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It would be the last unicorn in the world that came to Molly Grue.

Posted by Teija on 05/12/2012 No comments

The Broke and the Bookish has once again introduced a Top Ten Tuesday topic that I’m excited to answer! This time, it’s top ten book quotes. Once again, I’m a little late with this–the topic was technically the post for May 8th. But a little late is better than never, and honestly, part of the reason it took so long was narrowing down the list! I’m an avid reader, and I tend to collect quotes. Picking just ten of them as my favorites out of many was harder than I thought it would be, and it turns out that a lot of it has to do with not just the content of the quote itself, but also a bit of nostalgia. Quite a few of these are from books I read as a kid, or books I count among my utmost favorites.

Some of these might seem somewhat–or wholly–unremarkable out of context, but they come from some of my favorite passages in all of literature. The first two, in particular, are drawn from passages that send me into tears every time I read them, they’re so beautifully sad.

1. “It would be the last unicorn in the world that came to Molly Grue.” — The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

2. “Francie, about a year ago, he gave me that card all written out and two dollars. He said, ‘When Francie graduates, send her some flowers for me–in case I forget.”’ — A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

3. “One of the few things left in the world, aside from the world itself, that sadden me every day is an awareness that you get upset if Boo Boo or Walt tells you you’re saying something that sounds like me. You sort of take it as an accusation of piracy, a little slam at your individuality. Is it so bad that we sometimes sound like each other? The membrane is so thin between us. Is it so important for us to keep in mind which is which? That time two summers ago when I was out so long, I was able to trace that you and Z. and I have been brothers for no fewer than four incarnations, maybe more. Is there no beauty in that? For us, doesn’t each of our individualities begin right at the point where we own up to our extremely close connections and accept the inevitability of borrowing one another’s jokes, talents, idiocies?” — Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, J.D. Salinger

4. “Then, Éowyn of Rohan, I say to you that you are beautiful. In the valleys of our hills there are flowers fair and bright, and maidens fairer still; but neither flower nor lady have I seen till now in Gondor so lovely, and so sorrowful. It may be that only a few days are left ere darkness falls upon our world, and when it comes I hope to face it steadily; but it would ease my heart, if while the Sun yet shines, I could see you still. For you and I have both passed under the wings of the Shadow, and the same hand drew us back.” — The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien

5. “And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.” — East of Eden, John Steinbeck

6. “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” — Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

7. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you.” — The Witches, Roald Dahl

8. “Words don’t come to life until you can taste them on your tongue.” — Inkheart, Cornelia Funke

9. “In the Lives of the Saints the virgins are always getting into trouble and I don’t know why. The dictionary says, Virgin, woman (usually a young woman) who is and remains in a state of inviolate chastity. Now I have to look up inviolate and chastity and all I can find here is that inviolate means not violated and chastity means chaste and that means pure from unlawful sexual intercourse. Now I have to look up intercourse and that leads to intromission, which leads to intromittent, the copulatory organ of any male animal. Copulatory leads to copulation, the union of the sexes in the art of generation and I don’t know what that means and I’m too weary going from one word to another in this heavy dictionary which leads me on a wild goose chase from this word to that word and all because the people who wrote the dictionary don’t want the likes of me to know anything.” — Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt

10. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” — Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling

I’m glad my friends and family are sane.

Posted by Teija on 05/11/2012 2 comments

I have a bit of an addiction to advice columns. Dear Prudence, Dear Wendy, Friend or Foe, Ask a Lady… I read a lot of them. For some reason, seeing people’s troubles answered by a level-headed third party just brings me some bizarre kind of a joy.

It also makes me really thankful that, for the most part, the people around me are without drama and relatively sane. Here’s a list of the most appalling and drama-filled columns I’ve read lately (alternately, “here’s a list of ‘wow, I’m glad my friends and family aren’t like these guys’ situations”).

1. I’m glad my fiance’s mother isn’t trying to poison me… and that he’s not helping her do it. Good lord, this set of letters! I cannot imagine such a situation outside of a bad made-for-TV movie, and here it is in this poor woman’s life. Even after she was able to prove that her mother-in-law was tainting her food, her husband took his mom’s side. Why stay with someone if you’re willing to side with the poisoner in such a situation!? Oy. Oy.

2. I’m glad my mom isn’t trying to make me get plastic surgery. What kind of a parent does this to their kid? “You’re so ugly I will lie and sneak to try and get you to change your face”? Wouldn’t you rather your child be a happy, healthy human being? Geez.

