Day 134: The Defining Moments

See, I told you the dorm would come together eventually!

In class today we talked about the defining moments in our lives. It's a memoir writing class so we're allowed to talk about stuff like this. It definitely got me thinking, which I assume was the point. What do we consider defining moments? Do they have to be big events like getting married, having a baby? I would say no, it's not restricted to that. I should hope so, because I haven't gotten married or had any kids. I think it can be the tiniest thing that had a large impact on us, and maybe it slowly but surely changed the way we react to the world around us.

I might well be in the middle of a defining moment right now. Circumstances and obstacles are being thrown my way, there's a whole lot of challenges that I have to overcome. There's a lot of character building and self discovery going on right now. I'm trying to look inside myself and figure out why things are the way they are. And maybe I can change them. That's the kind of power we have, if we allow ourselves the right.

You could even say that starting this 365 project was a defining moment for me. I committed myself to something, an entire year of creating pictures, memories, and poems. It's an arduous thing at times, and with every day it seems to become more and more a difficult and draining task. But I'm still sticking through it, for myself more than anyone else. And I begin to look at the world in different ways. Writing the poems forces me to think about who has really impacted my life, and what kind of things I'd like to say to them with a hint of reverse anonymity. It's freeing and constraining all at once. But I really feel like I'm pushing myself in a good direction with this project. Whatever the case I'll certainly have a lot of pictures by the end.

And with that, goodbye August. See you in eleven months.

Left with nothing but time and silence
Alone we contemplate.
Will that time be wisely used or wasted?
We wait.

Song: "Glycerine" by Bush. We live in a wheel where everyone steals. Post-grunge, drumless song perfect for dark, rainy nights of contemplation.

Day 133: Feel the Savagery, the Utter Savagery

This is (hopefully) the first in a series of pictures of people playing instruments shirtless. Here we've got Jesse and a ukulele! I took a video of him, too, and he was all into it until he started messing up. Then he realized he didn't wanna be on video anymore.

Practice makes perfect, man.

The dorm's coming together a little bit now. We've got the TV, the table, the beanbag chair, some wall decorations... and then boxes and things thrown into any corner that they'll fit in and yeah it's still a bit of a mess. Hopefully in a few weeks we'll get around to actually putting it together.

Woke up early today to finish the homework that was due. This was surprisingly chill. I'm no morning person, but their was something nice about waking up early with a purpose. Usually if I wake up too early before my first class I don't know what to do with myself, so I just go back to sleep. It was nice to wake up and have something to do, eat some breakfast, and run along to AB3. It's a startling combination of procrastination and responsibility, perhaps something I can continue to practice and perfect in the near future.

In this life there's the winners and the losers
The victims and the takers
But you're trying to be both

Song: "Little Lies" by Dave Barnes. Pop, singer-songwriter. Jesse should learn this on the uke. Thanks Rabia for sharing this one with me!

Day 132: Everything That Rises Must Converge

Lame picture, I know. What can ya do. Bonus points for anyone who can tell me what exactly it is!

Today I spent some time writing all of the blogs that I was behind on. Lol. And now here I am, behind again. I've found it very difficult to maintain a good schedule for these ever since I got back to school, but I should have a little bit more free time in the coming days so these posts should be more frequent. HOPEFULLY.

None of this has fault you say
Just a product of us being human.
Make no mistake
This is betrayal.

Song: "Over: by Sugarcult. From the glory days of pop-punk, when it was awesome and oh so applicable.

Day 131: Ambushed!

Talk about a beach day gone horribly wrong.

Jake, Jenn, Dana, Emma, Caitlin and I all went to Bonita Beach for a beach day. Packed a nice lunch, got our suntan on, brought some floaty thingies.

We're not in the water even ten minutes before disaster strikes. We're joking around when suddenly Emma starts saying "Ow, ow, ow." She comes toward the rest of the group, a smile on her face. "Paiiiiiiiin," she says, still smiling. I laugh and tell her to stop faking it. "Jellyfish..." she says between gasping breaths, "jellyfish... stung me... owwwwww."

Eventually it became clear that she wasn't faking. A panic started slowly spreading among us, and soon we were all darting toward the shore. We spread out as we swam, so surely some of us would get through the water unscathed, right?

