Only in a small town would you see a repairman using a tractor to deliver your refrigerator. Good grief.

Fly.

It’s common knowledge that certain songs remind different people of particular events, time periods, other people, feelings, relationships, whatever. It never ceases to amaze me at what kinds of things a certain song can dredge up from the deepest corners of my mind and soul. Examples:

1: Any song from “A Muppet Christmas Carol” will send me hurling back in time until I land on my couch on 307 E. 14^th St. on Christmas Eve, getting pumped for the next morning. It has been proven that if I don’t watch that movie at least once during the month of December, I literally will not get into the Christmas Spirit. At. All.

2: “The Hotel Song” by Regina Spektor will always and forever remind me of Carley and Chelsea singing that song on every single softball trip we ever went on as freshmen. For some reason, they latched onto that song like it was candy, invented dance moves and everything to go with it, and sang it on every trip. I had that song memorized before I ever even heard the version done by Regina Spektor herself.

3: “My Life Would Suck Without You” will, in my mind, always belong to Rhees. This Kelly Clarkson single was released during the first EdNet class I had with him, and he sang it pretty much every single day. What a guy.

4: “The Longer the Waiting” by Josh Turner, “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” by Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em (don’t judge, please), and “Vanilla Twilight” by Owl City were the three most prominent songs in a long-distance relationship that I had a while ago. Whenever one of these sneak up on me when I’m not expecting it, I tend to start thinking about the person with whom I had this relationship, which is never, ever a good thing for me to do in excess. So every time I hear one of these songs, I usually have to skip it if I can because they tend to bum me out for obvious reasons.

5: “Paper Planes” by M.I.A. was the favorite song of the summer of 2008. That was the last summer that Ashley, Nikiah and I were together. Nikiah moved that fall, and Ashley and I kind of had a falling out the following summer of 2009. Ever since then, nothing has ever been the same. But that summer, the three of us were together constantly. And one of our favorite activities was to drive my big green Dodge Dakota around town and blast this song, attempting to sing along, even though we didn’t know what most of the words were even saying. To this day, I can’t sing along with this song without doing the hand motions that Ashley and I invented.

Moving on: my inspiration for this blog is to be blamed on Sugar Ray. A few days ago, I was just messin around on iTunes and found “Fly” by Sugar Ray. All I had to do was think about the chorus in that song, and I was taken back. For some reason, whenever I hear this song I get this image of me sitting on the floor of the girls’ bedroom in Lumberton playing with Barbie dolls while Sarah’s radio was on. Basically, “Fly” by Sugar Ray is the song of the ‘90s for me. You’d think it’d be something by the Backstreet Boys or Ricky Martin or the Spice Girls or Britney Spears or N’Sync or any number of other overplayed pop artists of the ‘90s that would be engrained into my tiny 6-year-old brain for the rest of my life. But no, it was that one song. I’m pretty sure I even remember the music video.

Anyway, I was just thinking about that song and how it can somehow force my entire childhood’s worth of memories into four minutes and fifty-three seconds, and it seemed like a good thing to share. Now for feedback: what songs remind you of particular events? Stages in your life? Holidays? Relationships? Please, share. (:

Decisions decisions.

I wish I knew what to do with myself. As of right now, I am an undeclared major. Brianna is a science major, Chelsea is a psychology major, Carley is majoring in something to do with humanities/service or something like that… I don’t think Chanelle has a declared major yet. But still! My point is, I am way too indecisive. Let’s take a journey throughout my past “dream careers”, shall we? I’ll go in chronological order, assuming I can remember all of them.

The first profession I remember wanting to pursue was to be a kindergarten teacher. But that was around the time when I was actually in kindergarten, and I thought we were the bomb dot com. Fast forward about thirteen years, and I can’t stand any children that I have no direct connection to. For instance: offspring of family members, younger siblings of friends, kids in my ward, my own kids [eventually]… that’s about it. Other than that, I pretty much don’t dig kids.

