RWM Daily Songs: 2014

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”

~ Bob Marley

*Note: Scroll down to view and listen to this playlist w/ Spotify.

Come Alive - WE ARE TWIN 

Electric Love - BØRNS 

Glow - IYES  

No One Is Lost - Stars 

That Did It - Sleigh Bells (feat. Tink) 

Under Stars - AURORA

Even If I'm Loud It Doesn't Mean I'm Talking to You - Tove Styrke

On the Fence - Milo Greene

Borderline - Tove Styrke

Running with the Boys - Lights

Ride - TV on the Radio

Seeing Stars - BØRNS

Fly With U - Far East Movement

Vagabond - MisterWives 

I Bet My Life - Imagine Dragons 

Listen - The Kooks - NOVEMBER ALBUM

Level - Far East Movement - NOVEMBER SONG

Baby Don't Lie - Gwen Stefani

Echo - VÉRITÉ 

Heavy Metal Heart - Sky Ferreira 

Tidal Wave - SNOWMINE

10,000 Emerald Pools - BØRNS

You Haunt Me - Sir Sly  - OCTOBER ALBUM

L.A.F. - Broods - OCTOBER SONG

Bad Habit - The Kooks

Thousand Miles - Tove Lo

Your House - Steel Pulse

All We Need - Odesza (feat. Shy Girls)

Middle of the Night - Vinyl Thief

From the Night - Stars

Miracle - Ghost Beach

Lights Out - Bishop Allen  - SEPTEMBER ALBUM

Beggin for Thread - Banks - SEPTEMBER SONG

I Might Survive - Architecture in Helsinki 

Sweet Ophelia - Zella Day

Surrounded by Your Friends - Hooray For Earth

Walk This Way - Mø (Lido Remix) 

East of Eden - Zella Day  

Run-Time - Imogen Heap  

Strange Desire - Bleachers  - AUGUST ALBUM

The House - Air Traffic Controller - AUGUST SONG

Static Lines - Creases

The Wyld - Odyssey

All - Blackbird Blackbird  

Left Hand Free - Alt J  

Ages Places - Wildlife Control  

Beware the Dog - The Griswolds  

Play It Right  - Sylvan Esso   - JULY SONG

So Long, See You Tomorrow - Bombay Bicycle Club     - JULY ALBUM

Turn Up the Radio - OK Go  

Can't Do Without You - Caribou  

Stronger Than Ever (MJ Cole Remix) - Raleigh Ritchie  

Where We're Going - Dae  

Start Again  - Bishop Allen - JUNE SONG

I Never Learn - Lykke Li   - JUNE ALBUM

Toothless Grin - Jinja Safari

No Rest For The Wicked - Lykke Li 

Keys - Hooray for Earth  

The Heart That I'm Hearing - Galantis  

Ten-Twenty-Ten - Generationals 

Champion - Donora  

Harder Before It Gets Easier - David Wax Museum  

Move - Pacific Air   - MAY SONG

Distraction - Bear Hands -  - MAY ALBUM

Run And Hide - Paris Carney (feat. D-WHY)  

Don't You Give Up On Me - Milo Greene  

Embrace - Goldroom  

Keep On Running - Andy Bull  

Happy - Robert DeLong  

White Lies - Max Frost  

Big Deal - Dream Machines    

XXX 88 - MØ (feat. Diplo)  

Water Fountain  - Tune-Yards   - APRIL SONG

Sweet Dissaray - Dan Kroll   - APRIL ALBUM

Lanterns - Birds of Tokyo  

You Know Me - Air Traffic Controller  

Don't Wait - Mapei  

Somebody Loves You - Betty Who  

Kick - Colour Coding  

Cruel City - Augustines  

Compliment Your Soul - Dan Croll  

Start A Riot - Jetta  

Coattails - Broods   - MARCH SONG  

Voices - Phantogram   - MARCH ALBUM  

Gotta Get Thru This - Daniel Bedingfield  

Pretty Things - Broods  

Cold War - The Morning Benders  

Skeletons - Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.  

Bird On A Wire - Rogue Wave  

As I Lay My Head Down - Other Lives  

Elastic Heart - Sia (ft. the Weeknd & Diplo)  

Young Hearts - Strange Talk  

Lonesome Dreams (album) - Lord Huron  

Tourists - Bright Moments - FEBRUARY SONG  

Chiaroscuro - I Break Horses - FEBRUARY ALBUM  

Don't Wanna Dance - MØ  

Keep It Up - Blackbird Blackbird    

Need You By My Side - The Sun Parade  

Coronado - Deerhunter   

Rich Doors - New Villager   

Ages Places - Wildlife Control  

The World Is Spinning - Opus Orange   

Eleven - Thao & Mirah (feat. Tune-Yards)  

