“With Arrows, With Poise” Myriad

I love oatmeal cookies.

More importantly, I love oatmeal cookies that I have made after a long day's work followed by a lonely night. I put my iPod on its dock and let the current selection play through as I mixed in sugar, eggs, and the all important oatmeal. The music merely fades to the background, becoming ambient noise that helps the loneliness a little bit—but only a little bit.

As I listened to this blog's selection by the Myriad, I couldn't help but notice how terribly emo sounding it was. I'm not saying it was bad, and I'm not saying at some point in my life I would have definitely enjoyed them (probably about the time I started listening to Fall Out Boy and Emery), but I have to admit that I couldn't wait for the album to end. It reminds me of numerous wordy songs that I have been assured have deep meanings but fail to keep my attention on account of how many words they pack into it. That's probably one of the main reasons I have yet to really enjoy listening to Demon Hunter (sorry, Preston, and the rest of the Demon Hunter following). I may be silly for being a sucker for a good, well-placed rhyme, but I just can't help myself.

With all that in mind, I suppose it begs the question of how it ended up on my iPod to begin with. I have to make another confession. I am one of those girls who will listen to anything a guy throws at her, or at least try to. It's true. You wouldn't believe the things I've listened to. I think the most pathetic example of this was in high school when I started listening to P.O.D. just because the cute new guy in the youth group liked them. Of course, this was all a long time ago when I was absurdly boy-crazy. I would like to think I have grown up since then—at least a little. The same is true with this album, but in a little less extreme way. One day, Preston and I decided to go through each other's albums to look for new music or music we had been wanting (that's how I was able to get almost all of the Relient K music). Looking through his stuff, he came to this album and said, "Here. You might like them. I haven't really listened to them and am not sure why I got this, but yeah." I had heard of them before, and so I decided to give it a try.

I have.

I'm so glad it's over. Now, I'm currently listening to my iPod on shuffle and am feeling much better. A clean house and fresh homemade oatmeal cookies don't hurt things, either. The fact I got to see one of my favorite singers last week makes things even better. Now, THAT'S music. The Billy Joel/Elton John show was nothing short of amazing. Billy played songs I knew, and it was confirmed that he is a truly great entertainer. The only real fail things of the evening is that I opted to not bring in my camera to the show and missed so many good shots, as well as only knew about a handful of Elton John's songs. I decided that it is high time I start creating a small repertoire of his music, hopefully soon.

As I lay here on the couch thinking how crappy it's been being tired all the time from work and lonely while Preston is at work, these things remind me that I still have good things happening to me and maybe—just maybe—even more good things will come if I'm just patient.

One can only hope. Until then, there's a random shuffle of songs and oatmeal cookies for all.