from the jeep commercial.

if you are a television watcher you have probably caught the new jeep renegade commercial. and maybe you thought to yourself, "man, this song is incredible. not only do i think i'd look ridiculously cool in a jeep, i'd really like to know who sings this."

well i am here to confirm, yes, you would look rugged and rad in a jeep (no, they aren't sponsoring me to write this but if they wanted to give me a new vehicle i would take it....my little liberty has 214 thousand miles on it) and the creators of that song are the X ambassadors. the song is called renegades. i won't even make you go look it up on youtube, for your listening pleasure:

you're welcome.

xo

be a better person, okay?

it's monday morning and i'm feeling a little ragey. i don't know why...the sun is shining, it's going to be a fabulous week (got a lot on the docket), and i just found a mini-bag of doritos in my desk that i had forgotten about (unopened! better believe i'm eating them now)...but i have some grievances i need to air.

i have a few pet-peeves that i feel probably fall into a lot of people's pet-peeves list, those things that people do that everyone gets annoyed by. here are a couple of things that bother me and how to fix them. a list of how do to life better if you will:

• if you're walking down the sidewalk or in a park or wherever and it's not packed with people don't creep up or pace 2 steps behind the one other person walking. either speed up and go around, cross the street, or slow your roll so you aren't directly on my heels for blocks. i know you aren't going to mug me but it's annoying so knock it off.
• follow through on your commitments, if you say you are going to be somewhere or help with something, show up. and if you can't for some legitimate reason don't send a text in the eleventh hour, call and sincerely apologize. this goes even just for fun, friend things. 
• stop linking all of your social network sites. use them differently or just have one. i don't need to see the picture that you put on instagram in my twitter timeline and in my facebook newsfeed. especially if it's not even that great of a picture. or don't be offended when i unfollow you.
• telling someone they have good or bad taste in anything is silly. you are either telling them that they have the same taste as you or the opposite taste as you...it's subjective and you can't definitely say one way or the other. the only exception here is if one of your girls always goes for dudes who are terrible people who bring her down/ruin her self-image/get her arrested/etc. 
• the general lack of politeness in today's society is ridiculous. is it really that hard to hold a door open for another human being? or offer to carry (or help carry) something that looks heavy? or make pleasant conversation while you're both in line at the coffee shop or waiting for the elevator? even making eye contact and smiling hello at a stranger on the street can make their day better and requires so little effort on your part. 
• this one is specifically for dog owners: if i walk by you with my (and by my i mean my roommate's) dog and you see me get in between my dog and your dog and hear me say "leave it" to my dog...KEEP YOUR DOG AWAY FROM MY DOG. there is a reason i don't want them interacting and it's probably that my dog wants to eat your dog. 

thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

xo

hallelujah.

panic!at the disco just released a new song.

it's called hallelujah and i'm digging it hard.

it's got a full church-choir vibe to it and in an interview frontman, brandon urie, said it's not meant to be a dig towards people who ascribe to a faith at all. he grew up in a "religious" home (apparently his parents/family still hold to their faith) and while he doesn't personally claim any faith anymore he still feels like acknowledging sin is an important part of being human. the song is written from a genuine place and that makes my heart happy, genuine lyrics are the ones that stand the test of time. 

anywhoo, give 'er a listen. 

xo

predictions on who will blow up this year.

if you haven't figured it out yet, i love music. when i fall for an artist i fall hard and tend to listen to them A LOT. and go to a lot of their shows. and write about them a lot.

but i also really love hearing new bands. the up-and-comers some might say. 

so this is an incomplete list of the bands i think you will be listening to in one year. because they are going to be big (i think). so be ahead of the game and start listening to them now. solid advice, sara.

jeremy loops: south african musician and if for no other reason he should be famous because of his beautiful hair. 

colony house: i know i've talked about them here before but if you haven't checked them out yet do it now.

misterwives: didn't want to like them at first because i had a couple of friends who were obsessed but i can't deny it, they're good. 

twenty-one pilots: either you know them and love them or you don't know them and you definitely should. 

so make like an ellie goulding song and what are you waiting for?
xo

frontman friday: steven tyler

hello loves! the weekend is upon us and i'm glad you're here, reading my nonsense. is that weird? maybe. moving on.

