j4 - Laura likes British boy bands... don't judge!

For this choice blog, I need to express my love for a band that I recently discovered, and have become obsessed with. I can’t help it. They’re young, talented, carefree, cool, and British. What’s not to love? They’re called The Wanted.

They consist of four British guys and one Irish guy (accent love overload!), and they’re just irresistible. They got their start on The X Factor. They didn’t even make it past the first round and onto the show, but they ended up making their own career. Tom Parker, the oldest member of the band, age twenty three, happens to be my favorite. He plays soccer and is pretty goofy and chill, like me.

Yeah, some of their songs might be incredibly cheesy, but you just have to love them! Besides, everyone has to start somewhere in the music business. They have actually been compared to Coldplay, so they are woth a listen. They are really sweet guys in general, and care so much about their fans. Watching their interviews just makes my heart melt! I follow all of them on Twitter, and it’s cool to see their excitement, gratitude, and appreciation for the things they are able to do, especially here in America. In case you were ever wondering, my favorite songs by them are “Gold Forever” and “Glad You Came’, both off their newest album.

They are actually on their first U.S. tour right now, but the closest they come to around here is, like, Philadelphia, and I can’t really afford to go there just to see them in concert right now. But I would love to!

I can only imagine that my obsession for this band will only get bigger. They just released their second album, and I believe that they are coming out with a third at the end of the year. 

j2 - February will be the month of excitement

Since I already wrote about my fifth grade teacher for another blog, I’m using this as a choice blog. A perfect topic for this choice blog is the upcoming month of February, and how exciting it will be! I have big plans for the second month of this year.

In the first week of February, on the sixth to be exact, I turn eighteen years old! Words can’t even really explain how excited I am about this. Which is kind of weird, because that fact still hasn’t really sunk in yet. My birthday is on a Monday, the day after the Superbowl, which is also exciting. My friend has promised to bring me a medium coffee with one cream (just the way I like it) that morning, so it’s sure to start off great. Then, that evening, my other friends that are eighteen and I plan on celebrating with a night out on the town. You only turn eighteen once, right?

Once the excitement of the eighteenth birthday has subsided, I leave for a vacation to Orlando and Daytona with my parents, brother, and cousins. We have a magnificent house rented in Orando, and a hotel in Daytona that is right on the water. This trip is going to be especially momentous for me because it will be the first time that I get to take my first steps in the ocean. Knowing how much I love the beach and the water, this will be extremely exciting and meaningful to me.

Just when it sounds like my birthday month couldn’t get any better, my aunt (who is going on vacation with us) told me that she would be willing to pay for my tattoo as part of my birthday present. She said I could even get it in Florida on vacation! Since I want to get some waves tattooed on me (so fitting), it would be nice to get it while there. All I have to say is... the rest of January better go by fast!

j3 - The bands that complete my life

I think I’ve written about each of my favorite bands at least once, because I love them so much. For this blog, I’ll choose my top three (or maybe four, because sometimes it’s hard to choose).

My very favorite band of all time is The Tragically Hip. They are Canadian, which just adds to my love of them. I don’t even think there is a song by them that I don’t like. In fact, their song “Bobcaygeon” is one of my favorite songs of all time. I had the privilege of seeing The Hip live this past summer at the Buffalo Harbor. It was general admission, so my cousin and I pushed our way up as close to the stage as we could. They have such a truly unique sound that I love. We sometimes listen to The Tragically Hip in Crystal Beach, too, so when I hear certain songs it immediately takes me back to the cottage and swimming at the beach.

Coming in a close second for my favorite band is Third Eye Blind. I’m so fond of them, that I wrote a whole choice blog on them last week. They too have such unique songs. Their lyrics actually mean something, and I love listening to songs I can connect with. I’ve never had the chance to see Third Eye Blind live, but I would love to! Especially since they might not be touring for much longer.

Lastly but certainly not least, coming in third place for my favorite band, is Oasis. Besides “Wonderwall” (which just so happens to be my favorite song ever, hands down), they have much more notable music. And they’re British, which is pretty awesome. I have a bit of a soft spot for Brits and their adorable accents. Even though they’re not together anymore, I always listen to their music to this day. The brothers, Liam and Noel, that founded Oasis have their own individual music out now as well, and it’s just as fabulous. 

j1 - "there goes my hero, he's ordinary"

To me, a hero is anyone who you can always count on. They set a good example for everyone around them. A hero makes you want to be like them someday, just like children look up to superheroes in comic books. The hero in my life is my dad. I think the reason I look up to him so much is because me and my dad and I are so similar. We have the same personality and some of the same interests. According to most people, we even look alike.

One of the foremost reasons I look up to my dad is because, for a lack of a better term, he’s really “chill”. Even when he is stressed or under pressure, he doesn’t show it. He tries to keep his composure. He doesn’t sweat the small stuff, which I think is really important in life; it keeps you sane and happier overall. I try to take after him in this way especially. Similarly, he can always find humor in a bad situation. He copes with tough times with ease, and is also the first one to make a joke and lighten the situation.

There are other reasons I look up to my dad. I find him to be so interesting and intriguing to listen to. I love to hear stories of him when he was a kid, and even my age. I remember me and my brother would look forward to camping trips when we were little, because my dad would tell us the story of Roland from Stephan King’s Dark Tower novels from memory.

I think it’s wonderful that I am able to stay close with my dad as I get older. We bond over so much, like music, books, and hobbies. My dad plays the drums, and I think that shows immense talent and dedication.

I truly hope that one day when I get older, I can be just as magnificent a person as he is. He just loves life and is always so thankful, and he gives me someone to look up to and fall back on. And to me, that is a hero.

i4 - "I need something else to get me through this semi-charmed kind of life!"

