Top 10 songs of 2011

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My favorite former Austinites, Mel & Luis, are hosting a dinner party tomorrow night to celebrate the end of Mel's law school semester. For Luis and I, parties are always a great excuse to create a playlist. He texted me this afternoon asking me to pick my top 10 favorite songs with a few contingencies:

1. Only 10 songs. No more, no less.
2. Each song MUST have been released in 2011.
3. Each song must be from a different artist.

No problem! I thought. This will be easy and fun.

Well, I got the fun part right. Easy was a whole other story...

Things I Love Thursday

I remember a time when I used to be blog every day. It was a necessary part of my to-do list, just like eating, brushing my teeth or sleeping for 10 hours. Oh college, some days I miss you...

Things I Love Thursday

• Reading. More specifically, reading about social media. I ordered "Socialnomics" by Erik Equalman from Amazon a few weeks ago. This is one of the few books that's held my attention this summer. It's all about how social media has integrated into our businesses and lives. Very interesting stuff. It's making me want a social media job. I also got "The Facebook Effect" and the Social Media Bible, which is more of a resource guide.

Swim.

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Oh, little blog. How I have neglected you. Partly out of lack of time. Mostly out of fear of repercussions should anyone come across this, decide my writing a blog is grounds to fire me and...fire me. Well, been there done that and I've decided if that's the worst that could happen, bring it.

Besides, what good is a writer who does write at least a little every day - even if it is only a lame blog post about nothing that two of her friends skim? I wrote two articles for my fall issue of the magazine - the medical one which I enjoyed much more than I should have - and I realized I need to make it a point to write more. So starting tomorrow, I'm going to seriously undertake the NaBloPoMo challenge and attempt to write in this blog every day.

Mostly because the July theme caught my attention: swim. Esp. after Jack's Mannequin's song by the same name hit me like a ton of bricks today...which is one of the many reasons I love music. Sometimes you need that one song to jolt you back awake and make you realize you're completely missing your life.

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

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I'm kind of happy 2010 is over.

Don't get me wrong, the year gave me lots of great things: I got to see Conan O'Brien live, I traveled to Chicago to see Hanson and Rooney with my girls, I get to MEET my beloved Alton Brown, aka my Food Network Husband. Oh, and I got a real job back in print, which at the end of the day still makes me very happy.

But the whole year felt like a roller coaster ride as I worked two jobs, cut hours back at job #2 and then left completely to pursue a full-time print position...which I found just when I was about to give up. Between the exciting moments, there was lots of confusion, frustration and some crying. More than anything, I wanted to put myself back together.

And, for the most part, I feel like I have. I work for a beautiful, well-respected magazine. I have an awesome music blog that's just beginning to take off.

I'm ready for you, 2011!