No Makeup March

... It's just about over. In less than twenty-four hours I can pick up the cover stick and paint over my imperfections to my heart's content.

I've got mixed emotions about the end. This year, I took it seriously. I mean, really seriously. Last year I was cheating right and left. This year, it didn't even seem like an issue. The last day of March kinda snuck up on me a little. I wasn't just dying to wear makeup this year.

And you know what?

I'm beautiful anyway. People even TOLD me so. But you know, even if they hadn't, I don't think I need the confirmation anymore. I'm being borderline conceited here, and that's not how I want to come across... it's not that I'm the prettiest human being on the planet and you should all bow down to me or something stupid. Not by a long shot. But I'm starting to figure out for myself, not just being told by someone else, that one: beauty comes from inside you. I could literally name you countless people I know who by the world's standards, aren't the prettiest of all people. But they're indescribably beautiful to me. Spiritually beautiful, yes, but physically too. Something about loving somebody just makes your eyes see things differently and literally see just how incredibly wonderful a person is, on the inside and on the outside. Two: God made me. And He doesn't make things that aren't beautiful.

Will I go right back to slathering cover stick over my zits? Probably. I hate my complexion at the moment. But this time around, it'll be for nobody but me. I have the confidence to look at the world and say that with or without makeup, I'm beautiful. And they can take it or leave it. :)

Yeah. That's my thought for the day. Ramble ramble ramble. Thanks for listening. :)

Much love.

<3

SIDE NOTE THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE POST: My little brother just crashed on his bike. He cut up his face and elbows pretty bad. Poor kid has a friend over and everything. Prayers please. :(

Song of the Day - "Always"

I'm not usually a Panic! at the Disco fan simply based on the fact that they tend to be inappropriate, but this song is WONDERFUL. Is there anything better than a guy singing falsetto? Well... yeah there is, but falsetto is purty stinkin' wonderful.



Ah, music. Lovely.

Much love.

<3

OH!

P.S. Amidst much trauma and frustration (never, ever go shopping with me if you have the choice), I found a dress for prom alternative. It is gray and very sophisticated and modest so long as I get a shrug to go over it. You wouldn't BELIEVE how hard it is to find a dress that's even modest WITH a shrug (well, you probably would believe it, actually), but I found one. Yay! Pretty. Great day with my mom and my girls Rachel and Natalie despite my general frustration with the world's views on fashion.

Scratching the Itch

I hate this feeling. The "I want to write something but I don't have a clue what to write about" feeling. I don't know if you understand it if you're not a writer, but it's terrible. There's this feeling that wells up inside you so you feel like you're about to burst if you don't just get words out on paper.

That's my fancy way of saying that this is going to be another annoying list post.

COOL GOD THOUGHTS:
1. Go read this article I wrote. I don't really know how to explain it, so you should just go read it. It's really cool, I promise. :)
2. Galatians 3:27-- "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." The metaphors in the Bible never cease to amaze me. One: you can't get much closer than your clothes! Two: if you're not wearing clothes, you're naked and you're vulnerable. Clothing ourselves with Christ gives us protection and means we're as close to Christ as we can be. :)
3. On a slightly different note, a God-related rant:
I'm kind of sick of the way the youth in the church are treated; not that we're treated unkindly or anything, but adults act like we can't handle anything deep. Last week I went to a youth rally, and out of the three speakers, there was ONE that I felt like taught me anything new. The other two were about how if we rely on God, He'll help us through life, and how great Heaven is going to be.
REALLY? NO WAY!!
For real, though, tell me something new! Tell me HOW to rely on God!! Dig into the text! We can handle it! \
Even today, I went to the Rocky Mountain Women's Renewal. I felt like we dug in a LOT more, which was awesome, but I think people
assume that if they're talking to teenagers they have to talk about sex and alcohol. Because that's apparently all we struggle with. Honestly, today, we're the girls who got up early on a Saturday morning to come to a church function. Do they really think we're the ones sleeping around and drinking? I mean, come on! It's beginning to seem like being a teenager in the church is all about what NOT to do rather than what to do. And I think that's why we lose so many teenagers in the church. We end up kind of "accidentally" spreading the idea that as long as we're being "good people" we're doing pretty good. Because we're just teenagers. We're not capable of doing anything deeper than being "good."
That being said, youth group classes and devos at my own congregation have been awesome lately. There are several activities I've been to that are an exception to this. Not all teen functions treat us like we're dummies. But... some of them do. And that's my rant. *steps off soapbox*

