite store where I'm from, Hastings, is going out of business so I don't know what I'm going to do with my life.

Everything happens for a reason I suppose but it just seems like a lot of bad has happened this week. I'm looking for something good and bright to come my way, hopefully soon. I guess I'll stop complaining and bothering my readers with my problems! ~Em

Vacation and Concerting

Vacation and Concerting!

I just wanted to touch base and talk about my dad's family's recent vacation to Atlanta and how the Panic! at the Disco and Weezer concert went! Plus, lots and lots of pictures! 

Hot-lanta Vacation! 

Day 1: The drive to Atlanta was 8 and a half hours and so with stops for going potty and getting food, we probably spent 10 hours. Needless to say, we were exhausted. So when we got to our Air B&B house, we all just settled in to our rooms, and fell asleep for a while. Eventually we woke up to get dinner and then came back and went to bed again. 

Day 2: This was probably my favorite day! We went white water rafting with a company called Rolling Thunder River Company. We drove an hour and a half or two outside of Atlanta for the rafting trip to the Ocoee River. We floated a 6 hour float trip with a stop 5 miles in for a bbq taco lunch. The Ocoee River has a 1/4 mile section that was used during the Olympics for the kayaking and floating portions. The river had class 3 and class 4 rapids and it was such an awesome float. It was only my second time rafting but I want to continue rafting on more rivers! Within the first 30 seconds of our float trip, my stepsister T fell in to the river. It was pretty hilarious when it happened because we weren't even on a rapid. Also, I accidentally busted her lip by hitting her with my paddle. She got pretty beat up on the float. After the trip, we came back and ate a huge drive-in called Varsity that is a popular spot to eat on Georgia Tech game days.

Day 3: We are huge fans of amusement parks and so Six Flags was a must for us. Everyone except A is a roller coaster junkie. Six Flags Over Georgia has some really great roller coasters and so it was awesome for us! They have roller coasters that were a lot different from any I had ever been on. The Georgia Scorcher was a roller coaster that you stand up on, which was I weird experience. It made my legs feel really funny. We also rode the first Virtual Reality coaster which was kind of mind-blowing. The headset prevents you from watching the roller coaster in front of you so you have no idea what's coming up next. Another cool roller coaster that we rode was Superman: Ultimate Flight. This was where you get in a seat sort of thing and get your shins and ankles strapped in and then you get tilted forward to where you were laying on your stomach while you ride the ride. It was basically like you were flying! That was definitely one of my favorite rides there! We ended up leaving a little early because there were some scary looking storms rolling in, but then we went and had some really awesome food at a steakhouse and sushi bar. 

Day 4: On the fourth day, we went to the Coca-Cola World museum and the aquarium. Since Coca-Cola was founded in Atlanta they have a big museum dedicated to the history of the coke. There was a tasting room with 100 different Coca-Cola brand drinks from around the world. Since I don't drink soda anymore, I didn't try any, but I had tried some in Disney World at their coke sampling station when I was there last year. We go an aquarium on every vacation that we take because my sister A is obsessed. We watched a really cute dolphin show and we watched the sea lion show as well. They had a lot of themed rooms and a 4D Happy Feet ride. 

Day 5: Every teenage girl loves to go shopping and we have a 4 girls between the ages of 15-20 so of course we had to go to the mall. The Atlanta mall is gigantic. We were sort of overwhelmed at first but once we figured it out, we went crazy with the shopping and had a blast in all the stores. After we finished up at the mall, we went to Fox Bros Barbecue, which is apparently a hotspot for celebs but we didn't see any. This pretty much wrapped up the trip and we went home to pack and get ready to head back home. 

