Brothers and Sisters . . . LET'S GO!

So there are many things to say, and I will say them now.
Thing the first - The Arcade Fire was A-MAZING. First, SO many people rocking out at the same time, and everyone played everything! They had a pipe organ on stage (which at least 3 people played, including Win on "My Body is a Cage" and Regine on "Intervention" - incidentally, two of my favorite songs of the night), at least two people who played the accordion (which they used), violins, stand up basses, French horns, megaphones, motorcycle helmets. . . it was . . . wow.
They definitely played most of the good ones. I was sad that they left out "Crown of Love" and "Ocean of Noise," but "Rebellion (Lies)" was incredible, and "Wake Up" was the perfect final encore - all of us were singing together "I GUESS WE'LL JUST HAVE TO ADJUST!" Words cannot actually express the rest of how amazing this all was, but if I liked them before, I'm pretty much addicted to them now.
Also, The Office tonight... well, there was squealing. And Marci and I were not alone - we could hear shrieks rippling down the complex. And then, Janie came home engaged (YAY!) and Miri & Mike, Jennie, Marci, and I went to Hairspray, which is an unbelievably happy movie. So, SO great, and I am in love with James Marsden.
Finally, a bit of dating advice from our newly rediscovered Nancy Drew's Guide to Life:"If a guy's hunch results in a dead-end, don't flaunt your better judgment in front of him. Smirk secretly to yourself." How true that is.
Also, this is my 99th post - look for something amazing in the next one. :)

Soundtrack to My Life

I've been making this for awhile - here's where it is right now. These are songs that define particular feelings or moments or just general things about me, and I think it's coming along quite nicely. I'm sure I'll keep adding to it, but the time has come to post before the "single college student" version becomes out of date.

• "Megan" - The Smoking Popes or Bayside (the first version is a rock song and the second is acoustic. I like them both, but I probably like Bayside's cover better. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that this song exists this week - it's quite good, actually.)
• "Green Eyes" - Coldplay
• "Pretty (Ugly Before)" - Elliot Smith
  
• "The Not So Pretty Princess" - Jude
• "The Frog Prince" - Keane
• "1 2 3 4" - Feist
• "Girl Sailor" - The Shins (No, I'm not a sailor. This song is a metaphorical representation.)
  
• "Sing" - Travis
• "Sadness on My Back" - Hope of the States
• "Love Song for No One" - John Mayer (just sometimes...)
  
• "Clark Gable" - The Postal Service
• "I Am Ready, I Am" - The Format (see the subtitle of this blog...)
  
• "My Apartment" - Ben Kweller
• "Wrapped Up in Books" - Belle & Sebastian
• "Indie Rock and Roll" - The Killers
• "Right Here is Fine" - Brett Raymond
• "London Skies" - Jamie Cullum
• "London Calling" - The Clash (haha - more for the name than anything)
  
• "Daddy's Little Girl" - The Mills Brothers (aw.)
• "We're Just Friends" - Wilco
• "Paper Doll" - Rachel Yamagata (The first two words in this song are "only daughter." But I really like the rest of it too. Quite good, quite good.)
  
• "Never Knew" - The Rocket Summer
• "The World You Love" - Jimmy Eat World
• "Hamburg Song" - Keane
• "Time Has Told Me" - Nick Drake
• "A Comet Appears" - The Shins
• "Butterflies and Hurricanes" - Muse
• "Blue" - The Jayhawks
• "Follow" - Brandi Carlile
• "Grey Room" - Damien Rice
  

Also, Katherine sent me a link that was a website where you can create playlists where people can actually listen to them - I'm going to figure it out soon so I can post some for all y'all.

