I'm On A Boat... Next Monday

Fear not, dear readers, for I have returned! I didn't give up on blogging, I promise.
I've been up to the usual shenanigans that involve: Walking into college psychology dressed as pirates with Paige, writing nonsense for English because I hate that class for the first time in my life, reading loads of great books, writing like a maniac on my latest story (as long as I have caffeine), and doing other things that generally apply to my everyday, geeky life.

I did decide that I needed to write this post, because I'll be dropping even further off the radar next week.
Why?
Because I'm going to Mexico!!! :D
My family is going on a cruise to Cozumel and Progresso and I am beyond excited. None of us have ever been out of the country or on a cruise before, so it should be a nice adventure.
I've wanted to travel the world for as long as I can remember and this is a perfect way to start crossing places off my list.
Although, when I'm older I won't like travelling at the pace of a cruise line.

The ship has an internet cafe which I was initially very excited about.
Yay, I thought to myself, I'll be able to tell the people who keep up with my blog about whatever interesting things might occur on the ship or on land!
But, much to my dismay, my mother informed me that computer usage on the ship costs .75 cents a minute.
That's right, a minute.
In other words, this is a goodbye until I return next Saturday.

In other unimportant news...
Tomorrow I'm playing music at a craft fair in Brentwood, so I'm happy (and nervous) about that.
Oh well, Paige is going to be there, so at least there will be a familiar face in the audience. It has been so long since I last played, but I need to start back again.
I think some quiet, strange part of me misses it.

Oh well, you can keep up with me via Twitter until I no longer have cell service. I'm sure you're all interested in my pathetic tweets.

Peace, love, and socks,
Sara

My Jam

The school year will officially be over for me in less than 24 hours. It couldn't possibly be over soon enough. 

I have a math exam tomorrow (that I'm scared to death over) and then it's done. Here I come Junior year :) 

I'll be so happy when high school is finally over. I'm ready to be in college and I'm ready to get out into the world. And by that, I mean traveling. I can't wait to be able to travel all over the world and do crazy things. I love experiencing new cultures and finding new favorite foods :) 

But this post, is about a few songs on my Spotify playlist and on my Ipod that helped me get through this school year. Let's get started :) 

For the first half of the year on long and smelly bus rides (A brief collection):

• Let Me Go- CAKE
• Colours- Grouplove
• Blood- Middle East
• Kiss with a Fist- Florence and the Machine
• Song for the Rich- Tristan Prettyman (A particularly great song for rainy days)
• Six Weeks- Of Monsters and Men
• Christmas Lights- Coldplay
• Helena Beat- Foster the People

 For singing at the top of my lungs when I'm by myself in my car: 

• Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll- The Killers <3 
• Superstition- Stevie Wonder (I love a lot of old stuff)
• Spaceman- The Killers
• Romeo and Juliet- The Killers version
• Nobody Knows Me At All- The Weepies
• When You Were Young- The Killers (My all time favorite song...for now)

For dancing around in my pj's/sweatpants when I'm too lazy for real clothes:

• Just One Look- Doris Troy
• 2 Atoms In a Molecule- Noah and the Whale <3
• Pumpkin Soup- Kate Nash
• Young Blood- The Naked and Famous
• Little Talks- Of Monsters and Men
• My Best Friend- Hello Saferide (For Paige) :)
• Sara Smiles- Panic! at the Disco
• Young Folks- Peter Bjorn and John
• Love Blood- Sleeper Agent
• Chelsea Dagger- The Fratellis 
• Fluorescent Adolescence- Arctic Monkeys
• Henrietta- The Fratellis    

Songs that inspire me when I write:

• New Ceremony- Dry the River
• I Will Follow You Into the Dark- Death Cab for Cutie
• O Children- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
• That's Some Dream- Good Old War

Peace, love, and a sticking C key, 

 Sara

Near Death Experience

Today was the guitar class concert, but before I get into all of that, I'll tell you about the class.
It's by far the most fun class I've ever been in.
Mostly, everyone in that class is so nice. Everyone has a unique personality, and for the most part, they never get on my nerves.
There's nothing like having a crappy morning, and then going into guitar class to have your ears start bleeding from how loud the amps are. I'm seriously going to be so depressed when I don't have that anymore.
Because, it isn't just a class to me. It's a group of entirely different people getting along thanks to music.
That class gives me a chance to express myself. By taking that class and having such an amazing teacher, I've grown up more I think. It's not that this class is teaching kids to grow up, it's teaching them to grow into your own skin.
Words of Advice Break:
When it comes right down to it, all of us have to just learn to be who we are. During all of that learning and growing, we have to accept that it's really okay to grow apart from the people that are holding you back.
It's not that these people are bad people, it's just that, when you first met them you were the same. Somewhere along the way, you just realized that you want different things.

Back to the main story: I've always loved to sing, but this class gave me the confidence that I needed so badly. Sure, I'm still shy and I don't think I'm that great, but Mr. Bateman told me I could sing. He's one of my most favorite people in this whole world I think :) Aw man... I'm getting all teared up.
Because sometimes, you just have to be made to step outside your little bubble, and go on an adventure.
I never knew I loved to write songs. I never knew I had a knack for just making up lyrics on the spot.
But now I do know. And who knows, I might want to pursue some sort of career in music. The friends I've made in that class are just wonderful. I'm suppose to be writing songs with two of them soon :)
Anyways, I'll tell you a little bit about the concert now.

