Happy Hub: Made In The A.M., BvS, Descendants, & More!

I'm riding an academic high with three excellent exam scores among other achievements that have all come at the tail end of this month. I guess that's something that should be included in this Happy Hub, but that's not really something I have a category for. I'm also very excited about the prospect of a warm May. Things are looking up, even though my next round of exams seem to be just around the corner?! I will choose to take that as a good sign because the more of the quarter I finish, the closer I am to summer. Summer! Imagine! No school! Sigh. I can dream about a couple months without (as many) responsibilities as I want, but in the meantime, we have lives to live and Hubs to Happy. Is that a thing? I'm gonna make it a thing. This was ramble-y. On to the favorites of this month!

Tunes:

This month has been a real eventful one and amidst the chaos, I didn't have time to discover much new music. In lieu of seeking out new music, I thought I'd finally get to Made In The A.M. by One Direction. I wanted to be able to give all my attention to my first listening of this album, which is why I've been holding off for so long. I'm so glad I did because my favorites on the album have been great material for my Instagram captions as of late. Always great to have a handful of those ready to go for #hairoftheweek posts and other miscellaneous things. In my experience with One Direction, I have always had one favorite on the album. I've enjoyed all of every album but there's always that one song that just gets it. Made In The A.M. has changed that. I ended up loosely dividing this album into tiers and the top tier consists of Never Enough, Olivia, Love You Goodbye, and End of the Day. That being said, I think the top tier can be even further divided with Never Enough being my ultimate number one. It's hard to definitively say since they're all so close together, but Never Enough just might have that slight edge over the other three. Some other most played songs off this album include Walking in the Wind, Wolves, A.M., and Hey Angel (in no particular order). I guess that's tier two? It's just a really good album. 

Since I wasn't in the business of looking into new music this month, I thought I'd resort to an old favorite to get me through a packed midterms week. I've loved Permission to Fly by Jordan Pruitt since at least 2008. The comforting nostalgia factor, inspirational lyrics, and upbeat music was just what I needed to get through this intense midterms schedule. It's one of those hidden gems that is always ready to pick me up when I need a little boost. It's also like not on iTunes or Spotify or anything so I'm not sure what's going on there? Thank goodness it's still on Youtube.

Back when Zendaya released her debut album a few years ago, I was obsessed with Replay, but I hadn't heard any other songs off that album. I don't know what inspired me to seek out her music, but I thought I'd listen through the entire album and see if it was for me. I ended up enjoying a lot of the songs but none of them particularly stuck out to me. Well, none other than Bottle You Up. This song makes me so happy and reminds me a lot of some of the couples in the books I read. It makes me dance as much as I can dance in my chair while I'm doing homework, even when I'm focused on the assignment and not the song.

I should also mention that I've had When Doves Cry stuck in my head recently, even before Prince's passing. If I'm honest, I didn't even know it was one of Prince's songs until a few days ago. I was surprised when I found out because I didn't think I had heard any of his music other than Purple Rain. He's more influential than I could have ever imagined. Going forward, I'm going to be looking into experiencing more of his music.

Films:

Batman v Superman (x)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a lot of people's most anticipated movie of the year and personally I don't think it hit its mark. It's not that I didn't like it, I just wasn't over the moon about it. Having seen and heard the fan reaction (this is definitely not a movie where the critic opinion matters), I lowered my expectations a notch or two and that might be why I ended up enjoying it the way I did. There were, without a doubt, problems with this movie, but I can give it a pass because of the incredible ladies in this film. And if that's not enough reason, I found myself experiencing this movie as if I were reading a comic book. The cinematography was very picturesque (albeit dark) and composed very much like a graphic novel. One of my favorite sequences was Batman's origins. Another part I was all for was the introductions of all the other Justice League members. A single not-spectacular movie is not enough to dampen my enthusiasm for the DC Extended Universe. I'm not itching to rewatch it anytime soon, but I wouldn't consider it money wasted. 

There was a lot of hype for Disney's Descendants last summer and I was entirely along for the ride. The only problem was I was I had no way to watch it. I'd read the prequel book and listened to the soundtrack while I searched for a way to finally watch this film that was breaking Disney Channel records. Inspiration struck a few months ago and I put a hold on the DVD at the library, kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner. I was so glad I watched it when I did because I had my brother to experience it with me. It seems like watching musicals together is a great sibling bonding activity. This movie was everything I wanted. The concept is so much fun and the execution is on par with what I'm looking for in a DCOM. I'm so excited for the sequel and the next book set in this world that comes out on my birthday. It definitely gets all the bonus points for facilitating bonding time with my brother. That's something that I can never get enough of. 

Miscellaneous:

the ever-lovely peggy (x)

Last year, I bought my beloved succulent Gertrude but she didn't make it past the summer due to a number of unfortunate factors. Now that we're headed for warmer weather, there is an abundance of succulents in front of just about every grocery (and home improvement) store. It was only a matter of time before I caved into the temptation and bought myself a new friend. This time, it just happened to be with Steph before one of our all-day movie marathons while we were shopping for food and snacks to munch on through the Star Wars prequel trilogy. I wanted to keep the trend of old fashioned names with a cute nickname so I decided to name this one Margaret and call it Peggy because there was no way I was passing up the opportunity to name a succulent after my beloved Agent Carter.

Not really related to anything besides my love for the Backstreet Boys, but the 20th of this month is their anniversary and this year the band turned 23! Although that's a joyous occasion, it's nothing too out of the blue. What really got me excited was the birth of Nick Carter's son, Odin Reign Carter! The best part was that he was born the day before the Backstreet anniversary. Talk about meant to be! Now all my boys are part of the #BSBDAD club, as Brian put it. #fatherhood  

Blogosphere:

Things were starting too feel a little too repetitive on xo. Yvette so I thought I'd switch it up and try a new type of book post this month. I love watching book tag videos on Youtube and I didn't see any reason I shouldn't make a blog post filling out some tags! I chose to do the 25 Bookish Facts About Me tag because it seemed fitting for a first tag. A get-to-know-me sort of thing. I had a lot of fun writing it and since it was pretty much just 25 bullet points, it ended up being a fast read. I wasn't sure if I would be able to come up with 25 whole facts but now I can't stop thinking about my bookish facts and habits. I realize I didn't tag anybody in the post so I guess this could be me tagging you now? I love talking about books and bookish things so I'm practically salivating at the chance to learn more about how everybody else interacts with books. 

This month's Happy Hub seems a little short to me... Surely I must've missed something. If you have an idea of something I left out I'd be glad to hear it! While you're at it, let me know what you've been loving this month! I'm kinda at a loss for where to start looking for new music, since most of my favorite artists have just recently released material or are working on new music. If you have any suggestions (old or new!) feel free to share them in the comments below!

Talk to you soon! 

xo, Yvette