Music Monday #3

This week's favorite is The Format! I first heard the Format in high school and they've been one of my favorites since then. They always can put a smile on my face even on the saddest of days. If you haven't heard of them, you probably at least know of Nate Ruess, the lead singer, as he now sings in the band .fun, which I also love, just not as much as the Format!

Do you like the Format or .fun? Let me know what you think if you hadn't heard of them.

Sunday Book Review #3

    So this Sunday I sort of have a book review for you guys. I haven't finished a new book as the past week was soo busy, but I have started 3 different books so hopefully I'll have one completely done by next week. But I decided to talk a bit about one of the books, as I was rereading Payton's blog, I've read her blog for years, she doesn't post too often but when she does I love reading her posts and I connect to her thoughts so much. A few of her posts in particular all deal with the idea of the Secret and the law of attraction. She swears by this book and my mom actually already had this book, so I picked it up and started reading it myself.

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      The book, written by Rhonda Byrne, in a short summary, explains to readers that anything that happens to them in life, whether it be relationships, careers, friends, money, anything, is a direct cause of their own. She tells readers that if they think negatively that they will only attract negative, and the same goes for positive. She also believes that if a person believes that they will achieve something and sets that belief in their mind, that it will happen.

     Now, there are some skeptical stories to me, I think there was one account of someone magically getting 10 million dollars, but I think this type of thinking does hold true. I do believe that if a person only thinks negatively and tells themselves that they'll never finish college, or get a better job, or own a home, or have good friends, or have a good relationship, then they will never try to earn these things. I believe that in life you have to try for things and you have to think positively in order to stay motivated and actually achieve them. This book helps as a guide to make people start believe in themself and thinking positively.

      I personally have been kind of doing this for the past few months. About this time last year and for the past few years, I don't think I was a particularly nice person. I was hanging around with negative people who did things I didn't like but didn't say anything about. They weren't motivated to go to school or save money, or not to do drugs, and these were things I believed in, I didn't compromise myself in my beliefs, but I compromised my own happiness by hanging out with these people, and once I stopped, it helped, but I realize now that I was still a pretty negative person. I had become mean to my group of friends who wasn't apart of those others, and within this group there are also others who do the same thing, we would cut each other down for no reason, and complain about things that we could change but had no motivation to, we only just wallowed in our "misery". These weren't serious issues, just things any 18-21 year old deals with, making it through college, wanting to move out and start a career and being impatient for that time to come. Having a good relationship, actually finding a prince through all the frogs if you will. Dealing with the leftover effects of hanging out with that other group of people (they were all from a job I no longer work at).

    But what really changed my thinking was this past 6 months. I was in my second to last semester of college (I graduate in December), I had a really heavy workload at my new job and I had a full semester of class including my senior thesis, and I started dating someone all at the same time. This guy's personality reminded me so much of my best friend, as well as myself, as I always tell her we're the same person. He was such a downer always. At first he pretended to be a happy person, but someone can only pretend for so long. He began to always complain about life, about money, work, his friends everything, and I began to feel burdened by all of it, it was too much. His grandmother passed and while I understand he was very close to her, he began to shut down even more, began drinking wayyyyy too much, and chain smoking cigarettes (I'm not a smoker and can't stand the smell so this was just too much). I broke up with him back in May because I just couldn't take the negativity anymore, and he started to act like he didn't even want me around anyway, he was too busy wallowing in his own misery.

     I realized from him that, while I was not and never was even that close to being that negative, I still had some of those qualities. I would be mean to strangers for no reason, taking out my bad attitude on them and my friends, I would constantly complain with my best friend about everything, it got to the point where we didn't have a single conversation without it being at least a bit negative. And so I decided on my own to change myself. I think I've changed my thinking to be more positive, I'm still working on this. I've stopped being completely rude to strangers and try really hard to not constantly be negative, if I think a negeative thought I generally won't say it as often as I would have, but I will instead think of something positive. I think I've come a long way so far, and I still have a lot to go, but I think thinking positively has had a positive effect on my life. This summer so far has been a lot of fun, I scored a great internship, I'm excited for school, I'm applying for grad school and I've had a lot of fun with my friends.

