Tunes for Tuesday: A Love Song

The song that marks my return after six months has been on repeat for me over the last two days. I also find myself whistling it in the hallway at work and singing it at my desk.

I always feel extra lovey-dovey about the Hubs around this time of year. We never had an official anniversary when we were dating. What I do know is that fourteen years ago in August, I went to a party at a big 'ole house in the Vine neighborhood with my new roommate and he was there. That was the first night we met. I didn't know then that we'd start dating shortly after or that I'd fall so deeply in love with him.

Anyway. Enjoy this sweet love song.

Side note: This video is awesome, especially after they start dancing.

Tunes for Tuesday: Music for Healing

The violence in Kalamazoo since the new year began has me tired.

Angry.

Sad.

I've been getting into Google search holes of reading everything related to what happened here on Saturday. Reading about the victims, details, gun control, mental health awareness, racial double standards, white masculinity in the United States... yesterday morning I looked up and an hour had gone by. Then another.

Then I stopped. And I thought about my job.

I work for a youth leadership organization that is rooted in the community, We do community work every day. Yesterday, I did a variation of what I do every day, what makes my job amazing and enjoyable-- I talked to people in Kalamazoo about upcoming community events, community projects, ideas for improving the community. It gave my tired soul some energy.

Last night, we had one of our twice-monthly meetings and we opened the floor to our young people. Many of them expressed anger that they didn't get to talk about what happened at school. That in 2016, the thought that you could easily hide what is ugly from the youth if you don't talk about it is an idea I can't even entertain. Their conversation moved me-- let's come up with ideas to raise awareness, let's do something, let's give ourselves time to grieve, let's understand, we can't understand... I love them.

After our conversation, we moved outside for a small gesture to send something good out into our community. Each of us took a glass votive and on it, we wrote what we want to put out there to Kalamazoo.

Hope.

Healing.

Strength.

Change.

We lit our candles and stood together in community. We left them burning until the end of our meeting.

I listen to music all day at work, every day. Yesterday, I couldn't do it. But last night, after the conversation and candles on my way home from a very long day of work, I passed through downtown Kalamazoo. As I drove by every news truck stationed all over our small city, the tears flowed while Death Cab for Cutie played in the background. Now I can't stop listening to music.

Today, I'm listening to music that heals me. These are the songs that pulled me out of bed early this morning.

What are yours? 

Tunes for Tuesday: Kendrick Lamar

To Pimp a Butterfly is an album I return to week after week. I find new lyrical bombs that blow my mind every time I listen to it. No doubt that I've spent too much time on Rap Genius for this album. Kendrick Lamar's Grammy performance last night made me feel more passion than the Bernie rally. Check it out in all of its beauty here:

Tunes for Tuesday: Beyonce, Duh.

This. Song. Is. So. BADASS.

It just renewed my love of all things Beyonce. 

And this. This.

There is some ish going down in our country and pop culture is so on top of it. 

Update! This just happened and will continue to crack me up FOR DAYS:

A Year of Thirty Days Check-In (and a Tune for Tuesday)

First, a song for your energy level on this odd rainy day in February:

The first month of my Year of Thirty Days is over. 

I finished another Whole30 and Yoga With Adriene's 30 Days of Yoga Camp. I feel pretty good, the same as I felt at the halfway point. I'm not gonna lie, though. On my first day of freedom from the Whole30, I ate a soft pretzel and drank a coconut milk stout. They were both excellent. That being said, I'm going to stick with paleo eating most of the time. I'll let you know how it goes! I want to write about how I feel now, but prior posts say it all. 

In a nutshell:

-I'm more flexible and my body feels good.

-I have an awesome morning yoga habit established.

-My skin is glowing. 

-My clothes fit better and I feel like a fly girl.  

Now... February's 30, er, 28 days. 

If you know me, you know I have two books in mind. A novel and a teacher book. I'm working on the teacher book right now, but...

...you guys, it is really hard to write a book. 

Do you ever feel like you're faking everything you've ever done? It's called Imposter Syndrome and I'm suffering from it. I heard this TED Talk from Kirsty Walker on Imposter Syndrome and it really hit home, especially as I try to write this book. 

I question everything I do and all of my past experiences. A day in the life of a negative self-talking, self-doubting person is not cool. 

The goal for February is to write for this book every single day. I have some deadlines to meet that aren't self-imposed, so I've got to put some elbow grease into this. 

In fact, I want this post to be longer, but I've already been writing for close to three hours, so I've got to go watch Freaks and Geeks for the tenth time to unwind from all of this writing. 

