My Top 11 Taylor Swift Songs

I was drawn to Taylor Swift because she is a seeker of truth, and I find her honest and reckless approach endearing.  What follows is a list of my favorite Taylor Swift songs.  Why 11?  Because when I picture the number 11, I imagine Taylor and me side by side.

11. Innocent
On a tenderness scale, this song is a filet mignon.  This song truly demonstrates Taylor's forgiving and optimistic Sagittarius nature.  She looks for the best in people, and she isn't afraid to shoot a few sharp arrows of truth.

Most nostalgic line: Wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days

Most optimistic and hopeful line: Your string of lights is still bright to me 

10 I Almost Do
How many times have we given in to those urges to call or text someone we know we shouldn't?  I can remember every single one of the times that's happened to me because it's never happened to me. Exactly zero.  The tenderness, longing, and desperation in Taylor's voice on this song make me want to drunk dial her.

Most heart-melting lines:
And I confess, babe 
That in my dreams you're touching my face 

9. Teardrops on My Guitar
This song is about that person who doesn't notice you and your secret romantic feelings for them.  I can't relate to this song because I take what I want, but I can empathize and that's what makes this song special to me - how Taylor tests my emotional limits.

Most heart-breaking line: I wonder if he knows he's all I think about

8. Change
An uplifting song about faith and perseverance.  Stick with it.

Most Zen line: These things will change

7. Forever & Always (piano version)

The heartbreak of a collapsing relationship - the hurt, the disillusion, the flood of bittersweet memories.

Most emasculating line: Did I say something way too honest that made you run and hide like a scared little boy

6. Sparks Fly
The excitement and rush of a new experience.

Sexiest command: Drop everything now!

5. Treacherous
The intensity of this song bristles like a smoldering desire for a forbidden fruit.  The irresistible siren call of the wild beast.

Most mind-bending line: I can't decide if it's a choice

4. Haunted
If you're not singing about your pain then you don't know anything about music and you're doing it wrong.

Most haunting line: The whole time I'm wishing he was you

3. Begin Again
The mind is like a puddle, when it's disrupted, it becomes cloudy.  After enough time passes and the dirt settles, it becomes clear once again.  That's where love happens, in puddles, so the next time you step in one remember how lucky you are.

Most hopeful lines:
I've been spending the last 8 months 
Thinking all love ever does is break and burn and end
But on a Wednesday in a cafe, I watched it begin again

2. All Too Well
The heart needs time to heal, and when it does painful memories fade like an old t shirt.  Maybe that's what the healing is, forgetting.

Favorite lines:

'Cause here we are again in the middle of the night
We're dancing in the kitchen in the refrigerator light 

1. Long Live
Life is about sharing time with people and connecting, making sweet memories and sharing wonderful moments.  Long live, indeed.

Line that gets me amped:
When they gave us our trophies 
And we held them up for our town

Also:
When they point to the pictures 
Please tell them my name
Tell them how the crowds went wild
Tell them how I hope they shine

Should've Said No
This song didn't quite make my list, but this performance in a breakaway hoodie followed by the singing in the rain, on a scale of 1 to 10, is a 69, and a half.

Tuxedo Recommendations

Life is about making choices and the choices people make this prom season will separate the men from the boys.  My moon in Libra is an advantage in situations requiring style and elegance, so, each year, I save a few lambs from the slaughter.


Follow these recommendations for a classic, timeless look that will make you stand out in a crowd.  And if you don't think this looks awesome, then you don't know anything about high fashion.  

If I could do it all over again I'd go with the white jacket

So, this prom season, help the ones you love look dashing - do this exactly:

Jacket – White jacket for a bold, head-turning look, or black jacket for standard elegance.  A black jacket will look handsome and classic, just not striking.  White jacket is recommended.  

Lapel type – Peaked is recommended
Shawl is also looks good.  Notched is your last choice if all the cool guys got there before you, and you’re probably better off wearing your dad’s suit.

Shirt 

Collar - Laydown or Wing tip (whatever works best for you).  Do NOT get a       banded collar, unless you want to look ridiculous.   

