Within the last week I spent a few days in Texas, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio- three of which are states I had never been to before. That meant lots of plane rides.
I had a fabulous time.
I found myself taking TOO MANY pictures from the air on my phone.
somewhere over Arizona
I remembered how much I really love flying.
I think gliding through the air looking out the window at homes, schools, football fields (my favorite thing to see from the air), mountains, lakes, rivers, and clouds is one of the most awesome feelings in the world.
I could never be a pilot, but I definitely wouldn't mind dating someone who could take me flying!
Anyone got any prospects they wanna introduce me to??
Sorry I missed Monday and Tuesday, I was still on my grad school trip. In fact, I've literally just gotten home and even though it feels like 1:30am to me (it's only actually 10:30pm in CA as I'm writing this) I wanted to get a Music Wednesday post up.
Before I do, I can't wait to tell you all lots of fun stuff about my trip, so stay tuned for that later this week!
And now the music.
I didn't feel like picking just one, so I'm doing another lil five in one post like this one here. This one is simply going to include some of my current and all time favorites =)
1. Gavin DeGraw- Soldier: This is a current fave. If you watched the series finale of OTH, then you heard this song. It's fantastic and possibly my favorite on Gavin's most recent album, Sweeter.
2. All Time Low- Remembering Sunday: All Time Low is one of my ALL TIME favorite bands. I think I may have mentioned them on the blog before (in fact as I write this I'm almost positive I have...). I finally got the chance to see these guys in person last year, and they certainly did not disappoint. Remembering Sunday is without a doubt my all time favorite song by them, but I do have many other favorites.
3. Somebody That I Used To Know (cover)- Phillip Phillips & Elise Testone: When these two sing together, they can do no wrong. Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know is all over the place right now, and I've got to be honest- I didn't love it at first. This version won me over. The lyrics are so strong, and hearing them from Phillip and Elise's voices made them that much more personal/real to me.
4. Why Can't This Be Love- Van Halen: I once saw Carrie Underwood cover this song, and I've loved it ever since. Another all time fave. I'm a big fan of the straightforward question in this song's chorus =)
5. Own Side- Caitlin Rose: This song falls somewhere between a current favorite and an all time favorite, but Caitlin Rose is someone I hadn't heard of until sometime last year and I just love her simple country-folk sound. Her album, Own Side, came out in August 2011 and it's full of great songs. Own Side and Learning to Ride are probably my two faves. If you haven't heard her before I certainly recommend checking her out on Spotify. Oh and I initially discovered her because of this adorable child's cover. Check it out below.
You never know where the next miracle is going to come from. The next smile, the next wish come true. But if you believe that it's right around the corner, and you open up your heart and mind to the possibility of it, to the certainty of it, you just might get the thing you're wishing for. The world is full of magic. You just have to believe in it.
So make your wish.
Do you have it?
Good.
Now believe in it, with all your heart.
This is my all time favorite One Tree Hill quote. I had tears in my eyes when they used it to close the series last week. It originally comes from Season Five-Episode 13: Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace. That is one of the few episodes I bought, and keep in my iTunes library.
I believe wholeheartedly in our ability to create our own happiness in life.
This quote speaks to that ability.
Make a wish, place it in your heart, believe in the certainty of it, and make that wish come true.
Last week on American Idol, Phillip Phillips (my favorite contestant by far, see here when I predicted he would win) and Elise Testone sang an AMAZING duet that I have not been able to stop playing since. The two teamed up to sing Stevie Nick's & Tom Petty's "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around".
I love both Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty, and despite already having this song in my iTunes library, I had never heard this song before.
Phillip and Elise's duet was amazing.
The song itself is amazing.
One day I'm going to need to memorize all the words in the thesaurus that also mean amazing because I use amazing WAY too often.
Check out the duet below. Then do yourself a favor and go check out the original as well if you've never heard it.
Amazing.
P.S. Today I'm doing my official Texas A&M visit. Follow my on Instagram (AshleyCan04) or Twitter to keep up with where I'll be next.
Yesterday was my last day of work for a while, and as you are reading this I am most likely 30,000 feet above the ground flying from Fresno to Houston, TX. After which I'll be driving from Houston to College Station for my first of three grad school visits!
If you wanna keep up with me while I am on my trip, follow me on Instagram (AshleyCan04) and or on Twitter!
My blog posting may be somewhat sporadic for the next week or so, I have a few posts pre-scheduled but I really don't like writing super far in advance.
Can't wait to share all my adventures with you when I get back!
One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is watch YouTube.
I am a huge YouTube nerd.
I've said this before but my ideal job would be to be a professional vlogger.
