........"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints, and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.".............................
Monday, May 16, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Caribou Island
I just finished one of my two books that I recently checked out for my summer reading fest. It is called Caribou Island by David Vann. Here are some interesting sections that I thought I'd share:
"Soup's on, she yelled from the tent. Kneeling like she was at some altar, but worshipping what god? An outpost for the faithful who hadn't yet decided on a name. Still fashioning their god, finding their fears and their corollaries. Most importantly, what would the god do? Irene didn't want an afterlife. This life was more than enough. And she didn't need to be forgiven. She just wanted to be given back what had been taken. A lost-and-found god. That would be good enough. No other fancy qualities, nothing mystical. Just give back what had been taken."
"The tent as wild as any flames for reading signs, but you'd have to want to see. You'd have to be half-dumb or from an earlier time. That was the problem with now. You couldn't believe, and it was awful not to believe."
"She wondered if she could be softer, forgive him for everything, let it pass. Accept what her life had been. Something reassuring about that. But in the end, you feel what you feel. You don't get a choice. You don't get to remake yourself from the beginning. You can't put life back together a different way."
"Soup's on, she yelled from the tent. Kneeling like she was at some altar, but worshipping what god? An outpost for the faithful who hadn't yet decided on a name. Still fashioning their god, finding their fears and their corollaries. Most importantly, what would the god do? Irene didn't want an afterlife. This life was more than enough. And she didn't need to be forgiven. She just wanted to be given back what had been taken. A lost-and-found god. That would be good enough. No other fancy qualities, nothing mystical. Just give back what had been taken."
"The tent as wild as any flames for reading signs, but you'd have to want to see. You'd have to be half-dumb or from an earlier time. That was the problem with now. You couldn't believe, and it was awful not to believe."
"She wondered if she could be softer, forgive him for everything, let it pass. Accept what her life had been. Something reassuring about that. But in the end, you feel what you feel. You don't get a choice. You don't get to remake yourself from the beginning. You can't put life back together a different way."
Bags, Books, and People
Free time. Oh, there was a time when I dreamt of free time and now I'm not sure what to do with it.
I am anxious and afraid that I am forgetting something super crucial- but I'm not. Ka-ray-zie.
The semester is over and I did it! I got 6 "A"s and my gpa is now a healthy 3.755. I have cleared all three of my previous bad grades from my first attempt at college and am now eligible for graduation with honors! Yippee!
I have started using a "healthy face cream" which I totally hate cuz it makes me feel old but I think it is necessary. I have never really used a face/skin regimen and have been pretty lucky as far as that goes but I think its time. Gotta look 30 when I'm 65. This is also a kind of exercise in patience for me because I HATE putting anything on my face.... make-up, creams, sunscreen, etc. So, I have to talk myself off a ledge while it is drying but I do like it after it is dry. Crazy, I know.
This week should be a nice peaceful job hunting week (part-time employment here I come!). Because I'm sure you all know that we leave for TX on the 26th and that is bound to be stressful and there are many, many people involved that can cause problems and the logistics, and ugh. Save me SeaWorld, SAVE ME! I daydream that perhaps they will see how much I love the penguins and they will give me a job and let me stay....ahhhh to be a penguin.
I have done all the laundry and taken the trash out and the only thing that seems to happen is that the next time I look there is more laundry and trash in the trash cans......what the heck? That is a losing battle, I suppose, but I did manage to get to the library! I finished a book I started at the beginning of the semester finally and have two more I'm working on. I am very excited about them. I love non-required reading!
I am going to try and live in the moment a little more and find joy in the everyday (very Oprah-esqe advise from my doctor) and not wish my life away- but I will be honest that I am really looking forward to the TX trip and it being over- successfully. I'm not exactly sure what it is I am looking for but I hope I get a little taste of it soon.
I am anxious and afraid that I am forgetting something super crucial- but I'm not. Ka-ray-zie.
The semester is over and I did it! I got 6 "A"s and my gpa is now a healthy 3.755. I have cleared all three of my previous bad grades from my first attempt at college and am now eligible for graduation with honors! Yippee!
I have started using a "healthy face cream" which I totally hate cuz it makes me feel old but I think it is necessary. I have never really used a face/skin regimen and have been pretty lucky as far as that goes but I think its time. Gotta look 30 when I'm 65. This is also a kind of exercise in patience for me because I HATE putting anything on my face.... make-up, creams, sunscreen, etc. So, I have to talk myself off a ledge while it is drying but I do like it after it is dry. Crazy, I know.
This week should be a nice peaceful job hunting week (part-time employment here I come!). Because I'm sure you all know that we leave for TX on the 26th and that is bound to be stressful and there are many, many people involved that can cause problems and the logistics, and ugh. Save me SeaWorld, SAVE ME! I daydream that perhaps they will see how much I love the penguins and they will give me a job and let me stay....ahhhh to be a penguin.
