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I’d Buy Me A Love (But Not A Real Love: That’s Cruel)

admin — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:53:46 +0000

If I won the lottery, I would feel like I could then do just what I love. I wouldn’t have to pursue a degree in something just to have it be profitable. I could just pursue, with passion, passion. I could start a foundation, I could travel the world, I could stop worrying and learn to love the life I’ve been given. There’s no why to it: hopefully, it would just happen. Poof! Money. No more living in fear and doubt. Not the same fear and doubt, anyway. I could focus on the more important aspects of this, our terrifying existence. The pressure would be on what I did and not how much I made doing it. I could try to just write or direct or be a paleontologist or any of my crazy fantasies. I would know I could provide for my children. I’d still be scared, but I’d be doing it on a higher pleasure plane of existence.

The world is Cruel (beinvolved.wordpress.com)

In A Town Called Honah Lee

admin — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 07:52:29 +0000

Music, music, music. Everyone in my family loves music. Though, on my mother’s side, few know how to play, they make up for it with a love to sing. Not for show, not for attention, but together. Some summer nights, we’ll all gather around the old player piano and belt out such classics as “A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody” or “Puff The Magic Dragon.” Most of us are terrible while we do it, changing key and cracking voices, but oh, how it’s fun. Oh, how we laugh. On my father’s side of the family, music is collected and listened to in little coalitions. It is played beautifully for the whole family to hear. It’s a honed ability, an art. Music has manifested itself in different ways for us, but it’s something I want to share with my children as well, starting with singing them asleep.

Terracotta

admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 06:44:23 +0000

Image by egonwegh via Flickr

I don’t really know that I’m a honeymoon kinda gal. The first thing that comes to mind is a Mediterranean hillside, its buildings all white, with cobblestone streets free of cars and the scent of low-tide in the air. Wrought iron balconies cast long shadows on the stucco walls… Or something like that. I don’t know if any place like this exists, but it’s the sort of location I imagine around 4PM during the summer in the city. And to spend a week or so of bliss in a remote place like that in Portugal or Spain just sounds perfect to me.

We Hold These Truths To Be Self Evident

admin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 05:42:23 +0000

My intellectual capability and skepticism is my greatest achievement, I’d say. It sounds completely silly written on this weird, slapdash writing exercise, but I find myself pretty smart, in some ways. Just not really the expressing myself sort (which, of course, is how most of us delude ourselves into believe we are secretly so ground-breakingly intelligent even though there’s really no evidence for it at all). But I’ve achieved a level of meta thought that I think is uncommon and, additionally, very self destructive. “Greatest” doesn’t mean most beneficial. But it’s the thing I’ve polished the most and that makes me stand out, when I’m visibly demonstrating my ability. Luckily, I’ve barely touched upon what I actually mean, but I’m sure you can read between the lines and see that I’m definitely like the most awesome person ever. Totally.

Cuddling Up To The Cuttlefish

admin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:36:28 +0000

Regardless of the amount of time I spent in the ocean, the marine organism I would always choose to be is the cuttlefish. An intelligent mollusc, it surpasses the octopus in overall coolness by possessing the ability to “strobe”, change both color and texture rapidly, and be cuter. Much, much cuter. So, for those two years scuttling around the ocean floor, I would happily hypnotize my prey, hide from my enemies and have a really good NOVA documentary made about me. I probably could not maintain my current vegan lifestyle, but that’s true of most interesting marine organisms. I wonder if I could kiss other cuttlefish or if our neurotoxic saliva would get in the way… Ho hum! Life as a sea-dweller is complicated indeed.

Born to be Viral: Spot the cuttlefish (newscientist.com)

A Little Slice Of

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:35:48 +0000

On the hour-long bus ride to and from school, I had a lot of time to think about things as a little girl. What I would be like as president, what the truth could be behind the story of Santa Clause and what life might be like after death. I imagined a place where all those who passed would be greeted by whoever seemed most suitable. An avid Christian might see Christ. An atheist, Darwin. If you were more dedicated to your loved ones who were beyond, you might see them. And then you would be taken to live whatever you wished, someplace new, a period in your life, the past… But all this, I was convinced, would probably be in your own head. It would simply be a shift of consciousness; your own projection of what a Heaven-like place might be. But, now I live in a place where I can’t believe that the brain continues processing after it ceases to pump blood. I live in a place where every choice I make is overshadowed by the fact that I have to make the most of what little time I have left. So, for me, heaven is any moment where I can forget that there will never be one after all this.

My Best Friend and His Whining

admin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:32:52 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

I love my best friend. He is a wonderful person. Except he has this habit of whining about everything. I really wish I could tell him, but he’s so sensitive that I’m afraid he would become severely insulted and I don’t like to hurt people’s feelings. I sometimes don’t want to pick up the phone because he just whines and whines about everything in his life that’s so bad. I just wish he’d do something about it instead of just complaining. He has the power to change his life and refuses to see it. But to spare his feelings, I just shut up and listen.

The Pressure of Peers

admin — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 01:29:04 +0000

I have caved into peer pressure several times. If I could go back in time and change one, I would choose the time when started branding myself as a “bad girl.” I was in seventh grade and thought it was cool to be bad and when I was offered beer and cigarettes at a party, I said yes even though I didn’t really want it. A good girl would have said no and left the party, the girl I had been, but I didn’t want to be that girl anymore. I’m sure if I had just made that one simple decision, my life would have been way different. For better or worse though, who would know?

A White Truth

admin — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:34:41 +0000

If I could tell my best friend one thing I don’t like about him it would be his constant habit of lying. They are not outrageous lies but instead small ones. Lies that to anyone would seem silly to tell but to him are a necessity. If I told my friend this I believe he would instantly deny it. That is, until I gave example after example of him lying to me and to others. I believe he would finally understand what he was doing and why it isn’t a good thing to do. Small lies can snowball into larger ones that can get him into a lot of trouble with others and even the law. I would hope that he would respect my honesty and do his best to resolve the problem.

Just a Sip

admin — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:33:12 +0000

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I have been caved into peer pressure before. At the time I was a minor, unable to consume alcohol. However all of my friends wanted to enjoy a few drinks at a house of theirs. I said no thanks and that it was not only against the law, but also my beliefs. They ended up talking me into coming to the house to hang out with them but I still refused to drink. They were okay with my decision until later on in the night when all of them hounded me to have ‘just one’. I finally gave into all of the peer pressure and went against my beliefs… and the law. To add to my misfortune, the police showed up to the establishment a few hours later in response to a noise violation. Luckily, they understood my situation and let me go with only a warning but I still regret the decision to this day as the consequences could have been a lot worse.