3. I’m glad no one I know is this messed up. Hooooooly moly.

4. I’m glad no one I know is stealing from me. I can never wrap my head around family members who screw one another over. For me, family is one of the most important things, and the inherent comfort and safety of family is something that I can’t imagine anyone wanting to break. I understand that not everyone has a healthy relationship with their family or as close-knit a family as I am lucky to have, but the fact of the matter remains that I’ve grown up in a family life that makes it near impossible for me to understand how a parent could be so awful to his or her own children.

5. I’m really glad none of my friends makes me worry if they are a homicidal maniac. I assume my saying this doesn’t need explanation?

And last, but not least, I want to provide a link to my very favorite column on the internet: Ask a Clean Person. Do you have questions about how to get out tough stains? The best way to clean a radiator? How about how to get smells out of a mattress? Somewhere in the archives of this column, you’ll probably find your answer. It’s the greatest.

Not that I can afford to play hooky…

Posted by Teija on 03/31/2012 2 comments

The last Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and the Bookish was “top ten books I’d play hooky with.” Now, as much as I would love to take a day off work to lie around and read, it’s not really something I can afford to do. However, if I had the ability, here’s a list of ten books I’d gladly skip a day of work to read.

1. A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin. I’m currently about 200 pages into this behemoth. It’s the fourth in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, currently hugely popular because HBO has adapted it into an incredible series (which, incidentally, begins its second season tomorrow). I got into the series because of the show and only just managed to refrain from reading them until after I finished my MA exam preparation. I would gladly take a day off work to spend more time in Westeros.

2. Drift, Rachel Maddow. I got this in the mail last Tuesday and haven’t had the time to sit down and read it all the way through. Thus far, it is an intelligently argued non-partisan examination of just how the US population’s personal connection to our military endeavors has become diminished over time. It also happens to be the first nonfiction book I have picked up since graduating.

3. Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien. Who wouldn’t want to spend a day with their favorite book? I’ve read LotR once a year, every year, since the first time I read it — except during graduate school. So it’s been too long a while since I’ve taken that long journey with the Fellowship. I’d love a day off to start that journey again.

4. Sisters Red, Jackson Pearce. I have this book on the end table. It was loaned to me by a friend, and I just haven’t had the chance to read it. I’m sure if I had a day off, I’d be able to blow right through it, but I just haven’t set time aside to read it yet.

5. What No One Tells the Bride, Marg Stark. This was also given to me by a friend, and while it may not be quite as “fun” a choice as a good YA book or a journey through Middle Earth, I’m sure that taking a day to read this book would, at the very least, give me some ideas and perspectives that likely haven’t occurred to me in my own day-to-day of being engaged and planning a wedding.

6. The Rape of Europa, Lynn Nicholas. I saw the documentary based on this book one night during grad school when I was home alone and looking for a break from my readings. Being an enormous nerd, this meant that I trawled Netflix for documentaries until I found something that interested me. What interests a modern German historian more than a documentary about what was done with all the art in Europe while the Nazis came after it? I bought the book as soon as the credits rolled, but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

7. Personal Demon, Kelley Armstrong. This book. This freaking book. I adored Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series through this point and then, for this book, she swapped protagonists and I can’t stand the new narrator. It’s just a matter of getting through this book so that I can move past it, because Armstrong rarely sticks with one protagonist for more than a book or two, but I just keep putting it off. A hooky day would be just the thing to get me moving through this series again.

8. Teacher Man, Frank McCourt. I know he only ever wrote three books, but Frank McCourt has a place on my “favorite authors” list, right next to Peter Beagle. The way he wrote was simply magical, thoroughly honest and always somehow lighthearted and comedic, even when describing unimaginable poverty and tragedy. This is the one book of his that I have yet to read.

9. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle. Another of my old favorites. This is one of those stories I know so well that I will sometimes pick the book up just to reread single passages. My favorite is when Molly Grue meets the Unicorn. “How dare you come to me now, when I am this?” gets me every time. “It would be the last unicorn in the world that comes to Molly Grue.”

10. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. Because it’s my favorite Austen. Had I chosen English over History when making that “I don’t want to double major but dear god how do I choose” decision, I’d have focused on Austen. I’m one of those people.

Covers!

