Junie B. Jones

I'm a big fan of the first sentence/paragraph of books. As in a BIG fan. And I have been for quite some time.

Some of my favorites, in no particular order, are:

"My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die." This is followed by the equally great, if not better, second sentence, "I counted." ~Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (Because come on! That's so intense!)

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." ~Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Because sassy Jane is sassy. Side note, I didn't really like "classics" because various reasons, but then now I really like them, pretty much due to Jane Austen. She's golden.)

"Who's there?" ~Hamlet by William Shakespeare (Which is technically a first line, but still... And because, not only is this a great play written by a great man, but because I feel like this is a question every human being has asked, albeit I know Shakespeare was cleverly using the changing of the guards as a way to introduce the setting as well as the whole fatherly ghost figure thing and not, specifically in this instance, as a way to comment on the questions that plague humanity, so I'm totally taking this out of context, but whatever.)

"It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened." This is followed by a great second sentence, "No." And then the third sentence, which really drives in my point about this particular example which I will explain in a minute because I like things to be structured similarly, "Wrong word, Jonas thought." ~The Giver by Lois Lowry (Because I love words and the fact that Jonas pauses and takes the time to contemplate exactly which word to use in this instance to describe his feelings is beautiful. Another side note, I incidentally didn't like this book the first time I read it. I have no idea why, I liked it a lot the second time I read it...)

"The morning after noted child prodigy Colin Singleton graduated from high school and got dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, he took a bath." This is followed by, "Colin had always preferred baths; one of his general policies in life was never to do anything standing up that could just as easily be done lying down." ~An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (Because that's hilarious and speaks to me personally.)

and

"Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over again, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death." ~The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Because talk about attention grabbing. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that THIS BOOK IS GLORIOUS.)

I was thinking about this (my love of the beginning of books) and I realized why I love them so much.

Story time.

Once upon a time do you remember the Junie B. Jones books? I LOVED THOSE BOOKS. They are probably in my top 5 favorite books of childhood, although that idea just came to me, so I haven't really thought it through and who knows, maybe 5 other books will outrank them. Point is, they're great and they all start the same way:

"My name is Junie B. Jones. The B stands for Beatrice. Except I don't like Beatrice. I just like B and that's all."

And I loved this and the fact that it started every one of those books so much that I would tell people whenever the chance arose (as I wasn't much of a 'center of attention' type of kid, this primarily meant whenever I had one of the books in my hand and someone said something about it or whenever I was asked what books I liked - basically whenever someone else brought it up, unless it was my family, they probably got pretty tired of me doing this.... I'm hard core digressing, aren't I? Where was I? Oh yeah.) that every one of these books started with "My name is Junie B. Jones. The B stands for Beatrice. Except I don't like Beatrice. I just like B and that's all." I had this memorized, which looking back doesn't seem like a big deal, but I suck at memory and so especially back then it was quite the accomplishment.

And that's how I came to love the first sentences/paragraphs of books. Because they remind me of my childhood. The End.

A Song and a Story

I have a confession. Even though I knew this song before, I stole this from my friend Maddi's blog. I don't think she'll mind.

So, a story:

Once upon a time there was a girl named Jess Jess and she had a friend named Carabou (like the animal except for the Cara part and she's human). Carabou and Jess Jess partied all day and long into the night. And by party I mean they ate food and watched movies and talked before retiring at midnight (or earlier).

It was awesome.

The End.

That's What's Up

I miss my sisters.

I have three of them and they're the best.

They're some of my very best friends.

Just thought you ought to know.

Also, here's a song that reminds me of them.

Hey Can I Tell You a Secret?

So, way back when it wasn't the summer yet and I felt a little stressed about my school load and finals and adult life and stuff I did that thing that you're not supposed to do where you're like, "once this thing happens I will be happier and not as stressed and whatever."

Comeuppance stinks. Because that thing that was going to make my life better was the start of summer. And while this summer has been pretty great, it's also been fairly stressful and just plain hard at times. 

I want to make myself clear. I have a great life. But even great lives have hard things. 

For an example, yesterday was not the best of days. My fire alarm went off (not that that's huge, it just really sucked and seemed like a big deal at the time and maybe that's weird, but it was kind of icing on the cake of crappy days, which I would imagine tastes nasty). 

And then yesterday I went swimming with some friends and it was really great! Also, my sister comes back from her LDS mission at the end of July and that's awesome because she is one of my very best friends and also because it looks like I get to spend about a week, maybe longer with my family who I haven't seen in a while. 

And I think I just really need a vacation from adult life for a bit. Maybe that sounds trivial and stupid, but whatever. 

Also, I really want to just sit on my mom's bed and play cards with my family. It's kind of our thing.

Ramadan

Hey. So do you remember way back in early April when I wrote a blog post about gratitude that also talked about religion just a bit? Cool. Do you remember how I was like 'religion, no matter the specific type, can be a good thing' (except that's paraphrased a bit)? Cool.

So today starts the Muslim month of Ramadan, which I think is pretty cool. I have some Muslim friends, so I know the basics of Ramadan - the fasting during the day part and such. But I recently saw this article on Facebook and I think it's really cool. It's cool because it teaches. A lot of what it says is really interesting stuff that I didn't know before and it's always better to understand different cultures and belief systems and ideologies, etc. despite what one personally believes. But a lot of the stuff talked about are things that I believe, too (yes, even though I'm a Christian). And I just think it's cool that different religions can have similar teachings, albeit different ways of practicing them.

I could just sum up some of those things, but instead I think I'll just copy and paste from the article.

"Dr. Mansur [a lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Center for the Study of Islam in the UK at Cardiff University] added: 'Ramadan is known as the month of empathy. And it's that time of the year where Muslims put themselves in the shoes of people who don't have enough food or water to drink and [experience] a little of their situation. So it is supposed to [evoke] empathy in people.'"

Well I think that is a great thing to try to do. 

Also, "...Ramadan is not just about avoiding food or drink, but also working on who we are as a person. Dr. Mansur added that as well as Ramadan being a month of empathy it is also about patience. 'For 30 consecutive days you are put into this situation where you are going to be hungry, your sugar levels are low, and the chances are that you are going to get a bit edgy and agitated, so either you have a very foul mood for the month of Ramadan or you deal with it for 30 days. It is the best anger management course.'"

So even though I don't agree with the theology behind Ramadan, I really appreciate what it does for people and I want to ensure that I am incorporating these same ideas -empathy and patience - into my own personal religious practices. 

PS ~ I don't really know if this blog post makes any sense, I'm writing this when I'm really tired... 

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all dads out there, but especially to my papa! One thing I will always remember is you asking us over and over again "You know I love you, right?" As a kid I thought it was ridiculous, but now I am so thankful that you always made sure your kids knew how much you care for us. You're always there for me! I love you Papa!

I would also like to say Happy Father's Day to my Heavenly Father, who is always so great at reminding me just when I need it most how much He loves me, too.

I Love You Mother Nature

I've been posting lots of music lately...