Man, I Feel Like a Woman

I was driving to work today and “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield came on the radio.

Aside from it being the opening song  for “The Hills” as well as John Acuff’s choice for what song he’d want playing if he was ever in a film montage of trying on crazy outfits in a dressing room while his friend laughed, it is also one of those songs that makes you feel like having a pillow fight or painting your toenails or burning your bra. Ya know, girl stuff.

So it got me thinking about other songs that make me feel like a woman.

Here we go:

• “Man, I Feel like a Woman”. Not just because the title says it all, but because of Shania’s description of bein’ girly includes going “totally crazy” wearing “men’s shirts” and “short skirts” and “coloring my hair” as well as “doing what I dare”. Exactly right, Shania.
• “Not the Doctor” by Alanis. Because this is girl power in a nutshell: “I don’t want to be adored for what I merely represent to you, I don’t want to be your babysitter, you’re a very big boy now” Boom: empowerment
• “Love Song” by Sara Bareilles just because of the beat. It’s good every single time. And I may or may not love trying to sing it in the bath. See? totes girly.
• “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls. Because it could happen. It could.
• “Goodbye, Earl” by the Dixie Chicks. Because crime never sounded so feminine. Also  because it’s a not-so-subtle reminder not to mess with chicks. We fight back.
• “Beauty Has a Name” by Thad Cockrell. It’s one of those sob in the fetal position songs. Or maybe that’s just me.
• “The Chain” by Ingrid Michaelson. Cuz she’s all “If you come around again then I will take the chain from off the door”. Read: Fool me twice shame on me.
• “Hard” by Rihanna. I’m only 5% as tough as Rihanna but I still like to sing this song like a hard a*&.
• “Mary Did You Know?” by Michael English because duh, he’s talking about the most supreme woman of all time. And he’s asking her 20 questions. I applaud him. And her.
• Anything by Regina Spektor, Feist or Rilo Kiley. They burn their bras and vote and stuff.
• “I Met Him on a Sunday” by The Shirelles. Just trust me.
• “Single Ladies” by Beyonce because what single girl out there can hear this song and not dance?
• “The Heart of the Matter” by India Arie. Heartbreaking song but beautiful.
• All things associated with The Lillith Fair. Shaving your legs not required.

Ok that was rambl-y but today this just felt right.

LR

Listening to: Meetings meetings meetings

On my mind: KU plays Texas tonight. But its on the same time as the Bachelor. Bah!

Inspiring Pop Song of the Week :: Ke$ha “Blah Blah Blah”

Hard core.

Oh Ke$ha.

You and your dollar sign spelling of your name.

You and your hit “Tik Tok” with such notable lyrics as

“Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack” (9 out of 10 dentists do NOT recommend this)

and

“…But we kick em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger” (low standards alert)

And now, she is back, and I’m delighted. Because this time, with her song “Blah Blah Blah” we get such treats as

“Zip your lips like a padlock and meet me at the back” (The thing I like most about Ke$ha is her subtlety)

and

“Cause I know you don’t care what my middle name is” (well no, Ke$ha, he’s too busy getting the padlock to ask any personal questions)

I will say, its taking a lot out of me to type $ instead of ’s’ everytime I write Ke$ha.

I should come up with something like that in my name to torture my friends.

Ly^dsay?

Lynds@y?

Lynd&ay?

7yndsay?

TBD,

LR

Listening to: Just asked Annie to play ”Hey Soul Sister” by Train and instead she just started singing it. Not what I meant.

On my mind: I need to say “Did I shave my legs for this?” a la Deana Carter more often in every day discourse.

Grammy

Remember when our friend’s at Lady Antebellum won a Grammy?

Remember when my friend Annie went with them to the Grammy’s?

I do.

And this is the video of us seeing her on TV Sunday night.

Enjoy.

FREAKING OUT VIDEO

Moon River.

Ok so I have always loved “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.

I’ve always loved “Moon River” and the way Audrey Hepburn looks and talks and IS as Holly Golightly.

But this weekend, when we were snowed in, I fell in love all over again.

I think its the first time that I’ve seen it in its entirety.

And now I kind of want to be her. Minus the relationship hangups and plus Jesus.

Holly makes the crazy, disheveled, wild, unorganized life of a single woman look both hysterical and glamorous.

But also real.

And it made me feel much better about my crazy, disheveled unorganized life.

Some favorite nuggets:

Holly Golightly: I’ll tell you one thing, Fred, darling… I’d marry you for your money in a minute. Would you marry me for my money?
Paul: In a minute.
Holly Golightly: I guess it’s pretty lucky neither of us is rich, huh?
Paul: Yeah

Holly Golightly: You know those days when you get the mean reds?
Paul: The mean reds, you mean like the blues?
Holly Golightly: No. The blues are because you’re getting fat and maybe it’s been raining too long, you’re just sad that’s all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you’re afraid and you don’t know what you’re afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?

Paul Varjak: Holly, you’re drunk.
Holly Golightly: True.

Holly Golightly: It’s useful being top banana in the shock department

Holly Golightly: I’ll never get used to anything.  Anybody that does, they might as well be dead.

Holly Golightly: Certain shades of limelight wreck a girl’s complexion.

Holly Golightly: Love should be allowed. I’m all for it. Now that I’ve got a pretty good idea what it is.

Plus, don’t even MAKE me talk about her wardrobe. Flawless.

LR

Listening to: Have I told you lately how amazing of a whistler I am? Well I am.

On my mind: I want the job of coming up with the nonsensical words that you have to type in to get into a secure site. My first one would be: quablestur.

Icognito Blessing

If this is a blessing in disguise it is in the best costume ever.

In fact it’s so disguised that I have no idea if it is a blessing at all.

