Day 15 - First 10 songs that play when I put my iPod on shuffle

Because I am too lazy to grab my iPod, I'm just going to put iTunes on shuffle. It's the same songs anyway.

1. Vincent - Josh Groban

2. She Let Herself Go - George Strait (Sorry, I could only find a lyric video for that one.)

3. Masquerade - Phantom of the Opera

4. Better Things to Do - Terri Clark

5. Where's the Girl? - Scarlet Pimpernel, Terrence Mann. This is one of my favorite songs, and one of my favorite musicals. The video is incredibly quiet, sorry. It was the only one I could find that was actually Terrence Mann singing, so turn the sound up as high as you can.

6. Say Anything - Good Charlotte (Another lyric video.)

7. I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight - Toby Keith

8. Mine - Taylor Swift

9. Strangers - Martina McBride

10. The Gods Love Nubia - Aida, Heather Headley, Schele Williams and Ensemble

I finished Day 15! I am halfway done.

Day 14 - A picture of my family and I

So we don't have a lot of family photos. Usually either JP or I have the camera, it's rare that we are both in the picture. Here is the first photo taken of our family taken while in it's current state - three people - the day Gabrielle was born. I promise my husband looks less creepy with hair.

And a much more recent picture of our family from our trip to Canada. It was hard to find one where we are all looking at the camera. See he is much less creepy with hair. 

And one more picture from Canada because I love it. I got to cross an item off of my bucket list: kiss under a waterfall. It was awesome! (The kiss and being under the waterfall.)

I just want to add at the end I love my family so much! Those two mean the world to me.

Day 13 - A letter to someone who hurt me recently

Dear person(s)

I don't know how to write this or even wear to start. You don't even realize you hurt me. I was so angry and sad, and you dismissed me. You don't care what I think or feel. I will always be wrong in your eyes. I wish you would get to know me better, despite how long we've known each other you haven't taken the time and effort to really try and figure out who I am. I am not as simple to figure out as you think. There are many layers and different aspects to me; I am far more complex than you see me. Don't just take one aspect of me and think that's all there is to me. Don't try and force me into who you think I should be. I am figuring out who I am. While I am not at the end of the journey, I'm still imperfect and stumbling, but I am happy with the path I am on, and who I am becoming. Someday I hope you'll realize the level of resentment I have for you. Someday I hope you'll see my side and how you so carelessly dismissed me, my feeling, my thoughts, and my point of view. I hope you'll become a more caring and better person, someday. But right now, I am working on cutting you out of my life, reducing your hurtful influence. When I am around you, I am easily depressed, my stress level is through the roof, and I feel like I have to suppress who I am. That's why I've decided I'm better off with minimal contact with you. I'll enjoy the good moment with you, but those times will be brief and infrequent. Good-bye.

Sincerely,

Me

PS I hated writing this post.

Day 12 - How I found out about blogs and why I made one

I don't remember how I found out about blogs. I had a LiveJournal account in high school, and I got a Blogger account in high school as well. Several friends in college courses were required to keep a blog as part of an English assignment and needed comments, and it required I have an account, but I don't think I ever posted anything.

I first considered actually blogging was when I was first married. I don't remember the what or why, but I do remember the neighbors below us helped influence that decision. JP actually wanted a blog first, to help our family know what was going on in our lives. That didn't work out so well, neither of us posted very frequently. I started this blog when I was pregnant because I felt the urge to try the 365 day photo challenge, which I've previously mentioned. I continue to keep trying to blog because this is my way of saying I write in a journal. Yet, I'm still horrible at updating this. Hence this 30 day challenge to hopefully help me be better at posting frequently.

Day 11 - Another picture of "you and your friends" - or not.

So for Day 11 I was supposed to do a post with another picture of my friends and I. But I already told you people, I don't have friends, the loosely defined "friends" I have I don't hang out with, and if I did I wouldn't have a picture of it. But if you do want a picture of what I spend the most time with it would be this: 

Rough skinned Newt, Taricha granulosa

Actually I spend most of my time with thousands of larvae, and most of the larvae have some sort of deformity. I study (okay, technically I'm a research assistant, but there isn't a ton of difference) these little creatures in the lab I work in.

Two headed newt larvae. So sad, yet so neat.

These newts contain high amounts of tetrodotoxin which is 10x more toxic than potassium cyanide, which makes them one of the most toxic creatures in North America. Yeah, somehow saying that makes my job sound so much cooler than it really is. If you scare them they like to show off their bright orange color. Aren't they so cute, in a deadly sort of way? 

Unken reflex = don't eat me!

Day 10 - Songs I Listen to When I Am Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad

When I'm happy I tend to turn on upbeat music, and generally it's country. Cowboy Casanove - Carrie Underwood, Looking for a Good Time - Lady Antebellum, some good old Journey and other classic rock is good too.

For the sad times, occasionally I'll wallow into the sad tunes, and there are more than plenty of songs that exist about not so happy themes. But usually I only indulge in them for a brief time, then I switch over to the happy songs. If I listen to happy songs long enough it'll help cheer me up. Actually any music long enough will cheer me up, so when I'm sad is when I'm the least picky. The soundtrack to Scarlet Pimpernel is always a good pick-me-up and transition from sad and wallowing to happy.

What I listen to when I'm bored is incredibly variable. Most of the times I just put iTunes on shuffle and listen to whatever pops up next.

When I'm hyped it's very similar to when I am happy. Upbeat tunes, good songs to sing along to or dance to. So I'll play the usual happy songs, and this is also when I tend to add in Lady Gaga, Shakira or Rihanna.

When I'm mad, well then the mad songs with angry lyrics or with loud beats. P!nk and Miranda Lambert are very good for these times. When I'm mad is when a lot of my rock songs get listened too, mixed together with the country, angry don't-take-no-crap-burn-his-house-down lyrics. But similar to when I'm sad I don't listen to these for incredibly long time. After a while I'll revert to shuffle and listen to whatever to help revert my mood.

If you're curious my library genres in order are: Country - 485 songs, Soundtracks & Musicals - 397 songs, Easy Listening (New Age, Josh Groban/Susan Boyle style stuff ) - 107 songs, Pop - 80 songs,  Gospel and Religious - 77 songs, Alternative & Punk - 74 songs, Holiday (restricted to December only) - 68 songs, Rock (including classic songs) - 50 songs Dance & Techno - 26 songs, R&B & Rap - 14 songs, and lastly Hip-Hop (all Black-Eyed Peas) 7 songs. So there you go, that breaks it down pretty well what I listen to.

Day 09 - Something I am proud of in the last few days

This really depends on your definition of "few." I submitted my AMCAS application, that is something I am extremely proud of, I worked hard to get to this point, and I worked very hard on my application, all 16 pages of it. But that was a little over a week ago, so I'm not sure that's recently enough to be considered a few days ago.

Well last Friday I stayed awake the whole night because the car was too uncomfortable to sleep in, and then I still drove 2-3 hours after breakfast while everybody else in the car was asleep. And I didn't get lost! That's pretty big for me, okay yes it was Montana but still. JP got lost, okay that was the fault of the GPS taking us some place different. But don't let any of that diminish my accomplishment, I managed to stay on the same highway and not get lost while driving for several hours on no sleep with no one else awake to assist me. I'm still proud of myself.

The past few days (see I'm actually getting to the post requirements now) I've gone on all these darn hikes my family has been dragging us too. Despite the fact that I am obviously the most out of shape person in this group and that I despise physical activity. But right now I'm just too exhausted and tired to be proud of this. For your information, the hikes were beautiful, I would post a photo but they aren't uploaded to the computer yet.