7/100 Blogs in 100 Days

It's raining cats and dogs, boys and girls. Don't forget your umbrellas!

I went with my mom to drive my sister to work earlier today and I was taken aback by the amount of rain just flooding the roads. My plan was to see Kiri's play today but the show was sold out, and now, even if I do get tickets, my parents have to pick up my brother from the bus station, my sister from work, and they'd have to drop me off, all with these terrible roads.

Sometimes, my plans work out perfectly. And that's great. But, sometimes it seems like everything in the universe decided to fuck with my day.

I was so looking forward to seeing Kiri perform, but, now it seems like I won't get the chance. I'm not disappointed, I am devastated. This seems like my good ol' sarcasm, but, I'm being serious. I've been waiting for a chance to go with my sister and see her. This sucks.

I still love the rain, despite it's hateful attempts to keep me indoors. What a bastard. After all the times I have defended rain and all the times I have openly loved it in a room full of people against it. Fuck rain, you know?

BRB, y'all. I'm off to go us the rain to disguise my tears.

Update: I think I have tickets. Tears are no longer salty and bitter. Tears are sweet and awesome.

6/100 Blogs in 100 Days

I need pants.

When I find jeans I like, I ignore shorts and skirts for them. I love jeans. And usually buy just one pair at a time. Because I am not sensible when it comes to shopping for pants. I am emotional. And when pants don't fit, I give up. So, as soon as I find one pair that fits, I wear the hell out of them.

The jeans I have been wearing for a while are worn as fuck. I need a new pair.

So, yes. I need pants.

Pants, which are the lifeblood of--

Ok, I'll be honest with you. I have next to nothing to blog about today and the first thing that popped into my head was the fact that I need to go pants shopping.

Here is my declaration to the world: I NEED PANTS! GIVE ME PANTS! LET ME WEAR PANTS!

5/100 Blogs in 100 Days

So, at my elementary school, there were two playgrounds. The little kids used the tiny playground for recess and the big kids used the larger one. One fantastic upgrade on the larger playground was the addition of the swing set.

Was this a big deal for fifth grader me? Yes. Yes, it was.

The only problem with this new development was that it was also a big deal to other kids. Other, faster kids who would make it a point to sprint out of the school and toward that swing set like a bat out of hell.

I tried to beat them to it, but, almost always failed. And, since there were only four good swings and the rest hung so low to the ground your ass would drag, I was shit outta luck most days.

I remember the good days, though. When my favorite teacher would be on recess duty and all the kids would rather play tag with him. I sucked at tag, so I never played and that meant that the swing sets were almost completely empty. So, I would steal the best swing and save the second best for whatever friend I was hanging out with that day.

We would pump our little fifth grade legs and tip our heads back until my hair dragged in the dirt. Was this disgusting? Yes. Did I care? No.

Elementary school was great. Recess was great. Would I rather be there than in high school? Yes. But, at least high school gets me closer to college which might get me closer to my dream of NYU becoming a reality.

School is such a jungle. The steps you take are almost never forward, it seems. They are just steps avoiding treachery and peril.

4/100 Blogs in 100 Days

Sometimes, when you spend a majority of your summer wearing jeans, you don't realize how good it feels to lounge around in old shorts that you just found sitting on your bedroom floor and watch DVDs of your favorite people with commentary and laugh your ass off.

Doing it in shorts is way different than in jeans. Trust me on this. Way different.

I love that the first time I watched Stella, I only watched it to laugh my ass off at the ridiculousness (whenever I say ridiculous in my head, I say it like ridikkulus from Harry Potter. The way David Thewlis says it in the movie. I am such a nerd.) of these three guys running around in suits and being brilliantly funny. But now that I have read the interviews and stuff, I can keep all the things they have said about it in mind while I watch.


Some of the shots in the show are really beautiful. Not the stock footage (which is actually really out of place and mismatchy sometimes) but the shots of the apartment or whatever. I love listening to them talk about the lighting and everything. It fascinates me.