I was the next one to get stung. I felt a tingling sensation in my left arm as something wrapped around, a small electric shock. All of a sudden that small tingling turned to OH MY GOD I THINK I MIGHT DIE. My arm became useless as an intense burning pain ran through it, so I kinda just sat on the water like a lame duck, too consumed by the pain.

Dana had been right next to me and kept yelling at me, "Swim faster!" Eventually she gave up on me and swam past me. Karma would catch up to her though, she was the next to be stung. I look to my left and Jake is pretty much just swimming in circles like a chicken with his head cut off, right in the middle of the jellyfish sting juice. He's just spinning around screaming in pain as he gets stung on all sides. It's the funniest and most horrifying thing I have seen in some time. I use my good arm to slowly and pathetically get to shore, and finally we all arrive on the sand, but it's too late. The damage has been done. We've all been badly stung, except for Jenn, who somehow manages to avoid even the smallest sting.

On the shore we run into other victims of the jellyfish epidemic. We exchange war stories, and then we're told that rubbing wet sand all over the stings will help dull the pain. So we did just that. A bunch of college kids rubbing sand all over each other and screaming like crazy. We must have been quite a sight. And also a good indication that no one else should go in the water, lest they share a similar fate.

That's probably the last beach day for a while.

Underneath my skin you crawl
Spread your toxic poison
And even with the sand
we cannot wholly escape your clutch

Song: "I Woke Up Near the Sea" by Lydia. Pretty applicable song, all things considered.

Day 130: Dry Bones

I'm not a video game person... but Mario Party is just way too much fun. It's like playing a board game and a video game at the same time. Yeah that's basically what it is. And you get to be Mario characters and listen to them make weird noises as they jump around the board and get hit by darts and eat candy and... how is this not a more popular social event??? You can't play this game and not have fun. Although some of the mini-games are stupid. Rowing a two-man canoe? Washing a car? These are not fun things. Doing them in a video game doesn't make them any more fun. Those are rare occurrences though. Usually you're flying planes with balloon engines or trying to kill people with a jumprope.

I was in first place, but then in the last round someone bought all my hotels and stole all my stars, and not even my vampire candy could save me.

Look at that last sentence and tell me you don't want to play this game.

Um yeah other than that I didn't do much today.

As the world falls
down
into chaos and despair
We will still be reaping all
the seeds we've sewn together

Song: "Brick by Boring Brick" by Paramore off of brand new eyes. I'll be honest, I don't find Paramore's newest album nearly as refreshing and exciting as most people seem to. The catchy hooks aren't there, the really heartfelt lyrics are missing... it's just not as cohesive and inspired as their other work. Riot! was at least a consistent release, with lots of good songs and a variety of sounds. All We Know is Falling wasn't nearly as consistent or daring (it was their first album after all), but the songs that were good on there were REALLY good, some of the best that the band has ever put out. brand new eyes cannot boast either of these things. This song, however, is a pretty solid track, with some clever lyrics, energetic vocals, and a pretty good chorus.

Day 129: Swantelope

I guess that, after the railroad tracks picture on Day 100, this is the second most illegal pic I've taken for the blog. Apparently it is illegal to photograph MYSTICAL CREATURES SUCH AS THE ONE PICTURED ABOVE.

There was an art gallery exhibit on campus today that a friend suggested we go to. I wasn't all that thrilled at the idea until I heard about the free food being served. Free food will make the most unappealing of ideas suddenly become not only bearable, but downright intriguing. What kind of food would they have, I wondered. What kind of service, will it be buffet style? Chicken wings? Chicken wings?!?

It was fruits and vegetables and one lonely bread table that got gobbled up within minutes. That is to say the food was not that great. BUT, in an unexpected turn of events, the art exhibit was actually pretty cool. Pictured above is one of the pieces, of which there were at least five all following the same theme. Create fantastical creatures out of the stuffed remains of actual existing animals. This one was by far the coolest out of the set, though that's not to say they all weren't pretty freaking ingenious. And it kind of makes you wonder why there's NOT an animal with a pair of swan heads, the body of a coyote, and the hooves of an antelope.

It kinda reminds me of bearsharktopus, which is totally a real animal.

