Welcome Summer

I'm positive I am not the first person and will not be the last to say this, but college absolutely drains all of my time. Of course I work, go out with friends, and take time to live but many parts of my life get pushed to the back burner during the school months. One of these just so happens to unfortunately be music. This means that during the summer I spend a lot of my time just catching back up on new music, CD releases, and exploring the hidden parts of Youtube.

One of my best friends, Baylen, and I are both music junkies and have had an ongoing music swap since freshman year. I don't like to admit it but he gives me pretty great artists to listen to. Tonight I was feeling the restlessness of not going on a late night drive since being at school. Almost as if he could sense it, he sent me Cherry by Luna Shadows. Everything about it is so lovely and exactly what I needed for my anxiousness. I then got curious about the Youtube channel it's on and found Swim by Valley. Now spoiler alert: it has been a very long time since a song has made me laugh out loud. This isn't a funny song in the slightest, it just made me that happy. If you are looking for some extra songs for your summer playlist then I recommend these two songs and the Youtube channel "IndieAir". If you are looking for stars out, windows down, your love sitting in the passenger seat then get ready to be pleasantly surprised. Let summer commence.

35 days

Ah the sweet smell of the semester winding down- or picking up? As it gets to the end I can never quite tell whether it slows down or speeds up. As of today there are 35 days remaining of my junior year of college and I have to say that some days I am ready and others I close my eyes and just hold on tight.

Being in a place for too long makes me antsy. During the school year I work at my school's rock wall and sitting in the small place 18 hours a week can drive me insane on slow nights. Working in the rock wall is kind of like life for me. When things are the same day after day, I'm ready to move. I have to stand up and walk away for a little bit. The end of the semester is very much like this. I'm getting tired of sitting behind a desk and studying for something new every night. I'm ready for late nights at camp with my man in the car next to me. I need late night drives and swimming pools and no anxiety from impending tests.

There's 35 days remaining of this semester and even though I am very much burnt out; I want to make it worth something. I don't want to count down the days until the weekend or the summer. I want to study hard while I can and pass the exams coming up with ease.

So here's to 35 days and not counting I suppose.

Bucket List

My bucket list is something that lies pretty close to my heart. I would love to get everything knocked off, but realistically I know that I'm just going to keep adding on items as I go. That doesn't make it any less fun though to say I completed an item! Speaking of completing an item, in the last two days of summer I was lucky enough to knock off two of the items on my list. Those happened to be "be a bridesmaid" and "fly first class".

I was asked by one of my closest cousin's if I could stay home for an extra week and be one of her bridesmaids at her wedding- and I'm so glad I did! Being able to stand with someone who was one of my closest friends as a child was such a blessing and I couldn't be happier for the bride and groom. They had a beautiful ceremony and from my eyes, everything went perfectly (besides the songs that the bridal party was supposed to dance out to but I'm better at improv anyway). 

The second item I completed was one of those that didn't really matter if I checked it off or not. I've flown both by myself and with others multiple times but this flight I got lucky with a deal to upgrade my seat to include three free bags for only 20 or so dollars more! My thoughtful parent's surprised me with it and it was perfect because it was actually cheaper to pay for the upgrade rather than pay for the two bags I already had and the shipping costs that would have had to been paid for what I would have to leave behind. 

Do you guys have bucket lists? And if so, what's one item that no matter what you are going to check off? 

Summer Playlists

Hillary Duff - Wake Up 

The Maine - Ugly On The Inside 

Royal Teeth - Wild

Dan + Shay - 19 You + Me

Keith Urban - Cop Car

At the beginning of every summer the first thing my sister and I do is make our summer playlist. For a song to make a cut it has to be perfect. A lot of scrutinizing and bantering goes into this playlist so by the time it's done it has a mix of everything we want. A little country, good road trip songs, one or two bubble gum pop, and mostly our favorite punk songs or songs that we're hoping to see on Warped Tour. Sometimes songs carry over from the previous year, but usually it is filled with songs that had recently come out or classic summer ballads.  For the first week of summer this year, we spent it at our grandparents house in Florida. While there, summer songs were always playing and that is why the first song was on our list. It was playing on the radio almost every time we turned it on and so it became this summer's anthem.

Under the video are a few other random picks from the bucket list. Like I said, some country, bubble gum, and warped tour favorites are our go to songs. Making a playlist marks the beginning of the summer and so with the end coming in a week I figured I would share our summer routine.

What are your favorite summer songs? Do you prefer new or classic?

GISHWHES, otherwise known as the best week of your summer

   The last few weeks of summer have always been crazy; what with getting ready for school, tournaments winding down, and trying to get in the last minute summer must do's. For the last two years though GISHWHES has been something to look forward to at the end of summer. One last thing to look forward to before it's off to school again.

If you have never heard of GISHWHES before, let me formally introduce you. Reader, meet the most fun you will ever have while also wanting to tear your hair out and cry while dressed in a candy bikini made out of only twizzlers and string. Now that you've met, let me explain.

GISHWHES or "The Greatest Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen" is an international scavenger hunt created by Supernatural's one and only Misha Collins. Here's what GISHWHES.com has to say. "GISHWHES is a 5-time Guinness World Record breaking scavenger hunt hosted by Misha Collins. Thousands of participants from more than 100 countries are placed on 15-person teams and for one week, through laughter, blood, sweat and tears, they acquire Items on a wild and jaw-dropping scavenger hunt list. The team that scavenges the most items with the highest quality of submissions joins Misha Collins on an all-expenses paid trip to an exotic locale. Prior Winners journeyed to Rome, a haunted castle in Scotland and British Columbia." 

Sounds pretty awesome, huh? Last year was my first year attempting this and I'm not even sure how I got involved. I'm pretty active on tumblr and follow my fandoms pretty well so it must have come up that way. Anyway, I was invited into a team when I sent out a request for one and was joined with the sweetest girls from all over the globe. I had girls from England, Abu Dhabi, California and so on. This year we couldn't get a team name fast enough and so I registered knowing I was going to be put on a random team. I was placed with a couple girls my age but mostly adults quite older than me and it was definitely to my advantage! These awesome people were so much fun to work with and had the resources to make it an amazing hunt. All of my teammates were so sweet and helpful and it was such a joy to work with them.

If you can't tell from the above pictures, I had a blast. These are just a few samples of some of the crazy items we had to complete in a week's time. I had to take a mugshot, make formal wear out of bathroom items, sketch a chalk drawing of an SPN producer, put together a puzzle with my mom while wearing mittens, have my grandparents teach me an obsolete task, get a fake Orlando Jones twitter account to four hundred followers, (I got 940 thank you very much), have hairy toes with Supernatural nail art, and the hardest task of all; make a bathing suit out of candy and string only. This was such a challenge and my mom and I spent hours upon hours putting this bad boy together. Not going to lie I definitely cried out of frustration during this one. It's intense. Last year, GISHWHES went on throughout the week and then during the last two or three days I spent seventeen hours in the car driving to college and sleeping the entire way. This hunt is not for the weak. You spend hours into the night editing video footage, cleaning food you needed for a sculpture off of the ceiling, and chicken noodle soup out of your nose from a leaf blower.

However if you ever get a chance to get involved with this you will not be disappointed. You will meet friends from all over the place who are just as frustrated as you are but it's so much fun that you don't even care! If you want to get rid of normalcy, break out of your shell a little, or like me are trying for one last hurrah before school you should do it. Throw caution to the wind and join thousands of others who are trying to make a difference in the world. Join us. You definitely might regret it a little but really, when even NASA is tweeting us what do you really have to lose?