Illumination in the early hours

Early morning light
illuminates the bedroom
sheets mussed, cups of tea
on the floor, candles and books by
the bed.

She's in the bed, hair spread out
across her flowered pillow,
eyes shut, just beginning to flutter,
under the quilt that
keeps her warm, covered in
fauna and flora.

The animals surround her--
creatures from her childhood,
and some new,
even though she's far older now,
she still holds them close,
holds memories near.

She doesn't think about all
that troubles her while she
sleeps,

it's only 2am.

She's in places of her imagination,
places that teach her about life,
give her guidance,
give her inspiration.

She loves the lands of dreams--
her own Neverwonderland.

She won't age, not here.
She'll be forever 8,
unless she chooses otherwise.

Until the beepbeeepbap of the
alarm goes off, she'll be happy.


always and forever.

(c) December 2011

Thoughts currently in my mind: Lights

My parents are divorced, and so I have two bedrooms.

While my bedrooms are different, they (at least for now) have one thing in common: lights. More specifically, the strings of "holiday" lights- the multicolored ones that you can buy at most any convince store or "superstore" around this time of year. I'm not huge on holiday decorating, but the lights make me happy, and they don't have to go with any specific holiday--they could be for Hanukkah, the Solstice, Christmas, or just winter in general. They give me a sense of warmth, which is a feeling I search for in many forms.

A cup of tea, a hug, fuzzy socks on a cold night, literature, family, and friends are all forms of warmth that I have found, and light (in all it's forms--sun, candles, stringed, etc) is another way for me to feel warm and feel happy.

Hugo & Christmas Eve

Tonight I went with my dad to see Hugo. It was one of the sweetest movies I have seen in a very long time.

The cinematography was beautiful, the acting was wonderful, and it made me want to travel to Paris right this moment. (And go back in time seventy-odd years...) My favorite character was probably Isabelle--she was so kind and brave, and to top it all off, she was a bookworm! :)

I've only read part of the book that Hugo is based off of, but the storyline was so imaginative, and even though the movie was over two hours long, it felt as though it was far shorter than that. Sadly, I don't know as much about the history of film as I'd like to, but I feel as though if one does know a lot, this movie would have even more meaning for them. I just, in a word, adored this movie. It was so cute and warm and happy.

It was really nice to go to the movies--I haven't done that in a while. I'm hoping to maybe see The Muppets with my cousins when they come up on Wednesday. I've heard that it is a wonderful movie, I love The Muppets, and I love Amy Adams.

Anyways, it's Christmas Eve (and also the fifth night of Hanukkah!!)

Happy Holidays to those who celebrate!

______________ Unique

Okay, so.

The word unique. This word cannot have any adjective preceding it. Yet, time and time again, people say "Very Unique", "Less Unique", et cetera. Now, I'm not claiming that I have never made this mistake in my life (hint: I have), but I try to correct my mistake as soon as I can rather than allow it to linger in the air. I have heard well-educated adults use a qualifying word before "Unique", and I must confess that it does tend to make me cringe.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves... I'm trying to work on not saying any descriptor before saying unique, and I think that it is an interesting experiment to listen to yourself as you are talking to see if you have this slip-up.

I don't mean to sound angsty, I just felt as though I should post this.

Happy Holidays!

In Which I Ramble

Well, this is my fiftieth post. That feels like some huge accomplishment, though I'm well aware it's not. Perhaps I'm thinking that way because my cold is making me delusional.

Four days left until break! Today in AP Euro we were saying what we'd be looking forward to during our break.
Now, as is to be expected, many of my classmates said some variant of "Sleeping" or "No School" or both of them. Well, guess what I said?
"More time to read and see my family!" My teacher's comment to that was "I like that you are unique." Or something along those lines. This does tie back to when we said what we were thankful for and I said education and literature... but hey, it's my honest opinion!

I plan on catching up on my reading, which I have sadly not had loads of time for this year. I'm also literally (ha, ha, pun!) in the middle of about eleven or so books right now. Yup. So, my goal is to finish at least five of those over break, and they aren't quick reads either. They are classics! (Ohhh! Ahh!)

Okay, I ought to go and review for my upcoming exams this week.