THINGS I DID THIS WEEK:
1. Turned in my term paper on Tuesday! Woot woot! I was going to post it here, because I think it's really good... but then I realized that's like screaming, "Hey! Free term paper!" to the world. So I actually don't think I will. Bummer.
2. On Wednesday something possessed me to alphabetize every movie we own. I was so proud of myself until I found Big Fish upstairs a day later.
3. Played Improv games in Acting class... I'm bad at it.
4. Brainstormed ideas for a school literary magazine with my friends Jenna, Dani, Jacquie, and Calais!! We're going to call it "Interrobang" (which means "!?") and we're going to have poems, and short stories, and articles, and art, and photographs, and it's going to be so awesome!! I'm probably going to get a blog up sometime in the near future as well. Cross your fingers that administration approves!
5. Learned about JFK in history... my teacher went off on conspiracy theorists. Apparently there are people who don't think Oswald actually
shot him. My history teacher thinks they're idiots. It was pretty funny.
6. FINALLY GOT ON SPRING BREAK!! Party on, peeps.
7. My mom found "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" at Sam's Club. You know, the clay-animation Easter special. One, I discovered that Peter is voiced by Casey Kasem (aka Shaggy from Scooby-Doo), and two, I realized Danny Kaye is the
narrator. (Random fact about me: I love old Danny Kaye movies. The Court Jester is hilarious. "The vessel with the pestle has the pellet with the poison... but the chalice from the palace holds the brew that is true." Hehe.)
8. Like I said, I attended the Rocky Mountain Women's Renewal today... pretty awesome! Hannah Colley spoke to the teens and I appreciated her bluntness. :)
9. I CLEANED MY ROOM! I have a floor! Who knew? (Yes, it really was that bad. I'm not kidding.)
9. As I'm writing this I'm watching a thing on the History Channel analyzing Star Wars... It's intriguing. Almost every hero story is the same, did you know? Compare them in your head sometime.
10. OH! I had to change my blog layout because my old background decided to stop working. On the downside... I really liked that
background. On the other... I found this awesome font for the titles! It makes me want to write a post simply to see something in that pretty font.
11. Lost my besties Holly and Aimee to SYD tour... Miss you guys! Come back to me soon!

THINGS I'M GOING TO DO THIS WEEK:
1. SLEEEEEEP! A lot. I like to sleep.
2. I'm having two of my besties over for a sleepover tomorrow... we're gonna watch movies and eat ice cream and then go modest dress shopping for prom alternative! (Which is NOT prom by the way... In case you didn't know. Our youth group is doing an alternative where we all go someplace nice to eat and dress up nice and stuff. Yay! No dancing. I'm a good girl. No drama either--I'm going stag. But I still want a pretty dress.)
3. Mom and I are having our friend Sheryl over to watch chick flicks! Yay!
4. A bunch of us are throwing around the idea of going to the zoo sometime? I don't know, but I hope we get to know. I like the zoo.
5. I'm going to watch movies. Specifically Tuck Everlasting and Peter Pan (the Universal version, not the Disney one.) And probably a few more.

Alright, Bloggerverse. I'm tired, and I have scratched my writing itch. Much love.

<3

Motown Thursday

In light of last night's American Idol theme, I feel the need to tell you something. Motown music makes me happy. :)

There's something about the good soul music that's kinda inexplicable. I cannot listen to Stevie Wonder or the Jackson 5 without smiling. I simply can't. I had a rotten day at school today, but I prayed about it, then came home and had cookies and listened to some Motown. All better! It's very simple and not incredibly deep, but it has such an exhilarating feel to it. And you just can't help but love it. :)

So here. Have some videos. You get to smile too.

I lllooooovvvveee Stevie. And this may be my favorite Stevie song. There are about three groups of people that can get away with a harmonica and not bother me: The Avett Brothers, The Beatles, and Stevie Wonder.


This is just one of those iconic classic songs that everybody knows. And everybody loves. All the normal people, anyway. Fontella Bass could belt out these notes like nobody's business.


What girl DOESN'T want somebody to sing this song about her? I've been in love with it ever since it was on a Little Debbie commercial when I was seven or eight. Oh for the days when mainstream music had class...


I'm no Michael Jackson fan, but I love the Jackson 5. Back when he was nine and still black and not a creeper he was precious!


And finally... this is just classic. 'Nough said.


Sigh. Ah music. It's lovely.

Much love.

