Tag: music

Posted in music

Ranking Taylor Swift’s Albums

Posted on by teresamunoz91

I first started listening to Taylor Swift back in 2008/2009 during my senior year of high school. Her music has definitely changed over the last 10 years or so. I am still a fan of Taylor Swift, though not as much as before. Her music is still good, but it’s not what I grew up with. Fun fact, my daughter’s middle name is Taylor, yes after Taylor Swift.

1. Speak Now (2010) A++

Best Song: Last Kiss

This is basically her best album and no one can convince me otherwise. I don’t think there is a single bad song on this album. Her best song, not only on this album, but in all her music, is Last Kiss. I also really like Enchanted, Story of us, Never Grow Up, to name a few.

2. Fearless (2008) A

This is the album that made her famous. It was her second album and it still had some country influence. Love Story is probably the one song that everyone heard when it came out. It is definitely the song that made me a Taylor Swift fan. However, my favorite song is Tell Me Why because I can relate to the lyrics.

Best Song: Tell me Why

3. Red (2012) A-

In this album, she started going pop. I like a few songs from here, including the popular songs like We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and I Knew You Were Trouble.

Best Song: We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

4. Taylor Swift (2006) B+

This is her debut album. Her most famous song is Teardrops on my Guitar. I like this song, but it’s my fourth favorite from this album, after Should’ve Said No and Cold as You. My number one song is A Perfectly Good Heart. This is an underrated song. It is lyrically one of her best songs.

Best Song: A Perfectly Good Heart

5. 1989 (2014) B

This is considered Taylor Swift’s official first pop album. While it wasn’t what I was used to hearing from Taylor Swift,

Best Song: Wildest Dreams

6. Lover (2019) B-

This album was just released last year. I haven’t heard many songs from it, so I can’t really judge it. The only two songs that I have heard are Me and Lover.

Best Song: Lover

7. Reputation (2017) C-

This is definitely my least favorite Taylor Swift album. I get that she was experimenting with her sound, but I don’t like it. The lyrics in many songs were good, but I just didn’t like the sound. One example of a song that I really liked the lyrics is Are You Ready for it. While the lyrics were good, I didn’t like the beat or how she sang the song.

Best Song: Gorgeous

 

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Posted in Events, Life, Year Review

Looking Back at 2018

Posted on by teresamunoz91

Another year has come and gone. 2018 was a good year for me. So many things took place this year. One of the most exciting things that happened was I found I was pregnant with my first baby. I also got to travel and take part in fun races. Here are my highlights of 2018.

Pregnancy
My boyfriend and I always talked about having a baby, but we didn’t know it would happen so soon. My boyfriend wanted a boy and I wanted a girl. I was thrilled when I found out I was having a girl. This is a blessing and I can’t believe our little one is almost here. I spent the majority of 2018 being pregnant and while I did miss out on a few things, I will cherish all the little moments with my baby. For example, the first time I heard her heartbeat and saw her on the ultrasound, the first time she kicked, and when my belly bump started to get bigger.

Moving
Another thing that happened in 2018 was that my family and I moved out of Montebello. This was after living there for almost 10 years. We moved about 20 minutes from Montebello and while I do miss my old city, I am very happy and comfortable in my new city. Only bad things are that I live further from my boyfriend and my commute to work is a bit longer. When I was in Montebello, I was able to leave my house 5 minutes before starting work and get there on time. Now I need to leave at least 25-30 minutes before I start work. I give myself the extra 5-10 minutes just in case there is traffic of construction going on.

Travel
In February, I spent the weekend in Orlando by myself. I had gone to Orlando before back in 2017, but this was my first ever solo trip. The reason I went to Orlando was to take part in the Disney Princess Challenge. This is a series of races hosted by Run Disney. I ran a 10k on Saturday morning and then a half marathon on Sunday morning. I really enjoyed my solo trip and I’m so glad I got to experience it before becoming a mom.

In March, I ran a half marathon in San Diego. I normally travel with my family or friends, but this time I went with my boyfriend. This was our first weekend away together. It was long overdue. We have been together for 5 years and that was our first trip. Hoping we can take more weekend trips with our baby girl in the upcoming years.

I decided my last trip before the baby’s arrival should be a fun one. What could be more fun than almost a week in Las Vegas? In August, I went to Las Vegas with Giovanna for a few days. There were many things I couldn’t do like drink or ride on the New York New York roller coasters, but I still had fun. The best part of the Las Vegas trip was getting to see the Backstreet Boys in concert. I also got to try a lot of good food and we walked so much every day that I was always walking at least 10,000 steps, which was my goal.