Of course, among the fascinating stuff is an assortment of fart jokes, random cursing, and eating obnoxiously which is really the reason I fell in love with them in the first place. They are complete and total leotards.

Today, I am planning on doing some screencaps for my Michael Showalter tumblelog (I am a shameless self promoter). Maybe of the Stella Shorts, The Baxter, or Stella the TV show. Or maybe I won't do that. Anything can happen.

3/100 Blogs in 100 Days

Today was sunburn, picnicking, and aching feet. Today was swimming, sliding, and friendship.

Last night, I spent the night at Kiri's house and I spent today with her family at a water park. I am bright red all over my shoulders, back, and face. Kiri's mom noticed my tomato red face, my stepdad saw it first thing. I always get severely burnt whenever I spend the day in a bathing suit. I never ever tan. I'm either so pale I might as well be transparent or red to the point of being impossible to miss.

I had to borrow a swimsuit from Kiri. Or, rather, she was gracious enough to lend me one. I never wear any bathing suit with two pieces, but, it's not as if I have anything against them, so I wore a tankini type thing with a skirt bottom and a striped top. Of course, there were enough girls in bikinis to make me look down at myself and doubt my own appearance. But, I figure if they are allowed to walk around with only the bare essentials on, I'm allowed to walk around with a perfectly decent tank and skirt combo.

It's ridiculous to feel insecure just because other girls are smaller or bigger or wider or thinner. Your body is your own and you should embrace it. "Beach/Bikini Season" shouldn't change that.

Nothing much to say about the day itself other than the fact that it was fantastic and I'm glad I went. Everyone was perfectly kind and funny. I had a lot of fun spending time with Kiri both last night and today.

The only thing I might have changed is the sensation that I am now wrapped up in a blanket of hot coals due to this scorching sunburn.

2/100 Blogs in 100 Days

I love hearing from friends when I'm not expecting it. Most times, it's just texts from mainly two different friends. Kiri and Kayla. They are the two people I love to hear from a lot.

I had a dream that I got the money to see Kayla in California last night. Michael Showalter was in my dream, too. So exciting. But, very weird. I am confused by it now, but, at the time it seemed to make perfect sense. Most times, I like dreams like that.

So, I texted Kayla about the dream and we were talking. Then, Kiri texted me and invited me to many and varied theme parks, including a water park tomorrow with her family.

The thing about me is, I don't normally contact my friends about hanging out. This can be taken poorly by some (or most) but it is almost never personal. I am just lazy. It occurs to me 'Hey, I want to see Kiri' but it never occurs to me to take the initiative and tell her I want to see her.

It's always sort of been that way with me. But, whenever anyone asks, I want to. I ask my parents immediately, I say yes! So it's not about the friend in question, it's about my laziness and my stupidity. I love it when friends make plans with me.

I think my birthday party might help me take a step toward not sucking at contacting friends and making plans. It won't be too many people, but, I think that inviting the few people over who I am actually inviting will help me squash out my habit of neglecting friends.

The point is, I am seeing my bestest friend tonight/tomorrow and I am getting very excited for it. I am still like a five year old in this sense. Treats like this thrill me.

1/100 Blogs in 100 Days

Starting today, I am going to write a blog post a day for 100 days. I will call this project 100 Blogs in 100 Days. Inspired by Michael Showalter's (as most things are these days) failed attempt on his myspace blog, I think that I will do a better job. At least I'll last more than, like, 1o days.

I think that this will be good for me. It will make me flex my creative writing muscle more than I usually do, because, despite some people's popular beliefs, blogging does take some serious thought. If you keep a blog, you know what I mean.

Today, I volunteered at the library. I've been trying to pick up more hours (at my mother's request) so I volunteered on Thursday as well. On Thursday, I was in the children's section, but, today I was in the adult/young adult portion of the library. I ran off some copies, shredded some paper, and reshelved some books.