Cuffs – French-cuffed shirts are an absolute must.  Additionally, you’ll need classy cufflinks, nothing goofy or clumsy – keep them sophisticated and simple.  Leave the dollar sign and Transformers cufflinks at home.  And absolutely no animals, you savage.      

Neckwear – Black Bow Tie is strongly recommended

Ties are popular but are not nearly as classy as the bow tie for a formal occasion.  If you want to be a part of the herd - get a tie, if you want to stand out – get a bow tie.  Extremely formal occasions are rare, so you should take advantage and wear a bow tie.  Remember ties are common, people wear them to work, and away games.

Cumberbun or Vests - Try both, but pick one or the other.

Pants – black, standard.  White jacket and white pants will make you like a gangster in a leisure suit – you don’t want that.          

Shoes – the pointier the better.  Pointed shoes are elegant.  All black.  Leather looks better than vinyl, but leather is more expensive.  Any black pointed-toe shoe will be fine.  Go as pointy as you’re comfortable with.  Squared and rounded-toe shoes are for going to work.  

Additional tips:

Matching colors with your date is unnecessary, and could potentially make you look like a clown.  Black and white goes with everything.    

The sooner you go to pick out your tux the more choices will be available.   

                                      

Welcome to the New Age

A couple of weeks ago, my brother mentioned that Imagine Dragons were playing in Worcester and seemed interested in going, so I offered to buy him a ticket for his birthday.

On the day of the concert, I picked up a couple of pizzas from Pizza Roma on the way to get Mike in Watertown.  We chowed in his sparsely decorated living room with the cats and then hit the road.

Nico Vega was playing when we got to our seats.  Nobody was all that into them.  The Naked and Famous played next.  I really like and enjoyed these New Zealanders.  They were awesome.  Here's a playlist of my favorites.  


When Imagine Dragons came out the crowd was amped and people on the floor were going bananas, but the people in the seats were still sitting.  I stood up and nobody else in our section joined me.  A few years back I saw Green Day at the Garden with Johnny G and the words Billy Joe Armstrong opened the set with pretty much sum up my concert philosophy "get the fuck up! This ain't your living room."  Eventually, people got up.

After the Dragons first song Mike says "so far this is unbelievable!"  He was drinking Bud heavies at a solid pace and he had had more to drink than everyone surrounding us, combined, so I enjoyed his enthusiasm.

The lead singer of Imagine Dragons was a total cheeseball.  I did a lot of eye-rolling at his cliched antics.  Despite this, I was still anticipating the Radioactive performance.

Radioactive stood out to me during summer '013, and the more I heard it the more I liked it.  I listened to it quite often on my road trip out West and it made my Gems from Road Trip playlist.  Radioactive is an epic hard pop song with primal drums beats and chanting.  It was my favorite performance at the Grammys this year with Kendrick Lamar.


Radioactive seems to be about facing your personal struggle.  It's an empowering song about breaking free of something that controls you and the lyrics seem to support that idea "checking out of the prison bus".  The lines "this is it, the apocalypse" and "it's a revolution" symbolize the transformation of perspective and awareness needed to change the direction of one's life - a creative destruction to break the chains of the past that brings the dawning of a new age of freedom and opportunity.  Radioactive is their best song because it celebrates the only true freedom we can hope for in life - to escape the prison's of one's own mind.

It was amazing performed live.  So good that I left immediately after it to get the car and let Mike stay for the encore.

I had somewhat of a moral dilemma in the parking garage.  The garage was so busy that I sat in the same place on a down ramp for a half hour and during that time everyone from the concert filled up the parked cars on the ramp.  I'm usually very patient and I like to be a team player when it comes to parking and traffic, but I had just skipped the encore to establish positioning in the garage, it was getting late, and I didn't expect it to be this slow, so I didn't let any of these people out of their spots.  Not to mention Mike was lost and his phone was dead and he was freezing his ass off somewhere because it was bone-chillingly cold.  A man's game charges a man's price.