Peace.

Tunes for Tuesday: Winter Weather

Today's song goes with the weather:

I think I played this song at least six times today. It was good workin' music. 

Today was gray and cold and wet. This winter hasn't been as terrible as the last two because I can make it out of the house without my face falling off, but I think it's time to bust out my sun lamp.

This one was going in today's gray rotation too:

Blah.

Tunes for Tuesday: A Post for Clarence Reid

Clarence Reid died and I'm sad about it. The music he wrote prior to becoming Blowfly is why I think he's awesome, but his dirty songs always make me feel like a middle schooler, even though I didn't know about him until I was in college and the Hubs told me about how much he liked him when he was younger. And to think, I spent middle school listening to stupid Adam Sandler tapes when Blowfly existed. Pshhhhh.

Today's tune for Tuesday isn't one of his nasty songs, it's one of my favorites written by him:

The Hubs and I saw him live a few years ago and we got to meet him. He was still touring and performing in his 70s and he was still good at it. Before he got on stage, I was worried he wouldn't make it, but dang when he was up there, I was impressed. You could tell by watching him that he truly loved performing. He also serenaded me, which has never happened to me before and it made me feel cool. Afterwards, when we sat down to chat with him, he was sweet and kind and weird and I just loved him.

If you've ever been interested in Blowfly, check out the documentary. His story is one that makes me feel all the feelings:

Peace out, Clarence Reid.

Tunes for Tuesday: Bowie

My Top Five Favorite Bowie Songs:

1. Under Pressure

The song I listened to the most during my hardest and best year of teaching, 2011.

2. Queen Bitch

My go-to "You're a badass, you're going to have an amazing day/night/presentation/event" song.

3. Fame

My "going out" song in college

4. Space Oddity

Reminds me of my best friend, AJ.

5. Five Years

My go-to sad song.

What are yours?

Tunes for Tuesday: Body Love

I've been spending way too much time on Spotify trying to catch up on every "Best of 2015" album. I'm all about 2016-- I just need the year to catch up on music from 2015. Too. Many. Albums. 

In the meantime... 30 Days of Yoga Camp and Whole30 #2 are well under way. I'm only a few days in, but feeling good so far. So thankful for supportive communities. 

I'm part of an online kula, or yoga community. Someone posted this video on our Facebook page and I've watched it at least ten times because I love the song and the message:

The song was made specifically for the ad by Panjabi MC. The song and the ad are badass!

I'm not traditionally "plus size" but I've always considered myself curvy, or as some of my former students used to say with love, I'm thick. I've embraced that about myself over the last few years. All of this yoga has made my body love skyrocket, especially after years of yo-yo dieting and hating myself every time I ate an Oreo or a mozzarella stick. However, I still sass myself about some of the more difficult poses, like every inversion. "You're way too thick to hoist yourself up, girl. Don't even try." Videos like this make me feel like I'll get there if I keep practicing. 

The end of week one for both challenges is quickly approaching. I'm trying to come up with the best way to update everyone on my Year of Thirty Days, so I'll be playing with some different formats this month. 

Tunes for Tuesday: Bye, 2015

One of my favorite songs from 2015:

Also, my sister told me about this lil' Easter egg in the video. Call the number at 4:34, especially if you love Lord Huron. 

If someone were to ask me about crappy years of my life, 2015 will always be on the list. 2015 can be over, please. 

On Friday, I'll be rolling out my blog project for 2016-- A Year of Thirty Days. 

Ooooooooo, exciting. 

Tunes for Tuesday: Leon Bridges

I love make-out songs and Leon Bridges has some epic make-out songs. I've been loving on his album since the song "Coming Home" first popped up on a random Spotify playlist. When I heard it, I had to Google him because I thought he was an old school artist I'd never heard of. Nope, he's an awesome throwback to Motown and I love him!

Although I've been listening to Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly which MOVES me to no end, I've been loving the old school sounds of Leon Bridges and Nathaniel Rateliff over the last few weeks. Here's a taste of Leon Bridges for you-- grab someone and slow dance with them cheek-to-cheek:

I'm working on a blog project for 2016, something similar to my 30 Before 30. I'm very motivated by public lists of goals. Look for it next week!

Tunes for Tuesday: Holidaze

Today is the day I decided that I can stomach some Christmas music. It started with this in the car on the way to work-- thank you oldies station!

Lou Rawls was rockin' my damn world with this song this morning!

