Playlist Thursday - 2012 Nominations

Today is a break from the normal (okay, I do realize that this is only my 3rd week of participating so I haven't really created a "normal" yet so bear with me here hahaha) routine of Playlist Thursday as Pavement Runner - AKA the ultrarunner extraordinaire guy that created it all - is doing his first Playlist Thursday awards.

So go check it out and then do some voting in his comments! And I'm not telling you who to vote for but I think y'all definitely need to put up some votes for Mumford & Sons I Will Wait and Fun.'s We Are Young. It's just too bad they are both in the same category. LOL

So go here and vote!

Christmas Commercialism at its Best!

So I always lament that, not even just Christmas - but holidays in general, have been so overly commercialized that it gets harder and harder to truly enjoy them. I mean, come on, Christmas items were already out in full force at Walmart before Halloween.

But I have to say that there were a couple of very inventive or original marketing campaigns/commercials this season that I will admit that I enjoyed the heck out of! Here they are - my picks for the best Christmas ads for 2012:

Christmas Vacation is one of my absolute favorite holiday movies and seeing these commercials was the perfect mix of nostalgia, charm and fun. They truly stuck to the "flavor" of the movie. Here's my other favorite from this series (they made three, but honestly, the third one wasn't that great).

This one literally made me giggle snort it was so funny! Because, honestly, which one of us hasn't felt like this at least once during the holiday season?!?

Finally, this one I think probably came out when I was a kid, but it always gives me such a great feeling. Perhaps because it did come out when I was just a wee one, or because it is one of the most simple and, thus, highlights the beauty of the season, or perhaps because it is chocolate. Who knows and who cares! It's an awesome commercial.

My final thought is that I was SO glad I didn't see a return of the Best Buy campaign from last year where parents were outdoing Santa (Game ON, Santa). Those just were a bad idea even if some of them were slightly funny. The idea of trying to out-do other people in the gift department just says a little too much about the commercialism of the holiday.

Question: What were some of your favorite holiday commercials either this year or previously?

Playlist Thursday - Best of 2012

The Best of 2012!

Pavement Runner's original Playlist Thursday post for today is over on his blog right here - check it out...there's some awesome tunes over there!

This week’s theme was a great suggestion from Charlotte over at wildthingsrunfree.com — let’s look at the best songs of 2012. For the “something old,” I’m going to name an older song that made a comeback this year. Enjoy!
 
Something Old: Songs that are at least 5 years old.
Something Current: Songs that have been released within the past year.
Something to Consider: This is the wild card category. Feel free to list any song: old, current, guilty pleasure, underground, whatever.

So here's mine:

Something Old: I will admit that I kind of "forgot" about this song for quite some time, but it made it back onto my playlist this year and it never fails to get me moving when it pops up on shuffle. I probably wouldn't admit to listening to this song if you asked me in person though, so I will definitely classify it as a guilty pleasure. Take a step back in time to 2006 with J.T. and bring your own sexyback!

Justin Timberlake: Sexyback

Something Current: I just found Mumford & Sons this year...yeah, perhaps I was living in that "cave" that they speak of. No, seriously though - I heard their couple of songs on the radio over the past several years and I'll admit that when I first heard them I was pretty much thinking "whatever" You see, I'm one of those types of people that, for some songs/artists, have to let the music settle in for a bit first. Many times I need distance from it (AKA this means NOT hearing it a million times a day on the radio). Some music needs to settle in my bones and soul before it speaks to me. Mumford & Sons was definitely one of those things. But now that they are THERE...I could seriously listen to their albums a million times in a row and not tire of them. Okay, so maybe I do that already. Don't judge. ;) 

Mumford & Sons: I Will Wait

Something to Consider: This song may not seem like a traditional "workout" song, but when I'm out on the long runs I like to really keep it mixed up. Too much of the same sound and I just zone out but not in a good way. I stop focusing on the music and start thinking about how my legs hurt or I'm tired or I could be sitting at home drinking a nice cup of coffee instead of running down boring residential streets. You get the idea! And from a mental standpoint of where I spent some of 2012 just stressed out beyond belief, the chorus of this song spoke to me. This isn't everything you are. There's joy not far from here, I know there is - this isn't everything you are.

Snow Patrol: This Isn't Everything You Are

And there you have it - another Playlist Thursday! 

QOTD: What are some of your best songs of 2012?

Playlist Thursday - Old School Style!

So I just *discovered* Pavement Runner recently and it turns out that he does this thing called...okay, you guessed it from the picture above, right? Yeah, I'm not very good at building suspense! So the idea is that each Thursday you provide three songs: something old, something current and something to consider. Seeing how I love music and have it going pretty much constantly, I was all over this!!! What a fun way to share some awesome tunes and find others that I might not normally as anybody that does them can link from his page too. So here goes with my first EVER Playlist Thursday, brought to you by Pavement Runner.

I will admit that I was a total child of the 80's, from Southern California. If you aren't picturing Valley Girl or The Wedding Singer yet, then you should be. So now that I've set the stage, let's get down to business.

Something Old: So who doesn't absolutely love Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive"? This is a song that will forever be on my playlist because it will never get old.