Panic! at the Disco and Weezer

The time finally came for the 2nd concert of the season for me. My sister A and I went up to Northwest Arkansas on Saturday after I got off work and my aunt and uncle took some of her senior pictures (holy cow, I can't believe she's already a senior!) On Sunday, we got up early to finish up the rest of A's senior pictures and then it was time to head back to my aunt and uncle's house, take a nap, and then get ready for the concert! We got ready and then went to my nana's house to have dinner (and she made us pickle pops!!!) and then it was off to the concert! The line was soooo long when we got there and they told us that they were going to let everyone on the right side of the stadium in first because they had been waiting the longest but they ended up letting us switch back and forth on sides so A and I got in fairly quickly. We got some waters so A wouldn't pass out again, like at RiverFest and then we went to find our seats. Our spots were incredible! We were super close to the stage and under the awning so it wasn't incredibly hot. We went and got our concert merch while we waiting for the first band to start. The opening band was Andrew McMahon In the Wilderness, who I saw last year at the Big Summer Show in St. Louis. They were really good! I enjoy watching and listening to their music. Then it came time for Panic! This was also my second time seeing them because they were at the Big Summer Show as well. I LOVE Panic! at the Disco. Like a lot. I knew some of their music before I saw them last summer but not a whole lot. After I saw them last summer though, I was hooked. This concert was especially great because they released new music relatively recently and so they played a lot of songs from the new album that I hadn't heard before! And of course, who wouldn't swoon over Brendon Urie. Or really any members of the band honestly. We went and got more water after Panic! played and then it was time for Weezer. I wasn't sure how I would feel about them, but I really enjoyed them too. I knew more songs than I thought I would and had a great time singing along and listening to new ones from their new-ish album. Overall it was a really awesome concert and now I am super super pumped for the TwentyOne Pilots concert next month!

Atlanta Trip!

Brendon Urie Singing at the Concert

Brendon Playing Piano

Coca-Cola World

Me and A 

Me and A at the Concert

Met up with an SAI sister at the concert

Coca-Cola World free cokes

Rafting with Rolling Thunder

My Dad "Riding the Bull"

T's Turn to "Ride the Bull"

Rivers Cuomo singing King of the World

Pickle Background at Weezer Concert

When You Love Something

Getting Really Passionate About Stuff

Ok so I know in my last blog post I wrote that during this summer I just really haven't been motivated to write or had things to write about, but since I wrote that post I've had this really great urge to write. It didn't even have to be about something specific (though this post is) I just really wanted to talk about something/anything/everything!

So something really devastating could potentially happen in my town. My favorite store, Hastings, which is like a book, movie, music, game store could be going out of business if they don't get a buyer by the end of this month. When I heard this news, my heart sunk out of chest, down my legs, out of my toes, and into the sewer. Ok, that was a bit exaggerated by you see what I mean. I grew up running around Hastings because my mom worked there when I was younger and it's one of my friends, siblings, and my favorite places to hang out. Because of this potential closing, the store is starting to have a lot of really good sales. My mom and I, being the bookworms that we are, went to Hastings the other day because they had all clearance books on sale for 75 cents and all used books were 3 for $10! We couldn't resist and between the two of us we got 29 books. I know that makes us sound so nerdy, which we are a little bit, but neither of us had gone book shopping in a realllly long time. Especially not shopping where you actually just go in and spend a couple hours really looking through all of the options. And so we did just that. 

With my job in the snowcone stand, I have an unreal amount of downtime. There is only so much cleaning you can do in that small trailer before it becomes obsessive and there are times when I won't get a customer for an hour or so. I have to fill my time by doing something and so I read. This started during my first summer working in the snowcone stand because my dad and I made a contest to see who could read more books during the summer. I ended up reading 14 books that summer and I think my dad only read 6. So far this summer I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which I started last summer and didn't have time to read during the school year, and have read four other books. Three of those were new ones I got from the sale at Hastings. 

I always forget how much I love to read until I get into what I call a book binge. During the school year, I have trouble reading leisure books because I have so many assigned readings to do. I don't like to read more than one book at a time because I don't like to risk mixing up the stories. I like to be fully invested in one book from start to finish. Starting my summer book binge this year though has made me do a lot of thinking. The fact of the matter is that books make me emotional. Like, 2007 Britney Spears emotional. I read James Patterson's Maximum Ride Forever, which is the for real (at least I think, you never know with James Patterson) last book in the series and when I finished it, I walked into my mom's room, groaned loudly, clutched my heart, and flopped on her bed. Sure it might have been dramatic but my heart had been pulled in 47 different directions and I just could not handle it. 

