Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Pictures


I suppose I should start posting pictures on here. That's what a blog is for, right? Unfortunately I don't have any.
*browses iPhoto*
Oh. Well, here's one of my dad and sister and me. My dad is on the left, sis in the middle, and the one cracking up is me.

Happy New Year's Eve!

I'm waiting for midnight right now. I would normally be tired, due to the fact that I'm usually crawling into bed at eight o'clock. But I am at a party, which is keeping me awake. Things have cooled down and I snuck upstairs to do a little blogging and get away from all the craziness.
I'm having fun, eating hor doeuve's or however it's spelled and swaying slightly to create the image of dancing. I can never dance at parties, I feel too self-conscious. Hence my hate of Bronco Nights.
I was excited about a new year, a fresh start, a new set of changes. But all these cliches couldn't change the truth. A new year doesn't stay new for long. Soon it's just another year, and nothing changes.
Wishing you a happy healthy 2009, anyway. Enjoy the fireworks.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Frost

I gasped aloud today. I don’t think I have ever done that before; just gasped because I was so moved by something. “Moved” isn’t the right word, but one solitary word never covers everything one needs to say...
I woke up early and was trucking over to my grandma’s house by nine in the morning to give my Bruciepoop his walk. I wanted to get back while the day was still young so I could get to work on my parents’ Christmas present. (I wanted to make them a little something on top of the other stuff.) Anyway, I was strolling along, all bundled up, when I noticed some frost on the grass...
Frost is a beautiful thing. It’s amazing what Mother Nature can produce, incredible what power some things have over me. Of course I had to crouch down and get a closer look at the ice-encrusted grass. Each shoot was covered in a icy layer of frosty sheen. I plucked one off and was bedazzled as I looked at how each particle of ice clung so steadfastly to its piece of grass. For the few freezing hours of early winter morning, a couple blessed areas of grass are enrobed in a layer of sparkling diamonds. A fallen leaf has gotten in on this deal, too. It is nestled into the patch of jewels, bearing its own frosty sheen. I let the shoot of grass I am holding flutter to the ground, and take up the leaf instead. Suddenly itching to bathe myself in these gems, I scrape off the ice particles between forefinger and middle and admire the tiny mound of glittery frost that lies there. Then I look back at the leaf, still being held in my other hand. I have robbed it. Look at me, with my fingerful of ice, and look at the leaf it belongs to. It has been diminished to an ugly, lowly form. This leaf is now nothing but a soggy, drippy, wet leaf. Wet leaves are meant to be scraped up and tossed into a big black garbage bag. Wet leaves do not belong in this winter wonderland. I whisper my apologies to it and fling it away. Then I look up, and this is when I gasp. And just like with a dramatic, theatrical gasp, my hand takes on a life of its own, and comes up to cover my mouth. I couldn’t believe I had just done that. I couldn’t believe I had just gasped.
The grass stretches out for several meters, and rolls slightly to give it a hilly look. And covering this is a delicately arranged sheet of glistening thousand-karat diamonds. The glistening, glittering, stunning array is what induced the Gasp, I suppose. Teeny ice pixies seemed to be hiding within the display, winking at me and inviting me to float on into this gorgeous place. Why, I do believe I will, thanks. I guess there are fairies here, too, because there is glitter sprinkled everywhere. It smelled like clouds and spearmint and tiaras. It wasn’t as beautiful as snow, but it’s as close as I’m ever going to get.
Later I went back into the neighborhood and revisited where the sidewalk ends. Then I noticed a chain-link fence with a door that had been left open. It seemed to open up right into the expressway, but I stepped through anyway to see if there was anything interesting. To the right was another little gateway that seemed to twist back into the neighborhood. Ooh-hoo, what was this? I wandered over... only to find out that I had been tricked. It was just that little trail that runs alongside Almaden Expressway. Oh well, might as well walk it anyway. I’d never actually been on this trail, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant. Cars were roaring down the road at a zillion-and-one miles per hour, with only some tall shrubs between me and them. They spring up taller and thicken their branches for me, but it doesn’t really help. I thank them anyway as I pop out at the intersection on the other end.
And that’s about it.