friday wouldn't be complete without some frontman appreciation.

he is practically the literal definition of a rock star: steven tyler 

this is majestic.

photo credit: twitter

if you live under a rock you don't know that he fronts: aerosmith

all of them are old enough to be my grandpa, isn't that neat?

photo credit: aerosmith

the band started in 1970 with tyler at the helm and they are the sweethearts of american rock 'n roll (which is probably the most un-rock 'n roll thing to call them). tyler and lead guitarist, joe perry, famously don't get along but they've stuck it out since the beginning. i'm guessing it has something to do with the money. aerosmith has tons of hits including: dream on, walk this way, and i don't wanna miss a thing. 

the whole reason he ended up as today's frontman is due to a conversation i had with a coworker. we were talking about rock stars (because they're practically all i talk about) and he mentioned a buzzfeed article that shows how steven tyler is a really rad grandma. it's awesome. click here and you'll see. *side note: there are some swears in the article if that offends you*

young and old, i don't discriminate here at stories of a girl. as long as he's a frontman he's good in my book. 

now off to weekend shenanigans of exploring some falls and record store day! 

xo 

this is mostly a reminder for me.

the internet is a strange place, isn't it?

it's great for staying connected to friends and family who live in different time zones (or even those who live across town that somehow you still never manage to see), searching for any information you could possibly need, or catapulting people or causes to stardom.

it's terrible for people writing horrible things to other human beings because they remain anonymous behind their keyboard, for the access to all sorts of sordid things (i maybe have been watching too many crime shows lately), and for a generation barely being able to communicate face-to-face anymore because most of their interactions now take place online.

but there's another negative that is cleverly disguised as good. it has to do with that whole raising awareness for causes thing.

on the internet everyone loves to jump on a bandwagon.

and then they promptly forget when the next bandwagon comes along.

because kony was a thing in 2012 and the ice bucket challenge is no longer the measuring stick of popularity there's no need to promote those causes anymore, right? wrong. those causes are still a thing. their publicity went away but the issues haven't.

jason russell, founder of invisible children (the organization that went after joseph kony and the lord's resistance army), recently said in an interview with relevant magazine that he feels like kony won. kony hasn't been defeated yet and there are still children being captured and being made to be soldiers. it's still a problem.

remember those girls who were taken in nigeria by boko haram? maybe #bringbackourgirls will refresh your memory. that was already a year ago. do you know what happened to them? do you know how the story ends? do you care?

i think it's so great that people want to help other people. i really, truly do. but it can't stop with posting one thing about it on facebook and then only posting cat videos until the next "charity fad" comes along. i get it, dumping ice on your head gets you a lot of likes and makes you feel a part of something but have you thought about the people living with ALS since that day?

instead of thinking you're doing good in the world because you posted something that elicited an emotional response (i.e. comments like "that's so sad!") from your followers, get out there and do some good.

find a cause you believe in and put your time and money into that. it's not that those other causes aren't important but you'll put so much more effort and care into it if it's something you're passionate about. and here's the biggest kicker, it doesn't even have to be something that's super cool at the moment. it really doesn't!

maybe you have a heart for sick kids and their families, go volunteer at a children's hospital! maybe the tragedy of human trafficking makes your stomach turn and you can't take it anymore, give money to organizations that are on the front lines of combating the issue of people selling people (IJM and NightLight to name a couple)! maybe you're passionate about rescuing abused/neglected animals, foster some for the local humane society!

whatever it is, educate yourself about it and really understand the role you can play to make it better. it's going to take more than one facebook post (or blog post for that matter) to really make a difference.

xo

this is a story all about how my life got flip turned upside down...

did you sing the title of this blog to the tune of the fresh prince theme song? good. that's what i was hoping for.
i'm not going to lie to you, this story is not a story about how i got into a fight and then was sent to live with my rich relatives. but it is a story of how i ended up on a date with a local concert promoter. and how it was one of the most painful nights of my life.

if you're new to the blog (oh hey, welcome!) you may not know that for my day job i run a radio station at a college. i am always on the hunt for donations for on air giveaways...concert tickets are what i aim for. i happened to see that for today was coming to town and the boys on the hardcore show are big fans of for today.

