Welcome To the Christmas Classic

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a peaceful day (and was on the nice list). Since its Christmas, I won't write anything super long. After allowed want to spend time with family and friends.

That's why I'm going to list my top ten favorite Christmas movie classics. Many are movies or shorts that you've probably heard of, but there might be a few you haven't seen or thought of as Christmas movies. So if you need a break from everyone or just want to find the right movie tonight, please enjoy my Christmas movie classic list.

10) Miricle on 34th Street (original) - I put this movie higher on my list because it's more of a Thanksgiving movie for me rather than a Christmas one. It's the movie I watch with my family to signal that it's the start of the Christmas season. I know there's a 1994 remake of this movie, but I personally think that nothing beats the original.

9) The Santa Clause - I remember when this movie came out. It was funny and I thought it was cool that the guy from Home Improvement started in it.

8) White Christmas - I love the music and dancing in this movie. It helps me to remember to "go to sleep counting my blessings".

7) Christmas Vacation - even if everything goes wrong you can still have an amazing Christmas.

6) A Christmas Carol - The one with George C Scott has definitely grown on me over the years, but I also love the Mickey Mouse version with Scrooge McDuck as Scrooge and the Muppets version is also a treat to watch. It's hard to go wrong with any version.

5) A Charlie Brown Christmas - It's a classic enough said.

4) The Thin Man - Not many people might know this movie (it came out in 1934). It's a really funny murder mystery that takes place in New York at Christmas and though Christmas isn't the focus of the movie, the main characters throw a fabulous party and are shown opening their presents.

3) A Christmas Story - I love watching this with my dad. He has told me that it's very close to what his childhood was like. It's also hard to not feel bad for Ralfie when he is forced to put on the pink bunny suit.

2) How the Grinch Stole Christmas - The animated one that's 25 minutes long, not the live action one. There's just something so amazing watching this movie. It's short, has fun music, catchy songs, and a sweet moral. I'm pretty sure I have the whole thing memorized.

1) We're No Angles - This movie really needs more recognition, especially as a Christmas classic. It's got Humphrey Bogart playing the leader of three escaped convicts trying to escape Devil's Island on Christmas. They come across a shop keeper and his family down on their luck, while their nasty cousin (played by the original Scherlock) threatens to ruin the shop keeper. The three escaped convicts initially plan on robbing the shop keeper, but things take a turn after several hilarious incidents. Seriously check this movie out. It is one of the best Christmas movies out there.

There are a ton of Christmas movies to watch and more come out each year. These are just the ones that I enjoy watching. You don't have to agree with me (in fact I might have left some favorites out), but these are the movies for this time of year dearest to my heart.

Merry Christmas everyone!

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week.

Welcome to the Holiday Blues

Christmas is supposed to be "the most wonderful time of the year." At least that's what the radio, movies, advertisements, and the media keep telling me. It's a time to spend with family and friends. To share and create memories.

So how come I've been feeling so down?

I'm not going to lie. I cried almost every day this week. It seems silly right?

Part of me was realizing that I needed to upgrade my tech and how pretty soon, everything I own will become obsolete. This should have been an obvious realization. After all, change seems to be the only constant in my life. Anyone who has ever seen an ad for Radio Shack from the 90s knows that everything they used to sell individually is available in a smartphone and/or laptop.

Did you guys know that the last VHS player was built in Japan this year? Yeah, VHS is pretty much gone know. If you have a bunch of home movies, you might want to consider making digital copies. Apple is ditching the analog headphones with their latest iPhone. DVDs players are become less common. Not to mention that kids today have no idea what a floppy disk is (they just think it's a universal symbol for "save").

I think the reason I'm so sensitive to all these changes is because I'm finally realizing how quickly time goes by when I'm not paying attention. I didn't realize until very recently that my loyal laptop from college was pushing seven years. It still works, but it's definitely having issues.

Ten years no long seems like a long time. When I was 15, I felt completely different from how I was at the age of 5. I can't say the same thing about looking back at my teens from my mid-twenties. I think a part of me realizes how much time has passed. I've grown a lot since I graduated college and even more since I graduated high school.

It probably doesn't help that I'm still constantly being mistaken as a teenager.


Feeling down at this time of year is not unusual. Between mass consumerism and realizing how much time has passed since you last had the time to take a breather. Time seemed endless as a kid. I felt like I had all the time in the world. I thought I could do anything and everything.

While setting up my Christmas decorations and cleaning my apartment, I found some of my old journals. I started rereading some of them. There's a lot of bad spelling and I had horrible handwriting, but it was interesting to see my inner thoughts as an 11 year old. I mostly wrote about food (go figure right).

As much as I would love to go back and relive all the good times and visit with friends and family who have passed away, I can't. I can only move forward. It's tough to let go of things and sometimes I've just got to accept the feelings I feel (crying and all) and be thankful for what is happening in the present.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week...which also happens to be Christmas.

Welcome to Holiday Cards

Call me old fashioned, but I love getting snail mail. No, not bills. I mean snail mail from friends and family. There's something about getting home after a long day and finding a letter in my mailbox.

I have a few friends who write me letters (and I write them back). We usually include a quick update on our lives, a few plans for the future, and the latest book we're reading. We still try to stay connected via social media and texting, but I love the feeling of pen to paper.

I like sending holiday cards to my family, especially the family I haven't seen in a while and I know I won't see before the end of the year. I include a quick update about my life. Sometimes I add in a few details about how my family is doing.

As I write these letters I start to realize how much has stayed the same and how much really has changed. Time seems to be slipping more and more away from me as I'm getting older. There are many days where I think that it was only last year that I was still at school, but really it's been nearly four years since I graduated.

I'm not going to lie, I can't wait to see what the future holds, but part of me can't let go of the past. Maybe it's because the adult world is a lot more complicated than young me ever realized. Time always seemed to move so slowly when I was a child. It felt like things would always be as they were. I don't think I knew any better.

"Time waits for no one." I don't remember who said this, but I remember it was in the movie Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The movie is about a young girl who suddenly discovers she can go back in time. Instead of using this power for anything heroic, she uses it to eat the pudding her sister stole from her and avoid awkward conversations with a boy she likes. In the end she realizes that she can't keep leaping through time and has to accept the past and move towards the future.

The past is the past and the future is going to show up sooner rather than later. As the years go on, my list of holiday card recipient is going to change and likely shorter. Nothing in life is preminant, even if I wish it was.

I hope everyone is having a good holiday season so far. Now I need to finish these letters, before I realize it's 2017.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to Preparing for the Holidays

The entire last quarter of the year should be called the Mad Holiday Rush. It all starts in October (or August depending on stores near you) when Halloween decorations are everywhere. Suddenly all of the food is pumpkin flavor and Hocus Pocus is on TV every weekend.