Blog Quiz

Saw this on another blog, thought I'd repost:

Name four bad habits you have:
1. Trying to confuse people and end up confusing myself
2. Fiddling with things
3. Humming and singing at inappropriate times
4. Too much time on the computer!!

Name four things that you wish you had:
1. Longer eyelashes
2. Earplugs
3. Cinnamon gum
4. Six billion dollars

Name four scents you love:
1. My cat
2. Devil's food cake
3. Vanilla Palm
4. Hollister room spray

Name four things you'd never wear:
1. Tube top
2. White shorts
3. Orange polka-dotted sweat strap
4. Nose ring

Name four things you are thinking about right now:
1. Not her again...
2. GOD SHUT UP!!!
3. Is that fennel?
4. Again with the turmeric!
(That is truly what I was thinking, I just put down exactly what I was thinking at the moment.)

Name four things that you have done today:
1. Walked Bruceter
2. Walked to the library
3. Wrapped gifts
4. Ate dinner

Name the last four things you have bought:
1. Christmas gift for my sister
2. a package of Hot Tamales
3.
Christmas gift for my friend
4.
Christmas gift for my other friend


Name four bands/groups/genres most people don't know you like:
1. I don't
2. really
3. listen to
4. music


Name four drinks you regularly drink:
1. Water
2. Tea
3. Hot cocoa
4. That's it

Name four random facts about yourself:
1. My name is Jeni
2. I am a girl
3. I am thirteen years old
4. My hair is brown


Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Volleyball

Volleyball rocks. (No surprise there!) But this year en la clase de educacion fisica, (P.E.) it is rocking even more. It is rocking my socks off... literally. That's a funny story that I'll tell you about later...
I find myself actually looking forward to P.E. nowadays, and am disappointed when the whistle blows and we have to sit in our neat little rows and holler "BUILDING HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS!!!" (If you had Mornhinweg, you'd get it.) Mostly I suck but still, es muy divertido. I can serve well, and (some of) my bumps go over the net, at least. I can't set, though. If it seems as if I need to, I would rather back up and bump instead. Es mas facil. Anyway, that's just about it.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Almost Dead

I'm bored. Too bad I have nothing to write about.
Oh yeah... How about that life-threatening experience that occurred on Tuesday? Now I have a title, yay.
Well, we are finally doing something fun in P.E., after agonizing months of swimming and weight training: Volleyball! Yesterday we were practicing serving, but everybody was crammed into three courts. We were supposed to aim for our partner on the other side, which was just about impossible. So instead, Deli and I both scootched up closer to the net and practiced bumping and setting instead. So much safer. But we were squished between Jesse and Louie, both people who were practicing serving, and both people who hit the ball hard. Okay, I can't really drag the story on more than I have. Jesse, who was standing way back behind me because he was serving, hit the ball, and it went way up in the air... but I was in front of him, so I should I know that the ball was plummeting towards my head?
Actually, all the people screaming "DUCK! DUCK! WATCH OUT!" finally gave me the hint, so I tried to find the ball in the air, but it was too late because as soon as I moved, the ball skimmed past my shoulder and landed with a BANG that sounded like a bomb going off. They said if I hadn't turned to see where the ball was, it would have hot me straight-on. Or maybe they were just craving a little drama.
By the way, don't think it was too big of a deal. There were only about four or five witnesses...

Enjoy this picture of my cat:

