proof 2012 is going to be a good year: first aid kit ingrid michaelson ben kweller nicki minaj sleigh bells andrew bird the shins mike snow ludacris lupe fiasco mumford and sons muse neon trees phoenix regina spektor rusko santigold outkast sigur ros the avett brothers all these are scheduled to release new albums this year! I'm sure I missed plenty of smaller groups too. Holla' at ya motha! in other news, i'm going to be broke from going to shows. but it will be a happy broke.

i just got supa dupa excited for 2012. wanna know why? best friends come home!! i was stalking gissy mibson's blog because i just really missed her and the last blog post was a year from this April. I realize, Missy will be home soon. like october soon. Joe too! October was already a great month due to my birthday and favorite holiday, but it just got even better! and Sean even comes home in July! crazay town. I got these silly letters that I had written to myself in two different Student Devotionals about goals I had hoped to be fulfilled this year. Yeah, pretty much NONE of them had come true. Troof. BUT as I looked back I decided I was glad. They were very happy realistic goals. Ones that made sense to happen at the college age I am. However they weren't what I needed. Too be frank, 2011 sucked. It sucked BIG. It feels good to admit that. Hey! Hey You! 2011! You were a bad mean year! Of course I learned HEAPS from this stinky stinky year...and a half to be fair. Sorry 2010, a good half of you stunk too. I hope that because this nasty time has been going on for quite a while, maybe I'm almost done? Maybe, a couple of things will work out? Maybe, I've almost learned everything I needed to from experiences like these? The Lord knows, I don't. If I need to go through a bit more sludge, well, then, I guess I can handle it right? Right. Because the Lord never gives you more than you can handle with His help. And really, He has blessed me like crazy too. I've always had an abundance of support backing me up. Thanks family and friends for being awesome. So..my only real, really real, resolution is to learn and grow. That, and to not have resolutions. I'd like to think that if I wanted something, I'd just go for it. buuut, I don't. Yeah, I mean, that'd be cool. I think maybe why I don't go for things is because I've found this comfort zone, this safe place with close friends. It's made me kind of shy. Weird, I've never had a shy day in my life until lately. I think because I'm not shy in how I dress but I am in talking, people think I'm stuck up or hate them. That's baddd. Actually I know that's true from hearing from my brother about a girl who is the little sister to his friend. She thought I hated her. Truth is I never really SAW her that much, I thought, to make an impression either way. I was so surprised! I need to work on that social courage thing in places I'm not comfortable. I mean to purposefully put myself in those situations this year. The first step, go to a show by myself...and talk to the people I'm sitting by! Weeell, I'll at least go to a show by myself. I just need to open up my heart in general because ima very cautious. Even to friends that are potentially dear friends. I still hold back. Even though I don't want to and I try not to. And it's not like going to start throwing my life everywhere to everyone. There are just some more bests that are waiting to happen if I can bring myself to give of myself. I guess first of all I need to believe that I truly have something to give. It's silly really. I think..what I really need is to have a good talk with someone about life and the wonders it entails. I guess I have more than one goal this year. huh. Hi 2012. I like you.

a happy excursion from traditional Sunday music listening. Skip to 41 seconds if you're impatient.

the more i watch and listen to this song the more obsessed i become.

music is the sliver sheen masking the unclean and unkind, making this world beautiful.

It's bad for me to start listening to pandora after ten.  I never want to sleep but just listen to sweet goodness.  and there is a lot of it in this world.  So while I listen I will share the Hamster Experience.:

Ally and I bought a hamster.  Someone brought their hamster to our apartment and  that is all it took. Within the next week there we were, staring at glass cases in Petsmart.  If there is one fault in the friendship between Ally and I it is that both of us are awful at making decisions.  So we sat there for twenty minutes or more while the salesman made it very clear to us that there were better things he'd rather be doing half an hour before closing time than listen to us go back and forth between how cute the different hamsters were and what cage we should buy and ooh toys and oh we should start the paperwork then again go back to looking at hamsters because none of this is very important if we can't pick one yet.  Sidenote: I have just consecutively spelled hampster instead of hamster four times in a row.  Maybe because I live in the hampstead apartments. Anywho, we held a couple of crazy hampters who were suicidal and pooping all over the place until we held our black and white fuzzy.  He didn't poop on me once, neither did he jump off my arm while I was standing at my full five foot nine inch height.  Honestly, he wasn't the c u t e s t one there (we spell as not to hurt his feelings) but now we love him.  Originally his name was Handsome Kitty, Ally just really wanted to name a hamster Kitty, but it didn't fit so he is just handsome.  Handsome with a little junk in the trunk.  He's a bit of a heffa.  We bought him this clear ball that he rolls in around our apartment, but his bum bum is so big he does this funny little waddle. Possibly the most hilarious thing I've seen in a long time and the cause of much distraction while studying.  He's a smart little bugger too. He didn't want his wheel in his cage so he broke it within the hour.  We played Headlines by Drake and he started dancing, but really.  Then today, Ally switched out his water bottle because it was this cheap dinky thing that didn't work.  Well, there is a hole in the top of the cage for the old water bottle to hang down from that Ally didn't cover.  I mean, there's no way he could climb out of it right? Wrong.  We all went to Smith's to go shopping and he thought he'd take a short vacation from everyday life too.  Looking in his cage to see nothing but food, water, straw and poop was a shock that honestly, I slightly expected.  Suddenly every little nook of the apartment expanded before my eyes into a labyrinth full of hiding spots that David Bowie could pop out of with his dancing critters. However, we found him within five minutes lurking underneath my bed.  All I hope is that I don't wake up tomorrow with hamster poop smeared on my face.  Sweet dreams Handsome...and to Liz snoozing next to him with her D&C book stuck to her face.
There you have it.