Day 38 - A song you know all the words to

This was a no-brainer. I know this song, backwards, forwards, upside-down. Really. Just have me listen to it. I'm pretty sure I could recite it in my sleep.

John Mayer is like Josh Groban - his voice is like an auditory hug. I mean, really, just listen to him. Please. He seems so ... perfect. When he sings this song, he's sensitive, but is in control. He sings from his heart, but also allows people to sing from theirs too.

I guess I'm just a sucker for singers whose names begin with "J." And who can play the guitar. That's probably another reason why I love this song - it's acoustic.

I'm sorry - this post has been sporadic. I'm not really quite sure why. Other than the fact that I just finished a hard essay, and my brain is pretty much kaput. Well that, and my heart has sufficiently melted after listening to this song.

I want to be the girl he talks about in the song ... and though she gets her heart broken, I guess I wouldn't really mind. Because at least he would sing about it, with his beautiful voice.

I want someone to love me enough to make both of us fall - for each other. But most of all, I think I want my name written in the sky.

Day 37 - A song that reminds you of a certain event

Wow. There are just so many of these songs to choose from. There are the obvious ones: soundtracks and orchestral music from the movies and plays that I've seen, my friends and I's "theme songs," and the songs that are quintessentially meant for certain moments (graduation, weddings, funerals, school fight songs ...). But here's one that seems a bit out of the ordinary.

This song reminds me of crossing the Cincinnati bridge into Kentucky. It seems weird. I know it does. But this is the song to listen to when crossing over - especially when crossing from Kentucky to Cincinnati.

How did this song become the theme song of that bridge? Let me explain:

I'm slightly in love with the movie Love Actually. It is one of three movies that I watch on a regular basis, and it one of the sweetest movies I know ... really. So one day, I got the soundtrack, and started listening to it. Nonstop. Well, I had gotten the soundtrack when we were in Baton Rouge, so on our drive back up north, this song came on. Right as we reached the bridge.

When you're driving from Kentucky to Cincinnati and cross this bridge, you're surrounded on all sides - there's the river below you, and metal supports on both sides. Above you is the southbound highway. The view is stunning. So not only do you get the gorgeous view while you're on the bridge, but as soon as you exit the tunnel/bridge, there it is: Cincinnati.

Most of the time when we were driving back, we would hit this point just around dusk. So the city is lit up, we have the headlights on, and this song in the background. It seems as if we're driving to someone, and it's imperative that we get there. Soon. The song was meant for when the child ran through the airport, and I always wish that at the end of the song, someone would come and meet me. Or I would arrive somewhere where my loved one is.

It hasn't happened yet. But I know that I'll be driving across the bridge again. And I'll always be hoping for that special someone to be waiting for me at the end of the bridge.

Day 36 - A song that reminds you of somewhere

There are a decent amount of songs that remind me of places: All Summer Long, Sweet Home Alabama, even University of Michigan's Victors or The Yellow and Blue. But I think there's one song that reminds me of multiple places at once: Michael Buble's Home.

I guess this reminds me of three places. Because I have three homes:

When I first heard this song, it was the summer of 2010. I was in Baton Rouge for five weeks with my family, but was missing my friends. One sent this to me, and I couldn't stop listening to it. I wanted to go 'home' to Grosse Pointe. To where my friends were, to where a budding relationship was, to where my pets and history were. I thought of Baton Rouge as a temporary home - a place for family gathering, and a place to tan by the pool.

But once I left Baton Rouge, I realized that I came to call that home too. It was where family was ... and though I may not have had a history there, I knew in my heart that home was where my family was. As soon as my mom and I crossed into Mississippi on our way back up north, I wanted nothing more than to turn around, go back to the apartment, and transfer to LSU, where I would never have to leave Baton Rouge. But I knew that wasn't possible. So I had two homes.

The third came slowly, and I knew it was going to come. The place is Ann Arbor. It is where I live most of the time, have most of my friends (or at least, all of my friends that are together); it's where my things are, and where at least some of my family is. It's close to my history, and only a short drive to the airport to where my newest home is. And it'll be my home for the next four years, no matter where else I can place the 'home' label to. We may move again, or sell our house in Grosse Pointe, but I'll always know that I have Ann Arbor to reside in, if only for eight months out of the year.

So that's it. This song reminds me of all three places, because no matter where I am, a little part of me always wants to be in the other places: whether it's for my history, my family, or my stuff. I'll always want to go home. Even when I am there.