Thanksgiving is neatly smushed between Halloween and New Years. For the most part this holiday is dedicated to stuffing yourself silly and having three weeks worth of leftovers in your freezer. The most stressful parts of Thanksgiving are buying all the food, cooking all the food, and hoping no one brings up politics at the dinner table (hard to do after a couple of glasses of wine).

There are a lot of holidays in December, but I think everyone can agree that the one Americans are obsessed with the most is Christmas. Heck we get to start listening to Christmas music even before Thanksgiving on the radio and there are so many other holidays at this time of year too (my favorite being the winter solstice).

Granted Christmas is a lot of fun if you celebrate it. You might get to see loved ones you haven't in a while. There are beautiful light displays to go look at. There's a nostalgic feeling like anything can happen during this holiday. Magic seems to be real.

Of course here's a lot that goes into preparing for Christmas (so much so that it makes the holiday last through the whole month). There are presents to buy, decorations to put out, a montage video of the entire process to put on Facebook. You need to get that prefect tree (real or fake) that will fit just right in your living room. Mine is up, I just haven't bothered to put the ornaments on yet.

Having a check list is nice to have. That way I don't forget anything (or anyone). It's probably best to start a check list early (like a few months early), that way when December rolls around getting everything done will be a breeze. I try to get all my Christmas shopping done well before Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but it's okay to snag some last minute deals (so long as everything arrives on time).  I sometimes pick up a few things right after Christmas to save for next year.

Holiday card writing and present wrapping can take a while too. I like to start soon after Thanksgiving to give myself plenty of time to find all of the presents (I'm pretty good at misplacing hiding things).

There's also the mental and emotional prep that comes with the season. For some people this is the first time in a whole year or longer that you'll be seeing your family. It might be heartwarming and joyous. It could also be a total disaster (especially if politics and drinking are mixed).

Some people get really sad during this time of year. Holiday depression is a real thing with tons of articles on the internet about it. It can be difficult be around all the festivities when feeling down.

The holidays can be very overwhelming too. There's a lot going on and being around a lot of people can be draining (especially for introverts and people who like the quiet). I like to have a space set up where I can retreat to if I'm feeling like things are getting too much. There's nothing wrong with excusing yourself from a party or celebration if down time is needed.

I hope everyone has a peaceful holiday season because December has only just started and already things are busy.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to Keeping Records

Today I went to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It's a cool movie, though the ending wasn't what I was hoping for. I'm excited to see where this series goes. I would definitely recommend the movie for Harry Potter fans and non-Harry Potter fans alike. It definitely felt like the movie was building up to something bigger in the long run.

Thanksgiving has come and gone (along with Black Friday). The winter holidays are fast approaching, which means Christmas music will be inescapable for the next month in the US. There are tons of holidays between now and the 1st of January. There's also still a lot of work to get done before the new year.

The holidays really tie up the phone lines sometimes.

While I was visiting my dad for Thanksgiving, he gave me one of my grandmother's journals from the 1950s to read. It's a day to day travel journal about their journey from Pennsylvania to Japan. My grandfather worked for Church World Services and was asked to go to Japan for them. I'm not sure of all the details, but this was the first trip of many for my dad's family.

I will admit, reading my grandmother's journals is a little difficult. They are written in cursive and occasionally the pen bleeds through the page.

She does, however keep a very strict log of the day's activities, including when they woke up in the morning and what they ate at each meal. She always includes the location and what the weather is like. I might have picked up on a few of these habits.

This is the first journal of many. I think my dad hopes that someday I'll compile them all into a book to publish. They are fascinating to read. So far I've managed to discover that my grandmother was very worried that the trip would spoil her children rotten.

I keep a personal journal and a travel journal. My current travel journal includes my recent trip to Iceland as well as two other trips I took nearly ten years ago. It's interesting to go back and read some of the things I have written. It seems that I like to include silly things in my travel journal (like what I was listening to on the airplane).

My personal journal is just that, personal. My first journal was from when I was in high school. It mostly contains silly drawings and poetry (really really bad poetry that is very much a product of the 2000s decade). My second journal is a log of my journey through college. There is a third journal floating around somewhere that is incomplete. Who knows if I'll ever find it again (its from a summer between Junior and Senior year of college).

My most recent journal was given to me by a friend for Christmas two years ago. Sadly it's almost completely filled and I'll need to get a new one soon.

I've talked with a few people who have also kept journals and diaries. We all agree that it's nice to write things out. One of my friends reread a journal they started in the early 2000s. They wrote a lot about the changes that were happening in the world and how it was effecting them (especially 9/11).

For a long time even the presidents kept personal journals. Many are held in the Library of Congress to be preserved. Through these personal journals, people are able to catch a glimpse at the day to day lives they and their families lived. It helps add a different perspective to events that were happening at those times, especially since we don't have audio and video recordings for us to view.

I would like to encourage everyone to keep a personal journal. Even in this day of blogs and social media, having something to record your thoughts private thoughts in might be benificial. Sure, nothing on the internet ever really goes away, but there's so much stuff on here that things can get a bit lost. Who knows, someone might really want to use your journals in the future for a book.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome To The Joys in Reading

Believe it or not, there was a time when I hated reading. I didn't see a point in it. If I wanted to know what something said, I would ask someone to read the message for me and tell me. I know now that that is a foolish thing to do (people can lie after all). It wasn't until I was in the third grade and spied a book with a young woman and a scary looking cat on the cover that I became interested in books.

I've been going to more book signings since moving to New Jersey

It might be a bit of a stretch to suggest that "Nancy Drew and the Clue of the Tapping Heels" was the book that finally got me interested in reading (I liked several books as a child, but the needed to have pictures), but it was the gateway book to many other mystery novels including the "Cat Who" books by Lillian Jackson Braun and anything related to Agatha Christie.

It also helped me to enjoy many other books my school assigned me to read. I still maintain "To Kill a Mockingbird" was the best book I read my freshmen year of high school. "Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry" is one of my all time favorite books along with it's squeals "Let the Circle Be Unbroken" and "The Road to Memphis".

My mother was the one who got me into Harry Potter. Someone recommended it to her as a great children's book. She read the first three out loud to me and my sibling. By the time the fourth book came out, I had finally started reading on my own and would steal the book the read ahead. One of my aunts found me hiding behind a chair at my grandmother's house late one night reading the fourth book.  Apparently I begged her to keep it a secret from my mom, which she did. Now that I'm older, my aunt loves to bring that story up whenever Harry Potter is mentioned.

When I went to Japan for six weeks, my aunt insisted I read as much as possible (and work on my penmanship). I found that I enjoyed "Lord of the Rings" (regardless of how much the first movie scared nine year old me) and the Lloyd Alexander books. I was encouraged to read as much as I could and to ask for help if I needed it. The only book I had a really hard time with (and have still never finished) was "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".