Where The Sidewalk Ends

Okay, okay. I stole my title from the fabulous Shel Silverstein. Who can blame me? It's a thought-provoking phrase. Well, it's the title to a collection of his poetry that my grandma has, and I've always been fascinated by the cover. It depicts a cute little person peeking over the edge of a slab of sidewalk that protrudes into the center of the book but drops off leaving empty space below it. Like the sidewalk would ever just end... no. We have made the world too normal. Every sidewalk ends with a curb and a street to step onto when you are finished with it. If a sidewalk like that ever managed to exist, somebody would come by with gallons of tar and a truck of concrete, and fix it up to look exactly like every other sidewalk in this wretchedly normalistic world.
Oh God, I got carried away again. Sorry about that.
Well, today I found a place where the sidewalk ends. I was walking Bruceter, and decided to venture into an unfamiliar neighborhood. So. I walked... and walked... down a long stretch of sidewalk. It appeared to be the left border of the neighborhood, with streets that would lead you in deeper to the heart of the 'hood. But however alluring this extraordinarily ordinary neighborhood looked, I chose to stay on this strip of sidewalk. I would walk until I saw the end of it, then turn around and wander. It stayed straight, but had a curve at the very end to create a makeshift, half-done court for the last house of the row. Did I mention there was no sidewalk on the other side? Just street and gutter. Strange... ish. Anyway, there was a car parked at the periphery of the concrete and I couldn't quite see where it ended. I walked to the end, and it, well, ended. Just ended, ran right into the dusty dirt. A sidewalk with no curb? Bizarre!! (heavy sarcasm...) In normal cases, it would curve around to create a court and run back out on the other side of the road. But not here. I had found a place where the sidewalk ends...

So, it wasn't that weird, but I needed something to write about. Heh. Oh yeah, more weirdness. I began walking back, not really paying attention or anything. I had been sort of disconnected the whole day, but I guess I was more off than I thought. I was walking, me and my feet, my feet and the sidewalk. Until I suddenly realized I had drifted off into the middle of the street. And there was a truck coming at me, and it hit me, and I almost got out of the way, but not quite, and suddenly I was on the ground and everything hurt, and the driver was sweating and my mother was crying and now I am writing from my hospital bed.
No, just kidding. It was a quiet road in the corner of the neighborhood, and I was just sort of drifting along in a haze. But then, I don't know how, but my brain told me that I was in the middle of the street. How does one manage to travel from the sidewalk to the road without even realizing it? When I got back to my grandma's, she gave me a chocolate-covered cherry and that helped to clear my head.

:)

Sunday, November 30, 2008

iMovie No More

Remember how I said there was an iMovie contest? I made the movie and went to pick up an application, but Dorothy Dalin or whatever her name is said they were due the Friday before. DANGIT. Oh well.

This doesn't have any relevance, but remember how before I had a few weeks of "low"? Life is sucking a little less now. Compliments of the tiny one. (No, I am not giving an explanation.)

{<*}

Christmastime-ish.

So, tomorrow is December 1st, which is the unofficial start of the holiday season. According to some people, including me. We put up the (fake!) tree and all that today. It takes forever to assemble all those fake branches, and each one has ten-ish little spokes of needles that you have to fluff up. We almost have too many ornaments... there was probably one on every single branch. The living room is gorgeous though, we have accumulated a great number of candles and snowglobes and such due to the fact that my mom teaches first graders whose moms are big on gift-giving. Every year brings a new load of gifty junk, and holiday candy that we gobble down eagerly. (We being my dad, sister, and I, not my WeightWatcher mother.)(Who is also a cheapo because a lot of the stuff gets regifted.)
My mom bought advent calenders back at the beginning of November from Trader Joe's. These ones have obnoxious, unrealistic cartoon drawings decorating them, and I'm sure the chocolates will be as nasty and chalk-like as ever, but for some reason we keep buying them. They are just so fun. I saw one at the World Market (<333) except it was a whole HOUSE! Which, um, is kinda stupid because it's basically just the same thing excepting the fact that it takes up more space... *sucks in deep breath* ... but it's a HOUSE!! I wonder if we will ever get around to making a gingerbread house this year. We keep seeing the kits in stores, every year, but every year, we keep saying we will wait until Christmas is closer, and every year, we never do make that gingerbread house. I remember when we got to make them in school, in second grade. Good times, gooooood times.
Hey, this is random, but does anybody remember Shiv Gettu? Tall guy? (I remember he was sitting across from me while I made my gingerbread house in second grade, so that's why he's getting brought up.) Anyway, back when I had a Facebook, I was chatting with him... and I said I hadn't been seeing him around... and he told me that he had moved to India! Jeez nuggets! I did not know that. I guess it's not a big deal, but it's weird how everybody I know is moving a w a y. . . .
Back to Christmas, I found out my dad is Ebenezer freakin' Scrooge. It's a complicated explanation, but my dad accidentally forwarded me an e-mail that he had sent to my uncle. (That's not exactly how it happened but oh well.) He was talking about our successful Thanksgiving and brought up how now there was Christmas "to deal with" and how he wished he could "fast-forward to January." Then I cried a little bit from guilt because he said on New Year's he was going to hope 2009 brought better luck for our family. And how that was exactly what he said last New Year's, but it didn't work out because 2008 was a "dud." I think he meant about how we lost all our money this year, and now we're broke just in time for Christmas. I don't know if I've told you about what I call the "Happy News," but now it isn't so happy. I should call it the Guilty News, because what it is will cost us a lot. It will cost us money that we can't spare... It's hard to explain without telling you what it is, but I can't

