We Now Have a Vlog! Bloopers

We willingly embarrass ourselves for your entertainment.

"I'm the squire in Caroline's quest for attention. "

1. When you go home, prepare to listen to msnbc 24/7.

2. Feed your mental hamster

3. Dianna Agron was in Burlesque?!

4. Crank it up.

Hellooo, Megan here and I am relaxing in a la-z-boy, as all my friends in town (and former teachers) are enjoying the snow day that my district has finally decided to allow as soon as I leave. :P

The title is a quotation from one of my favorite movies, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which I really need to watch again.  Ever notice how the perfect playlist can do anything?  My friend drove Melissa, Sally, and I home on her way to MPLS and ultimately, Wisconsin, and she prepared an 11 hour playlist for her drive.  It had everything from Led Zepplin to Rent, to Glee and Owl City.  I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Playlists are like that.  They can be a mix of everything to get you through a road trip, powerful enough to get you through that long awaited hour-long workout, sad enough to make you cry, happy enough to make you forget a rough day, calm enough to lull you to sleep when you're worried about something, and just plain awesome enough to make a night with friends epic.  I'm listening to an Owl City playlist at the moment.  No regrets.

I always seem to have music going, just to give my life a soundtrack or drown out the silence, and when I'm in a car with friends that music gets turned up a little bit, just because it's us.  And honestly, when it's 10 pm and you're timing the lights just so you can speed over the bumps in a new intersection, who says you shouldn't be rocking out to Domino by Jessie J or Stereo Hearts by Gym Class Heroes?  No one, that's who.

Music plays into our lives in ways that are hard to describe and explain whether we perform it or just listen to it, and a whole bunch of wise and famous people have commented on this notion.  My favorite quotations are "Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."  -Berthold Auerbach and "Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons.  You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body."  -Oliver Wendell Holmes  

So go listen to something that either fits, or changes your mood.  Have fun with it and have a ridiculously fabulous week!

-Megan 
P.S. I am having so many issues formatting this thing to fit the other posts! Nicole, fix it. :P

It's Sally's Birthday!

1. Carry out and complete a secret mission.
2. You don't have to know someone to care about them.
3. Go ahead, buy the water bottle.
4.  Relax, you are doing some things right.

Hello hello!  Megan here and guess what?!  It's Sally's birthday!!!  Everyone say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SALLY!"

 Sally is a HUGE Dr. Who fan and so we cooked up this plot to turn her room into the TARDIS.  Well, it was a late night, but we succeeded and Nicole put this up this morning.  Thanks to Sally's roommate for the photo. I'll be putting some more emphasis on Sally later in this post--hope she doesn't mind.

A book I'm reading for my Sociology class has introduced the concept of "Everest Psychology" and how it pertains to current American culture.  I'll try to explain it as well as I can, but it basically contains the idea that our culture values us always trying to reach the peak: we're always trying to be successful, always trying to get more enjoyment, more possessions, more status, more wealth etc.  The problem is that we never reach that peak because we always want more and more even if our needs are satisfied.

Mt. Everest fascinates me, and I studied it quite a bit when I was younger.  Well Everest and our culture share a death zone--the point at which the current pace and presence cannot be sustained without serious harm.  Too much time in Everest's death zone, and you will die.  Too much time at the metaphorical death zone and you might start sacrificing things such as time with your family, leisure, sleep, and overall interpersonal connections--things that truly fulfill us rather than that next promotion or paycheck.

I feel like this is where we're doing pretty well as college students.  We're all striving for success, but we also seem to be maintaining a balance between our interpersonal relationships and our respective workloads.  This is why I love Sally.  Sally lets everyone focus on the living in the current moment.  There's something magical about having a few people in a hallway singing a favorite song together while someone *cough* Sally, plays guitar.  See, Sally is one of those people who isn't afraid to feel human.  Sometimes its easy to let ourselves slip into a state of workaholic robotism, but Sally reminds all of us that sometimes its important to cry over a TV show, sing out loud, be embarrassed, tell a story, dream deeply, obsess a little bit over an actor, and most importantly, do what we love.

So my advice to you is to go all out on someone's birthday and have a good time with it, and also to recognize the value in putting aside the quest for success for a few moments and enjoy where you're at and the people you're with.  Oh, and it's okay to cry.

Be well and have an awesome week.

-Megan

Coming out of my cage and I've been doing just fine.

First person to comment and tell me the name of the song I got the title from gets a mental high five from me. My friend and I used to go through this song, sending each other the lyrics line by line. Oy, nostalgia.

First things first, if you're reading this, you need to look at the post before this and share it on your facebook, tumblr, twitter, whatever social networks you're involved in. Nicole has entered a scholarship competition for bloggers and needs as many 'shares' as possible. Please do this. Besides, it has some good political insight.

1. Walks help with back problems.
2. This too shall pass.
3. Get out of the house and get out of your head.
4. Have faith in friendships.

Hey, Megan here. I hope everyone is having an excellent holiday season filled with family, friends, and baked goods.

I've been home for 11 days now, and while it is nice to feel carpet beneath my feet, have a nice shower, and be able to walk to the fridge for a snack, I still miss college immensely. The truth is I have cooped myself up in my room for far too many days and am a little bit stuck in my head. Last night I went out with friends to our popular summer haunt and it made me realize not only the importance of getting out of the house, but also the importance of simply having faith in your friends. You have to trust that each other will still be the same person you know and love. Everyone changes to come extent, but, as I learned in my most recent psych class, personality is fairly constant over time, so have faith in it.

It's important to get out of your room, get out of your head, get out of your house, go spend some time in a dimly lit coffee shop, and have a good discussion in a van. Don't get stuck in your head. It's not an accurate portrayal of reality; it's just a skewed mess of constructs that can certainly and very convincingly masquerade as reality, but it really isn't. See, the trick is you actually have to go and live in the real world with real people in order to construct a more accurate reality instead of just letting your imagination take what you know and run off in all sorts of directions with it. It's so simple, yet we forget it sometimes.

So tonight I'm spending some quality time with a couple of friends who I've known since 7th grade. It's definitely time for a reunion, and I know we'll be able to pick up on our friendship right where we left off despite the fact that we've all changed quite a bit. I'm excited to spend time with them because I get to be the part of me I missed.

We all play different roles in different groups of friends or acquaintances, and I get to be wild and bubbly and silly with this particular group, whereas I sometimes like to fade into the background in other groups. Sometimes I step a little out of line and play a role I'm not meant to when I'm with certain people. Believe me, it is an uncomfortable feeling to sit there and think to yourself, "I shouldn't have said that, definitely shouldn't have done that, should have thought before I said THAT." It's okay to play different roles I think, it just depends on who other people need you to be, and what you're comfortable with. Taking on a different role doesn't mean you change your personality either, it just dictates what strengths and weaknesses you employ and when. I think it's just important to change it up a bit, and not force yourself into being typecasted as it were. Is typecasted a word?

In conclusion, get out and live a little, have faith that you'll be able to pick up where your friendships left off, and just let yourself adapt to situations. When you leave home such as I have, it's rough to go back... but, it's important to. (Let the record show that I have now expressed this sentiment in writing whenever I complain.) When you hit the road and leave, it's almost as if you have also taken upon yourself the responsibility of returning, almost like a price you have to pay for the extra freedom. It's just the way it is sometimes. Making yourself remember where you've come from isn't a bad thing by any means, and in some ways it keeps you grounded, and gives you extra motivation to get where you want to be.

So, I hope you have a most excellent week. Take care. Love and hugs.

-Megan