Safe and Sound, a Musical Post

Firstly: YAY!  I'm back!  I will post soon, explaining my rather extended absence from my blog.

Now that's taken care of, on to the music!

I have been obsessed with the song "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift, which features The Civil Wars (they're outstanding, by the way).  The song is featured on The Hunger Games soundtrack, for those of you interested.

Anyway, the song is beautiful.  Seriously.  The song is acoustic, with a little bit of drums near the end.  It's just...words are really hard to come by at this particular moment.  This could possibly be because my computer screen is just a tad blurry for reasons I will explain in just a minute.

After listening to the song, I looked up the lyrics and the song got even better.  The lyrics are beautiful and the song spoke to me in a way just a beautiful melody can't do.

Now, the reason my computer screen is blurry.  I couldn't help but think of my little sister Mikheala while listening to this beautiful song which promises safety.  And maybe I'm just being unnaturally weepy, but as the song played, my mind went back to the last time I spoke with my sister.  I think I even told her she'd be safe, she'd be okay.  And that's when the lines from the song really hit me:  "Just close your eyes, the sun is going down.  You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now.  Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."  And I totally lost it.  Good thing none of my roommates are around to see me sob into the couch, haha.  It's crazy, but she'd be sixteen now.

I've added a link to the video.  For the love of beautiful music, go listen.

The New Year Post

Wow.  It's 2012.  It's surreal how 2011 is already the past.  Or am I the only one who finds it odd that it's January 2012?

Anyway, since just about everyone is doing this, I decided to go ahead and list a few of my New Year's Resolutions.  In times past, they've been more like New Month's Resolutions, but I'm determined to stick by them for this year.  So, here we go.

1) Be more healthy.  I'm going to be better about what I eat.

2) I'm going to reduce my caffeine intake, especially where energy drinks are concerned.  I will now pause for five minutes to give my mother time to finish her victory dance.  You good, Mom?  Good.

3) Be more involved in school.  Now, I'm already part of a club on campus (VGAME--Video Games Are My Entertainment), but this also means going to a play put on by students or a concert or Divine Comedy.

4) Tone down my procrastination.  If I could, I would probably major in it, but that would also mean I would NEVER graduate.

5) Spend more time with my family.  This may be a bit difficult as they live in another state, but my younger sister, Kira, lives in Cedar with her husband, which is, like, only 2 and 1/2 hours from me.  So, I can make more of an effort to at least drive down and see her.  Hopefully, I can do this about once a month.

6) Go for a jog, bike ride, SOMETHING!  Y'know, to be healthy and such.

7) Keep my house clean.  Spotless, even.  This is a very lofty goal because by the end of the day (I have two part-time jobs and I'm a full-time student) all I want to do is either a) weep, b) sleep, or c) do nothing.  Usually in that order.

8) So, a friend of mine challenged me (and quite a few other people) to go Vegetarian for a year and see how much our health improved.  I scoffed because chicken makes me happy.  But, in light of trying to go healthy, I'm going to accept her challenge, but tweak it.  I'm going to go Vegetarian for two months.  If by that time I don't want to kill myself or run immediately to Wendy's and pick up some spicy chicken nuggets, then I'll continue.

9) No more fast food.  Mainly because fast food can be gross (except for the aforementioned Wendy's spicy nuggets) and it's just not good for me.

10) No more eating out...except for special occasions.  I'm going to start cooking more.  Mainly because, well, I actually miss it.  Even if that means I have to make it then freeze it for later, it'll still be better for me in the long run.  And, y'know, my wallet will stop crying in the middle of the night when it thinks I can't hear it.

11) Be a little more outgoing.  Even if all I do is say hi to someone I don't know, it'll be an improvement.  Because social things terrify me.  Yup.

Here's to an amazing, happy, and healthy New Year!