One of my favorite places to go for jewelry is the sale/discount racks at Claire’s and Icing.  (I did once go into Delia’s and found some great pieces for $4 each that just need a little TLC.  However, I went there today and there was no discount jewelry. *very disappointed*)  Normally, I look but that’s it. I don’t find anything.  I just enjoy looking. Today was different.

Icing, $6.25

Claire’s, 6.25

I’m wearing the second necklace (they’re both necklaces, in case you couldn’t tell) now. I am so excited about these.  THEY’RE SO…AWESOMELY FUNKY. (And the first necklace – the round one – kind of reminds me of the necklace here.  Or at least, something she would wear.  And let’s admit it – we all could stand to take a leaf out of Kendi’s book.)

PS. Sorry for the crappy quality. Phone camera. (I’m too lazy to charge my camera battery and then take a quality picture for you. But I assure you that in real life, the necklaces are not blurry and do not have a grainy quality to them like the pictures do.)

I’m very happy. 😀  THEY’RE JUST SO WEIRD!

*sniffles, and then starts bawling* Stupid Nicholas Sparks…*continues to be absorbed in book*

A lot of books are made into movies.  Usually, I’m content to read/watch (usually read) one or the other.  A few weeks ago, I saw the book The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks at a book fair at a library.  I thought, “Huh, you know, I saw the movie and liked it and…I kind of want to read the book.”  So I bought it and I just got around to reading it.

I didn’t cry in the movie.  But I’m about 10 pages into the first chapter in the part of the book that makes you want to cry, and I want to absolutely bawl my eyes out.

After I finish the book, I’m going to watch the movie again.  And then watch something lighthearted and really cheery like the most epic dragon movie ever, How To Train Your Dragon.

This has been a long time coming. *happily sighs*

OMG!  So so so…I got reinspired.  I’m writing again!  I wrote a grand total of…(wait for it)…1800+ words today, in just over 3 pages.  I’m kind of worried about the characters internally monologuing to an extreme.  Hmm.  At any rate, it’ll get faster and I can always cut it down later if I feel like it’s too much.  For right now, I’m just excited to be writing again.

I bet you wanna read an excerpt, right?  No, no you don’t.  You probably don’t care.  And if that’s the case, then you can just stop reading now and move on because I’m going to put an excerpt here.  (Small excerpt.  I’m just so excited, you know?!)

———————————————-

Out of the blue, the office door burst open. Miriam turned, her eyes wide with shock, just in time to see Evelyn slam the door shut and bar it shut with her body.

Evelyn was the head waitress for a reason. The woman had a cold stare that could make rhinos turn in fear. It was Evelyn Miriam trusted to deal with the most difficult of customers, in whichever way Evelyn saw fit. Evelyn was one of the most down-to-earth, no-nonsense people Miriam had come across. And yet, Evelyn stood before Miriam, with trembling features and running mascara, clearly terrified.  Miriam studied the head waitress for a moment before she picked up the phone. The urgently whispered numbers, “9-1-1,” had hardly left Evelyn’s mouth when Miriam punched the three numbers into the phone.

Miriam had no idea what was going on. The office was in the back of the restaurant, behind the kitchens. Often times, the cooks made enough noise to completely cover whatever noise was made in the main room.  Plates had been dropped, yelling had ensued and as long as it stayed in the main room, Miriam hadn’t a clue. But if Evelyn was this scared, this terrified…Miriam shuddered as the feeling of dread grew deep within her stomach.

Miriam only had enough time to realize that the kitchens were mysteriously silent before three things happened, almost instantaneously.

The first thing was that the woman at the 911 call center came on, just in time to hear the second thing: the sound of a gunshot, and a man’s voice screaming out, “I better be able to see you in five seconds, or you’re going to see a lot more of this young lady than you ever wanted to!”

——————————————-

So, that’s the story.  (Any edits or comments you want to make are welcome.)  Well, obviously, it’s not the entire story, just part of it.

I can’t tell you too much more about the story, only that it’s about this guy who comes in and takes an entire restaurant hostage.  It’s intensely psychological and, well…it’s just intense.  If you couldn’t catch on to that.

At any rate, I’m excited.  😀  1800+ words!  Yay!

You can tell I’m excited because, regardless of the fact that I don’t have a specific time, I’m planning Friday out down to the last earring.

