bits 'n' pieces

I was cleaning my room earlier this evening, when I stumbled upon an old shoe box. 

I hadn't seen it since summer, and I eagerly opened it. You see, this particular box is very special to me. All through freshman and sophomore year I stashed little things that reminded me of my favorite moments in it. I fondly referred to it as my 'souvenir box', and pulled it out every once in a while when I was feeling down. Reminiscing about such things made me smile -- even when I was going through something difficult. 

But after almost six months, I didn't really remember what I had in it. 

And what I found inside really wasn't anything extraordinary; I discovered both of my journals from my first two years in high school. Old tickets from movies, plays, recitals, and sporting events past. Pictures galore; including the one above from this past summer. A painted rock, a red pointe shoe, a 4-H tiara. Illegal in class notes from friends. An worn play script from freshman year, and some clippings from when I've made it into the newspaper. Receipts. Ribbons. My first short story.

They were all just little bits of things, but looking at them almost brought me to tears for some reason. Each trinket signified something special to me -- a piece from my past. Things I gathered at a time when I felt like life was dragging on. A time when I thought that I'd be fifteen forever. 

And now I'm seventeen; about six months away from being an adult. I've traded Biology homework for SAT preps, and riding my bike for driving a car. Things are moving fast right now, and I sometimes have a hard time thinking about anything other than the future. 

But looking through that box reminded me that "forever is composed of nows". I won't always be able to spend my weekends attending dances and putting off my homework, and I need to enjoy those days when I'm sleepily running to and from dance rehearsals and 4-H fair. Time moves quickly, and I need to take a breath and enjoy the moment.

After all, it won't last forever. 

Much love, 

~ Abby

on originality

[ Forward: I am not in anyway talking about any writer other than myself. This is just something that I've noticed happening in the past with my own scribblings, and it needs to come to an end. Now. ]

I think that I really conformed with my blogging style in the past. I guess that I subconsciously thought I had to stay within a little 'box' for my blog to be successful; i.e. always have nostalgic pictures, perfect discussions about how lovely life is, and a perfect overload of adjectives. 

But that's not real. Or original. My life isn't always lovely, my writing style isn't actually like that, and to be quite frank, I am too lazy ADD to spend 50 hours a week editing photos. {The little sarcastic voice in my head is yelling enthusiastically "ain't nobody got time for that!"}

And looking back, the only posts that I still actually like are the ones that were a bit odd -- the ones that allowed my personality to come through. {Such as this, this, and this.} And to be honest, I think it's more enjoyable to read quirky blogs, like this, this, and this. {I am saying "this" a lot. I shall stop this madness.} 

So, I am going to start writing more quirkily; more like me. Which is also why I was feeling like it was time to change my webloggity around a bit -- thus the new name. 

Dictionary.com how I love thee.

That's what I want this to be: quirky, and maybe slightly peculiar. I want my writing to reflect who I am -- not what is popular and lovely. 

So hi. I'm Abby, and I'm going to write about whatever the heck I want. Google and honey badgers alike! 

They can be quite scary, can't they?

~ Abby

ramble: why i love 4 am and post it notes

At approximately four a.m. last Wednesday morning, I wrote this sticky note: 

As you can probably see, it's a list of school - related things that I wanted to accomplish before the weekend. After completing this little memo, I promptly stuck it on my wall, and forgot about it. Until yesterday afternoon, that is. 

I think the most interesting thing about this little note is that last line. It says "Read HP and do epic things." 

Now the whole "read HP" thing is coming along quite nicely. I'm knee deep in The Deathly Hallows, and am currently camped out with Harry and Hermione in a scary forest, accompanied by a rather corrupted piece of neckwear. But activities of the epic variety seem to have been a bit lacking. 

However, I have made homemade pop tarts, listened to an unhealthy amount of Ed Sheeran, and turned cartwheels with a friend. All of those things are epic; just not a honey badger and Chuck Norris are having a wrestling match type epic. 

BUT yesterday I had a pretty epically hilarious conversation with a friend of mine about how people google funny/weird/random things. And our discussion intrigued me so much that I decided to make a list of the last five things that have been googled on my laptop, and to then attempt to write about the experience. 

So without further ado, here are the last 5 entries in my google search history. (And no, they are not all from the same day... I do not actually google much, apparently.) 

Since I am obviously so technologically savvy, I can only conclude that I googled this just to test Google's knowledge. Never fear, Google knows what it's talking about. 

Now this one is a bit more interesting. And I still am unaware of wear I can actually purchase one of these gems. Google how you disappoint me. 

I feel like this one needs some explaining; you see, I started wondering how much energy it takes for a human just to exist. My mom, being the ex nurse that she is, told me that you can calculate that by figuring up a person's basal metabolic weight. {Which, by the way, varies depending on height/weight/gender.} I found out that my body would use up about 1,400 calories even if I just sat around all day! I suddenly don't feel so guilty about those pizza rolls...

I'm finding it rather ironic that I googled this twenty minutes before I googled the basal weight thing. 

I have no memory of searching this -- in fact, I have no idea of who he is. So I guess someone in my family looked him up, which I'm kind of finding slightly creepy. I'll just say that the family ghost did it. 

In addition to these life changing things, I also learned some other interesting tidbits as I gallivanted around the Google. Like, did you know that Google is a Taylor Swift fan? 

Speak Now? Get it? I'll be quiet now. 

Also, Google did not understand the clicking of my camera's lense. Pity. 

What's the weirdest thing you've googled? 

~ Abby 

EDIT: I found out who Chris Pine is. He apparently played that one guy in The Princess Diaries 2. Here's a picture of his face:

Yeah, I'll just go with the whole family ghost thing.