Despite all of my personal struggles with reading, I found that I really enjoyed it. The struggles and feelings the characters went through were similar to what my young self was going through. I enjoyed being able to solve the mysteries well before the main character (or detective) did. Through reading I could be anyone and go anywhere. It helped me develop an active imagination.

I usually bring a book with me to the beach

Then I started reading nonfiction books.

One of the first nonfiction books that I remember liking was assigned my senior year of high school, "From Heaven Lake", and was followed by "Iron and Silk" a year later in one of my freshmen classes. Both were autobiographical accounts of people visiting China, going on a journey of self discovery.

I have since read more nonfiction books. Currently I'm reading a book about Introverts and before that one about Buzz Aldrin going to space. Nonfiction books aren't that different from Fiction books. They still tell a story and you are getting the author's point of view. Both teach the reader something (whether the reader accepts or agrees with the lessons is up to them).

Reading is very important. Most of how we communicates is through written words be they emails, blog posts on social media, or just a random meme someone texts you. They all convey a message. Some of us find them funny and others find them outrageous.

Some platforms limit you on how much you can write at any given time. Twitter is especially good at limiting the amount of text a person can use to express thoughts and arguments. Memes can help draw attention to a message, but can also limit a person's ability to see a whole picture. The message the reader needs to understand can be lost due to the limitations of the platform.

That's not to say a message needs a million words to drive a point home. Too many words can leave a reader confused or bored (like when Tolkien goes on and on for two pages about the scenery and you just want to get back to the action).

Like every good thing in life, there needs to be a balance.

I read because I love the adventure and the new points of view I am exposed to. Yes there have been books where I have screamed myself hoarse because of some stupid action the main character took (my entire junior year high school class had a lot to say about the protagonist of "Like Water for Chocolate"), but at least I understood where that character was coming from.

I'm not a mind reader (and I really hope I never become one). Reading has become just as important as listening in the age of social media. It's easy to share a post from someone you agree or disagree with. It can be harder to interpret the original author's tone (sarcasm in particular is hard to detect through written words alone).

I love reading and writing. I've learned a lot from opening up many good books. I don't always understand the world around  me, but reading other people's opinion's helps me to understand where they are coming from.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this blog (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Now I have a book about ghosts that I hope doesn't give me nightmares tonight.

Welcome to Empathy

Emotions are a part of being human. Every single person has the ability to feel their own emotions. We like to experience happiness. We try to avoid disappointment. We want to be loved. Emotions, no matter how much some of us might try to deny it (*cough me *cough), play a major role in the decisions that we make.

We cannot escape the emotions we feel.

Emotions are often the driving force behind my actions. I go to amusement parks because I love how roller coasters make me happy. I read mysteries because solving the plot before the main character does makes me feel smart. I tend to go hide when I'm angry because I've been known to do some pretty stupid and destructive things when I'm feeling extreme anger.

These are all valid emotions I have felt at one point or another. I am also not the only person who acts upon the strong emotions. I might forget that on occasion (which is not one of my better traits), especially when I'm arguing with my sibling about something. These arguments tend to quickly descend into screaming matches and it can take a while for us to forgive each other.


Emotions are what separate us from machines and computers. Granted, artificial intelligence is getting pretty good at recognizing and responding to human's emotions, but there is one thing a machine can not be programmed to do. A machine cannot be empathetic.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share feelings with another individual. I've also heard it described as feeling the exact emotions another person is feeling. It shouldn't be confused with sympathy, which is feeling pity or sorrow for someone's misfortune.

One of the best quotes or analogies I've heard for empathy is that you can never know what someone else is going through until you've walked a mile in their shoes. It's a good analogy. After all everyone has a slightly different world view and might have a different perspective to share.

 But is it the best analogy?

The funny thing about shoes is that they are made to fit the size of a person's feet. A person can't control the size of their feet, so they need to be able to find shoes that fit well enough not to pinch their toes and aren't so large that they trip. Just because I can fit perfectly into one pair of shoes doesn't  mean that I can fit into sibling's shoes, or my coworker, or even the shoes of my readers.

How can I walk a mile in someone else's shoes, when I can't get my feet to into them?

Sometimes I need a little help.

Books and movies (and comic books) are great mediums for evoking emphatic emotions. The ones that are the most popular and have the most staying power are also usually the ones that connect best with us on an emotional level. There's always at least one character (hopefully the protagonist) that we, as an audience, can identify with and root for throughout the course of the story.

These stories can become so powerful, that they start to take on a life of their own. They gain fans who celebrate the characters and how they overcame their challenges. Conventions might start popping up, so that fans can gather in groups and discuss how these stories changed their lives.

A good example of stories that touched lives for my generation would be the Harry Potter books. We, the audience, are introduced to a magical world along side Harry in the first book. When he is amazed by the moving pictures, so are we. We, the audience, are able to empathize with Harry's experiences and opinions because the books are told from his perspective. We are figuratively in Harry's shoes throughout the entire series.

 Harry is introduced to a lot of new and wonderful people when he arrives in the magical world at the same time we are. He's also faced with tough challenges and people who want to see him silenced (Dolores Umbridge) or dead (Voldemort and his Death Eaters). Throughout all of these encounters we are seeing everything through Harry's perspective and emotions.

Harry starts out as a wide eyed curious kid in the first few books. His innocence is shattered at the end of the fourth book with the death of Cedric Diggory. We have to put up with him being an angsty teenager throughout the entirety of the fifth book (and a few parts of the third book). We also get to witness him destroy Dumbledore's office while he is trying to work through his anger and pain at the death of Sirius Black. We're able to understand the relief and happiness he feels when he's finally defeated Voldemort.

Through Harry's perspective, we know who the bad guys are and we know who the good guys are. We also know there are people who aren't good or bad, but they do cause a lot of problems for Harry (an example would be Fudge). There are also the people we see make choices out of anger that later turn out to be really bad mistakes (Percy Weasley).

We tend to ignore or miss the same things Harry does. For example, Harry hero worships his father and his godfather, to the point where they can almost do no wrong in his opinion. However, there are clear signs that that wasn't the case. James Potter and Sirius Black were good people, there's no denying that. They probably wouldn't have befriended Remus Lupin if they weren't. They were also bullies.

Oh, I'm sure James and Sirius didn't think they were the bullies. If I were to guess, I'd say they felt that they were targeting the "real bullies". Snape was a known favorite target for them to harass and he hung out with a lot of people who would eventually become Death Eaters. James and Sirius did push Snape too far with their bullying and Snape lost his best friend and love interest Lily Potter (nee Evans) because of it. Snape called Lily a "mudblood" in front of a large group of people and I'll bet right then and there that James and Sirius felt that what they were doing to Snape was completely justified. Snape proved he was hateful against muggle born wizards. James and Sirius would never use such hateful words to describe someone, they felt that they were better than that.