Mike loved the concert and I enjoyed it, so it was a good night.  I dropped him off in Watertown and then stopped at McDonald's for an extra medium orange Hi-C.  The sweetness nourished me as I drifted north.  I turned up Bedtime Magic and let Jewel folk me gently.  

Scotland the Brave

Waking up at 515 was rough, but I was excited to take the ferry to Scotland.  I quickly and contemptuously ate an English muffin at the hotel after Tommy and I painted our faces.  It rained as we loaded onto the coach.  

The ferry was massive, Cathal, told me it was the medium-sized one.  It was quite luxurious.  Kate and I got coffee at a cafe on board and a woman told us that the sea was 90% calmer today than it had been, it was so rough that you couldn't even get out of your seat.  I nearly died at the thought of 2.5 hours of rough seas, but, on this rainy morning, we were in the grace and favor of Celtic Gods and our ride was nice and smooth.  I drank coffee and nearly got blown off the ship when I stepped out onto the promenade.  

We met a new bus driver who boarded us onto the new coach - all gold everything. 

Driving through western Scotland we finally got to experience some of the narrow, seemingly dangerous, and beautifully scenic roads.  Our trip up the kingsroad from Dublin to Belfast was almost entirely wide-open motorway.  

Cathal gave us some Scottish history, which is similar to Irish history in that much of it involves struggles with England.  That's what life is though - the struggle, a fight to survive.  

Out first stop in Scotland was the Robert Burns cottage and museum.  Robbie was born in a house similar to the size of the one my great grandmother was born in, in Ireland, which was a cow shed the last time I was there.

We were treated to some fine Scottish weather as Kevin drove us to Glasgow for lunch through the pissing, sideways rain.  I've been sitting in the first seat for days and it was hilarious watching Kevin and Cathal talk.  Kevin speaks a different language entirely.  I have plenty of experience with the Western European accents but Kevin is on another level.  Pretty sure he's speaking a language people stopped using 500 years ago.  I think the sheep have a better chance of understanding it.  Cathal claimed to understand 75% of what Kevin was saying but I don't think he's very good at math.  Tommy said he got the last word of every turn, maybe.  But, that was a hour or so ago and now that I'm listening on this leg of the drive I'm getting a little better.  Like the rest of us, Kevin just wants to be understood, so I'll keep listening. 

Ate lunch in Glasgow at Horton's and the tomato and basil soup was excellent and the burger was terrible.  The meat was meat too lean and overcooked.  The waiter nearly spilled Katie's soup all over her.  

We got to the King Robert Hotel around 5 p.m and after settling in I wiped the face paint off and took a nap.  Dinner was at the hotel and we were served white rice and chili - a staple of the Scottish diet.        

More photos

“My love is like a red, red rose 

That's newly sprung in June: 

My love is like the melody 

That's sweetly played in tune. 

How fair art thou, my bonnie lass, 

So deep in love am I; 

And I will love thee still, my dear, 

Till all the seas gang dry. 

Till all the seas gang dry, my dear, 

And the rocks melt with the sun;

I will love thee still, my dear, 

While the sands of life shall run. 

And fare thee weel, my only love. 

And fare thee weel awhile! 

And I will come again, my love, 

Though it were ten thousand mile.” 

― Robert Burns

“By Oppression's woes and pains!

By your sons in servile chains!

We will drain our dearest veins,

But they shall be free!

Lay the proud usurpers low!

Tyrants fall in every foe!

Liberty's in every blow!

Let us do or die!” 

― Robert Burns

Winterfell

After my second shower at the hotel in Dublin, the name I never cared enough to know, I'm ranking it as the top European shower I've ever had the pleasure of using.  The wide stream, fierce pressure, and consistent temperature provided a transformative experience each morning, it truly was an Irish spring. 

After breakfast we loaded up the coach and headed to the North.  Cathal, our guide, covered about 450 years of Irish history, a violent history, in under 2 hours.   The line "surrender or you'll all die" got people's attention.  

