Ode to Music

I love music. It is always there. It picks you up, pumps you up, makes you laugh, and reminds you of good and bad times in your life. The I-pod is the single greatest invention because as Daniel puts it "you now have your own movie music montage of your life." It is true because when I hear one of my favorite songs when I'm grocery shopping listening to my I-pod, I really do feel like the girl in the movies passing time with music to get on with the story. Anyways I really wanted to write this because I saw VH1's 100 greatest hits of the 90s. Now I love the 80s and always told myself that I was an 80s girl, but I always had to learn half the songs on their 80s count down as well as somehow knowing the other half. Last night I started to watch the 90s count down and knowing almost every song except the really hard core R&B (Jay Z, Tupac, etc). I kept screeching "oh I remember this song, or I love this one, or even oh no I have to change the channel because I still can't stand this song even a decade later." Now I know my sister-in-law could attest to how excited I get about 90s music especially when I found the 90s station on satellite radio, and started dancing in the car to every other song. In fact, I learned that I had finally became an "Atlantian" that same day because I was listening to early 90s R&B (because it is the only kind I can stand), Salt n' Pepper, bopping my head with all the windows down, bass flarin', in a Cadillac (pimped out no less because it was brand new--it was my moms) in Utah. I remembered that a week ago Daniel and I saw someone doing the exact same thing and we stared them down. Now I was getting stared down by a bunch of Latinos. I busted up laughing, but I couldn't help it. I am missing most of the music of this decade because both of our cars don't have the radio. I think that this relieves Daniel because he knows that he can get me to talk in the car instead of hearing me sing, or pay more attention to the music. Before the I-pod I loved my car and room the best because I could get all of my music all the time as loud as long as many times as I wanted. I am nearly at my ropes end and hope to have a radio working in one car soon. So this article is dedicated to all those people who love music especially the decade they grew up, but most importantly to my brother-in-law, Scott, who always talk music with me as well teach me the greatest hits of the 80s.
So here is my list of Artists who have impacted me in someway:
James Taylor--could you ever get over that voice? Fire and Rain
Guster--what song don't they make to fit your life, plus bongos how could you go wrong? Fa Fa
Damien Rice-- who would have thought a cello, guitar, and two incredible voices would make so many music montages? Volcano
Tori Amos--her popularity has died over the years, but I truly believe she is an musician, you can never go wrong with a voice and a piano (which I live many artist with this combo) Cornflake girl

Six of my Favorite Things

So Daniel and I have decided to take the tag that has been going around and tell six mostly unknown facts about us. I hope that you enjoy weird facts of life!
Analisa:
1. I played the flute and was good enough to be invited to go to a musical conservatory in Paris; however, due to lack of funds and wanting to finish high school in the States I never pursued it.
2. I dressed up in a chicken outfit for a ward party to play chicken foot. I went around to all of the tables clucking and let everyone try to guess who was in the chicken suit, and no one could guess.
3. I was in a terrorist attack. I was in London in 2005 when my tube train blew up. Fortunately, I woke up that morning with a sudden dislike of my job and decided to get back at it that day by going into work fairly late. I will never know if my train was the one that blew up or was the train after the blown up one that got caught in the tunnel, but Heavenly Father and I both know that I couldn't have handled being that near the explosion.
4. I have written and published a book for my folklore class. It can only be read by checking it out of the Marriott Library at the University of Utah.
5. I have done every major form of dancing except modern. I was never very good at it and at one point thought I looked like different animals when I danced; however my favorite was looking like a monkey. I do have to admit that I can't walk straight, and started to take ballet which helped my balance. I became the most graceful ballerina in my studio and was fortunate to have classes by one of the top modern dance teachers in the nation (she wasn't at that point in time, but is now).
6. I have this slight infatuation with the BBC. I use to watch all of the British comedy late night on Saturdays when I was in junior and high school. When my family finally got cable, I found BBC America and broke my almost five years without watch TV rule and watched nothing else by that station for the next three years. Daniel says that I can justify any TV show, no matter how bad, as long as I saw it on BBC America, BBC 1&2, ITV, Sky TV, BBC Wales, and BBC Scotland. It ended up as a good thing because that is how we found Doctor Who and who couldn't live without Doctor Who once you've seen it.

Daniel:

1. I've written a novel, which is unpublished. I did submit it for publication once, but got a nice rejection letter for my efforts instead. I'm okay with this, though, since I'm still learning a lot. But at least I wrote it.

2. When I was a kid, I had a teddy bear that swore at people. Despite his rudeness, he was considered a member of the family; one year we even had a birthday party for him, complete with a cake. Everyone went along with it, because hey, we all wanted to eat cake.

3. I used to train in Kendo - Japanese sword-fighting. It was mostly accompanied with Iaido, which is the "art form" of the sword, while Kendo would be considered the sport form (that's the best way to describe it at least). I only did it for a year, however, since schooling got so busy after that. It was a lot of fun, I still have the armor and some of the weapons.

4. I once ate grilled chicken stomach. It was tasty, if not a bit chewy.

5. I've written a Romance-themed short story. Partly as a joke and partly as a bet. My wife didn't think I could write it, that I'd be too embarrassed. I decided to prove her wrong and ended up writing the most cliched, terrible piece of writing ever to be put on paper. Although, now that I think about it, it couldn't be any worse than Stephanie Meyer's Twilight - please don't kill me, Stephanie Myer fans. Okay, I'll admit, it was worse than that. But it's like this, at a writer's workshop I attended taught by Orson Scott Card, he said: "Just write a suicide story and get it out of the way, and never show it it anyone." I kind of feel that way with this story, just write a romance story and get it out of the way, and never show anyone.

6. I once took a career placement test in junior high. I tried to slant all the answers so that it would make it look like I was interested in writing. When I got the test back, it told me I should be a bus driver.

Corpus Christi--The Body of Selena

So, here is my one posting on how great my job is. I thought I would give it some positive feedback since I'm about it chuck it out the door. I had the opportunity after Thanksgiving to spent 36 hours in Corpus Christi (meaning "the body of Christ" in Latin), Texas. I was so glad because it had been overcast and a little rainy in Atlanta, so to end up in sunny warm Texas was very nice. This is one of the nicest hotels that we get to stay in. It is right on the coastline. The neatest part is that you can walk down to the docks and see the replica of the Nina, that was sailed across the Atlantic. Looking at it you can see why Columbus had mutiny on his hands, the ship is so small, the Ford F150 is half of its size. My favorite part of the docks is the shrine to Selena, the Latin music star, that was killed by the president of her fan club. Every time I walk past it there are a ton of Latin people looking at, taking pictures, putting flowers on the shrine, and weeping. I would have thought she revolutionized a country with the way the people act. Now, I don't know if she did something radical, but I don't recalled that she did in the movie, besides I got her confused with J Lo for the longest time. I kept seeing J Lo and thinking aren't you dead or something? I got a great photo with no one in it because I was out and about so early. Now the best part of the whole experience is...The Water Street Oyster Bar. You go there during happy hour and you get oyster, peeled shrimp, and sushi for half off. It is awesome! Now this excites all of us (pilots and flight attendants) because we can go crazy on food and spend very little on our budgets. It made the whole month of November worth it.

Wake Up!!!

This is a typical morning with our cat. It happens at least twice a day. Once at three AM and then at about seven. Thanks Tera for sharing the video.