Holiday Traditions & Others

I know you have em. I do and I love traditions. Whether it be a holiday tradition, a birthday tradition or whatever you and your boys/girls do to "keep the tradition alive" thingy. Here are a few of mine:

• Watch "Its a Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve
• Make the first cut on our Thanksgiving turkey
• Bake and make the green bean casserole(my favorite dish) on Thanksgiving and Christmas
• Play Parcheesi with my mom and sister on Christmas Eve
  
• Sing "Happy Birthday To Me" by The Vandals, to myself, on my birthday
• Play golf on my birthday
• Put the star on our Christmas tree
• Go to Christmas Eve church service
• Say a prayer before every road trip and flight
• Send a rose to my mother, sister, and if i have a GF, on Valentines Day
• Drink Guinness and only Guinness on St. Patricks Day
• Watch Penn State play in their respective bowl game with my father
• Grow a little beard for the Holidays(to stay warm ya know!)
• Go fishing with my dad on Fathers Day
• Spend the whole day with my mom doing whatever she wants to do on Mothers Day
• Buy way too many groundflowers on the Fourth of July
• Shoutout the 10 second countdown on New Years with all my closest friends

So what are some of your traditions?

Inspiration

So, I've been reading a few blogs here and there ever since I started blogging myself and have come across quite a few really neat blogs. Its kinda cool to live vicariously through that person or just have a different perspective of someones life different than your own. Some people have "giveaways" for reading and commenting on their blogs because, well, thats just a really nice thing to do. I compliment those people very much. When I get in the position to do the same, I will be doing the same.

Which brings me to write this post.

I consider myself a very inspired and inspirational person. I like to be inspired and to inspire people around me on a weekly if not, daily basis. It's pretty fun. I like to see people reach their full potential. I know, I know, I sound like a teacher. Go with me on this one. We all have those special moments in life where we feel inspired and feel giddy inside. Some of us write songs, go volunteer, or do whatever we feel like. The great thing about being inspired is that seeing it makes you wanna go be better. Whether it be watching a professional golfer succeed at a tournament and then next day you're at the range until dark with bleeding hands working on your own game. Or you go to a concert and see the band just rip shit up on the stage and you wanna become the next rock star. Thats the great thing about all the things in life we do and love. We see something and then we wanna do that! I remember going to my first punk show at age 15. It was July 12, 1996 and NoFX played in Boise, which is where I'm from, and it was a day that totally formed who I am today. Like I said it was my first punk show and "big" concert that I attended and I was absolutely stoked! I lost my hearing for 3 days but I didn't care. I just saw my favorite band in the world....and I wanted to do it!!! Where did I find myself my first year in high school? Yep, you guessed it, in a punk band with three of my best friends. It was probably two of the funnest years of my life.

Inspiration.

To this day I am a singer/songwriter but have mellowed out and write most acoustically. Punk rock will always be a part of my roots but my inspiration has change to a different genre. I live in San Diego now and now and remember watching on TV all the fires that plagued southern California. Of course I had my guitar in my hand at the time and I was just super inspired to write a song about how the fires are going to affect the lives of thousands. I titled the song Embracing Change(copywright me) ha!

So, I ask you the reader, what have you done to inspire a fellow friend/co-worker/spouse or loved one, and finally....what inspires you?

Lazy Saturday

I literally haven't done anything today. And it feels great. Its super nice outside, but I just felt like staying inside. I haven't had a Saturday to myself and college football for sometime now. I did manage to get some studying in earlier, but I've been on the couch watching football and playing guitar all day.

I saw Quantum of Solice last night with my friend Kristin and it was pretty neat.

So is anyone that belongs to 20somethingbloggers thinking about going to Boston next June for the meetup? I'm considering it but we'll see what my schedule allows. It'd be sooo cool to meet some of you peeps in Boston as I have never been there. What a great excuse to go!

This is a boring post I know, but I thought I'd kill some time to letcha all know what i'm doing. And by all I mean you 5 or so that read this. Well off to work soon. Enjoy your Saturday evenings.

Passion

Where's the passion gone, in our hearts?
Lost somewhere in the grind
It's time to bring it back, its time to unwind, find what we lost
Its time....to bring it back.....

Miss Holly Golightly

I absolutely love her! Almost everything about her I love. And I say almost very carefully because a few things make me cringe. I recently re-watched Breakfast At Tiffany's, which I highly recommend if you haven't seen it, and I particularly paid attention to her demeanor and her character this time a round. I love her wild, naive, free-spirited nature and how she's so aware of the little things around her but yet so oblivious to herself. I know, that sounds confusing but just go watch.

She's really easy to fall in love with, as Paul Varjak quickly found out.

So you ask, "what are the things that make you cringe?" Well, the fact that she was naive about how others felt about her and how she treated others just killed me, but it gets better. The fact that she runs from all her problems and forgets about them the next day, but it gets better. She building up all these feelings for an inevitable breakdown.

What else do I love about her? The fact that she sleeps with tasseled ear plugs, then answers the door and has a conversation with them in, oblivious to the fact that they are still in!! And then says, "Fred darling, what did you say?" How she keeps a nameless cat, but constantly lives as somebody she's really not. Lula May or Holly Golightly? She doesn't know....she just needs her weekly trip to Tiffany's and her nightly date to keep her "safe".

In the end she realized who she was, who she loved and why she loved. Really, she's quite the conundrum. But aren't we all? We all have our little quirks about ourselves that I'm sure, annoy the shit out of our significant others and family members. But those are the things that make us unique and in the end, why we love each other.

I'm still looking for my Holly Golightly.