Combo Post

Another make-up round for Blog It July

Day #27 (Are you a city person or a country person?) is pretty obvious for me. I'm definitely a city person.
I have always known this, but sometimes people have doubted me on it. Probably because I live in the Midwest (but not Chicago), and people in other parts of the US (basically the coasts) often forget about all the great non-coastal (non-Chicago) cities in this nation. In my first week of college, a guy in my dorm who knew  nothing about me other than my home state asked me, "So what's it like to live in the country?" I replied, "I have absolutely no idea."
When I lived in Buenos Aires, I found that I truly did love living in a big city, in addition to the somewhat smaller cities I'd already experienced. I love the hustle and bustle, and I love the proximity of some many fascinating experiences, places, people, etc. I particularly love the way every city seems to have it's own flavor and personality.

That said, I very much enjoy spending time in the country. Small towns and outer-ring suburbs are the places where I feel least comfortable. I know there are people who love the 'burbs, but they make me feel dull and isolated.

Day #28
A picture of yourself looking really happy.

With two of my best friends on my 21st birthday. It's goofy, but I have always loved this photo.

Day #29
Write a poem.

Blah. Really? Why? I've never liked writing poems. I always feel like I'm just making shit up. But here's what I've got at the moment, anyway.


Tomorrow is the
Greener side,
On which my musings often hide.
It is the day that never comes,
The time that's never now.
I wish that I could see it, but
I simply don't know how.

Blog It July Catch Up

Blog It July Day #22
What is the greatest love story you have ever witnessed in person?

My parent's marriage is a pretty good story, though that part of it that fascinates me happened before (a lot before) I was around, so I didn't technically "witness" it.
See when my parents met, my dad was married to another woman. He and his then-wife had relocated from Long Island to Iowa City so that she could attend grad school. My mom was a small town Iowa girl who wanted to go to Cornell - but my grandparents wouldn't hear of it, so she also ended up in Iowa City.
My dad's ex wife was crazy. CRAZY. And I'm sorry he had to deal with that shit. BUT...

If my dad hadn't made a mistake and married the crazy ex, he never would have moved with her to Iowa. And then he wouldn't have met my mom at all. I think their love is proof that (almost) everything really does happen for a reason.


Blog It July Day #23
What are 10 words that describe you?

I'm not going to do this today. I'm not up to the challenge. I just wrote it in because I didn't want to seem like I was trying to pretend I wasn't that far behind on my Blog It July posts. Haha.

If I Could Go Anywhere in the World...

Blog It July Day #21
If you could vacation anywhere where would you go and why?

I think I mentioned this before, but one of my most central life goals is to visit every continent before I die. Based on that, I should pick somewhere in Africa, Australia, or, I suppose, Antarctica. (Yes, I would like to go to Antartica. I know I'm a little crazy, but I think it would be amazing.)

However, the places that first come to mind are elsewhere.

I would love to travel through India. It seems like such an interesting, colorful place. Images and music and videos from India are always so full of life. When I mention this, people usually say something about how much poverty there is there. I'm aware of that and, while it makes me sad, I don't have a problem with seeing it. I think it's important to see poverty. I know I'm privelleged in many ways, and I want to understand that privelege in as complex a context as possible.

And, I mean... INDIAN FOOD!



Svalbard



 Another of my travel pipe dreams is to visit Norway and the island of Svalbard, way up in the north. I have wanted to do this ever since I read The Golden Compass (by Philip Pullman). I have already decided that seeing the Northern Lights will be my midlife crisis. While I know I could see them in Alaska, Canada, or even (as some people have pointed out) right here in Minnesota, my real dream is to do it in Norway.

Even though I love traveling to new places, I would be sorely tempted to return to a few select, most beloved past destinations.

I miss Buenos Aires often. I love the culture there. People stay up late. They drink really great coffee. They enjoy art and dance and music. They spend Sunday afternoons eating ice cream and watching puppet shows at the local feria. They take the subte (subway) and walk alot. They have a thriving literature culture. Really, I loved everything about that city. And for all that other parts of Latin America joke about Buenos Aires locals ("Porteños") being snobs, people there are friendly and nice and fun-loving.




