5 Songs I Sing Along With No Matter What

Last fall I shared 5 songs that make me happy no matter what, and I wanted to
keep going with a few more lists.  Also, though, this is a selfish request for you to tell me what songs you like to sing along to, because I'm always in the market for new tunes to add to my list.  What do you crank up on the radio and pull your hairbrush out for?

5 Songs I sing along with no matter what:

"Defying Gravity" - Idina Menzel, Wicked
I mean, how can you not belt out with Idina when this suspiciously comes up in your not-show-tunes Spotify playlist?
 

"Somebody that I Used to Know" - Gotye, Kimbra
I loved this song the first time I heard it.  I love the angst.  I love the passion.  I love that it's all in my range and that I can switch to harmonies in the final chorus.

"Livin' on a Prayer" - Bon Jovi
I feel like this one needs no explanation, it's just a guarantee that the whole car will sing along to this song.  Whenever I'd go to norebang (Korean karaoke) with my work friends, this song always made an appearance and everyone always sang as loudly as they could.

"Cosmic Love" - Florence + The Machine
This is the song I sing to when I want to work on my vocal focus and breathing technique.  I took three years of voice lessons during college, I'm now way out of practice, and trying to match Florence's powerful voice is like a challenge to do better myself.

"Distraction #74" - The Avett Brothers
This one's a throwback to college when I'd ride with my friend Millie who always had The Avett Brothers playing in her stick shift car.  This song means loud and crazy fun during some of the best times of my life.

How to NOT Spend Hours Drying Your Long Hair

A few weeks ago, my hair was very, very long.  No, it wasn't to my butt, I don't think it was even to my shoulders, but it was really long, and it took a very long time to dry.  In fact, by the time I'd got my hair 98% dry and reached the point where I wanted to give up, my body was all sweaty again after spending so much time around my hair dryer's heat!

Out of necessity, I had to find a different option, and I've actually been able to collect a few ways to make thing better!  All of these are anecdotal solutions, and I know everyone's hair is different, but maybe these will work for you like they worked for me.

photo by Morgan Sessions via Unsplash

Happy August!

How has your summer been?  After a crazy July, I'm welcoming this new month with open arms.  There are a few things I'm particularly excited about, though.

#1 My birthday is the 17th!

#2 I'm going to go to the Georgia Aquarium!  (They let you in for free on your birthday)

#3 Ton Ton (a new ramen place!) is set to open this August in Ponce City Market!
#4  My bff Millie and I are planning on getting together again this month, and I'll get to meet her brand new baby girl!

#5 Work has a steadier schedule this month, so I think me personal time will be more regular, too, which means more dancing and reading!
#6 I'm getting a haircut on the 15th, and it's been a loooong time coming.  I'm going to be going from very long hair back to just regular long hair with bangs again, and I can't wait!

#7 We're one month closer to camping plans, Coastal Carolina Fair plans, and all around general future plans!  Woohoo, onward and upward!

Thanks for following along, y'all!  I hope your August is looking great, too!

Yellowstone Vacation Recap (with pictures!!!)

We're back!

If you haven't seen on my Instagram, I took a trip to Yellowstone National Park two weeks ago.  After a killer week back at work and our awesome Demo Day (congratulations to my awesome students on graduating!!), I've finally got some time to upload some photos and share a bit!

My Inner Anthem

Imagine if, every time you walked into a room, one particular song would play for everyone to hear.  What would your song be?

I'd like to think that "End Credits" from the Serenity soundtrack would be my song.  It's adventure, excitement, confidence, and rugged beauty--a lot of what I imagine my life to be (even when it isn't).  My real inner jam, though, is "Speaking Japanese" by Shiny Toy Guns.

First of all, I love how all the vocals are female and they're all in my range, so I can sing my heart out on every line.  I love how the sounds of the girls' voices along with the music is unapologetic bad assery paired with the strong femininity; this is all woman going on here, but it's not a caricature of any kind.  I love the subtle Japanese in the background, and finally I love the line "I will arrive on a dragon."  Pure awesome.

What would your outer song or your inner song be?  What's been playing on your speakers these days?

P.s.  5 Songs that make me happy no matter what

Recommended with Summer

Instead of finally writing out my thoughts on the controversy on the Confederate Flag or what I think the Church's response to the SCOTUS decision should be (I'm still working on articulating those things in my head), I want to drop a few jewels from this summer.

Snaps from our hiking trip in Lookout Mountain this weekend

Something Fun to do in Atlanta

My mother-in-law likes to give her children experiences as gifts more than just things.  Last Christmas, she got Caleb and I an annual membership to Callaway Gardens, and this summer, she got all us kids a tree top experience at Panola State Park, and most recently she got us slots on a game at Mission Escape.

This was all of our first times doing anything like Mission Escape, but we were pretty sure we were going to have a good time.  Each game is an hour spent in a locked room looking for clues that will allow you to solve the mystery and escape the room.  Of course, if there's an emergency or anything goes wrong, there's a staff member available to free the players.  The staff member also is allowed to give out 3 hints, which ended up being invaluable to our team the evening we went.

Fewer than 30% of teams who play actually win and figure out the puzzle.  Once we heard the odds, our collective competitive spirit rose to the occasion.  We really wanted to beat the game!

Each game at Mission Escape allows for ten people to play at a time.  We kids made up eight, and then two others we didn't know, a super cool couple, were also in our game.  Turns out we needed every mind in the room, because there were multiple puzzles that needed to be figured out all at the same time if we were going to make it out in an hour.  There were secrets, surprises, misleads, and super awesome I won't share because I don't want to spoil anything.  Even with the pressure mounting with every passing minute, we had a total blast.  Everything came to a head right before the end of our 60 minutes, when we were sure we were on the last puzzle.  We ended up breaking all the codes we needed and made it out with just under 3 minutes to spare!  Oh the elation!  The adrenaline!  The glory!

I'd highly recommend visiting Mission Escape Atlanta, bringing all your good-natured friends, and checking this out.  Winning the game sure gave us a good time, but I think that even without making it to the end before the hour was up would still be a blast.

Mission Escape plans to release another game soon this summer.  We're planning on making another trip there as soon as it's available.  It's located right near Atlantic Station, which is super convenient as it's right off the connector of I-75 and I-85.  Tickets are $28 each, but especially if you're going to a team building event or just an off the wall, fun experience, it's worth it.  Enjoy!