Then I got to work and put on my favorite Christmas song of all time, which I post on this blog once a year:

It's been unseasonably warm outside and I'm not complaining. However, I haven't been in a Christmas-y mood. We have no decorations up and I didn't do cards this year. I'm not feeling it. Plus, we didn't take one good picture together this year. And postage is expensive. And I'm lazy. And the state of our country is upsetting me. And, and, and...

Trying to remember this during my holidaze:

[source unknown]

New posts outside of my favorite tunes coming soon!

Tunes for Tuesday: Hole

A few weekends ago, my good friend Katrina came over to my house and opened up a whole new world for me by showing me the Smule karaoke app. I think we spent about four hours karaoking to the tunes of the 90s and early 2000s. I haven't been on the app since for fear of falling into a time hole and realizing that I just spent the whole night karaoking with myself, but I have been listening to some of my favorite girl power ladies of the 90s since then. Sometimes I get so caught up in how much I loved 90s R&B that I forget about my love of Lisa Loeb and company. 

Jewel and Pieces of You?

Check. 

Alanis Morisette and Jagged Little Pill?

Oh yeah. 

The Cranberries and To the Faithful Departed?

Hells yeah. 

That reminds me, did anyone else get in trouble for this sweet CD deal in the 90s?

'Cuz you know it cost way more than a penny. 

Anyway, one of my favorites was Hole. I remember when Celebrity Skin came out in 1998 and Courtney Love had an image makeover that made everyone mad because people thought she was going soft. I thought it was awesome. Malibu is one of my favorite songs from the album. I even went out and bought the single (remember when that was a thing?) when it came out and played it on repeat until the CD started skipping.

Happy Tuesday! What were some of your favorite girl power songs of the 90s?

Tunes for Tuesday: A Pick-Me-Up

New favorite song alert!!!!

This song was rockin' my world all day today. 

Tunes for Tuesday

Oh man, it's only Tuesday? 

Tunes for Tuesday

I'm making a concerted effort to post more. Over the next month-ish or so, I've made a vow to get out of my head and back on my blog on a more regular basis. I've been working on several longer posts, but not following through on completing them. This little writing project is for me to get back into my writing habit.

I'll be going back to Earworm Wednesday, which I've decided to rename and move to Tuesdays because I was only posting songs I liked, not annoying songs that got stuck in my head. Plus, every time I thought more about the word "earworm" I got grossed out by the mental imagery.

I'll be posting about movies and shows I've been devouring lately. Master of None, anyone?

I'm going to post some teaching resources too, because I have eight years of pretty good ish and I want other like-minded teachers to have my stuff fo' free.

Maybe I'll do some throwback AOL Instant Messenger/MySpace questionnaires. Do you remember those?!

Please excuse my excessive posting. Or... come along for the ride.

Today's Tunes for Tuesday are from the Dope soundtrack. Pharrell Williams is winning at life even more after writing the songs for the fictional band Awreeoh in this movie AND curating the soundtrack. I've been obsessed with the it ever since we saw the movie a few weeks ago. The movie moved me. The song below, Go Head, is just fun. It's on my workout playlist now and it makes me smile when my day isn't going well.

The other song I loved from the Dope soundtrack (one I've loved since it came out) is Kendrick Lamar's i. A sample from the Isley Brothers and some powerful messages from Kendrick Lamar?Noice. 

Last song from one of my favorite scenes in Dope is Home is Where the Hatred Is by one of my favorite artists: Gil Scott-Heron. I was already happily into the movie when this song came on and the scene won me over completely. 

Have a great Tuesday.

Earworm Wednesday: Vaycay

Like an "I"m leaving town for somewhere to explore and eat and drink" vaycay. Not an "I'm leaving town to go see my family for the holidays" vaycay (even though I absolutely love seeing them).

It's a good thing I got my ticket to Bellingham, Washington last week. I'll be exploring and eating and drinking with my sister and one of my best buds soon enough. Going to Washington in February isn't going to be as warm as I'd like, but it's a place I've never been and there are mountains! I'm so pumped. Plus, we are flying in and out of Seattle-- we are putting aside a few hours to explore the city. I LOVE cities and I can't wait to get lost in Seattle. And Bellingham. One of my favorite podcasts, Here Be Monsters, is out of Bellingham.

I've been trying to stick to my Wednesday earworm posts for consistency-- I have been really busy over the last few weeks and I'm having a hard time finding something to write about. Ideas? Links to ideas? This is something Pinterest can't solve for me.

Today's song is one that picks me up and brings me back to Dakar. Now THAT is a city. I love it there.