There was another volunteer working on putting books back on the shelves from a separate cart from mine. He sported a red tshirt, cargo shorts, sneakers, a dark colored beard, and thin framed glasses. I had seen him working on another Saturday, probably a month ago. Then, he was wearing an awesome Star Wars tshirt. Of course, this means I love him.

So, we both ended up reshelving adult fiction at the same time. I had to hide in the Ss while I waited for him to finish in the Hs before I felt comfortable enough to approach those shelves. We finished the hardcovers at the same time and moved onto books on tape. It's not as if I have a crush on him or anything, but, it was interesting to navigate the small sections of the library while we were forced to share them.

Today was one of the best days for volunteering, definitely. Only one person asked me a question, which has to be a record, and it was not crowded at all. Those are my favorite days.

Now, I am kicking back with a salad and some meatless ziti and listening to my mom read aloud from a book about the filmography of Frank Sinatra. It's interesting to listen to her talk to my stepdad about movies. They know so much. They throw names back and forth like they are playing tennis (and my stepdad even throws in the violent gesticulations to boot.)

One blog down, ninety-nine to go.

Stories

I love to tell and hear stories. Through song, or prose, or just talking. I find the development of stories, real or fake, to be fascinating and amazing, no matter how boring or stupid the story itself is.

I love how almost everything can tell a story, if you want it to. A piece of paper on the table that isn't yours, or a lost pair of shoes left in a parking lot, in the empty space next to your car.

You always wonder to yourself what happened, how did it get there, how long will it stay there? And if you don't, you have absolutely no curiosity in your body. So leave me alone.

Next time you have a story to tell, just assume that someone wants to hear it and tell it. You never know how it might change the person you tell it to. That sounds silly, but, it's so true. What are books, but stories? And how many books have changed lives?

Don't hold in your words. Let them out in music, or drawings, or poems, or whatever you want.

The story belongs to you, and it's up to you how you release it into the world.

Stories are so beautiful. I hate to see them wasted.

HP

It's 8AM, y'all, and you know what that means?

HARRY POTTER MOVIE MARATHON.

Yup. Even though I am apparently missing the first DVD. Wtf?

I love watching them go from little runts into men and women.

It's actually kinda creepy.

:D

Lots of Pictures

Often times, being a 14-year-old (soon to be 15) girl, I can gain crushes on a variety of actors or musicians or just plain guys. It's sort of a gift/curse deal, which most people reading this (I don't expect many guys except Hunter, and he probably experiences the same thing with females) understand.

What doesn't normally happen is me getting crushes on guys from fandoms I don't even follow. (See: Zachary Quinto or Chris Pine. I don't watch Heroes and I didn't see the Star Trek movie.)

Lately, I am overwhelmed with crushes on the most random guys. I think that this is mostly due to tumblr. I follow 269 people, many of them from many different fandoms, so I see a lot of different people on my dashboard everyday.

Jake Gyllenhaal is a good example.
If you asked me to name something I have seen him in and loved off the top of my head, I couldn't.

I've been thinking about him more and more since the main character of When it Happens (a book a wonderful friend of mine let me borrow) mentioned that she had a crush on him and said she was dating him. "Dating," of course, the same way I am "dating" Remus Lupin.

This one started innocently. I had a total girl crush (which is a subject that I will be getting to) on his sister Maggie and when I looked for pictures of her, I found a bunch of them together that were really cute.

But, come on. Does this really need that much of an explanation? Look at him! He is the perfect example of the dark-hair-sweet-eyes combo that I have always loved so much. I haven't found a picture or video of him yet that has given me second thoughts. Does it get any better than that?

Or take, as I said, Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine. I haven't seen them in anything prominent either.

Yet, I find myself instantly drawn to any pictures or videos of them I see. Suddenly, I want to see the Star Trek movie and hunt down old TV shows (like Lizzie McGuire, cello) that Zach was on before he hit it big with Sylar (see? I know his character name!) on Heroes.