Corn and Soy Beans

This is my much belated report on the Damien Rice concert. First, let me just say that I was incredibly sad when I missed him the first time around, because I have dearly loved Damien since I was a junior in high school and Ty made me listen to "Delicate" in the kitchen (I think it was Thanksgiving.) That experience combined with first hearing the opera singing part of "Eskimo" at three in the morning on a bus to San Diego gave me a strong foundation with Damien.
It was SUCH a fabulous show. First, if you are at all into the concert scene, you know that most concerts smell (to some extent) like pot and smelly people. This concert smelled like incense, and the stage was decorated with pretty candles. Funny.
From the first song, Sydney and I were absolutely delighted. The thing to love most about Damien Rice is his passion, and it comes through even more when you're face to face. The second song of the night was "Delicate," and we were both on the verge of swooning when it got to the last chorus ("Why'd you fill my sorrow with the words you borrowed? Why'd you sing with me at all?") So gorgeous. The first time he talked to us, he started asking about how people make money here - industry or farming? We don't know - we're all students. He told us that since we couldn't make up our minds, he'd sing us a song about not being able to make up your mind, or rather thinking you made the right decision and then finding out it wasn't at all. And then he proceeded thusly in his amazing Irish accent: "So say you were a farmer, and you decided to plant corn in your field. So you go to the seed store, and you buy . . . 200 bags of corn seed . . . for your . . . very big field. And you go and plant all of this seed, but you don't realize until a couple of weeks later that you've planted . . . I don't know, soy beans or something. Well, I had an experience like that with a girl. (laughter) I thought she was corn, but I read her label wrong."
He then proceeded to sing the amazingly bipolar "I Remember," which is really more like two songs - one a very sweet love song and the other a very bitter not love song. It was incredible, with flashing lights and a long solo at the end and rocking cello lines and wow. I didn't know where he was going to go from there, but he managed it.
My favorite discovery of the night was the song "Grey Room," which has been on my computer for awhile, unloved and unlistened to. The lyrics are in the sidebar of this blog right now - it's a gorgeously wonderful lonely song.
At the end of the concert he said, "I'm going to leave you with this one," (Sydney said "Don't leave us!") and he walked to the edge of the stage and sat down - no mic - and sang "The Blower's Daughter."
We had to work for the encore, but I must say it was the first time in a long time I'd felt good about standing up for someone at the end of a show. He came back and played some of the more rocking songs ("Coconut Skins," "Woman Like a Man," "Me, My Yoke, and I,") which I must admit I don't love, but it was pretty cool to see that they could rock. But the final encore number was "Canonball," which was just as fabulous as I could have hoped.
The only thing we were sad about was the lack of Lisa Hannigan, Damien's long-time singing partner. "9 Crimes" and "I Remember" were especially sad without her, but there was a new version of "Volcano" that kind of made up for her lack in that particular number. We did get a solo song from the cellist, Vyvianne (really) Long, which was very strange and very funny. It was called "Happy Thoughts," a "box for those days when you just need something, like say you've always fancied yourself as corn and some guy tells you you're soy beans." Let me give you an example of the lyrics: "Why do birds sing when worms can't hear a thing? Why do snakes dance why snails get fried in France?" Wow.
So yeah. Definitely amazing, and good timing, since I was about to have a nervous breakdown that day.

I know I'm dead on the surface, but I am screaming underneath...

I am started to wonder how I will get through this semester.
I don't mean to be melodramatic, but I thought that once I figured out what was going on, everything would be okay - still stressful, but in a normal sort of way. Instead, every day I feel more overwhelmed, and every meeting we have that is supposed to clear things up makes me feel more confused, because everyone talks as if we should already know all of this and they're just giving us a reminder. I can't keep up on my reading, and soon the projects will start pouring in; I have a lesson plan on grammar due on Tuesday and a huge reading strategies project due next Friday on a book I've barely had time to crack open, let alone finish and begin to create teaching methods. I swear they move up the date that the student teaching application is due every day (now it's supposed to be in on Monday so that we can get all of our requests for placements, and I haven't even found it yet). I come out of my teaching classes clenching everything - stomach, jaw, fists - and listening to my iPod in an effort to prevent myself from hyperventilating.
I hate feeling guilty after a good talk with my roommates because I should have been reading, and I always fall asleep doing my reading anyway, because I can't ever seem to get enough sleep. (Yes, I realize this is largely my fault, but I can't help it. Mostly.) A lot of my roommates have all kinds of crazy things going on in their lives, and I feel like I can only give them a tiny part of the attention they deserve, because part of my brain is always trying desperately to find a plan that will enable me to accomplish everything in time without some kind of spontaneous combustion during midterms.
It would also help if I didn't feel like half of what I have to read is utter crap. This comes directly from one of my books: "Educators must help parents understand prenatal brain development. these future children are also future students."
Wait. Are you telling me that I need to track down the parents of children who haven't been born yet so that I can tell them how to nourish their unborn child's brain so he or she will be a good student 16 years down the road? Why am I wasting my very limited, very stress-filled time reading this, not to mention the drivel about seating charts and aquariums? Leave me some time for the things that will actually help me and stop drowning me in things that will probably be easier to learn in practice or from real teachers anyway!
This is that time of year when I wonder if I picked the wrong major, because I don't want to do this!
In happy news though, I like my job as a very part time nanny (even though I had to change a diaper of the greenest poop I've ever seen yesterday) and my Hitchcock and Poe class is every bit as amazing as I thought it would be, even though I never have time to get through all of the reading assignments.
I'm going to go and eat breakfast and then write a five paragraph essay about whether or not we should teach the five paragraph essay. Figure that one out.

See you in April.

Today I was walking home from campus and I got the happiest bunch of songs ever while my iPod was on shuffle. I thought I would share this super happy event. Theses were the songs that came up:
"Step into my Office, Baby" - Belle and Sebastien
"Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy" - Glen Hansard
"God Only Knows" - The Beach Boys
"1 2 3 4" - Feist
"Selfish Jean" - Travis

I have never had so many bouncy sounding songs come up in a row. It certainly helped me to feel less rotten about spending $300 on about 2/3 of my books. Bleah. Yay for happy songs!

Updates on ye first week o' school soon.