Avenida 9 de Julio in Buenos Aires



Speaking of Argentina, I would also love to visit Iguazu Falls again. (I think the picture says it all, but it's worth mentioning that when Eleanor Roosevelt visited, she was quoted with saying, "Oh, poor Niagra!")

Enough said

Lastly, I fell in love with Italy when I traveled through Europe. Florence in particular. So I would be very eager to go back.

Not a very concise answer. Sorry about that. But hey, I have the travel bug - I want to go EVERYWHERE. I could have gone on for days, so count yourself lucky.

Singing

Blog It July Day #20
What's one thing you wish you were really good at but have no talent for?

I would love to have an amazing singing voice.

I have always enjoyed singing. While I wouldn't say I have a terrible voice, I certainly don't have a great one. I always sing along with the radio, I often sing in the shower, and I occasionally sing at random times throughout the day. Especially if I have a song stuck in my head. So it would be better for everyone if I was a better singer.

I don't want to be a singer for my career or anything like that. I just think there's something wonderful about the ability to create beautiful music with nothing but your voice.

I can't come up with a photo for this post, so here's a video of my current favorite song, "Brave" by Sara Barellis:

The Meat of the Matter

Blog It July #18
Something you wish you didn't have to admit.

I really wish I could come up with a great reason not to be a vegetarian. Usually, I say that I eat meat because I am border-line anemic and sometimes I really need the iron, and because I don't think it's any more inherently wrong for humans to eat animals than it is for animals to eat each other. Those are both true. Nevertheless, we all know that the main reason I eat meat is because meat is delicious.

The primary reason I see not to eat meat is the environmental impact of the meat industry. It's kind of insane. Really. Transportation, storage, processing... the meat industry creates a huge amount of pollution, and the resulting products contain many less-that-natural chemicals. (I've also heard that it's healthier to be a vegetarian, but I don't know if that's necessarily true. At the very least, it's up for debate.)

I wish that I didn't have to admit that I find eating meat in our society to be morally questionable - but that I eat it anyway.

Then again... yummmmmmmm.

What I'm Reading

Blog It July Day #17
What was the last book you read? Tell us about it.

Hmmmm.... Bad timing on this one, because the last book I finished was The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk (Nancy Drew #17). It was a pretty good one. Nancy is on a cruise of sorts, traveling from Holland to New York, and of course she stumbles into a mystery. It was high stakes this time - diamond jewelry, government documents, sign language, and an accidental swim in the Atlantic are all involved.

The book I'm currently reading is more interesting. It's a new YA fantasy novel called Far Far Away written by Tom McNeal. I'm only about 100 pages in, but so far I really like it. This is the first paragraph:

"What follows is the strange and fateful tale of a boy, a girl, and a ghost. The boy possessed uncommon qualities, the girl was winsome and daring, and the ancient ghost... well, let it only be said that his intentions were good."

Based on what I've read, it's about a boy named Jeremy who has the unusual ability to hear ghosts. The ghost in question is Jacob Grimm, who is trying to protect Jermey from a mysterious figure known only as the Finder of Occassions. There's more to it, of course, and a nice little murmur of romance lingering in the distance. I'm planning to review it on my other blog, Harry, Lucy, Laura & Me. Keep your eyes open. :)

The next books on my list are both upon request. My brother has asked me to read Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road, and two different friends have been begging me to finally get on the bandwagon and read Divergent (by Veronica Roth).

Money Can't Buy Happiness... But I Suspect It Doesn't Hurt, Either

Blog It July Day #16
If money was no object, what would you do with your life?

TRAVEL. If money was no object, I would travel. A lot. One of my life goals is to visit every continent at least once. (So far I've been to three, though I will visit my fourth soon.) If I could afford it, I would blow that goal out of the water. I would particularly like to see the Northern Lights. And I would visit Buenos Aires regularly. Sometimes I miss it so much.

I would also open a 24-hour coffee shop/bookstore and hire someone else to manage it. Then I could just hang out, reading, chatting with friends, and drinking really good coffee all day. (When I wasn't off visiting some exotic locale, of course.) Heaven!