Anyways they said no photography but I thought for the sake of this blog I would bend that rule, because this was too cool of a sighting not to take a pic of it. I probably should have written down the artist's name so I could give him a shout out and make this semi-legit, but alas I did not. Fail.

For unto whatever truth you may not yet believe
You know that sadness births the most inspired sort of craft

Song: "Dust in the Devil's Snow" by Hammock, off their new album Chasing After Shadows... Living With the Ghosts. Really ambient post-rock instrumental. I've posted a few post-rock songs on here before. Explosions in the Sky usually gets all the praise when it comes to bands like this, and I've featured them here, but I have to say Hammock does what they do better. This is really enchanting music, all but transporting the listener to a world scored to these epic soundscapes. I can see swantelopes prancing around in some sunlit meadow as this song, and the band's other songs, play in the background. So yeah. Listen. It takes a minute or so for the song to build up, but it's worth the wait.

Day 128: I've Mined the Graveyard of Unpublished Poems

More moody outdoorsy pics!

Before we were we
We were somebody elses
Before we even knew
We were nobody's guesses
And we could soar.

Song: "Dirty Cartoons" by Menomena. Moody indie rock.

Day 127: The Long Haul

I feel like I live in AB3. I think I've had a class there every semester that I've been in Fort Myers (just like I've had a class in the library every semester... what up wit dat?). But it's never been this bad. This semester, I have two classes in a row in AB3. Not only that, but the classes are in the exact same CLASSROOM. I'm in room 107 for four and a half hours on Tuesdays. =(

For comparison, the only time I've ever even been in Ben Hill Griffin Hall is when I stopped in there to go to the bathroom. Why can't I get some classes in there sometimes? Yeesh.

The boardwalk into the North Lake Ghetto is a pretty chill place, one of the main reasons I actually enjoy walking to and from my classes on campus. The other reason being those shuttles are PACKED. And unreliable. You could wait around for ten minutes before the first shuttle comes by, and you finally get on it and it's standing room only, if that. Not worth it. I'll pop in my earphones and listen to some tunes while I enjoy a few minutes alone on that relaxing walk.

Oh, also... I meant to put this with yesterday's blog but it totally slipped my mind. There's a poem that I was recently introduced to, which inspired the blog title for yesterday. I recommend you read it, it won't take long. "Come to the Edge" by Christopher Logue (though it's often misattributed to Guillaume Apollinaire).

Now for my poem, which absolutely pales in comparison (and is limited to only 20 words):

Words on a page don't mean a thing
No passion behind the things you say
And your clever little lines

Song: "All the Right Moves" by OneRepublic. Piano and electronic-laden pop.

Day 126: Revolution

There goes my outdoorsy theme, lol. Today was the first day of classes. Excitement! I'm really looking forward to this semester, I've got a few interesting classes and I think I've got some of the best professors the school has to offer.

We were told there was free food in Alico Arena. We were not told the whole truth. To get to the free food, you had to sit through an entire pep rally, aimed at the incoming freshmen. We were told time and time again how the class of 2014 was the beginning of a revolution, and how the future of the school was in their hands, and we were counting on them to start having school spirit, and blah blah blah omg I want my food.

An hour later I finally got it.

It was pretty good.

The only thing we ever needed
To say before we parted
Know the words
I'm sorry
Where it starts

Song: "The Kids Aren't Alright" by The Offspring. One of the greatest punk bands of all time, and one of their most popular songs.

Day 125: And They Flew

I'm trying to get a theme of outdoorsy pictures for the first week or so back. FGCU is a a pretty diverse place in terms of what you can see around campus. The lake at housing, the woodlands surrounding the school, the swamps during the summer and fall. You can see plenty of cool stuff around here and I'm forever trying to capture it with my camera. This wasn't the first time I went butterfly stalking. On Day 6 of the blog I got pretty close to a few orange-winged butterflies, but I could never get quite close enough to make a good picture of it. While walking along the shore of the lake, however, I spotted this little guy among the reeds. Surprisingly, he let me get close enough with my camera to get some really clear images from a variety of angles.

