Airplanes

Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky
Are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now...


After a long absence from the Ode to Joy (my sincerest apologies, reader), I am back. I will give my own personal life updates later; for now, as I claim to blog about music (and only occasionally do), I wish to discuss the one song that you cannot escape from, no matter how hard you try....



Yes, I am talking about Airplanes. This song is everywhere. AND there are two versions of it. As if one was not enough. You can't drive for more than about five minutes without this song coming on, usually on multiple stations at once, so unless you like country music (thank the Lord I do!), you really have no other options. Don't get me wrong: it's catchy, Hayley Williams has a pleasant voice, and the thought of rappers not loving the glamorous life is cute. But we all know better. Whether Lil Wayne is clappin' for his bank roll, 50 Cent is getting rich or dying trying, or Travie McCoy is hangin' out in a whole new tax bracket, it is uncharacteristic to say the least of a rapper to renounce the lifestyle. So, B.o.B., what's the deal?


I will make no attempt to hide it: I am a superstitious person. I always knock on wood when I make a claim that could jinx myself. When the Giants are in a tight spot, I knock on wood continuously until they get out of it... and if you know anything about the San Francisco Giants (God love 'em), my knuckles often start to hurt. I fully buy into the idea of the placebo effect, which explains why decaf can jack me up effectively enough to conquer my to-do list. When an eyelash falls from my eye to my face, I put it on my finger, make a wish, and blow it away. Every time. And I have a tendency to repeat the same few wishes to improve their chances of coming true (after all, 100 eyelash-wishes should carry more weight than 1, right?). But my superstitions are not unbounded: I don't believe that shattering a mirror will bring you seven years bad luck, and I have no problem deleting chain letters from my inbox (I find it hard to believe that my crush will magically appear at my house at midnight to kiss me -- I don't think Luke Bryan knows where I live).

Make no mistake, if passing on that chain letter would improve my chances with this country hunk, I would do it in a heartbeat... 

Quick, check your emails! If you don't forward it to 30 people within 1 hour, you will have 10 years of no love!!!

But I digress. B.o.B., wish upon all the falling stars you want, but you can't just change superstitions. Airplanes are, in fact, not shooting stars; you may actually be wasting your time by wishing on things that hold no superstitious value! In addition, you are setting yourself up for disappointment when your wish fails to become reality. I can imagine B.o.B. now... 

Dear airplane, I want to return to before I was famous because once the parties are over, I realize that this glamorous life is really empty and lonely... wait, why isn't my wish coming true? How am I still famous??? I wished on that airplane!

The pilot has NO idea why you are wishing on his plane, but he wishes you would stop; he just wants to get his passengers to LAX safely without your wishes clogging up the radar.

Not to mention, you're famous now... deal with it. Now, you must rap to stay relevant instead of for the hell of it. That's what happens when you have a JOB that requires you to be in the public eye -- you have to actually DO it for people to care about you. Granted, you could be Lindsay Lohan and just become a giant hot mess, but I think you want to go for famous rather than infamous. So for now, I would recommend avoiding the Lohan route. Maybe if she wished on an airplane, she could also go back to the days when she was America's Sweetheart... Read: NOT.

But, I will give B.o.B. this concession: when you are having a bad day, it is a great song to listen to and commiserate along with. Like, B.o.B. gets me. It can be a source of comfort, knowing that someone else could also use a wish right now. But sometimes listening to a song this whiny can make a bad day worse. Positive feedback loops and such. Consult your basic Biology textbook.

I also can't listen to this song without thinking of the trailer for Charlie St. Cloud, starring my love, Zac Efron. I don't care how tween it is or how bad the movie could possibly be: two hours of staring at Mr. Efron is worth the $10 ticket. And the song fits very nicely with the general theme of the movie (sorry, no spoilers here; you'll have to check out the TV spot yourself). Well done, B.o.B. Zac should thank you in his acceptance speech for the "Most Awkward Transition From Disney Channel to Serious Roles" award.

So for now, I may buy into your airplane-wishing theory, if only because I fall for that kind of stuff. But I may back those airplane-wishes up with a few eyelash-wishes. Just for good measure.

