Happy (almost) Thanksgiving, kiddies. 
I hope you brought your stretchy pants.

xoxo.

We stared at the distant

twinkling stars

until they came crashing down 
massive spheres of hot gas
colliding with us

burning our faces

searing our bodies
until we were no more.

© Paige Parnell 2013

I can't sleep.

So, I'm listening to what Joy (my cousin) calls my "depressing music."
My depressing music isn't necessarily depressing, though. A lot of it is some really good and not depressing at all. But (because I want to go into the entertainment industry) I keep thinking of these artists that I LOVE whom I feel like don't get heard of as much (though some of them are quite popular). 
(Yes, this is another pointless entry, I promise that this week I'll put a really long substantial one that really makes you think *pinky promise*). 
Since I'm not sleepy and I am listening to music, I feel like I am burdened with the glorious purpose of making this list--- that was a Loki reference for all of you non-nerds out there.

Here is the list-in no particular order- click for a good listen:

1. Ben Howard- Depth Over Distance
2. Ben Howard- Promise
3. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova- Falling Slowly
4. Priscilla Ahn- Dream
5. Sara Bareilles- Gravity
6. Amy Winehouse- Love is a Losing Game
7. Amy Winehouse- Valerie
8. Lianne La Havas- Everything, Everything
9. Lianne La Havas- Empty
10. Lianne La Havas- Lost & Found
11. Dar Williams- Blue Light of the Flame
12. Chrisette Michele- A Couple of Forevers
13. Macy Gray- Don't Forget Me
14. Zofia Kilanowicz- Symphony No. 3 Op. 36 (This whole thing is a bit long, but it's also quite epic)
15. Sade- By Your Side
16. Sade- King of Sorrow
17. Sade- No Ordinary Love
18. India.Arie- Ready For Love
19. Adele- Don't You Remember
20. Coldplay- Sparks
21. Coldplay-Fix You
22. Ray Lamontagne-Let it Be Me
23. Ray Lamontagne-Jolene
24. Ray Lamontagne- Be Here Now
25. Citizen Cope- Sideways
26. Maxwell- Whenever, Wherever, Whatever
27. Maxwell- This Woman's Work
28. The Fray-Unsaid
29. The Fray- Look After You
30. Anything Lauryn Hill. ANYTHING. ANYYYTHING. Seriously.
31. John Legend- Again
32. Damien Rice- Volcano
33. Damien Rice- The Blower's Daughter
34. Floetry- Feelings
35. And anything Erykah Badu. Yes. Really. Anything.
36. Snow Patrol- You Could Be Happy
37. Adele- Daydreamer
38. Adele- First Love
39. Floetry- Say Yes
40. Floetry- Feelings
41. The Roots- You Got Me
42. Peter Bradley Adams- Between Us
43. John Mayer- Stop This Train
44. John Mayer- City Love
45. Sia- Breathe Me
46. Jason Walker & Molly Reed- Down
47. Joshua Radin- Today (I MET HIM in 2011- don't judge me- he was so good)
48. Joshua Radin- What if You
49. Bon Iver- I Can't Make You Love Me
50. Counting Crows- Color Blind
51. Coldplay- Trouble
52. Sara Haze- Lovely
53. Peter Bradley Adams- Los Angeles
54. Norah Jones- She's 22

Okay, I'm starting to feel sleepy. Enjoy the playlist ;)

xoxo.

source: via imgur


source: via imgur

"My type."

A good friend asked me if "nerdy white guys" are my "thing." 

I don't know exactly how to answer that question.

jk.

Yes.

"Yes," is how I'd answer that question.

Matthew Gray Gubler. Please slap me if I say "no" to a face like this.

Actually, just white guys in general.

Joseph Gordon Levitt. I've seriously loved this guy since "Angels in the outfield." 
(Is he even white? I have no idea. He could be racially ambiguous.)

James Franco. I'm convinced that he's actually crazy and I still love him.

Tom Hiddleston. #ICANNOT.

But every other type of guy is also my thing.
Because...I like...guys in general.

If Michael Ealy came within 12 feet of me, I would probably die.

With a smile on my face.

And Idris Elba? Let's be real.

LET US BE REAL.

I could actually sit here and add Hispanic (Danny Pino from Law & Order?!), Asian/Middle-Eastern, mixed, Pacific-Islander and albino guys that I find attractive.

There is really no point to this post. 

But if there was a point, it would be: I don't really have a preference. 

This was one simple statement that became a blog post with pictures of attractive guys.

Yeeeaaaah, well, that's enough of that. 

I refuse to believe this was a waste of my time.

xoxo.

Men*

(*Not all men I've ever met, just a select few.)

I've been thinking about this a lot; especially because I feel like everyone I've ever spent any amount of time with has influenced who I am (in small or large ways). But I also think that I've had some very interesting friendships/relationships/interactions with guys and I kind of want to document a couple of them. If you think that you may be one of these guys I'm documenting, you could be right! Or you could be very wrong and just incredibly self-conscious and if you are then you need to get over that because being self-conscious is only going to mess with your head (and all of these entries are about more than one guy). 