Throughout the fifth book, you start to see some of the signs that Sirius was extremely flawed. There were a couple of comments made by Lupin at the very beginning after Harry isn't picked to be a prefect. There's Sirius's treatment of Kreacher, someone who has no rights and had been neglected for years. Finally there's Harry's journey into Snape's memories where we see a confrontation between James, Sirius, and Snape. Despite all of these signs, Harry still continues to idolize Sirius and his father.

It isn't until much later that Harry realizes these very obvious flaws led to Sirius' downfall. And it does take him a while to figure this out (two more books longer). At first Harry is totally consumed by anger. He tries to use the cruciatus curse to torture Bellatrix and even comes close to casting the killing curse while Voldemort is goading him on. He destroys much of Dumbledore's office while he rages.

Dumbledore is able to stop Harry from taking his anger out on Kreacher. Yeah, about Kreacher, the movies don't really get into it, but he was the key to Sirius' death. After dealing with Sirius' abuse for half a year, Kreacher goes to Narcissa and Bellatrix for comfort. They were kind to Kreacher and maybe even sympathetic. It probably didn't take much convincing to get Kreacher to tell them everything about Harry and Sirius' father-son relationship. They in turn told Voldemort all of this and Voldemort convinced Harry that Sirius was in serious danger. When Harry tries to check on Sirius, he is met with Kreacher, who lies and says that Sirius is missing. Harry walks right into a trap which leads to Sirius dying.

It takes Harry over a year to forgive Kreacher and he almost doesn't. Dumbledore and Hermione have to point out to Harry how awful Sirius treated Kreacher and there was very little Kreacher could do to stop the abuse. He also has to learn about Kreacher's relationship with Regulus Black (the most unsung hero of the entire series I might add) for him to reach a turning point with his own relationship with the house elf. He is also able to empathize with Kreacher's experience in the cave from the sixth book.

Harry finally realizes that despite all of the good things his godfather did, he also did a lot of bad things. Remus even tells Harry that he never stood up to his best friends because he was scared that they would turn on him and tell everyone that he was a werewolf. This realization also probably helped Harry realize that other people he looked up to had flaws. He gets mad at Remus when he offers to join the golden trio hunting for horcruxes and would leave his wife and unborn child behind. Harry understands why Aberforth was estranged from his brother.

We are only able to realize these things because we are walking in Harry's shoes through all of it. J. K. Rowling did a fantastic job teaching us that the good guys didn't always do the right thing and that sometimes the bad guys did (Narcissa and Snape are the two best examples). She wrote a story that we were able to identify and empathize with.

We all see the world differently. We are the main characters in our own personal stories (though I occasionally feel like a side character, but that's another blog post). Unfortunately we are the only ones who understand what we feel at every second. It can be really hard to understand why someone else makes a choice that you yourself would never make.

Empathy is tough. There are some shoes that I will never be able to fit into, but boy oh boy will I try. The emotions people feel are very real. They can't always be controlled.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week.

Welcome to NaNoWriMo

So you've never heard of NaNoWriMo? Or maybe you have seen the mash up of letters, but have no idea what it means. Or maybe you already know what it is and want to know why I'm writing about it this week.

NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel (which is the bare minimum word count for a novel) in a single month. The focus is not on perfection, but on finishing the (censored) things. The idea is that once the novel is finished, the author is more likely to go back and edit, revise, or get it published later.

So why am I writing about this now?

Do I even have a good story to tell?

Well NaNoWriMo is comprised of four words National Novel Writing Month. That's right. November is the national month of writing a novel. It doesn't matter if the novel is fiction, nonfiction, or a fan fiction. What matters is that it's at least 50,000 words.

My cousin and I are both writers. It doesn't matter that we're not 'officially' published, we write thus we are writers. We're currently competing against each other to finish writing our current novel projects by the end of the month. Whoever looses must treat the winner to dinner.

Technically, we started this little competition back in October. We did this because our schedules at this time are absolutely crazy and we are trying to motivate each other to finish writing that story that has been floating around in the back of our minds for a while now.

But wait, you might be asking yourselves, didn't I already write a blog post about how I finished writing a novel. And you'd be correct. Back in 2014, I spent about six months or so writing a novel. Unfortunately it's been stuck in editor's limbo for two years. Editing is hard, especially when you want to change a good two thirds of the plot.

So what about this novel? Will it be edited, published, and become a best seller?

Even famous YouTube celebrates find time to write

I have no idea. I would love to become the next J. K. Rowling or Stephen King, but I don't have a crystal ball.

It takes a lot of hard work and even more luck to get traditionally published. To become a best seller takes even more luck and really good advertising.

Does that mean it's impossible and that I shouldn't even try?

No, if anything it means I should try even harder. I already do a lot of writing. Some of it is a hit, some of it is just left hanging in cyberspace (or somewhere on my hard drive). What's important is that I keep writing and working on improving my writing.

Do I have any advice for anyone who wants to be a writer?

Sure, just start writing. You might end up being a big hit. What matters is you and I are trying. We're learning. It might take some time, but at least you are enjoying yourself.

I know I am.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, comment, and/or share. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Maybe someday we'll all be reading each others  work.

Until next week!

Welcome to Mischief Night

Happy night before Halloween or All Hallows' Eve otherwise known as Mischief Night.  Back when my mom was a kid (or heck go back to when my grandfather was a kid), this was the night that the kids would play tricks on their neighbors. Stuff like throwing toilet paper in trees were some of the pranks that were pulled. 

Now, not so much and that's probably a good thing. However I have seen a recent trend of people talking about how different Halloween has become over the past few decades or so. In some places, kids no longer trick or treat at all. They instead go to the local mall, a school, or a trunk or treat event (when I was a kid if these were options we'd just do as many as we could in addition to traditional trick or treating).

I'll be honest I was one of those kids who dressed up and went trick or treating until I was about 16 years old (I also looked like I was about 12) and it was always a blast. We'd walk around the neighborhood in group of 5 or 6 kids with an adult not that far behind us. Sometimes people would have amazing decorations up that we'd run through giggling. Other times a neighbor would be hidden near the candy bowl and move to scare us when we least suspected it.

We knew we were never in any real danger, especially with  our parents egging us on to ring the doorbell of the really scary houses. There was one year when I was 7 that I scared a neighbor's kids so badly that they refused to go trick or treating. I was dressed as a vampire and had fake blood dripping down my chin.

Halloween as a kid was the best!

As an adult Halloween can be fun, but it depends on what to do. I've always been excited to pass out candy to trick or treaters, except in all the areas that I lived, there weren't any. Most kids went trick or treating at the above mentioned approved places. I might get some this year, but I don't know for certain.

