You could have knocked me out with a feeling....

Chaps and Chicks,

I have to work off a bit of my friend Tyler’s blog (@thillsman) to begin this post:  Music.  ((Hindsight review: …begin?  That’s all this post is about!))

Music is one of the most important things in my life.  I appreciate it, I play it, I write it, I feel from it and I feel for it, I yearn for old and new, I connect, I investigate, I learn, and lastly, I surprisingly discover new things about it and myself each day.

It’s fascinating to see what types of music show up in your life and when and where.  During an almost car wreck: Dishwalla – Counting Blue Cars, Waking up from surgery, If Everyone Cared – Nickelback, was stuck in my head, Every day I learn a new lyric by Fall Out Boy that I passed over because I couldn’t understand the meaning or even the words. ...A song that not only connects you to one tremendous experience, but countless others….  Music has a power over us that not many can beat.  That’s why I cherish it, every tune I hear.  I once fell asleep to an Ozarks Public Television presentation of How Music Affects Us.  It’s interesting to know that, in some cultures, there are more notes between C and C# than what we as Westerners perceive.

Anyway, I guess what I have trouble with sometimes is not only enjoying quality, but creativity.  I’m having trouble listening to a band’s new CD right now…and it’s mostly because of my own morals.  The music is great, the invention, the sound, well, most of it, but I can’t get over its constant mentioning of partying and getting totally blasted and maybe or maybe not hooking up.  As a 20-year-old, I guess I’m already a bit past that.  I’m really disappointed, because I loved their previous album, and I tremendously appreciate them taking the world’s advice and going in new and different directions.  I’m just not sure if I’ll be going with them.  They've really taken a step back in my opinion.  I have to say…this album sucks.  Some days I want to pack it up and send it to a friend whom I know will enjoy it.  Not as an insult, but to just get rid of it.  Get it off my desk, sitting there, flipping me off.  You win some, you lose some, I guess.

Then there’s another band that just seems to get it right with me almost every time.  They’re the one group who I defer to when all else fails.  The lyrics are ironic, but I see my life as ironic, and the stories unfold from there.  I feel like I’ve experienced a bit of what they have on both the physical and emotional level.  I’ve liked them since 2005.  Fall Out Boy.  I can’t say I’m a die hard fan, but when it comes to their music, I’ll happily listen when I’m 100-years-old, if I ever make it.

It started with the Sugar We’re Going Down video.  A couple of friends and I had just watched School of Rock at the theatres and decided to form a band.  MTV and VH1 still played a bit of music back then, and Fall Out Boy was one of our main influences.  We never played a single one of their songs, just as we did with my friend’s obsession with Van Halen, but you can bet her bass looked like Eddie’s and I was a different member of FOB every week.  I remember trying to swing her bass around my neck and almost shoving it through her family’s dropped ceiling.  We were rockstars, lying in the middle of the floor playing the first 10 songs of From Under the Cork Tree on repeat.  Those years were weird…just like my love life.  It’s almost like I’ve grown up with them, though they’re older.  Folie A Deux is more mature, and though electronic effects heavy…still holds a place in my heart as “That One CD that never leaves the car player”.  I know almost all the words.  It haunts me, it lifts me up.  That’s what music is supposed to do.  The Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist soundtrack does almost the same.  Each song just seems…perfect.  There are tons of songs that do this to me, and I get almost obsessed with them, and Lord knows, I'll ultimate-guitar.com them and see if I can play the tune.

So the next time one of your friends is obsessed with a band, don’t write them off as stupid, lame and/or too trendy at first, be patient, and give them time…they may just really connect with that band and have something meaningful to say.

 Let's hear it, oh, let's hear it,

Suiteheart.

I love you, but you're killing me.

Hey bloggers, tweeters, browsers, and cheaters,

My name is Candice.  I am not the best at keeping up with blogs, but I always try to add enough substance to a post to make it worthwhile.  You can keep up with me by bookmarking the site thatinbetweenage.blogspot.com 

Every time I lay my head down to sleep, that particular Candice of the day dies off and is replaced by a new one containing merely a few shadows of past experience and thought.  Oh, yeah, by the way.  I'm a writer.  The worst kind, too.  I'll think about writing for days, but never get around to it.  I'll walk around with an idea for a song/story in my head for hours on end and either take the time to write it down or lose it.

I work with kids.  It is probably one of the most fun jobs on this planet to take care of mini-people.  They have their own thoughts, ideas, opinions, pasts, troubles, dispositions, personalities, and best of all, appetites.  My boys could put away a full-course meal in mere minutes.  I'll write about them every once in a while, but for their own safety, and by my own choice, their information or names will not be revealed.  Thanks for understanding.

I'm going to college and majoring in Theatre Education, hoping to move to Chicago in a few years and take over the world.  Just kidding, all I really want to do is write, but in this economy, I figure a teaching job in something I extremely enjoy is much more safe than a creative writing degree and nothing more.  I have nothing against you bohemians...I would love to be one myself, but until I know how it feels to have my feet under me, I'm going to stay on this track. 

God is a huge part of my life.  I was raised Methodist and keep a lot of their beliefs and creeds in my current life.  By His grace, I have survived a four-wheeler wreck that fractured my right cheek in three places, and had an *almost* car wreck all before I turned 21.  There is no explaining how I safely escaped these things, but each one has made me a better person and somehow already helped me help a few people.

I believe that one of the most powerful things we as humans have are our experiences.  They date back to before oral tradition and are unique to each and every person, even in communist-run countries.  There can be no way that all people can be the same.  Experiences are there to help others, to attribute credit in our arguments and advice, as well as form and shape the person who we are today.

This is me.

You'll find out more later.

Now, on to a little bit of what this blog is really going to be like:

These past few weeks have been insightfully frustrating and weak.  I've been attempting change in as many ways I can think of.  I'm starting to do sit-ups.  I'm starting to be more positive at work.  I'm trying, and failing, to remove some bad habits from my life.  I'm working at being a better team player, and finally, trying to stop "trying too hard".  

Enough of that, I'm just convinced now that there's some type of other change happening inside of me that I'm unaware of.  It's odd to say, but I trust God and what he's doing....

Sitting atop the playground at work today, I thought of a story that I may try to put to cyber-paper.  It sprung from the aching need to play with every single one of my kids, to see who the real bullies are, to be a real friend to my sweethearts, and just plain be a kid again.

I'll update more, soon.  Going on a family vacation in two weeks.  I hardly ever get some friend to go with me...so, I'm really trying to pray for a companion who understands my crazy this year.  Besides, who knows how many more of these I'm going on?

I'll touch on loneliness and contemplating "free time" later.  Until then, happy days!

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Listening to:  Don't Trust Me - 3OH!3, Bittersweet Symphony - Ace Enders and a Million Different People, Break Out! Break Out! - All Time Low, The Haunting - Anberlin, XO - Fall Out Boy