<3

Inception

Just so you know... this is a blogpost within a blogpost. Within a blogpost. Have fun finding the cutoffs. Hehe. :)

I've always been just a little bit fascinated with dreams, because they don't make sense at all. How do they seem so real? How can you feel pain and touch so clearly even though it's only a dream? Why do dreams happen? There's a million questions that I don't think science has quite figured out. It's not physical, but at the same time it is. And that anomaly is just really interesting.

So I loved this movie. Haha.

Really, Melissa? It's been out for, what, like a year now? And you hadn't seen it before now?

Nope. Not 'til last night. Crazy, right?

Anyways, for those of you who live under a rock like me until last night, the concept of the movie is a dream within a dream within a dream. Within a dream. Within a dream. Haha. Just kidding, I think that's too many. But you get the point. It's like subconscious espionage: these people (Leo DiCaprio and company) go into this man's dreams to try to plant an idea in his mind, but the guy has to think it was his own idea all along. Verrry interesting. It's kinda one of those things I wish I had thought of myself.

*There will probably be spoilers from this point on. You have been warned.*

WHAT I LOVED:

-The confusingness. (Haha. Spell check is telling me that's not a word. I don't care.) Here's the thing: it wasn't as confusing as I thought it was going to be based on how everyone was talking about it. I was never lost, but I had to think about it to figure out what exactly was going on. I loved the artistry in that, because the whole time Cobb (Leo DiCaprio) is talking about how you can tell you're in a dream when you can't remember exactly how you got to where you are. The whole dream within a dream within a dream thing made the audience experience that too-- I knew the van was the first dream level, but it took me a good few minutes to remember where they were before that. So it was confusing to an end.

-The underlying themes. Like I've said before, I love Christopher Nolan for his themes. The movie is never just a movie with a fun plot and lots of action and so on. There's always a "Hey, for real, this is important. Even if you can't save Gotham City or break into people's dreams." People don't realize how powerful ideas are. No one thinks about the fact that a simple idea can make or break your life. Ideas turn into actions, and actions are what keep the world going. Ideas are a big deal. Or, to put it how Cobb does, "What is the most resilient parasite? A bacteria? A virus? An intenstinal worm? An idea. Resilient, highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate." Another thing Nolan's insanely good at is literalizing his themes... You have Mal, whose life has LITERALLY been taken over, and eventually just plain taken, by an idea. Awesome.

-The creativity. I mean, who comes up with this stuff? It's insane! The screenwriters deserve major props for good writing and whoever came up with the idea (Nolan, I assume) is brilliant. I'm jealous.

-Quotes! I love quotes.

Cobb: "You're waiting for a train...a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope the train will take you, but you can't be sure. But it doesn't matter...because..."
Mal: "Because we'll be together."

"Look at you. You're just a shade, a shade of my real wife. How could I capture all your beauty, your complexity, your perfection, your imperfection, in a dream? Yes, you're the best that I can do. But, I'm sorry, you're just not good enough."


Hehe. That was my sappy fix. I always need a sappy fix.

-The Penrose Steps. Ahaha! That was so ridiculously cool!

THE ENDING:
This is where I've heard the most debate. Did the top keep spinning? Did it not? Is he dreaming? Is he not?
I think he's still dreaming.
I can't really explain why I got that vibe, 'cause I'm not entirely sure. But at the end when he's talking to Saito and he says "Come back with me. We can be young men again," I felt like that was way too much like Mal talking to him right before she jumped. It never explains how they all got back on the plane. You never see Cobb and Saito somehow kicking themselves all the way back up. It feels like he wakes up on the plane with no recollection of how he got there. Which means it was a dream!!
But here's the thing: I don't think it matters. Cobb's goal was never to get back to real life. Even when he and Mal were stuck in Limbo, it wasn't real life that was driving him. It was getting back to his kids. And at the end, he gets back to his kids. We're looking at the top at the end, but he isn't. He doesn't care. He got where he was going, and whether that's reality or not, he's happy. Which made it oddly heartwarming for a sci-fi heist movie.

All in all, purty awesome movie. I'm a fan.

Much love.

<3

A Toy Story Poem

I wrote a poem. A Toy Story poem. :)

I feel the need to tell you that it's a Toy Story poem, because I don't know if you'd be able to tell otherwise. But you must understand that I've kinda been in love with Cowboy Woody and the Toy Story franchise in general since I was rather small. Couple that with the Gabriel Gadfly poem about Mario and Princess Peach and I get all kinds of ideas for unconventionally pop-cultural love poems. Yay. :)

You're My Favorite Deputy
When the time comes
To saddle up
And face the world
Remember this:
Your name is written
On my sole
And I will always
Come back to you.