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A brief update on the last few weeks:

1. MCAT: We have reached the halfway point with classes, which means I have reached the panic point. Perhaps unnecessarily, but it happened, so that's that. The countdown is roughly 43 days, 18 hours, and 23 minutes. Roughly. Our O-Chem instructor gave us a little inspirational pep talk yesterday, which was much needed. Apparently, it is perfectly normal to feel like you are in a rut or not making significant progress. He compared it to climbing a mountain: it is a slow, laborious, and painful process (hence why I don't like climbing mountains -- I'm a results person), BUT you will reach the top and it will be a-okay. Apparently he was not doing so hot on his practice tests and ended up with a 37 on the real test (God, if you are reading this, please take note). So I'm doing my best to stay positive, stay focused, and stay calm, because negativity and panic won't get me too far. If I start freaking out, just give me a nice firm slap across the face and tell me to calm the hell down; I'll listen.

2. New phone: My enslavement to Apple is complete. First, they got me with the iPod in 2008. Then, my HP crashed and I thought "Macbook? Macbook :)" earlier this year. And now, enchanted by their blatant advertisements of smart-phones and heartwarming fatherhood/grandfatherhood (I am such a daddy's girl), I have succumbed to the iPhone 4. And I love it :) I would like to publicly say that the call quality and reception I have experienced with the iPhone 4 has far and away exceeded all my previous cellular devices. So Steve Jobs, as 50 Cent so eloquently stated, "if haters hate, then let 'em hate and watch the money pile up." You go, boy. With this phone, I have solved crises of word origins ("ombudsman" is of Nordic origin!), caught up on the latest in the field of medical discovery (only true nerds/pre-meds have the New England Journal of Medicine app...), and watched President Obama address the nation in absurdly high definition. 

3. Friends: I MISS YOU ALL. COME BACK TO ME! Or I'll come to you. Regardless, stop being so far away from me. And to my friends who ARE in Davis, continue to help me maintain my sanity by pulling me away from the books every now and again. I am having a blast this summer in spite of studying for the MCAT :) That, my friends, is called "hella skill" <--- Please note how awesome I will do in verbal reasoning.

4. Coffee: Nothing really earth-shattering here. I just felt like offering a word of caution: DON'T ATTEMPT TO MAKE YOUR COFFEE STRONGER THAN USUAL. If you screw up (or even if you do it right), your body will feel like it is running a 100-meter race, when you are actually sitting still. It is incredibly uncomfortable and I don't recommend it. In fact, that is why I am writing right now as opposed to after doing my homework; if I tried to study right now, I would probably not be too successful. By writing my heart out here, I have accomplished two things: 1) I have finally gotten back to my blog after a couple weeks of insanity/writer's block, and 2) I have stalled, allowing my caffeine level to decrease enough to allow productivity. A thinker, I am. Doctor material.

5. I SAW MY FIRST STAB WOUND VICTIM SINCE WORKING IN THE ER. Not that stabbings are a good thing (they are actually bad for your health, oddly enough), but everyone else had seen at least one and I had not; I was feeling left out. And as a pre-med, I find myself loving the kind of stuff that you would never wish upon a patient because it is interesting. This same logic explains the complete not-weirdness of one of the doctors exclaiming "Oh, she has malaria? Awesome!" -- some things are super cool from the medical perspective. I would never wish stab wounds or malaria upon someone, but it's there and it has to be dealt with, so you might as well take some interest in it. The guy didn't seem like he was in too bad of shape. He was quite chatty and, upon being wheeled off to Radiology, exclaimed "There are hella people in here!" He, also, will perform quite well on the MCAT Verbal Reasoning, I would imagine. AND I saw someone get brought back from asystole (flatlining). Amazing!

I imagine your eyes are getting tired now from all my writing. Sorry :( Go give your eyes a rest, maybe wish on a few airplanes. Time to hit the books for me :)

Proud Mary

Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
*Pumped a lot of pain down in New Orleans (see author's note)
But I never saw the good side of a city
'Til I hitched a ride on the riverboat queen
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river


Yesterday, I went floating down the American River with about fifteen girls from my sorority. Having grown up near very few bodies of water (read: one icky manmade lake), I had no idea what to expect. After trekking through the wilderness to find level ground by which to access the water (instead of jumping, you know, 30 feet into a shallow rocky river -- no thanks), sliding down a dusty slope in just a swimsuit (uncomfortable), and reluctantly lowering my body into the c-c-c-cooold river, we actually had an amazing time! Two hours of lounging and laughing was broken up by the occasional rapid, the occasional freezing cold splash, and someone falling off their tube. I had never been to the American River before; who knew that such beauty was hiding in the midst of the Sacramento area. All I see when I drive through Sac is dirt, smog, and city. But that all seems so far away when it's just you and nature and your dear friends.