Next, I wanted to do nothing but be a marine biologist. But that was before I knew exactly what “biologist” even meant. I just saw “Zeus and Roxanne” and decided that all I wanted to do with my life was play with dolphins. It was a good idea at the time, but then a certain sibling of mine who shall remain nameless (I’ll let you all stew in the guilt of wondering if it was you) told me that when you’re a marine biologist, you have to dissect dolphins. That was the end of that dream.

I did have a brief phase when I wanted to be a car mechanic. That was also my Mustang obsession phase, so I think we can see the connection there.

Another short commitment to plans was when I wanted to be a radio DJ. I still think that’d be freaking sweet, and I would have a hard time saying no if the opportunity was literally thrown in my face. But I don’t have a whole lot of motivation to go out of my way to pursue that particular career.

A few years ago, I began weighing the options that psychology would give me. I considered being a school counselor/therapist, child psychologist, and the most recent version was Marriage & Family Counseling. That was actually very recently, to the point where I’m already signed up to take Psychology 1110 at school, and it is my top choice to major in. (Psychology, that is.)

Unfortunately, my own relationship problems kind of shut down most of my hopes of being able to fix other peoples’ relation issues in a professional setting. Ah well. A few weeks ago, I began wondering what it would be like to open and own my own coffee shop. Yes, I did just make a post about how sick I am of my job, but that’s not my point. I just love the idea of owning my own shop, but I don’t know how realistic it would be. For one, I don’t drink coffee, so I wouldn’t be much good in being able to judge how good my own products would be. For another, a certain parent of mine who shall remain nameless pointed out that a huge majority of restaurants fail within the first two years. Plus, I would have to get a business degree, which I’m not sure I’d have a whole lot of motivation to do.

And that leads us to now, where I am wondering what kind of schooling it would take to become a makeup artist. Yes, I know that’s cliché for a teenage girl to say, but whatever. It struck me today while I was watching “America’s Next Top Model” and “What Not to Wear” with Chelsea that all I ever look at when I watch TV and movie is the makeup on the people on there. I mean, my favorite part of “WNtW” is when Carmendie gets to transform people with makeup. A common misconception by people, especially those who believe that they don’t want to cover up their “real selves” is that makeup does just that: cover up who you are. But the truth is, makeup is not made to change the way you look. It is designed to enhance the natural beauty that you already have. It only begins to hurt your image when you abuse it, like wearing way too much eyeliner or foundation or whatever. See? I guarantee no one could care about this nearly as much as I do, but that’s because I really like it. So as of this moment right now, my “dream job” is to be a makeup artist on some kind of show, be it a sitcom, reality show, game show, the news, etc. I like the idea of being able to bring out someone’s beauty that they already have, and I’ve already had some experience with friends. Shoot, I’m practically already a professional! Now, my only problem is to figure out a major to fit this dream career, and to see if I can stick out this drive until I know for sure if I really want to it or not… /:

Long time coming.

For the past two years, I have been one of those obnoxious people that hear someone else complaining about their job, then I'd jump in and say "Ha! Sucks for you! My job is the bomb dot com!" However, the magic of being a barista in a small town has slowly, but surely been wearing off over time. Ever since I began working full-time again (well, as full time as I can get, considering the hours), I've started to realize how much I would rather be home sleeping. Or eating. Or running. Or doing anything other than working. It's not that I don't like the people I work with (they're really actually pretty cool), and I still like what I do, and I've always hated European tourists that don't speak English, so that can't be the difference... I don't know. I wonder if I'm just impatient to move and just go to school full time. I'm getting pretty antsy.

I think part of my problem is that I have an awful lot of pet peeves that are making work a very stressful place for me to be. As some of you may know, I'm a very irritable person. Some of my work pet peeves are:

--When the door to the pastry case gets left open.
--When the steampots don't get rinsed out right away.
--When there are espresso grounds left all over the counter.
--Seeing coffee drips on the cupboard doors.
--When people expect me to wait on them, when there is a sign above the register clearly stating "ORDER HERE."
--Having to bus tables. That is not my job.
--Customers who don't speak English, and refuse to even try.
--Dishwater that has food floaties in it. Gross.
--Annoying music.

I really do have issues with getting irate very easily. But oh well... what can ya do? Only like 5 or 6 more weeks, then I get to go to college and blow all the money I have worked so hard for. Yay.