Waiting for the last retreat
The last regret
The last repeat
And all you'll find is distance from the dawn

Song: "Blow Away" by A Fine Frenzy. Alternative pop. This is one of the few times I'll say this: if you like this song by her, you'll probably like all of her songs. I found it difficult to choose just one to spotlight on the blog. One Cell In the Sea is a better effort than her new album in my opinion, but you'd be hard pressed to find a bad song by this singer-songwriter. She plays predominantly mid-tempo piano songs, however, "Blow Away" is an upbeat catchy, fun summer song.

Day 124: The Shipment

Woke up and enjoyed the view from the new dorm. This picture is obviously a recreation of the very first picture I took for this blog. Wow, a lot has changed in the 123 days since I took that first pic. But the view hasn't, and it's still great. Much better than the parking lot view that we had last year in Building Q. I snapped the picture as soon as I woke up and then set about the main business for a day. Getting a table for the living room.

My roommates and I had been discussing the possibility of getting a table for a while. Last year we had a small coffee table that one of the other kids brought, but we didn't have that this year. So we did what any sensible, poor college students would do: we checked craigslist.

Turned out there were two viable options for cheap coffee tables. One was completely free: if we got there before anyone else, the furniture was ours. Another one had a $20 price tag, but it was a nicer looking table and had wheels for easy mobility, and it had some sweet storage options. We decided to check out the free one first, because, like, why not? Even if we ended up getting the $20 table, we'd have the free one that we could maybe give to our friends or sell to someone else to make a quick profit. We looked up the address for the free one: there was no city, no zipcode, just a street name and the number of the house. We googled it to the best of our ability and saw that it was in Cape Coral. The $20 table didn't have an address, just a phone number located in Naples.

We were on our way to Cape Coral!

Forty minutes later, we're driving around the community where this address is supposedly located, but conspicuously enough the house numbers skip JUST past the one where this guy is supposed to live. We roll around asking the natives, and none of them seem to have a clue, though they're all nice enough to try anyways. Eventually we run into an educated woman who lets us know that Naples and Cape Coral have extremely similar addresses, and we're probably looking for the one in Naples.

Why couldn't the craigslist guy just write down what city he was in >.<

Now we're headed for Naples, having gone an hour out of our way. At this point we call the number for the $20 table since we're headed that way anyway, but she tells us that the table has already been sold. We were expecting to come out of this with two tables, and now we're potentially looking at zero. Still, we haven't given up hope. We drive toward the new address.

We get there and it's this sketchy road sparsely decorated by the occasional house. The address we have is to a small one-story house with a long driveway, no cars parked out front. We knock on the front door, ring the doorbell, etc. Nothing. We peak inside the house, there's absolutely nothing in there, it's completely barren. However, from the window we can see all the way out onto the back porch, where sits, in complete solitude, a kitchen table. A beaten up, raggedy looking table. Not exactly what the ad said, it looked nothing like a coffee table, but there it was. Just sitting out there.

We waited around for a little bit, still trying the doorbell and knocking to no avail. Finally we agree that the place has been abandoned, the table is unwanted, and it's sitting there expressly for us to take it. And after going over an hour out of our way, not to mention the drive back and forth from Naples, we weren't leaving this trip emptyhanded. So we went out to the back porch which was unlocked, picked the table up, and carried it off to the car.

It actually doesn't look too bad in our living room.

I can't show the world to you
Not my world, not this time
It's like a secret told too soon

Song: "Kids" by MGMT. One of the best driving songs ever. A really refreshing and upbeat song. Gets you going in the morning. Electronic indie.

Day 123: Blitzkrieg

I've got my work cut out for me in this mess of a room. With so much going on today, this was the only thing I had time to take a picture of.

The day started right away with more cleaning of the apartment. We really never stopped. It was a two-day marathon of getting everything cleaned up, throwing stuff out, moving things around, etc. The carpet had to be cleaned so basically everything in the apartment needed to be move to the tile in the kitchen. 9am rolled around and, as the carpets were being cleaned, we switched gears and started packing things into cars. A 1pm I was able to move into my dorm, unload all of my stuff, and then make another trip to the apartment to grab some of Matt's stuff to move. He moved in at 3, but Matt is apparently a packrat and had boatloads of possessions, so it took a few more trips to get us both moved in. By 7pm we were done. Off to Target to get some food. Come back, eat food. Help some other friends move in. And then finally at around 1am, I went back to the apartment one last time to smuggle my bunny into the dorms.