Decide for yourself:

You Might Be at a Chain Restaurant If…

• You shared a 3 course meal with your roommate.
• At said meal you ordered dessert only after the table next to you got theirs.
• You uttered the words, “We’ll have whatever they’re having”
• You asked for a side of ranch
• You entered and exited the establishment with your head down, looking about suspiciously
• You tried parking underground so you could use the back entrance
• You vowed to come back next time in a trench coat wearing fake glasses with a nose and mustache attached
• You had to tell your roommate she had queso on her shirt. Three different times.
• Your waitress’ name was Marlena.
• You enjoyed every minute.

What was the last chain restaurant you went to? And when did they stop being ok? And did you know Emma chose Red Lobster for her graduation dinner?

Keeping it classy since 1983,

LR

Listening to: French techno. Yep.

On my mind: I wish I could sing like Joy Williams.

Dear Eye Twitch

Dearest Incessant Eye Twitch,

Um hey. It’s me. First off I just wanna start off by saying something:

Not cool, Eye, not cool.

I get it, I’ve been a little stressed lately. Perhaps I’ve even been a little rushed (please resist the urge to make a pun on my name here). But cut me some slack.

There’s really no need to stick around for 4 days and remind me every 5 minutes that somewhere in the deep recesses of my soul I am feeling anxious.

If you don’t cut it out soon you’re going to become my trademark and as the new kid in town I need as much help as I can get.

So, like, back off.  And I do mean that in the harshest way possible.

In fact, you may be the reason the tow truck guy thought I was flirting with him. So thanks for that.

All in all I think our time together is up. So this is goodbye. Peace out and thanks for nothing.

But seriously, leave.

Sincerely,

Lyndsay

Listening to: Andy singing falsetto along to Justin Bieber

On my mind: God’s good. Always.

Confessionz

Sorry about the z’s. Can’t get enough of it. Sorry I’m not sorry.

I think about weekly I have enough material to write a confessional. Just the random things that happen in my life that I should purge publicly. Cool? Cool.

• I had turkey bacon as a snack twice this week.
• While cooking this snack the second time I penned a pretend acoustic hit in my head entitled, “Wakey Wakey, Eggs and Bacey”. It’s a sexy wake up song with soul. check itunes soon.
• Fulmer caught me putting on self tanner and called me Jersey Shore.
• I asked someone for a tambourine for a housewarming gift
• I had a bad day on Monday so drove to a high point in town and pondered life whilst overlooking the city. Oh dramatics.
• We turned my scarf into a limbo today at the office and made everyone participate.
• I watched three episodes of “Little Miss Perfect Pageant” show on TLC
• Cleaning out my purse today I found both an argyle sock and a bag of popcorn.

That should about do it for now. More to come. Always. Seriously its the story of my life.

LR

Listening to: Gangland. This show is raw.

On my mind: When I get home from work I always always immediately put on sweat pants. But often, I’ll leave on whatever shirt I wore during the day. I call it an outfit mullet: business on top, party on bottom.

Take That, Malaria.

^{Amos 5:21-24}“I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.

Malaria kills a child every 30 seconds and nearly one million people every year

Malaria is a disease that CAN be eliminated if we can provide enough mosquito nets, effective medicines and safe indoor spraying. Heck, we eliminated it here in the US back in 1947

Look out, malaria, we’re coming for you.

Confused? Stay with me.

I am privileged to be working on staff with a company called The Brave on a grassroots campaign in coordination with the United Nations Foundation that is fighting this rampant, deadly disease.

Worldwide nearly half of the world’s population (nearly 3.3 billion) are currently at risk of malaria.

Our objective? To create a movement that draws the attention of lawmakers in DC so that congress reappropriates the funds already given towards fighting malaria.

If the current funds continue for the next 5 years towards malaria prevention, education, medication and research, leading experts estimate that the disease can be completely eliminated from Africa by 2015.

And we all can be a part of it.

First up will be multi-city screenings of a film made and produced by the co-founders of The Brave (Ryan Smith and Bobby Bailey (Founder of Invisible Children) ) called “When the Night Comes” that examines the effects of this disease in Uganda.

Stay tuned as we release the trailer and film screening cities and dates but this is a CANT MISS opportunity to get involved.

The site and trailer will be up in the next week or so but in the meantime join our When The Night Comes Facebook group to stay up to date on all the hoopla.

Invite your friends, teachers, cronies, lovers etc.

91% of malaria deaths occur in Africa

85% of these deaths are children under the age of 5

Because you know what the great philosopher Dr. Seuss says,

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Let’s do this.

LR

Listening to: Lightning 100 recording next door

On my mind: I like antiques.

Want some pump up inspiration about changing the world since its Friday?

Watch. Fist Pump. Chest Bump. Etc.

Call me

No, maybe don’t.

I am afraid of the phone.

Like legitimately afraid.

I may or may not have been unable to order a pizza over the phone back in college.

It was that bad.

And yes, Ive gotten better. I no longer freak my freak and break into a hot sweat and claw at my throat as though it is swelling shut whenever I have to talk to someone I don’t know on the phone.

But I still panic a little bit. I still sometimes make lists or scripts for how I think the phone call will go and what I should say.

Clare once looked at me in all seriousness and reminded me that the other person on the line would, in fact, be talking back and offering conversation flow.

Don’t look at me like that, phobia’s don’t make sense!

No one ever believes that behind this insane exterior beats the heart of an absolute scaredy cat, but its true. Or, at least it used to be true.

Complete recovery pending.

Just some rainy day vulnerability for ya. You’re welcome.

LR

Listening to: A drip drip drip above me in the office.

On my mind: I almost turned into the incredible Hulk this morning when I couldn’t get the key to work. Gotta love mornings where its crystal clear that you’re a mess without God.