Music is a Gift from God (that's for sure)

If it weren't for music, I honestly think I would curl up into a little ball and flat out die. Okay yes I'm being dramatic (don't judge me. you know you love me for it) but I truly feel that music contributes greatly to my love of life. Music speaks to my soul and, in my humble opinion, is amazing evidence for the existence of God. Who else but an almighty God could have inspired something so transcendent of Earth and so expressive of the deepest of human emotions? Don't even try to sell me that evolution crap. If you try to tell me that music came from apes who had nothing better to do one day than sit around and compose masterpieces I may just slap you. haha just kidding (maybe) but seriously though, God has really used music to get me through a lot of crap and (being a singer) I am constantly listening to it/singing along (REALLY loudly. Sorry neighbors...). No, not all of my favorite songs could be considered masterpieces (okay, probably none of them could be....). but hey, I think they're beautiufl and I think enough of them to recommend them to you :) So, in honor of the end of the year, here are the 15 best songs I've discovered in 2012. 

15. "I Won't Give Up"-Jason Mraz-Inspirational stuff

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=i+wont+give+up+jason+mraz+lyrics&oq=i+won&gs_l=youtube.1.1.0l10.511.3546.0.5654.23.11.5.0.0.4.154.992.8j3.11.0...0.0...1ac.1.rOPQDJqe7q0

14. "Lost in the Echo"-Linkin Park- Whenever I'm in a depressed mood, Linkin Park always proves helpful....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq2ACEznrk8 


13. "Something Happened on the Way to Heaven"- Phil Collins- Super catchy. Love his voice.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=something+happened+on+the+way+to+heaven+phil+collins&oq=something+happened&gs_l=youtube-reduced.1.0.0l4.224383.226082.0.227631.18.11.0.6.6.0.137.930.7j4.11.0...0.0...1ac.1.cfBfOQhNPbo


12. "Hall Of Fame"- The Script-Another inspirational one

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+script+hall+of+fame+lyrics&oq=the+script+hall+of+fame+lyrics&gs_l=youtube-reduced.3..0l4.87089.90909.0.91012.36.17.3.16.17.0.156.1636.10j7.17.0...0.0...1ac.1.zk6oqPQdj_Q


11.  "Paradise"-Coldplay-What can I say? It's Coldplay....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyoXP3w7dp4


10. "In Christ Alone"- Owl City-LOVE this song

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=in+christ+alone+owl+city&oq=in+christ+alone&gs_l=youtube.1.1.0l10.84738.86027.0.87405.15.6.0.9.9.0.121.607.3j3.6.0...0.0...1ac.1.WRGk2a7L0qQ


9. "Welcome to the Black Parade" -My Chemical Romance-  Really moving.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q9q6zl3WIs


8. "Titanium"- David Guetta ft Sia- Yes, it's been on the radio a thousand times. But I still love it.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=titanium+lyrics&oq=titanium+lyrics&gs_l=youtube-reduced.3..0l4.56334.57781.0.57881.15.7.0.7.7.1.108.599.5j2.7.0...0.0...1ac.1.NLk8Cqgujjc


7. "The Last Time"- Taylor Swift ft Gary Lightbody- Best duet Taylor has ever done. Really beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=taylor+swift+the+last+time+lyrics+&oq=taylor+swift+the+last+time+lyrics+&gs_l=youtube.3..0l7.5625.5625.0.6207.1.1.0.0.0.0.68.68.1.1.0...0.0...1ac.1.u8Yu6TURgOk


6. "21 Guns"- Green Day-  I can't explain why I love this song. I just do :)

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=green+day+21+guns+lyrics&oq=green+day+21+&gs_l=youtube-reduced.1.1.0l4.9458.10978.0.12300.13.9.0.4.4.1.145.758.6j3.9.0...0.0...1ac.1.LcNm3I94Uac


5. "God Bless the Broken Road"- Rascal Flatts- So beautiful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZp6pmgbZyU&feature=g-vrec


4. "Payphone"- Maroon 5- Another overplayed song. But super catchy and enjoyable :)

 http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=payphone+maroon+5+lyrics+clean+no+rap&oq=payphone+maroon+5+lyrics+clean+&gs_l=youtube-reduced.1.0.0l4.50573.53743.0.55073.31.15.0.16.16.1.144.1298.11j4.15.0...0.0...1ac.1.ub6uitZ3dbw


3. "Vanilla Twilight"- Owl City- Adam Young is amazing in this song. I think it's his best for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdc3RdXoFwA


2. "Run"- Snow Patrol- Absolutely gorgeous

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLMyBBZmL2M&feature=related


1. "A Thousand Years"- Christina Perri- Beautiful, moving, and my absolute favorite :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHkvan-NFnM


And there you have it :) Yes, I'm a music nerd. But who can blame me, right?? 
Later, world :)

It's Me

So I'm off work today and got to being all nostalgic and reading all my old blog posts. Then I realized, "you know what, I should probably stimulate my mind during Christmas break and actually attempt writing something that would be of interest to the general public." I can't guarantee how often I'll be on here once school starts back again, but I'll at least try to write something every so often so you won't start planning my funeral or something....