I have done all the laundry and taken the trash out and the only thing that seems to happen is that the next time I look there is more laundry and trash in the trash cans......what the heck? That is a losing battle, I suppose, but I did manage to get to the library! I finished a book I started at the beginning of the semester finally and have two more I'm working on. I am very excited about them. I love non-required reading!
I am going to try and live in the moment a little more and find joy in the everyday (very Oprah-esqe advise from my doctor) and not wish my life away- but I will be honest that I am really looking forward to the TX trip and it being over- successfully. I'm not exactly sure what it is I am looking for but I hope I get a little taste of it soon.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Columbia, Asheville, and Gatlinburg trip pics.....
SPC Pierre
Inappropriate
There is ALWAYS time for baseball.......
A love shack at the Botanical Garden at UNC-A.
Thats a lotta beans!!!!!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Almost there!
I just got home from my Spanish final and am giving myself a moment to breathe.
Only two more finals, and one paper stand in the way of closing out this semester.
The semester has seemed unusually long, hard, and annoying. Not sure if it has been all the weather drama, the violence on campus, harder courses, living situations, or a delightful combination of all of those.
Today, by 5:00 p.m. , I have a paper to turn in and then after that just one test on Wednesday and the last on Thursday. And I have managed to arrange it so that as long as I don't completely bomb (like get a 40) on either of these tests I should have locked in an "A" for the semester in each class. That would make the "A" tally 6. And that would make me 6 for 6. Is this accomplishment lost on anyone other than my mummy? Oh, and my dad, who once compared auto-diesel college to college. (Well, it's a college too, right? I mean it has college in the name.....)
Things are going to be in a quasi-freaky mode for the month of May but should level out soon afterwards. This week I'm wrapping up the semester (oh, and 3 birthdays, 2 mother's days, and an airshow just this weekend alone), next week we have a slew of check-up type doctors appointments (did you know it isn't good when your thyroid stops working?), the week after that we have tons of activities planned that we crammed into this space of time because they couldn't go anywhere else, and then finally, we have our trip to TX. We're leaving on 05/26 and won't be back until June 3rdish or 4thish. We are coming back with a lot less money and two more kids (and lots of memories...awww ain't that sweet) than we left with.
I am hoping to find something to supplement my campus job just a teeny bit so we can get out of here and I can buy my beautiful love obsession puppy before the summer is out but if not before then we are confident we are moving in August- (yay, school loan time!).
Things are looking good for the fall. I'll have an 18 hour semester (Elementary Spanish II, Sociological Theory, Animals and Society, Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Introduction to Social Work, and Social Movements and Social Change) but we should have a place of our own and a love puppy to help me cope.
Words of advice: if you'd like to see my shining, glorious, loving face- catch me in the summer.
PEACE!
Only two more finals, and one paper stand in the way of closing out this semester.
The semester has seemed unusually long, hard, and annoying. Not sure if it has been all the weather drama, the violence on campus, harder courses, living situations, or a delightful combination of all of those.
Today, by 5:00 p.m. , I have a paper to turn in and then after that just one test on Wednesday and the last on Thursday. And I have managed to arrange it so that as long as I don't completely bomb (like get a 40) on either of these tests I should have locked in an "A" for the semester in each class. That would make the "A" tally 6. And that would make me 6 for 6. Is this accomplishment lost on anyone other than my mummy? Oh, and my dad, who once compared auto-diesel college to college. (Well, it's a college too, right? I mean it has college in the name.....)
Things are going to be in a quasi-freaky mode for the month of May but should level out soon afterwards. This week I'm wrapping up the semester (oh, and 3 birthdays, 2 mother's days, and an airshow just this weekend alone), next week we have a slew of check-up type doctors appointments (did you know it isn't good when your thyroid stops working?), the week after that we have tons of activities planned that we crammed into this space of time because they couldn't go anywhere else, and then finally, we have our trip to TX. We're leaving on 05/26 and won't be back until June 3rdish or 4thish. We are coming back with a lot less money and two more kids (and lots of memories...awww ain't that sweet) than we left with.
I am hoping to find something to supplement my campus job just a teeny bit so we can get out of here and I can buy my beautiful love obsession puppy before the summer is out but if not before then we are confident we are moving in August- (yay, school loan time!).
Things are looking good for the fall. I'll have an 18 hour semester (Elementary Spanish II, Sociological Theory, Animals and Society, Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Introduction to Social Work, and Social Movements and Social Change) but we should have a place of our own and a love puppy to help me cope.
Words of advice: if you'd like to see my shining, glorious, loving face- catch me in the summer.
PEACE!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