"Now Woody, he's been my pal for as long as I can remember. He's brave, like a cowboy should be. And kind, and smart. But the thing that makes Woody special, is he'll never give up on you... ever. He'll be there for you, no matter what. " -Andy, Toy Story 3

Yay Toy Story. And poems. :)
Much love.

<3

The Avett Brothers, Pi, and My Somewhat Interesting Existence

Allow me to begin by apologizing for the scatter-brained nature of this post.

I want to keep them focused, I really do. And I try. But by the time I end up actually blogging, I discover that there's way too many things for me to blog about. I could easily separate all the topics I'm going to write about into their own posts, and I realize that this post would be much more dynamic if I would take the time to separate them out, but honestly, I'm either too lazy or too eager to talk about things to do that. So I won't. So here you go. My life.

This is a beautiful place.



This is beautiful music.

(I may have changed my mind. I think Scott might be my favorite.)

(I'm sorry for posting this song incessantly, I really am. But it might be my favorite song ever. Listen to their beautiful voices. Aaahhh. Goosebumps.)

This is a beautiful girl. Kind of.

(Except she has a beautiful zit on her face because it's No Makeup March. Oh joy.)

And this is the beautiful girl with her beautiful tickets to that beautiful place to hear that beautiful music LIVE.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What did I tell you? Quote: "I need an Avett concert. If they come to Denver, I will explode. And then put all my pieces back together and get myself to that concert." (See here.) What did I tell you, Bloggerverse? I win. (And my daddy wins even more for agreeing to go with me.)

Never mind. Quote from my daddy not two seconds ago on the phone with my uncle: "I think they're the Avett (pronounces it wrong) Brothers? I don't know, I think they're the Jonas Brothers and they just grew beards. Faking everybody else.)

You don't win anymore, Daddy. But we're going to fix that.

I'll leave you with that for now, for I'm sure you're gonna get an EARFUL about it between now and July.

Completely switching gears... it's Pi Day. Ahahaha!
Therefore I feel obligated to be nerdy.
Earlier I brought you the geekiest love poem I have ever read. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the NERDIEST love poem I have ever read.

LOVE POEM FROM A NERD
by Unknown
Like two foci of an elliptical
Your eyes entice me
Cause my cardiac muscles
To palpitate
As I estimate the distance
Between us

I’ve arrived
At the conclusion
That you’re sitting
Approximately 5 feet and 23 centimeters
Away from me
7 and one half millimeters closer
Than yesterday

As you sit there
And I calculate your potential energy
I find myself wishing
That I could change
Y= mx + b
Into y = Unext2me
You are my complementary angle

I long to whisper
That Newton’s laws
Were created just for you
Of course that’s not true
But logic doesn’t matter anymore
Because my feelings for you are growing exponentially

Like radiation, you penetrate through my skin
You watched my veins branch like fractals
While I reached for the pencil that you dropped
You listened to the logarithm my heart produced
At a near inaudible frequency
As I returned the pencil
To it’s rightful owner

Like absolute zero
All molecules within me halted
In that moment
Your centripetal force sent me spinning
And though they say opposites attract
You didn’t even utter a thank you

It figures
Seeing as the probability of you noticing me
Is exactly .41 in 10,731
But I long
To cosine my name on a love note
Addressed to you

You are the Pascal behind my triangle
And you can count on the fact

that I’ll calc-u-later


You can tell a real nerd wrote this because he said centripetal force instead of centrifugal force. Because centrifugal force does not exist, despite the fact that I did my science fair project on it in fourth grade. My childhood was a lie. But that's not important right now.

In other news...

I'm writing my term paper on how TV and movies reflected the digression in morality in the late 1960s. It's purty sweet. I might actually post it at some point. Probably not though. That would be nerdy even for me. It's due on Monday. Cross your fingers for me.

Small joys:
-I got to go on a walk the other day. There's nothing better than wandering around aimlessly and listening to music. Except for maybe laying under the tree in my front yard and listening to music. That's utter contentment right there. I ate my Milky Way Midnight on my walk... which, now that I think of it, kinda defeats the purpose of the exercise, but oh well.
-We watched the Dick Van Dyke Show in Acting today. We listened to Abbott and Costello's "Who's On First?" as well. Old-fashioned comedy for the win!
-Daylight Savings Time has started. I LOVE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME. Granted, I lost an hour of sleep, which kind of stinks. But there's something magical to me about the sun just skimming the mountains right after church services on Sunday nights. That's the first time that summer's coming.
-I GET TO GIVE BLOOD ON THURSDAY. I LOVE giving blood. However, the drive is at school, so my mom isn't coming with me this time around. Alas! We shall suck her blood another time.
-My mom made strawberries and pound cake for dessert the other night, and we shall have it leftover for quite sometime. Joy.

