Hopelessly Romantic

Me: "Hello, my name is Alexa and I have been a hopeless romantic for 22 years."

At least that's how I assume some sort of support group would start off. 

Let me explain.

Today I watched Justin Timberlake's video for his new song Mirrors. (see below)

For the first time I actually really listened to the lyrics as well, and while JT is no legendary poet I found myself really touched by the premise of the song: To find your other half in someone else. The video is also quite nice. Aside from some spectacular videography (in my opinion) the video focuses on one couple in what seems to be flashbacks. I'll admit this one took me a while to figure out. 

The video is actually inspired by and dedicated to JT's grandparents who were soul-mates and were married for over 60 years until his grandfather's passing.

It sparked a bit of a love song chain for me on YouTube which is never a road to anywhere good. I watched Pink's Try, Rihanna's new one called Stay, and of course, some Savage Garden. But it just got me thinking about that kind of love you see in movies, read about in books, hear about in museums while you're looking at a painting. That kind of love where, it may not be easy, but it's always worth it because without it you would have no purpose.

I know that sounds dramatic but that's where this all connects, I got to wondering, do you have to be a hopeless romantic to believe that kind of love is out there? I mean, I feel like we see it in music, or hear stories, or see couples that are the living embodiment of this but still so many people don't believe.

I have to admit, I believe in that all-consuming, suffocating yet freeing, can't-live-without-you kinda love. I think that when you're truly meant to, you'll find it if you want it. Or it will find you. I guess that means I believe in fate, but hey, why not. And I don't think that makes me naive at all. I think if you're going to believe in something, why not love? I found a beautiful definition that explains what it means to be a hopeless romantic in much better terms than I can muster right now, this subject always leaves me scatterbrained.

Hopeless romantics believe in love and fairy tales. They dream of roses and candlelight, walking on the beach at sunset, and dancing in the rain. They know that somewhere out there is a knight in shining armour ready to carry them off, or a beautiful princess waiting to be carried off into the sunset. Hopeless romantics believe in true love, and the eternal bliss that comes from being united with one's soul-mate is what they crave most.

Hopeless romantics recognize in themselves the ability to love infinitely deeply, and they ache to be loved with the same fervor in return. When a hopeless romantic has someone to lavish their affection on, lavish they do. Hopeless romantics sometimes write love letters full of poetic phrases and send flowers, but mostly they try to find a thousand thoughtful little ways to show their love. They make romance into an art form.

Hopeless romantics wear rose-colored glasses. In their eagerness to find "the one," a hopeless romantic may either be extraordinarily picky or not discerning enough. Hopeless non-romantics think that hopeless romantics are delusional and too intense. Other than the seeming futility in the search for a soulmate, nothing frustrates a hopeless romantic more than a significant other who does not understand the hopeless romantic temperament.

Sometimes, in this cynical world, it seems like the population of hopeless romantics is declining. One has only to look at the number of movies and songs about love that are currently popular to prove otherwise. It may also seem that there are many more hopelessly romantic women than romantic men. This isn't surprising in a culture where a man might get snapped at for opening the door for a woman. Men and women often have different ways of expressing their emotions, and the number of hopelessly romantic men is probably much higher than anyone could tell simply by observation.

Hopeless romantics are the idealists, the sentimental dreamers, the imaginative, and the fanciful. They give the world its once-upon-a-times and happily-ever-afters. Hopeless romantics may have their feet on the ground, but their souls fly somewhere over the rainbow.

I think that's just lovely.
I know that this romanticism leaks into other areas of my life, but I wouldn't consider myself a "dreamer" type. I just feel like certain parts of your life stand out as the moments where you really truly lived (like driving down a highway with your best friends and your favourite song on with the windows down and you just realize if you could freeze time like that forever, you would) and I think that a hopeless romantic searches for that feeling in their love life as opposed to something that just feels nice, or comfortable.

A hopeless romantic would see no choice between a dysfunctional relationship with their soul-mate or a simpler relationship with someone who is just very compatible with them. They'll stick with the person "meant for them" regardless of what that means. (Just think Noah and Allie from the Notebook, or Tristan and Isolde.)