And I would be a stay-at-home mom for a while, when that time comes. Because my mom stayed home with me when I was young, and I know I'm really lucky she was able to do that.

Another thing I would like to do is open a nonprofit that provided free water safety and swimming instruction to at-risk populations.

Also, I would live in a beautiful house.

Maybe I will be able to do some of these things in my life. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Nancy Drew

Blog It July Day #15
What do you do when you need to unplug, de-stress and stop thinking about the world?

There are two general answers to this question for me: comfort books and comfort TV.

Comfort TV includes (obviously) Avatar: The Last Airbender, along with a few other cartoon shows and the show Psych. I also have a few comfort movies, including Tangled, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, and Midnight in Paris.

One of my favorites
(gotta love that cover art!)

Comfort reading is a bigger category. Of course it includes Harry Potter and many other favorites, but the one I want to focus on is Nancy Drew.

I came late to Nancy Drew - I first read one of the books during college - which is actually great, because it means that there are still many Nancy Drew mysterious I've never read. At the same time, the books are formulaic enough that I know exactly what I'm in for, and I know Nancy will always come out on top. Plus, Nancy's world is pretty simple. It's all spontaneous vacations and convertibles and picnics and dances. I don't really want to live in that world, but it's a perfect escape when I need to relax. Also, I enjoy keeping track of the number of times the word "attractive" is used (which is, invariably, a lot of times).

Lately I've been experimenting with The Boxcar Children, but it just isn't the same.

I May or May Not Have Been Mexican in a Past Life

Blog It July Day #14

What is your last meal?

My brother and I both love Mexican food. (And I mean LOVE it.) There's no good explanation for this; we don't have a drop of Mexican blood in our veins. My mom says we must have been Mexican in a previous life or something. (I think the most likely explanation is that Mexican food is flipping DELICIOUS and has really impressive cheese-incoporation skills. Because cheese.)

Anyway, my last meal would probably be my mom's chicken enchiladas verdes. They. Are. So. Delicious.

My other top pick is fried chicken, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, etc. And watermelon. I freaking love watermelon.

And, in either case, tres leches cake from Cafe Latte.

If you live in the Twin Cities and you've never been, you should go to Cafe Latte. But if you do, you MUST get dessert. There really no point in going if you don't. Becuase, I mean, THIS --->

Lovely Music

Blog it July Day #13
What are three of your favorite love songs?

1. "How" by Regina Spektor
This isn't a happily ever after song - but it's definitely a love song, anyway. And it is SO BEAUTIFUL. The first time I heard it was at a concert last fall. Regina Spektor truly has an incredible voice.

2. I love the song "You and I" by Ingrid Michaelson for it's sheer charm and breezy, laid back feel. It's a song that seems to say, we've got all the time in the world.

3. This list wouldn't be complete without something from a Disney movie. (Come on, you know it's true!) I could be classy and go with something old school, but the one that gets me every time - God, this is embarrassing - is "I See the Light" from Tangled.

There are others, but those are the first ones that came to mind. Hope you enjoyed the videos. :)

P.S. Other favorites include "Just a Dream" by Nelly (but I actually like this cover better) and "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's

Zombies: Not My First Priority

Blog it July Day #12
How do you think you will fare in the zombie apocalypse?

Badly.

I am not a fighter, and I'm not in very good shape, and I haven't given this a lot of thought. Although, if I found myself with someone to protect, I would probably be a lot more determined and a much better survivalist than if I was only worried about myself.

I know several people who have actual zombie apocalypse contingency plans, so at least my friends would have a chance.

Also, I don't think this is likely to happen. I'm not saying it won't. I'm just saying, it doesn't seem likely. That's why I've decided not to be too worried about zombies. I'm going to focus on my three primary fears (paying off my student loans, scary weather stuff, and swarms of ants) for now.

50 Word Fiction

Blog It July Day #11
Tell us a story.

Above: Truth.

Hmm. You would think, considering that I studied writing in college and stuff, that I would be able to whip out a great story just like that. The sad truth is, I have hardly written for the last year. There are various reasons for this and I don't really want to go into them at the moment. What I will say is, I have been feeling a little fragile about my writing lately. (Sometimes I am actually glad that nobody reads this blog. What a relief.)