Grizzly Bear - Will Calls (Diplo Remix)

Black Magic - Magic Wands  

Unique In Its Madness - of Verona  

Will Calls - Grizzly Bear (Diplo Remix) - JANUARY SONG

Wildewoman - Lucius  - JANUARY ALBUM'

*LISTEN BELOW WITH SPOTIFY

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January "To Do"s

After a ridiculously crazy December, from the standpoint of both the holidays and the flooded rental house drama, the dust is finally settling into the month of January.  Hallelujah.  I've gotten one run in since 12/26 so, as you'd imagine, I am chomping at the bit to get back out on the road.  This will require several tweaks in my so-called "festive" lifestyle.  Earlier to bed.  Earlier to rise.  Fewer spirits, of the liquid assortment.  More whole grains.  Less time on the couch.  More time on the road.  As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that while I'm planning to tackle this list in January, several of these items will be on there all year long.  They aren't really resolutions, per say, just things I'd like to do more of on a more consistent basis.  To me, that sounds easier to process.  And without a definitive date attached, I am more likely to succeed.  Right??  So, here's to a new month and a new year.  Onward and upward.

JANUARY (& 2014) 'TO DO's:
1. Drink less wine and more NUUN
2. Start training for the Shamrock 1/2 Marathon and Boston Marathon
3. Go see some live music...it has been WAY too long
4. Go watch the LHS ladies run at an indoor track meet
5. Purchase nothing for myself or my kids unless it is a basic need....Santa is officially on break
6. Meet up with some Loopsters and Oiselle team birds
7. Do more yoga
8. Trust my instincts
9. Stress less
10. Smile more

JANUARY MUSIC OF THE MONTH

SONG:
Will Calls - Grizzly Bear (Diplo Remix)

ALBUM:
Wildewoman: Lucius

Here's To Adventure

"The most difficult situations always make the best stories."  

~ A. Ladd

Our experience last week (click for story) could be described in two ways.  According to my children, it was the ultimate winter vacation adventure.  Skiing, sleeping in a house and then 2 different hotels, eating out every night with their cousins, staying up late (because they were sharing a room with mom and dad).  Totally awesome in every way.  According to me and my husband, it was the most stressful, chaotic and expensive winter vacation for all the same reasons.  So, not ideal, but not a total wash either.  As I mentioned, we ended up heading home earlier than planned because Jeff and I couldn't handle another night in the 'hot tub time machine' cabin, much to my girls' chagrin.  For 2 days we slept in our own beds, cooked our own meals and wore clean clothes.  Sweet relief.  I even managed to squeeze in a 45 minute run, my first of the new year.  YES!  And then?  Well, then dear, sweet Mother Nature decided to start the year off with a bang and threw down a nor'easter of epic proportions.  For real.  After our week from hell (or heaven, depending on who you ask) one might think we'd all want to curl up on the couch and hunker down in the storm with a good book and a hot drink.  Not a chance.  On Thursday morning, we ate some cheerios, drank some coffee, hopped in the car and headed back up to NH before the storm got so treacherous that we couldn't travel.  School was canceled and the snow was piling up.  We were going skiing.  As predicted, the driving conditions were horrendous.  Thank heavens for Spotify and iPods.  This one was a nail biter.  Our second in less than 2 weeks.  Okay, it does kind of feel like we are turning into the Griswolds of the classic movie series, Vacation.  For some odd reason, we continue to travel from one place to the next followed, much like Clark and his family was, by the constant flow of chaos.  If that makes me Beverly D'Angelo, so be it.  We are who we are.  What I'm starting to realize, is that my choices in life mirror my choices in running.  I am constantly seeking out that next great adventure on the road, knowing that it will undoubtedly be accompanied by all sorts of chaos, both good and bad.  But that's the thing.  It's the chaos, along with the discomfort, the challenge, and the uncertainty that makes each one great in its own way.  Most of them are crazy enough for a good story and all of them are good enough to keep me coming back for more.  So, here's to adventure...on the road and in life.  May they never end.

Listen to this:
Black Magic - Magic Wands

TO KEEP HAPPY

"Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties."