Then I passed out.

It's good to be back.

You thought that it was you against the world
But the lies were for you
And one day you'll understand

Song: "New Soul" by Yael Naim. Indie pop.

Day 122: Gypsy

Today was the last day in the apartment at Osprey Cove. The majority of the day was spent cleaning the mess we had managed to accumulate, mostly in the kitchen. I didn't realize how many forks we had until I had to clean them all.

I feel like I just moved, and I already have to do it again. I don't mind though. As much as I don't like change sometimes, it's been nice living in different places and being in new situations, and I'm excited for what's to come in the near future.

Maybe I'm just the one with the mission
You're the stranger then I'll be the fiction
Written as the truth

Song: "Needle and Haystack Life" by Switchfoot. Alternative rock. There's a lot of good Switchfoot songs out there from over the years, but this is easily my favorite from the newest album. It's a really upbeat and optimistic song with a huge chorus and a classic Switchfoot sound. What I really like about this song is that it's not trying to be something that it's not, which is what Switchfoot has struggled with sometimes on the past few albums. It's heartfelt and simple.

Day 121: Inconveniences

Day two of taking random pictures! To be honest though it feels good to have this picture so I can talk about how weird this bathroom is. Mainly the shower area. The door opens outward, as you can see. And it's far away from the faucet, so you have to actually be in the shower to turn it on. It's a stand-up shower, not a tub. So there's not even that little thing you can pull to make the water go through the shower head instead of the faucet. The water just immediately starts raining down on you the second that you turn the water on. And it's cold and it pours out the doorway and it's just an awful set-up. I get the idea. "Ooooh a shower door, so novel! So edgy!" but they should have realized: "Oooooh a shower door, so impractical, so useless!" And they should have nixed the idea and went with the sliding doors that actually work.

We're nothing without who we are
We're making our own names
And carving our own ways
Nothing hurts like faking

Song: "Sons of Ghosts" by Ef. One of my favorite post-rock bands.

Day 120: The Solution Room

And so begins a few-day spree of me taking pictures of random things at the apartment. It's kind of BS, I usually try a lot harder with the pictures, but with these, I'll be honest. I just wanted to get my picture taken for the day and be done with it. There wasn't a whole lot of excitement going on at the apartment, and so not a lot of great photo opportunities. I'm not proud of these hastily put together pictures, and I know that I can do better. But oh well, what's done is done.

This is a picture of the random stuff in the Solution Room. There's so many solutions in this room! Namely, it solved my problem of having to take a picture for this day.

This is you, this is me
And this is us in freefall
This place exists to catch us
Falling down

Song: "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie. Was saving this song for a more applicable day, but after I wrote the poem it seemed to kind of go with it. Nice soft indie acoustic song.

Day 119: Sixteen Books

Butters like to sit on things. I'm gonna be sad when he no longer has this balcony to run around on. Poor Butters, he's gonna be an illegal alien when he's living in the dorms =( I doubt the RA's will issue him a green card. This means he cannot vote in the dorm elections or buy a private jet.

Everything you've done has been marked
Recorded and remembered
This gift you have is rare
And you utilize it well

Song: "A Cloak of Elvenkind" by Marcy Playground. For all the post-grunge nerds out there (how many of you are there???).

Day 118: A Tale of Two Roads

I said goodbye to Boca and made my way back to Fort Myers for a few more days at the apartment before school starts. The drive through Alligator Alley is always so chill, especially at night, with the windows down and barely any cars in sight. It's also the perfect length for a trip: long enough that it actually feels like a trip, but not so long as to make it something to dread. If I had to drive 9 hours every time I wanted to go home to visit, it would, well, suck.

With the gates open now we are free to speak
Free to say what we want to think
And feel

Song: "Sunday Drive" by The Early November. I've been saving this track for the perfect time, and this kinda feels like the perfect time. A Sunday entry about driving, and this really is a windows down, solitary kind of track. Mostly acoustic but with some memorable guitar parts, and Ace Enders' trademark unrestrained vocal delivery.