(Also *VERY IMPORTANT,* to illustrate my points, I'm going to use Beyoncé gifs.)

1. The really attractive friend or boyfriend that makes you feel incredibly insecure.
This is almost the worst one (except there is one that is DEFINITELY worse), but this one will be runner-up to the worst. When you're dating/friends with a guy who constantly points out what is wrong with you (or with girls around you), you start to feel like you always have to be "on." What I mean by that is- he invites you over to watch a movie and eat junk food with his roommates and you show up looking like: 

Oh, what? Makeup? A gold staff? Oh, I always look like this.

You don't want to be "one of those girls" he always talks about. You know, the ones that don't put on makeup all the time and the ones who have chipped nails or blemished legs. I mean, imperfection? EEEEEEEW. 

But seriously, I've spent a significant amount of time with guys like this. You don't even realize how them being so incredibly critical makes you more and more insecure each day (You also fail to realize that they're kind of douchebags, but hindsight is 20/20). Every time I would spend time with one of them, I would constantly be wondering about everything. 

"Do my knees look weird in these shorts?" 

"Do I have a lazy eye and not know?" 

"Do I have a roll around my stomach when I sit?"  

And (God forbid) he looks at you for too long (even if it's meant to be "flattering"), then it's, "WHAT ON EARTH IS ON MY FACE?" 

A relationship with this sort of person can just make you really insecure and, let's be honest, who wants to be around someone who is that critical of you and everyone else? 

NOT ME.

2. The "Best Friend."

It's your best friend and the most complicated friendship you will ever have in your entire life! In all honesty, having a platonic opposite-sex friendship between two heterosexual people can be a little bit difficult. Especially when you pass into the "best friend who knows almost everything about you" territory. You're completely yourself around him:

You eat junk food in front of him.

You show up to hang out au naturel.

You cry and do other embarrassing girly stuff (that you secretly hate yourself for) around him.

And he is not phased by any of it. Usually one of three things happen: he begins to like you, you begin to like him or you both begin to like each other (now, it's totally possible that you guys push through the odd "what if?" feelings and continue to just be friends...but this doesn't usually seem to happen to me).

Sometimes, it's a sudden thing and out of the blue you're just like:

Come to me! We'll make this werk!

The hard thing, though, is when...it doesn't werk. Or you're afraid to make it werk (okay, I'll stop saying "werk"). Then you have this...friendship? that gets incredibly awkward or you drift apart (or, if you've been in my situation, you date one of your best friends and then when the relationship doesn't work out you NEVER TALK AGAIN). Or you guys both pretend to not have feelings for each other and nothing ever happens but you sit at home (jk, I'm at work) typing a blog entry wondering "what if...?" And "what if?" has to be the most annoying question on the planet. However, at the end of the day what you do know is that this best friend guy makes you so comfortable around him that if you were to date someone in the future, they've given you a template of what kind of guy you'd want to be with (or- if the feelings are obviously mutual- you can really just go out on a limb and try to make it werk. Okay, I'm really finished saying "werk," I promise).

3. "That guy."

There is always going to be "that guy." This could mean several things. It could be that guy who really likes you and you just...no. It's just not a good idea. He's obviously keeping bodies in his basement. But sometimes "that guy" is the guy you KNOW you shouldn't like (because your mom would kill you is reason #1 on my list), but whatever, you kind of like him anyway because he's really cute and he quotes lines of poetry. LET US BE REAL: 9 times out of 10, this guy actually ends up being a bad idea. 

But you're like "Whatever mom, I'm grown! I can date whoever I want!"

My mom is pretty much always right (don't tell her this, though. She already knows it and I need to keep some dignity as a twenty-something year old). Sometimes I just think "LET ME DO THIS" and then I end up getting myself hurt by a guy who actually doesn't care about me. "That guy" could be the guy who woooooos you and you're all "Oh, dis is so nice!" But then you find out something like...he has a girlfriend (this is the worst one that I was talking about). Or...he's actually not really into you at all. Or you go on this emotional rollercoaster- he pays you a lot of attention and then all of a sudden stops calling...and then calls you out of the blue because he misses you...and then he disappears...and then he takes you to dinner...and then he starts dating someone else (and you secretly want to cut off his little toe because you're so upset, but then you forgive him because he calls you telling you that he misses you. WHAT). People call me picky because I'm so very rigorous when it comes to picking a boyfriend. I'll go several months/years at a time as single as a moose (wait, I think moose might travel in packs. I don't know a lot about moose...meese? Whatever). I just want to know that I'm not going to be going in circles chasing my own tail like a dog (I do know a bit about dogs). So, "that guy" has taught me that I don't need a man, and I can and should be as picky as I want to be to protect my own heart.

*Snaps in Z-formation*

There are several other types of guys, but since my time at work is up, I'm going to leave it at 3 types for now. But if I expand on this, I will continue to use Bey-Bey gifs, because she is pretty much perfect.

Look at this lady. Seriously.

xoxo.