I'm personally still working on my on-again/off-again relationship with myself and am nowhere near ready to consider someone my other half, but I have unwavering faith that I will one day. Lucky for that person I picked out our wedding song 16 years ago. Probably before I knew people had wedding songs...



Most romantic song on the face of the planet and my all-time favourite love song without a doubt.

Then again maybe I'm just PMSing and this will be an Alanis Morissette tribute tomorrow.

Kisses.
xx

For the NON-morning folk

beep...beep...beep...Beeep...Beeep...Beeep...BEEEP...BEEEP...BEEEPBEEPBEEP

*SLAM*

snooooze.


Good Morning Sunshine!
Sound familiar?

If it does, well, then I suppose I'm not alone when I say...

Eff you mornings, eff you alarm clock, eff you stupid beeping sound I hear in my dreams, eff you 9 minute snooze setting that feels more like 3 minutes, eff you school, eff you work, eff you responsibilities, eff you bus schedule, eff you traffic jams, eff you hard to find parking spaces, eff you line up at Tim's, eff you all.
But especially you beeping sound.

Confession: I am NOT a morning person. ...surpriiise.

I have to do a myriad of things to ensure that when my mother%&*#ing alarm clock goes off in the morning, I actually drag my sorry behind out of bed. In case you haven't already figured out by my previous posts, I like lists. So, I'm going to make you all a list of things you can do to *try* to make getting up in the morning a little easier.

Preparation: Try to get things together the night before. As sad as it sounds, remember how much easier it was to get ready in the morning when your mom picked your outfit out for you? You just woke up and threw it on! Easy peeasy. Yeah, well, it still works! I can't explain how nice it is not to have to search for that stupid sweater I had imagined wearing with 3 minutes left before I have to catch my bus. Stress central.
Also, if you get your books, work stuff, keys and all that together, it takes a lot of running around out of your morning, and you'll be surprised how much time it will save you, therefore making getting out of bed less dreadful, and much easier to convince yourself to do.

Routine: Having a morning routine can take the guesswork out of your mornings. Plus, if there's one thing we know people are good at, it's forming habits. My friend told me that when her alarm clock goes off in the morning, she turns it off, then she lies back down for 60 seconds to let herself wake up and to make a list in her head of the things she has to do that morning. Then she gets up, turns on her morning playlist and proceeds to get ready! Making a habit that you can maintain for getting up can help you find something that works for you, like, actually.

Music: What's your favourite pick-me-up song RIGHT now? The one that makes you feel like you're on cloud nine, that makes you just wanna dance? Here's an idea, put it on in the morning! Sometimes it gives you the extra little bounce to make a bad morning good, or to get you to roll out of bed. Make a morning playlist that helps you start your day off on the right foot, sometimes morning talk shows on the radio just don't do the trick.

Caffeine: But not any caffeine, get a hot coffee or a hot cup of tea. Especially in those frigid fricking cold Winter months, having a hot beverage can help give you that nice inner warmth you need to push yourself out the door and into the snow... or just stop you from climbing right back under the comforter on your bed.

Goals: When I say goals I don't mean like... I want to lose 5 pounds this week. I mean like, find a light at the end of your tunnel, give yourself something to wake up in the morning and be excited about. It's amazing how fast you can jump out of bed on Christmas morning, because you're EXCITED! So give yourself some incentive! Like, "ou tonight after work is the finale of Big Brother!!!" or "Oh baby, I have a dinner and yoga date tonight with the bff" anything like that! Make everyday have a Friday quality as opposed to a Monday quality.

for the hopeless...
Now, some of you may be like me, where just managing to get out of bed and not sleep through that alarm is challenging enough. Here's my advice:

one: Go to bed earlier, you know you're staying up too late, seriously, just go to sleep. You know you'll end up regretting not doing so in the morning.