One of my favorite bands is Third Eye Blind. So, I would like to use this choice blog as a Third Eye Blind appreciation blog! I have to credit my Dad with introducing me to Third Eye Blind. My dad first introduced me to the band when I was a freshman in high school. We both loved the song Jumper by them, so he suggested many more of their songs for me to check out. Pretty soon, I was hooked. For our camping trip that year, I made a whole mix CD consisting of nothing but Third Eye Blind. With both new and old songs, it was perfect. I’ve always liked 90’s alternative music, but Third Eye Blind is definitely my favorite from that category. They are in my top three bands of all time! Their sound is pretty unique, and their lyrics are unbelievably full of meaning. One of my favorite lyrics from one of their songs is “…you come swimming into view, and I’m hanging on your words like I always used to do…”. I like songs that I can relate to or remind me of something that has happened to me, so a lot of their songs are special for me. For example, I love the opening line of their song titled “Can’t Get Away”, because it says “I miss the sand on the concrete floor…” and this distinctly reminds me of Crystal Beach. I even have a whole playlist, of probably almost every song they have ever written, dedicated to them on Spotify. It’s actually titled “TEB”, because I was apparently too lazy to type out their full name at the time. Whenever I’m feeling nostalgic, or just feel like listening to some quality music, I put it on. And you know, sometimes I just feel that it’s necessary to listen to them because they are just that remarkable; and even moving.

Ending 2011 the right way!

This New Year’s Eve was definitely the highlight of my holiday break. I got paid the day before, so I went to the mall on New Year’s Eve morning and did some much needed shopping for myself. Right from the mall, at about 12:30 in the afternoon, I had to go to work. Work wasn’t even that bad, because it was not that busy. After I got out of work, it was about 6:00 in the evening. I was ecstatic when I got out of work because all of my fabulous cousins were already at my house beginning the New Year’s Eve festivities. When I arrived, I declared that “the party had finally arrived” and began spending time with my fam. Dinner was also ready shortly after I got home, which was perfect timing. I enjoyed a lovely steak dinner and shrimp cocktail. I just loved the atmosphere of the night, with me and my family all gathered together and finishing the year off right. However, the night only proceeded to get better. Around 10 at night, my best friend called me and said that she had just gotten out of work from a local restaurant, and we made plans for me to meet her at her house. I drove the short, one minute drive to her house, and I finished my celebrations with her, and we ended 2011 with a bang! After the ball drop we stayed up quite a bit. We even went for a walk around her block, because it’s really calm and it was a cool but calm night. When we finally went to bed, it was probably around 4:30 in the morning. We slept until 2 in the afternoon the next day, and woke up and watched a little bit of the Bills game. Then we decided to go to try out the new Tim Horton’s in Alden. My friend had to go to work that afternoon, so I headed home after that. It was definitely the most memorable New Year’s Eve that I’ve had in a while, and also the highlight of my holiday break!

My Bucket List

I guess you could say that my “bucket list” is filled with pretty simple things that I wish to accomplish. But, that’s just me. Pretty simple. So, the top three things that I came up with were to see Kenny Chesney live in concert, become fluent in French, and Scuba dive.

I would like to see Kenny Chesney live first off because he is one of my favorite music artists. He is country with a little bit of rock, which I love. The way he writes his songs are amazing. They are so relatable. I can pick at least one line out of literally every song and relate it to something in my own life. And most of the time he writes about the beach and summer, so obviously I would love that. One of my favorite songs of all time is actually by me, and it would probably complete my life if I got the chance to see him perform that song live. It would be incredible to see him live because I have such a connection with a lot of his songs. Whenever I listen to his songs, they take me back to summers with my best friend.

Next on my list, I would like to become fluent French. I’ve taken five years of French classes already, but Alden decided not to run the French 5 class. Before I die, I want to become fluent in French because I think it’s incredibly cool to be able to speak a language other than your own. It would also be useful to me, because French is the second language in Canada, and I travel there often and plan to travel there even more in the future.

Lastly, before I die, I want to go scuba diving. All of the footage or pictures of it I see are beautiful! And anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love being in the water, so it’s really perfect for me. I could get to experience the aquatic life in the most up close and personal way possible.

"I need light in the dark as I search for the resolution"

First off, the awesome title of this blog post was brought to you by Jack's Mannequin. It was kind of difficult for me to think of a New Year’s resolution for 2012. I couldn’t really go the traditional route and say that I want to eat healthy and exercise; because I already am pretty proud to say that I pride myself on having a good diet and work out regimen.  So, I think for my resolution, I would like to be less careless with my money spending. Especially now that I have recently gotten a job, it’s so easy for me to just spend my whole paycheck on things that I don’t really need, just because I can. The worst part is that most of the time, I even feel guilty after wards. It’s getting to the point where I need to really take a step back and reassess my financial choices. In the New Year, I would like to set aside about one hundred dollars of my paycheck each week or so. My hopes are that this will essentially teach me the better value of a dollar, and saving skills for the future. I can already think of some things off the top off my head that can benefit from this resolution. It can make it a lot easier to make car and phone payments to my parents, it can help me build good credit, and I can have “emergency” money if I ever need it. Overall, it will even help increase maturity and responsibility levels in myself. So, even if it sounds kind of lame or cliché, I think that this resolution of saving money for myself and not spending every penny of it on pointless things (like Tim Hortons, which I have a huge addiction to) will be very beneficial. I can’t deny that it might be hard and somewhat heartbreaking for me, but I will definitely stay true to this resolution.