Dog Days Are Over...Again

Dog Days Are Over - Florence + the Machine

Album: Lungs

I know, I know. This song is pretty much the theme for my life. But it always just appears when I need it. Sometimes twice.

It's been a big few weeks, hence the no posting. My sister got married last Saturday and though I have compiled a list of my favorite moments of that day and the week prior, I probably won't post it until tomorrow. Since her wedding (which was the most perfect day God could have created), I've been on a constant swing of ups and downs. For 8 days I was surrounded by family and friends and laughing and celebrating, and it's a little jolting to all of the sudden find myself alone. So, while I have filled up my social calendar, I also have my next big deadline quickly approaching...a writer's conference I'm attending at the end of January. It's nose to the grindstone, but it also means a lot of sitting by myself writing. Not good for someone who hates being lonely. And it's also a lot of fighting with myself, and anyone who does any sort of art (and maybe other professions, I don't know) knows what that feels like. So, that brings us to today.

It was a long day at work. I was driving home, stuck in traffic that was not getting any better, and my mom (who usually distracts me) was out to dinner with my father and friends. The CD of Wuthering Heights that I'm on is all scratchy so I can barely understand it, KCRW was talking about something I didn't care about, and Radio Disney was just not playing good music. And for some stupid reason, I don't usually carry my iPod with me. All of this combined led me to do something I never do...I started flipping through radio stations. I landed on KROQ on a great guitar solo, though I can't for the life of me remember what song right now, and it soothed me immediately. I wanted it to last forever, but it didn't. And then, what should appear...Florence! But I was just so down that it did nothing for me. My go-to song for a guaranteed pick-up fell flat on its face. It played and I didn't even sing along. It's important to point out here that I never listen to stations that play this song so this might have been the first, maybe the second, that I've heard it on the radio. And I got nothing out of it. That in itself scared me more than anything.

So, the drive continued. I finally reach my neighborhood and it's not that there's no parking spots, just not one I like. I start circling the block flipping through more stations and land on Star 98.7 just as...Florence comes on again! And this time, it clicked. I started humming, then I started beating on my steering wheel, then I started singing. By the time it got to the clapping part towards the end, I was hitting my steering wheel so hard, I accidentally honked at the car in front of me. By the time the song was over, I was parked, smiling, and again ready to conquer the world. Someone (I'm going to say God) knew that I needed that song. And someone (God, again) also knew once wasn't going to be enough.

There's a lot of new music to catch up on. And this week, I'm taking a friend's suggestion (thank you, Micah) and going to conclude the week with my top picks narrowed down to 5-7 of my favorite songs that were released this week. It's like a mini-playlist. I should warn, however, that I'm super excited about the new T. Swifty album, so they might all be hers. Just putting that out there.

But for now...

XOXO-

EBG