52 lists -- week 21 -- list your favorite songs

it's been a while since i did a list (sorry!) but i've been busy. and so has moorea seal; she's been lagging a little behind, and i've taken that to mean that i can i lag behind too. my apologies. 

but week 21's prompt is an interesting one, mainly because we've already made a list about music. in week 8 i wrote about my favorite albums. i talked about how i chose my favorite albums based on the ones that meant something to me, the ones that were poignant to a certain time in my life. but i also mentioned how difficult it can be to find a whole album of awesome songs. so this list is similar and different to week 8's list. it's similar in that the songs mean something to me, they were somehow significant in my life, but it's different in that the songs are from a plethora of albums, some of which are complete duds except for the song i chose. or the songs were chosen because of how happy and awesome they make me feel. for example, soak up the sun by sheryl crow -- it reminds me of driving to track practice in high school, the windows were down, the music was turned up, and my friends and i were dancing as we drove, making the cars next to us uncomfortable. or call on me by eric prydz, which reminds me of my second year of college living in england. or even part of your world from the little mermaid, a song i listened to on repeat for eight years as a child.

but the one thing that all of these songs have in common is that they make me happy; they remind me of happy days gone by and of happy ones to come. and they make me want to dance. and dancing too, makes me happy.

what song(s) do you love?

exploring north of phoenix -- flagstaff, sedona, & montezuma's castle

i’m from the east coast, so i’m still getting used to living out west. on the east coast, there are more people and those people are all living in close proximity to one another. if i want to go from washington dc to philadelpha, it’s a 3 hours drive. dc to new york city is 5 hours. things are close together. this is not the case out west. states are bigger and things are further apart. so it’s not surprising that we haven’t really explored much more of arizona than tucson. especially north of phoenix.

phoenix is two hours away and we try to go there as infrequently as possible. it’s a big city with a lot of traffic, and though there are definitely nice places to eat at, hike, or tube down, we are quite content in tucson. but we’ve heard great things about flagstaff and have been meaning to check it out for a while. so when rcg found out that rebelution was playing at the orpheum theatre in flagstaff we decided to make the trip up. 

flagstaff is a small town of ~65,000 people located in the mountains, about an hour and a half north of phoenix. it’s a college town with an overabundance of subaru cars. it’s chilly, even at the end of march, because it sits at 6,900 feet. the people are friendly and outdoorsy and the restaurants serve delicious food. 

 

we spent our morning at priest draw, a veritable bouldering playground. priest draw is located at the end of a dirt road in the coconino national forest and it is a favorite bouldering spot for climbers. we got there early and walked around, trying our hand at climbing the many large rocks that litter the dry riverbed. we didn’t have a crash pad, so we just played around, doing easy climbs and spotting one another. but now that rcg has bought a crash pad i can see us returning to flagstaff and priest draw again in the near future. if you’re interesting in checking out priest draw get there early; at about 11am the area becomes overpopulated with climbers, and while there are plenty of rocks to climb you will most likely have to share the more popular climbs. 

   

in the evening we went to see a concert at the orpheum theatre and it’s an awesome concert venue. there’s a bar and both a seating area and a large dance floor. and the acoustics are great. if you get a chance to see a concert here, please take that opportunity; you won’t regret it. 

the opening act: hot rain

rebelution

  

 

  

on our way down to tucson from flagstaff we decided to head off the main highway, I-17, and take a back road through sedona. sedona is known for its red sandstone formations and vortexes. sedona’s vortexes, spots that are supposed to have special healing properties, have made sedona a favorite location for artists and healers, and the red rocks have made it a popular spot for outdoorsy people. we didn’t stop, except at a rest stop to snap a few pictures, but the red rock formations were spectacular. we’re hoping to return to camp and hike in this area when it gets a little warmer. 

 

  

 

shortly after getting back onto I-17, we turned off again to go to montezuma’s castle, one of north america’s best preserved cliff dwellings. montezuma’s castle is similar to the casa grande ruins: it’s $5 to walk around, there isn’t a whole lot to see, as you can’t go up into the ruins, and it is a mystery as to why these cliff dwellings were abandoned. but it was nice to get out of the car, walk around, and see a little bit of arizona’s history. 

what other cool things in arizona should we explore?

a new orleans wedding!

have you ever been to a place that just can't be described and no pictures can do it justice?

for as long as i can remember i've wanted to visit new orleans. i've heard such amazing things about the city -- the music, the wild parties, the history, the architecture, and the people. unfortunately, as soon as i was old enough to appreciate all that new orleans had to offer (mardi gras, bourbon street, hurricane daiquiris, etc.) it was devastated by hurricane katrina. and then life got in the way and i never had an opportunity to visit. but last weekend we were invited to a wedding there and we jumped at the chance to go. rcg used to live in new orleans so he was especially excited to return and show me around. 

congratulations! 

after the ceremony we had some time before the reception, so we walked up and down bourbon street, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells. and because the french quarter festival was going on, the streets were closed off to cars, so we were able to roam freely. it was here that i realized that nothing i could ever write would be able to describe new orleans. it's a place so full of life and music, and the smells are so distinct that even as i was standing in amongst it all, i could hardly believe it.

i tried to prepare for it all by reading a confederacy of dunces by john kennedy toole, an amazing book that actually does a pretty good job of describing new orleans, but even then i wasn't ready for the craziness and awesomeness of the city. 

  

 

 

   

looking off the balcony at pat o'briens // pat o'brien's hurricane // pat o'brien statue // looking the other way off the balcony down bourbon street

 

i think the thing i enjoyed the most about new orleans was the music. just walking down bourbon street you can hear all types of music -- drums, jazz, brass bands, bluegrass, etc. -- and all of it's amazing. it just makes me want to dance. the video above is a quick snippet of some of the awesome stuff we got to listen to this weekend. 

what's your favorite part of new orleans?