As an adult, I have the option of going to haunted houses, going out and partying, staying in and watching scary movies, or all three. I've spent most of the season going through my Halloween movie collection.

Haunted Houses are another aspect of Halloween that I think has changed a lot. I remember the first year that Buschgardens hosted Hallowscream. It was really cool, if very crowded. Now every theme park seems to have Halloween attractions at night during October. Then there are the haunted houses, hay rides, and corn mazes that crop up only for this time of year. They can range from the sort of cheesy to the OMG I can't believe I signed a waiver to do this.

I actually don't like haunted houses. I'm not that big of a fan of gory horror movies either, but the campy ones with Vincent Price are always worth a viewing. As much as I like the decorations and atmosphere at Halloween, I'm not into getting the stuffing scared out of me by a guy wielding a chainsaw. I'd rather be outside dressed up as a silly spook begging my neighbors for free candy.

But since it's not socially acceptable for me to go trick or treating anymore, I'm going to enjoy watching old horror movies on Hulu while Elvira gives her snarky commentary.

Stay safe everyone. Have a happy Halloween. And if you guys do celebrate Devil's/Mischief Night, try not to do any actual damage and clean up any small pranks.

Someone smashed the pumpkins :(

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Cue the evil laughter.

Welcome to the Time Warp

 The remake of Rocky Horror Picture Show aired this week. I managed to watch it on Hulu a couple of days later. I thought it was entertaining, not the original, but entertaining none the less. I felt it was missing something 1970s.

The first time I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I had no idea what kind of movie I was in for. I knew the song Time Warp because it is played at nearly every Halloween party I've ever been to. My friends had set up a space in their dorm room and someone had their laptop up for us to say all the audience participation words, though we didn't have props.

It was a ton of fun.

It was also one of the most bizarre movies I had ever seen. I also didn't really understand it.

Okay I understood the symbolize and sex positive message. I also got that most of them were aliens. I didn't understand the progression of the plot. It's felt more like a series of events rather than a story.

I understand it better now, but I still think it is a weird movie. It's also one I love to watch around Halloween. It's a fun hour and a half.

There are a few books and movies that I feel similar about. There are the stories that I finish and then say "what the heck was that?" I remember saying that after the first time I read Uzumaki and MW (these are manga). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its squeal Through the Looking Glass are also good examples of this*, not to mention the tunnel portion of the original Willy Wonka movie or everything in Labyrinth.

I wonder how these types of stories become cult classics. Its not that I think weird is bad, but sometimes the plot makes very little sense. Then there are the movies that are so bad they've become ironically good (The Room or Food Fight). I feel these movies are in a slightly different from the above mentioned. I want to watch Rocky Horror because it feels like going to a party ever time I hit play. I'd watch Food Fight because I'm mildly curious as to what kind of disaster the movie actually is, but I wouldn't watch it again.

I wonder if I could ever create something so fantastically weird and crazy. I don't think it's possible to start creating something like Rocky Horror with the intention of creating, well, Rocky Horror. Then it just feels like I'm trying to hard. The weird sequence of events feels natural for the universe created in the movie.

I think that's the challenge when creating something like that. It needs to feel natural in the environment that has been created. Stories like Charlie/Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland leave our reality behind and create new rules for the reality they are in. I mean who gets in an argument with time and is then stuck having tea time for four months.

Not everyone may like these kinds of stories. That's okay too. I don't like extremely gory horror movies and they seem to be everywhere this time of year.

I recommend checking out the new Rocky Horror if you haven't yet. Its fun, it's crazy, and I think they made some funny jokes that called back to the original. Then watch the original. Tim Curry singing is just too much fun.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

*Contrary to popular belief, Alice in Wonderland has a lot of mathematical symbolism.Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, pseudonym Lewis Carroll, was a mathematician and didn't like some of the new mathematics theories that were being proposed at the time.

Welcome to Solo Travel

My final post on my adventure in Iceland is going to focus traveling solo. I'll be honest, I was a little nervous about going to a new country by myself. Part of the reason I decided to go to Iceland was because it was highly recommended for first time solo travelers.

Solo travel might not be for everyone, but I definitely recommend trying it. I personally think that solo travel is best for people who like to spend a good amount of time by themselves. There were plenty of opportunities for me to talk to people, but the majority of my time was very quiet. I was able to just be imaginative for a while.

I had heard that doing a solo trip was something people should put on their bucket lists. I don't really remember where I heard this from (probably a travel blog on Facebook or from one of my really adventurous friends). Still I put it on my bucket list of things I should think about doing. Then I randomly brought round trip tickets to Iceland. Suddenly I went from thinking about doing it to actually doing it.

To prepare, I did a lot of research. I then chucked most of that research out the window when one of my friends got so excited for me that they basically became my travel agent. This friend had also never been to Iceland, but they had been on solo trips before. They helped talk me into staying at a hostel, which I'm really glad I did. They talked me into going to the Blue Lagoon and the Golden Circle Tour. This friend later decided to also go to Iceland, so I've given them all my tips for when they are there in a few weeks.

I am so glad my friend gave me some of the pushes that they did, otherwise I might not have made some great new friends or done some of the amazing things I did (Golden Circle Tour).

My mom was also a big help finding out information and bouncing ideas off of. She has done a good bit of traveling and she said agreed with my friend on a lot of the things they told me. My mom also gave me the best price of advice. She said that its okay to not have a set plan until you get there because you might find an opportunity you wouldn't have known about until you get there.

It was really good advice for me. I ended up not booking anything (except the Blue Lagoon) until after I arrived. If I had made plans for each day I probably wouldn't have gone to Videy Island or found out about the "free" city walking tour. I only found out about them after arriving*.

I might have been okay with that (non)plan if someone had come with me, but it might not have worked out. Some people just need a plan when they go on vacation. It's not a bad thing to want a solid plan, but it's not for everyone.

So here is my list of why I enjoyed traveling solo. It might not be everyone's reasons for going solo and you can probably do some of them while traveling with one or two friends, but that's why it's my list.

1) Quiet reflection while letting the imagination go wild - I spend a lot of time in my own head just thinking and being in a new place really let my thoughts go wild.

2) Change plans without compromising - this happened several times while I was in Iceland (for example I got lost going to one museum and went to a different one instead). I also sometimes would stumble across an interesting place (the cemetery) and spend time there.

3) Make new friends and talk to new people - yes this can be done with a group of people too, but there's something fun about being asked if I'd like to hang out with someone I had just met.

4) Take my time - since I was setting my own pace I could take as much or as little time as I wanted somewhere. I could also have as much down time as I wanted.