Goodbye, Sister Mandolin

Tonight we had a party . . .ish . . . and Mandy couldn't hug Geoff. She arrived in her cute sister missionary clothes ready to serve in San Fernando, and we girls had to give her enough hugs to make up for the lack in the male department.
It's so weird that Mandy is leaving and that in a couple of months Whitney will be coming home, but my favorite thing about tonight was having everyone together again. Between tonight and the party at Jonathan and Sebastian's new place last night, I keep remembering how much I love my friends. It's amazing how the extra effort we now have to make to be together takes away all of the frustration of the closed circuit we had seemed to become last year. I feel very blessed to have such an amazing circle of people whom I love and with whom I feel completely comfortable being my ridiculous, cheesy self. I forgot how much I miss living with Lili and in general how much I love it when we are all laughing and throwing around pirate hats and making Mandy sandwiches. I am excited to meet new people, but no one will replace these kids.
Here are some pictures that demonstrate why I love them all so much:

Because I forgot how much I love the Animanics, and I will always love Shakespeare.

Did you wear a dress crafted from meat packing paper, as we discussed?

So here I am in the glorious land of Provo, with my closet organized and my roommates in place. Belmont is a very different place than the Glenwood, partially because it is very, very small. (Note the closet size in this picture - I am pretty sure I need to scrap half of my clothes, because this is ridiculous. The drawers are nice and big, though.) I must say I'm impressed with the person who designed the place - there is storage GALORE even though we don't always have room to turn around. The desks are beautiful, and there are all kinds of cupboards and closets and drawers everywhere I look. Now that everything has a place, I feel much better about things.
It was comforting yesterday that even though I was moving to a place where I'll only know my roommates, I have a strong base of friends right from the get-go. Before I left for Provo on Saturday morning, I got a text from Geoff telling me that he would be helping me unload and demanding that I tell him when I was coming. He was already here helping Jennie when I got here. On my way down I got another text from Todd saying that he would also come over if I needed help, but by the time I remembered to answer we were almost done and he was already here to bring all-sports passes. Marci was waiting at the door with her muscle, and Krissie and Jennie were there with hugs - all in all a good sign for the year.
We had to stop unpacking to get some food and go to the Arizona game. It was weird that my official goodbye to my parents for the year was in the Glenwood parking lot (they decided to continue parking there for games - it's just too good - and my friends were walking over from there). I never really got a chance to do the official cry fest thing because it didn't hit until then, and the parking lot didn't seem like the right place to cry. It's weird that this will be the last time that my parents will move me down to school, and I don't even know where I'll be going after graduation, but it won't be home unless I know when I'll be moving somewhere else. That sounds harsh, but it's too easy to live at home and eat my mommy's food. Once I graduate I feel like I need to find my own place of some sort. Weird. Anyway, the parentals were awesome and helpful and then proceeded to spy on me during the game. :)
I love our group for the games. It's our old group from ye olde 129th ward, and even though we're all spread out now I'm glad we can come together for football. I was happy to be greeted by a chorus of "Megan!" from people I haven't seen for months. It helped that the game was a good solid win, but I used the 2nd and 3rd quarters to catch up.
I love my new roommates (and the old ones.) After the game and a visit to Todd and Jason's new apartment (and a viewing of the new Brian Regan DVD - amazing) we had some serious bonding in Jennie and Marci's room. Krissie and Janie both have amazing taste in books and movies (read: very similar to my taste in books and movies) and I think we're going to be heavy in the good times department.
Our church doesn't start until 2:00, so we had WAY too much time on our hands this morning. I think it will be better next week - I'll know how to prepare and now waste my entire morning (plus I'll be able to eat.) I spent the morning reading in bed and then going from closet to closet trying to find something fun to wear. Krissie kept saying she was bored, so I asked if she wanted to do my hair (hers is always cute) and the result is what you see above.
Our church building (yes, church building, not building on campus!) is very nice, but seems to be engineered to let you show off. We had to walk up and down a lot of stairs while members of the opposite sex watched (this is not paranoia, I promise) and we had to walk into a Sunday school class with the entire class facing us. I never want to be late for that class. (The title of this post was my brother Ty's response to my lament that the first week in a new singles' ward makes one feel very on display. Amazing.) We got a good old-fashioned chastity talk out of 1st Corinthians (always a great way to start the year) but the rest of the meetings were nice, and our ward seemed mostly less awkward than is average for a BYU ward.
My favorite part of our new place is the balcony/outdoor entrance to our apartment. After church we made dinner (I was enlisted to sautée the zucchini and squash, and although I didn't eat any, I was told it was perfection in green and gold) and took it out onto the balcony to watch a rain storm under the cover of the overhang.
Ward prayer was more awkward than I thought it should be - I miss knowing everyone - but I think it will all get better.
Here's a picture of the other half of my now organized room. It's still kind of bare - I plan to use part of Labor Day to decorate - but it's pretty and clean and all of my drawers are lined with nice green and blue shelf paper. I'm sorry that I'm I'm not feeling terribly entertaining today - I'm sure that the hilarity will ensue shortly. Like the first time I forget that I have to carry a key now and get locked out. Curses.