Posted by Teija on 03/07/2012 2 comments

Lately, I’ve been able to listen to a lot of music while I’ve been working. I have a lot of music on my iPod but I’ve got a habit of always going back to the same stuff I always listen to: the Beatles, my top-rated playlist, playlists I’ve made based on moods or themes. But I decided this morning to hit shuffle on the entire iPod, which I certainly have to be in the right mood to do. I have such an eclectic mix of music that if I’m not in the mood to just go with the flow, I find myself hitting “skip” all day. However, today’s mood was pretty relaxed (at least music-wise) and I was able to just let the iPod do its thing and show me songs I’d forgotten about, or never gotten to know in the first place.

It turns out, there are a lot of songs on my iPod that are covers. Brilliant, brilliant covers. I’m not going to say that they are necessarily better than the originals, because a lot of them are just too different (and some of them may not be so wildly different, but I wouldn’t say they’re better or worse). And, because there is nothing I love quite like a list, I’ve decided to list my top 10 favorite covers.

1. Hector: Kuinka Voit Väittää (Original: “Streets of London,” by Ralph McTell)

Hector is one of those artists that I would argue is a foundational pillar of my musical taste. I’ve listened to his Lapsuuden Loppu album since I was a very, very small child. It is actually probable that my mother was listening to his music when I was still a fetus in her womb. He’s arguably one of Finland’s most popular musicians, having made himself famous not only for his own skill as a singer/songwriter but also for his impeccable talent for translating songs into Finnish, as he has done here with “Streets of London,” Also, what the hell!? McTell’s got harmonizing audience members in the impromptu singalong. That audience is AWESOME.

2. Adele, “Make You Feel My Love” (Original: Bob Dylan)

Some of you may think that what I’m about to say is blasphemy, but I really don’t like Bob Dylan. Not even a little bit. It’s awful, because I like his songs quite a lot, it’s just that I only like them when he’s not the one singing them. And Adele has made this one so amazing that it’s hard to listen to without getting a little misty. Also, finding Bob Dylan’s version on YouTube has proven to be practically impossible, the site is fully loaded with people doing their damndest to sound like Adele. It is somewhat messy, and I got tired of looking, so I’m not linking it.

3. Ben Folds and Rufus Wainright, “Careless Whisper” (Original: Wham!)

It is no small secret that I am a little bit in love with Ben Folds and everything he does. Also, the Wham! version, while still amazing in its own right, is starting to sound a little dated. There are synthesizers and 80s drum fills. And, of course, the jazz saxophone riff.

4. Josh Groban, “Vincent” (Original: Don McLean)

This song is incredible. It’s so, so sad, and I think Josh Groban’s got the perfect voice to do this song the justice it deserves (I am of the opinion that unless you know what the hell you are doing, you maybe shouldn’t cover Don McLean — ahem, Madonna – because, well, Don McLean, guys). Recently, my dad brought home some new editions of the Suuri Toivelaulukirja series that my mother has been collecting for my whole life. The arrangements in these books always tend to be a little simplistic, but in certain cases that’s exactly what a song needs. “Vincent” is in one of those new books, and I leapt at the opportunity to learn it. Halfway through, my dad appeared — as he tends to do — by my side, asking, “What is this song?” As surprised as I was to find that he didn’t know it, I was glad to introduce him. It’s an incredible piece.

5. T.V. Carpio, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (Original: The Beatles)

I want to start with this: I hated Across the Universe. Absolutely hated it. However, the soundtrack has a lot of good covers on it. It also has a lot of bad covers on it (whoever let Bono near the Beatles needs a good, violent papercutting between their thumb and forefinger, the jerk) but the ones that are good are pretty damn good. This cover of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is, in my opinion, the best thing to come out of that movie. I think the reason I like it so much is because it took one of the most famous upbeat, driving Beatles songs and turned it into a ballad, making it almost an entirely different song altogether! It’s delightful.

6. Travis, “Baby One More Time” (Original: Britney Spears)

I think the novelty of this being an acoustic Britney Spears cover is pretty much the reason I like this so much. There’s not a whole lot more to say about it, I just like it a lot.

7. Tori Amos, “Landslide” (Original: Stevie Nicks)

My Tori years are mostly behind me now, but when I come back to her in a fit of nostalgia, it’s usually brought on because this cover pops up on my iPod and the early college feelings come flooding back. Tori Amos got me through the messiest breakup of my life, through my depressive “what am I doing with my life?” years, and through the worst parts of my homesickness during my study abroad program in England. And this cover is a large part of how she did that.

