Summer 2021 Playlist

Hello!

Welcome to my summer playlist for 2021.

Since I kind of messed up my blogging schedule for this month, I decided that it was more important for this post to go out than the regular monthly playlist. I hope you’re all fine with this arrangement, and don’t worry I’ll include the Spotify link onto next month’s post, okay?

It’s funny, last summer while we were just getting out of our lockdown, the music being released throughout the summer was good, and I remember appreciating the effort to be huge among artists and bands. I mean, it was odd that the majority of the continent was still running through their stay-at-home regiments but were still able to bring out these bangers for everyone to enjoy. And now coming out of this year’s summer, I don’t feel as thrilled and I don’t know why. I think it might have something to do with the full moon and retrograde though so just ignore this whole paragraph!

One thing that I think both made me really happy and surprised the living hell out of me this summer, was how much rock music I was loving this summer! I still had the popular pop tunes , but I was all about rock music and that rarely happens! My TV was mostly glued to Sirius XM’s Octane station, they play a lot of current and 2000’s rock and heavy metal music so I was able to create my own soundtrack than other people. I think it helped that with everybody being allowed to go back on tour again, bands were releasing more and more songs and I literally just absorbed as much as I could in the past seven months because you know I’ve been working on this playlist since the end of April!

Here is my Top 25 songs of the summer! If you want to check out the whole playlist, click here.

Drunk (and I Don’t Want To Go Home) by Elle King featuring Miranda Lambert
Girls by Zella Day
Peaches by Justin Bieber featuring Usher, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg
If You Love Her by Forest Blakk
Forget Me Too by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Halsey
Summer In June by Ava
Muscleville by Kai Wachi
Wait A Minute My Girl by Volbeat
The Devil by BANKS
Only Love Can Save Me Now by The Pretty Reckless
Kiss My (Uh Oh) by Anne-Marie featuring Little Mix
She’s Fire by Diane Warren featuring G-Eazy and Santana
Lil Bit by Nelly featuring Florida Georgia Line
Choke by The Warning
Justified by Kacey Musgraves
Wherever I May Roam by J Balvin and Metallica
Hip To Be Scared by Ice Nine Kills featuring Jacoby Shaddix
MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) by Lil Nas X
Dark Side by Blind Channel
Deal With It by Ashnikko featuring Kelis
When Demons Come To Life by Halocene featuring Lauren Babic
Arcade by Duncan Laurence
Up by Cardi B
Cover Me In Sunshine by P!nk and Willow Sage Hart

If you have created your summer anthem playlist, I would love to know what kind of music was fueling you in the last few months. Have you discovered new artists and bands? What are you keeping for later releases? Please put it all in the comments for me. Thank you.

May Playlist

Hello!

I was really wondering whether or not I would have this post ready for you. Despite knowing how easy it is getting these monthly playlists together, I still didn’t want to half-ass it. For most of the month, I’ve felt foggy about life and the only thing I’ve really enjoyed lately is music.

Now that we’re heading into the summer months and all of these different festivals and tours are setting out dates throughout the country, everything feels different. It is strange how quiet it was at this time in 2020. I am surrounded by happiness on the radio. Our favorite artists and bands didn’t just hang around in quarantine, they worked their asses off making new music for us to enjoy in this moment of freedom. I am very excited to see what goes on this summer!

I hope we start to see even more things as we go into June and eventually July. I know I’m not alone in hoping to see these changes become part of our “normal” again. However, there was a tweet I saw earlier this week, someone had mentioned that since everybody were announcing these concerts again, the measures to make sure they are accessible to everyone–meaning to people who have disabilities like me!–will be far and in between and honestly, that really sucks! I think that’ll definitely be something we will miss the most because these live-streams were our lives during the many lockdowns/quarantines. I do want to say, I only watched one free live-stream show and that was G-Eazy back in late August I think, and I really didn’t care for it. I like the audience just as much as the musicians. I feed off of their enjoyment and expressions too! So, I am hoping that maybe these festivals will live-stream different sets for people who could not go to it because of their disability!

Anyways, let’s get into the actual playlist; here were my Top 20 songs for May! If you want to check out the full list, click here to be transported to the whole Spotify playlist.

