Music

Comfort.

It’s a quiet Saturday at home, and no, quiet is not another word for boring in this case. I’m sitting at home listening to music and re-reading a favorite book, and I just have to tell you how quintessentially ideal this is.

Wearing:

  • floral print, laced-back navy blue top
  • my absolute favorite: high-rise tights
  • A watch – I’m not entirely sure why, but it was lying on my bedside bookshelf and I just pulled it on
  • Silver hoop earrings from XXI, one of my favorite accessories

Sitting:

  • on a brand new brown squishy beanbag that I absolutely fell in love with at the store
  • in the sunshinee

Listening to:

  • My newly-crafted Comfort Music playlist on Spotify with all my favorites from around 2009 (that was pop music’s peak year)
  • T-Swizzle’s classics like You Belong With Me, Love Story, and Back to December
  • Rihanna’s unrivaled Umbrella, Disturbia, and Don’t Stop the Music
  • The you-can-never-fail-to-improve-any-mood song, Smile by Uncle Kracker
  • A new discovery and personal favorite (please look beyond the title and band name, its a true turn off): The Backpack Song by Bear Attack!
  • You can never go wrong with The Fray, with classics like You Found Me, Never say Never, Look After You, Hurricane, and How to Save a Life
  • One of the only middle school favorites that is still acceptable to love today: One Republic’s Apologize, Stop and Stare, and All the Right Moves
  • Daughtry’s Over You and Home, an endless nostalgia stream that I am sure will become my college fave starting August
  • Adam Lambert. This guy is just lkfajsdfl;ksad;lfs. I never got over his voice, and songs like Whataya Want from Me, Aftermath, and Better Than I Know Myself are never going to leave my favorites list. The range of styles in his music, the perfect blend of rock, pop, and alternative along with happiness and sadness entice me to click the repeat-only button for hours at a time.

I really can just go on forever about music, but before I bore you (if I haven’t already), I want to get to the amazing book I’m rereading by an absolutely amazing author. By the way, re-reading is a misnomer, because that indicates reading ‘once again’ but in reality, this is at least my fifth or sixth time.

  • Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta.

Melina Marchetta, a New Zealand author, is just mind-blowing with boarding-school-like books and she addresses some of the deepest themes with such passion and ample depth to leave a mark on my mind for hours and days after the initial read.

A book about depression, finding identity in a way very different from the stereotypical adolescent identity crisis, and building a life for oneself. The change in the main character Francesca is almost passive in its gradual seamlessness as is the books progress. The first half is very slow-paced, but there is no one point to say when she makes her lifelong friends, when she falls in love, or when she starts building herself. It all just happens. In the beginning, Francesca is so influenced and shadowed by her mother’s overbearing presence and encouragement that there are really no adjectives to describe the ‘nobody’. You get to a point and say, “oh, Francesca, that confident, sassy, maturing girl. I love when she said ____ or did ___.” But that point is so hard to identify, by the end, it all just falls into place.

I’m definitely not doing justice to this book with my explanation/rant, but I just have to say its one of my absolute favorites.

 

Anyway, music, comfort clothes, music, and sunshine. It really is the recipe for a perfect, silent, Saturday, one that I’m itching to get back to!