One of the first people I ever watched on YouTube was Phillip DeFranco, or sxephil. He is a very popular YouTuber who does a Mon-Thurs show on "newsy type stuff and things that matter to [him]".
Not to long ago he started up a new channel, SourceFed, which does a Mon-Thurs show called "20 Minutes or Less". The three hosts- Elliot Morgan, Joe Bereta, and Lee Newton- release 4-5 videos per day each on a different current event-ish topic.
All three of these hosts are hilarious, and I completely love the way they write these 3ish minute videos.
If you've never watched, I highly recommend you check out the video below- it's from one of the days last week that I found particularly funny. Disclaimer- I am not a Star Wars fan but I am familiar enough with it to find this video HILARIOUS.
I also love the blooper videos they release on occasion. Warning before you press the play button on the vid below- Lee likes to yell, and there is a significant amount of bleeping throughout the video, so make sure you're wearing headphones if for some reason you are watching this at work.
But of course you're not reading this at work... right?
Since I got cute for Easter, I decided to take advantage of it for the blog and snap a few pics of myself out in front of my house.
I picked up this dress while outlet shopping with Karissa a couple weeks ago. Just a few days earlier I had seen Elise Testone, a contestant on this years American Idol, wearing a VERY similar outfit. While ranting and raving to Karissa about how I would love to find a similar skirt/top combo like Elise's, I found the dress I'm wearing above at Rue21.
Striking similarity right?!
I intended to wear the dress at Stagecoach- and I probably still will- but it has been staring at me ever since I brought it home, just waiting to be worn. Since the weather decided to be GORGEOUS this weekend, I felt I just had to take advantage of the opportunity to wear this dress for the first time.
The shoes are some fun chunky heels I picked up at Target years ago, and I don't know how to accessorize so I kept it simple, only wearing my ADPi lavaliere necklace. I see my hair as my greatest accessory so I rocked some big messy waves for the day.
This is one of the many reasons I'm not a fashion blogger, I like to make faces like this while posing for pictures =)
This past weekend I was at home complaining about being bored and driving my family insane when I decided to head over to goodreads.com and check it out since I had seen Becca posting about it.
Meaning I now have an account, so if you do too you should add me! You can find me via my email acanfield04@gmail.com.
After signing up for a free account, and rating about 20 books that I've read in the past, it gave me lists upon lists of recommendations.
I was so excited!
Because I loved The Hunger Games so much, I decided to look for books similar to that series.
I quickly picked out The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.
Here's a little description courtesy of GoodReads.
Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives. But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?
The book was definitely a page turner, filled with suspense. The book is in first person stream of consciousness from main character Todd Hewitt's perspective. It is written exactly how he speaks, poor grammar and all. My first thought when I began reading was "ugh I wish I had read a preview, I don't think I would have bought this" because the grammar and spelling really bothered me. But as I got in to the story (which doesn't take long) I let that go and immersed myself in his world.
My biggest complaint is that this is certainly book one of a series. There is not an ending, at least not an ending that a reader can be satisfied with without continuing on in the series.
I gave it 3 of 5 stars on GoodReads. If you are a fan of young adult, dystopian society books (like The Hunger Games) with an interesting twist you will enjoy this book like I did. But be prepared to either continue the series or be mildly disappointed with the lack of ending.
However, should you choose to continue the series (which I did) you will be pleasantly surprised with the addition of a second perspective in book two.
Oh an I'm linking up with these girls (below) for Book Club Fridays!
Go see what others are reading in blog land!
As you all know yesterday was my birthday (and the series finale of OTH... so sad) but that is just the beginning of the excitement of all I've got going on this month.
Here's a little run down of the big stuff I've got coming up:
1. Easter- Of course, the family is getting together for Easter this weekend and celebrating together by eating mass amounts of spare ribs. Hopefully I will also be squeezing in a visit with my wonderful friend Bethany who will be in town celebrating Easter with her own family.
My family at Christmas 2011
2. Grad School Visits: From April 11th to April 17th I will be traveling to Texas A&M in College Station, TX, Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, and The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. If University of South Carolina had acted as quickly as these schools I would have thrown them in the mix too, unfortunately they just recently informed me that they would like to interview me, and I decided to respectfull decline since I already have my plate full with these other programs. I have been accepted to all three of these schools, have a few scholarship options to consider, and it's decision making time. I'm hoping that one will really stand out on the trip, but most likely I'm going to love them all...
3. Trip to San Fran: The weekend after returning from my grad school trip, I will be off to SF to celebrate Bethany's birthday and hang out with Britt who is also flying up for the weekend. No doubt it will be an amazing visit.
Can't wait to hang out with these girls!