so i emailed the promoter to see if the radio could have a pair of tickets to give away on air. the only snag i could foresee is that i knew the promoter, let's call him billy (definitely not his real name), and i was a little concerned he would think the tickets were for me...i had met him years before and had seen him at numerous shows since. so i made it as legit as possible, i emailed from my work email, i emailed the company not him, and i didn't try to butter him up at all.

the email i got back went something like this:
sara!
it's billy! i haven't seen you in forever!
how are you?

no mention of the tickets.

so i responded back and we ended up emailing a bit. then he realized that we were facebook friends and started messaging me there. still no mention of the tickets. at this point we were about 2 weeks out from the show and i kept hinting but whenever that subject came up it was like talking to a brick wall. he asked for my number 3 times before i finally gave it to him...you can only ignore it so many times without feeling like a jerk.

then the "we should grab coffee" text came.
at this point i was annoyed that i didn't have tickets and i figured i could make coffee work during the day and i am all for work meetings that happen in coffee shops. we arranged a 3pm meeting on a tuesday.

on sunday night i got a text asking if we could change the meeting time to 6pm.

um...okay. i mean, then i don't get to leave work and go have coffee but i guess 6pm is fine. and now i was really starting to wonder if he realized this was a work meeting.

i got to the coffee shop early (because i am always early) and grabbed a decaf brew and waited. i got a text saying billy was running a little behind. okay, whatever. so finally at 6:30 he strolled through the door and grabbed a drink before joining me.

for the next hour and a half we proceeded to have one of the most stilted conversations i have ever had. we chatted about some people in common that we knew, we glossed over our respective jobs, he went on for at least 5 minutes about his love for a certain contemporary worship leader, he explained why his girlfriend broke up with him, he seemed a little offended when i asked where he went to school (he had just asked me the same question) because he didn't go to college, and he went into an in-detail story about a ticketing conference in california.

every time i tried to steer the conversation in the direction of getting tickets for the radio he would abruptly switch the subject. about an hour in i realized i wasn't getting tickets and for the remainder of the time i just blankly nodded at him while i was trying to come up with a believable reason to leave.

finally, i just stood up and told him i had to go. wished him a good night and was out the door.

i wasn't even back to my apartment yet when i felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. a text. you guessed it, none other than billy.

i can't believe we talked for an hour an a half! felt like ten minutes! it was so great to see you again!

no, billy, you are wrong. it did not feel like ten minutes. it felt like 5 hours of my life that i will never get back and i still didn't get the one thing i was going there for; for today tickets!

so i replied with a swift, "great catching up with you." text and haven't heard from him since. praise the Lord.

next time i will just buy tickets myself and donate them to the radio station.
xo

frontman friday: jesse katsopolis

FRIDAY morning and i'm sipping coffee and trying to forget that i didn't get to see cartel last night when their 10 year anniversary of chroma tour came through my town (insert broken heart emoji here). 

but i did get to hang out with my mom and eat chick-fil-a and i found a misterwives t-shirt for a dollar at a thrift store so my thursday night wasn't a complete waste. and if misterwives really blows up i can be all smug and wear my shirt and say "this old thing?" and be really annoying and it will be awesome.

i would pay more than a dollar for a shirt of today's frontman.

he's worth at least a cool 20: jesse katsopolis

every girl wishes that eyebrow raise was directed at her. 

jesse was the only one anyone cared about in: jesse and the rippers

not surprising that a fake band didn't have any band promo shots. 

classic still from full house. 

if you are completely lost here, jesse is a fictional character from the show Full House. it was on in the 90's and it was amazing. i love to ask people the question "if you could be friends with 3 fictional characters who would you be friends with?" and one of my fictional characters is always uncle jesse. 

such a great show. 

this shirt is available on etsy and if whoever makes it would like to send it to me for a "product review" i would happily accept. 

seriously, send me one. please. 

have mercy.

xo

favorite/least favorite.

today i thought i'd play a little game of favorite/least favorite. why? because it's fun, duh. oh, and this is music-themed edition because this is my blog and i do what i want. feel free to play along!

lyric on top 40 radio right now: 