SO SO SO…OH EM GEE I’m so excited!  I finally called the woman in charge of the volunteers at a non-profit that runs a garden about coming in to see and talk about the organization and the garden.  Apparently, it’s fallen into disrepair and there’s one other person who contacted her about volunteering there.  So we’re going to meet sometime on Friday (gotta get down on Friday!  Sorry.  I had to do that.  My deepest apologies.).  I’m not sure what time yet – she’s going to email me that.  At any rate, this is actually happening!  I’m so excited.  I’ve already picked out what I’m going to wear.  (Nice pants and a nice shirt, necklace, etc and I’m going to bring crappy clothes and sneakers in case we’re going to start working then and there.)

I’m really excited.

Lol, I got sidetracked and just watched like 30 seconds of about 10 other music videos ARK has produced with other undiscovered teenagers (a couple were hardly that), all auto-tuned and bad lyrics.  It really is horrible.  Eugh.

Between books for eight year olds and The Number One Bestseller, I think my library might be complete. Life goal: completed, mission: achieved.

I went to a book fair today at a library nearby.  It was awesome.  Crowded but so worth it.  I scored big time.  I’m very happy with my finds.

The finds?

-The Last Song and The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks.  I saw the movie for The Last Song, and I didn’t love it but I saw the book and I just thought, “Hmm.  I wonder what the book is like.”  I’ve read The Horse Whisperer (or is it simply Horse Whisperer?  I forget) and I liked it.  And the paperback books were on 25 cents (or 5 for a dollar), so I figured that if I hated it, it wasn’t too much of a loss.

-Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes.  I’ve never read anything by her but it looked like a happy/comical, adult-ish romance novel and I do enjoy those.

-While we’re on that topic, Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella.  I’ve read this book, (in fact, I’ve read…pretty much all of her books, except for the Shopaholic series which I read the first book of and was perfectly content to let the story stop there) and I adore it.  It’s really fantastic and funny.  I saw another one of her books, but I didn’t enjoy that as much so I didn’t buy it.

-A user’s guide to Adobe Photoshop CS2.  I actually have CS5, but considering that these books cost $20+ and this book was only $1 (or less.  I’m not entirely sure) and that I’m about 98.9% positive that CS2 and CS5 are very similar, it was worth it.  The way I see it, the book might not be able to tell me exactly what I need to do in order to achieve this effect, but it can direct me down the general road (whereupon I can experiment and try things out.  I’ve always learned better like that anyways) and it can also make me aware of things that I can use CS5 for that I hadn’t even thought of.  Honestly, I’m not going to buy $20+ book when I have the software at my fingertips and I’m not using it for anything but for fun.  I will, however, pay $1.  🙂

-Paper Towns by John Green.  It’s funny, you know.  I’m currently reading the last book of The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay) and while it’s a good book, it’s sad and depressing and I have a sinking feeling that…well, something bad is going to happen and I hate sinking feelings and bad things…I like light, fluffy books that make you laugh and leave you with a smile on your face.  (And here I go and buy two Nicholas Sparks books.  Ugh.)  So, I went to Mara (if she’s not there, then she’s here) and browsed around on a selection of books she had reviewed, looking for something that was lighthearted and easy to read and something that would make me smile.  One of which was Paper Towns.  She said it was a good and funny read, so I thought, “Okay, I’ll see if it’s at the library next time I go in.”  Then, I’m at a different library (bigger one, actually), browsing around at the book fair.  I see one author whose name was Tim Green.  Ten minutes later, I see another author whose last name I forget but his first name was John.  For some reason, my mind puts these together (even though I had seen authors with the first time of John before that) and I remember about Paper Towns.  It never actually occurred to me, however, that I might find the book there.  I was completely flabbergasted when I did.  I read the prologue.  It looks like a good read.  I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to finish Mockingjay.

-How to Cheat a Dragon’s Curse by Cressida Cowell.  So last year, How to Train Your Dragon came out as a movie.  I watched and loved every minute.  This is the series that movie was based off of.  Now, admittedly, I haven’t read the other books, but come on.  It’s got dragons, it’s based off a movie I love, the main character’s best friend is afflicted with a lethal curse and will die unless Hiccup finds the cure, the legendary Potato.  How can this possibly go wrong?

“Well, let’s see.  1. It’s a book written for eight year olds…”

Shut up, Jiminy Cricket.

“2. It’s a book written for eight year olds…”

Stop talking. Now.