Arcade by Duncan Laurence
You and I by Leon
Lonely No More by Rob Thomas
Never Leave This Bed by Maroon 5
The Reason by Zayde Wolf
Blooming by Violet Orlandi
If I Should Die by Niia featuring Girl Ultra
Big Bad Wolf by In This Moment
Hex Girl by Dreadlight featuring Maiah Wynne
BOMBSHELLEXE by YukoEXE
Gravedigger by MXMS
Let Me Go by 3 Doors Down
I’m Not Sorry by Celeste Buckingham
Warrior by League of Legends x 2WEi featuring Edda Hayes
Wild Blood by Sam Tinnesz featuring Pep Squard
If You Love Her by Forest Blakk
Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home) by Elle King featuring Miranda Lambert
Everything I Wanted by First To Eleven
Rise Up by J2 featuring Keeley Bumford
Anarchy by Lillith Czar

I don’t know how you listen to music on a daily basis, but I’ve noticed lately that I will start with Spotify and after two or three songs in, I will go on YouTube and found a video on The Dodo channel and all of a sudden find ‘my mix’ and start playing whatever I’ve been watching on there nonstop and completely forget about what I was listening on Spotify! For the past week and a half, I’ve had to done it seven times! It doesn’t matter the time of day (or night for that matter!( but it will slip my mind and then of course, I wonder why in my Discover Weekly isn’t fitting right with the aesthetic I’ve listened to that coming Monday.

What were you listening to this May?

May Playlist

Hello!

Welcome back to another monthly playlist! We are nearing the summer months and even though the big festivals might not happen this year, it doesn’t mean that music won’t stop. I think it’s very important to say this out loud because for a lot of people out there, myself included, are always looking for the next big song that is sure to become their summer anthem. I think I might have found mine already but I’m not quite sure about everybody else’s tastes this year.

For me, May was definitely a heavy metal kind of month. At the beginning, I was listening to Sirius XM Octane and every week they help promote and play new songs from undiscovered talent all over the world. I have included two songs that I heard and immediately fell in love with on the spot. The first “Popular Monster” by Falling In Reverse and I think the main reason why I enjoy it so much is because it sounds like a Linkin Park song. I love how bands are changing up their styles with every record but I have started hearing a lot of older bands experimenting within their genre and really elevating what each is suppose to sound like, and I like how the legacy is the band is living on in that way!

The second song I recently heard is by a band called Dream State. They are a female fronted band based in the UK. Their new track called “Primrose” is so good and it came from their first album Primrose Path which came out in January. To me, it sounds like a mixture of In This Moment, Flyleaf (with Lacey Strum as vocals!) and The Pretty Reckless. If you haven’t heard the song or the full album yet, you need to do that soon! After discovering this band, I realized it was time to create another playlist on my Spotify dedicated to all and any new female fronted bands’ music and trust me when I say, it is glorious! You can click here to check out that playlist now!

Here are the rest of my Top 20 songs mentioned in the main May playlist!

Damn by LIVVIA
Why Do You Love Me by Charlotte Lawrence
Up All Night by Rachel Crow
Breathin by Perlo
Sick Individual by Halestorm
Sunday Best by Surfaces
Diamonds by Megan Thee Stallion featuring Normani
Ain’t It Fun by Paramore
Rainbow by Kacey Musgraves
Eye Of The Tiger by Tommee Profitt x FJORA
Riich by Grace Mitchell
Claws by Charli XCX
You Better Run by Unions
Be Kind by Marshmello featuring Halsey
If The World Was Ending by JP Saxe featuring Julia Michaels
You Say by Lauren Diagle
The In-Between by In This Moment
Devil Pray by Madonna
Break by Eyes Set To Kill
Come For Me by New Years Day

Something that I have been doing a lot lately is actually listening to more albums. I always feel kind of guilty that I am not posting reviews of them, but I am proud of the fact that I can finally listen to a full album in one sitting and love it! My younger self would be somewhat horrified because I never did that until I was in high school. Speaking of which, I celebrate 10 years of being a high school graduate this month and I think I might do a blog post about my Top 10 songs I loved in the year 2010 in June. Oh, by the way, I was talking about my summer anthem at the top, but I forgot to mention that I even had one back in 2010 too. Can you guess what song it was? I doubt anybody will be able to get it right, but who knows somebody might surprise me!

If you want to look into the rest of this month’s playlist, click here and you will directed back to the page. Hope everyone has enjoyed this post!

What were you listening to this May?

New Do!!

Howdy!

When I was younger I had REALLY long hair, like I used to scoot on the floor and whenever I’d back up and I would pull on my own hair! At the time, I loved it and so did everybody else. I might be going out on a limb here and saying I only kept it was because of the compliments I’d get from the people I was around, whether it was teachers or family members, everybody was in love with my hair! And apparently I liked the attention…

In 2002, we were told that I was going to have my back surgeries to correct my scoliosis, but first I would need to have a metal halo put on me. They would screw this metallic half circular thing onto my head and eventually they’d take it off during the last hours of the third. The day we got it cut off was a spur of the moment kind of thing. We were shopping somewhere and we talked them into just braiding it one last time before doing it at a certain point. We actually cut it pretty short, I think I came home with a bob, that’s how short we got it.