Don't get me wrong, though. Nothing could make me watch Heroes. SHAZZAM. I'm just kidding of course. Heroes is a perfectly acceptable TV program. I just don't watch it, that's all.

Seth Meyers. Good lord, the list goes on.
He has a beautiful smile and look at those dimples!I have always loved Weekend Update, but, after Amy left I was sort of "eh" about it.

Then, I took a second look at this hot slice of a goose and changed my mind.

He doesn't make the jokes any funnier. They were always funny, anyway. Still, a face like that can make the bad ones go down easier, right?

He's the head writer on SNL for goodness sakes. You'll see later in the list that that might be kind of a trend.

Like, with Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer.
Andy, too. The three of them make for one awesome combination of hilarity, genius, and hotness.

Take this picture for an example. There are a billion others, but, this is the most recent I have fallen in love with.

Jorma has such a sweet smile! So does Andy. Here he just looks silly, though.

Akiva is my favorite. I think everyone here (ie, the two people who read this regularly) are going to notice this: I love nerds. Regardless of a guy's looks, if he is nerdy there is a good chance that if I get to know him, I will like him more than other people.

With Akiva, the cuteness helps things along. I love his glasses.

This is why these guys showed up so much on my YouTube ritual blog post. They are such studs! Nerdy, adorable, funny, silly studs.

Silliness is a key factor to me liking someone, as a friend or otherwise. You have to be able to be silly and appreciate its art.

With these three, it's not as much a random event, but, I count it because I didn't really like Jorm as much until I started following a Jorm blog on tumblr.

Having nothing to do with random crushes is: Michael Showalter.
God, I love this man.

I watched his new show (with Michael Ian Black) premiere last night, and I laughed out loud almost the entire time. It was so awesome.


























I love how the two of them play off each other. It's just so perfect. I've loved it since I started watching Stella (both the standup and the TV show.) I went to see them live and it was amazing. David Wain is great, too. He directed one of my favorite movies, Role Models and is hilarious himself. He and Black were both in Michael Showalter's movie The Baxter. I love seeing them all work together.

The three of them were also in a comedy show on MTV called The State that came out on DVD today. My mom had been waiting for it for ages and I had never seen it so we sat down and watched about a disc and a half yesterday.

All I have to say is, if you ever get the chance to watch The State, do it. You won't regret it.

And if you do, you and I probably wouldn't get along.

:D

So, those are some of the most crushes at the moment. There are so many more. That's the great thing about crushes: You don't have to stay commited to one like a boyfriend or anything.

I will probably blog about my girl crushes later, in a separate post. That's a whole other arena.

Friends

You are like a puzzle that walked into my life, every piece clinging to each other perfectly. You were beautiful and I had you all figured out.

Gradually, pieces that I was so sure of just started going missing. A little piece here, a piece there. I watched my idea of you fall apart, slowly but surely.

At some point, I started trying to put everything back together with tape and glue, but, of course it doesn't work that way. It takes something stronger.

One day, you were just a vague idea of the person I once thought I knew. So, I picked up all the pieces that had fallen apart over time and started putting them back together, slowly but surely.

Now, you're still a puzzle. Some pieces aren't meant to be put in their place. I'm ok with that. It still gets frustrating, though, to try and figure out your words and my actions.

I just wanted to let you know that it's ok. We're friends, now, and that's the best thing that could've happened.

Travel Log: July 4, 2009

I woke up at 9:30AM with the rest of my family, and me, my sister, and my stepdad went downstairs to get breakfast for the whole family. While the omelets and the muffins are all very exciting, I don't think that that is the most important part of this story.

We left on time, all dressed up and ready to rock New York City. The bus was exactly where it was supposed to be. We all climbed aboard and I sat next to David, in the window seat.

The Lincoln tunnel was amazing. I don't know exactly why, but, pretty colors always catch my attention. Maybe I'm really a cat or a goldfish or something. That would explain a lot. Anyway, we drove from our hotel in New Jersey to The City and I was reminded of how much I love it there.