Thank you for tuning into the rambles of Emily.

See you all soon!

Names that I like

Because I wanted to post something, but couldn't figure out exactly what I should post, I decided to list a few names I like and why I like them. Here goes...

1. Rose: Yes, this does have to do with the character from Doctor Who to an extent, but I also just like it because it has so many other connections to various other aspects of life: in math there is something called a "Rose Curve", one of the most famous Shakespearean lines has to do with roses: "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet", and so on... so many wonderful connections, and such a classical name.
2. Imogen: (Im-Oh-Jen) The name that I recently learned may well be a typo. It appears in Shakespeare's Cymbeline, but it may have originally been spelled "Innogen", but a transcription error may have resulted in the spelling with an M instead of two Ns. The name Innogen was around during Shakespeare's time--I just love the idea of naming something after a typo. My duel obsession with literature and Shakespeare makes me feel giddy at the idea of this name. It's just so amazingly wonderful!!
3. Sylvia: The reason for this has to be obvious. (Hint: who is one of my favorite people in all of history? Yep, Sylvia Plath.) There are other reasons for my liking of this name, such as the sound it makes when it rolls off of my tongue, and it just sounds so literary, even ignoring the existence of Sylvia Plath).
4. Orion: This one's a boy's name... but I like it because I love astronomy, despite never having taken an astronomy course. It's a bit of an odd name, but it sounds classical, and that seems to be a theme with the names that I like. 
5. Hugo: It's a name that seems to hold prestige without being ostentatious. It is simple and yet powerful. 

Those are a few of the names that I love most. There are others, which include: Willow, Ophelia, Aurore/Aurora,  and Sebastian. (If you want to hear the reasons for these, just ask!)

Whispers

The pages of the books whisper

stories, of lives not real;
of places imagined.

Yet we, she, he, they
all travel, we go into these

fantastical worlds of
literature, where we meet friends
and travel to places our passports could never
gain us entrance to.

The little girl reads in the corner of the library,
alone, yet not alone.
She giggles as she meets her new friends,
her very best friends--
only illusions, and yet so real to her young eyes.

She never wants to leave.

(c) December 2011

Eighteen!

So, today, December 13th, is my 18th birthday.

It's weird, because I always expect each birthday to feel different from the day before somehow, but it never really does. I mean, yes, it is different, but that's just because people are saying "Happy Birthday" to me for the entire day. Other than that I have to remind myself that I really am a year older, despite not looking any different than the year before.

But being eighteen means that I can vote in the next election. This makes me both excited and nervous. Mostly excited, but without a doubt my feelings are a mixture of the two.

I sent off my last college application yesterday, so I do not have to worry about any of those on my birthday, which is quite a nice feeling. My dad is going to make me pancakes, and my mom is coming over so that we can all have some.

Now I have to get used to saying "I'm 18" when people ask me my age, which ought to be interesting, because I'd hardly gotten used to responding that I was 17. It doesn't help that I look younger than I am. Oh well, that's not something that I really like to make a big deal out of.

On another note, my twenty-first birthday will be on 12/13/14. That makes me quite happy, though if I'm studying abroad in a European country, my birthday will be 13/12/14, which is still cool, but not quite as cool.

That's all for now.

It's Official!

I have now applied to all but 1.5 schools. I haven't submitted anything for one of the two, and I haven't submitted the supplement for the other.

All I can say is: Holy moly Oh my goodness AHHH! That's roughly my mind right now. I cannot believe that I'm old enough to be going to college. That is so weird.

I am in a state of euphoria mixed with feeling nauseous. It's so weird to think that one of the nine colleges to which I have applied is the college that I will be attending for the next four years! Applying has lifted a huge weight off of my chest, for now I can have a few minutes here and there to read for fun.

I also made my goal: I applied to college before my birthday! My birthday is on December 13th. I will be eighteen! But I'm going to avoid thinking about that right now because I need to calm my nerves. :) My dad is being very nice and making me tea and popcorn.

I am also thrilled because now I can get back to blogging at least twice a week. I am sorry for the hiatus, but it was necessary so that I could finish up my applications.

Sorry for the somewhat frazzled blog post, I'm just a weird mix of emotions right now.