Feeling

Sense no. 1: Feeling. (Where there are areas that go ..., that is where I decided to skip over a couple paragraphs, just so I don't ruin the book for you in case you might want to read it.)
"'...You don't have hair.' Thandi points to Liz's head which is completely bald except for the earliest sprouts of light blond growth.
Liz strokes her head with her hand, enjoying the odd smoothness of it. What hair there is feels like feathers on a newborn chick. She gets out of bed and looks at her reflection in the mirror. Liz sees a girl of about sixteen with very pale skin and greenish blue eyes. The girl, indeed, has no hair.
'That's strange', Liz says. In real life, Liz has long, straight blond hair that tangles easily.
'Didn't you know', Thandi asks.
Liz consideres Thandi's question.
...'Hey, I've got weird things, too.' Thandi raises her canopy of braids like a theater curtain. 'Ta da', she says, revealing a small but deep, still-red wound at the base of her skull.
...'How did you get that?'
'Don't remember', says Thandi, rubbing the top of her head as if she could stimulate her memory with her hands. 'It might have happened a long time ago, but it could have been yesterday, too, know what I mean?'
Liz nods. Although she doesn't think Thandi makes any sense, Liz sees no point in arguing with the crazy sorts of people one meets in a dream.
'We should go', Liz says.
On the way out, Thandi casts a cursory glance at herself in the mirror. 'You think it matters that we're both wearing pj's?', she asks.
Liz looks at Thandi's white nightbown. Liz herself is wearing white men's-style pajamas. 'Why would it matter', Liz asks, thinking it far worse to be bald than underdressed. 'Besides, Thandi, what else do you wear while you're dreaming?'
~ from Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, p. 11-13

Whereabouts

Okay, so this "cleansing of my soul" thing has given me an idea of finally what to say to all of you.
I just love this picture, first of all, because it's of the ocean (a must), and second of all, this is exactly what I love to do. I'll just dip my head under the water and let the hum of the swirling water take over my thoughts, while my hands are still above water. It's weird, that wet verses dry thing, where the rest of you is cool and surrounded by liquid, yet your hands are still dry from the hot sun overhead.
So, that's where I got a blogging idea. The senses.
We use them all the time, and it's usually those five feelings we feel every minute of the day that make the best stories, and uncover the deepest of things. I mean, really, memories are the senses bundled up in a cute little care package.
You childhood? Well, it's the taste of apple juice and Cheerios, and the smell of freshly cleaned blankets wrapped around you when you're sick.
School is that feeling in your legs that makes you jittery. And don't forget the texture of school meatloaf. A classic, and a really bad stereotype.
The carnivals that we've all been to are made up of tired, sore feet from walking around all day, a dark sky lit with fireworks, and the smell of fried dough, and the whispy feeling of cotton candy, and holding onto your friend's sweaty palm on a scary ride.
The five senses are what make us human.
I have some amazing quotes that I'll be posting everyday all week long, dedicated to the five senses (touch, taste, smell, sound, and sight), and not necessarily in that order.
Hope you like it, I'm posting the first sense tomorrow!

Never Too Late

That's one thing I can never seem to figure out: Is it ever too late? If you think about it, it really all depends what you're talking about. Some things should just happen because they need to. Other things seem able to be dug up, again and again, poked at, scribbled out, and fix yet again.

... For example, my writing. That's the cool thing about writing; you can leave a story for months and then come back to it to find it still the same, perfectly preserved.

Yes, it's a second chance.

Wishing

I definetly recommend this book that I'm about to quote. Seriously, this book was funny and heartbreaking all at once. It's like no other book you've read before, I'll guarentee you that. Even though it's written from a boy's point of view, I can still relate to this story. Here you go:

"'I wish..." She starts, then shudders because she's crying. 'I wish it was the summer, Albert.'

I wish it was the summer, too.

I shake my head.

'It'll never be the summer again, Mia.'

'Can we pretend it is, just for tonight?', she asks.

I don't say anything at first, too much is going through my head, I'm confused, and it's not until I look up at her when I realize...

'Okay', I say. 'Hi, Mia.'

I try to say it cheerfully, but she frowns at me.

'That's not how you did it when we first met.'

'I don't follow.'

She raises her right hand, palm out, and stares at me gravely.

'How, Albert', she says.

I raise my hand, too.

'How, Mia.'

~ from Stop Me if You've Heard This One Before, p 372-373

Smile and Nod

Nothing much to say today.
Feel like a little kid.
I want to stay that way.
People are innocent, and life is simple.
At least, it is today.
No more thinking, please.
I just want to smile at this kitten, log out, and bundle up in a blanket in the living room with hot tea.
See you later, alligator :)
(If you're confused by my weird post, just go with it. I'm too happy and whimsical right now to think.)

Fighting for Life

I was looking through Hope Was Here today, just flipping through it, when I found this on the first page I started reading:
"A man shouts from across the room. 'G.T., how are you going to handle the stress of campaigning and being mayor if you're fighting for your life?'
G.T. leans against the dessert case across from the register. 'Because I'm more interested in living than in dying. And I want to bring as much healthy change into this town as I can before I go. I'm a short-order cook, Morgan. I always do more than one thing at a time.'"
~ from Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer, p. 37-38
...How inspiring is that?

Forget-Me-Nots

Jade's advice for the day:

Speak, and you won't be forgotten.

( In other words, you won't be lost in a field of forget-me-nots.)

Stella

Usually, I can't ever find something that looks like a scene I've pictured in a book. Usually, when a movie comes out that is a book, I'm always dissapointed by the scenes and the people because they're not what I pictured (unless I watch the movie first, then read the book). But this picture, this is exactly what I picture Stella's garden in The Truth About Forever looking like:

I love this garden. It reminds me of summer, and the trees with the sun poking through, ohmygod, I'm taken back to a couple years ago. Isn't it so amazing, for a picture to bring back memories, laughter, or even anger? (Someday, I'd love to try out photography... someday...)

Here's a little excerpt from The Truth About Forever, just to see what I mean about this garden:

"Everything in the garden felt so alive. From the bright white flowers that reached out like trailing fingers from dripping branches overhead all the way down the short, squat berry bushes that lined the trail like stones, it was like you could feel everything growing, right before your eyes. I kept walking, taking in clumps of zinnias, petunias, a cluster of rosebushes, their bases flecked with white speckles of eggshells. I could see the roof of the doublewide over to my right, the road to my left, but the garden seemed thick enough to have pushed them back even farther on the periphery, as if once you entered it moved in to surround you, crowding up close to hold you there."

And then here's my favorite part, the part about the owner, named Stella:

"...I found myself at the back of a sculpture. It was a woman; her arms were outstretched to the side, palms facing the sky, and lying across them were slim pieces of pipe, the ends curving downwards. I moved around it and stood in its shadow, looking up at the figure's head, which was also covered in the thin, twisted pipes, and crowned with a garland made of the same. Of course this was one of Wes's, that much was obvious. But there was something different, something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Then, I realized that the sclupture's hair and those bits of pipe it was holding all ended in a washer bisected by a tiny piece of metal: every one was a flower. Looking at it from the top, where the moonlight illuminated those curling pipes, to the bottom, were the sculpture's feet met the ground, I finally got that this was Stella, the entire figure showing the evolution of that thick, loamy dirt moving through her hands to emerge in bloom after bloom after bloom."

I like to call this "The Evolution of Stella". Mostly because of the description, this is my favorite part of the book.Wouldn't you just love to walk through a dark garden only lit by the moon, in the middle of the night? Somehow, I think flowers would look more beautiful during this time than ever.