Running
I ran almost 300 miles. I’m sure if I hadn’t been pregnant, I would’ve ran more. Regardless, I am still happy that I was able to run 300 miles. Not only that, but I was able to run one half marathon, one 10k, and two 5k races while pregnant. I wasn’t going to let my pregnancy slow me down!

At the beginning of 2018, I did my best half marathon 2 hours and 9 mins in Pasadena. This was so close to my goal of running in under 2 hours. I’m hoping that in 2019, I can reach the goal. I know this will require a lot of training runs from me, most of which will take place in the summer.

As I mentioned earlier, I did the Disney Princess Challenge in Orlando. I love to challenge myself. This was the first time I ran 19.3 miles in 2 days! What makes the Disney Princess Challenge runs even more fun is the fact that you get to run through the Disney parks and take pictures with the characters. I got to take pictures with Anna and Elsa from Frozen, Belle and Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, and even Buzz Lightyear to name a few. I won’t take part in the races this year, but I plan to be there in 2020!

In 2018, I ran the LA Marathon for the first time. I did not run in under 5 hours like I had planned, but I did improve by 6 minutes over my first marathon. Not going to lie, this was a tough marathon for me. It didn’t help that at the start of the run, I did some have pain in my left knee. I also didn’t follow my training plan as well as I should have. That’s okay, every time I run a marathon or any other race, I always learn ways I can improve my time and my training. The hills after mile 20 were the worst. Now that I know what to expect, I will definitely train for that in 2020.

Concerts
I went to see Brad Paisley in concert with my mom. My mom isn’t fan of country music, but she really likes Kane Brown, who was one of the openers for Brad Paisley. I had to choose between going to see Tim McGraw (my favorite country singer) and Brad Paisley. I decided to see Brad Paisley and it was worth it. He is such a great singer live and entertaining. I really like the song he sang with Carrie Underwood, who sang her parts via satellite/video.

Seeing the Backstreet Boys was the highlight of my Las Vegas trip. My only complaint is that I wish the concert had been longer. They played some of their newer music, along with their classics. It’s great to see them still together after all these years. They are touring this year. They are scheduled to play in Anaheim and Los Angeles. I’m hoping I can see them again. Fingers crossed that I make it to their concert.

Favorite Movies
Normally I am the kind of person who waits for movies to come out on DVD or Netflix instead of going to the movie theaters to watch. In fact, most of the time I only go to the movies once or maybe even twice a year. This year, I ended up going to 7 movies, which is a lot for me. Who knows if next year I will be able to watch as many movies since I will have my little one. Of course, I will make an exception to watch the new Avengers movies. Here are the movies I went to watch in 2018. The little kid movies are the ones I took my sisters to go watch.

Sherlock Gnomes
Black Panther
50 Shades
Hotel Transylvania
Avengers Infinity War
Goosebumps 2
Crimes of Grindewald

2018 was a memorable year for me. I can’t wait to see what 2019 will bring for us!

Posted in Life, music

Brad Paisley Concert

Posted on by teresamunoz91

A few weeks ago, I went to see Brad Paisley in concert. It was such a good concert! I went to his concert at the Honda Center in Anaheim on July 21st. I went with my mom. She is not a country fan at all, but she went to see Kane Brown, one of the opening acts.

Brad Paisley was the headliner in the concert. As I mentioned earlier, Kane Brown was one of the opening acts. The other opening act was Dan Tyminski. I had never heard of him, but he was pretty good. He sang “Hey, Brother” with Avicii, the dj who passed away earlier this year.

I heard Kane Brown a couple years ago when he came out with the song “What if”. I really liked that song. Recently, my mom heard his music and when she heard that he was going to come out in concert here in California, my mom made sure to get tickets as soon as they went on sale. She asked me months in advance if I wanted to go with her. I said yes, because unlike her, I really like country music. Only downside was that the Brad Paisley concert was the same day as the Tim McGraw concert, which was at the Staples Center. But since I had seen him last year, I thought it would be a good idea to see new people in concert.

We got to Anaheim really early for the concert. It started at 730pm and my mom got us there at 530pm. We went to eat before the concert, because I was starving! It was the first time in ages that my mom and I hung out together , just the two of us. That never happens because I am the oldest of six and now that she has her boyfriend, she spens so much time with him. We got to the Honda Center and couldn’t believe how close our seats were! They were only like $70/$75 and we were sitting floor side. We felt a little bit out of place because we didn’t see too many people like us at the concert, but I was determined to not let that ruin our good time.

Kane Brown sang all his hits, as well as some new songs I had never heard before. He is a pretty good singer live. He also sang a few covers of songs that he liked listening to while growing up. It was interesting to see him live and see how the fans reacted to him. He also talked to us about his life story, which was another way he connected with his fans.