Day 117: Out of Order

It was the last day in Boca that I got to hang out with my fellow Bocanites. We spent it wisely by lounging around telling stories and making fun of each other. The usual.

There is nothing here that I cannot miss
And I know we will find our way back to the sea

Song: "This Airplane is a Ribbon" by Sherwood. A catchy pop-rock track with a soft, summery sound.

Day 116: 0059

I was driving home from the bowling alley when a cop pulled me over. There's a traffic light out near the bowling alley. There's two cars in front of me, we all one by one roll up to the light, stop, look out into the nothingness (as no one is on these backroads this late at night), and continue on. Well after two cars ahead of me have gone I decide to just do a rolling stop so I don't have to shift back into first gear, and I go about my merry way.

Yeahhhhh there's a cop just sitting there waiting for people to do this exact thing. Actually he's probably waiting for people to just speed through it with no stopping whatsoever, but nobody's breaking the law around here so I guess he'll take what he can get.

He pulls me over and, at 12:59am on August 13th, immediately issues me a citation. For a rolling stop at a busted traffic light with absolutely no one around and two cars having gone ahead of me.

I get that it's still breaking the traffic rules. And I honestly never really had a huge problem with cops until this incident. But seriously. If he were really concerned about people's safety (the primary reason for HAVING traffic laws), he would have been out on that road directing traffic. Not lurking in the dark waiting for someone to do a rolling stop so he could get his jollies and slap a fine on some poor college student.

We have nothing more to do to pass the time
We will sit here we will wait
Until the outlaws come

Song: "I Feel You" by Disciple. Hard rock

Day 115: Low Flying Birds

Boca is a strange place. Every time I come back to this town, something's changed. Usually it's Powerline Road. It's fun to watch this road get stupider and stupider as they do "construction" on it. Over the past year or so it has gotten progressively more nonsensical. I don't even think you can call it a road anymore. It's an asphalt junkyard that the government allows us to drive on, though really, why would we want to?

Anyways, I came back for my friend Veronica's 21st birthday. It's been a long time since I've seen her or any of my other hometown friends. She had been in Peru for a month or so, and Dubno was on an equally long journey through Europe (jealous!!!). It was time to reunite the gang.

I think there was a plan for the night, but we kind of just drove around and went where the night took us. A five minute go-cart ride didn't really seem like it was worth 8 bucks, so we ditched that idea. Eco Yogurt is what a night club rave slash frozen yogurt stand will look like in the future. It's also what it looks like already. Trippiest place I've been in a while, thanks for sharing it with me gang.

They changed the name of Don Carter's, AGAIN. Nobody called it Boca Bowl anyway, but who is seriously gonna call it "Strikes"? Next time I come back it's gonna be called "That Place Where You Go Bowling".

The party moved along to Deerfield Beach to watch the meteor shower. I can tell you exactly how many meteors I saw: ONE =( I should have been paying more attention. At midnight Veronica turned twenty-one, we all sang and scared everybody else away from the beach. A fun way to end the night.

For every time we falter there is one who picks us up
Forces us to carry on
Underneath the stars

Song: "Underneath the Stars" by Kate Rusby. Quiet folk/ acoustic song.

Day 114: Dance in a Dream to the Songs That We Love

Gas was $2.73 a gallon at the pump today. When I look at this blog ten years from now and I'm paying 11 dollars for a gallon of gas, I'm either gonna laugh or rip my hair out.

I hope I still have hair in ten years.

Whoo hooo oh oooh oooh yeah
Nanana na nana nana
Bum de dum de dum bum
There are no words.

Song: "Carry On" by Valencia. Pop/punk ballad.

Day 113: Kansas Anymore

I'm sensing a trend with these stormy days.

Now you have found
The moment of clarity
The sound of certainty
The taste of comprehension
The loss of speculation

Song: "Freebird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Yeah.

Day 112: Rainy Day #35

There's something freeing about rain. Cleansing. It can be a drag sometimes when it interferes with your plans, but just think about that. Nature is interfering with us? That's not right. We're at the mercy of the weather. I always find that intriguing.