• favorite- 'i've got that good girl faith in a tight little skirt.' it pains me that a t-swizzle line is my favorite but i can't deny it, it is one well-written lyric.
• least favorite- 'baby, i'm preying on you tonight, hunt you down, eat you alive.' way more people would be disturbed by this song if adam levine wasn't so attractive. 

switchfoot member:

• favorite- jon foreman. though tim pulls a close second.
• least favorite- jerome. i know it makes me a terrible person for choosing and he's a vital member of the band but that's the game, kids.

venue in the twin citites: 

• favorite- 1st ave. it's classic. and it's like a half a mile from my house. 
• least favorite- tie between the xcel and the target center. i know this is a cheater answer but i'm just not a huge fan of stadium shows. give me a dingy club any day of the week. 

live act:

• favorite- i wanna say switchfoot but that's too easy so instead i will say judah & the lion. they have so much fun on stage and they are incredibly talented but don't take themselves too seriously.
• least favorite- jars of clay. i loved their music but i have never been that bored at a show of a band whose music i know and like. 

love song: 

• favorite- can't fight this feeling by reo speedwagon. i don't know what it is but that song just GETS ME. 
• least favorite- all of me by john legend. get that ish off my radio. 

band name: 

• favorite- anberlin. first one that popped into my head. RIP.
• least favorite- milky chance. does that need explaining? 

festival/tour: 

• favorite- bro-am. it was on the beach in san diego, of course it wins. if you ever get the chance to go, DO IT.
• least favorite- rock star tour. a friend dragged me to it. it was in a seemingly abandoned airplane hanger in the outskirts of louisville, kentucky, pretty sure 95% of the crowd was drunk, and the opening band was the cancer bats (could also be a contender for least favorite band name). yeah, never again.  

album:

• favorite- this.is.so.hard. there are so many killer albums that i want to pick but i'm going to go with step up to the microphone by the newsboys. i have listened to this album bare minimum 200 times and it's still good. plus it's ridiculously nostalgic for me. 
• least favorite- i was really excited for the cosmos album by joe kisselburgh and then listened to it and was like, "eh, epiphany is good." this was years ago, i don't think he's making music anymore.

recent artist to make it big:

• favorite- sam smith. i know he won like every grammy he was nominated for and that was mildly annoying but he's got an incredible voice and i think he's going to be around for awhile. 
• least favorite- megan trainor. i'm not saying she isn't talented and her songs aren't catchy but she's proving to be a one-trick pony.

what are your favorite/least favorites? 

xo

want ad.

 help.

i need your help.

seriously, i'm not joking. someone help me.

i had coffee with a friend this morning. she is getting married in a month and a half. originally i was told that the church was too small for me to be able to bring a +1. okay, no biggie. well today she tells me that a few family members they had anticipated coming are no longer able to make it so if i want to bring someone i am more than welcome to.

normally i would just say, 'oh that's fine, i'll just come by myself' but i know virtually no one else who is going to be at the wedding besides the bridal party so bringing someone would actually make the whole event more fun for me. and let's be honest, their wedding day should definitely be about me.

so now i'm stuck, i need some arm candy, and i'd prefer if he came with a raspy singing voice and a man-bun.

this is my want ad...if you know a fella who fits this description please have him text me ASAP (or just comment below, if you're reading this there is a good chance you don't have my phone number) because those bells are ringing in just a matter of weeks.

wanted:
-male
-somewhere aroundish my age (i am in what they would classify as "late-20's")
-handsome (any variety of handsome works)
-musician (if he's not, it's not very believable)
-won't be weirded out going to a wedding where he knows no one, potentially including the girl he is there with

okay, blog friends, H E L P A G I R L O U T.

xo

got on the 'gram.

i caved you guys.
i got an instagram account.
i wasn't going to do it and then i did.
actually, someone was already using my email address so that is just mostly terrifying...how did someone use my email address without me knowing it? did they know my password? why did i never see emails from instagram?
anyway, i changed the password and took it over for myself.

SO PLEASE FOLLOW ME. i need more followers. i am shameless.

i put up some of the pictures that end up on the blog, but there they have filters! ooooh.
and i put up more random pictures from my life. which you probably don't really care about, i know, but we all love to creep and isn't that why we're on social media anyway?

so look me up: @iamstoriesofagirl

xo