5) Say I traveled solo - a few of my friends said that they wouldn't have had the guts to traveling explore a new country by themselves. It felt like an accomplishment to do it.

Again these are my reasons for taking a solo vacation. I definitely recommend trying it once in your life. You never know who you might meet or what adventures you'll find.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really passed you of) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Hopefully I'll be off on my next adventure sooner rather than later.

*I had known about Videy Island before going, but I wasn't sure if I would visit it or not. It wasn't until another person in my hostel room said that they were going too that I officially decided to go. We hiked for four hours and got some of my favorite pictures of the whole trip.

Welcome to the Land of Ice, Fire... and Rainbows?

I couldn't fit my trip to Iceland into one blog post. My time there was very short, but it definitely left an impact on me. Therefore this post  is an addition to last week's post, but with rainbows, lots and lots of rainbows.

I feel this is a good visual of Iceland's philosophy of life, but maybe I'm wrong. I was a tourist after all.

 On all of the tours I went on, Iceland was described to me as the land of fire and ice. This was reflected on all of the other tours I was offered, but didn't go on for one reason or another (time and money come to mind). There are active volcanoes like the one that went off a couple of years ago and grounded all the planes in Europe. There is the giant glacier that provides some of the best drinking water I have ever tasted. There are tours for people to explore both.

Iceland is full of natural wonders. I mentioned in my last post about my Golden Circle tour. The Golden Circle is advertised as a must see if you visit Iceland. There are several tour options, but if you rent a car they aren't necessary (and you can go at your own pace, though you might miss out on the history and geology lessons).

This waterfall on the Golden Circle Tour produced tons of rainbows.

I definitely recommend seeing the Golden Circle at least once if you visit Iceland, especially if you aren't able to go too far outside of Reykjavik. All of the natural wonders are beautiful and allow for some great hiking. I got to see them in my favorite season which added some really pretty colors to my experience.

If there was one natural wonder I think Iceland should add to its list of amazing wonders, it's the rainbow. I don't think I have been anywhere else that has so many rainbows. There was a rainbow the day I landed at the airport, there were tons of rainbows visible when I hiked Videy island, there were rainbows painted on sidewalks and houses, the water falls created tons of rainbows, and there was even a rainbow statue welcoming me back to the airport when I was leaving.

The rainbow when I landed, it rained the rest of the day.

Seriously I saw a rainbow in the sky everyday I was there (the weather is notorious for changing frequently and with little warning).

There might have been a lot of rain, but the city of Reykjavik always had a rainbow after.

Then there are the rainbows you can only see at night. Okay fine, the Norther Lights aren't actually rainbows, but they are a light show like no other and I didn't even leave the city limits. There were only two nights that I saw them. The first night was totally by accident and because another person in my room said you could see them in the park across the street. I personally found that to be amazing. They weren't the brightest from that location and I only had my phone to take pictures. The next night (which was also my last), one of my new friends offered to drive me and another person out to the lighthouse for a better look.

We arrived at just the right time. It was still pretty early and you could see the sun setting in the distance, but the night was alight with vibrant green streaks. I have never seen anything like it before and I truest hope I will see it again someday. I'm sure the lights are a whole other kind of sight if you are out in the middle of no where and don't have to battle light pollution, but for that hour I got to see one of the most amazing natural wonders our world has to offer. It was worth every second in the cold windy night.

Two streaks of the northern lights in the sun set.

 Maybe someday I'll also see the Southern Lights. Anyone want to go to Chile and Antarctica with me?

Along with the natural rainbows, Iceland is very proud (so I was told) to be very welcoming to the LGBT community and very pro feminist. I''m not kidding, there is an amazing example of how much they celebrate their feminist side in the Reykjavik city hall (I will not post pictures, nor will I elaborate). It is not something I would expect to see in a city hall in the USA anytime soon. One of the tour guides had a lot of fun telling us about how they also had the first gay Viking after someone put lipstick on their founder's statue during a celebration.

This wasn't the only house painted like this.

This is why I feel Iceland should add rainbows to its list of descriptive natural wonders (I''m not sure that makes sense, but it's the sentence I'm going with). You can venture into the depths of a volcano in the morning, walk across a glacier in the afternoon, see the northern lights at night, and in between see beautiful rainbows all over the place.

More street art!

 Please add Iceland on you list of places to see. The people are very friendly, the water is some of the best I have ever tasted, and the nature is one of a kind.

The statue outside of the airport.

And no I'm not being paid to say that.

If you enjoyed this post or if it pissed you off, please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. I'm off to my next great adventure and maybe, just maybe I'll find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Until next week.

Welcome to Iceland

I decided I needed to go on an adventure. Six months ago, I made the impulsive choice to buy round trip tickets to Iceland. I had never been to Iceland, I had very little knowledge of Iceland, and I was planning on going there solo. I figured the worst thing that could happen was I get kidnapped by trolls.

On Tuesday I returned from that trip.

I can honestly say that I have never been anywhere quite like Iceland. The people are very friendly, laid back, and have one of the best senses of humor I've seen. I felt incredibly safe walking around the city of Reykjavik. One tour guide even told us that if you lost something at a bar the night before, to check the lost and found at the police station the next day. Someone had likely returned it there.

Hey look he's got a pineapple on his sword. Ha Ha

 The Icelanders I met are very proud of their Viking heritage (though one tour guide did admit that they are not the best at being the notoriously bad Vikings). Everywhere I went, I saw images of the Viking culture. The Viking Sagas were sold in stores and gift shops sold small Viking ships.

The city of Reykjavik is amazing. I've never felt so safe in a city and nearly a third of Iceland's population lives in the city. It is easy to walk around. There are also buses, but I rarely saw anyone on them (even during rush hour). I was able to go anywhere I wanted to in about 20 minutes. Cats also seem to rule the city. I spotted many while walking around. There was one in particular who liked to sleep on the shelves of one of the stores during the day. I asked the people working at the counter about the cat and they said he just likes to hang out there during the day and goes home at night.

How to tie a tie three different ways.

Iceland is a beautiful county. There are plenty of places to hike and natural wonders to see. On my last full day, I went on a Golden Circle Tour. The Golden Circle are beautiful geographical locations. Our first stop was a giant crater. The second stop was a field of several geyser. I only saw one of them go off, but it was amazing. People who were standing downwind were splashed with water.

Our third stop were these amazing waterfalls. I'll be honest I wouldn't want to go over them in a wooden barrel. Finally we went to where the North American and European continental plates are separating (and where the Vikings used to gather to make laws).

If there is one thing I really missed from Iceland it would be the water. I went to the Blue Lagoon on my first day and it was very relaxing. My skin felt amazing afterwards. There are more thermal pools (that are a lot cheaper and less touristy) around the city. I'd definitely recommend checking them out if any of you guys go. The drinking water was also so tasty. It came straight from the glacier. Nearly every restaurant had some water for free for customers.

