Remember that time in 4th grade when my class had a contest to see who could best sing Bryan Adams’ “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”?

I suppose I haven’t mentioned it yet.

Any willing participant had a chance to stand in front of the class with the Walkman headphones on and sing along with Bryan, to the cheers or jeers of her peers.

This was obviously very awkward.  First of all, whoever was singing was the only one who could hear the track; to the 30 other people in the room, all they were hearing was an unaccompanied, nervous, pre-adolescent warble.  Secondly, we were 10-years old.  The most passionate thing I could think of was footsy.  However, as I remember vividly, this didn’t stop one girl from closing her eyes and feigning Whitney Houston.

Yeaaaah, I’d fight for you… [fist pump]

To me, Bryan Adams remained frozen in memory, frozen in time, in that Pomona Elementary classroom - that is, until last year when my friend Duane reintroduced me.

Oh, friends.  What I had been MISSING OUT ON all those years.

Duane knows me well enough to know that he would need to be sneaky, so he started by sending me a few songs that our guy Bry had written with Gretchen Peters - one of my favorite writers in the history of the universe (remember, I wrote about her here).  From the first tentative listen to those tracks, all doubt was blown away:

Bryan Adams is where it’s at.  His songs are fantastic.

I have a short list of people that I have to see in concert someday - and in addition to Patty Griffin (which will FINALLY happen at the end of this month), Shania Twain, and Phil Collins, Bryan Adams has earned his place.

And I just felt like declaring it to the world.

Before Sunday night, I didn’t know who Lady Gaga was.

I know.  I KNOW.  I am the least cool person in the universe.  You, reading my words right now?  I’M NOT WORTHY.

I had heard of her, but it was sort of like my knowledge of Google Wave.  OH!  I know that! What is it?  Um… I have no idea.

It turns out that Lady Gaga is sort of a big deal these days.  She opened the Grammys in a blaze of freaky glory.  This chick is WEIRD, y’all.  But wouldn’t you know, after one listen to her song “Poker Face,” IT IS ON REPEAT.

This song is from 2008, and somehow, I had never heard it.

Doesn’t matter though - I am GrooveSharking the fire out of this song.  It’s pretty ridiculous, actually - because since when have I liked dance music?  If only my iTunes was up and running, because if I had this song on my iPod, I am pretty sure I could run forever.

Which leads me to my question… what is your favorite guilty pleasure song?  This is a safe place - like a fire station or a hospital.  No shame here.  Maybe a tiny bit of shame.  But not enough to not say anything.

(And yes, I am purposefully not blogging about the final season premier of “Lost” tonight.  Anything that I could write or think or say would not come close to how I FEEL.  Suffice it to say that I am having trouble focusing on ANYTHING ELSE today.)

I am spoiled, and I am the first to admit it.  Why, you ask?  Well, among many other reasons, I have two identical black Macbooks - one personal, and one for work.  Let’s be real: that is just ridiculous.  More than anyone could ever ask for.

But last week, my personal Macbook went kaput.  It’s broken - broken like… searching for a simile… broken like… my toe?  Except my toe has a fighting chance at mending - and I really don’t think that the computer will be resurrected.  I turn it on, and it pulls up a white screen.  That’s all.  It’s like the moment after Juliette hits the bomb with the rock, except it never skips to the credits.  Eternal nuclear uncertainty.

Get over it, Annie - right?  I mean, I have a WHOLE OTHER COMPUTER.  But my personal laptop held all of my iTunes, all of my pictures, all of my super secret documents that no one is ever allowed to see.  Most of it is backed up on an external hard drive, but I don’t want to put it on my work computer.  So there it will remain - locked up forever.

Mostly this is bad because I want to sync my iPod to my iTunes to get my new music and podcasts.  And not only can I not put them on my iPod, I can’t even access my iTunes at all.  I am SOOOOOOO BORED with my current selection of songs (I only have ninety million or something).  And Ira Glass is saying things that I might never get to hear - which makes me panic.

IRA!!!!  I NEED YOU!!!!!!!!

I had recently downloaded Sara Groves’ latest, “Fireflies and Songs,” but have no way of hearing it again.  Lady Antebellum has a new album released today.  The Handy Graham recommended Sarah Jarosz - and since he was the first one to tell me about eastmountainsouth, I trust him - not that it matters, since I can’t get my grubby paws on these songs.

Today, I have India Arie and Phil Collins on YouTube.  It’s all I have left.

I love beets.  I really, truly love them.  If I see them on a menu, I will choose beets over almost anything else.

My least favorite color is blue.  I don’t hate it, I would just never pick it for anything.  If I were the captain of a kickball team, I would choose red first, and then green like my new curtains, and then maybe teal.  Yellow would be one of my last choices.  But not as last as blue.  Blue would be the last one standing.

My left ring toe - the one next to the pinky toe - is broken.  Or something.  I have a tendency to overreact to physical ailments, so it’s hard to tell - but something is definitely wrong with it.  All of a sudden, it’s gigantic - Elmer Fudd might as well have dropped an anvil on his foot.  The weird thing is that it doesn’t really hurt - but it’s swollen and purple.  I still ran for 40 minutes last night, though.  That probably didn’t help.

