Fill My Playlist

As I start my training for the NYC Marathon this week, I have considered what songs I want to run to. Music is super important to me when I run. I almost never run without music and so often it is crucial to me to "craft the perfect playlist" for a run according to my mood to either lift me, slow me down or pump me up.

Right now this is what my playlist looks like for the marathon:

I have NO music.

I would love to ask YOU to help me fill the playlist.

For every $20 donated to the Inheritance of Hope, you get to have a say in what I will run to when I train for the next four months. For $50 you can claim three songs! Yes please!!!

When you enter your credit card info, there is a comment section at the end; this is where you can request your song. I can not wait to see what will come in. If nothing comes in...then I will have no music to run to.

Please don't do this to me! Every time YOUR song comes on, I will think of you! Your family! Your life! How fun is that? It will be like YOU are running with me!

Let's do this!

Click here to contribute and request a song. 

No Shortage

There is no shortage of these "Literal Version" videos on YouTube.

I believe I have shared with you, Take On Me by A-Ha.

But seriously, Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler? Wow. Oh wow. What was this video all about anyway?

Watch, enjoy and laugh like I did!

Many thanks Betsy Charlene for reminding me about this video...

Temperature

The song "Temperature" by Sean Paul is not so much appropriate.
But really fun to run to.

So, it of course became the theme of the weekend.
Someone just posted this video onto my Facebook.

The misheard lyrics of Temperature. Absolutely hilarious.
Enjoy!

Just in Time for AFTER Valentines Day

Maybe since its the days FOLLOWING Valentines Day you found out that you might want to give your game a little refresher.

Billboard has given us a guide for this time in life.

The top 50 Sexiest Songs of All Time.To be sure, the list is MORE songs that have to do with the actual ACT of sex as opposed to actually being sexy. So they are almost all my favorite songs. What does that have to say about me?

I am not going to give you the pleasure of all 50 songs.

But I will give you a few highlights like:

#49 She Bop-Cyndi Lauper

Apparently this one has a hidden meaning that is much like the not ranked

"I Touch Myself"

I never put those lyrics together myself-not that it's such a mystery since I was 6 when that song came out.

#41-Johnny Gill Rub You The Right Way
Do you feel the magic in his hands?
By the way, this song is from 1991. I thought for sure, 1987.



#35-Poison-Unskinny Bop
One of my favorite all time songs. It might be the greatest song to run to EVER. Sexiest? Natch.

#24-R Kelly-Ignition
It's just a song that makes me think of college. I have no idea.




#23-Bel Biv Devoe-Do Me!
What else needs to be said with a title like that?
If you WANT to watch the video, feel free to visit YouTube yourselves.


#20-Starland Vocal Band-Afternoon Delight
If you don't think this is the greatest song ever, I will fight you.


#14-Color Me Badd-I Wanna Sex You Up
Mmmhmm Classy. Let the video play for about 20 seconds. The sound will catch up. It's worth it.

Color Me Badd - I wanna sex you up

Jimbob | MySpace Video

#10-Rod Stewart-Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
Nope. No I don't. And, this is maybe the worst song of all time.
I'm mad this made it on any top ten list.

#7-Captain and Tennille-Do that to Me One More Time
I have to wonder if they switched up the judges for the top ten list...

#3-Boys II Men-I'll Make Love to You
Alright, pass

#1-Olivia Newton John-Let's Get Physical
I'm serious.

Sorry.
But now that I have seen the video, I GET IT.
You can't help but laugh.




Who's all hot and bothered?
Yeesh. What a crappy list.
The rest of the list can be found here: Billboard.com

Vision of Love

Happy Anna Howard Shaw Day to you all!

Well, maybe not to all of you.

For those of you with love on your mind...you might have had what we call a Vision of Love in your life.

Maybe not.

We don't really refer to that as a real thing at all.

But back in November I downloaded this song onto my ipod and well, let's just say that there have been many MANY MANY sing-along sessions since then.

One of the reasons why I love my husband so much?

He might know the words to this song better than I do. And he can hit the notes.

Impressive no?

Go ahead. Click it. You know you want to.

And sing loudly. But maybe wait until a coworker is in the room to sway back and forth WITH you. Cause you'll want to. Also, feel free to do that run of notes at the end with abandon. It's your own personal American Idol. Go now.

Celebrate a Vision of Love. There ain't no shame in that game.

Running Mix

I realized that I never posted the final running mix from February. Also, I have just started using my running mix again since I gained five pounds during my month at camp. Eating Mike and Ikes, Milk Duds and nightly visits from the Dorito Fairy did not agree with me.

Also, Lindsey Hancock let me know while we were together at Windy Gap that she has been waiting on it, and so; my dear reading public, here it is:

In order:
Vertigo-U2
Lose Yourself-Eminem
Are you gonna be my girl-Jet
Always Be My Baby-Mariah Carey
Let's Hear it for the Boy-Denise Williams
Rehab-Amy Winehouse
We're Not Gonna Take It-Twisted Sister
Unskinny Bop-Poison
Keep the Car Running-Arcade Fire
Pump It Up-Elvis Costello
Fighter-Christina Aguilera
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)-They Might be Giants
Dancing in the Dark-Bruce Springsteen
Girlfriend-Avril Lavigne
The Sweet Escape-Gwen Stefani
Mr. Brightside-The Killers
Blister in the Sun-Violent Femmes
Wind It Up-Gwen Stefani ** my new favorite song
Jessie's Girl-Rick Springfield
I Wear My Sunglasses At Night-Corey Hart
Cradle of Love-Billy Idol
Everybody Everybody-Black Box
The Power-Snap!
What's Up-4 Non-Blondes
My Boo-Ghostown DJ's


Obviously not all of these will get you as fired up as it does for me. But head on over to itunes and check the ones out that you don't recognize. You might be surprised! This is enough music to get you through several workouts or one really long one!