I'm always the last to know
It's not that it's not worth telling
It's that it's not worth telling me

Song: "Love Lost" by The Temper Trap. Swelling indie rock, again chosen to accompany you as you get lost in a rainy day. Quiet and pulsating all at once, it's a great track to let overtake you. To be honest, a lot of this band's songs fit that mold, so if you enjoyed this one, take a look at some others as well.

Day 111: Rainy Day #12

Who knew that Petsmart closed at 6pm on Sundays? Ridiculous. No bedding for Butters, I guess. =(

I'll be there, haven't missed it yet
Some things I'll still fight for
Even if I'm the only one fighting

Song: "I Have Loved You Wrong" by The Swell Season. Indie folk-pop. Haunting vocals that suddenly, unexpectedly reach a chilling climax. Recommended for fans of the other indie folk songs I've posted on here, and if you like your rainy days accompanied by slow, relaxing, but still interesting music.

Day 110: Anipocalypse

I had a dream.

I was around a bunch of friends and peers, it was late at night, and we were at some beach house. A few of us got out a deck of cards and started playing a card game on the stairs, being careful not to let the cards fall through the cracks. As we were playing though I couldn't help but notice things in my peripheral vision. I saw through the glass doorway to the coastline of the beach, and every once in a while something strange would catch my eye. A lion was prowling around the shore.

Yeah, that's right. A LION.

Somehow, dream-me thought nothing of it and I went back to playing my card game. That is, until a few moments later, when I saw something small and white appearing among the crashing waves. Only until I saw a much larger version of the white fluff did I realize what this was. Mama polar bear and baby polar bear were on the beach now, fishing or just being fishy.

Finally I said something to my friends. "There's a lion and a polar bear out there." They just shrugged and continued playing the card game. I looked around at all the other people in the house, socializing and having a good time. Nobody had seen the lion or the polar bear, or at least they hadn't cared.

That's when wildebeest and cheetahs and giraffes and hippos and all sorts of random things literally RAN through the ocean and charged up the shoreline and darted straight for the beach house.

That's when my dream turned into some sort of apocalyptic wasteland movie, as severely under-equipped humans fought a losing war against the animal legion. I went out into the foyer, to see a company of survivors sitting around a fire, licking their wounds and sharpening their spears. This is like, three minutes after the attack. "Storm's a comin'," one says to me in a gravelly voice. "They'll be back. They always come back." Another one was telling me some war story about how his eye was scarred by a pack of wolves.

Animals vs. Humans. It's gonna be a thing.

Birthed from a place not unlike reality
We are cold, we are bruised
We are soldiers in this army

Song: "Marvelous Things" by Eisley. Strangely relevant to the blog. Dream pop.

Day 109: Up to Snuff

The interview at Levi's was today. I thought I was going in for a one-on-one interview with Heidi, one of the store managers. As soon as I got there I realized this was not the case! Three people were being interviewed at once. I am a cog in the machine. I met one of the other kids applying right before we went in. David, like myself, had applied to every store under the Florida sun, and had only now gotten called back by Levi's, where he had applied in June. He seemed like a cool dude and I genuinely hoped we both could get the job, because it seemed like we both needed it.

Well David pulled out all the stops to get that job, let me tell you. I have never seen such a spectacle as seeing David throw away his dignity for the sake of a sales associate job at a jeans outlet. I may be exaggerating a little, but YIKES. The kid was goofy and shameless, saying whatever it took for him to get an edge on the rest of us. I guess it's possible that this was just his personality, but I certainly didn't see it in the 10-ish minutes I spent talking to the kid before we went in for the interview. He knew exactly what this manager wanted and he knew how to sell it. Props for that. On top of that he had previous retail experience, so he had that going for him.

As for my part, I think I gave the interview my everything. I was funny while still being genuine, I wasn't shy, I told the truth and smiled and I did my best. If David gets the job, he absolutely deserves it. No idea how long he'll last under the facade, but he at least got his foot in the door, which is more than I can say.

Oh and the picture is of Jeb walking around on campus because I didn't take any pictures of David selling his soul in cringe-worthy fashion. Though I obviously should have.

My heart says fine but my brain says no
My heart stays kind while my brain can't go
Along anymore

Song: "The Sound" by Further Seems Forever. Emotive pop-punk.

Day 108: Thoughts at the Time

I'm looking for a way out, open doors
Is it you? Is it you?
Is it in your love?