8. Ewan McGregor, “Your Song” (Original: Elton John)

Elton John is another one of those artists that I’ve always had in my life, thanks to my parents. But for some reason, when Moulin Rouge! came out when I was in high school, Ewan McGregor’s version plowed right into my brain and took over the place where Elton John’s voice goes with that melody, because nowadays if the song gets stuck in my head or I hear a riff or two of it somewhere, it’s Ewan’s voice I hear in my head, and not Elton’s. It’s impossible to leave off this list for that reason alone.

9. The Sundays, “Wild Horses” (Original: The Rolling Stones)

Ah, Buffy. One of my top five TV shows of all time. The Sundays’ version of this song was used in the Buffy season 3 episode “The Prom,” in which Angel — after breaking up with Buffy earlier in the episode — still shows up to prom dressed up to dance with her, because she deserved to have some semblance of a normal high school memory. The line “wild horses couldn’t drag me away” is timed in one of the greatest, most subtle heartwrenches in the history of television. It’s one of the best uses of song on TV, as far as I’m concerned.

10. Whitenoise Labs, “Game of Thrones Title Theme” (Original: Ramin Djawadi)

Is this cheating? I love this heavy metal version of the GoT title theme. I also love this violin version and this piano version (which there is apparently sheet music for, so my parents should be expecting me for a weekend afternoon sometime soon hehehe) and this acoustic guitar version. I just love all the versions. The theme is awesome.

Books, books, books!

Posted by Teija on 02/28/2012 No comments

One of my favorite things about being done with my masters program is being able to read whatever I want again. While I was working on my degree, everything I read had something to do with my studies. There just was not a lot of time left over after doing my work that I didn’t have any time left over to read. In the meantime, I built up a list of things to read when I was done, and I’m glad to be able to finally start breaking the list down. Most recently, I finished A Storm of Swords, the third book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin.

I have to say, honestly, that it took me some time to get into Martin’s writing style. Reading A Game of Thrones was something of a challenge. I wanted to like it, because I’d seen HBO’s masterful adaptation of it. But something about Martin’s writing style took effort to get into. I found it clunky to begin with, and it was hard to get into the various storylines in the book because of the way he divides the chapters by point-of-view character. But once I really got into it, the story took over. Any of the things that bothered me about Martin’s writing style fell to the wayside as I really got swallowed up by the storyline and the characters. Now that I’m through three books, I can’t keep reading fast enough. The story keeps taking more twists and turns, and no character is safe. My only worry about this series now is that I’ll finish book five before book six comes out.

In addition to Martin’s series, I also read John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. The book is phenomenal. Both comedic and deeply tragic, the book covers the topic of terminal illness without seeming insincere or heavy-handed. I was beyond thrilled to be reading such an incredible book by Green; ever since I picked up (and completely adored) Looking for Alaska a few years ago, I’d been following him, reading his other books when they come out and checking in from time to time at the youtube channel he shares with his brother, Vlogbrothers. But none of his books wowed me like Looking for Alaska had until this one. The Fault in Our Stars made me laugh out loud, sometimes at the same time that it brought tears to my eyes. It definitely deserves its current position at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list.

Next up for me: George R.R. Martin’s A Feast for Crows, of course.

Planning, planning…

Posted by Teija on 01/31/2012 2 comments

This past weekend, I went to the Atlanta Bridal Extravaganza with my mother, mostly just to see what it was all about. There was so much stuff to look at, and so many vendors to speak with, that I found myself pretty overwhelmed. But it was fun to see the dresses, venues, and especially the cakes. Mmm, cakes.

I’ve only just begun the fun of wedding planning, but I can see how so many people get kind of insane while doing it. I’ve had a good bit of fun going through venues and dresses just to see what’s available. To be fair, a lot of my searching has come up with stuff well outside of even my dream budget. What’s weird, though, is how many women have “jumped the gun” with wedding planning. My best friend Sarah and I were talking the other day about “Single Bridezillas,” something she heard highlighted on a radio show last week that has also been covered by ABC News. Women who have the wedding planned or a dress picked out before they have a fiance lined up! Quite honestly, it sounds like insanity to me.

The whole point of a wedding is to begin a life with someone else. To me, that means my fiance helps to plan it: we’re going to pick the venue together, we’re going to decide the menu together, and we’re going to pick out save-the-dates and invites and first dance songs and everything together. If I wanted to plan all of this by myself, I’d plan a birthday blowout.

The dress I can sort of understand picking out ahead of time–though how are you going to know how formal your wedding is going to be or if your tastes are going to change between now and then? While listening to this “single bridezillas” story on the radio, Sarah heard a twelve year old call in to say that her mother’s best friend had already bought her a dress and had it saved in a vault for her big day. First of all, is that dress in her mother’s best friend’s taste or her own? And secondly, she’s twelve. If I’d chosen my dress when I was twelve, I would likely end up walking down the aisle in this ridiculous thing (or worse, this thing. My god!).

