sometimes, you just need to look up at the stars....

This past weekend was filled with everything I could ever hope for in a holiday weekend....

good friends...great food...amazing music...and memories that will keep with me for the rest of my life.

It's a funny thing how life works out, how when everything used to seem chaotic and unsure, all it takes is finding those moments that bring you back to the present and help you appreciate everything.

I've been trying more and more lately to have appreciation for life. To live in that moment and write everything I'm feeling as much as possible. And when I can't write it down, to file it all away to memory as much as possible. 

Like those moments when after we get home from a show (on a clear night), I have this urge to just look up at the stars, twinkling ever so diligently and grounding me in the sheer fact that there is a world of opportunity and memories ahead of me. That even if it was a bad night, it can't be that bad when the world can have moments of beauty like this. 

I'm not one to march to the beat of other people's drums. I have my own thoughts, my own interests, and my own way of living.

I'm the one who wants to go to Comic Con or the Renaissance Faire for a bachelorette party instead of a strip club. (And both places better be ready for me this summer, because I'm ready to get my nerdiness on!)

I'm the one who finds solace in discovering music that I have never heard before, whether it be older or something that just came out. (And trust me, I can make some serious music aficionados look like amateurs with all of the stuff I have in my collection.)

I'm the one who wears their heart on their sleeve and doesn't let life's issues drag me down, I just keep having the big, wild heart and pursuit of happiness.

I'm the one who will bake cookies at 4:00 am and not think twice about how late it is, only that my guests are going to love them.

I'm the one who drums my fingers over every surface imaginable, because I can't seem to get the rhythm out of my head...always a song.

I'm the one that people tend to overlook, but I'm still me and I don't seek the approval.

I can brew my own iced tea, bake my own bread, rock out to the Sex Pistols like it's my job.

I wear knee socks and don't care if people think of it as a perversion...because they keep my legs warm and they're comfy as hell!

I get excited over a band favoriting a tweet or responding to my post to them, because I'm a music nerd like that.

I wear my headphones practically anywhere I can, even in a dingy bar waiting for Matt to go on to perform, just to satisfy my musical urge. 

Writing comes naturally, and even in the oddest of places, I can bury my face in a notebook, trying to get down everything thought and feeling before I'm consumed by them. 

I keep a notebook of questions I would ask my favorite celebrities/great minds/entertainers/people if given the opportunity to do so. (And even had other people ask my questions for me to those very people...and hear what a great question it was to ask!) 

I even tend to think about the conversations I would have with those said people in that notebook, because I find everyone interesting, even those who are interviewed and have given their life story a million times over. (There will always be something new to uncover that will make them more interesting.)

Sometimes I itch to escape for a day away from life with my camera and a sense of adventure...and when I do it is the biggest rush.

I appreciate life, in all its ugliness, in all its darkest forms, and especially in its beauty.

And especially now, as today is a day to honor those who have fallen to protect the freedoms that allow me to be who I am now....I show appreciation by getting lost in another great movie soundtrack, writing, and breathing in the awesomeness that is my life.

I hope you can too.

Jenn's Appreciation Playlist (with a punk flair!):
1) Life During Wartime - The Talking Heads
2) Careful - Television
3) I'm Your Man - Richard Hell, The Voltoids
4) I Can't Stand It - The Velvet Underground
5) Psychotic Reaction - Take Five
6) All For The Love of Rock n' Roll - Tuff Darts

~ Jenny Rockstar