two: Move your alarm clock. Are you so used to the placement of your alarm clock that you can hit snooze or turn it off without even waking up? Move it! Put it somewhere across the room so that you HAVE to get up to turn it off. And I'm telling you, when that damned beeping starts in the morning, no matter how tired you are, you'll get up to turn it off. I promise.

three: Coffee, coffee, coffee. I started drinking coffee just recently, because even if you drink decaf, your mind is telling you you're getting an energy boost! Placebo effect for the win. First thing in the a.m., still in your pjs, make coffee.

four: Wear warm pajamas! If your room is ice cold like mine in the winter, it can be easier to get out of bed if it doesn't feel like stepping into a freezer. Keep a small fleece blanket nearby or a warm sweater, and slippers too! Make that bed to bathroom transition as easy as possible.

Now I'm going to tryyy to take my own advice.
Bon nuit my friends.
Sleep tight.
Don't let the bed bug infestation get the best of you.


Oh yeah, and here's my current morning jam. Enjoy.
P.S. I don't mind if you steal it.



ugh. so good.

Bohemian Muppets, Video Conferencing is Counterproductive.

So for the anniversary of Freddie Mercury's passing,someone intelligent came up with an idea.
And since Queen and Sesame street are two things often found together this just seems natural...
Promise me that you'll stick it out until the end!
This video is a progression of greatness right up until the very end.
A true classic, especially for any Muppet fan!

Dear Lil' Wayne, I Hate You.

..But you aren't the only one.

I hate you T-Pain, I hate you Pussycat Dolls, I hate you "Flo Rida".

I am currently a victim of the war on music.
Actually, allow me to be more specific, the war on LYRICS. It is crucial that I say lyrics and not music, because for the most part, there is always a genre of music blossoming, and there are great musicians to be found... LYRICS however, in my opinion, not so common these days.

The top 40 is primarily listened to by youth, so what is it these days with the amount of profanity in songs?!?!? I mean I won't pretend that I don't say a few choice words, but EVERY SECOND WORD is crude, rude, or plain old profane! Not only is this in, say, hip-hop, it's in bubble gum pop music and pretty much everything else you can think of. I mean there's a time and place for it, but do we really need it in every song on the airwaves?


This is why when people ask me, "WHY do you listen to 90's music all the time?!" I simply press play and pass them a headphone.


SURE, I mean music is growing and changing, but since when does that mean that we have to forget about some sort of decency.? at least in the nineties boy bands' lyrics skirted around the fact that they were trying to pick up chicks (with the exception of *NSYNC's Lance Bass). Nowadays, we're straight up refering to women as garden tools..? so much for progress..

I prefer back in the day when B4-4 wanted to "set your spirit free" as opposed to some wannabe gangsta talking about how he's gonna "superman that hoe". what in the world..?

When was the last time anyone listened to a good solid B4-4 song anyways? Girls, when was the last time you listened to a rap song and thought, "wow, he said some really nice things about women!" ..try never. okay MAYBE one time..

But really, my point here I guess is that it's just so wrong that these are the things that little kids are growing up on. I had Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, All Saints,TLC, 98 degrees and *NSYNC, arguably some of the best boy and girl bands ever, with wholesome lyrics, true bubblegum stuff people. Kids now have the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus? We had old Britney, They have new Britney. I feel like this wave of kids is being totally ripped off.

Why is it so wrong for someone to make a wholesome song these days? Are poor grammar, bad pronounciation, and lack of vocabulary signs of a great lyricist? Don't give up though, wit is stil alive and fighting in the mainstream.

I think it's time for a music revolution. They say everything cycles back around again, well, let's bring back the nineties. You might say I'm stuck in the past, but what's so wrong with that? When something gives me cause to look forward, I will, until then I reserve the right to hate lame, derogatory music and miss old pop.

Despite the negative undertones in this post, this was actually rather inspiring to think about. I recently spent a good day looking for old music that I missed or that made me feel good, and deleting stuff I had (simply because it was a popular party song) that I didn't even really like! I am re-inspired to take time out to maintain my music library because it really does affect how I feel daily and it's totally worth taking some time out to clean out your song closet!

here's a dirty song from 2001 from me to you..