“3. It’s a book written for eight year olds.”

*Charlie glares and brings out duct tape.*

Ahem.  Where were we?

– Stravaganza: City of Flowers by Mary Hoffman.  This is the third book in a series (or at least, it’s the third book as far as I know) that I’ve enj0yed in the past (aka, high school.  But hey, what can I say?  I’ve always had good taste in books) and I’m rather looking forward to reading this one.

– Lastly, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse.  This book I know next to nothing about and I’ve never heard of the author.  I mean, I read the back and thought, “Okay, yeah, this sounds…halfway decent,” whereupon I slipped it into my bag and only remembered it was there when I dumped my books out on the bed to take the afore-shown picture.  The part about this book that I like though?  If you take a closer look at the picture above (Labyrinth is the blue book on the bottom row), you’ll notice that right below the author’s name it has the words: The Number One Bestseller.

It didn’t top the New York Times bestseller list, it hasn’t sold over 10 million copies.  It’s not even the highest grossing book.  Nope.  All over the world, in the history of books, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse is The Number One Bestseller.  If you go to a bookstore in Nigeria and you ask for the book that sells the best, you will find yourself face-to-face with Labyrinth by Kate Mosse.  (It’s The Number One Bestseller, you know.)

And this time, you might actually want to listen when the guy selling the book tries to tell you that this is his last copy and that you better buy it now or it’s going to be gone in five minutes.

I unveil my masterpiece. Yes, you may applaud now.

Remember this?  Remember how I talked about turning that random looking wooden thing into a jewelry armoire type thing?

Well, I did.  I’m rather pleased with the results.

To hang the jewelry, I used those small adhesive hook-y things, the ones that have a plastic backing and a metal hook that swings so it drops down.

I also bought two small cloth organization boxes from Target.  The top one holds a mix of hair stuff and bracelets and the bottom holds earrings.  But more about those in a minute.

I’m so excited about my new jewelry case that I’m going to introduce you to my jewelry collecti

on.  See, my clothes are nice, but I love jewelry.  I love it.  I get really excited about it.

Boy, you’re really in for it now.

NECKLACES:

Really, there are four categories that my necklaces fall under:

1. Long

 

2. Pendants

 

 

 

(If you’ll notice, each of the three sections hanging down holds two necklaces – a longer necklace and a shorter necklace.)

I truly love my pendants. The one on the top left and the one on the top right I got both at Claire’s (the black pendant might have been at Icing, come to think of it) in the clearance rack.  The black pendant was something like $3, and the wing pendant was actually one of those “buy 10 items for $10” things.  After I bought it, I quickly realized that it was on sale because the pendant wasn’t actually in the center of the necklace – right at the clasp, where the metal meets leather.  So the necklace kept riding up.  Soon after I realized this, I used my limited jewelry know-how to move the pendant to the center of the necklace, so there was an even amount of leather and chain on both sides.  It took

2 seconds.

The bottom middle pendant you can’t really see, but that’s okay because I’ve blogged about it before.  All I did was to buy the pendant at Wal-Mart and a matching chain and I just used a clasp I already had.

The top middle pendant my mom gave to me

 

as a birthday gift.  I love it.  It has matching earrings too!

3. Layers

The blue stone necklace I bought at Target.  The other necklace came from Icing.  I love it.  There’s a lot of different chains and they’re all at different lengths, the shortes one is maybe 16″, and the other one is at least twice that.

4. Unusual (or, you know, everything that doesn’t fit anywhere else for various reasons)

So, I guess the top one is actually a pendanty type thing.  But the chain is a little odd and farther up the chain there’s a couple of metal bead-y things.  And the small metal circle between the big pendant and the small stone is actually sort of a locket.  That is, it actually opens.  The second necklace I love but I don’t wear as often as I should.  And the last necklace I adore, but again, don’t wear it as frequently.  I love that it’s assymetrical, however.  And you can’t really see it, but near the bottom of the necklace there’s a green leaf.  The necklace didn’t come with that.  I put it in because I didn’t feel the necklace was long enough.  Weirdly, I didn’t buy it for that reason.  I actually bought it for a school project and it turned out to be perfect for the necklace.  😀

I have more, but those are my favorites.