I was crying the whole time!

I absolutely hated my hair that short! Honestly, I’ve never liked my hair short. I think I just kept trimming it that way because it was the easy way to take care of it. You don’t have to wash it as many times as with having long hair, despite the fact you can’t have a long braid down your back, everything about it is better.

So why the hell did I decide to grow it out again?

I don’t know, I really don’t. Maybe a part of me missed it. I mean, let’s be honest I was like the brunette Rapunzel here!

When I went to the Five Finger Death Punch concert with my friend Brittany in May 2016, I loved my hair at that length. I looked like myself and most important I thought I looked beautiful. I didn’t look like a boy, nor did I feel like it was too much to have hang down. I figured it was my comfort zone since I’m not a big fan of  spike-y hair on me. I know, shocker! I’ve had my hair spiked too many times during my teenage years that once I turned 21, I no longer wanted it like that anymore.

When Blondie and Brandon picked a date for their wedding, I told everybody that I’d get my hair cut in August. I wanted to give myself one last braid before I went and cut it all off again. One thing I didn’t count on was since I’ve been out of school, I’m not really around a lot of people and I honestly don’t post a lot of pictures of myself online anymore so when everybody saw the length of my hair, friends, family and everybody else was an awe of how long it was and it did make me feel good, but when you are in so much pain in your neck because of the weight your hair was giving off, you know it all needs to come down soon!

Since I went to the nursing home while mom was busy recovering at the hospital, she asked if I wanted to have the salon lady Debi cut it for me. Truth be told, I was actually going to suggest the same thing but figured I’d be told no. So, two days after being there, I woke up that Thursday morning a bit giddy as I knew I was going to get it done one way or another. I already had a plan of how much I was removing but I don’t think Debi or my nana were expecting so much, and since she was a bit hesitant beforehand I started to second guess myself a bit but we ultimately agreed on the same length and if I wanted it shorter then we can go shorter.

We went to the edge of my neck. So it isn’t necessarily a bob or shoulder length either. However, since my neck does drip over into the right side it is longer than the other but that can’t be fixed by her. That’s just my anatomy! She did cut my bangs, but I think I probably should have left them alone or just trimmed them so far and then stopped. One thing that I didn’t think through was that I got it done before lunch so I didn’t know of the troubles I was to have while eating my meal an hour afterwards. The way I eat is that I bend over and reach with my tongue and month and everytime I tried to take a bite my whole left side of my hair kept going into my plate. It’s not fun to eat your own hair. We ended up having one of the CNAs put half of my hair up to hopefully make eating better for me! It worked, but now that I’m home I use a headband.

One funny thing I wanted to share before I end this post was the fact that my dad was the last one to know I got my hair cut. Since mom and nana knew about it from the beginning and Debi had tagged a picture of it with nana in the background to my mom on Facebook so she saw it while at the hospital. Blondie and Brandon only knew about it because I went to stay with them the following weekend. So dad was literally the last to know about it and his reaction was priceless! He was actually speechless, later he did find the words to say that he liked it. So far he hasn’t said anything about the bangs but they’ll grow out!

Here is a before and after into seeing how much hair I actually got rid of last month! There are a few people I’ve talked to, that have said I can still get my hair braided, it just might be only french braid or dutch braid maybe. Right now I’m going to relish in not having it up in a ponytail all the time for the time being!

Have you ever cut your hair so short that you actually regretted it? What is your comfortable length? Short, medium, or long?

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Live | P.O.D. & Shinedown!

Hey guys!

So a couple of weeks ago I was given the biggest surprise ever!! As you can tell from the picture above, it was concert, but I’m going to tell you how my mom, my friend Brittany and every other family member and close friends manage to pull this off!

It was probably the end of February when it was announced that P.O.D., Shinedown, and Five Finger Death Punch were coming to Evansville again. The last time 5FDP was there was in 2012. I remember my mom telling me at the beginning of the month to save up my money, but towards the end she told me that we wouldn’t be able to go. At that time, I had already prepared myself for it and I just accepted it for what it was, but it must’ve been the same day that she began talking to Brittany, a very close family friend, she decided to share that let down. A little fun fact for you, when I was looking for someone to walk me through Grand March for my senior year on Facebook (and yes, I asked for someone on FB)  she offered to take me. She spent the whole night with me and gave my mom a night off in a way. Anyways, these two decided to conspire behind my back. Brittany bought the tickets for this concert and almost everybody knew it but me!