I am happy I went to Iceland. I might have been a bit more of a tourist than I typically like to be, but I don't know if I would have done all the things I did if I hadn't. I honestly hope I can go back again soon.

If you guys have any questions, just let me know and I'll try to answer them as best I can. Don't worry if you wanted to hear more about my trip or solo travel in general. I think this month will be centered around this adventure.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week!

Welcome to Packing For a Trip

I wish I had enough time and money to travel the world. I would love to say that I've been on every continent. If I had thought about it, I would have tried to travel more when I was still a student. Unfortunately I didn't. Now that I'm no longer a student, it's harder to find the time (and sometimes money) for travel. Most of my traveling time is used to go to visit family (or moving because I've been doing a lot of that too). I've also traveled for work, which carry an entirely different set of rules than when traveling for fun.

I prefer to travel by car. Though long road trips can be taxing, I can pack everything I need. I don't have to worry too much about what I pack (as long as I remember a change of socks that is) and I have plenty of room to fit all my luggage.

If I can't travel by car, then I usually go by train or plane. I like taking the train for short trips. There really isn't a lot of room for big bags unless you are going from one of the big stations, but it's a lot more relaxing and I can read while the train takes me to my destination. I traveled a lot by train when I lived in Maryland. It was convient. I've even taken the train from Washington D.C. to New Orleans. It took 13 hours and I hardly got any sleep, but it was so much fun.

Traveling by plane is probably my least favorite (I'm not talking about boats or ships today because I haven't taken many to far away places). There're a lot of hoops to jump through and it's very expensive. Packing for a plane trip is also a pain. I don't like checking bags because of the fees and horror stories about loosing luggage. It's always a risk that the flight will loose a bag, even if it's not actually that big of one.

Packing can be the biggest challenge of any trip. I usually make a check list for each day of what I will wear and then add one or two more shirts, an extra pair of socks, and a few other pieces of clothing just to be safe. I never know when I might have a fashion emergency. If I can get away with not having toiletries, I don't bring any with me.

If I'm traveling for work, I make sure I have very nice cloths (even while en route to my destination). I keep my laptop in an easy to get to location and I try to arrive early. Going to visit family is easy because they usually have anything I might forget at home (sorry mom but it's true). Though holiday travel can be difficult with how crazy everying is.

Traveling for pleasure is very different. I have a very long check list of things I need to bring with extra space in my bag for souvenirs and gifts I buy along the way. I can't forget anything because it'll be expensive to replace (like chargers or shampoo) or I have to do without entirely (my glasses for instance). If I'm traveling by plane I need to make sure I don't have any banned items and to remember to check in 24 hours in advance.

The list seems endless.

My mom just might be the master at packing bags for flying though. I don't know how she did it, but my sister, mom, and I lived out of one bag a couple of times. It was so we have an extra bag free for he things we brought on the road.

Traveling is expensive, but I'm always happy when I can. Whether to reconnect with family or explore a new place, I find I have a good time. Sometimes I learn new things, other times I'm just there to relax.

Until next week and may the wind always be at your back.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome to Fresh Picked Apples and Pumpkin Spice

Fall official starts next week guys! Who's excited? I know I am. Fall is my favorite time of year. There are bright colors everywhere, so many delicious things to eat, and of course Halloween! It's both nostalgic and a look towards the future.

It might drive me a little crazy how early somethings for fall start going up. Walk into any store that sells beer in August and you'll find an entire wall dedicated to the pumpkin beers (not that I should complain, so many different flavors). I started seeing ads for Halloween decorations in July. And pumpkin spice lattes are inescapable by Memorial Day weekend. It can be a bit of an overload.

So many different types of food in different shades of red and yellow.

Some days I want to stand on a corner handing out pumpkin flavored food. "And you get a pumpkin spice latte! And you get a pumpkin bread! Everybody gets pumpkin flavored things!"

It's amazing how we as a society have hyped up these fall foods and flavors. Sure all things Christmas are also inescapable (even before Thanksgiving) for a solid two months. I may occasionally want to bang my head against something when I hear the Christmas Shoes song one too many times.

Then it all suddenly ends. Banished into our attic spaces and closet storage until it is socially acceptable the next year to pull them out (roughly two months in advance of the actual holiday).

It's not that I don't think the celebration should go on forever, but sometimes the hype for the holiday detracts from the actual day for me. By the time I'm ready to celebrate, it's over.

I also might be a little guilty of celebrating too early. Making the first pot of pumpkin flavored coffee is always a treat and I love getting my first butternut squash of the season. Sleepy Hallow and Practical Magic are back on Netflix. I dig out all of the Vincent Price movies I can find. Suddenly ghosts and goblins are just as real as Santa Claus.

Maybe I like celebrating early because it seems so short. The time it takes the leaves to change their colors and fall to the ground isn't very long. The weather in the Mid Atlantic that allows the prefect balance of not too hot and not too cold seems to last even shorter.

Life is short and the things we enjoy in life can be even shorter. We all live busy lives that don't allow a lot of time to enjoy the things we love most. Maybe that's why we need Halloween and Christmas to last for nearly two months each (with a small detour for Thanksgiving in the US). It's to find that one moment where we can enjoy what we love most, even if it's not quite the right date.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. I'm off to eat some fresh made apple sauce (my first attempt, hope it's good).

Until next week.

Welcome to Rememberance

September 11th 2001 started out as an ordinary day for me, but it didn't end that way. It's been 15 years since the attack. Over 2000 people lost there lives that day. Many of the first respondents have gotten sick and passed away because of the toxic dust and ash that entered the atmosphere.

Many people on social media sites have been posting about where they were or what they were doing when they either heard about or saw the live footage of the attacks. I remember being at school and having no idea what was going on. Which in all honest, was probably a good decision for the school to make.

My friends and I could guess that something was happening. Our teachers were on edge and there were a lot of early dismissals. We started with a class full of students and ended the day with maybe a third or a fourth still present. I am 100% sure that if someone had told me while at school what was going on, I would not have taken it well.

I didn't go home that day. Instead my mom had me go home with a friend. This friend's dad worked in the Pentagon and their family hadn't been able to get a hold of him all day. Thankfully they eventually did hear from him. Many families weren't as lucky.

There are a lot of things that I remember that happened in the days right after 9/11. I remember we didn't have school for a few days and that phone reception (both land line and cell phone) was unreliable. My mom, sister, and I stayed with my friend's family until classes started again. The news was constantly showing footage of the crash sites and missing people. Even though our parents tried to shield us from it, we caught glimpses of the news anyway.

It was scary, confusing, and difficult to process. I remember feeling a lot of confusing emotions and taking a lot of time to understand what had happened.

