call me crazy.

I would apologize for not posting in a while, but then I would be lying- I'm really not sorry. You would probably consider it pathetic if you were to see how many hours I sit here, staring blankly into the computer screen.

Now, here's your options: read this rant of my selfish desires or skip reading this post entirely and find something more worth your time.

Here we go.

I wish I would spend more time in libraries and reading books. I want to take home large stacks of books and pile them all around my room. Instead of countless hours of Solitaire, I would read a variety of novels and write down the lines I like. It would be acceptable to read more than one book at a time, even though my mother gets frustrated when I do so. I would read during the free moments in my classes, regardless of the thoughts I have racing through my mind of what people might think of me. It is truth to say that the world inside a book is far better than a life full of high school drama.

Hey! I think I'll try it.
But first, I'll need to get a library card.

"Save the Shop Around the Corner and it will save your soul."

-Maddiey B.

you are not that ugly.

"Ew, I hate my picture!"

"I'm so doing retakes!"

"OMGosh, your picture looks so much better than mine!"

"Come on, BFF, let's see your picture! Come on! Let me see it! It cannot be as bad as mine!"

bleh.

There are two days of the beginning of the school year that drive me crazier than my newly-teenbop brother on a bad day. Those days happen to be picture day.

Come on, let's be honest. We all know that you absolutely love yourself in that picture. You are the one who curls your hair in perfect curls and had your outfit picked out since the first day of summer. You are the one who double-frosted that caked-on makeup on your petit face so you look like a person I've never seen before. You even wear a nice pair of skinny jeans and your most stylish pair of high heels. Like you can actually see them.
Right before your picture is taken, you pull out your mini mirror, touch up your makeup, cake on luscious lipgloss, and ask the boys standing next to you, "How do I look?"
When you get your ID card, you walk straight to your friends (or at least someone who will respond the way you want them to) and say the quoted sentences above (beginning of this post).

And then there's me.

Eh, I should probably wear a shirt... yeah, that could be good....

NAH, just joking with ya. I wear a shirt that is one step fancier than a t-shirt. I only wore a skirt today because it happened to be Wednesday (aka Temple Day). I straightened my hair- not to fancy and not to plain. I put on the amount of makeup that the above person would consider it to be the equivalent of being naked.

I get my picture taken.
Grab ID card.
Wait for class to finish.
Pretend to listen to people get mad about their picture.
Go back to class.

Now I can check out a book from the school library.
Avec Amour,
Maddiey
post script: I got a letter from "Army Man" (aka Breton) today. Whoop whoop.

I'm going (most likely)!

someone please take me to New York City.

 Give me bumper-to-bumper traffic. Shoulder-to-shoulder sidewalk space. I want it all.

I got myself grounded to my house yesterday. Yep, I am naughty when I want to be and sometimes enjoy it. I guess you could say I like the rush of emotions that I feel when I am naughty. But there's no need to worry! I am not naughty all the time- just when I want to be.

I like to be upstairs when everybody is upstairs, and I like to be downstairs when everybody is downstairs, said the Reagan and my Self responded with the thought, I'd rather be alone. And it's true. For some odd reason, I'd rather be alone. It must be because my Self has an anxiety attack every time a human creeps into my space. eek!

So being house grounded led me to want to be alone. I read my book. Note: This is where my post begins to match the title. All of the above was leading up to what I am about to tell you.

In my book As Always, Dave, Dave goes to NYC for his first time:

{When the train reached Penn Station, everyone else hurried to the exits before the train stopped, but not us. We were rookies. A minute later we were in the central corridor of Penn Station. It runs for blocks and is full of shops on either side. Abbie led us to where we could take a subway. We took the Number 1 train uptown to Times Square.  A few minutes later we climbed some stairs to go outside.

And there we were, in New York City!

I just stood there and gawked. So many people, so much traffic, so many pedestrians. Street vendors selling everything from hot dogs to jewelry to watches to hand bags.}

The description wasn't over-the-top beautiful but it left me crying on my kitchen table. That is when I truly decided I needed to go to New York. 

Save your money, said the Dani, We should go to New York, ok? Ok! and my Self thought back, Yeah, that could be fun. But now my Self says, Oh PLEASE take me to New York. Please, oh please! and Me (my second Self) responds with the thought, Wow. You sound desperate. 

Yeah. I am desperate. Someone please take me to New York.

Avec Amour,

Madison

post script: I listened to the Friday song not once, but thrice. It's fine and it's Friday (where the stinkin' patooties did this week go?!?!)

C'est Bon.

So much wasted in the afternoon,

so much sacred [time] in the month of June.

Maybe I should write my summer list of things to do on paper instead of leaving it as a mental note. I have forgotten so much of it, and now, I am bored out of my mind. No to mention, all my friends are gone or not available. C'est bon... je pense... 

Here. Take a goggle at these beautiful women:

Dorothea Lange

Jessie Tarbox Beals

Margaret Bourke-White

(The captions have a link to their bios.)

Hello, Darling. I believe it is summertime.

*post script: Is it sad that all I can think about is books (and photography)? Is it sad that all I really have to talk about is books (and photography)? Is it sad that all I want to do is read a book (and take pictures)?
Maybe you understand, but maybe not.
It's fine. I still love you.

of summerish thoughts and such

She loved to daydream, and though her reputation for talking to herself was known by only a few, she knew it was part of her life. She could see things in her mind about herself, and she just had to talk about them to herself. 
'All right, so I mentally view my future. Is that so bad?' 

