It’s time for another Wednesday blog and Bronwyn, Jess and I are exploring our musical loves. We’ve hit shuffle on our music collections and we’re seeing what comes up in the first ten songs.  Read Bronwyn’s post here and Jess’ here.

I’m very interested to see what comes up for me in this little experiment. I have a lot of different music playlists depending on my mood or task at hand, but for this I’ve hit shuffle on the whole collection on my iPod.  Here we go…

1. Working My Way Back to You – Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons:  I love so called “Oldies” and my favorite group is Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. Listening to them never fails to cheer me up. And of course I try to hit those high notes, it’s not pretty.

2. Careless Whisper – Seether:  Yes this is a remake of a cheesy 80’s song by George Michael but I don’t care. I really like the vibe to this version, I’m not even sure why.

3. Electrical Storm – U2:  While not one of their more well known songs, I enjoy the way this starts out quiet and builds…like a storm. U2 is one of my all time favorite bands, if not my favorite band. I never get tired of listening to them and almost every song brings me back to a specific place or time.

4. Pray Your Gods – Toad the Wet Sprocket: Another one of my favorite bands. They fall under what I call “Mellow Dude Rock.” It’s a genre. This song is off the Fear album which I recently realized has been out for 22 years. God, that’s depressing.

5. She is Love – Parachute: I’m not sure I know any other songs by this band but I heard this on the radio once and really liked it. Also very mellow…which seems to be a lot of my musical tastes.

6. Blister in the Sun – Violent Femmes: Awesome 80’s awesomeness.  What more can I say?

7. Hate Your Way – Nina Gordon: She was the singer from the 90’s band, Veruca Salt. She has a very distinctive voice (although that never stops my husband from asking if she’s that girl from that band). I’ve been listening to this album regularly since it came out in 2000 or so.

8. Canto Alla Vita – Josh Groban:  I’m honestly surprised only one of his songs same up in this little exercise, I have all of his CD’s. I find his voice very soothing and inspiring at the same time.

9. Gentleman Who Fell – Milla: Another song from the 90’s (this is a trend, I tell you). This is the only song of hers I’ve heard, but you may recognize her as the woman in all of the Resident Evil movies, Milla Jovovich.

10. Read My Mind – The Killers: This song always reminds me of a book I read once. For some reason it’s very thought provoking.

There a couple of things/groups that I’m surprised didn’t come up. The Counting Crows, for one. They make up a large part of my musical collection. Also, no Broadway songs. I’m not even sure the number of Broadway soundtracks I have on my iPod, but oh well.

So, this is what I’m listening to. How about you?

This week’s Wednesday blog takes us on a different kind of adventure.  Bronwyn Green, Jess Jarman and I are sharing a bit of ourselves on the topic of what we keep in our bags/purses.  Check out Bronwyn’s post here and Jess’ here.

I admit I don’t usually carry a lot in my purse, but I have a few essentials.  And the most important starting point is, of course, the bag itself.  This is my “I hate winter so I’m going to buy this purse to cheer myself up” purse. I love it.  Isn’t it such a fun, springy color?

So, what do I keep in there?  The essentials to start with, of course…wallet, sunglasses.

And, because I’m a good little writer, I always carry a notebook and pen. And these are the only pens I use.  I’m a pen snob.

The next items are my awesome Bronwyn promo/swag. If you see her at a book signing, hit her up…they are both fantastic.

I’m obsessed with chapstick, I have some everywhere so of course I have a tube in my purse.  I always use Burt’s Bees, I swear by it.

And last but not least, my keys (on top of my winter hat).  I’m including them here even though they don’t always make into my bag because, yes, that’s a TARDIS. It is actually an LED flashlight and it’s dead helpful. And I love it when I have my keys out somewhere and people notice the TARDIS and comment on it. Fellow Whovians.  🙂

So that’s what you might find in my bag. What about you? Anything you can’t leave home without?

This week, the blogging adventure with Bronwyn Green and Jess Jarman is taking us elsewhere.  We’re looking at five places we want to visit during our lifetime.  I don’t know about these ladies, but I’m so beyond tired of winter and snow that I find myself constantly wishing I were someplace else, so this is a very timely post. Check out Bronwyn’s post here and Jess’ here.

These are in no particular order for me, but here goes…

The first place on my list is somewhere I have always wanted to go…Egypt.  I want to see the pyramids and the temples that are still standing.  I have been fascinated by the ancient Egyptians and their mythology since I was a kid, I would love to see pieces of it in person. Truth be told, I wish I could have lived in the early 1900’s when Egyptology was all the rage and people vacationed there in the winter. But, I’ll take what I can get.

The second place on my list is Rio de Janeiro, it seems like such a vibrant, exciting city.  I think it would be great place to experience. But maybe not during Carnival, that might be a bit much for me. I don’t know that I can party that hard.

The next two places on my list bring to mind sunny beaches and relaxation. The first is the Bahamas. I never thought I was a beach person until I went to a resort a couple of years ago and loved it, so the Bahamas are now high on my list. And with the way the weather has been in the Mitten this year, the beach sounds like a little slice of heaven. I mean, check out the pictures.

So, those are my top five places I want to visit. For now. I’m sure it will change again. I love to imagine myself in different places, its one of my favorite pastimes.

What about you? Where do you want to go? What places are on your list?