until March.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you are bloated on turkey and pie.
Almost all of our relatives live in Palm Springs, way south of us, in the middle of the desert. Every year we take the million-hour drive down in our cramped car in the dry heat of the desert. By the way, when I say desert, I don’t mean saguaros and tumbleweeds everywhere. We don’t like, ride camels or charm cobras or anything. It is a very urban part of Palm Springs. Everybody there is rich, pretty much, including my aunt and uncle. We usually have this big fat feast at Thanksgiving that my aunt whips up, but this year it was in a restaurant. Not the kind where you order your food, though... they had it all set up like a buffet. Most of it was seafood, though, but I got my fill of mashed potatoes... and turkey and cooked carrots and bread rolls.
And mint jelly. Do you know what that is? It’s delicious. It’s most unattractive substance, a jiggly goop with a bright garish green color. It was served in a big crystal bowl. A clean serving spoon laid untouched next to the juggernaut of a dish. Nobody wanted to spread this goo on their turkey? Not surprising. I stare for another moment at it, then plunge the spoon into the center. Ewww. The sensation is similar to stabbing a vat on alien brains. Well, I love mint. It can’t be that bad.
Okay, well, now you’re probably thinking that it was disgusting. Or bad, or okay. But you are WRONG. Suspicious, I dipped one tine of my fork into the little pool of martian snot and touched it to the very tip of my tongue. Bemoaning disgust, I reached for my glass of water and brought it to my lips. But wait. But waitaminute. But waitonetinylittlesecond. This stuff is good! It tastes like, well, toothpaste. But stronger, and more... uh, clear, or something. Sort of like a liquid breath mint. Being a person not unaccustomed to squeezing toothpaste on my forefinger and licking it off, this, to me, was a delicacy. Nummy nummy nummy.
The next day was Annual Barbecue at Uncle Randy’s House and Black Friday shopping. Barbecque was nice, but we forgot to bring food. We all got there, and then realized nobody had brought hamburger patties, veggie burgers, or buns. So we had to go to the grocery store, and then come back. Black Friday shopping pretty much sucked. There weren’t any sales, really. At least not any worth being titled a “doorbuster.” I can’t beleive that Wal-Mart thing. They literally busted the door... and that poor employee. They killed a guy just to get a good deal? Welcome to America. It doesn’t matter, though, because I can’t spend any money anyway. I have to save up for the Happy News. Don’t worry, though, y’allre still getting your Christmas gifts. =)
Did you hear about the two guys at the checkout of a Toys-R-Us in Palm Springs on Friday? They started shooting each other, and they both died. Well, I was in Palm Springs on Friday, and I was in the mall. Guess where the mall is? Just across the street from the Toys-R-Us. THAT Toys-R-Us, the one with the guys shooting each other. The shooting was in the morning, though, and we went to the mall in the afternoon.

So, that’s it. Bye.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Threeeeee Daaaaaay Weekeeeend!

If you haven't figured it out from the title, we are having a three day weekend. One day has already been used up by homework, the walking of two dogs, and the pounds of homework my teachers piled on to keep us busy over the weekend. Great idea, guys. Really. I appreciate all the extra work. Keeps me from getting bored.