When I sit around at home in Pennsylvania, sometimes I wonder if I could handle NYC. Sure, I always say I want to live there and everything. I say I want to be a writer in The Big Apple! But, would I survive? In Pennsylvania, it seems to scary to attempt.

But, let me tell you something, friends: dreams always seem more terrifying when you are looking at them from a distance. When I stepped off that bus (then took the next few hundred steps through the big ol' bus terminal) and stepped into the city, I was blown away yet again by how much I want to spend my life there.

It's amazing what happens when you reacquaint yourself with dreams.


So, our first stop was Times Square. I love Times Square so much. Maybe I'm going to come off sounding like a country girl, but, the lights and the sounds dazzle me. No, wait. I actually sound more like Bella. DAZZLE'D!

While I was trying to take a picture of the Wicked billboard, a guy walked in front of my camera, so I got a close up of his face instead. Here are the pictures that I kept to prove it:



But, still. We went to the Toys R Us in Times Square and I rode the huge ferris wheel in there for the second time ever with my mom and my sister. We got a magnet of it. Tres chic!

I'm not going to catalogue every step I took, every bite of food I ate, ever breath I took- No. Instead, I'll just say that the play was amazing. I saw my very first show on Broadway (and found out that I will see my second with my best friend in the beginning of January!) and it was every bit as good as I was hoping it would be.

I saw God of Carnage, and after I got to meet Jeff Daniels (he rushed, but wasn't unfriendly. He took my Playbill and held it for a few moments, just looking around him and not at me. I savored those moments, regardless. He signed my Playbill and moved on),

James Gandolfini (he came out last and was all smiles and very sweet in general. When he got to me, he took my Playbill and said 'Hey.' I, of course, froze up because I am a dork. I nodded. That's cool, right? The nod? Then he asked 'How ya doin'?' and I told him 'Pretty good.' Awww yeah, baby. I am hot shit. Then he scribbled on my Playbill with some purple Sharpie. My mom later informed me that the big mark he left was supposed to be his name. I still don't see it. Hmmm.),

Hope Davis (she was really sweet to everyone, even the ones yelling questions and such. She smiled and took my Playbill and signed it with the most care of all of them. Her H is beautifully done),

and Marcia Gay Harden (who thanked each and every one of us who waited for them for coming out and seeing the show. She had to borrow someones Sharpie to sign things and I think she may have broken it. Ah, memories).

The point is, we walked around the city all day and when we got to the theater, I sat down and breathed it in. I breathed in the people around me, the ones I loved and the ones I had never met, and I breathed in the streets outside, the buildings and the billboards.

I sound like such a cliche, but, I want to live in that city. I want to breathe it in every waking second. I want to live it every day, not just on some lucky Saturdays. Someday, I may crave another place, but, right now I love that city and I want to go back every chance I get.

I'm in love with a city. I know, I know. I'm quite the romantic.

The Great Escape

This summer has quickly become movie filled.

I like the feeling of finishing a movie. When you first see the credits start to scroll and that song starts up. That song that plays to the exact emotions you're supposed to be feeling after that final scene.

There is no arguing against liking that feeling of finishing a movie, I don't think.

Whether you liked the movie or not, it must be satisfying. If you liked it, you liked it. You're left thinking about the characters or what's going to happen to them now that they are off in that whiteness of everything we don't know about that fictional world they are in. If you hated it, you hated it. You're left frustrated that you devoted two hours of your life to caring what happened to those characters in that fictional world. You want to get up, stretch your legs, and move on. And now that it's over, you can.

I'm glad that movies exist. Books are great and grand and everything between, but, movies are a different kind of escape. I think that when you see the wrinkles in her jeans or the vase on the bookshelf in the background that slip through authors' fingers, those little things are there for you to see in movies. I like that.

I'm glad for good movies. I'm glad for good directors, and good actors, and good producers.

I like this brand of escape.