Desert Escape 2012

I'm leaving -40 degree Alaska for an escape to SoCal, about 60 hours from now.
...Words cannot express the amount of colorful, glittery excitement coursing through my bones.
It looks something like this.

Anyway, about a week or two ago, I made a playlist of songs that I can imagine myself lounging, tanning, swimming, shopping, and de-stressing to. As much as I would love to take you all with me, I can't. I can, however, instruct you in the following ways, in order to have a similar experience.

1. Download Playlist.
2. Preheat the oven to 80 degrees F.
3. Add in a cactus, pan of water, sand, iPod, headphones, and as many outlet malls as you can fit.
4. Set the timer for 12 days.
5. Get in.

See? Not so bad...

Put these in any order you like, I just listed them alphabetically by artist to make them more organized, because some of them are new, and some are old. There are some amazing artists to note in here, such as The Airborne Toxic Event, Asa, Carousel, Circa Survive, Mansions, Walter Meego, and The Xx.
Seriously though, this playlist is one to relax and have a January-summer romance to. Get to clickin'.
(Favorites!)

None Shall Pass	Aesop Rock
Changing	The Airborne Toxic Event
Fine By Me	Andy Grammer
Bamidélé (Ba'Mi'Délé) (Bonus Track)	Asa
All Your Life	The Band Perry
Cinema	Benny Benassi Ft. Gary Go
Two Is Better Than One	Boys Like Girls Featuring Taylor Swift
Blackout	Breathe Carolina
How I Roll	Britney Spears
It Will Rain	Bruno Mars
Got To Move	Cake
Sick of You	Cake
The Thrill	Carousel
Get Up	Carousel
Games	Carousel
The Crave	Chris Young The Rapper
A Thousand Years	Christina Perri
Stare Like You'll Stay	Circa Survive
Everyway	Circa Survive
Is It Love (Prod. by Sex Ray Vision)	Collin McLoughlin
Before the Light Takes Us	Darkness Falls
Naked (feat. Enrique Iglesias)	Dev
Good Feeling	Flo Rida
Look After You	The Fray
Hangover	Hey Monday
I Like It Like That (Feat. New Boyz)	Hot Chelle Rae
Goodnight And Go	Imogen Heap
The Moment I Said It	Imogen Heap
Going Up	Infant Sorrow
Bangers, Beans and Mash	Infant Sorrow
Flightless Bird	American Mouth
Perfect Day	Jim Jones
Bedshaped	Keane
Somewhere Only We Know	Keane
Dig Up The Dead	Mansions
Never Gonna Leave This Bed	Maroon 5
Sunny (Mercury Edit II)	Marvin Gaye
Unwell	Matchbox 20
Say You're OK	Meese
Bandits	Meg & Dia
Tonight Is The Night	Outasight
Finally Moving	Pretty Lights
Almost Familiar	Pretty Lights
Scar Tissue	Red Hot Chili Peppers
Hazy	Rosi Golan feat. William Fitzsimmons
Hey Alli	Runner Runner
How Could You?	Saliva
Broken (feat. Amy Lee)	Seether
Rise Above This	Seether
Today	Smashing Pumpkins
Elevator Love Letter	Stars
Your Love Is A Song	Switchfoot
Enough To Let Me Go	Switchfoot
Hello Hurricane	Switchfoot
Always	Switchfoot
Sweet Disposition	The Temper Trap
Santa Monica	Theory Of A Deadman
Rainfall	Upper West
Forever	Walter Meego
Vcr	The Xx
Crystalized	The Xx
Islands	The Xx
Stars	The Xx
Daddy's Lambo	Yelawolf
My Body	Young the Giant

Well, there it is. Some of these are links to either download or the YouTube video. Next time I blog to you, it'll probably be from an airport, or sunny Southern California.
Don't forget to check me out on Facebook and Twitter, and of course, my Photography website.
Thank you to all of my readers, and hope everyone is having a great 2012 so far! Enjoi.

Lists... and Resolutions

I don't know why, but I've been making a lot of lists lately. Shopping lists, to-do lists, playlists... It's getting to be that time of year when we all look back on the past 12 months and say, "Wow, I really accomplished a lot this year!" Or, in other cases, "Wow, this year I really didn't do shit, who was I kidding?"
Either of those sound familiar? Anyhow, I've got a rough draft list of New Year's Resolutions, and I recently decided to pull out my resolutions I made for this year. Let's see:
"Make Healthy choices"
Yeah I suppose I did that pretty well, I'm not fat, I'm not addicted to any illegal substances, or legal ones (except Nutella), and I still have both legs, so yeah, I made healthy choices.
What else... Oh, "take more pictures".
Yes, I definitely took lots of pictures, especially because I took a photography class this semester. *pat on the back*.
"Cherish every second of sunlight"
Definitely did that. Praise Rah.
"Love more"
Oh boy. Well, for better or worse, I accomplished that one. I haven't figured out what it's gotten me yet, maybe some wisdom and a baby saguaro cactus, but we'll see.
"Be more organized"
To those of you who know me personally, I know what you're thinking when I say that I did this (Alyssa you're a liar). But in my own ways, I really have done this. Hence the lists.
Those are all the resolutions I feel that I truly accomplished. For my new list, I like to keep a few of them, and certainly add more on.

New Year's Resolutions 2012

1. Drink more water
2. Make healthier choices
3. Get the hell out of Alaska
4. Survive the apocalypse
5. Cherish sunlight and warmth
6. Give away things I don't need more frequently
7. Maintain an undemolished iPhone screen (is that a word? whatever)

I really do have a ton of lists, one of which is 43 items long... Add "maintaining organizational methods" to that list of Resolutions.