Music to my ears

I got into a conversation earlier this week with someone about music. I have conversations with people about everything under the sun, but I can't remember the last time music was the topic of the hour. It was a surprising conversation in that it involved the kind of substance I'd more often expect in a discussion of politics or art. Don't you love when that happens? You get sneak-attacked conversationally. 

Beethoven said, "Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life". I am horrible with song lyrics...actually, I'm worse with song names and artists. I listen to music for the melody, the beat, the notes. Lyrics are a total afterthought for me. I have come to realize that people are generally either a lyrics person or a melody person. Some people qualify a song as "great" based on the words it preaches, others on the notes it sends dancing through the air. Again, I'm absolutely a melody person. I think it may have to do with the fact I was trained in classical piano for over 10 years so my ear is based purely on notes. 

When a song I like comes on, I swear, my heart skips a beat when those first notes play, or when the first chorus plays. It sends flutters down my spine...almost like the feeling of a soft kiss...sensual and spiritual. I guess Beethoven was on to something there.

Some songs of the moment for me:

- "Train Song" by Feist and Ben Gibbard

- "Bruises" by Chairlift

- "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver

- "Hide & Seek" Morgan Page remix (Imogen Heap)

- "The Funeral" by Band of Horses

- "I'm Yours" (acoustic version) by Jason Mraz (I just came from a wedding, it rubbed off a bit)

I'm curiously to hear some other people's songs-of-the-week...I always love to find new music.

This and that

This is the problem with not posting regularly...I feel like I have to do a "catch-up" posting versus something more specific...a theme or story or whatever. Alas. 

Things of late. Well, a very exciting addition to my apartment/life...a kitten!!! She's my little button. Her name is not 100% confirmed but it's looking like it may be Maddalena...Lena or Madz for short. I was watching La Dolce Vita the day before I got her so that name was stuck in my mind, and then I googled it and turns out, it's also an island near Corsica that is only accessible via boat...kind of a cool tie-in since I had to take a boat to go get my little one. She has 2 settings...snuggle-bug and crazy kitty. It's pretty entertaining. 

I also recently got back from a week vacation in Mexico. I rarely take vacations where I actually "vacate", relax, chill out. I am usually travel-book in tow, pages dog-eared of monuments and sights and cities I want to visit...days packed with adventure and to-do's. This, however, was a week filled with lazying on a very nice yacht, dingy-ing into a cute little island to lay on the beach and drink margaritas and eat guacamole and get tan. Ok..in all fairness, I did have on item on the "agenda"...finishing my diving certification. I had 4 open water check-out dives to go and despite a quickly forming sinus infection, I got them done...I'm now a certified diver!! I will do another post about that shortly.

We just finished a book for bookclub - Mudbound. It was quite good but also sobering in being reminded of segregation and racism only a few decades ago. The conversation was great, as usual, and we all shared stories of modern day prejudism. It's crazy that although we have evolved significantly from the days of lynching and back-of-the-bus, there are still ignorant people out there who know no different. It's sad really.

Tomorrow I am on a plane, yet again. I think this will be 3 times in one month. This time to a wedding in FL. A very important wedding. The wedding of my best guy friend from college. A person who knows me so well, after being apart for over 4 years, he still remembers what kind of alcohol I like and bought a bottle to have in the house we'll be staying in. What a guy. Alas...another one to take the plunge. I'm psyched to see all my college boys though...it seems like a million lives ago, my world was so intimately woven with theirs.

Happy Wednesday!

The Good

The other day my friend Brianna posted the below that she had received from her mom and I thought it was really great, and something that I would like to read every morning as a reminder. Sometimes I think we spend so much time looking at the negative things, we miss the positives, or we look so far ahead, we miss what's right in front of us, happening at this very moment. Sometimes I feel like I want to move, right now, this instant, pick up and start new. I eventually will, but I have to remind myself that if it's not happening today, or tomorrow, I need to look right around me and enjoy what I have now, here, in this moment and place b/c there's so much that is great...sometimes it just gets muddied by visions of what can be or might be in the future. 

I might just have to print this list out and put it somewhere I will see every day. It'd be a great way to start each day. 

MAYBE: 

Maybe… we were supposed to meet the wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift. 

Maybe… when the door of happiness closes, another opens; but, often times, we look so long at the closed door that we don't even see the new one which has been opened for us. 

Maybe… it is true that we don't know what we have until we lose it, but it is also true that we don't know what we have been missing until it arrives. 

Maybe… the happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. 

Maybe… the brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; after all, you can't go on successfully in life until you let go of your past mistakes, failures and heartaches. 

Maybe… you should dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go, be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you dream of, and want to do. 

Maybe… there are moments in life when you miss someone -- a parent, a spouse, a friend, a child -- so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real, so that once they are around you appreciate them more. 

Maybe… the best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had. 

Maybe… you should always try to put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that something could hurt you, it probably will hurt the other person, too. 

Maybe… you should do something nice for someone every single day, even if it is simply to leave them alone. 

Maybe… giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they will love you back. Don't expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart; but, if it doesn't, be content that it grew in yours. 

Maybe… happiness waits for all those who cry, all those who hurt, all those who have searched, and all those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of all the people who have touched their lives. 

Maybe… you shouldn't go for looks; they can deceive; don't go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile, because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile. 

Maybe… you should hope for enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, and enough hope to make you happy. 

Maybe… you should try to live your life to the fullest because when you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling but when you die, you can be the one who is smiling and everyone around you crying.

La Isla...Mujeres!

This time on Saturday, I will be halfway to Mexico! Ahhh I'm SO excited! It has been many many months since I have been in the presence of a powerful sun, sand and relaxation (OK...I guess Thailand was only 4.5 months ago but for me, that's long!). I will be landing in Cancun, hopping a ferry over to Isla Mujeres and climbing aboard my sisters new home...her fiance's boat. Rough life, eh? Not sure of our exact plan, which is totally cool with me...I need an escape from planning and order, organization and precision. Give me spontaneity and adventure! 

We'll be starting here:

(the stinking photo upload isn't working so the link will have to suffice until it is fixed) 

We may hang out there and do some diving, or we may take the boat back to Puerto Aventuras where it "lives", dive, sunbathe and so on. We may take a quick trip down to Honduras and/or Roatan...who knows! 

My travel itch is about to be scratched. I MUST get away every few months, see a new part of the world, explore. Part of me finds it a little odd to be going somewhere with the main purpose being to relax and lay in the sun (oh and do my open water check out dives). I'm used to traveling places laiden with history and culture, sights and sounds...packing a million things into 2 weeks, hopping trains, planes and automobiles to see it all! Maybe I'll check out some of the Mayan ruins, just to tap into that a bit. I will for sure be taking a bunch of photos...I am envisioning this as being a good trip for portraits and lifestyle shots...my favorite and my speciality. Other than that my MO is to overdose on Vitamin D, drink some legit margaritas, have a Mexican food glutton fest, relax and disconnect, and hang with my sis and future bro-in-law #2!!! Ahhh Mehico! (insert finger snap Mexican dance move thing :-) )

Maybe, just maybe, I'll allow myself a little bit of connection to the real world and do a little mid-trip posting...just to tease you all stuck in the winter-to-spring transition of gloom. I know, I'm an evil one...See you all in mid-April!