Homework and Taylor Swift

     Homework. The inevitable. The hated. The omnipresent. The bane of my existence. For years now I've been slaving over a desk for hours at a time bringing you one step closer to your demise. But like Jesus on that third day you just keep coming back to me, only instead of bringing along eternal joy and life in heaven, you bring eternal annoyance and life in the library. I wish you would take a permanent leave of absence. Now that I'm in college my nights have become longer and less intimate with you, however. Even though you're still just as present, there are countless distractions that I always end up placing higher on the ole priorities list. So yes, you still get some attention, just later at night, for shorter periods of time, and less intricately performed. Like this blog for instance, there are a million things I should be doing right now. Do I want to do them? Nope. Not really. So instead, I'll write about a person who's been on my mind alot lately. 
    As many of  you may or may not know, Taylor Swift just recently released her fourth album, Red. I've always been a T-Swift fan, and I will take up for her in any situations in which her musicianship is questioned. Sure, she may not have the vocal prowess of Celine Dion. Sure, she may not possess J-Lo's sex appeal. But one thing she's doing pretty well at is knowing what America wants. Her new album is nothing like anything I've ever heard before. There's a little bit of pop, hip hop, dubstep  and of course her oh so charming country ballads. It's new, it's fresh, it's different- it's RED. 
     When Taylor made her debut as a teenage country singer, her songwriting abilities took precedence over any of her other talents. Then she sang live. I'll be the first one to admit it. She stunk. From then on she faced ridicule for lacking the talent of her fellow superstars. Throughout her career, it's obvious that she has been working on her vocal chops. Last week when she performed on Ellen, I was like "Get it, girl!!" She was actually good. Just goes to show that there is always hope for people willing to stand up for their talents and prove America wrong. You go, Tay. 
     And now, after wasting another hour of my time writing this, it's time for homework. For real :/ 
But before the massacre begins, here is my new jam, direct from (you guessed it) Taylor Swift's new album!
Taylor Swift, I Knew You Were Trouble

Falling in Love with Fall

Have you ever just looked up into the sky on a clear autumn night? 
      Autumn is my favorite season. I love everything about it. Bonfires, leaf piles, pumpkin spice lattes, Halloween, Thanksgiving, chilly weather, sweaters, family time, hayrides, reds and oranges. All of these things remind me of why I love this time of year. If you take everything good about every other season and mushed it into one, you'd still not get as much as autumn has. It's really not fair.  It's also not fair that every other season seems to last four times longer than autumn. I'm starting to think that's why they call it fall. It's like winter is excruciatingly long and spring just springs right into summer and summer is soooo moist, really, that it really seems to "stick" with ya if you know what I mean. But then autumn gets here and it just FALLS, plummets, even into winter and the whole horrible cycle begins again. I guess there's a plus to fall being short. If it were as long as all of the other seasons feel, I'd probably get tired of it too. So in a way, it's a blessing. God works in mysterious ways. The other night I was driving home and it was dark and chilly outside but I was really determined to have my sunroof down, and I the song below came on the radio. As I listened to it I glanced up through the sunroof at the breathtaking autumn night. As leaves fall to the ground by day my eyes drift to the sky by night. The stars? They're beautiful. Like diamonds in the sky. 
Rihanna- Diamonds

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times: it was college.

     Today in my Speech class, our professor asked if any of us had a blog. I raised my hand and he got really excited (he loves me.) He then proceeded to ask me what I wrote about. . . . .I told him just general things about my life. Reflections and such. I don't think he was very impressed. So from now on, my blog will somewhat have a theme from post to post. From now on each post will be inspired by a song that has either been on my mind or that fits my situation at the time. Prepare yourselves :P 
    
    Today's song is...........Good Time by Owl City and Carly Rae Jepson 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7HmzwI67ec

   College has exposed me to a ton of new experiences and people that I never would've had the opportunity to experience otherwise. I've been exposed to some good things, like the tenors winning the Choralympics because I did the splits in the dance-off (that's something I never expected to say) and attending different churches, and some bad things, like witnessing some of the "normal" college rituals. I've seen people worshiping Christ in a group full of genuine love in their hearts and people partying and excessively using foul language all in the same day (F-bomb, I HATE it!). This is what life is. It's not always going to be filled with great, Christian people. Going to college is bringing me closer to God by letting me know I've made the right decision to follow Him. Lord knows I wouldn't have made 100's on 3  of my midterms (and A's on all of the rest) without studying for a single one without His help. You really do need Him in your life, but that's for another post. . . 
     One of the greatest things that's starting to happen is finding new friends that I can be myself with. That's the biggest thing I was worried about when I first moved here. It took me so long in Manchester to find where I belonged, and I don't have that much time here. So of course I over thought everything. "I'm not going to make any friends, I'm going to be alone, everyone will think I'm weird." They probably do think I'm weird, but  I've finally started to get to where I have people I can call my friends. I like that. And I like them. I'm never going to replace any of my other friends- it just can't be done, but I'd like to think I've added a new column to my list of friends -with a few faithful ones overlapping from highschool to college, you know who you are :D. 
    Tonight, a group of us went to our friend's soccer game (which was a complete joke- they played guys in flannel cut off shirts and cut off jeans-The Lumberjacks.) On the drive there and back we crammed into a car and blasted the radio to the point where I'm sure everyone thought we were drinking something a little stronger than Starbucks frappuccino if you know what I'm saying. . . But we didn't care. One of the songs we belted out (very out of tune I should add) was Good Time. If you actually take the time to listen to the words, it describes me and my friends perfectly. "Doesn't matter when, it's always a good time then, we don't even have to try, it's always a good time." We really don't have to try. I'll never be able to fathom what is fun about getting drunk or high or whatnot. My friends and I have fun without those things. True friends can have fun lying on a set of stairs rubbing new plush carpet or watching TV and judging Abby Miller and the dance moms. We don't need games or food (although those do aid in fun ;P); all we need are our own bodies and wonderfully strange personalities.  And we don't even have to try. That's how it's always been and I never want to have to TRY to have fun with my friends. What's the fun in that?