Resolutions

For those of you who know me, you may have gathered that I can be somewhat of a high strung individual. Not outrageously so, I am not scary or anything, I just would not classify myself as a super calm and relaxed person. It is really more comical than anything (after of course) when I have a moment of freak out from a mini-nervous breakdown. Just kidding, it's a total exaggeration....sometimes. But in the New Year, and many of the year's past, I have been learning how to laugh at myself and not take life so seriously. It's an important skill to take a bad situation and make the most of it, or at the very least to pick and choose your battles and not fret so heavily on the small insignificant things. So this year I resolve myself to not taking life so seriously and enjoy it. I resolve to find the good in shitty situations, and find the small things to be happy about in things like my job and lack of money, looming birthdays that have me both excited and nervous, and all the other things that stress me out. For instance, I am happy a. that I have a job, and b. that I have a fairly relaxed job and can listen to Pandora or YouTube songs, and that those sites aren't restricted. I can pay my rent, I can pay my bills, and I can afford to go out to eat and drink too much (except sometimes n the middle of the month before my next paycheck comes in....but I am getting better about that!). Overall, life is good, complaints are minimal, so why the stress?

Now onto my overdue point, I honestly think that music has a huge impact on my mood. This is true to an extent for everyone I suppose, but for me, it can really help change a situation. For instance, this morning as I was having the usual overwhelming uncertainty of what I am doing at work, with life, etc. etc. I took a moment to myself, put on the sweet telemarketer headphones I have in my cube (you know, the ones with the microphone that pulls down when needed), and put on some Chatham County Line and listened to Crop Comes In on repeat. There is just something about the melody, the twang of the banjo, the harmonica, and his drawn out Southern voice that relaxes me. I'm not sure why this song in particular has this effect on me, but I guess it is because it is slow and smooth, but doesn't automatically put me to sleep like some of my other calming songs (aka my sleep mix, which includes lots of Iron & Wine, a couple Death Cab songs, and a decent amount of random chick flick style music). Yet, put on Kesha or GaGa and I'm automatically grabbing a beer out of the fridge and getting ready to go out. I just find it interesting how each song has such a strong effect on some people's mood. I think there is something to be said about the quality of a song when it has that kind of reaction. I wonder what my mood ring would say....

Happy New Year everyone!