Day 35 - A song that reminds you of someone

This is hard. I know that I've been saying that for most of the songs, but this one is really and truly hard. I mean, I have so many songs that I've listened to only with certain people, and so many of those are dear to my heart. But looking over the letters from last month, I realized that I didn't write one to a person that I wanted to. So here's a song that reminds me of them, and the letter I wish I had written.

Hey you.

I remember walking back from school with you one day in seventh or eighth grade, and you had just learned this song in choir. You started to sing it, and I loved it. Not only the melody and the chords, but also the message.

I realize that for a while, you raised me up. You supported me through lots of things: middle school, changing friends, changing priorities, and, most importantly, our changing friendship. I could always count on you to be there for me, until that one time.

We stopped talking one day. Or, rather, you stopped talking to me. And I've always kind of wondered, why?  Was it because someone told you to? I think we both know who that 'someone' would have been. Or did you think that our friendship was too far gone and just decided to give up without telling me?

It doesn't matter now. The damage was done. You let me fall after you had raised me up. And now I can't seem to get over that fact. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for upsetting you. I'm sorry for not "forgiving and forgetting." I'm sorry that I didn't ever follow up as to what happened.

But really, I'm sorry that the song isn't true anymore. I've realized over the years that I'm more without you than I was with you. You supported me, and lifted me to see new things, but those new things weren't at greater heights. They were only in a different direction. And I've realized, I much prefer the direction I'm heading now.

Day 34 - A song that makes you sad

Tim McGraw's If You're Reading This almost brings me to tears every time I hear it. If it's not the lyrics, it's the tune, if it's not the tune, it's the situation and mood I'm in when I decide to listen to the song, and if it's not any of those, I was probably already crying before the song came on.

I remember the first time I heard this song: I was with my Quiz Bowl team driving back from a tournament in Sterling Heights. It was snowing out, and we were driving with a senior in his mom's minivan. We had just lost our last game of the season, and everyone was a little mopey. This song came on the country station.

The premise is depressing: a soldier has left to go to war and has died overseas. This is his final letter to his family - it states that if they are reading the letter, that he's "home" in heaven. There are little notes to everyone in his letter: to his wife, to his mother, to his unborn daughter, and to his father, who was also a soldier.

I wish that the families of soldiers can have something like this (not that I wish for any more soldiers to die). I wish that each of the members can have a personalized goodbye from their soldier. But even more than that, I wish that every soldier can have a round-trip ticket from their place of duty. A round-trip they can remember.

Day 33 - A song that makes you happy

Just like my favorite song, this is a hard category. I think that this time it's because I have multiple different forms of "happy." And for a song to make me happy, it seems to me as if I would have to be not happy first. And depending on which mood I'm coming from, there will be a different song that will get me to the "happy" point. But here's one:

(the video is a tad weird .. it's just the lyrics, but for some reason the official video wouldn't load on my computer ....)

Anyways. This song. Is. Amazing.

I heard it for the first time in Baton Rouge - my mom and I were in the mall and all of a sudden I hear the end of this song as we walk into a store. I fell in love with the end, and after we got home, I fell in love with the whole song.

I think that it's so adorable that it plays on the "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" saying. And the fact that most of the stanzas are about a guy asking a girl out ... it's just so cute. I feel as if that is how every guy should ask their crush out. Sing this song. Or, better yet, have Chris Rice come and perform it. Take a chance, and just take hold of the beauty of romancing. I feel as if so much of that has gone away.

But then again, I really am a sucker for happy endings.

I hope you are too.

Day 32 - Your Least Favorite Song

So this was hard. I looked on my iPod and couldn't really find a song that I really didn't like ... or rather, that I never liked ever. I guess I should try to explain that: I go through phases. I listen to songs non-stop, but then can never listen to them again (or have to wait an extremely long time before I can bear to hear them). So I found a song that I used to love, well ... used to like. But now I just can't stand it - and I honestly wonder why I ever had it on any playlist in the first place.

I was shown this song by a friend. It is his favorite band. And for a while I had this song, along with another 311 song (Daisy Cutter) on my playlist. But listening to it again, I really wonder what I found in the song. I don't particularly like the musical aspect of it, and the lyrics are ... alright. Maybe. I mean, I guess it's cool that in the end it's talking about music, but really? A song about music being your best friend? I don't know ... it just doesn't strike me as all that great anymore. Not that it was ever all that great to begin with .....