There's this cool website called Scottish Book Trust that has a monthly 50 word fiction competition. I haven't done all of them, but I've written a couple over the past few months. Here's a sampling:

The girl looks up at a papery sky. After such a long flight she craves fresh air, but she never imagined a chill so fierce! Snowflakes swirl around her and she reaches up, struck by the though that this new home, each tiny falling diamond, belongs to her. She smiles.

Have you been to Paris? He asks.
No.
Have you been to Spain? To Florida, New York or Panama?
I shake my head.
Where have you been?
A shrug, that's all. He doesn't know that everyday I'm waiting for wings to sprout. I would fly away and never come back.

Foot tapping, I wait for the train, running late, on my way to you in hospital. Please wait for me, I pray. Three times I check my watch. Its face stares up at me. I should have told you when I had the chance. At last, the train. Too late.

"I know why you're calling," he says.
"The house burned down last night."
Silence.
"A few things survived."
"Do you miss me? I miss you."
"Are you hearing this? They're demolishing tomorrow."
"You should come over."
"I'm staying with my sister."
It all came down to destruction. I should've known.

The Only Time I Ever Stayed in a Hyatt

Well, I have fallen behind on Blog It July. Oops! I'm going to play a little catch up.

Blog It July Day #9
What is the oddest thing you have ever seen in real life?

This is the kind of question that immediately makes my mind go blank. Without question, I have seen some pretty odd things. But trying to think about them makes it impossible for me to remember. It's like the opposite of the "don't think about elephants" phenomenon. 

What does come to mind is one of the oddest experiences I ever had, which I think is close enough to qualify as an answer.

I was 18. My parents and I had driven to Pittsburgh to attend an event for incoming students. After the event, they were driving home and I was doing an overnight in a dorm to see what it was like. Then I would fly home the next day, by myself. While I had flown before, I had never flown alone, and I was a little nervous.

Despite some confusion with which bus to take to the airport, I managed to get to the terminal in time, and it seemed like everything would go off without a hitch. The weather had other ideas. There was so much snow coming down in Chicago, where I was supposed to connect, that my flight was delayed. And delayed again. And, finally, cancelled. It was late by the time they announced the cancellation, and I would have to spend the night. The airport said that, because the cancellation was due to weather and not the fault of the airline, no one would receive complementary rooms.

There I was, a high school girl with hardly any money and very little airport experience. I really didn't want to spend the night in the terminal. Then, I had an idea. I would find someone in a similar situation and ask if she wanted to split the cost of a hotel room. I looked around at the people waiting at the service desk, and spotted a girl who didn't seem too much older than me. She had clearly been crying, and one of her eyes was big and swollen and buggy. She looked totally crazy, but she also looked harmless and freaked out, so I thought she seemed like a good bet.

She looked a little like this. (Okay, not quite.)

I approached this girl - I'm not going to use her name, but let's call her Marsha - and asked if she'd be interested in sharing a hotel room. Marsha told me she didn't need to split the cost, because she'd freaked out enough to be quietly given a free room. (I think it was probably the bug eye that did it.) I thought I was out of luck, but Marsha said she was afraid to stay in the hotel alone, and asked if I wanted to join her anyway. Desperate for a comfortable bed, I said yes.

The seating area in the Pittsburgh Airport Hyatt bar

 We went straight to the hotel bar, where she got a drink (she was older than I thought, I think 21). We talked a little, and I found out she was a hair dresser from rural Idaho, where the primary social activity was (and I swear I am not making this up) driving slowly up and down Main Street. It was a very nice hotel, a Hyatt, and when we got to the room, I was happy to head straight to bed. But Marsha refused to turn off all the lights, and kept checking the curtains (which was ridiculous, because we weren't even on the first floor). I asked what was going on.

"My boyfriend and I visited Gettysburg," Marsha explained, "and the guide told all these stories about the ghosts that live there." She went off explaining about the different ghosts for a while, then said, in a whisper, "I think I'm being haunted." She checked the curtains again.

