1. “Over the Rainbow” Radio: This station is based mostly on the Somewhere Over The Rainbow song by Israel “IZ” Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole (yeah, I straight up copy and pasted that because his name is REDIC!) Anyway, this station is calm, Hawiian type music and like to listen to it when I do chores or relax. Nice, easy, mellow.

2. “Stereo Love” Radio: This station is based on the song Stereo Love by Edward Maya. The music on this station is mostly dance music that is upbeat. I listen to this station when I am cleaning my house and feel like shaking my butt too. I also listen to it when I work out because it has an upbeat tempo. Which leads me to….

3. Skrillex Radio: Welcome to the world of dubstep! In the very odd case that you don’t know what dubstep is, (maybe my parents, not sure) it is a type of house music that is heavy on bass and percussion and computer-type sound, you know “a bunch of racket”. I really like to listen to this when I am working out but don’t have much motivation to be doing so. I especially enjoy when Skrillex’s “Kill Everybody” comes on, and I feel like I can run for miles… Geez, I probably need a psychological evaluation.

4. Colbie Callait Radio: Life’s not good without some sort of balance… so to balance out Skrillex, comes Colbie Callait. You may know her from her song “Bubbly.” Other artists that tend to play on this station are Jason Mraz and Ingrid Michaelson. This is the ultimate testament to adult-easy-listening music. I usually listen to this when I am driving, since “Kill Everybody” probably does not calm violent road rage quite like Colbie Callait’s calming croons. (+1 for alliteration!)

5. Something Corporate Radio: Something Corporate is one of my all time favorite bands. I loved them in High School and I love them now. If I am in a craptastic mood, I know a little Something Corporate will pick me right back up. This also includes Jack’s Mannequin, the band made by Something Corporate’s lead singer, Andrew McMahon, to help him express his battle with brain cancer via his music. Very touching if you are interested. I guess this is where emo music got it’s start… I am not a big buff on music history, so please note that the last comment was just me talking out my ass…

6. Ratatat Radio: Ratatat rocks. Seriously. Rocks. It is mostly just music, no lyrics, and is great to listen to while you are working, reading, or doing something where lyrics may be a distraction. I wouldn’t say that Ratatat is techno, but it is computer synthesized music with other types of real musical instruments, blended together in the most fantastic of ways. Ratatat was introduced to me and Ricky through Daniel Espinoza, and I am forever grateful that he shared the wealth! Awesomeness to my ears. Incidently, Ratatat was the Pandora station I was listening to when Ricky broke his leg, so I couldn’t listen to it for a little while without getting upset. Double upsetting!

7. Angels and Airwaves Radio: Angels and Airwaves is the side project band of Tom DeLong from Blink 182. This station will not only play the epic-space-exploration-like music of Angels and Airwaves, but songs from Blink 182 and Plus 44, Mark’s side project band. So all in all, I get the best of all of the Blink-boys’ music in one stop. I particularly like Angels and Airwaves though, because I can daydream that I am driving a space shuttle to the moon instead of my Jeep down the I-10, probably not safe. Yeah. I should focus more on driving.

8.  Sublime Radio: Oh yes, Sublime, how I love you so. I feel like I am on the beach with a Corona when I hear Sublime. I know some people may invision another type of substance when they hear Sublime… but please, I do not do that. So Corona will suffice. Most of the music on this station is perfect for pool side action or BBQ’s, because honestly, I don’t anyone that doesn’t like Sublime.

9. Enya Radio: You know Enya, the band that sings stuff that you can’t possibly understand… “Whhhooooo caaaaaa nsssssssaaaaaaa wwwhhheennnn isssss ovvvaaaaaa” yeah. I LOVE Enya when I can’t fall asleep or if I do some Yoga. It is by far the most relaxing radio station you will ever experience. More effective than Ambien. Should not be used when operating heavy machinery.

10. Nickleback Radio: JUST FREAKING KIDDING. Nickleback sucks. But somehow this god-forsaken band got put in my Pandora List….  Get.it.off. Ugh!

The real 10. She & Him Radio: This is the band made up of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, and who doesn’t love Zooey Deschanel? This music is good to get creative juices flowing… I always feel like I need to sew my own clothes or paint a picture after I hear this station. Just fantastic. A little old school sounding, and mostly indie vibe. It’s a good change up to the other stations though, because usually the station will introduce me to some other great new music.

Honorable Mentions:
I probably have 30 Pandora stations programmed in, like the unfortunate and non-deleted Nickelback Radio (sigh), so there are some others that I like to listen to in-between. In no particular order: Starfucker Radio, Christmas Radio, Adele Radio, Dirty Bit Radio (mostly Black-eyed Peas and hits), M83 Radio, Owl City Radio, and lastly Postal Service Radio.

Alrighty guys, I hope you enjoyed today’s tardy 10 list (omg, more alliteration, I am so awesome). Please give me some feedback and ideas about what you would like for future 10 lists. And lastly, Happy Birthday Joanne!

Dawn

In an effort to try to get more into the super-cool “blog-scene” I decided that it would be fun to make a Friday 10 list. My plan is to make a list of 10 randomy things each Friday and share them with you. If you would like to contribute ideas to things you would like to see in my 10 list, please feel free… because quite honestly, I am not very creative when it comes to writing…

This week, I present to you, in all of its majestic glory, my first 10 list: 10 things on my indefinite “to-do” list. In no particular order…

1. Complete a triathlon: Yep, one of the items on my front burner right now is completing a triathlon with my mother-in-law. I already bored you with the details of this one… so on to number 2.