That reminds me, have you guys ever seen Fred videos on Youtube? They are my favezz. Fred recently got a stupid, overrated last name, Figglehorn. His videos have become slightly less funny over the past year. Yet I still love his cute little self. Here is the link to his channel, or page, or whatever you call it on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/fred
How about the "Will it Blend" things? You've probably seen at least one of those dumb videos. I can't believe he demolished an iPhone. Why do I keep watching them? Why? http://www.youtube.com/user/blendtec?ob=4
Hmm, now what? I guess I could put the link to JKL videos on here, but nah. Like Fred, their videos simply are not as funny as they used to be. There was one other channel I was going to put on here, but now I forget what it was.

I plan to start the filming tomorrow morning, if my sister finally just agrees. If not, I will get "tree shots" and "sledgehammer shots."
Oh.
I just realized, nobody is going to get* that.






*as in understand

Thursday, November 20, 2008

iMovie Contest

So, very good news. Mi escuela tiene (My school is having) an iMovie Contest! Mi hermana ALMOST agreed to do the filming, and I will be doing some as well, in the shots where I don't need to show my actual self. I have the setting and part of the storyline mapped out, and I want to get a little bit of filming done on Friday (Thank you, Zeus, for inservice days) and Saturday.
By the way, I did make a movie set to "In This Life," by Delta Goodman (or Goodrem, who knows) but it completely sucked, so I deleted it. Then I regretted it because I could have used some of the shots I'd collected. I should have pulled those out before erasing the whole job. Ah well, the deed is done.
Usually I don't really want to win any contests. I mean, look at what happened with the coloring contest, right? But this one I really do. The prize for first place is $100 cash, and I need the money for... the Secret News. Especially now that our family's savings are drained and we're a credit card bill away from being broke. I can't really explain why I need so much dinero for it without telling you what it is, so you'll just have to wait, I guess.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Coloring Contest

I am thirteen years old. But NOT too old for coloring contests!
There was this one in the local newspaper, and I was really bored. So I begin coloring it, and add some more stuff in. Then I'm like, hey, I might as well mail it in. So I did, and pretty much forgot about it after that...
Until today! I was sifting through the mail and spotted my name on an envelope, in handwriting. That was weird. Most envelopes with my name on them were autoprinted and addressed to my parents. Then I notice it is from a realtor, which was weirder, because it wasn't
our realtor. Then I remember, hey! That's the one that put the coloring contest in the newspaper four weeks ago! So I tear it open and pull out, sure enough, my coloring contest entry in all its overcrowded, colorful glory. Then there is TEN DOLLARS to Baskin Robbins...! And a nice little card of congrats that she wrote.
I'm so happy.
But it's so weird, my first coloring contest, and I'm a teenager... My childhood was lacking.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Painfully Ordinary

Here's another one I might be talking about on here:
I went back to my path today. It was horrible. I expected so much, and got so little.
I barely remembered how I had gotten there before, so wandered around for twenty minutes until I saw the little passageway into wonderland. Which wasn’t exactly wonderful anymore. I stood there on the path, stood where I had stood a week before, and stood, and stood, but felt nothing. And I walked down the path, and walked, and listened, and looked, but there was nothing to hear, nothing to see.
Then I started noticing things. There was a short tree with red leaves on the bottom branches but orange fuzz on top, and a row of bricks that led down to somebody’s patio, and bloodred flowers hanging off of a bush, and pink blinds in one of the windows. Things that I hadn’t noticed before.
I realized that it was because before, I was feeling my way through the trail, propelled forward by the magic, whisked through it from an inner feeling. I hadn’t looked at the trail, really. I just listened and knew there was a tree, and smelled and knew there was ivy, and everything else had just blended together and faded away into the swirling of thoughts going through my head.
Now that my head was back out of the clouds, I could really see things. And in all honesty, nothing was that much to look at. Sure, there was attractive ivy covering the ground, but it was nothing but ivy. And yeah, there were some nice trees around, but they were nothing but trees. And as I made my way slowly down this suddenly unfamiliar path, I looked back and saw something totally different from what I’d seen last week. The gorgeous picture I had in my mind was suddenly erased and replaced with THIS. This was nothing. This was boring trees and boring shrubs and boring pavement. Something to be seen and forgotten. The beauty had slipped away along with the magic, and what was left was this painfully ordinary path.