My eyebrows were now so far up my forehead that they were practically in my hair, but Marsha was providing me with free lodging in a pinch, and I wasn't in any place to judge. It was hard to settle down, because she refused to turn off the lights completely, and she kept reminiscing about Idaho as if it was Paradise on Earth.

In the morning, I slipped out quietly and made my early flight home. I hardly remember the trip to Pittsburgh, but those twelve hours in the airport are clear as day.

Clear Lake, IA

Blog It July Day #8
What does your ideal cabin look like?

My family doesn't have a cabin, and none of my extended family does either, but when I was little we spent many long weekends in Clear Lake, Iowa. My parent's friends, Kriss and Martha, invited us to join them at Martha's familiy's cottage there. They have two kids who are about the same age as my brother, which made me the baby by about six years.(That's a lot when you're eight and the others are 14.) Sometimes my parents let me bring a friend along, but even when they didn't, I always had a blast.

Favorite Clear Lake activities included tubing, sailing, going to movies, board and card games (see Blog It July Day #5), ice cream at the drug store, croquet, and treasure hunts created by Kriss and Martha's daughter for my benefit.

It's also relevant to mention that I occasionally draw house plans for fun. Sometimes I've tried to draw plans for vacation homes, but no matter what I do, it always ends up looking like the Clear Lake cottage in the end. Not because that house is especially nice, but because that is the house where I learned what it means to go to "the cabin." To me, it is the perfect vacation home.

My rough version of the cottage's first floor
(I tried to find a photo, but I couldn't, so instead you get this.)

Avatar Has Nothing to Do With Blue People

Blog It July Day #7
Your guilty pleasure TV shows.

Well, that's an easy one!

My guilty pleasure TV show is Avatar: The Last Airbender. It. Is. So. Amazing. And, yes, it is a cartoon aimed at 10-year-olds. I don't care. I love cartoons in general, and Avatar is the top of the pack. I have watched the entire series at least four times. It really has everything I want. Funny? Check. Interesting, complex likeable characters? Check. Intriguing, intense storyline? Check. Loveable animal sidekicks? Check. Super scary villains? Check. Cool world building stuff? Check.

In other words, it is AWESOME. It's no longer on Netflix (majorly sad), but if you can watch it, you should. So worth it.


My friend got me an Appa stuffed animal for my birthday last year. I highly recommend it.

Giant flying bison are so cute and physics defying. It's great.

P. S. There is no movie based on this TV show. No movie exists. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?

Card Games = Memories

I know, I know, I am totally late. I got a little distracted over the long weekend. Anyway, I am going to do my best to catch up.

Blog It July Day #5

What is your favorite card game and who do you like to play it with?

I don't really have a single favorite card game. The important thing for me is that certain card games seem to match up with certain people and places and situations. They have flavors and faces that make me smile.

International Rummy makes me think immediately of my friend Elysia, whose family often plays it on holidays. We once played it at her birthday party, and most people got bored (it's a LONG game) but I loved it.

Poker in general makes me think of my brother, who patiently taught me to play when I was way too young to understand gambling. And, it makes me remember hanging out at a poker party with him and his friends, ten years older than me on average, and winning the non-betting game. They couldn't believe it.

B.S. reminds me of elementary school, where we often played it during free time. I remember the sisters that taught it to the rest of us, Jessie and Amy, even though I haven't seen or spoken to them for 15 years. (At the time we called it I Doubt It, B.S. being a little too profane for seven-year-olds.)

Spoons reminds me of a particular day at summer camp, when we played it under a tarp at the picnic table during a rainstorm. 

I associate Hearts with watching my father play it on the computer. The same goes for Solitaire.

James Bond (also known as Conga, and probably other things), reminds me of a different summer camp, and of playing it with my friend Kirstyn.

I remember a really crazy Russian card game that I learned from a girl in my high school calculus class, and playing it at the end of senior year, when the teacher had given up on us focusing.

I also remember playing all sorts of card games at a cottage in Clear Lake, IA. The cottage belongs to family friends, and we used to go there pretty often when I was growing up. There was this one game our friends there had invented that was really good. (But I don't remember the name or how to play.)

The box for one of my many decks of cards

Oh, and there was another game we used to play in high school, but I can't remember that one, either, except for that I was pretty good at it.