We were treated to a rare beautiful day in the Irish winter.  The sun shined brightly welcoming us to the North like kings and queens.  On the bus Tommy offered me a pair of sunglasses he found on the fairway of Longmeadow.  Their snug fit made me suspect that they were women's sunglasses.  He pretended to be offended when I suggested this, and did not allow me to continue wearing them. 

We picked up an auxiliary tour guide, Maureen, upon arrival to Belfast city center.  She led us outside of town to the Northern Ireland parliament building, where we stopped for some photos.  My favorite line from Maureen so far is "Ireland is not very wooded".  She also pointed out that Game of Thrones was mostly filmed in Northern Ireland.

Belfast has the best-looking Irish people I've seen yet.  Relatively speaking, of course, as the Irish aren't know for their beauty. 

Irish people like their little boasts and making things sound impressive, which are often quite specific - largest enclosed city park in Europe, longest bar in Ireland for university students, tallest obelisk in Europe commemorating a defeat over Napoleon, the largest hospital in Northern Ireland named after a British Queen. 

Had a lovely lunch and I ordered the roast of the day.  I hadn't had Yorkshire pudding in at least 10 years so that was a treat.

The Titanic Experience was impressive.  I went through the self-guided tour at an extra medium pace.  The most compelling parts of the exhibit for me were the details of when the ship started sinking and the details of the survivors.  The chaos and panic when the ship started sinking is unimaginable.  What could be more terrifying than being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and aboard a ship you know is going to sink. Unimaginable.  

Last transmissions from the Titanic

Original deed to begin work on the Titanic

Murals - Belfast

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Turning Darkness Into Light

We had a full day in Dublin today.  Breakfast at our hotel agreed with me very much - bacon, sausages, beans, orange juice, and coffee.  Although the breakfast agreed with me there was a scandal.  One girl discovered a spot of mold on her toast and advised us to be wary of the bread.  During breakfast Tommy informed me that I was talking in my sleep.  Around 4 a.m. he couldn't make out what I was saying, but he was sure that the conversation ended with me saying, or yodeling, "HE HE HE WHOOOO".

Our first stop after a guided bus tour of Dublin city was Saint Patrick's Cathedral.  I had too much caffeine at breakfast to listen closely to the tour guide but I got some awesome photos.  I'm beginning to think that caffeine might be my magic elixir because I'm a better photographer and funnier when I have a caffeine buzz.  

St. Pat charms Tommy and Kate

St. Patrick's had a gift shop at the opposite end of the hall from the altar.  Tourism is the religion of Ireland.  

We then headed to Phoenix Park, the largest enclosed city park in Europe.  We drove past the Irish White House and the ambassador to Ireland's house.  There's an opening and the tour guide Sally suggested putting our resumes in because it's "good work if you can get it".  

Trinity College was the next stop to see the Book of Kells.  The book is over a thousand years old so I was pretty impressed in the 20 seconds I look at it.  I took some photos in the Long Room upstairs and then we headed to lunch after a restroom stop.  I tried 6 hand sanitizer dispensers on the walls throughout Trinity College and all of them were empty, which didn't surprise me because the Irish are a filthy people - I should know, I rarely shower on the weekends, but that's between me and the lord.

The Long Room

Lunch was terrible, the fish with the fish and chips tasked like it was just caught in the Liffey belly up, and Rosie's salad took about 35 minutes to show up.  Hopefully the students chose more wisely than we did.

The students had free time so we went to check out Kilmainham jail.  We were unable to get a tour because it was so packed, but there was a stirring monument across the street to the men executed after the Easter Uprising in 1916.  I thought it was worth the cab fare just to see monument, I wasn't sure everyone else was so I didn't ask.

We headed back to the city center and I had time to take some photos in the heart of Dublin.  The whole group met for dinner at Belvedere Hotel.  We were served a dish and we couldn't figure out if it was the best soup ever or the worst entree ever.

Right now, we're sitting in the hotel lobby eating pizza and hanging out.  Tomorrow we're headed to Belfast and I'm excited because that the only leg of the trip I've never visited.  I'm looking forward to the bus ride to Belfast and seeing the countryside.

