"It's a little bit funny.."

"Yeah, you would like him. You tend to like crooners."

This is what my sister said when I informed her of my latest music discovery. When I thought about it, I guess she's right. It's not so much what's being sung, it's how it's being sung. So the idiom about being able to sing the phonebook, yeah..he could do it and I would be hanging onto every word.

But back to the present; the guy's name is Cameron Mitchell. Check him out. Do it. I first heard about him from "The Glee Project" (don't judge). His style will surprise few of you; I guess you could say he's "my type." But his voice is just something special. If you can humor me further, go to his youtube page and listen to "Clarity" or "Stop This Train." Ooh, or look up him performing "Your Song," by Elton John or as I know it, from Moulin Rouge.

Okay, that's my pitch for him. He's the one on the bottom and one on the top is the reason I actually started watching "The Glee Project." His name's Damian McGinty and he's in Celtic Thunder, who I also listen to. But yeah, good guys.

So posting the picture straight to the blog seemed to work this time, but I've been trying to edit other posts that also have image links, but the picture never ended up being the size that I wanted, and I'm far too inept at script to do it right. =/ Haha, that last bit wasn't really necessary, but I decided to add it anyway. Hope you all had a lovely Fourth of July.

Currently listening to:

"Stop This Train" Cameron Mitchell cover (big surprise)

Summer Week 5: Begin Hermit Transformation

So in a world where real-time communication with people down the street or across the globe is possible at all hours of the day, is it bad that I don't really like people all that much? Not in the, "I hope you fall down the stairs today" type feeling, but just the "I'd rather stay home alone or with family than put in the effort to arrange to see my friends". Okay, well that sounds bad now. But it's true. It's week 5 of summer and I've probably only seen three or four of my friends. And I don't really mind it. Granted, I would prefer to be doing something productive right now, but that doesn't seem to be happening, so vegging in the house is what's left.

It's interesting though, because I would be okay with doing the 'social thing' if I were back at school. So I don't know, just a thought I had.

But in more interesting news, I watched the Tony's last night. *insert jazz hands here* *and a starburst for good measure* It was pretty good; I wasn't familiar with most of the musicals or plays nominated, but was great seeing the performances. And of course, Neil Patrick Harris. I'm embarrassed to say that my first Tony experience was only two years ago, the first year that NPH hosted. It was such a great show, so I'm so glad he hosted again this year.

Performances I can't stop watching (and you should watch to if you so desire):

- "Book of Mormon"

- "Catch Me If You Can"

- Dueling hosts

Currently listening to:

"Beauty in the Breakdown" Jeff Rogers and Kevin Wright cover

"kathy darling, have you never heard of the phrase 'nobody said it would be easy"?"

Summer's officially here! How do I know? It's far too hot here and my day consists of...well, nothing really.

But I'm not here to complain about having nothing to do, I'm here to physically list out my goals and expectations for next fall semester. Grades for the spring semester were posted a few weeks ago and they were not stellar. I'd been edging around the topic whenever my mom would bring it up, but knew that I'd eventually tell her what they were.

I was pretty disappointed with myself in regard to my grades, predominantly because with the amount of free time I had during the week, I spent very little of it doing additional studying. It's no one's fault but mine, but it's hard for me to change. In high school, I got by with fairly good grades doing little to no work on most assignments. The amount of effort that I would put into my assignments would get me pretty far, but I've soon realized that that same amount of effort got me far less in college courses. I don't know, maybe the transition between not trying and actually trying is a little hard for me. Well, I guess three months trapped in my house will give me time to 'think about what I've done.'

So essentially I'm writing this post in order to list my goals..which are as follows:

1. B's and higher next semester

2. preferably 1-2 A's...can't expect too much, now can I? I'll even accept the A's being in labs.

3. have a plan for undergrad research for the Spring

4. been a good Social Chair for Spotlight

5. read the textbook for my classes..

Optional: have fun (jk...)

The title for this blog post comes from a Skype conversation I was having with my friend about this very subject a few weeks back. He's one of my closest friends and I miss him dearly. =]

Currently listening to:

"Galaxies" Clayton Perry

Surprises, music, and Natty..a whole lotta Natty, oh my!

This weekend marks the last weekend of my freshman year at The College. And it certainly has been full of surprises. It all started when my friends blindfolded me and took me to this restaurant in Merchant's Square. It's been kind of a trend between my group of friends, but because my birthday no longer falls within the academic year, they decided to have an early surprise birthday for me.

That was yesteday..er, Friday. And now for Saturday, quite possibly the widest range of emotions I've had this entire year. The link below really does represent the theme of last night.

Expectations vs. Reality

Essentially, my favorite a cappella group here and one of my favorite parts about this college, The Stairwells, had their final concert yesterday afternoon. So obviously me and two of my friends got there hella early and proceeded to wait. While I only know one of them personally, I've sort of grown attached to many of the people in the group, especially the seniors. So it was sad to see them perform for the last time.

Also, as an extension of my surprise birthday weekend, my friends decided to get one of The Stairwells to sing happy birthday for me. Definitely the highlight of my day...maybe even longer than that.

The night that followed however is explained with the "500 Days" scene. What I did learn about myself was that I haven't really changed much since last year in terms of social awkwardness and getting jealous. I had the chance to make that night a lot better for myself, but couldn't get out of my comfort zone.

Currently listening to:

"The Joker" The Stairwells

Blowout 2011: "Get Schist-Faced!"

Is it bad that I don't want to leave school quite yet? Today was the Last Day of Classes or as most students know it as, Blowout. Essentially, Blowout is the day when students come to their classes completely wasttedd. In addition to the hoards of inebriated students stumbling around campus throughout the day is the ridiculous campus-wide party that happened on the Sunken Gardens today. Inflatables, free food, a relatively unknown, but still live band, and just hundreds of people everywhere. Perfect for my people-watching hobby.

Reasons why this day was awesome:

- Gentlemen of the College Final Concert

- hours and hours of people-watching

- seeing some pretty special people

- seeing the Spotlight seniors, because this may have been the last time I will

- the weather

- here comes my Twamp comment, the Calc test I got back that I did not fail

Reasons why this day was not awesome:

- LDOC means finals

- LDOC also means the end of freshman year living in Barrett (B3W <3)

- and as weird as it sounds for me, I'm going to miss my cousin being here (shoutout to Christopher)

With less than two weeks until I am no longer a resident of Barrett, I guess I need to appreciate it while I can. And that means hanging out with the people that I know I won't see next year. But (insert loads of innuendo here) I'm working on that. ;) <- if that doesn't make it clear...

Currently listening to:

"Southern Girl" Amos Lee