BRACELETS AND HAIR STUFFS:

There’s not a lot that’s interesting here.  Well, not as interesting.  There’s my two large polka dotted hair clips, my flower clips, three barrettes (BUTTERFLY!).  Then there’s my bangles, my STOP GLOBAL WARMING bracelet (I bought it when I went to Canada to visit a friend.  Apparently, it’s actually  made from scraps of leather which I thought was pretty awesome) and two clip on bracelets (because my hands and wrists are so big, normal bracelets won’t fit around them.  The bangles only fit me because they’re from Lane Bryant).  Then you have boring hair ties and bobby pins.  And two hair clippy things that are cut off.

These are probably my favorite bracelets.  The top one my mom bought for me, but it was on an elastic, which I hate so I switched it over onto tigertail (which is a thin, floppy [because I can’t think of a better word.  What’s the opposite of stiff?] sort of wire that you can use for DIY jewelry and it’s so easy.  Inexpensive, too) and a clasp.

The second comes with a similar story.  My best friend made it for me, but she doesn’t have a lot of jewelry making experience and neither did the woman who bought the supplies my friend was working with at the time.  So, she made the bracelet on a wire and twisted the ends together.  I loved it so much (I like the randomness to it, the color…I just like it) that I switched it over to tigertail as well.

FINALLY, EARRINGS:

I don’t actually wear a lot of earrings unless I’m going somewhere – like to an occasion where I need/want to look nice.  Or at least halfway decent.  Or if I really feel like it.

But anyways, if you’ll notice, most of the earrings aren’t actually in the box.  That was my genius idea: hang them off the sides.  😀  I’m smart.

  These are actually on the…thingy that they are on because they’re somewhat fragile.  I mean, the flipflops and palm trees are from Claire’s, so it’s not like they’re incredibly valuable.  Still, I’d like to keep them…undestroyed.

The dolphins are probably the most valuable piece of jewelry I own.  They actually are gold.  Not an incredibly high quality  but high enough so that they bend really easily.  Which is why I like them against a firm back.

Yup.  That’s it.  Other random pictures?

A small selection of my books.  The rest are in New Hampshire, where my family owns a house.  (We’re renting the one we’re living in now.)  Still, I haven’t read a lot of these in a while and they’re some of my favorites.  No shortage of books for me….:)

 This last picture is actually for Mara.  I’ve been staring at the book with the pretty spine for a while, since she did her post where she showcased her pretty books.

I’m not really sure what I mean to accomplish however.

OH HAI PURDY BOOK!

(I just like writing ‘hi’ like that: with an ‘a’ and in caps.  It makes me giggle for some reason.)

Oh and uhhh…I was reading a book last night, and I found a Chinese Fortune cookie slip that reads:  🙂 Our first and last love is … self-love.  🙂  (Smiles and ellipses included.)

Not only am I not in on the joke, I don’t even think I’m in on the language.

This is going to be a short post.  All I really have to say is that I don’t get tweet trends.  I mean, I get that Katy & Plasticbags references Katy Perry’s supposed? affirmed? plastic surgery and that Demi & Cutters refers to how Demi Lovato used to cut.  Some people find these funny and others think it’s disgusting (depending on which trend you’re talking about).

It’s not that I don’t understand how people find this funny or why they don’t think it’s funny.  My confusion is even more basic than that: Tweeting Katy & Plasticbags or Demi & Cutters to me is like saying to me, “So, a guy walks into a bar.” [end sentence]

Yeah?  And?

I just don’t get it.

Novice writer looking for a storyline. Requirements: funny, lighthearted and quirky. Willing to consider even half-baked ideas! Please help.

I want to write.  I want to write something fluffy, something funny and light and happy.  I have two prologues to two different stories however…neither of them do I see a plot in.  For this reason, they’re both stories I want to read and not write.  I have no idea how to write these stories.  I don’t know where they’re going.  I don’t know what to do with them.

Characters.  I need characters.  Think, Charlie, think.

Words.  Word association.  Linguistics.  Professor.  University.  Student.  Overachiever.  Country.  Farm.  Animals.  Barn.

New to the city.  First apartment.  Learning to cook.  Exploring.  Living vicariously.

“Didn’t your mama ever tell you that it’s not polite to play with your food?”

“Well, yeah but I thought she was just referring to food that played back.”

I don’t even know what that means.

Urgh.  I want to write but I have no inspiration.

Psychology with Charlie: On Freudian Slips

Phrase: Freudian Slips

Definition:  A freudian slip, also called a parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of some unconscious (“dynamically repressed”) wish, conflict, or train of thought.