You can quote me, Commander. This is going to be a summer to sing about.

(quotes from A Summer to Sing About by Shirley Sealy)

twenty plus pebbles (if only that was possible)

books, books, books.

If I were to work at a library, I would enjoy seeing the regulars in corners wrapped up in a book. Little children with smiles on their face carrying a stack of picture books that is too much for them to handle. Sharing your favorites with those who need help searching for something delightful. A rather attractive man checking out your favorite novels.

It's a romantic situation, don't you think?  It would be very romantic to meet the man of my dreams in the middle of bookshelves filled with books containing poetry or some romantic book genre. He would ask me what my favorite book was and I would give him a list containing classics and books that aren't as well known to other readers. He would ask me to help him find some of the ones I liked and then check them out. He would become a regular, and every time he stopped by we would discuss books and our life. Eventually, he would ask me on a date. Eventually, he would ask me to marry him and I would have to say yes because I love him dearly. 

And all of it began amongst the bookshelves in a modest library.

Read a book.

twenty pebbles.

Hmm...

Warmth. It comes and it goes, and it tends to be gone longer than it stays. The sun is covered by dark gray clouds. The green grass is covered with a thick layer of white flakes of snow. Instead of feeling the heat running through you, an ice cold chill takes over your whole body.
Dear Warmth and Sunshine,
I have an issue with you. You don't like to stay very long.
Why is that?

Reason why Books are so Important

'Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You'd find life under the glass, screaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you are. That's my definition, anyway.  Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.

'So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless. We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam. Even fireworks, for all their prettiness, come from the chemistry of the earth. Yet somehow we think we can grow, feeding on flowers and fireworks, without completing the cycle back to reality. Do you know the legend of Hercules and Antaeus, the giant wrestler, whose strength was incredible so long as he stood firmly on earth? But when he was held rootless, in midair, by Hercules, he perished easily. If there isn't something in that legend for us today, in this city, in our time, then I am completely insane... Well, there we have the first thing I said we need. Quality texture of information.'

Amen to Ray Bradbury. To get the other two reasons why books are so important, see Fahrenheit 451 pg. 83-85. I would put them here but that would make this post a novel.

Read a book.
Lahve always,
Maddiey

random thoughts from today.

-Grandma is well. She didn't have her surgery, but it was for the better. 

-My cold is starting to disappear and I can breathe again. I already had a deep appreciation for breathing through the nose, but after not being able to for a while, I truly appreciate it. You could say my life is going pretty good. At least that's how it right now. I can breathe.

-My mom and dad are going through old photographs. I have a slight obsession with them. I especially adore my Grandparent's (Davis) wedding picture. 

- I have recently considered becoming a book editor. I wonder if I could handle such a career... It would be heaven for a person, such as myself, who loves to read! Yep, it's in consideration.

“You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give”

-Eleanor Roosevelt

Taken-Up-My-Afternoon Things

You wanna know what my day has consisted of (after school, of course! I won't bore you with school junk)? Two main things:

Taken-up-my-afternoon thing #1: Pride and Prejudice. It is probably the prettiest text I have ever read in my entire life! Oh, Mrs. Bennet is quite the hoot! You can never get bored reading this book, but when Mrs. Bennet is on the scene, it is entirely impossible to get bored and want to quit reading! I laugh for ages because of her. Here, enjoy a P&P quote:

Taken-up-my-afternoon thing #2: French studying. After mutual, Caitlin and I allowed the snow to cover our clothes as we walked from mutual to her house to study. We had a fabulous time studying household chores, the wonderful Passé Composé, and drinking hot chocolate (yes, the picture is coffee, but let's pretend it's hot coco... wow! You are a fabulous pretender! Look! It worked! It's hot coco!)
J'ai fini! I hope I will do well on my quiz to-morrow (spelled like they do in P&P) and Caitlin (you may never read this, but who cares?) I wish you the same!

I guess you could say there is kind of a third T-U-M-A..... Justin Bieber.... I sang (quite loudly) a wonderful variety of  JB songs all afternoon. Ah... Justin... look what you do to millions of girls...How rude! No worries, I will forgive you.

Here's a ridiculous Keep Calm quote:

Keep Calm
And Find
Yourself
A Mr. Darcy

Lahve always,
Madison

p.s. No worries, I held my composure in front of the Beautiful Temple Man today. Maybe one day we'll be married.
(just jokes.)
p.p.s. T-U-M-A is an abbreviation for Taken up my afternoon. Cool, eh?
p.p.p.s. Don't mind my comments in parentheses. They could be hilarious if you let them.

Day Twenty Three: Feel Better

Today's Post: Something that makes you feel better.

Well, there are a lot of things that make me feel better. Friends, Family, Warm weather, etc. But there is one thing that never fails to make me feel better. 

That thing is...

Books.

Books allow you to feel, to cry, and not get embarassed. It allows you to explore your imagination. It brings you happiness to see the princess finally get her prince charming. You get to be a "new you," a new character worth being as you read.

Sit down.

 Read. A. Good. Book.

Lahve always,

Madison