Buggywhip Court. This was something I saw on the way back to my grandma’s. Tell me, would you live in a place called Buggywhip Court? Wouldn’t you rather find a nice cardboard box and park it outside of a donut shop? “Buggywhip” is not what you name a collection of houses. It sounds like a disgusting innovation in snake food. Squashed-up bugs sold in an aerosol can that you squirt into your pet snake’s food dish. Insta-protein. I can see it now... Are you tired of lugging home live crickets to feed to your snake? Do you find it plain gross to watch a reptile eat insects? Well, we’ve got the solution for you! Try the new BUGGYWHIP! Just a dollop of this fantastic product a day, and your snake will have all the protein he needs! And that means no more crickets for you! Try BUGGYWHIP!
Yes, these are the thoughts running through my mind as I stare at the sign: Buggywhip Court.

Another thing I saw: green leaves and yellow leaves on the same tree. I’m serious. Green leaves. Yellow leaves. Same tree. And I mean BRIGHT lime green and LUMINOUS yellow, punches of neon color growing off the same branches. Is this truly within the power of Mother Nature? It looked like a twisted ad for some all-natural lemon-lime soda. Weird, at least in my eyes.

Magic

This is a note that I wrote on a different website. I will probably be referring to it a lot on here, so here it is:

My new mission is to take every ordinary experience in my life and to make it extraordinary. Or at least to make it sound as if it were. Extraordinary, I mean. Today’s subject is to be the walk I took on Tuesday.

I biked over to my grandma’s house to walk her adorable little fluzzie bundle of barking joy, Bruceter. If I haven’t made it clear enough yet, he’s a dog. A very tiny dog, but he packs a lot of love for his size. Anyways, I usually take him around this little path in the center of my grandma’s neighborhood. It goes in a circle around the pool and little park, and around the big grassy area with all the lovely trees, tra la la. So anyway, I started getting tired of going around and around in circles. Plus all these scary menacing *shudder* teenagers were hanging around and were starting to freak me out. Along the trail, there were these little paved paths that led from the park area to where all the houses were. I wandered down one of these and started walking along the streets lined with houses. Then I noticed a little paved trail that didn’t lead back to the central park. Curious me decided to explore.
It only went a very short distance before opening up to a path perpendicular to it, much longer. The short path was just a tributary into this larger one. I was pretty much smack-dab in the center of the big trail, so I turned left first. Wandering down that way, I began wondering why I had never found this trail before. My cousins and sister and I used to fly around this neighborhood during the frequent dinner parties at my grandma’s house, coming home in time for the “dinner” part of the party. And it took me thirteen years to find this little path? My grandmother had been living here since before I was born, and I thought I knew this neighborhood well. Apparently not. I was still unaware of the grand discovery I was about to make.

So here I am on this ordinary-looking path, with ordinary-looking shrubs and ordinary-looking trees. It turns out I was pretty near the end of the path, because it abruptly stopped and opened up into a cul-de-sac. Nothing to see here, except a weird random bright orange truck. Ye-ow. So I turn around. And I take a step.
One step.
One single, solitary step.
And as I am taking this step, I look out to the pathway in front of me. I can look back now and think, gee, there was nothing special about it, but then at that moment it felt, for lack of a better word, magical. Magical is too strong of a word to describe what it felt like, but really, there is no other way to describe it. Half-magical? Maybe three-quarters. But for now, let’s just say it was magical. The blustering cold now just felt crisp, like I had stepped out of my body and into new skin. I lifted my head and tasted the air on my tongue and felt the breeze on my cheeks and heard the wind in my ears. One slow blink just made everything clearer. Suddenly everything is satin and gloss, and I am a pixie, or maybe an angel, floating through this wonderland. I remember what my feet are for and start walking deeper into this unreal world. A gorgeous display of trees and dirt and pavement, arranged just for me. Leaves are sprinkled like sugar on oatmeal all over the ground, and the ones still on the trees make a canopy over my head, rustling softly in the breeze. They pray for the leaf-corpses scattered all over the ground. When a plant dies, are the remnants really considered a corpse? So all this fall, I have been raking dead bodies off my lawn and cramming them into big black bags? These are the thoughts that are passing through my mind as I pick up a leaf and twirl it between my thumb and forefinger. “You are a twisted freak,” my conscience states concisely. I shrug to myself and let the leaf flutter back to the ground. Maybe the reason I feel so weird is because this is a graveyard? There must be a mass murderer on the loose. I suspect Gus Tovwind. (Reread that... now again... do you get it?? Gust of wind? Ha! Ha! Ha!)
The wind picks up and the leaves start whispering louder. Each one is telling its own story, murmuring softly to anybody who comes by. You know what? I bet a lot of leaves die from depression. Each one has a unique story to tell, but nobody ever bothers to listen. I take pity, and I stop, and I listen. And I ask them why this path is making me feel so strange and... special, but they don’t answer. They want to finish their stories before the wind blows and they fall to the ground, lying there in agony until they eventually shrivel and dry up, reduced to a crunchy wad that will just get stomped on by some pesky kid. I could almost cry.
But the bittersweet moment ends as I continue my journey down the path. It opens up into more cul-de-sacs every few yards. I bounce along the trail, feeling like the pavement could be a big fluffy down pillow layered with marshmallows rather than concrete, and I could be a twinkly fairy, rather than just another person in the world.