So, yeah. I collect memories of card games... I also collect playing cards, in a very casual way. I have maybe eight interesting decks, ranging from candy corn-shaped cards to simple Bicycle decks. 

Happy Independence Day!

Before you read my (super serious not so fun) Blog it July response, you might enjoy watching this Crash Course video about the Fourth of July.

Blog it July Day #4
What makes you proud to be an American?

The United States is not a perfect country. Far from it. I do not always like the decisions our national leaders make. I do not enjoy looking at statistics on education and seeing the USA near the bottom of the global rankings. I do not enjoy being part of a depressing statistic on American health.

And yet...
This country is built on values that I believe in. Our national documents emphasize the importance of equality, the need for separation of church and state, and, most crucially, the inevitability of change. We don't always do a good job of upholding these values. In fact, I would argue that there has never been a time when all of these values were successfully upheld. Most founding fathers held slaves, even as they penned these ideals, and many inequalities remain today, among all varieties of population groups. But the ideals are there, even when we stray, guiding this nation to a better place. I really believe that we are slowly - oh so slowly - moving toward it.

And, along the way, I sure am glad to be American. I'm so grateful to feel safe most of the time. I'm so grateful to have the right to peaceably protest. I'm so grateful not to be persecuted for my religious identity, or forced into beliefs I don't share. Even though I am basically a pacifist, I'm so grateful that our military has kept war out of my life. I know I did nothing to earn any of this. These are simply the privileges of being American.

Yes, I am very, very thankful to be a citizen of this country. I'm not sure, though, if the reasons I've given are also reasons to be proud.

There are people who suffer in this country. I think it's important to acknowledge that. Poverty and hunger and human trafficking are not just "third world problems." They are also American problems. I have spent the past eleven months as an AmeriCorps VISTA, surrounded by people of my generation who are working full time for well below minimum wage, because they want to serve this country. They want to move this nation closer to the ideals set down in our founding documents. I have watched them work so hard this year, have watched people create change despite truly difficult circumstances, and I have smiled at the way these idealist support each other in their work.

I am profoundly grateful to live a life of American privilege, but that doesn't make me proud - at times, it makes me ashamed. No, what truly makes me proud to be American is the tireless work of so many people to help this nation live up to the potential of its rhetoric.

If you have a moment amid your celebrating, watch this clip from HBO's The Newsroom:

Happy Fourth of July.

P.S. My opinion does not reflect the opinion of AmeriCorps, VISTA, or any other affiliate

Apparently, I Am Really Interested In Aliens

Blog It July Day #3

Assuming there is intelligent life in the universe, how do you think we will connect with them, if and when we do (invasion, violence, surrender, peace, etc.)

I'm crossing my fingers for Ewoks. Because, really, who isn't?

The universe is a really, really big place, and I personally think that the idea of humans as the only intelligent life within it is the epitome of narcissism. I don't know - how could I? - if humans will ever interact with aliens. If we do, I doubt they will resemble in any way the popular conceptions of aliens. I'm not expecting E. T. or War of the Worlds or anything else the media has served up. They will be something we never could have imagined. Either that, or they will be far more like us than we predicted.

The hardest part of this question is location: Will we find them, or will they find us? This depends on a lot of variables, not to mention chance. The obvious guess is that if they find us, they will be more technologically advanced than Earth, while if we find them, Earth will have the upper hand in that arena. And the invading party would have more control over how the situation went, probably, because so much depends upon the very first, "we come in peace" vs. "target and destroy," moments. So my hope is that we find them, and that we do it in a spirit of exploration and friendship, rather than in fear or desperation for resources. I hope that humans are able to see themselves as the potential invaders, and to remember that humans are every bit aliens on another planet. I. E., on Mars, we're the aliens and Martians are the people. It's a simple bit of logic, but if people arrive in desperate search for water, or oil, or land... I can imagine a less sympathetic point of view.

This kind of scenario is exactly why people need to study history. Because, really, how different would human arrival in an alien civilization be from the "discovery" of the Americas by the eastern hemisphere? I do not want a repeat of the events (read: atrocities) that took place during that era.

