All non-attributed quotations are from Albus Dumbledore.

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”

Kash,

I do not have any tattoos. I am the only person in my immediate family who does not. I do not want to spend the money, and the potential pain concerns me.

Like many, I have thought about what I would get if I were to get a tattoo. A bear, a moon, maybe a disco ball.

For the longest time it was the words "This is it, this is it" from the As Cities Burn song.

It is from the chorus which goes:

Son, this is it, this is it
You're gonna sink for your sins
Unless grace be the wind
Son, this is it, this is it
We're all sinking for our sins
Unless grace be the wind

For me, when I hear those words, I envision some sort of paternal, fatherly figure talking to a young man. The young one is lost, unsure, and the older, wiser one is simply saying, "This is it, this is it," so go. Go on.

"You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!”

I think the "this is it" idea corresponds well to the concept of a guardian angel. There are some meaningful parts of the Catholic theological canon that state that each person on Earth has a guardian angel. Some, more than one.

Saint Jerome (b. 342–347, the patron of archaeologists, librarians, school children, amongst others) wrote "how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it."

Exodus 23:20 says, "Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared."

Pope Francis, when speaking on this concept said, "If you have this attitude of docility, this attitude of listening to advice, of an open heart, of not wanting to be the greatest, that attitude of not wanting to walk the path of life alone, you will be closer to the attitude of a child and closer to the contemplation of the Father."

It is interesting to think about guardian angels and the general concept of free will. In Christianity, free will is essential in its practice. It is of the person to decide to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

However, there is the concept of Predestination which argues that God's omnipotence and thus his will predetermines all events and results. Therefore, God has already willed which people will be saved and those who will be damned. Calvinism is the primary adherent to this viewpoint.

In Acts 12, Peter is arrested and thrown in prison by King Herod. He assigned four squads of soldiers to guard him. Herod planned to put him on public trial and execute him after Passover. He had done this with James, the brother of John, and the Jews were pleased by this. He expected the same with Peter.

The night before this, still heavily guarded, Peter is awoken by an angel. The angel said to him, “Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.”

The Angel guided him out of the prison past guards and the gate opened for them on its own as they approached. As they walked out, the Angel disappeared.

King Herod had all the soldiers who were charged with watching him put to death.

"To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever."

On a Friday night in Utah in March 2015, Lynn Groesbeck was driving back to Springville from visiting her parents in Spanish Fork. She was going over a bridge that transverses the Spanish Fork River and hit a cement barrier. Her car flipped off the bridge and into the river landing upside down.

There were no skid marks and the car had no indications of mechanical failure. After toxicology reports came back it was found she had multiple drugs in her system. Before she left her parents, she had taken some Klonopin.

She also had morphine, marijuana and two pain medications, codeine and hydromorphone. While it being in her system does not mean she was having the effects of each at that time, it is still concerning.

Nearly 14 hours later, a fisherman chose that area to cast his line and discovered the car. He called 911 and first responders show up to the scene. As they approached they heard "help me!" in a woman's voice. All of them.

The river was so cold but they made it to the flipped over car. There they discover Lynn deceased. And with the trauma she had, they expect it was immediate.

In the backseat was her 18-month-old daughter Lily. She was strapped to her carseat with the freezing river flowing through broken windows right below her head. She was unconscious but alive.

The first responders cut her out and got her to the hospital where she was in stable condition in a couple days and made a full recovery.

Officer Tyler Beddoes said, "Someone said 'help me' inside that car."

Officer Jared Warner later told a reporter, "It wasn't just in our heads. To me, it was plain as day. I remember hearing a voice that didn't sound like a child, just saying 'help me.'"

“Ah, music, a magic beyond all we do here!”

On August 14th, 1987, Fleetwood Mac released the third single of their album Tango in the Night called "Little Lies". It was written by Christine McVie and her husband Eddy Quintela, and her ex-husband John McVie played bass.