Brad Paisley was the first male singer I listened to when I started listening to country music a few years ago. I think the first song I heard from him was “This is Country Music”. Needless to say, I was very excited to see him in concert. He did not disappoint! Seeing him live in concert was great! He is so talented and funny. One really cool thing was that he went to a smaller stage in the middle of the arena and he was so close to us! I tried to take pictures but my phone camera was sucky! OH well, I had a blast seeing him. I can’t wait for my next concert. I am hoping to see Carrie Underwood next year.

Posted in music

Top 25 Linkin Park Songs

Posted on by teresamunoz91

I can’t believe that it has been a year since the world lost Chester Bennington. I first discovered Linkin Park when I was in middle school. I’ve been a fan of them for over 15 years. Celebrity deaths rarely affect me, but this one hit me hard because I grew up with their music. Whenever I was going through some tough times, Linkin Park was there for me. He might be gone, but we haven’t forgotten him. This is one of the bands that people will continue to listen to 10, 15 years from now. I decided to make a list of my favorite Linkin Park songs. This was a tough list to make because I love all their music. Here are my top 25.

1. One Step Closer
2. Crawling
3. Breaking the Habit
4. Numb
5. Leave Out All the Rest
6. Runaway
7. Somewhere I Belong
8. Little Things Give You Away
9. Given Up
10. Don’t Stay
11. Faint
12. In Pieces
13. Talking to Myself
14. In the End
15. Bleed it Out
16. No More Sorrow
17. Hands Held High
18. In Between
19. Lying From You
20. Easier to Run
21. From the Inside
22. A Place for My Head
23. Papercut
24. Pushing Me Away
25. Shadow of the Day

Posted in Events, Football/Soccer, Life, Travel, Wrestling

Summer 2017

Posted on by teresamunoz91

Labor Day, which was a little over a week ago, signifies the end of the summer for most people. Summer 2017 was good for me. It started off when I finally graduated and got my bachelor’s degree in history from Cal State LA. I also went to San Francisco twice- once on a road trip with my family for a vacation after 4th of July and the second time in a plane with my grandpa and sister for a half marathon I signed up for. I also started training for my first marathon at the beginning of June.

One of the first things I did in summer was take my sister Angelina to Monday Night Raw. It was at the Staples Center in Downtown LA, so of course we had to go to Bottega Louie for macarons. We also went to Little Damage for the first time. I had avocado ice cream, which happened to be vegan and it was actually really good. Earlier in the day we got to meet Bayley in Compton and take pictures with her. At Monday Night Raw, we saw Enzo Amore and Big Cass, who had broken up earlier in the month. Even though it is scripted, their breakup really sucked. I thought they should’ve had a chance to be tag team champions for a while before breaking up. We got to see our faves, Sasha Banks, Cesaro, Sheamus, etc.

Every summer, my family goes on vacation for a few days. This year we decided to go to San Francisco/Northern California for 3 days. The last time my sister (Destiny), my mom, and I went to Northern California was about 13/14 years ago, when I was 12 or 13 years old. This time it was going to be my mom, my brother, three of my sisters, and me. My sister Aleah stayed with my grandma because she said she didn’t want to walk around so much.

We went on our trip July 5, 2017. We left our house early, around 5 am. After all, my mom was going to drive from our hometown to San Francisco which was about an 8 hour drive or so. It was so hard to wake up early especially since the day before was 4th of July and I had worked a long shift and then we watched fireworks before going to bed.

We stayed in Oakland because it was much cheaper than staying in San Francisco. We got to there a little late. After checking into our hotel, we went to the Jelly Belly factory which was in Fairview. We got to tour the factory and got samples at the end of the tour. We took so many pictures, especially of Ayanna. Afterwards, we went to the hotel and just rested. We went to McDonald’s for dinner and they had garlic fries. They were surprisingly good, even if it was fast food.

The following day we went to San Francisco. One of the first places we went to visit was the Full House/Fuller House house. We also got to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, visit Fisherman’s wharf, and visit the seals at Pier 39. I treated my family to lunch at a crepe place. I got a turkey crepe with pesto. My mom got clam chowder, which was sooo good.

On our way back home, we decided to stop by and visit Sacramento, the capitol of California. It was so hot that day, over 100 degrees. As someone who enjoys history, I am a history major after all, it was interesting to see the history of California. We had a long trip home. I think we ended up getting home around 8 or 9pm.