Next week I may write a bit on how I liked the whole book, as I'm only a few chapters in, but I thought I'd share these thoughts with you anyway.

I don't know what day it is cause I've been up all night...

Last Tuesday I went with my good friend Michelle to see Best Coast, Those Darlins, and Filmstrip, at Beachland Ballroom, and it was an awesome show.

The first band to play, Filmstrip, is a local Cleveland three piece rock band. They were pretty good for a small band, but they were given a pretty short set. Beachland Ballroom usually always allows a local band to open for the acts coming, they are very into giving local bands support, so if you'd like to give Filstrip a listen go ahead and click on their name above, it's linked to their bandcamp.

Those Darlins is a girl led rock band, they were just awesome, they rocked the house, honestly more than Best Coast, the main act! The duo Nikki and Jessi both sing lead, and their chemistry was awesome they were so excited and crazy and made sure everyone was dancing.

(Sorry about my poor picture quality, my camera isn't the best.)

Here's my favorite Those Darlins song, hopefully you give it a listen:

After Those Darlins amazing performance, Best Coast finally came out! I love Best Coast, they are also a girl led band, the lead singer is Bethany Consentino, she had a beautiful voice and her music is so dreamy and entrancing, whether it's a slow or fast song.

And now I'll cut to another super poor quality picture....

Here's a few of her songs, one of which being my post title :)

Overall, it was a great night, Those Darlins are actually coming back to Cleveland on Halloween, so guess where my friends and I will be?

Have you been to any fun concerts lately or know of any cool local bands worth giving a listen?

Lazy Day

That red pepper hummus is my new favorite!!

Go USA! Who else has been watching the olympics?!

(also sorry for not wearing makeup, it was a lazy day haha)

I've been working pretty much non stop lately, usually until 1 or 2 in the morning, and on top of that I go to my internship in the mornings, so yesterday I had a lazy day. I got up early, got some movies and treats, and came right back home and shut off my phone. It was so nice to just sit and relax, I got to paint my nails and drink some tea, watch some movies, and read, just what I needed. Do you ever have days to just relax, what do you do when you need to de-stress?

Music Monday #2

This week's Music Monday will be featuring Fitz and the Tantrums!!

I just recently discovered them and I love their old sound, and they both have beautiful voices, so check them out and let me know what you think!

Sunday Book Review #2

Hi all! Ok so technically it's early Monday morning, being 2am, but I worked all day and had no time to post my book review earlier. Apologies aside, I'll get straight into the review:) This week's book was Divergent by Veronica Roth.


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This book was AMAZING!!!! I haven't read a really good post apocalyptic world sci-fi book since Hunger Games came out a few years ago. This story is about a world in which people are separated into different factions; Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Dauntless, and Amity. Each faction has a different lifestyle belief, and every person at the age of 16 must get tested to see which faction their mindset belongs to. They can either choose to stay with the faction they grew up in, or leave and join another. The story follows a girl named Beatrice, who was born into Abnegation, a faction which believes in being selfless at all times, for Dauntless, a faction which prides themselves in being brave and showing their bravery by doing risky things. The issue is that Beatrice's test results came back as Divergent, which is a very dangerous, and she was told to tell no one. So she and the other teens who chose Dauntless had to go through a violent and fast paced initiation, in which only a certain number of people would make it, and some would become factionless, which was a dismal way to live. Eventually, Beatrice begins to realize just how different she really is, as the story turns to reveal a plot by the Erudite to use the Dauntless as army drones to kill off Abnegation, and so the story turns to Beatrice fighting against her new faction to save her old one.
This book is the first of a trilogy and I will definitely be reading the next two! I give this book a 5/5. Have you read Divergent? What did you think about it?

Music Monday!! #1

I love music. All kinds, from indie, to country, to musicals, to (some) rap, pop, rockabilly, pretty much anything I'll listen to once. So I decided to share a band and a song each week that I love, maybe you love, or you will check out after you take a listen, because I've found some of my favorite bands this way.

This week I will be featuring The Lumineers!

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 I actually found The Lumineers watching Hulu, this song was in a Bing commercial which played every break of the series I was watching, and it got stuck in my head. It's such a happy, sweet song, and I even got the rest of their album, which is amazing! You should check them out, let me know what you think!