Song: "Contact" by As Cities Burn. For a while there, ACB was making some of the most interesting, passionate, and genuine indie rock out there. The lyrics speak of a longing, a desperate search, while the music speaks of long nights driving alone with just your thoughts and fears. Sometimes I can't help but feel alone, I think that's a universal truth. And I had a lot on my mind today while I prepared for my interview. So I listen to the swirling guitars and cries of "This can't be. Could it be that all we see is it? Is this it?" and I think, no. It just feels that way sometimes. And we're all allowed to ask those questions.

I'm rambling a bit.

Day 107: Where the Streets Have No Name

Nothing separates the weakness
And nothing fortifies the strengths
And we are all just paper
Being cut right into shape

Song: "Where the Streets Have No Name" by U2.

Day 106: Zeus

The Apartment 430 crew went down to the pool with the sky looking completely overcast. Eventually we had the whole pool area to ourselves, because I guess nobody wants to get rained on while in the water? Anyways. Inevitably it started raining. Doing what any other sensible human being would do (I hope you're seeing the pattern here, we make great decisions), we threw our belongings under shelter and made our way to the hot tub. Turn on the bubble jets and we're good to go.

We sat in the hot tub getting rained on for at least half an hour, talking and reminiscing and joking around. The only thing that forced us to get out was a crack of lightning, 400 decibels too loud, appearing right over our heads. The lightning flashed before my eyes, and with it my entire life. It only took us a nanosecond to jump out of the hot tub and bolt for shelter, screaming like little girls the entire way (mostly just because of the adrenaline rush. Yeah.) Quite seriously, it was one of the scariest experiences of my life. If I learned anything from today, it is that I'm probably invincible.

Also this picture does a great job of showing off my sandal tan.

Living fearless, dangerous and without a doubt with pride
You keep your head held high
What made you this strong?

Song: "Lightning Crashes" by Live. The song doesn't actually have much to do with the weather phenomenon that I experienced, but it always immediately springs to mind during a thunderstorm, and today was no different. Such a perfect song. Part of the soundtrack to my novella, both for its lyrical themes and its powerful sound. I know I've been on a 90's rock binge lately, I promise this is the last one.

Day 105: Son of Sorrow

Jeb, Matt and I took a day trip to Weston to hang out with Jake and get Matt's computer fixed. And also to pick me up an air mattress. Fun day! Sorry for falling asleep in the car and leaving you all alone for the drive, Jeb... my bad. I also think it's the first time our gang made McDonald's a social hang out spot. And probably the last time.

(Jake makes an appearance in a three sixty-five photo after a 103-day absence. Where have you been all my life Jake?!?!)

We're on our way
And we're gonna be just fine
Your intents and mine
And all the lives we find

Song: "Two Points for Honesty" by Guster. Alternative rock. Catchiest chorus I've heard in a while, and the song builds to a really intriguing conclusion. It's an old song but it's new to me. Thanks for sharing it, Jeb.

Day 104: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Every time I catch a break, something comes along to murder my joy.

Osprey Cove is a scandalous place to live. The most controversial of their policies - and also the one they don't tell you about - is that they tow cars of non-residents after midnight. This literally means that if you're visiting a friend and you stay one minute after midnight, chances are a tow truck is already stealing your car, shuffling it off to a storage center, and waiting to ask you for lots of money before they give it back to you. I should know, it just happened to me.

First of all, it's not cool at all that this is actually a policy. I can't imagine who would want to not allow their friends to stay a little late (and in this day and age, midnight really isn't all that late). Second of all, they don't tell anyone that they're changing these policies: they don't WANT you to know, they want their money. This only seems fair if you're a scam artist or a scumbag.

It's not fun to wake up and realize your car is missing. It's just not. Trust me on that one. And it is equally unfun to have to run around town to find it and pay ridiculous amounts of money to get your car back. But whatever, I get it. God forbid Josh Marcum actually ever catches a break, right?

Only one as you could change distress into acceptance
You can't fight the past
So why try?
It's all alright.

Song: "Washin' + Wonderin'" by Stroke 9. Alternative pop/rock. It's an upbeat and happy-sounding song, but in the right (or wrong) context, this song is just... why?