The whole idea of “single bridezillas” rubs me the wrong way. Well, to be fair, the idea of a bridezilla rubs me the wrong way as well. I want my fiance to be a part of the planning, and I want the wedding to reflect both of us, not just me. After all, it’s the beginning of our lives together. I want him to be as big a part of it as I am.

Another year over…

Posted by Teija on 12/27/2011 No comments

What a year it has been. This has probably been the most hectic year of my life. I have suffered a great deal of loss and sadness, but at the same time, it seems that the year balanced itself out by the end with a whopping dose of happiness. Let me break it down.

First, the bad: I lost a lot of people this year. Not only did I have a few friendships come to natural ends–nothing dramatic, just quiet little natural driftings–but I had a great deal of permanent loss. In February, I lost my grandfather on my mother’s side. He was in poor health, and his death was not entirely a surprise, but it still hurt nonetheless to lose him, particularly because it was my first time losing a grandparent. Unfortunately, as the year continued, it was also not my last. In September, I lost my grandmother on my father’s side, a far more jarring event in that it was wholly unexpected. She was as sharp as a tack to her very last day, and full of joy and life. Her death shook me pretty hard; in all honesty, I’m still having some trouble coping with it. Outside of blood relatives but still family all the same, we also lost one of our dearest family friends to a long battle with cancer in August. It has been an incredibly hard year, but all of the loss has brought the family closer together.

However, 2011 did not take without giving in return. I graduated with my masters degree in history this year after two and a half years of hard work and seemingly endless reading. I worked very hard to accomplish this, and I’m very proud of the effort I made to achieve this goal. And on top of my graduation, I also got engaged this year! The Swede got on one knee and asked for my hand on the night of December 22nd, and of course, I said yes. A thousand times, yes. I could not have found a more amazing man to spend the rest of my life with. Through all the good and bad of this year, he was a solid foundation of support, comfort, and love. I am happy spending time with him, whether we are sitting in front of the TV watching a football game with a beer or out winning trivia with our friends. He is perfect for me. Of course I said yes!

The year is winding down now. Here’s to a happy, healthy 2012–and a whole lot of wedding planning. Bring it on!

End of Line–

Posted by Teija on 12/02/2011 1 comment

It’s finally here: I’ve attended the last seminar of my last graduate class. I’m graduating on the 14th of December with my Masters in History. It’s odd, as soon as class adjourned Wednesday night I found myself thinking, “Wait, that’s it? It’s over?”

It ended with almost a whimper. The reason for this is that the hard part was two weeks ago. Two weeks ago I sat my MA exams. Two weeks ago, I fought for the right to call myself a historian. Two weeks ago, I won that right… and now I’m just waiting for everything to wrap up, for commencement, for dinner at Fox Brothers with my family to celebrate, and a graduation party.

Welcome to the real world, self. What’s next? I’m not entirely sure. I’m looking for a full-time job, I want to start learning to play the guitar, I want to take up tennis, I want to start a novel… so many choices. So many opportunities.

Let me tell you the most valuable lesson I learned during my graduate program. It’s not how to gut a book. It’s not how to manage my work and school responsibilities and maintain a social life (hell, if you asked me how I did that, I’m not sure I’d be able to answer you anyway). It’s not even how to write a solid 5-page response paper within the ticking confines of a lunch hour.

The most important lesson I learned? Show up.

I don’t just mean show up to class, though that’s pretty much one of the most important aspects of being a graduate student. What I’m really talking about is getting anything done in the university system. The website is hardly ever helpful. Calling a department doesn’t work unless you actually like to sit on the phone with an undergrad who is getting paid diddlysquat to pretend to know the answers to your questions. Emailing is a crapshoot depending on who is on the other end.

If you want to actually get something done, you have to walk in there determined to get it done and you have to become That Person, the person that repeats themselves incessantly, that emails once a day until a question is answered, that “sends back the steak” if something isn’t right, and that walks into Financial Aid and refuses to leave until they talk to the person with whom they wish to talk. The person that sends emails via smartphone from outside someone’s empty office that say, “Hey. I’m here for our 5:30 meeting, and you are not. I’m going to hang around for 10 minutes in case you are stuck in traffic. Then I’m going to leave and we’re going to reschedule this, and you are going to show up next time, or I’m going to set your office on fire.”