4. STAGECOACH: The final weekend of April is all about Stagecoach. For those of you that don't know Stagecoach is a three day country music festival held out in Palm Desert. I went last year and had an amazing time, but this year we are kicking it up a notch because we are camping on site! So far we have five of us girls, and one super awesome boyfriend/protector staying on our 10x30 campsite. It is safe to say that it is going to be a really interesting/fun/crazy experience. Oh and the line up of artists is amazing as always. Brad Paisley, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, Alabama, Martina McBride, Luke Bryan (ahh I love him), Sara Evans, The Band Perry, Eli Young Band, and on and on.
Check out my Stagecoach playlist on Spotify HERE.
Stagecoach last year
With all this craziness going on May will be here before I know it!
It's safe to say I am so excited for this all to get going!
I debated titling this post "Nobody likes you when you're 23" but that just seemed too depressing for a birthday post.
Today is my 23rd birthday!
I specifically remember telling a couple of my older friends how OLD they were when they turned 23 (and I was still a young innocent 20) and it is strange to me that I am now at that age.
But hey, they are now 25 so they are even OLDER now!
The picture below was from my birthday dinner last year, which was by far my favorite birthday ever. It was one of the first times in the past few years that I was able to get (almost- there were still people missing) all of my good friends together to celebrate my birthday.
Tomorrow is my birthday, so instead of doing my normal music post on Wednesday, I am doing it today! AND I'm going to do something a little different... Hope that's alright with you guys =)
Today I'm going to show you guys some of the essential songs that are going on to my April playlist.
Yes, I make a new playlist ever month. I continually add to it throughout the month with new/old discoveries and downloads, then start all over the next month.
There is definitely a decent amount of country making its way back in to my playlists. Springtime means short shorts and country music- and Stagecoach! But more on Stagecoach another time.
Here is just a tiny little bit of April:
Josh Turner: so sexy
1. Time Is Love- Josh Turner: This man has the sexiest voice ever, so of course his (relatively) new single must be on the list. I saw him at Stagecoach last year, and let me tell you, his voice is just as impressive in person.
2. The Vision of Love- Kris Allen: I love love loved Kris Allen (and the monkey mouth he makes when he sings) back on American Idol Season 8. His new single is wonderful, it's a beautiful message.
3. Jason Aldean- Fly Over States: This song is not new by any means, but it is his current single and has been getting lots of airplay on the radio lately. Since I will soon be moving to one of those "fly over" states, it has new meaning to me, and I can't wait for my trip to visit grad schools when I will literally be driving though Indiana.
4. Boyfriend- Justin Bieber: Ok, I'm still not sold on the weird whisper rapping parts, but the song is slowing growing on me. What can I say, I just love me some JBiebs...
5. No Man's Land- Will Hoge: This guy is someone you may not have heard of, but if you're a country fan you have probably heard his song "Even If It Breaks Your Heart" covered by the Eli Young Band. I LOVE this song, and I was actually a little peeved when I learned that it was not an Eli Young Band original. It made me sad that Will Hoge isn't getting the credit he deserves for his beautiful song. But it did lead me to check out Will Hoge's newer music. I enjoyed his entire Number Seven album; No Man's Land, Fools Gonna Fly, and Goddamn California are my favorites.
Check out Will singing his original version of "Even If It Breaks Your Heart" below.
He is a lil sweaty for my liking here... But I love his raspy voice.
Let me know what y'all are listening to this month!
Since I failed at blogging last week, I'll give you guys one Monday post with the two big highlights from last week.
Those of you that read my blog Friday already got a lil preview.
Last weekend I took a trip to LA to hang out with a few of my best friends and celebrate Brittany's birthday. Of course, the weekend started out with seeing The Hunger Games for the second time with Karissa.
Then a day of mani/pedis, enjoying the beautiful LA weather (before the rain set in) and, of course, good times dancing to Call Me Maybe getting ready for Britt's bday dinner and night out.
Here's a few pictures.
At Dinner
And...
Overall it was a super fun night and we all had a wonderful time celebrating the first bday of bday season. I have a ton of friends who were born in April (like me!) so Britt marks the beginning since her bday is March 20th.
I also finally go to put the concert tickets I won to good use! My amazing former roomie, Jo, drove down to see Lady Antebellum, Darius Rucker, and Thompson Square with me! Our seats were awful (hey you can't argue with FREE) but we had an awesome time.
Here are some pics from that:
And of course, all three artists.
And just for good measure... Here is one of the MANY videos I took. I turned it in to a little slideshow of pictures at the beginning since the concert footage is mid song (the concert footage starts a little less than halfway in to the vid). Check it out.
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