While you are there, also check out my friend Ryan Long's new song called "Change Me." He was on assignment with us at Windy Gap and we sang this song several times during the week. It is a great song, with amazing lyrics. We will definitely be using this one in club in the fall.

Quote from David Wilcox

Pretty much my favorite singer/songwriter, this is from WORLD Magazine,

"I've tried to sing praise songs, or write songs that might be called Christian songs, and I'm just not that good at it," he told WORLD before one sellout show. "I have no trouble talking about Jesus, but my gift seems to be to writing in ways that surprise people into thinking about faith, rather than to write songs that congratulate people in some sort of club."

Oh, how I love this man and his perspective on life.

Day 2

This morning we went to the Y and instead of my usual running routine, I went to spinning class. If you have never done one of these classes-I highly recommend it. Great music, someone else setting the tempo and no one knows if you are wimping out. 

Anyway, there were of course TWO great songs again today.

1. Daughter-Pearl Jam

This is just a great song from my high school years that makes me think of how fit I was and what my body looked like then. And then I regret eating the bag of Doritos and Vienna Fingers over the weekend.

2. Pump It Up-Elvis Costello

Pretty much might be the greatest song to ever work out to. It has an awesome beat, a fun song and it isn't a typical workout song. I heard it in class and came home and bought it off of itunes. I highly recommend it!

On a side note, the childwatch at our Y opened up an aerobics room for the kids this morning. They rolled out mats, yoga balls and played music. My kids didn't want to come home with me! But they were playing kids music, which is just kids singing your favorite pop songs. So Jump Around-by House of Pain came on and Asher heard the first two notes, ran over the music and started yelling "That's DADDY'S MUSIC!" 

I then attempted to explain to the women that Matt does programs for summer camp and this was his theme music. Oh and yes, he will turn 32 next month. 

They all looked at me like, "oh ok." 

Looking down the barrel of a gun

I believe that I might be in the last months/days of my laptop. Today, the dumb thing just locked up on me for hours. I just erased about 150 pictures and the useless Microsoft Works that came preloaded on my computer and now it is running super fast (compared to what had been happening!). Now I don't know what is going to happen.
I am thinking that all I might need to do is buy an external hard drive and off-load all of my thousands of pictures onto the hard drive instead of just erasing everything but my absolute favorite pictures. This laptop has been faithful and worked very hard for the last five years. We have definitely gotten our money's worth out of it, however...I know that its days are limited. A laptop can only last so long. But it sucks to think about making such a huge investment again.
So, I am going to do some research and see if all I really need to do is get an external hard drive and can limp through another year. Or, start researching laptops and see if I can get a steal somewhere.

Also, Matt and I just got back from seeing Arcade Fire at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium...let me just say-I had a blast. Matt, had a harder time. He told me that he's not a big fan of people thinking that they are smart for liking a certain type of music, and he believes that people that like Arcade Fire and Wilco think they are smarter than everyone else. So he was judging US all tonight. For a long time. He had a hard time letting go of it. But by the end, he had to admit that it was a cool show and that he liked the music. I mean, they had nine mics on stage, a church organ, french horns, trumpets, keyboards, xylophones-the WORKS. It was musical mastery at its finest. I really liked it and I got to dance next to Cassia Kessler, which was great fun!

Shopping

It was oh so lovely to be in the land of a real mall with real shops. Oh, it was very tempting. In one mall, on one corner the mall was Crate and Barrel, Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn. In the middle of those three, was J Crew. Upstairs was Sephora, Delias and Brooks Brothers. Yikes. I did some damage at J Crew because I really wanted to find a pair of khaki capris and that was the only place that I found a pair that fit and looked cute on me. Did I want to spend $60 on a pair of capris? Nope. But, I realized that since I will probably wear these pants every day this summer that I should go ahead and invest. Now, I am thinking that I need them in several colors. TROUBLE.
I also bought a new brush at Sephora, along with a moisterizer and face wash from Philosophy (my favorite new line). Oh, and I bought a cute new jean skirt from The Gap. I could have bought that in Asheville, but they were having a huge sale and I only spent $10 on it. I love that!
I really wanted to go back to the mall before we left Raleigh this morning to go back through Crate and Barrel and buy some items for the house, but there just wasn't enough time.
That is what the internets is for! Now that I have seen items in person, I am more confident about what I want to purchase in their online stores. I love that!

BTW: I saw Gwen Stefani on American Idol this week and I love her new song, "The Sweet Escape" she is coming to Charlotte on May 12. Tickets on the lawn are only $12. Anybody wanna go?

Amazing

My super sweet husband and my amazing boss, Stephen Lutz conspired last night at the Switchfoot show to give me tickets with great seats to see Arcade Fire, one of my new favorite bands. They are coming to Asheville on May 2 and I am super-excited to go see them. Great news today!