(I never actually threatened anyone.)

(But I wanted to.)

(Oh, I wanted to.)

I’m not entirely unconvinced that the university system’s goal of providing its entrants with higher education is only a front for its One True Goal: teaching its entrants the art of patience. I learned just as much about dealing with ridiculous paperwork and logistical issues as I did about Modern European History during my two and a half year Masters program. I extended the short leash I had on my temper and I honed my strategic planning skills. And I became very good at getting my ducks in a row. My ducks are lined up.

I’m done. I’m graduating on December 14th with a Masters in Modern European History… and an unofficial minor in Handling Real-World Nonsense. I feel pretty accomplished.

All my loving, I will send to you…

Posted by Teija on 06/18/2011 No comments

I’ve been trying to think of ways to keep myself updating this a bit more frequently, and one of the easiest ways is to make lists! So today, I give you the top 10 love songs off the top of my head that aren’t schmaltzy power ballads that only Delilah ever gives air time.

10. “It Had to be You,” Frank Sinatra

When a song is the featured musical piece in my favorite romantic comedy of all time, it is actually a crime to leave it off the list.

For nobody else gave me the thrill / With all your faults I love you still / It had to be you

9. “All My Loving,” The Beatles

It’s the catchiest song on this list! I love the idea behind this song: two people are about to be separated for some time, so one is simply saying to the other that he’ll miss her.

Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you / Tomorrow I’ll miss you / Remember I’ll always be true

8. “A Littlepiece,” Neverending White Lights

This is one of the most beautiful songs I have probably ever heard in my life. When I listen to it, I hear a man telling his introverted, maybe a bit depressed girlfriend, that he is there for her even when she’s at her worst.

You don’t have to breathe / I will, I will breathe in for you, love

7. “Kingdom Come,” Coldplay

Coldplay has a lot of good songs, a few of them pretty romantic. But I think that this is by far their most romantic song. It speaks to the idea that everyone has a perfect mate out there, and that they’re worth waiting for.

For you I’d wait ’til Kingdom Come / Until my day, my day is done / And say you’ll come and set me free / Just say you’ll wait / You’ll wait for me

6. “Sarah’s Apartment,” Juliana Finch

This is one of the most uplifting songs ever. It’s about two people who are pretty different finding a life together in Atlanta. It’s actually my dad’s favorite of Juliana’s songs.

‘Cause when she says she wants children / He knows that they’ll have his eyes / That’s enough to make him compromise / In Sarah’s apartment

5. “Chasing Cars,” Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol, oh Snow Patrol. Wherefore art thou, Snow Patrol? This song is one of my favorite songs of all time. I like the sentiment behind it: you and me against the world.

We’ll do it all / Everything / On our own / We don’t need anything or anyone

4. “Something,” The Beatles

It may be cheating to have the Beatles on the list twice, but I don’t care. I have the Beatles on the list twice. They’re my favorite band, after all. Might as well. I like this song because it’s about that spark that you feel when you meet the person you want to be with.

Somewhere in her smile, she knows / That I don’t need no other lover / Something in her style that shows me / I don’t want to leave her now / You know I believe, and how

3. “You and I,” Ingrid Michaelson

This is by far the cutesiest song on the list – it’s a twee girl with a ukelele, come on now – but it’s also super sweet. It’s very uplifting: you may not have a lot of money or be in the best place in life, but if you have each other, you can always dream big.

Let’s get rich and build a house on a mountain makin’ everybody look like ants / way up there / You and I

2. “Nothing Else Matters,” Metallica

What! Metallica? On a love songs list!? Yeah, that’s right. It never even says the word “love” in it anywhere, but it’s a love song. It’s about finding someone with whom you can be yourself, and I think that’s one of the most important things of all.

Trust I seek and I find in you / Every day for us, something new / Open mind for a different view / and nothing else matters

1. “The Luckiest,” Ben Folds

This is the number one most romantic song I have ever heard in my life. In it, Ben Folds tells three little vignettes, in which he is explaining how lucky he is to have met the person he’s met. The first is about how mistakes and failed relationships are the path that lead the road to the right one. The second is a story saying that he’s lucky to have been born in the right time period to be able to be with his love. And the third is the story of a couple that dies after a lifetime of happiness together. It’s gorgeous, it’s sweet, it’s romantic, and it makes me cry almost every time I hear it.

I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you

Tekkah.net

Books, books, books!

Planning, planning…

Another year over…

End of Line–

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