The American River, Sacramento CA

As a result of our floating adventure yesterday, I have a newfound appreciation for the Sacramento area. As CCR pointed out, sometimes you need to hitch a ride on a riverboat to see the good in a city. Sacramento gets a bad rap sometimes. "It's boring", "it's hot", "it's ghetto", "it's not very fun". Fair enough. And even just a few days ago, I would have agreed with you. But as my mom and dad used to tell me when I claimed to be bored, "maybe that means you're boring." A true not-boring person can always find fun to be had, memories to be made, and adventures to embark upon. 

So, if you think Sacramento is boring, take a ride down the river. Check out a Sacramento Kings game at ARCO arena (not right now, as they are not in season; but you can go see Ke$ha, Rihanna, and Travie McCoy next Friday, which is almost as good -- raw talent, obviously). Watch the River Cats hit some homers at Raley Field (but not against my Grizzlies!). Learn about the history of our fair state at any number of museums: the Governor's Mansion State Historic Park, the California Hall of Fame, or the California State Railroad Museum (a personal favorite of mine). Apparently a few hardcore metal acts have their origins in Sac (any Papa Roach or Cake fans in the house? Yeah, I didn't think so), and if you're into that sort of thing, it looks like you are in the right place. Head to town for Memorial Day Weekend to experience the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, as the city is known as a center for Dixieland Jazz (I had no idea! West Coast New Orleans? Maybe?) -- even though Memorial Day has already passed, maybe pencil it in for next year! Check out the Trash Film Orgy to get your fill of the "absurd, B-movies, horror, monster, and exploitation." Yum. For Billie Shakes buffs, meander over to the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival in William Land Park (this summer: Othello, and A Midsummer Night's Dream!). 

Wow, Kelly! How do you know so much about Sacramento? Wikipedia. It is a treasure trove of information! I have yet to cross most of these items of my Sacramento Bucket List before I peace out in a year or so, and it seems like I could have a pretty awesome time in the process.

In our house this summer, we have a summer bucket list and we are chipping away at it quite rapidly. Picnic in the Arboretum? Check. Playing with the cows? Check. Floating down the river? Check. Next weekend, drive-in movie! Hopefully you can make the most of your summer, too, by taking advantage of all the secrets your metropolitan area has to offer. Even if you have important things to do (like studying for the MCAT, for instance? The LSAT? Working and making cash money?), you can always find some time for yourself. Because if you don't, I'm going to get mad at you. And you don't want a skinny, caffeinated, stressed-out pre-med white-girl up in your business... just trust me ;)

And lastly but not leastly, Happy Independence Day! Go do something American to celebrate our wonderful country: eat a hot dog, drink a Sam Adams, toss around a baseball. And please take some time to remember what a great country we have the pleasure of living in. Whatever side of the aisle you fall on doesn't much matter today; in spite of our differences, we are all Americans :) 

*AUTHOR'S NOTE, 7/8/10: Apparently, unbeknownst to me, the second line of "Proud Mary" used in this post is about heroin... how awkward. I'm not down with drugs, CCR. I am a little disappointed in you. But to remove it would screw up the "flow". So the dilemma is: Do I take the lyric out? Or do I just acknowledge it and inform my readers (all, like, two of you ;) that I do not use heroin or know much about heroin (hence my naivete regarding CCR's meaning) and that the meaning of this post would actually be lost or altered if I succumbed to self-censorship? Jim Morrison (a beacon of morality, obviously) refused to change his lyrics when the Ed Sullivan Show asked him to; he played his song as it was written so as not to become a sell-out. Selling out: not very rock-and-roll. Needless to say, the network did not appreciate the sentiment of "girl, we couldn't get much higher" and he never played on Ed Sullivan again. In comparison, Mick Jagger was more than happy to change his lyrics (read: sell-out) and the Rolling Stones made many more appearances on the popular variety show. Great story, Kelly, but you are really no closer to a decision now than you were before the history lesson. Ahhh but you are wrong! I have made my decision! I will leave the lyric in because who am I to change what an artist has deemed to be their work of art? I am just some college kid with a blog. So, CCR, I will leave your lyric as is, but you will never play on this blog again!