Sigh. Get me out of town!!!!!!!!!!

Earworm Wednesday: Christmas Time is Here

Oh yes. Time to listen to my favorite Christmas albums while I can. I'm not a huge Christmas person, but I love a few Christmas albums and songs-- mostly because of nostalgia. In honor of Earworm Wednesday, here is some of my favorite Christmas music:

Makes me think of my childhood. I love this. It always puts me in a good mood. 

The Nutcracker Suite-- especially this movie from 1986. It was my favorite holiday movie when I was younger. Plus, Maurice Sendak noted the costumes and sets. Anyone else love this movie?

Hellooooo, I came of age in the 90s. This is obviously one of my favorites. 

Some of this beautiful music gets totally trampled by songs like The Christmas Shoes. Bleh. What are some of your favorite holiday songs? Sorry if I just made fun The Christmas Shoes if that is your favorite. 

I'm having a great week. I've been feeling down lately, mostly due to the cloudy weather and the sun has been out for the last two days. It's beautiful. If winter in Michigan could be sunny and thirty-seven every day, I'd be a happy girl.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Earworm Wednesday: Mockingjay and Other Stuff

Last weekend, I went to see part one of Mockingjay and I absolutely loved it. I've been a huge fan of the Hunger Games series since it first came out because 1) Katniss is an awesome protagonist, SO MUCH BETTER than Bella Swan and 2) Suzanne Collins throws our materialist society back in our faces and is all like, "This is how it could be someday, people. Think about it." 

The Lorde song from the credits is awesome-- it starts slow and then the drop comes and BAM! It makes your adrenaline spike-- but not too much. It mostly made me think about spin class and how this song would be a great one for a hill climb. Sometimes I think about getting certified as a spin instructor if only for the chance to play DJ for an hour. 

I spent last Saturday in Chicago at one of my favorite annual events, the Teacher's for Social Justice Curriculum Fair. I wanted to know if the information I'm trying to put into a book proposal is worth anything to people who matter the most to me-- educators and people who work with youth. It is and knowing that people want it was all the validation I needed. I would love to say that I'm above validation, but I'm not. C'est la vie.

I'm ready to spend Thanksgiving with my family and to take a break from social media. I unfriended and unfollowed a lot of people on Facebook yesterday in the aftermath of the Ferguson decision. There is too much work to be done, too many deep-rooted issues in our society to address, too much healing that has to be done-- no use getting angry at acquaintances and having arguments over a status update. If you want to talk about how I feel, let's talk on the phone or over coffee. 

Now, on a less (emotionally) heavy note, I must continue baking and cooking for tomorrow's fat pants extravaganza, er, I mean, Thanksgiving. Last night I made a Pinterest recipe and it is AH-MAH-ZING:

Click here for the recipe for Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes from 58 Day Dreams. This picture is from the original poster, but mine look like this!

I also made a cranberry and walnut coffee cake from my staple recipe book, Simply in Season (the cupcakes minus the whipped cream are in the picture too):

Here is the bottom of the coffee cake-- just sugar, cranberries, and walnuts:

There's something about a sugar coated cranberry. It's just so pretty. 

Today's cooking mission is this slow cooker apple sausage stuffing from Number 2 Pencil:

[via]

I'm a little wary of slow cooker stuffing because I'm worried it will be too dry tomorrow. Hopefully the grease from the sausage keeps it nice and moist, amiright? 

Have a great holiday. 

Earworm Wednesday: Snow Days and Jenny Lewis

A great benefit I got to keep from my teaching days is that my office is on a college campus so I still have snow days!

Yesterday, I had to work from home, but the first snow day of the year still gave me that celebratory feeling. Plus, I had to figure out holiday games and crafts for the kids we work with which meant I got to be on Pinterest looking up fun holiday ideas to do with young people in grades 3-5. These are a few gems from my search:

[via]

We're making these wish list ornaments, but on the wish list kids will have to write things they wish for their community, family, and THEN themselves-- anything we can do to get a hold of the crazy consumerism of the season.  

We're also playing this reindeer antler relay game because I think it looks hilarious:

[via]

I might be getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Maybe we'll put the tree up. 

The soundtrack of my snow day was not Christmas music. It's too soon. My Spotify was rockin' Jenny Lewis' The Voyager. I've liked Jenny Lewis since I first heard her in Rilo Kiley and I absolutely love this album. Here is one of my favorite songs, although I would highly recommend listening to the whole thing from beginning to end:

Okay, here's one more, just because I can't help it:

Have a wonderful Wednesday!