Alright. I do believe I am currently done rambling. Thanks for listening, Bloggers. Much love.

<3

Legacy

When the atomic bomb went off in Hiroshima, Japan at the end of World War II, it literally burned shadows into the surfaces that weren't themselves flammable. This picture to the right was taken in the 1960s, nearly twenty years after the dropping of the bomb. The heat was so intense that the shadows created a cool spot, so the impression left stood out from the rest of the carnage in terms of how much it was burned. The people and things who cast the shadows were effectually vaporized, but their shadows remained behind.

This man, without even trying to, shielded the space under him from the heat, and it created a lasting impression on that space, even though he has been gone for over sixty years now. How much more can we do when we intentionally try to leave people with the impact of the gospel?

Leave a legacy.

The Little Things

I'm a simple girl. With simple tastes. You can keep all your overpriced luxuries. I just want one of these:

(Excuse the webcam reflection... it's a Milky Way Midnight. Dark chocolate, marshmallow, and caramel. We will eat them in Heaven, I promise. See that look of joy on my face?)

Or one of these...

(Berry sundae. Who says you can't buy happiness? These are less than two dollars at the snack stand at Sam's Club.)

Or a clock like this...

(Thank you Mr. Dali.)

Or an entertaining YouTube video...

(See how elevated my sense of humor is?)

Or a well-sung Avett song...

(I'm waiting for reserve tickets to the CONCERT to go on sale... My wonderful daddy has agreed to go with me. I must actually make him a fan by July. I shall start by teaching him how to say "Avett" correctly.)

Or the time to write a blog post (sorta).

I'm simple.

Much love. :)

<3

A Deep Breath

Take a deep breath.

The prisoners were divided into three groups. The fit became slaves. The excessively unfortunate were kept for "medical experimentation." Most were sent to the gas chambers.

They had come packed like cattle in trains. No place to use the restroom. No place to be sick. No place to move the corpses of the people who had fallen over dead on the way. After days of wallowing in their own filth, they entered the camp.

Children were ripped from their mothers' arms. Families were separated. Best friends were separated. Husbands and wives were separated.

They were told they were going to be de-loused. They were going to get a shower.

They piled into the large concrete boxes. The doors slammed shut behind them. Zyklon B pesticide rushed through the vents.

They cried. They screamed. They clamored. The weakest died first. They became the first steps in the staircase of people.

The slaves were sent in to detangle the bodies. They always found them in a neat pyramid.

If you visit Auschwitz today, you can see fingerprints, engraved forever on the solid concrete ceiling.

They literally tried to claw their way out for that one last gasp of air. They climbed on top of each other to stay above the gas, to get that one last gasp of air.

I have bad days. I have really lousy days. I have days when I don't know how I'm going to deal with what's coming. But you know what else I have?

Air.

Take a deep breath.

Another Favorite Poet

A few weeks ago I mentioned Gabriel Gadfly... I'm kind of in love with his some of his poetry. He makes me want to write poems. And when I read poems like that, they inevitably end up here. Enjoy the geek out. Let them speak to you.

Hangman
At the end
of a game of Hangman
the amputated victim
sways
left to right
from his paper
noose.
Repeat after me:
sticks and stones
may break my bones
but words will
never hurt me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shooting Star
The first thing you must do
after the disaster passes is
check the integrity of your suit.
Count the seconds:
loss of consciousness in fifteen,
expiration in ninety-five,
but they say you can feel
the saliva on your tongue boil
and there is no burning, yet.

There is only
the quiet womb-dark of endless space,
and the bright eye of the sun
peering around Earth's breast
at you.

Listen to the faint crackle
of your ear-piece, somehow
still functioning, and the voice
of your man in Houston, saying,
Commander, can you hear me?
Say yes. Ask for your wife.
Ask for your daughter.
She's on her way, sir.
A calm voice cuts in:
Re-entry in three minutes, twenty seconds.
Listen to your breath and don't move.
Your Mother is pulling you into her arms.

Your man in Houston says,
Sir, we have your wife on the line.
Kelsey is here, too.