Another thought... In movies, the aliens are always united in their attitude toward Earth. That doesn't seem very likely. I mean, would the USA, Cuba and Kenya all have the same intentions and policies in that situation? Probably not. So I think the situation would be waaaaay more complex than the Hollywood equations allow.

Wow! It turns out I still have more to say about this. I never knew I was so interested in aliens. But I am going to cut myself off, because I'm afraid I'll keep going forever if I don't.

P. S. This article

Confession of a Potterhead

Blog It July Day #2
What do you geek? (As in, what do you nerd out on?)

In September 1999, I was 9 years old and my family had just moved to St. Paul. I started fourth grade at a new school, only to discover that everyone (EVERYONE) in my class was obsessed with some book series I had never heard of, about a scrawny kid with glasses named Harry Potter. Not wanting to be the only student in the class who wasn't in the know, I decided I had better start reading.

This is how I started on the path to being a total geek about Harry Potter. To be fair, a lot of people around my age are at least a little geeky about the series. Consider this: When I started reading it in 1999, the third book had just been released in the US. I was ten, the same age as Harry at the start of The Sorcerer's Stone. When the final book was released, I was 17 (again, the same age as the protagonoist), and about to start my senior year of high school. The idea of the "Harry Potter generation" is pretty accurate - me and my peers literally grew up with the Boy Who Lived.

Since so many of my friends also love these books, I've had many great conversations about them. I have a theory that someone is having a conversation about Harry Potter at all times - day and night - on every college campus in the United States. I certainly contributed my fair share of discussions to that scenario. My college roommates and I explored Pottermore when it first came out, while procrastinating on studying for finals. (It's not the best thing ever, but it's a lot more fun than geology at 2:15 AM). I also geek out a little bit on Harry Potter fanfiction. Some of it is surprisingly good, while some is hillariously bad.

As far as the movies go, I like them. They're not perfect - Harry and Ron look like their hair was cut by a woodchipper in the 4th one - but as movie adaptations of books go, they're decent. That said, I am not a fan of the movies in the same way that I'm a fan of the books.

So, there it is. You caught me. I'm a total Potterhead.

Mischief managed,
Renee

What Do You Want to Be Remembered For?

My friend Heather is running a blog challenge this month called Blog It July. (You should check out her blog, Write.Sew.Drink.Repeat.) She asked me to participate and I was like, “Yes! Oh, wait… I don’t have a blog…” And that is how Neon Dreamer was born. It actually works out really well, because for the whole first month that I have this blog, I don’t even have to think about what to write – I can just lean back and take advantage of the Blog It July topics. You should totally take advantage of the fun, too – you can link up by clicking on the lovely Blog It July button Heather created (it’s in the right sidebar).

So, without further ado, Blog It July Day #1

What do you want to be remembered for?

Audrey on a UNICEF trip

This question immediately sends my thoughts to Audrey Hepburn. I am a huge fan of hers. She was a great actress and an arguably unparalleled fashionista, no doubt about it, but my admiration for her comes from neither of these things. What I truly admire about Audrey is the way she lived her life. She was an extremely devoted mother, a sentiment both of her sons confirm. She never participated in the circus of Hollywood, and she spent the last years of her life working as a UN ambassador with Unicef. So, while most of the world remembers her for a cigarette holder and an excellent little black dress, the people who truly knew her remember someone else. A devoted mother. A compassionate humanitarian. A dedicated worker. I have no expectation of being remembered on the scale that Audrey Hepbrun is remembered. But I hope I will make decisions that allow the people who count to remember me half as proudly.

There are many, many adjectives I would like to be remembered by. I simply can't list them all. But I can tell you this much. I hope my future children will remember a loving mother. I hope my friends will remember a fun and dedicated friend. I hope to succeed in writing and publishing a novel, and that at least a few people remember me for the positive impact of that novel on their lives. I hope, in a general way, to be remembered as adventurous and open-minded.

I sometimes ask myself, What will I think about this when I'm on my deathbed? Will I regret this? Will I regret missing this? In a way, this is the same question. What it all comes down to is, how am I going to live right now and, more importantly, why? And that, that is really something worth thinking about.