~ Helen Keller

The day after Christmas I emailed my coach and told him I needed a little break from running.  I was burnt out, both physically and mentally, and I needed to recharge my batteries.  At the minimum, I planned to take the school break off and just relax and ski with my family.  He agreed that a little running hiatus would be a good thing and that the timing was perfect as I would need to pick back up in January in preparation for Boston.  Done and done.  That same day, as we were packing to head up to NH for the week, we got an email from the woman who owns the house we rent for the winter season.  She let us know that the dishwasher had been leaking due to a broken gasket and as result the basement had flooded.  Her words, "It's not good".  Awesome.  Once we confirmed that most of our ski stuff had made it out safely and that the house was 'relatively' cleaned up and in the process of drying, we proceeded as planned.  All 9 of us.  My brother and sister in law, their 3 kids (along with their 2 guinea pigs and dog, Huckle) would be following behind us, and were planning to stay with us for 3-4 days.  All of us were giddy.  We arrived that night to a very damp house with a ripped up basement, wet carpets in the living room and a warped kitchen floor.  Not ideal, but we were willing to roll with it.  The owner told us that a clean up crew would be in the next day to continue working on the house but not to worry about it from our end.  Fine by us as long as we had a house to come home to.  Ah ha ha ha ha ha.  On Friday morning we were all out the door by 8:30am, excluding the animals, of course.  At about 10:00am, my husband and I ran into our neighbor, who is also a handy man and had been helping out over at our rental.  As we rode up on the chairlift together, he let us know that he'd just left our house and that the clean up crew was in the process of completely stripping both the basement and the first floor, all of them sporting hazmat suits due to the high amounts of mold, and that, in his opinion, there was no chance in hell we were getting back into the house for the rest of the week.

------------> Insert freak out and many, MANY, bad words here.  

Turns out, he was right. Not only could we not get back into the house that night.  We were likely not going to be able to get back in for weeks, if at all.  The work crew had packed up the whole house, both the owners' belongings and ours, and thrown it all in boxes for us to sort out.  As my 9 year old likes to say, OMG.  We had 9 people, 2 dogs and 2 guinea pigs and nowhere to go.  Literally.  My husband and I started scrambling like crazy people; calling every realtor within a 30 mile radius to find a new rental for the season and calling every hotel within a 10 mile radius to find rooms that would take both families and all of our pets.  (yes, I do realize the pet situation, particularly the fact that we were traveling with 2 guinea pigs, is quite humorous).  Here's how the next few days played out:

~ My family put everything we owned into our 2 cars and then moved the essentials into a bed and breakfast that evening.  It was a lovely inn but...the bedrooms were big enough for the bed and my husband's ski boots.  And that was it.  We had to share the bathrooms with our new neighbors.  All of them.  And we had to carry our 12 year old, 60 pound lab up the stairs because they were too steep for her to manage on her own.  Breakfast was really good, though.  Really good.

~ My bro and sis-in-law, their kids and pets moved into a different hotel around the bend from us.  Not ideal, given they were hoping to save cash on this vacation by staying with us and instead had to pony up for the skiing, the hotel rooms and all their meals.  They were unbelievable sports about the whole thing.  

~ Two days later, my family moved into a different hotel where we had a little more space on account of the fact that it was our own little cottage instead of a single room.  This was also a lovely place, though it felt as though we had jumped through the hot tub time machine when we entered the room and that Austin Powers was going to disco his way out of the closet at any moment.  We were so happy to have the extra space that we barely noticed the brown velour coverlets and beaded curtains.

~ On New Year's Eve my husband and kids went off to the mountain and I spent the morning at the rental, combing through the boxes and doing my best to sort out and pack up our stuff.  I danced around the guys in the hazmat suits and gas masks, zipping and unzipping the plastic to get from room to room.  It was very bizarre.  And I was a little concerned that I wasn't wearing a suit myself.

Each morning, throughout the entire adventure, I would have to drive up to the top of a hill to get cell phone service in order to reach my dog walker.  Our hotel let us have dogs, but they couldn't be alone in the room.  Of course.  Our walker, bless her, took Lucy all day for four days in a row.  Lucy went on a food strike on day three and refused to look at us.  I'm pretty sure she's still mad.  Finally, instead of spending New Year's Eve up in New Hampshire with our friends, we bowed out and went back home to Winchester.  We had slept in 3 different beds, lived out of the trunks of our cars, given away all of our food and eaten in restaurants every night due to our lack of kitchen, freaked out our dog, kicked my in-laws out of the house we had invited them to and gotten little, if any sleep along the way.  We needed to re-set.

Last night we ordered pizza, drank some wine, toasted to the New Year and went to bed at 10:00.  Best night EVER.  The silver lining in all of this?  Well, there were a few.
1. My kids (ages 6 and 9) had a BLAST and thought it was the "funnest" vacation they'd ever had.
2. Every single one of our friends along with many total strangers stepped up to help us out however they could when they heard about our situation.
3. We still managed to have a good time despite the chaos.
4. We met some really cool people along the way.

As planned, I didn't get a single run in.  I didn't relax and enjoy myself, either.  It was an incredibly stressful week and though there were pockets of fun, if I'm being honest here, I had a hard time getting through it all.  That said, it could have been much worse.  Today is a new day.  A new year, actually.  And we are already off to a really good start.  My resolution?  I am resolving to keep happy.  It's the only way.

Listen to this:
Unique In Its Madness - of Verona