Showing posts with label Me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Me. Show all posts

Thursday, August 25

So many great gifts

So my birthday is coming up – woot woot! I got 4 early gifts so far:
1) A free beverage to starbucks – I need to still use it, I am thinking iced chai…oh the good ole days
2) A 50% off massage or facial from my gym, Exhale Spa (read previous posts to get caught up!)
3) A bi-weekly membership to a fruit and vegetable delivery service. This was a surprise gift from Elliot. I am pretty pumped about this one, mainly because it allows me to be lazy and not battle traffic and annoying people in the grocery store. My first delivery arrived earlier this week. Between Elliot and I, we have almost polished off the bananas (organic, mind you!). I love gifts that allow me to be lazy. What else can I outsource?

{First order}

4) This awesome map from my parents, where you use a coin and scratch off the countries you have visited.
5) A beer bottle opener that you screw in to the wall from Marlboro. I have no idea why Marlboro keeps sending me ads and coupons, and for my b-day they decided to send me a bottle opener. First let me start with a few facts about Gaya
a. I have never smoked a cigarette…Ever. I can’t even remember a time I have touched a cigarette (other than candy ones when I was a kid). Now I have picked up cigarette buds but that is when I have participated in a trash/litter pickup (I was in an environmental club in h.s.).
b. I have opened less than 5 beers in my life, maybe less. I have no need for a permanent bottle opener on my wall
c. Even if I did have a need for a permananet bottle opener, I am too lazy to install it (read comment above and fruit and veggies)
d. I am in public health…nuff said
e. I find the word Marlboro hard to pronounce, so even if I did smoke, I would not smoke these - I could not even order them at a grocery store!




Literally, Marlboro people – where are you buying people’s names from. You might need to rethink your marketing strategy….

Happy early early bday to me!


Wednesday, August 10

Country Music

So - a little background about me.  My parents are hippies (you obviously know that if you regularly follow my blog) and enjoy Celtic music and Enya and such (I also am a big Enya fan).  Sorry to disappoint, they are not the concert going drug using type hippies.  So in the 2nd grade we move to Oklahoma where county music is fairly popular (at least compared to Santa Cruz, California where we had been living).  I found country music to be fairly obnoxious and assumed it was just about trucks, heartbreak, and Jesus - all of these things were fine, but wrapped up together it was just too much for my ears to handle.  Then we move to NC - also a fair contingent of country music lovers.  Once again, I found this to be obnoxious. Then I move to Atlanta - an interesting music mix to say the least. A few of my close friends here were pretty big country fans, and once again, I had a distaste for the music....until one day I started loving it!!!

It all started after I got in to a car accident in Atlanta, and found that I became extra stressed while driving, it also happened because NPR was doing a fundraiser and interrupted their normal programming.  I accidently started listening to country and quickly began to like it!! For someone who had judged country music for so long, I found this new enjoyment of country music somewhat disconcerting and too hypocritical to deal with.  What had changed? Who am I? Why am I enjoying this?

So, obviously I had to do an analysis. I listened to the top 6 most popular country songs and did some light qualitative coding and grouping to find main topics....and this is what I found (in visuals):










So the songs had a couple focuses:
1)     Drinking – whiskey, tequila, wine, and a cold beer were mentioned…I am noticing a theme here
2)     Love – holding on to it and cherishing it, and losing it and missing it
3)     Partying – use your imagination
4)     Water – shores, boats, paradise
5)      Small towns and woods and truckss

So some of my stereotypes held true, but over all the themes were fairly diverse, and the lyrics actually make sense vs. a  lot of music now days is just a bunch of silly lines with a good beat.

So as I grapple with my new ‘like’ of country music – I wonder, what do I hate now that I will like in 5 years?? 

I also want to know what you used to hate that now you like (excluding guacamole and greek yogurt!)