In English, this means that you say/do one thing when you mean to say/do one a second thing.  This confusion can be interpreted in such a way that people might guess at your deeper desires, wishes, conflicts or trains of thought.

For example:

Friend (while chatting on AIM): I called you.

Someone who might happen to be named Charlie:  Oh.  I’m not near my voice.  I mean, cell phone.

Now, here there was a confusion between the words “voice” and cell phone.  One might think that Charlie has this unconscious belief that she cannot communicate effectively or be heard unless she is using a piece of technology (like a cell phone).  One could extend this by saying that Charlie feels she cannot be heard unless she discards her natural source of communication and uses man made technology.

Why this works (or rather, why it’s supposed to.  Whether or not it does is anyone’s guess): Freud believed that you had your conscious thoughts and beliefs and everything and then there were your unconscious thoughts and beliefs and whatnot.  Normally, you keep a steady flow of consciousness – conscious thoughts and desires and stuff – but if you don’t zone out, then that’s when your unconscious thoughts and desires slip in and take control.  Obviously, in the example above, Charlie lost focus in that moment that she meant to type the word “cell phone” and her unconscious belief that she needs technology to communicate properly slipped in.

Yeahhhhhhhhh……………….

Sorry, it’s 1:12 AM here and I’m not functioning at full speed, you know?

The world is ending in ten minutes.

[Author’s note: This is a fictional story.  I’ve never had a gypsy woman come through my town, proclaiming the end of the world.  It’s half inspired by the Rapture with the “world is ending at 6pm” thing and half by MaranweTelrunya’s Weekly Writing Challenge [specifically, this challenge – yeah.  I know.  It’s far back but who am I to deny the gods of inspiration?].  I would put this up on fictionpress, but I think it’s more appropriate to post it here. 1. Because here I can edit the layout of the lines and I’m not so sure about fictionpress (though I will give it a shot) and 2. with the predicted end of the world at 6pm and the “world is ending in ten minutes!” theme of the poem, I just…feel this is more appropriate.

“The world is ending in ten minutes!”
The old gypsy to cried
As a worn horse pulled her worn wagon down the streets,

clanking

grinding

creaking.

In a quiet town of quiet people

with whispered stories
where parents disciplined without speaking

We heard her coming a mile away.

“The world is ending in ten minutes!”
Her words rang through the town.
I watched as people walked on by
Their lives unaltered by the gypsy’s revelation
As if

she was never there
they didn’t care
it didn’t matter

or they just thought she was crazy.

Maybe she was.

“The world is ending in ten minutes!”
My friends snickered to themselves
While I pretended to laugh along

But once alone,
I wondered why she believed it
When she was still proclaiming the end of the world

eleven minutes later.

“The world is ending in ten minutes.”
I’d turn the phrase over in my mouth

tasting the syllables
testing the words
trying the sentence on for size.

Saying it felt like wearing my mother’s cocktail dress

it was much too large
and I didn’t even understand what it meant
or what it was for.

Not yet.

“Why is the world ending in ten minutes?”
Sometimes I’d picture myself asking her
And I’d dream up her response

“You see, my dear…”
A frantic repition of the phrase
As if there were no other words that could come out of her mouth
A simple sad shake of the head.

But I never knew.
I never asked.

It wasn’t that I believed that the world was ending
As a kid it’s hard enough trying to picture
A change

any change

toys
dinner
phone numbers

Never mind the entire world
I just wanted to know
Why she believed in the end

when all I could see

were beginnings.

The world is ending in ten minutes, you see
But the grass beneath your feet will remain green
As the sky will remain blue.
No, it’s you and I that will change
An immeasurably small distance from who we were before
And in that ten minutes where the world ends
We have a chance to start anew.

[———————————————–]

I feel as though there were a couple things I wanted to say that were related to the Rapture…

Hmm.

Well, I forgot one  but the other is that I was on facebook and a friend of mine posted the following as her status earlier on today:

It’s just been one of those days…

Someone else commented:

Don’t worry.  It’s over soon.

I laughed.  I don’t know the person, but I liked the comment.  That is, I clicked the little ‘like’ thing right below the comment.  I liked the comment too, however.  I still do, in fact.  Very much so. 😉

I think the best part of the comment is that it’s such a normal thing to say to that kind of post that I’m not entirely sure that the pun was intended.  I think it was.  But I can’t be positive.