2. There are several steps to number 2, so pay close attention to the version indicators, so as to not confuse the precise order that it must occur. Finish my Masters in Community Mental Health Counseling (2.0) and become a Licensed Associate Counseling (2.1), wait two years and become a Licensed Professional Counseling (2.1.1). Then own my own practice where I would be a full time, state-of-the-art, badass Therapist (2.2).

3. Move to the Caribbean and have my very own island! Fuck.Yes. No further explanation needed. (slight explanation, the island would also be owned in part by my awesome husband and possibly some of our close friends).

4. Build my own house from the ground up. Part of number 3, I suppose, would be to build my own house… it doesn’t have to be in the Caribbean, it could be somewhere else, but I really, really, really would like to build something of this caliber with my own two hands. For realz. (maybe start with habitat for humanity)

5. Finish learning how to play guitar. I started about 10 years ago… then gave up at some point. But I still want to play because it is relaxing and super fun, even though to date I only know two songs.

6. Be a Rockin’ Mom! Yep, can’t forget in this list that I want to have kids/kid and have a ball with them/him/her. Plus, if I learn how to play guitar finally, that adjective can be a little more accurate!

7. Own some sort of super-fast-bad-ass-amazeballs car. Right now, for whatever reason, I am convinced that I need to drive a Maserati. Ricky thinks that Maserati’s are dumb, and with all things considered, he is probably right. That is why this one is still open for debate. And no, our Jeep and Camaro do not count for this one, because it has to be something completely and ridiculously unnecessary and over the top to achieve this goal.

8. After that last, totally unnecessary “to do” (as if the island part wasn’t bad enough), here is one to redeem me. I would like to contribute something meaningful to social work fields and human rights. Such as, but not limited to: making a program for foster children, advocating for equal rights in the GLBTQ community, assisting homeless with transitional issues, assisting recovering drug addicts, or helping low-income individuals so someday they can drive a car like my future car, or some other issue that hasn’t even come on the radar yet, but I will undoubtedly care about when it does…

9. Learn to fly an airplane. My grandparents did, my dad does, and so, in turn, I feel like I should pass down this family tradition of aviation to myself and learn to fly an airplane. Plus, it would be a beneficial skill to have to get to and from my awesome new island! vroooooooooom.

10. Refine my cooking skills. A few years ago, I was a joke in the kitchen. I could follow a recipe if I was lucky, but couldn’t do much more. I have slowly been expanding my cooking capabilities, but they are still quite limited. Someday I would love to be able to make food that is uniquely my own, and over-the-top delicious. And I promise, to share with everyone I can.

What’s on your life’s to-do list? What should I write about next Friday?

Dawn

As some of you may know, I have been training for a triathlon with my Mother-in-law, Joanne. You can catch her shenanigans on crowfae.com. The triathlon is a mini-sprint in Mesa. I will be required to swim 200 meters, run .5 miles, and bike 8 miles, in some sort of order that I haven’t really figured out yet. I may enroll for the maxi-sprint which would be 400 meters, 2 mile run, and 12 mile bike ride… the swim is what scares me! Yikes! What do you all think? Mini or Maxi?? Egh. I am bad with decisions.

Anyhoo, I started training about a month and a half ago, and have been plugging along ever since. I decided to join in the training to help support Joanne in her efforts to complete a triath at some point in her life, cross it off her bucket list, and hell, cross it off my bucket list too. Plus, with all the craziness I already have in my life, it would be a way for me to prioritize my exercising and “self-care” because now it is for something, not just because I “should”.

As it stood a month and half ago, I would go to the gym with Ricky pretty regularly and walk about a 5k about 3-5 times per week. What I don’t do is swim. Never have, never.. oh wait, nvm. Did I mention the first swim lesson ended with me puking all over the parking lot? Awesome. I am slowly learning how to swim like Michael Phelps, or Amanda Beard (she’s a swimmer, right?). Now, I can swim about 1 lap before I want to die, or puke somewhere… I have to be able to swim 4 for the mini or 8 if I decide to up the ante and try the maxi. Currently, our practices have us swimming about half a mile (16 laps-ish), but with breaks between the laps that are so long we refer to them as “lunch breaks.” Not going to fly for a triath! But, we still have plenty of time, and PLENTY of practices ahead of us, so we will continue to plug along some more.  Also, I am getting very used to drinking a gallon of chlorine water with breakfast, because I am oh-so-graceful in the water, just as I am on land.

I am working on upping my walks to runs, eventually. And I recently got my mountain bike back from a friend, and will put street/hybrid tires on it for the race. Ugly Betty, my pink beach cruiser, simply will not cut it for a triathlon, but I feel like if I used her I should get points for style?

Lastly, with all this exercise, I feel like I am finally on my way to a healthier and fitter body. I have lost 13lbs already since the beginning of the year, 6 just from the tri-training. Ideally I will be about 140lbs for the race. Wo()T!

I will try to keep up with this business, but I make no promises…

PS: I freaking love food. That is all.

One thing I have been working on is trying to get in shape. I unfortunately float around the high-end of healthy weight and it makes it easy for me to make excuses to not exercise or eat better. I tweet my weight every morning to help me stay more accountable… My goal is to get down to 140lbs and 25% body fat, whenever… because deadlines are tough. I want to run at 5k, then more, without feeling like my lungs are going to burst and I am going to faint on the sidewalk. Moreover, I want to help Polaris shed some weight. He gained about 20lbs last year when he was on therapeutic steroid treatments. I worry about the poor guy and that all the weight is taking years off of his life.

Anyway… I will try to blog more often… and more importantly, when I have something fun to say.