Click for more photos 

Back to the Ould Sod: Lowell to Dublin via London

Getting a snow day off from school was convenient for our departure from Lowell and allowing me to ease into the day and get my mind right.  We left extra early and the roads were a mess.  It took us two and a half hours or get to Logan airport from downtown Lowell.  When we finally got there we had a good 5+ hours to kill in terminal E.  I people watched and had a delicious prime rib French Dip at Durgin Park for dinner.

Airports are fun place to pickup the vibes.  There's a latent excitement because people don't seem to mind waiting for hours.  I certainly didn't.  Most other places people are furious when they have to wait.  But as soon as the status quo is disrupted people are ready to draw their fangs.  I saw a lady bump into a man standing idly and there was a crash and a brief instant of animosity.  This aggression also manifests itself in line for boarding as people inch aggressively in fear of getting locked out of overhead compartments and armrest claims.  

It was the slowest boarding I've ever been a part of and when I boarded the plane I was impressed by the size of the aircraft.  I hadn't flown internationally since 2005, so perhaps I had become accustomed to smaller aircraft.  I passed a section of seats that reminded em of 'the couples' toilet' I had seen on a Saturday Night Live.  It was a toilet where couples could sit side-by-side, face-to-face and hold hands and stare into each others' eyes as they shitted together.  Despite that image I would have preferred for sit there and have space to exhale. 

Our group was scattered throughout the back of the plane - 4 chaperones, 22 students.  I sat next to a couple of nice kids.  I had the window seat and I informed them how I had consumed an excessive amount of water in the airport.  We laughed, but soon they'd probably be concocting ways to poison my dinner.  However, the plane is so damn hot and packed that I might sweat it out.  The flight attendant hassled me about putting my backpack all the way under the seat in front.  The plane was about to split open, but we have to follow procedures.  I gave my bag a couple of kicks and she was eventually satisfied.  

As we took off into the storm and disappeared into the raging winds and cloudy, dark night there seemed to be a nervousness simmering in the cabin.  U2's One played from my Irish Hit Parade list and as Bono sang I did feel like we were one, and carrying each other.  I'm never afraid so I'm sure the other passengers appreciated the strength that I was transmitting.  It was the bumpiest takeoff and climb I can remember.  Then The Wolfe Tones version of You'll Never Beat the Irish played and I was certain we'd be ok.  But, then again, we were flying British Airways and stopping over in London first so I didn't want the storm mistaking us for a bunch of tea-drinking British snowflakes.  Within thirty American minutes the cabin reeked of vomit.  The flight attendants struggled desperately to distribute beverages.  

The flight was long and cramped.  I watched Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in Gravity as we soared at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean going 583 mph with an air temperature of -72 degrees, so it was the closest I could conceivably get to feeling like they did in the movie.  I enjoyed it mainly because of how terrifying it made outer space seem.

Finally landed in London-Heathrow and I really am not yet prepared to relive the experience we had there.  I'll just say this -  Heathrow is the worst airport in the world.  Heathrow essentially terrorized us and we eventually boarded for a short trip to Dublin.  This short flight would turn out to be, as Tommy said, one of the three worst flights ever.  It was filled with huge drops and swings and everyone agreed that it was brutal.  I was nervous that I was going to throw up on one of the lovely girls sitting on either side of me.  It shook some people up.  It was miserable.  Once we landed in Dublin and deplaned I was gassed.  One kid's bag didn't show up at the baggage claim.

After checking in at the hotel we went to Dublin's city center and did a short driving and walking tour before dinner.  We walked down Grafton st and went to our arranged dinner at Thunder Road Cafe where they served us bangers and mash.  Some people seemed skeptical of Irish cuisine, but I think generally it was better than expected.  I love bangers and mash so I was in my glory.

Whenever we got on our "coach" people were dozing off, including me.  It was a long, hard day and people are very tired, I know I'm exhausted.  Despite the travel obstacles I've had a great time so far and we have a long way to go, so after a good sleep we'll be rejuvenated and ready to get back at it.

Cheers!

Grafton st

Bangers and mash

Tommy and I are basically sleeping together