In the days after the attack, I went with my girl scout troupe to a hotel near the Pentagon to give out water and food to the families who were there. The hotel was the headquarters for the victims and families. When we arrived, my friends and I were swarmed by foreign press asking us tons of questions. It was very intimidating. Later we were thanked by the admiral (or general? I don't exactly remember their title, but they were very important) who was in charge. He was notifying and consoling the victims families. It felt good to help out, even a little bit.

As time went on, more and more security measures were put in place. Airports had a lot more metal detectors and restrictions. There were a lot more security personal in Washington DC. Places where I used to be able to just walk right in, suddenly had guards and metal detectors everywhere. I was a lot more aware of my surroundings.

September 11th 2001 was a major turning point in my life. I still remember a time when things were a bit more laid back (for lack of a better term). A lot of sudden changes happened and I was faced with emotions I had never experienced before.

There are many days were I wonder what our world would have been like if the terrorist attack had never happened. There are other days where I wonder what it would have been like if I had been older in 2001. Then there are the days where I wonder if something like that will happen again?

9/11 had a major impact on my life and I don't think I'll ever be able to forget.

Thank you for reading.

Welcome to the Sound of Silence

Happy holiday weekend everyone! The kids are heading back to school (if they haven't gone back already), outdoor pools are about to close, and the fashion industry tells us we can no longer wear white. Pumpkin spice has returned to coffee and sweet shops everywhere. In some places the leaves are already starting to change and I'm sitting here watching Hocus Pocus while writing this post.

It's a quiet weekend for me. Which means I have plenty of time to think, overthink, and think some more. Writing in my blog helps me organize my thoughts and try to make heads or tails of the crazy that is my life. This topic has been buzzing around in my mind for a while, but last night, before bed, I was kept up by a single question. What is the sound of silence?

I really like the song, The Sound of Silence, originally sung by Simon and Garfunkel and covered by Disturbed. I like both versions, but there is something truly haunting about the Disturbed version (I might get a little heat for that, but it's my honest opinion and I love rock). I was also inspired to ask this question because during my meditation and yoga practice, I am encouraged to maintain stillness and block out the surrounding noise. This can be particularly difficult in a noisy gym.

But in all seriousness, what does silence sound like? Its hard to wrap my head around. There's the metaphorical sound of silence. Where it is people who are silent for one reason or another on an issue (usually, but not necessarily, out of fear or political). Its one way to interpret the question.

Then there's the literal meaning of the phrase. Can silence have a sound? Isn't silence by definition the a sense of sound? 

Unless I suddenly become deaf or travel to outer space (because Ridley Scott taught us that in space no one can hear you scream), I won't find my answer. I'm sure I could (politely) ask, but would I be able to understand the answer?

Throughout the day, I am bombarded with different sounds. I love working to music or leaving the TV on while I cook and clean. I live across the street from a train station and I don't even notice the trains coming and going anymore. Crickets are constantly chirping as the sun starts to set and the three beagles downstairs make it impossible to sneak out of my own apartment (not that I need to sneak out, but they always announce my comings and goings and are super adorable). 

The amount of sounds I hear throughout the day can be overwhelming. I personally don't like going to concerts and haunted houses because the sounds can be too over stimulating for me. When I do find a quiet space, the noise is still there, but it's not as overwhelming. I am almost able to completely block out all outside noise, especially if I'm meditating.

One of my yoga teachers likes to talk about using sensory deprivation tanks. They showed one on the show Stranger Things to get El to the Upside Down world. My yoga teacher says that they get "visions" while in he tank. There isn't any light in the tank, but the mind will still create visions for them. I wonder if the same thing happens when in absolute silence.

Could the sound of silence be a peaceful mind? A sound that is still there, but still? Could it be phantom Maybe that's why I find this question so vexing. There are so many ways to interpret it. Some are positive, some are negative, and some are just neutral.

So what is the sound of silence?

I have no idea, but I'm sure it's different for everyone.

Welcome to School Days Long Gone

Next Monday is Labor Day, that means that school will officially be back in session for students everywhere in the USA. Some schools started already, while others are starting this week or next Tuesday at latest. Most college students have already gone back (with varying degrees of embarrassment because their parents are processing the emotions of their child leaving them). I, however, will be going back to my day job and this week's blog post (like many at the end of August) will focus on me not going back to school.

This is your reminder that winter comes after fall and that it does snow in Southern VA.

My first year after I graduate was weird. Back then, I was used to working all summer and then heading back to school in the middle of August. Instead of heading back, though, I helped my little sibling move into their Freshmen dorm.

It's not as weird now, even with the back to school commercials. No, what I am now confronted with is the fact that my friends and relatives are starting to send their kids to school. I know that some of my friends have gotten married and had children, but I still feel far too immature to have my own little ones at the moment, let alone be married.

I honestly don't think I feel that much different from when I was 15 or 16. It probably doesn't help that I'm still often mistaken as a high school student. No I'm not kidding. Maybe, I've matured a bit (which is important) and am focused on different things than my 16 year old self ever focused on.

My transition from full time student to full time member of the work force, has been a challenging one. Sure I'm still learning and working on projects, but I'm so grateful to no longer have to take tests. Now I just have annual reviews, which I think are as stressful as tests, but happen a lot less frequently. My vacation time is also a lot shorter, but I can go places in the off season.

For 12-16 years, school occupied most of my life and during that time, I couldn't wait to be an adult. I could make my own choices about where to go and what to have for dinner. I could stay up super late and watch anything I wanted to on TV. Back then, I didn't really think about a job, paying bills, or responsibilities part of growing up.

The 30 minute sitcoms that are popular always seemed to show the main characters when they weren't at work. Yeah they would occasionally mention their jobs or have the odd episode that featured their place of work, but most of the time the half hour was focused on their family or social lives. As a kid, I thought that life outside of work was what being a grown up was. I didn't realize how different from an episode of Friends or How I Met Your Mother my life would be.

For the past few years my career has been at the forefront of my thoughts (with a few side trips into relationships, exploring my interests, and plotting to take over the world - patent pending). I think it's a bit natural to feel weird or extremely nostalgic at this time of year. Something that was a huge part of your life is over. Sure going back to school is always an option and I'm sure if I ever did, I'd have another emotional roller coaster ride to go through.

But I'm not going back to school. I'm also not 16 (as I kindly point out to the people who actually think I am - this has happened recently and more than once). I have friends who have gotten married and a few who now have kids. I pay bills, lots and lots of bills. I've even started saving for retirement (which is a really long way away).

I want to wish everyone who is going back to school this year the best of luck. I hope you guys do well and are able to have some fun in between all those tests and studying. Maybe someday I'll get my Masters in [insert subject here], but I have a lot to do before then.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week!