When I run, I listen to what I have been told is the “worst running music ever” - mid-90’s country.  I can’t help it.  The songs are so good.  In the 90’s, Nashville still operated by the principle of “the best song wins” - before it became so politicized and exclusive.  So last night, I was all, “Trisha Yearwood?  Patty Loveless?  Blackhawk?  YES PLEASE.”

These days, at least there’s Lori McKenna.

For as stilted and exhausting as it can be to move to a new city, I am reminded of something that I felt a lot of when I first moved to Nashville: potential.  The first days in a new place have a lonely sweetness to them - quiet possibility.  Each person that I meet might wind up being my friend.  Each road I drive down might lead to a surprise.

So.  Denver, ho.

I just wanted to tell you all of these things today.

I forgot to mention that I am now outfitted for Colorado.

This is called the Lodge Parka, which is most appropriate for me, since I’m not really a “winter sporter” (not that I’m really a “summer sporter” either).  But a lodge?  That I can do.

Has anyone read “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen?  I loved it so much.  It’s about the circus, which reminds me of what I think is my favorite song ever, “Circus Girl” by Gretchen Peters.  I’m not positive that it’s my most favoritest of the entire world of life, but I THINK that it is.

And in the past few weeks, some of my most-loved people have gotten engaged… to each other!

Mark and Erin!

Brook and Cara!

Josh and Meg!

Already having made travel plans for a wedding in Seattle in February and another in Austin in March, my 2010 matrimonial calendar is swiftly filling up.

For starters, I would like to pose a question.

What child IS this? from Annie Parsons on Vimeo.

So what is it?  A, or B?

Secondly, this weekend, Facebook really chapped my ass (a phrase that I have recently decided is very worth using).  I tried to upload pictures from the JAM House Christmas Spectacular – at which we had a fantastic time and packed our home with more people than we ever imagined – but the old ‘Book translated my vibrant images into dull, grey-toned disappointments.

See?

Why??  Facebook has let me down.  People need to know that my dress was not forest, but EMERALD.

That said, those two gentlemen flanking me?  The one on the left is my new friend Matt (SHOUT OUT), and the one on the right is Paul – or PZC, as he is known on this here blog.  Paul – besides being one that I outright avoided a goodbye with last night because it would have made me cry way too hard and so it was easier to pretend that none of this is actually happening – is the one who made a makeshift vocal booth for me in his closet when we recorded a song back in October.

Now, that song is finished – listen!

Lines of Love by annieparsons

That’s Matty Rineer on lead vocals – isn’t he great?  Actually… I’ve never met him, just recorded backup vocals for this song that he wrote and had already recorded the lead parts for.  So don’t take my word for it – he could be a psychopath.  And didn’t Pauly do a fantastic job with the recording and mixing?

On Saturday, multiple strong and manly gentlemen showed up at the house to help me load my pod.  Let me just say, I highly recommend the ABF ReloCube – as well as having generous and rugged man-friends.  In one hour – ONE HOUR – my entire life was packed into a 6’ x 7’ x 8’ box.

Day after tomorrow, I leave.  Ice storms are in store.  I hope the Honda makes it.  I hope I make it.  I hope I don’t spend Christmas morning in a ditch.

Awwww, yeah!  How’s about that – Troubled Annie, for the wind!

Listen to some of their new stuff here.  “Be Mine” is so catchy, it’s practically SARS.

I have to say, it’s scary to take little pieces of my heart and toss them out into the big bad world. But you have been a most gracious audience!

Thank you so much for listening to my songs this week – and thanks a million for buying the AP EP. Your support is helping me recoup some of the money that I spent to make it – which isn’t what it’s all about, but let’s be honest: it’s super helpful. My heart is overflowing with gratitude.

“By the Time”

There are only two things you need to know about this final track:
1) I love the “oooh-wah” harmonies during the bridge.
2) I like to pretend that I’m much more of a badass than I actually am.

This track has been deleted - you should buy the EP to hear it!

I am blogging through the weekend, because I started this thing, and I am not a quitter – except for when it comes to dieting. And Type From Home.

“First You Cry”

This world is totally screwed up. It’s a place where men leave their wives, where husbands and fathers have to be taken off of life support, where parents lose their 3-year old sons, where my own sweet mama was diagnosed with cancer this past Tuesday. Things are completely and utterly twisted, and we are sometimes left with the impossible task of picking up the pieces.

But the world doesn’t wait. Life goes on. You still have to do all of those little things that make up everyday life, even when you don’t feel like it.

But first, you cry.

This track has been deleted - you should buy the EP to hear it!

It’s Friday (happy Friday, by the way - congratulations on making it through another week).  Typically, I do not blog on the weekends - but we still have two more tracks to go.  So be sure to check in tomorrow and Sunday for the inside scoop on the final tracks!

“Starting Today”

In the fall of 2007, I spent 3 ½ months by myself on a road trip around the country; this song was born out of that time.  I wrote scraps of it during The Big Trip, and finished it right before I moved to Nashville.

But the song was really bad.  No, seriously - like, REALLY bad.  I didn’t want to play it for anyone, because it was so trite, so obvious.  So I did what any respectable human would do: I dropped it.

After tucking it away for about a year, one day, I happened to pull it out again - and realized that there might actually be some redeemable parts.  I decided to try to re-write the chorus, and wound up writing three different choruses - cart-wheeling choruses that remind me of what I felt like during those 3 ½ months on the road: “a poor broken heart chasing broken white lines.”

This track has been deleted - you should buy the EP to hear it!