So yeah. 2012 has been super interesting to say the least. I feel like I've really changed as a person (for the better hopefully) and have really learned a lot of about life in general. I've survived 1 1/2 years of college (honors program and all plus a minimum of 18 hours every semester....yes you can say it...I'm certifiably insane), have gotten yet ANOTHER restaurant job (I'm a hostess again because my previous job treated me like a piece of crap....I'll tell you the whole story later....), developed relationships with some people who have absolutely changed my life, and have learned (yet again) that God is with me, no matter what, and provides for me in the most incredible ways when I least deserve/expect it. This year has been up and down and has thrown me for a loop at times (in both good and bad ways), but it's honestly been pretty amazing for the most part and has helped me grow as an individual (wow I sound really philosophical today).

Well I have so much to catch you up on that I really have NO idea where to start. So I suppose I'll start by filling you in on my little job drama. Basically, I started serving at at a restaurant last December and, for the most part, felt I did a pretty decent job seeing as how my boss seemed to like me (and gave me tons of hours) and I always had a smile at my face and did anything and everything to please my customers (okay so what if I just wanted their money? I was still nice....and that's what counts right?) Anyhow, seeing as how my life tends to attract problematic occurrences, I was not surprised when things started to go horribly wrong. It all began when the place got a new manager. Being the nice (humble aren't I?) person that I am, when he first got there I went in and introduced myself and (very nicely) gave him my availability for the summer and he seemed okay with it. Simple right? Think again. For the first TWO weeks he was there, I went from having 30+ hours to (I kid you not) ZERO. I was in shock. After all, he didn't know me from Eve and had no idea whether I was bad or good at my job or not. Seriously, the guy didn't have a clue. So he had no reason whatsoever for giving me no hours. If he was prejudiced against me for being a spoiled college-student, then the guy had another thing coming seeing as how I work hard for my money like everyone else (I live off-campus and have bills like other "normal" people) and am certainly far from being rich (seeing as how I'm spending all my money to go to college in the first place). Anyhow, I asked him for more hours and he came back with, "I'm still getting things worked out with the schedule and then I'll get things worked out." And then this ever-generous man upped my hours to *gasp* FIVE. (I know. He totally deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for that one). Well, after two more weeks went by, I confronted him again (I'm normally not an argumentative person so this was a pretty big deal for me to even say anything at all). This time, he said that he just didn't have enough hours at the moment but that things would get better soon (promises, promises). Feasible excuse, right? Would have been super feasible if two days later he hadn't hired another server AND if he wasn't advertizing on the sign outside that the dang place was hiring (the nerve of this man).

Well, to put it incredibly nicely, I was irritated. I work hard at my job and felt like I was getting seriously gypped. If I didn't have another job, (I still work at the psych office), I would have been on the floor broke. Soo finally, I confronted him yet AGAIN seeing as how his excuses were starting to wear thin. I'm a very reasonable, forgiving person, but I can't stand being fed the same old crap excuses time and time again that make absolutely no sense. This time, he gave it to me straight. He basically told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was of the intellectual opinion that I sucked at my job and wasn't as good as the other servers. In other words, he might as well have taken his foot and kicked me squarely in the face. Being the sensitive, overachieving individual that I am, I left in tears and was quite dejected for the rest of the day. By the end of the day, however, I was more mad than sad. After all, he himself only worked personally with me for one day of the week and there were a lot of days when he didn't work with me at all. The days he DID work with me, I was lots of the times the only server on the floor and had about 11-12 tables at one time. I'd like to see him running around trying to wait on 11-12 tables of demanding customers without having a tiny bit of a hard time. I mean seriously?? I'm not Superwoman here. Anyhow, I feel as though, for some reason, he didn't like me from the very start seeing as how he didn't give me hours from the very beginning (before he even know what I was capable of).

