Fly Like a G6

The Philadelphia Airport is pretty cool. After having an authentic Philly cheese steak we discovered a wall for all of the authors from Philadelphia, and evidently it was the hometown of my favorite author, Jerry Spinelli!

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 I'm so glad our airplane seats were always together. Sitting next to strangers on airplanes gives me this guilty feeling, I get stuck between wanting to keep to myself and knowing that you can learn terribly interesting things about people when you sit that close to them for hours and actually open your mouth to talk. Sitting next to my parents means I can be as quiet as I want without feeling guilty. Plus the people sitting behind us were plenty loud and interesting.

Conversation from behind:

After having gotten to know each other, the mother of four, the older woman, and the young well-dressed business man joined in on looking through their complementary travel magazines. "Oh! Let's go there!" The mother of four exclaimed, pointing, I can only imagine, to a lovely picture of Spain. "Are you two doing anything after Thanksgiving?" They all laughed. I could tell the young well-dressed business man had a beard without even sneaking a look back. There was something about his laugh that shouted "I have a beard to go with my Santa laugh!" He did. He was a spitting image of 28 year old Santa Clause. I wonder how serious mother of four was about escaping to Spain.


Airport read: How To Be Lovely by Melissa Hellstern, lessons from the life of Audrey Hepburn. Now one of my favorite books. I'm pretty sure it was written for me.

#Day1

blah.

I wasn't sure how to put my situation. Then I remembered that, like most situations, I have a Pinterest picture that perfectly describes it, posted above.

Today was good, a lot of the same thing over and over again while sitting in a fantastic chair meant for children while indie music or Brian Regan came from the computer. The only reason I got to play my music is because I was the only employee in my own little corner in my own little chair. I could have talked to the people on the other side of the shelves and clothing racks, but that would've involved speaking louder, and I just don't do that. And small talk. I don't do that either.

After work has been good, too. I read another Jerry Spinelli book (I plan on reading all of his books, even if most of them were written for middle school kiddos.) I listened to all the great music I discovered today. I desperately want to go on an spontaneous adventure, I want to everyday, but I honestly don't know who to drag along with me now. I am craving a sad movie marathon with my best movie buddies. Despite the fact that I am wearing bright pink tights right now, life feels sorta blah. At least it's not sad, though.

Music of the Day: Passenger. The Wrong Direction. Things That Stop You Dreaming. All The Little Lights.

Wednesday Thoughts

The best thing to do when you're stressing about the amount of money you just spent, is to give some money to someone who needs it.

Yesterday I began my "Big White Wall" project. Where I have a wall of my very own to draw and paint and write anything I want to, for an entire year.

Once again, a Jerry Spinelli book grabbed my attention and shouted "I'm your favorite author, remember? How could you get distracted by some dumb new york times best seller, when there is Jerry Spinelli to be read?!"

Back to the first sentence- on Monday I was totally stressing about money, because I don't have a job but I have to pay for gas, and lately I've had lots of places to drive and birthday presents to buy. I wasn't even buying anything for myself! But I was stressing nonetheless. But as I was leaving Walmart two things happened: One, as I got to the car I realized I had accidentally brought out an unpaid for package of pens, it only cost like a dollar, and I could have used it in my friends present, but I had decided to save the dollar it cost. This was my first "accidentally bring an unpaid for object to the car and choose to turn around and take it back into the store" experience. All for a dollar worth of pens. But I have heard enough of those experiences that I didn't even have to think, I just turned around and walked back. Second, as I was driving out of the parking lot there was a little family sitting on the grass asking for money. A mom, a dad, and three little kids. I'm used to men standing around that area with their cardboard signs, but I have never seen a whole family before. All there's left to say is, I gave them the dollar that I could have spent on those pens. Its all the cash I had, and it was close to nothing to give. But it was something, and lately I have been taught the power of doing something. The reason I am sharing all of this is because of what came of it yesterday. I had to stop to put gas in my car, and as I got out my best friend handed me a twenty dollar bill and wouldn't let me give it back. He just said "Emma, put gas in your car." And I still don't feel like I thanked him enough. I had enough for a gallon or two, it would have been enough for the day. And it's my fault I don't have a job and loads of cash to pay for gas. But he just relieved the stress. And it wasn't until today that I thought about Monday's experience, and Tuesday's, at the same time.

Second sentence- The first thing I wrote on my wall was two rules.

Third sentence- I am currently reading Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. I'm determined to read all of his books, no matter what age they were written for.

Happy Wednesday. (I was saying that to myself, so I remember.)

There is a Library in My Head

My Latest Reads:

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Believing Christ by Stephen Robinson

Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Field Trip #1- The Temple Grounds

My mom just finished reading Love, Stargirl, the Sequel to a previously very often mentioned favorite book of mine. In the book the main character, Stargirl (duh) homeschools, and her mom randomly sends her on field trips, telling Stargirl she isn't allowed to come home until she has written a poem about what she noticed during her field trip. My mom has starting doing the same thing to my sister and I. Just like in the book, she will give us secret slips of paper with our destination and instructions written on it, and then us sends off. We can't come back until we've written about it, whether that takes 10 minutes or 10 hours.

Today our field trip destination was the Temple grounds. Here are some snippets from what I wrote:

My friend Shelby says her favorite sounds are laughter and peace. Peace, as in the sound in the Temple. I agree, those are my favorite sounds.

When my family was in St. George over spring break we visited the Temple down there. There was a big, extended family taking pictures on the grounds. That's sure a smart way to get a good picture-- put everyone in a place where they can't help but smile.

The nice, old man we just talked to said that if you wear a pirate patch while you draw, you can sketch the Temple perfectly. Something about making it 2D for your one showing eye... I'll have to try that sometime.