Fast forward to the last weekend of April, my mom had told me that we might go shopping on that Tuesday, which was the day of the concert. I only knew that because I kept seeing the advertisements pop up on my Facebook ever since it was announced! I was excited to go shopping, mostly for the fact I could finally have Chinese food! That day, I woke up around 10am, all of us messed up our sleep patterns so after my mom got up and feed me breakfast and then she told me to take a nap. I had already been awake for two hours and she wanted me to go back to sleep? I did but I thought it was strange to ask that. I got up again around 2pm and my mom got me dressed. I wore my gray hoodie with my tribal skull in the front with my black and red tribal leggings.

Now you’re probably wondering why I’m sitting in this wheelchair. Well, for starters this isn’t even mine! This was my papaw’s and considering he never went fast in it, the left wheel rattles like crazy and it doesn’t have a seat belt! This is my dad’s idea. My electric wheelchair had six bars on the controller after charging all night and the next morning but my mom didn’t think it would hold up “while we walked through the mall…” I still think it would have in both places but that’s my opinion! I also had to sit on a towel off and on throughout the evening. It was not the most comfortable chair but then again I have yet to find the best seat for my butt!

Once we got to Evansville, we took a different turn than we usually do and had lunch at Steak n Shake which is one of my favorites! I literally have cravings of their cheese fries and that’s what I had, a small dish of cheesy fries and Oreo mint shake! It was while we were sitting waiting for our order that everything sort of got weird.

The night before, I looked up different dresses and rompers on the Forever 21 website for another family friend’s wedding. I was on Facebook talking to Brittany about them and how excited I was to go out the next day. We had a nice little chat. So to see her pop into Steak n Shake was very strange. I literally turned over at my mom and said, “I just talked to her last night!” She joined our table and ordered her stuff. The woman didn’t even need a menu! Next time I have to remember you can get the shakes without whipped cream and a cherry! Anyways, all four of us sat, ate and talked a bit. I didn’t do much talking though, I never really do!

After a little bit, once I started to slow down eating and gulping down the yummy shake, my mom gives her phone to my dad on which I thought she was going to ask for a selfie and then Brittany goes for it. I wish I could share the video but I can’t unfortunately! She first surprised me with a new SD card which I was like, “awwww” but I was also really confused too then she said “I figured you might need that for tonight” and showed me the tickets and my mouth dropped! I couldn’t scream so my initial reaction was to cry and after 25 minutes everything started to register in my head that I wasn’t going shopping afterwards and instead I was going to see P.O.D., Shinedown, and FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH later that night!

They had been planning this for a while and the fact that nobody told me was a miracle. Especially since my neighbor Sammy almost texted me the night before but my dad apparently got mad at her and talked her out of it.

If anybody doesn’t know, this was my first rock/metal concert in an arena. It was also the first time I’ve ever went out to downtown Evansville too. It was a day of firsts I think! The Ford Center is HUGE! Seeing all of these people in their Shinedown and 5FDP shirts was intoxicating! I told Brittany as we walked around these are my people! I felt weird though, I have like 4 death punch shirts in my closet and I didn’t wear one. I wasn’t the only skull wearing person there so I was okay! After getting through the doors, we went upstairs and went to the bathroom and waited in line to purchase a tour shirt. I’ll wear it soon and do another outfit of the day post!

We had some good seats, like better ones than I thought. I’m always afraid of the seat part because the rails that are used to protect or whatever can be too tall and that’s sort of scared me! I’ve read and seen a lot of pictures of other wheelchair users have these issues so that’s my reason! Anyways, we missed the intro of P.O.D. because we were still in line getting the shirt. So technically I did go shopping! Afterwards, we went back to our seats and seeing everybody in their seats was a bit overwhelming. I thought I could live with watching the crowd on YouTube but watching them below was pretty cool. I was very glad I wasn’t down there though! Brittany was the one who took the pictures for me, which I was very happy about because I’d probably worried I’d drop the camera on somebody!

For the most part, watching P.O.D. and Shinedown was pretty good. I knew more songs from Shinedown and I did headbang, not as aggressively because like I said above, I didn’t have a seat belt and we were afraid I’d fall out of my wheelchair! When Brent Smith of Shinedown asked the crowd if this was their first Shinedown concert, my right foot shot up into the air! It was very weird being a part of the crowd. I danced, headbang, and sung along with everybody. I kind of forgot about everything that had happened, my paranoia, etc. I just allowed myself to feel that moment. It was great!

Next week, you’ll get the next installment of my reaction of Five Finger Death Punch’s performance! Enjoy the pictures below!

Have you ever seen P.O.D. and/or Shinedown in concert? What are your favorite songs by each band? My favorite was “Boom” and “Youth Of The Nation” for P.O.D. and “Diamond Eyes,” “Enemies,” and “Cut The Cord” by Shinedown.

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