I went back to San Francisco towards the end of July for the weekend. This time my sister Destiny and grandpa joined. The reason I went was to run a half marathon. I was doing a challenge. Run a half or full marathon in Surf City (Huntington Beach, California) and a half or full marathon in San Francisco and you would get an extra medal called the California DReamin’ Racing Cup.
On the first day of July, I somehow stubbed my toe and was in so much pain that I could barely walk. I ended up not running for about 3 weeks. I was worried that not training for so long would affect my run. This was my 3rd half marathon of the year. I was so stressed out, not only because I felt I didn’t train enough, but also because San Francisco is known for their hills and hills were my weakness. I guess I didn’t need to worry so much because I ended up running my best time, 2:21.

Getting to San Francisco was a hassle for all of us. I went to San Francisco first. This was my time ever going on a plane by myself. In the past, I usually travel with my friend Giovanna, sister Destiny, grandpa, or mom and grandma. Although I have been in planes before, I was terrified being alone. I listened to my iPod and read my books to keep myself occupied. The first thing I did when I got to San Francisco was go to the expo to pick up my bib and t-shirt for the race. Then I went to check in at my hotel. It took me almost an hour to walk there. I ended up walking through North Beach, which is like their “Little Italy” and somewhere I would like to stop by when I go with my bf. It felt so weird exploring a major city like San Francisco all alone. I don’t have much experience travelling alone. I am at the age (26) where travelling alone is encouraged and I would love to be able to do this more often, if only money wasn’t an obstacle!

After checking in, I went to my other hotel and waited for my grandpa and sister. It might be weird that I had two hotel rooms, but the reason for this is that when I had made plans to go to San Francisco, it was originally going to be me by myself. The original hotel I reserved was close to the starting line. The other hotel was in Sausalito and I would have no way of getting to the starting line because the Golden Gate Bridge was going to be closed in the morning. My sister and grandpa had a tough morning. My sister couldn’t find her id anywhere and we were all so stressed that she wouldn’t be able to fly to San Francisco. Somehow they allowed her to go to San Francisco. I stayed with them for a while and at night I went to my hotel. It was soo small! It was smaller than my bedroom back home and it didn’t even have a bathroom. There was a bathroom that each floor shared.

I was so scared that night I couldn’t sleep much. In fact, I only slept an hour. I just stayed awake listening to my iPod, reading, and talking to my friends on Snapchat. I left my hotel around 430/5 am on race day. The weather was perfect. We started our race in the Golden Gate Park. I felt good when I started running. I just tuned everything and everyone out and focused on my running. We passed by so many historic San Francisco neighborhoods. We even passed by the San Francisco baseball stadium. I’m not a big fan of baseball so I’m not sure what team plays there, but it looked like a nice stadium. After the race was over, I met up with my grandpa and sister at Pier 39. After running 13.1 miles, I had to walk another 1.5 miles to get there.

We went on a boat ride and passed by the seals on Pier 39 and even got to see Alcatraz from far. This was my first boat ride and while I didn’t get seasick, I was pretty scared being out there especially when the boat driver said we were in 100 feet deep water. I finally got my clam chowder and it was so good. Can’t wait to go back to San Francisco to get that again. We also went to the bakery where they make sourdough bread. Another thing San Francisco is known for. Afterwards we went to the Golden Gate Park. We went to the Japanese Tea Garden. It was fun. We left a little early because it was super windy. When we got back to our hotel, we just watched soccer on TV.

My next runcation will be in Las Vegas. I plan to go with my family on a road trip for the weekend. I will be doing a 5k on Saturday night and a half marathon on Sunday night. Both races are part of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas weekend, can’t wait!

After coming back from San Francisco, I was able to resume my training. In fact, in August I ran the most miles. I ran a total of 89 miles! I even started running my long runs. Prior to training, the longest I had ever run was 13 miles. In August I ran 20 miles! It took me about 4 hours, which is not very fast, but this was something I never thought I could do. I have only been running for about a year and at first running a mile was a struggle, so running 20 miles was a huge accomplishment for me. It shows that with training and belief in yourself, you can achieve things you thought were impossible.

I did a few other smaller races. I ran three 5k races. One at the Stubhub, where LA Galaxy plays. Another one was at the OC Fair. I did that one with my sister, it was her first 5k and she did a good job. The last 5k I did was at Griffith Park. I got my best time for a 5k, 25:30.

One other thing that happened during my summer is I went to a Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert at the Staples Center. It was such a great concert!!! It made me love Tim McGraw even more. He’s so awesome live! I also have a new favorite singer, Rachel Platten. I heard “Fight Song” and that is my new theme song in life. I honestly cannot wait for Tim McGraw to come back

I also went to a soccer game with my sister at the Coliseum. We watched my two favorite teams, Real Madrid and Manchester City. City won 4-1. While at the game, we ran into two of my coworkers, my friend and my manager. They even got me a beer even though I normally don’t drink.

So that was my summer in a nutshell! I had a really good summer, spent it with family, my boyfriend, and friends.