Yes, I was incredibly wrong by this establishment, but the story does have a happy ending. I am now a hostess at a different restaurant where I am actually appreciated by my managers and get the perfect amount of hours. Plus I don't have to rely on tips anymore (gotta love hourly). Soo, despite my awful experience, I am quite thankful that I'm outta there now and at a much better job. Yeah, this job gets incredibly annoying and frustrating and crazy at times, but no one's job is perfect, right? So in the end, I harbor no hard feelings. I chalk it up as one of those experiences that works out for the best. However, don't expect to ever find me eating at that awful, unspeakable restaurant again cause it won't be happening :)
Later (and this time I promise I'll come back. I always do...eventually....) :)

Hannah's Political Rant

iSeeing as how different political primaries are going on across the country at this time, I thought I'd take a brief interlude from updating you on my oh so fascinating life to say a brief word about politics. Thrilling, I know (you say as your mouse frantically searches for anything that will take you light years away from this website). I used to hate politics myself (and I certainly don't call myself obsessed or enthralled with it as some individuals I know), but I've gotten a little more interested as of late thanks to all the insane things going on.

Firstly, let me implore you to please go to the polls and vote for Ron Paul. Why, you might ask? Well, in my humble opinion he has the best ideas to get our country back on track (such as cutting the insane amounts of government spending, getting our troops out of Iraq/Afghanistan, and loosening the chokehold that our government is slowly imposing on our supposedly free nation). He also appears to have the best shot of all the Republican nominees at beating Obama as he appeals to, not only Republicans, but Independents and Democrats as well.

And why, you may ask, is it important that Obama not be reelected? Oh heavens, where do I even begin? Should I start by noting how Obama is all talk and no action (after all, he promised to get all the troops out by this point in time as well as restore our economy, which he has actually wrecked thanks to all his increased spending), or by commenting on how Obama seems to care nothing for the individual freedoms of Americans? After all, this is the same man who has instituted national healthcare (oh yeah, that doesn't reek of Socialism one bit), as well as, more recently, martial law and has pushed for internet piracy laws that, believe it or not, will end up destroying internet businesses as well as prohibiting free speech on the internet. So technically Obama could prosecute me for saying this stuff about him if these laws got passed. Basically, then, our dear old president has succeeded only at pushing our economy farther down the tubes, taking away freedoms of Americans slowly but surely, and ensuring that our troops will be overseas fighting useless battles for quite some time yet. And people actually want to reelect this guy? If that does happen, I think I'm moving to Australia....

Oh, and one more thing. Don't you find it suspicious that though there's been all this talk of the Republican primaries, there's been nothing about the Democratic primaries? In fact, they're not even having one this year because, supposedly, Obama is a sure win. Oh please. So you're telling me that there's not even one other Democrat who wants to run against Obama? Or any Democrats who will vote for other candidates versus Obama? It seems awfully suspcious to me. As though the Obama administration ensured that no Democratic primary would occur in the first place so as to ensure Obama's lock-in as the Democrat nominee. So, if this administration found the power to do that, who knows what else they have the power to do under the radar (seeing as how there's virtually no media coverage of this lack of Democratic primary). Creepy, right?

So, bottom line is, when your state's primary gets here, VOTE FOR RON PAUL! And then vote for WHOEVER is running against Obama. If you choose to listen to me that is....Okay, I'm done now. I promise. Normal life can resume once more ;)

Oh My

It has been entirely too long. You probably thought I'd fallen off the face of the earth, right? Well, I hope you at least missed me a little. *hint hint*...;) Anyways, I am back, hopefully for good this time. Though you never know how crazy my life will get once my second semester of school starts. Two jobs + the cruel torture of that thing known as the *dun dun dun* honors *gulp* program + plus the massive amounts of homework poor college students receive because their teachers think they have no life outside of it might leave me no free writing time whatsoever. But hey, who says a girl can't make time?

Anyways, what has my year looked like you might ask? Well...where do I begin? I decided on a college, had one of the best summers of my life, started college, had my heart broken and crushed into little tiny pieces, quit my hosting job, got a serving job (recently on top of my job at the psych office that I wouldn't give up for the world), survived the semester (oh the stories I have from this experience known as college...), met some out-of-this world people, and realized that without God I would be a ball of emotional wreckage. So yeah, it's been some year. I might have to catch you up gradually. We'll see....For now, though, I'll end with a quote I found today that I see as particularly inspiring (especially for someone like me who tends to dwell on the past and all the times I've made a mess of things).

“Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Until next time ;)