Listen to your wife; she says,
I love you. Say I love you,
and realize this time you mean it.
Listen to your tiny bright-eyed girl.
Don't choke. Don't choke.
I love you, Daddy, I'm scared.
Tell her not to be scared.
Tell her you're not scared.
Tell her something so
she doesn't hear the
caged screaming of your
heart in your chest.
Say Daddy loves you.
Daddy loves you.
Be a brave girl for Mommy.

Your man in Houston says,
Commander, I'm sorry about this.
Is there anything I can do you for?
Open your eyes and stare
in wonder at the bright world
beckoning you down and ask yourself
Why did I ever try to escape this?
Your man in Houston says,
Commander? Can you hear me?
Don't reply.
There are no more words.

Listen to the calm technician counting:
Re-entry in sixty seconds.
Fifty-nine. Fifty-eight.
Fifty-seven.

There isn't time enough for fear.
Close your eyes. Smile.

Somewhere near Toronto,
a small boy makes a wish
on a shooting star.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heartbeats
I’d buy your smile
For a dollar.
And no, that’s not much,
But it’s one hundred copper
Heartbeats
That you and I will share
Between now –
The moment we meet
And then –
Your final breath or mine.
And like the coins they represent
Those heartbeat moments will
Shine or not
Will gleam or not
But lusterless or brilliant,
They are ours.
And when they are gone,
I’ll ask your two cents worth
On silly things.
Just to share another pair of heartbeats
With you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(This is just one of the funniest things I've read in a while.)
Love in the Robopocalypse
If you and I were transported
to a land where robot overlords
enslaved the human race,
I wouldn't worry;
all we'd have to do is run,
ducking in and out of
crumbled shopping malls
and parking decks full of
abandoned cars, together,
uninhibited, free.
So what if they have buzz-saws
and optical laser beams?
If we get caught, just kiss me:
your every kiss is
an electromagnetic pulse,
a white-blue crackling shockwave
and our kisses will overload
every tiny circuit in their
cold positronic hearts;
they'll fall like broken toys
under the smell of burnt ozone
and fresh love blooming.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Water
The funny thing is
What gives us life
Kills us if we
Try to breathe its essence.
Fish are the only ones
That don’t suffer
This unrequited love affair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Birdcage
You are a little like a brass birdcage:
a cherry-red cardinal inhabits you,
but even if your door were left open,
it would not spread its wings, it would not
sing, it would only linger on its perch,
plumed head tucked, waiting for the
night's veil to cover you and bury
it within shadow's silent smother.

If only the birdcage were not there;
if only.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ah, poetry. The words on the tips of all our tongues that we just can't get out. :)

Much love.

<3

P.S. THE AVETT BROTHERS ARE COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll start posting about that if I find out that I actually get to go. Cross your fingers for me!

P.S.S. Stefano went through on American Idol. Because I'm sure you were wondering.

P.S.S.S. The back pain returneth. Prayers much appreciated.

Song of the Day

Song stuck in my head all day + dead space during American Idol = blog post. In quick video form. :)



Much love.

<3

P.S. If Stefano doesn't go through on American Idol... I'm gonna be mad.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I'm a lit nerd. I really am. (In case you couldn't tell.)

I'm addicted to John Keats, Lord Tennyson, Robert Frost... but my favorite poet... I mean my FAVORITE poet... is probably Theodore Geisel. You probably know him better as Dr. Seuss.

The guy's doctorate was in LIFE. I promise.

I'm a big fan of intense life wisdom wrapped up in kid-friendly packages. I think that's part of why I love Disney movies so much. And the Muppets. And Charlie Brown. You wouldn't expect any of those to contain the most profound statements you've ever heard, but sometimes they do. And Dr. Seuss is the same way. The guy's ridiculously quotable, whether in his books or just in general. And you know me and quotes. :)

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."

'"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."

"Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope."

"A person's a person, no matter how small." (Horton Hears a Who!)

"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent!" (Horton Hears a Who!)

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." (The Lorax)

Yup. He's great. But this, my friends... this is the reason I love Dr. Seuss. This poem right here. I want it in book form for graduation. It's easily one of the most profound things I've ever read. It's honest... he doesn't sugarcoat everything. But it gives you so much faith in your dreams. It's inspirational. :)

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.

No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t. Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!


Happy 107th, Mr. Geisel. Thanks for the inspiration. Much love.

<3

P.S. It is also Chris Martin's birthday, and as I am a Coldplay fan, he deserves a shout-out too. So have one of my favorite Coldplay songs. :)