I stroll along slowly, admiring how clean and pure the air feels in my lungs. I suck in deep breaths of it. When I exhale, my face naturally goes into a smile. Can breathing be a hobby? Try it, right now. You sitting at the computer. Doesn’t a big huge deep breath make your day just that much better? Why was everything here beautiful? Why were the bushes so lush and the trees so green and the air so crisp? Who knows.
Oh. Remember how I had a dog? Bruceter had been plodding along silently and obediently, there, but not in the wonderland my mind was turning this path into. Anyway, while I am busy breathing, there is a breeze and the leaves scud along the ground. Bruceter flips out, emitting a sharp bark and chasing after them. My arm is yanked halfway out of its socket as I hold on to the leash for dear life. “Bruceter!” I shout in surprise. He trots back, panting and grinning. I shake my head at him and continue on my trail. Wait. Something is different. The air doesn’t feel so impossibly clean anymore. And the pavement is just pavement, not pillows and marshmallows, and the leaves are just leaves, not sprinkled sugar or corpses or whispering storytellers. And me, I’m just me. I backpedal slowly, stepping carefully deeper into my glorious world. But the world has lost its glory, and I am once again on an ordinary path in a cold, lusterless universe. I have re-entered the real world. Leaves blow in the trees, but they don’t tell any stories. And I breathe air, but it doesn’t cleanse my lungs. And I walk along the pavement, but my feet have lost their bounce. My wonderland was like carefully crafted blown glass, just as beautiful, but shattered just as easily.

Magic doesn’t exist anywhere in the entire world, except in the minds of those few people with a powerful imagination. And magic can’t exist in an object. Or maybe it can, but only in the moment you believe it is there. Maybe it wasn’t the path that contained the magic. What made those few minutes so mystical was me truly beleiving that the magic was there. And in my mind, it was. But I only had it for a short time, until my wonderful moment ended. So be looking for your moment, and enjoy it to its fullest before it slips away. The beauty of magic is only powerful enough to kiss your life once in a very long while. I was on an ordinary path in some random neighborhood on a regular old Tuesday. And it was on this ordinary day that I was visited by the extraordinary. The circumstances might not be unusual, but when your magical moment occurs, you will feel it, and you will know.

And hopefully, you won’t think I’m crazy anymore. =)





(Sorry, I just couldn’t end it on a serious note like that.)

Tuesday

This week, we get a random Tuesday off for veteran's day. So it's going to be: school on Monday, no school Tuesday, school for the rest of the week. I really have no idea why we can't just get Monday off, too. The district should stick an inservice day or something in there. Today I'm going to go to school, but not tomorrow... I'm going to a party :)
And then the day after is going to be school again, and the day after that, and then it's already Friday.
What a screwed-up week.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

The First Entry

So, I have a blog now. And this is my first entry. Yup. Here it is.