This is it, this is the last dance, but you don't have to go on this clear and starry night...

I am blogging right now.  I'm making myself.  I don't know why I feel obligated to keep posting things, but for whatever reason I have to do it.  It's just what I do now, I guess, and not doing it feels off.  I guess it is just how I unwind.  I don't journal or anything.  I just blog.  I guess blogging is a sort of journal, except in public, and typing is less work than hand-written stuff.  Although I really love to hand-write things.  Really a lot.  I wish I hand wrote things more.  But like I was saying, I am just used to blogging, and I'm used to blogging as an outlet for the "daily grind" kind of stuff and just my thoughts and feelings on things.  So, I keep doing it, because it's just what I do.  Read it or leave it.

Andrew and I are going to breakfast tomorrow.  Really early in the morning.  I will be leaving my house half awake, makeupless and possibly unshowered at 5:50 AM.

I had something I was going to rant about and I forgot what it was.  Hmm.  Guess I'll just keep talking about boring things.

My prom dress came today!  I won't post pictures here until prom rolls around, but I'll tell you that it's super pretty and super long!  Kim's mom is going to hem it for me and take it in and whatever else it needs.  It's awesome though.  For real.  I am excited for prom.  I hope it is as fun as last year was.  I already think the group is going to be pretty different, but I'm still excited.  Lots of people I know complain about prom being lame.  I think they need to have more imagination.

Click here to watch a cool video of Glenn Wiedenhoeft from the news the other day.  Mr. W is my friend Ben's dad.  Ben plays drums in Atombender, a ska band from Ames, and he used to play drums in The Final Pardon back when we existed.  They have the greatest back yard ever.  Even more so now that Mr. Wiedenhoeft has made it so awesome.

That is all!

Sincerely,
Belle

Forget what we're told before we get too old...

I cut my hair all off!  Well, not actually all of it, but the back is all razored and the sides are a little longer than chin length.  I've had similar cuts before and I really like it, and I hope to stick with it for a while.  I'm dying it tonight and then it'll be even better.  Half an inch of mousy brown is showing right now.  Bad news.  Turning it all into dark auburn is good news.

I don't really know why I'm blogging right now, because I really don't have anything to say.  I think I am just trying to not neglect my blog and the few people who read it.  Wouldn't want to bore anyone or anything.  Not that I'm very interesting to read about.

I am going to Women of Faith in a couple weeks.  I'm kind of excited.  I was more excited, but now I'm not as much for some reason.  I am just bipolar, maybe, or something like that.

I am watching American Idol.  It's boring.  These guys aren't very good.  I only like three or four singers (Didi Benami is my number 1 favorite so far) out of the top 24, and I think they're all girls.  That is, however, a vast improvement from last year, when I didn't like a single singer on the entire show.  Ultimately, I just miss Jason Castro, and that's my only real feeling about American Idol.  Jason Castro was the best.  Too bad he couldn't sing loud songs.

Work is still going well.  I only have Alex and Jacob this week, which is nice.  In three weeks I'll only have Anna and Gabe, which will also be fun.  Today Jacob was crabby and wouldn't sleep.  His teeth are hurting him.

Awww, man.  This guy singing Snow Patrol is bad.  I will write him a note.

Dear Mr. Deweezee or whatever your name is,
You pick good songs but you should hit your notes better, please.
Sincerely, Mara

Simon likes him.  He must sound different in person.  Hrmph.

Enough about American Idol.  Hair dying time hopefully is soon.  Mom is supposed to help me.  I would just do it myself but it's easier when I have help.

I am done with this lame, boring blog post.  I will put you all out of your misery.  Hahaha.

Mara Tenille

No one expects you to get up, all on your own with no one around...

The second half of The Fray's first CD might be my favorite chunk of an album ever.  Not that there is anything wrong with the first half, but Look After You, Vienna, Dead Wrong, Little House, and Trust Me are some of my favorite songs, and the combination of them is almost perfect.  Look After You was even featured on Andrew's Valentine's Day mix CD, which I can actually show you now.  So, here's the cover art (which is looking more brightish light blue than the slate grey blueish color that it is in reality) and also the track list:

1. Breaker by Alex Arthur
2. Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional
3. Testing the Strong Ones by Copeland
4. Snowbirds and Townies by Further Seems Forever
5. Suicide Baby by House of Heroes
6. The Ocean by Mae
7. Vanilla Twilight by Owl City
8. Firefly by Jimmy Needham
9. I Hated Prom by Transistor Radio
10. Haight Street by Anberlin
11. Look After You by The Fray
12. Broken by Lifehouse
13. Sunday by Bebo Norman
14. The City Lights by Umbrellas

I happen to think it's a pretty good collection of songs.  I tried to stick a few happy songs in there, like Firefly and I Hated Prom, so it wouldn't seem really depressing.  Alex Arthur, who wrote and sings Breaker, seemed concerned that it was too depressing a song for me to put it on a mix CD for my boyfriend.  But it has lots of good lines that aren't depressing.  When I'm with you, my heart is home.  I don't find that depressing, personally.  Maybe in the context of the rest of the song it is, or maybe to Alex it is, but regardless I think it's a beautiful song and so it kicked off the CD.  Alex is a friend of a friend who used to live in Ames and played (plays?) in a band called Keep and Confess.  They play metaly screamy music, so it may be a little shocking that he wrote and recorded such a pretty acoustic song.  But I think it's pretty awesome that he can do both.  So anyway, yes, if you don't know that song, that's probably why.  To hear it you can go to Alex's MySpace.  Other songs you may not know... I Hated Prom is by a band called Transistor Radio.  They disbanded a year or so ago.  They were actually a band that I found on PureVolume years ago, and this was one of their original songs before they ever got signed or recorded a CD or anything.  I like it.  You can't find it anywhere online anymore, so I don't have any way for you to listen to it.  It's kind of a cute, prom-y song.  This year will be the last time Andrew and I go to prom, so it was fitting.  Prom is kind of a big deal when you never thought you'd get to go.  But anyway, I think you can find all those other songs pretty easily if you want to check them out.  I recommend all of them.

Tomorrow morning my hair is getting chopped off.  I miss short hair.  It will be pretty different than what I've done before, but I'm really excited.

That's all for now.