Week One Hundred and Five: Happy Second Birthday to The Soundtrack of a Heartbreak Beat: Most Viewed Post #2

That's right, folks! My sweet little blog turned two years old on Sunday, May 4th. To celebrate this stellar event, I'm going to take this week off, and instead, I will offer the top four most viewed posts over the course of these past two years.

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Coming in at Number 2, with 148 individual pageviews, is the post I did on 10/31/12 over Ministry's spooky tune called "Everyday is Halloween". It's rather interesting how I get a lot of my traffic on this post. If you ever read it, you may recall that I included a pictorial history of my oh-so-gothic days, and I had one photo of my hair braided like Casey Niccoli. Now, if you do a Google image search on Casey Niccoli, my photo pops up within the first three rows --- I've circled it for you below:

So, yes, it appears that, in the process of looking for Casey Niccoli photos, people happen upon this post...

Most Viewed Post #2 - Ministry - "Everyday is Halloween"

In honor of All Hallow's Eve, better known as Halloween, Week Twenty-Six

will be full of Spooky Tunes

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Trick or treat!!  Happy Halloween, and boy, do I have some treats for you today!  I love this song, "Everyday Is Halloween," by Ministry because, for the longest time, every day truly was like Halloween for me.  I went through a super-uber-goth phase from about the ages of 15 to 26 - if you can actually call that a phase.

My parents attempted to be good sports about it, but they were none too pleased - especially since they spent thousands upon thousands of dollars to send me to Catholic school for most of my young life and to shield me from the very type of people that I turned into.  My dad would somewhat jokingly/somewhat seriously say to me: "Sweetheart, you can either walk five feet in front of me or five feet behind me, but you are not walking beside me!" My mom would always introduce me as her "artsy child". Deep down, they were both asking themselves, "Where did we go so wrong?"

I'm not even sure why I was so attracted to that whole lifestyle. I think that part of me simply thrived on the shock value.  The other part of me felt that people can be so idiotic and shallow and judgmental, and it was an incredibly easy way for me to weed out individuals with whom I wished to have absolutely no contact, exactly as this song suggests.

So, I am offering you, my dear blogland following, a pictorial history of some of the highlights of my super-uber-goth days...and for everyone who told me that I would look back on that period of my life with regret, I'm here to say: "You could not have been more wrong about that! I'm very proud of it, and best of all, I had a blast!!"  Happy Halloween!!!!

This was taken around 1996 (at the age of 19) in my dorm room at Bruce Hall (University of North Texas).  You would think I was dressed up to go out somewhere special, but this was just a typical day for me.  Yes, we were allowed to smoke in our dorm room; that was the whole point of living in Bruce Hall.

Here's one of me and my best friend, Cecilia, during Christmas break after our first semester of college in December of 1996 (at the age of 19).  I think we did actually make it out to the club that night.

This was my very first apartment that I rented in 1997 (right before turning 20), also referred to as "the den of death," by some of my closest friends.  It was about the size of a closet and was decorated with Siouxsie , The Smiths, & Cure posters and lots & lots of black - notice the skull lights above the curtain thing that created my bedroom and the skeleton cut-out in the window - epic!!

This is a picture of me and my younger sister cheesin' for the camera at my parent's house around 1997 (at the age of 20).  She never understood why I looked the way I did.  In fact, she grew up loving rap, pop, and hip hop - figures, right? Hey, Stef, look... it's a fishnet shirt under the dress --- that's a reference that only she would understand!!!

Now, this one is actually from a fashion show that I walked in around 1997 (at the age of 20) for a UNT designer that was held at the Club Clearview complex.  When he needed someone with an edge to pull off this dark look, he did not have to go too far.

Inspired by Casey Niccoli (Perry Farrell's love interest for many years), I used to braid my hair up all fancy-like.  This was taken in 2003 (right before I turned 26) by my older brother's friend for a black-and-white photography project he had to do for an art class.  It's a shame it is not in color because you would have been able to see how lovely the purple braids actually were!

Last, but definitely not least, just in case you missed it in the Book of Love - "Witchcraft" post, since I added it a few days after I actually published the post, this was my sophomore year high school yearbook picture, taken in 1993 (at the age of 15).  This is, hands down, my all-time favorite photo... ever!!!!!

And now... here's Ministry... this is not the official video, but it does have super-cool horror film clips incorporated with the music... I am also including my other favorite Ministry tune, "Revenge," below the lyrics...

well, I live with snakes and lizards 
and other things that go bump in the night 
'cuz to me everyday is Halloween 
I have given up hiding and started to fight
I have started to fight 
well any time, any place, anywhere that I go 
all the people seem to stop and stare 

they say 'why are you dressed like it's Halloween?
you look so absurd, you look so obscene' 
oh, why can't I live a life for me? 
why should I take the abuse that's served? 
why can't they see they're just like me? 
it's the same, it's the same in the whole wide world 

well, I let their teenie minds think 
that they're dealing with someone who is over the brink 
and I dress this way just to keep them at bay
'cuz Halloween is everyday, hey
it's everyday, hey

oh, why can't I live a life for me?
why should I take the abuse that's served? 
why can't they see they're just like me? 
it's the same, it's the same in the whole wide world 

(interlude)

oh, why can't I live a life for me? 
why should I take the abuse that's served? 
why can't they see they're just like me? 
I'm not the one that's so absurd

why hide it?
why fight it? 
hurt feelings 
best to stop feeling 
hurt from denials 
reprisals
it's the same, it's the same in the whole wide world

it's the same, it's the same in the whole wide
it's the same, it's the same in the whole wide, oh
(fade out) it's the same, it's the same in the whole wide