L is for Lindsey Stirling #AtoZChallenge

Had enough book reviews? Let's talk music!

I stumbled over Lindsey Stirling about a year ago, thanks to Pandora, and she quickly became one of my favorite artists. This girl is not your average musician in any way, shape or form. She's a violinist, dancer, composer and she even edits her own music videos - and she does each of these things phenomenally!! Also, she's incredibly sweet and funny.

Elements was the first song of hers I heard, and I quickly purchased her full album. She has videos out on all of her songs, I believe. Her second album, Shatter Me, is due out at the end of this month - I have already pre-ordered it :)

Lindsey also does covers, like the one for Radioactive. I love the original song, but her cover, with Pentatonix, is fantastic. Check it out...

You can find Lindsey on Facebook and YouTube - check her out :)

X is for Xanadu

One of my all time favorite movies... Xanadu. Roller skating, Olivia Newton-John and fantastic music - what's not to like?

One of my very favorite things about Xanadu, however, has always been this song - You Made Me Love You. I have loved this song since the first time I heard it. It has only ever been released on 45 (for you kids, that's a small record - GET OFF MY LAWN! LOL) as a B-side to Suddenly. It has never been re-released, which is a crying shame. Yes, I still have a 45 of it :)

I actually sang this song once in front of a rather large audience.

Enjoy

I is for iPod

The best purchase I have ever made was my iPod Touch. I LOVE it.

Finally my extensive music collection is in one place and completely portable. No longer am I limited to a handful of CDs in my car.

My two hours of driving every day are filled now with audio books I purchase from Audible.com.

In a pinch, the iPod will entertain Angie if we're waiting for a table in a restaurant or at the doctor's office.

I can watch movies on it or play Words with Friends. Thanks to Book Crawler and DVD Profiler I now have an inventory of my personal book and DVD libraries (no more buying multiple copies of books because the publisher changed the cover or movies in the bargain bin I already own!). Bonus, both of these programs utilize a bar code scanner (it uses the iPod's camera (note: older generations don't have a camera)) to speed up entry!

Lose it helps me track what I eat and what exercise I don't do to help me lose or maintain weight.

The list goes on and on. It really is the best thing I have ever purchased. So if you don't have one, I highly recommend you get one! :)

Beautiful Fighter

There were two songs that empowered me during my fight with cancer. Ironically they're both on the same album and on the surface have nothing to do with being ill.

The first song is Fighter by Christina Aguilera

Although the song is actually directed at a man, I found some of the words really fit what I was going through at the time…

"''cause if it wasn't for all that you tried to do,
I wouldn't know just how capable I am to pull through
So I wanna say thank you 'cause it
Makes me that much stronger
makes me work a little bit harder
it makes me that much wiser
so thanks for making me a fighter
made me learn a little bit faster
made my skin a little bit thicker
makes me that much smarter

so thanks for making me a fighter"

and at the end of the song…

"but in the end you'll see
YOU-WON'T-STOP-ME
I am a fighter and I I ain't gonna stop

There is no turning back
I've had enough"

I think that sums up one way I handled things. It did make me stronger.

One of my chemo buddies, Nancy, once said that you never have time to feel sorry for yourself when you have cancer, because you're always too busy being strong for everyone else. She certainly had a point.

The only time I really had alone to think was in my car. I drive an hour each way to work and back every day.

One of the ways I was able to gauge how I was holding up mentally was how far into the song "Beautiful", by Christina Aguilera I could get.

"Everyday is so wonderful, then suddenly, it's hard to breathe" - really really fitting…

I lost all of my hair during chemo and refused to wear a wig. I wore a nice variety of hats instead… I wasn't going to fool anyone with a wig, not to mention that they're hot, so really why bother?

Well let me tell you, it's not easy being an overweight bald woman. Unfortunately I followed up a pregnancy with chemo and large doses of steroids (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!). So, if I could manage to sing along with "Beautiful" without disolving in a puddle of tears, I knew I was doing ok.

As time went by, I was able to sing the song and getting to the part of "We are beautiful" made me appreciate that I certainly wasn't the only woman going through this and that I am now part of a Sisterhood of strong, capable fighters. I'm proud of that.

I learned a lot on my journey and like I said, I met the nicest people along the way.