Right before I got up to sing, I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack. My heart was beating so fast that my chest got hot. When Micah was done singing his song, I got up and walked to the mic. I couldn't hardly see the crowd because of how bright the lights were, but it was like Paranormal Activity. You couldn't see the demon, but you still knew it was there.
So I'm standing there, waiting on the music to get to the first verse, and my left arm starts shaking.
I don't draw attention to it, I just hold it still with my other arm.
Then my legs start trembling.
I've never been up in front of that big of a crowd in my whole life.
Calm down, that's not your legs shaking, that's just the bass and Alec's amps.
I knew I was just trying to convince myself.
All in all, I think I did alright.
What really surprised me was Alec telling me "You did a really good job", after it was over.
That's the first time he's ever said that. It made me feel better :)

Peace, love, and cardiac arrest,
                                                  Sara

Busy Weekend and cool foreign friends :)

All weekend, I've been busy. Except for today. Today, I stayed in my pajamas until four o'clock. It was a pretty great day! :) Yesterday, I recorded a little mini CD in a guy's home studio, and I think it turned out alright for a first attempt :)
I'll eventually upload them to my computer and put them on here for you guys :)

I decided that I really love xbox live today, even though I don't currently have live at the moment. You can meet so many cool people from all over the place on there :) Sure, some of them are actually fifty year old creepers, but the majority are just nerds like me and I love it :)
Paige met these guys on there like a week ago named Koas (it's like "coaster") and Olle. Koas is from England and Olle is from Sweden :) They're really nice and I'm fairly certain that neither of them are fifty year old creepers :)
The coolest part? They both love alternative rock!
The funny thing to me is the different slang. Half the time I don't have a clue what they're saying, so I just laugh. Smile and wave boys, smile and wave. :) Koas and Olle, if you're reading this (and you better be Koas, because you said you'd be my blog buddy) I usually get the gist of whatever it is that you're saying haha
Anyways, I'll post later maybe...I have a story for all of you :)

Peace, love, and funny foreign people (not as an insult haha),
                                                                                              ~Sara

Busy!

I'm sorry to just now be posting again! I've been unbelievably busy over the weekend which is usually used to catch up on my blogging. But it was a good kind of busy! On Friday night, the official start of the weekend for me, I went to the drive-in with two of my best friends ever, Paige and Elizabeth :) We saw Drive and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. I thought Drive was alright, I'd go see it again to hear what was said better. Dark wasn't the best, I recommend it for rent. Honestly, it was like Spiderwick on crack. Didn't scare me half as bad as I thought it would, but I liked it alright. I have to say, the violence in Drive was pretty awesome. A girl got shot in the head and her brain hit the wall....in slow motion. I was pretty impressed by how realistic it was! What shocked me was the fact that little kids were there and both movies are rated R. I mean little three and four year old kids!

On Saturday, I got to see one of my favorite artists in concert... Taylor Swift! Her concert was amazing, I lost my voice from screaming and singing so loud :) What made it even more amazing was the fact that Needtobreathe was one of the opening acts and I happen to love them :)
I'll talk more about the concert later, but for now you should just know that on an awesome scale from one to ten, it gets a fifteen. Even people that didn't really like her would have loved that concert!

On Sunday, I played Nazi zombies with Nate and Paige :) I freakin love that game! Especially since I'm starting to get better at it :)

Well, that's all for now :) I dyed my hair dark brown tonight and I need to blow dry it.

Peace, love, and Nazi zombies,
                                                  Sara                

Really cool genre of music... Dubstep :)

Thanks to Jacksfilms on YouTube, I discovered this awesome music! It's so different and I absolutely HAD to learn how to make it :) Granted, I suck right now, but I'm still learning! Here are some videos that will help explain what Dubstep and Drops are :) (The Drop is when the music goes from awesome, to OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING!) The first video is just telling you how to make it, the rest are just downright awesome Dubstep tracks :) I also threw in a few great Dubstep dancers :) How they do it, I have no idea... But they're really awesome to watch!
The great thing about this genre is, it can sound like anything. My favorites are the ones that stop right before the drop :)
                                                          Truly insane, this guy is awesome!

                                                                   How to make it
                                                     (the drop in this one is really cool)

                 The concept of this video is pretty dumb, but guns shooting dubstep music? I think yes :)

Whoa....

The bird

Mom's hand :)

Today in guitar class, I was flipped off a couple of times. Was I offended? No! Because the flippers in question didn't mean to flip anyone off. The song that they were playing doesn't use the middle finger which gives you two options. You could stick it straight up in the air and flip off the entire class, or you could do what I and most of the other students do and just put it on another string. Proof that musicians have a great sense of humor :)

We had to get up and play in front of everyone in the class and my hands were shaking so bad that I screwed up a few times :( I played Bad Moon Rising because I know it by heart. The bad thing about that song? It's really fast. Sure, I could have slowed it down considering my hands were trembling so bad, but that would have thrown off the beat! So I played fast, slipped on a few notes, but in the end everyone clapped :)
They also said I was the most improved out of everyone in the class which wasn't true. If you know me, you know that I'm a very quiet person and it takes me a while to get used to people. Since I'm like that, only Shelby had really heard me play. So actually, I had been able to play that song for months, but what they don't know won't kill them :)
The teacher should have called me out on not playing the chords like he taught us, but what he said was, "Great job, Sara. Excellent timing and good left hand." So needless to say, I felt pretty good about myself.
The only issue is that we have to show improvement next week. I'm not the fastest learner when it comes to guitar, so unless I sing, I'm not sure what I'll do.
Maybe one of these days, I'll be brave enough to sing in front of people, but today? Not happening.
Maybe I'll do a cover of a song and post it on here first just to get feedback :)

~Sara