Something Current: I was, and still am, a huge Depeche Mode fan. They were definitely "MY" band while I was in school. I remember sitting and listening (on cassette tape no less!) to Catching Up With Depeche Mode at least a million times. I would listen to a song then hit rewind and listen again. It was the soundtrack to my life all through the first year of high school. This is also a song that will forever and ever be on my playlists - Personal Jesus.

Usually not my type, but man - Dave Gahan is just so HAWT!

Something to Consider: I actually heard this song just this morning on the radio on my way into work and I found it to be very relevant to something one of my kids is going through and I made a mental note that I needed to share it with her, with the disclaimer to ignore the fact that it comes from the 80's and is full of synth pop that they feel is just "so ollllllddddddd" (of course accompanied with the requisite eye roll). So here it is Thompson Twins Hold Me Now.

Check out that awesome 80's hair!! hahahaha

So one last thing - let me leave with a picture of me in all my 80's glory...

Don't laugh - I was VERY cool...trust me. Hope you enjoy the tunes!

What Do You Mean It's Not Thursday?

So as I see it, my biggest problem today is the fact that my brain is convinced it is THURSDAY; however, as you know, it is only Wednesday. *sigh* Apparently I'm already prepared for the week to be over which means I probably have a long day ahead of myself.

Life is seriously funny sometimes because I swear when one of my kids is going through something in life, it seems like they all go through something at the same time. You know how in the Kung Fu movies of old all the bad guys would kind of stand off to the side and come at the hero separately, one at a time. He would defeat one and then the next baddie would come in for his turn at an ass-whooping? Well, I really wish it was like that in real life! HA!

House of Flying Daggers - FYI, one of my favorite movies!

I got two calls yesterday, after kid drama the last two weekends to boot, after the weekends before that watching my poor little girl's heart mend from being broken following a break-up. It's tough. I have to say that there are a lot of difficult things about parenting, but seeing your kids struggle and not being able to fix it has got to be some of the toughest stuff ever. Now, if only I could get them to cooperate and only have one kid at a time having issues then it might be easier. ;-)

But the up-side (if there really is one, because there just isn't really) is that I have been getting to spend lots of quality time with my 2-year old grandson, Joshua. AKA "bubbies". Back story...when he was first born for whatever reason I took to calling him Bubbas, as in "bubba, bubba, ooohhh cooo bubba" (baby talk...there just isn't anything else in the world like it!) and it just kind of became his nickname that has stuck. Anyhoo, he was over last night and as I mentioned the other day, one of the things he likes to do is "make it" by pretend cooking. He's so cute!!!

Joshua "cooking"

An empty bowl, spoon and sitting on the counter and he's good to go! Having little ones around sure does make the painful moments go down a heck of a lot smoother.

On a totally good note, I headed out for a run yesterday wearing a new handy-dandy knee support brace that I had purchased on Friday (I had previously given it a little test run/walk on Saturday that also went pretty well) and it was mahvelous!! No pain and pretty much no achiness even throughout the day. I am anxiously hopeful to say that it is on the mend and with the added support I just might be back to being a runnin' fool. But just to make sure, I also have a doctor appointment scheduled for Friday morning.

I'm still struggling with getting into the holiday spirit, but I took one step today that is already helping - I changed up my desktop theme to a holiday lights one! It is bee-u-tiful and makes my little Grinchy heart melt just a little every time I see the pretty pictures. Hey, sometimes it's the smallest things that make a difference.

Question for you: Do you ever struggle with getting into the holiday spirit??

Focus

I have a lot I want to say...but when I start typing it, it comes out sounding like a lot of complaints and that definitely is NOT where I want to go today. The reality is that the knee is still an issue, but a little less of one as I did purchase a knee support brace and headed out on Saturday and all went fairly well...except it was achy the entire rest of Saturday. So there's a gripe wrapped in a good moment and I just don't want to go there.

It's now officially December, so I should be feeling all festive, right? Yeah, if festive is Bah Humbug! I want to appreciate the holiday, not dread it and I just don't want to go there.

I could go on...BUT I'm going to focus on the good stuff for a moment. Stuff like this picture that I snapped at the mall on Friday.

Holiday Tree at Temecula Valley Mall

Stuff like spending time at the mall with my girls having a good time window shopping and absorbing holiday gift ideas. What's really cool is towards the end of our trip they were heading into one or two more stores to make some purchases. I decided to sit for a moment as my knee was griping at me and then I realized - hey wait a second...we drove separate vehicles...I don't HAVE to wait for them. When I told them that, they literally said "no - you CAN'T GO!" We want you to stay with us." How cool is that? I love the relationship I have with my little ladies!!!

I got to pretend cook with the little Joshua this weekend - that dude just loves to "make it". Give him an empty bowl, a spoon and some accessories and he turns into Jamie Oliver! He's so stinkin' cute! (and one of these days I'll actually remember to take pictures of these moments...)

One of the beauties of running super early in the morning is when it's the holiday season and someone leaves their holiday lights on all night like this:

I love getting a winter wonderland in the middle of a run! AWESOME!

So even though life is far from perfect, there are clearly lots of wonderful things going on too. It's just a matter of which I'd rather look at and I'm choosing the good stuff today!