Thoughts on Being a Superhero (with some James McAvoy)

I just got home from seeing X-Men: First Class for the second time this week.
And after I finished swooning over James McAvoy's blue blue eyes, I got to thinking...
Which one would I be?
Which super power would I want to have?

Absorbing energy would be awesome!
Like Kevin Bacon (I never did catch his character's name...)
But what kind of use would I have for that?
I don't think anyone will be throwing grenades at me.
I might never realize that I even had that power.
But maybe exciting things find you when you have interesting abilities.

Changing form, like Mystique?
Awesome.
But I have no desire to be blue underneath it all.
(This is not cute.)

I'd love to adapt like Darwin.
I'd jump in the ocean and be a mermaid.
But it would get lonely.

I wouldn't chose the powers of Charles.
I have no desire to read minds or control people.

Magneto.
Too violent.
(But soooooo handsome! Have you seen Jane Eyre? Best Mr. Rochester ever.)

Basically, the conclusion I've come to is that I'm just fine as I am.
I like me.

But if I could, I would most definitely have super speed.
I really miss my family right now.
Can't wait to go home in 10 days!


(here's a picture of James. Because we can never have enough of him.)

The Book Thief

Every once in a great while, I read a book that is real.

I don't usually read these books more than once.
That would not do them justice.
It would cheapen them.
And make them less than what they are.
These are not the Harry Potter's of your childhood.
These are bigger than that.

But the one time that I read these books, I see more.
I see more than me.
I see more than my surroundings.
I see everything that humanity has to offer.

I feel more.
I understand more.
And I want more.

These books are like lightening.
They flash quickly and do not last long.
If you are lucky, you just might see it illuminate the whole sky.
You didn't know what was there before that flash.
And then it is over.

But the thunder.
The thunder comes and it shakes into your soul.
You feel it all the way to your heart.
And if you are not prepared, then you are frightened.
The strength of it is overwhelming.
It doesn't last, but you don't forget.
And lightening will always make you shake in anticipation for the thunder.
The memory of the thunder is with you forever.

These books leave you weak.
These books leave you strong.
These books make your heart hurt.
You can't forget them, even if you tried.

The Book Thief is one of these.
I can't forget it.
I am more because of it.
Because Liesel Meminger is more than just a story.
She is a whole generation.
A whole country.
She is real.

Quidditch. The Muggle/Summertime Way.

In honor of the last Harry Potter movie I give you...

Pool Quidditch!

Needed:
3-6 hula hoops {goals}
1 soccer ball {quaffle}
2 soft balls {bludgers}
1-2 live goldfish {snitch. The second is in case the first one dies too soon on you.}
14 fun noodles {in lieu of a broomstick.}
14 friends


Instructions:
Give the goldfish a 30 sec head start.
Play quidditch!
{If you don't know how to play, then you are lame.}
Also, you should probably use a pool that is very lightly chlorinated, so that the fish doesn't die and you don't feel like a murderer.


PS I loved the movie.
Sobbed through the whole thing.
A part of my childhood has ended.

Date a Girl Who Reads by Rosemarie Urquico

Date a Girl Who Reads by Rosemarie Urquico

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by God, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

Yeah 3xs!