2013 best of

i'm only halfway through the year, but i declare singing bjork's "it's oh so quiet" with my friend rachel as my favorite karaoke performance of the year. also, i'm picking chocolate out of my special k. thank you. or you're welcome.

bad habits

my entire life i've had this tendency to latch on to one song at a time, and listen to that one song on repeat for days on end until it turns into dead noise and i replace it with another.  one would think that i would try some self-restraint, allow the song to live a little longer while i dabble in others, and then reach back to it, but i can't be stopped. sometimes i'm embarrassed that i do this, and i'll 'private session' my spotify so no one can see that i've listened to nancy sinatra 126 times in a row.

which i have been doing for about 2 weeks now.



the recent obsession is 'somethin' stupid,' a sweet little duet with ol' blue eyes that i listen to while i get ready in the morning, while i eat my breakfast, on my walk to work, sitting at my desk, going home, while i read, as i drift to sleep. i know, it's sick.  i've even taken it upon myself to try and actually learn to sing it well, which only consists of me singing the lyrics off the internet and trying to match the pitch, which is hopeless. this is what happens when you live alone. i expect a parade of cats to come into my apartment any second and smother me to death.

holy cow!

it's been 100 years or so since i've posted on here, and if i dust off the history books, my last post was around the moment i moved life to stinky little delaware. since those quiet days where rent was cheap but friends were few, life has hop skipped and jumped me from philadelphia to seattle in a blink. and while seattle is many times over more full of life than delaware, i'm finding myself at a point of always asking "so what next?"

my mind is always all at once overwhelmed and then bored, so in attempt to give myself a bit more focus (whatever that means), i've been trying to learn more and see more and hopefully at some consequence, feel more? or maybe just feel different.

step 1. read more

i just finished reading "after visiting friends" by michael hainey, which i really only heard about because i read gq, and the author is the deputy editor (who i stalk on the sly via men's blogs). every word felt so careful and thoughtful and i didn't begin reading expecting anything in particular because i knew very little about it initially, but i'm glad that i picked it up. the whole time i felt nostalgic as i read it, which doesn't make sense since i have no ties to the story or the time period, but i could so easily create the images in my head that i felt close to the feelings. if that makes sense. it also opened up a can of worms in my mind about mortality and the swiftness of death, but like my boyfriend often tells me after i see movies or read stories that put me in a mood, "it's good to feel weird."

i probably shouldn't grade books because i have no authority, and i usually like everything, but i'll say "after visiting friends" is an A.

melinda, you should read the book and then give a proper assessment, since i'm putting uneducated opinions out in the world.