Thanks For All The Memories

The last few weeks, I’ve really gotten back into my boyband phase from my teens.  I think it’s because the Backstreet Boys recently put out a new album and I couldn’t help but think back to the days of 98 Degrees, the Backstreet Boys, and *NSYNC.    I’ve found myself very nostalgic for those days.  In a lot of ways, I miss those days.  I REALLY miss the music of those days, where it was enough to simply sing – the albums these days just seem so…synthesized.  I know NSYNC won’t ever do another album – they’ve all said as much from time to time, with JC being the most recent.  But I wish either JC or Justin would put out something good. Justin’s first album was decent enough, but his second album was so synthesized that I bought just two tracks off it and barely listen to them.  And JC – it’s no secret that "Kate" is on a shelf in never neverland and I’m beginning to doubt that it will ever see the light of day and that’s a shame since I’ve loved the tracks that have leaked from it.  So I’m feeling like I want to thank them for the memories.  I have so many wonderful memories of late middle school and through high school of all the popular music groups.  I remember on spring break in..middle school I think…maybe my freshman year…watching a countdown of music videos that NSYNC was hosting and taping it because I was so excited and then watching the Making the Video for I Drive Myself Crazy.  I remember watching the Making the Video for Bye Bye Bye.  Or watching Snowed In.  My first concert was NSYNC.  August 8th, 1999 – it was JC’s birthday and Chris decided the crowd needed to sing Happy Birthday to JC.  I have hundreds of other wonderful memories of not just NSYNC, but many of the other popular music acts of my youth.  I look at the musical groups of today and realize that many of them are terrific, but none of them can take the place in my heart that the groups of my youth have.  So I wish I could tell everyone of that time "Thanks For All The Memories." 

In other news, the appraiser is coming to look at the house on Tuesday (my parents are re-doing their mortgage so the house has to be appraised).  Means I’m going to spend Saturday cleaning my room – won’t that be fun?  And it’s going to be one of those major cleanings, like pulling dust bunnies from under my bed cleaning.  The type of cleaning that will take me all day Saturday and probably Monday night too.  Can we say yuck?  I’d honestly hoped that the next time I had to do a cleaning this intensive, I’d be moving out.  At least that would have a payoff.  Since I mostly don’t care how messy my room gets, there’s no real payoff this go round and that’s fairly annoying.  I suppose you could call happy parents a payoff but really, I’d rather be out of here.  Just another 14 months – just until my car’s paid off.  Then I can swing getting an apartment some place.

Let’s see…I’m moving desks tomorrow, over to the rest of my new team.  My new position officially starts on Tuesday though (something to do with the new system accesses taking longer). Only other thing is that this weekend is Stake Conference and we’re getting a new Stake Presidency.  It’s the first time I’ll be in a stake when the entire Stake Presidency is being reorganized.  The current Stake President was called just before we moved into the stake nearly 9 1/2 years ago.  My mom and I are leaving the house around 7:50 (stake conference starts at 10 and is about a 40 ish minute drive from where we live) so that we can get a seat in the chapel and not have to sit on chairs in the cultural hall.  I’ll probably bring my Ultimate LDS Songbook with me to look through while we wait once we’re there.  It’ll also be nice to sit in the congregation and sing the hymns, instead of leading them.  I love leading the music in Sacrament meeting, but sometimes I miss sitting in the congregation and singing.  There are many hymns I definitely enjoy more when I’m singing them while sitting in the congregation.  Mostly, they’re ones that are a pain to conduct (Come. Come Ye Saints comes to mind. It changes time signatures several times within the song – I have to pay close attention to where we are in the song and thus don’t really get to enjoy the song itself.)  Anyway, I get to sit in the congregation and sing 🙂

"Life is measured not by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."