Starting my summer book binge has also got me thinking about being passionate about things. Do you ever get that feeling, when you're super super passionate about something and your chest just kind of swells up and kind of starts aching? Or someone mentions a fandom that you are a part of and you get the deer-in-headlights look and your ears perk up? Books make me feel so passionate about reading, about the characters, the story line, and everything in between. I am such an invested reader and it's like when I start reading a book, I become encased in a bubble and only the story that is playing out in the book is what's important. Lately, I've been feeling passionate toward a lot of things including, reading, music, my favorite shows, community service, human rights, and animals. It's like my heart and brain have joined together to create some kind of emotional overload that my body can hardly handle! I know that probably sounds super weird, but I think that as I get older, I learn to appreciate things more and embrace my quirks for what I love. 

So if you've learned anything from this blog post it's that I'm a super nerd and I really enjoy talking about the things that I love. ~Em 

Life Update!

An Update on Life! 

Hey everybody! During these summer months I just have not had things to write about, or really the motivation to. During school it's really easy to write because this is the best way for my friends and family to keep up with all of my shenanigans. Of course I could pick topics to write about from my big list of blog topics but it just doesn't feel as personal. So anyway, I decided I need to give a little update on life since it's been a little while since I wrote! 

I went up to Hot Springs for a couple of days to spend with my roommate AA. We'd been missing each other and just needed some froomie time! We went thrift shopping and went to Olive Garden (which is our go-to place) and then of course being the strange little ducklings we are, we organized her movie draws just for fun. We also went night swimming and had an awesome view of the stars. I just love hanging out with that girl :) 

So the 22nd of June was my 19th birthday! 19 is kind of a weird age to turn because nothing really happens and you don't really get any privileges from turning 19. Yeah it is my last teen year so that's pretty crazy, but we will just have to see what this year brings! I went to lunch with my sister T for my birthday and then went to see Finding Dory with my mom and sister A. As I get older, I realize that I don't care about getting tons of gifts or having a party with tons of people. I love just being able to be with my family and have a cookout or playing games. 

This past week my mom's side of the family (my mom, A, S, O, my stepdad, and I) went to Branson for a few days! We hadn't been on vacation together in 5 years so it was definitely time to go and do something fun! We went shopping at Branson Landing, played Dinosaur putt-putt, went to Silver Dollar City, went on a paranormal tour, ate at lots of good restaurants, went to an arcade, and went to the Tanger outlets for more shopping. We had an absolute blast! 

In some upcoming events, I'm leaving for vacation in Atlanta with my dad's side of the family next week. We're doing some awesome things like going to Coca-Cola World, Six Flags Over Georgia, white water rafting, and the aquarium. After last year's crazy vacation to Kansas City with the wild storms, we have no idea what to expect from this vacation but I am so excited! I'm especially excited that my older sister V gets to come with us because I haven't seen her since Spring Break and she is leaving for a semester abroad in Spain in August and we won't see her again until Christmas! 

Also the Panic! at the Disco and Weezer concert is coming up and I am so so so excited! 

I also wanted to touch base on my New Year's resolution and my dairy free journey. I still have not had a soda so it has been a little over 7 months since I've had one! I'm really proud of this and it has probably been one of the easiest things to give up! On the other hand, if I said that I hadn't had dairy in the last two months I would be lying. It's very hard because so many things that you would never imagine to have dairy in them do. I also have trouble with not eating the foods my mom cooks because 1) I don't have the money to cook every meal for myself and 2) It's just so hard to say no to mom's food. I'm definitely aiming to do better, it's just going to have to be a matter of perseverance and strong will. 

Well that's all I've really got for now! I will check in again soon! 

Dairy Free Brownies for my birthday! 

Dino Mini Golf

Mommy and Me

We are dinosaurs

That's my family 

Picture of a ghost I captured (on top of the roof, under the glowing orb)