On writing it with Eddy, she said: "Let’s just say that… I wrote most of the songs. Little Lies was very much my song, and it’s not about me, and it’s not about Eddy. It’s just a song I wrote, lying out by my pool with a pad and paper and that’s what I came up with."

"Little Lies" was Fleetwood Mac's last Top 10 hit in the United States, reaching #4.

You also showed me the song.

However, the single released after called "Everywhere" is much more well known today.

Especially due to a PayPal advertising campaign featuring Will Ferrell. He sings "I wanna pay with you everywhere" instead of "I wanna be with you everywhere".

I despise this commercial and it played during Monday Night Football every week. I think they ran it back last season too.

"Everywhere" reached #14 on the charts and was also written by Christine McVie.

On August 14th, 2001, 14 years exactly after "Little Lies" was released as a single, Michelle Branch released The Spirit Room, her second album and debut on Madonna's Maverick Records.

Her lead single from the record was "Everywhere" which peaked at #12 on Billboard. Two spots higher than Fleetwood Mac's "Everywhere".

In a 2001 interview with MTV promoting the release of the album, Michelle said this about the album title:

"I have this photo of my great-grandmother, who was a gypsy ... in front of this bar called the Spirit Room. She made her living reading people's fortunes. We were talking about the photo and what a great name for a bar that was, and how many different things come to mind when you think of the Spirit Room. The studio where we were doing the record was like a Spirit Room for me. It could mean so many different things."

David Connor built his hotel in 1898 in Jerome, Arizona. It burned down within the year but he had taken out an insurance policy unlike many other business owners in town. With the check from that he rebuilt it.

He re-opened in August 1899.

The hotel had 20 rooms, a bus for delivering guests to the train depot, and was quite popular. It was one of the first buildings in Jerome to be wired with electricity.

However, by 1931, the copper mines had started to be tapped and the hotel was closed by Connor's son. He continued to rent out the shop space downstairs though.

The mines fully closed by the 1950s and Jerome became a ghost town. Then 1960 came about and the counter culture crowd started calling Jerome home.

The hotel was re-opened and The Spirit Room bar was opened in the shop space of the Hotel Connor where it is to this day.

The hotel closed again in the 1980s due to not being up to code, basically.

The Spirit Room carried on and is still a popular spot for locals and visitors alike. They host live music often, lots of blues, rock, folk, americana type jams. The hotel opened up again in the 2000s.

It is now my life goal to book Michelle Branch at The Spirit Room. This is the kinda shit I would do if I was rich.

Check out Sam Pace and the Gilded Grit live at The Spirit Room.

Dan Aquilante, head music critic at the NY Post when The Spirit Room came out, wrote the following review of the record:

"On her debut disc, 18-year-old rock chick Michelle Branch marries heartfelt, intelligent lyrics about love and growing up with the edgy style that launched Melissa Etheridge's career.

All of the compositions on "The Spirit Room" were written by Branch, so after hearing it, you have a feel for who she is as a person.

The songs are good, offering the hooks to keep you listening, but her voice is very standard and distinguishes itself only on tracks like "Sweet Misery" and the final cut, "Drop in the Ocean," on which she works her lower register with a sexiness that is MIA on the rest of the record."

Dan got the boot from the NY Post in 2012. I couldn't find a picture of him.

His last post was about a Springsteen concert at the Apollo where he wrote:

"Dressed in black vest, blue shirt and jeans, the trim Jersey boy wiped his brow and gushed, “We’re here to put whoopass session on the recession . . . and raise your spirit high.” It was the truth. In less intimate halls, Springsteen can inspire confidence and project honesty. In the thisclose environs of the Apollo, you want to let the guy marry your sister."

He started his own website DanTheManPress.com and took out an ad in the NY Post, but their editor cut it, and Dan was astonished.

Anyways, I can buy that domain for $50 now and I am thinking about it.

“I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind.”

Anyways,
Garrett