It's Offical

Here is a short list of things that are officially official in my life right now...


1. I am going to Iceland for ten hopefully fantastic days over my spring break.
2. I am participant observing at a very cool theatre for my very cool Ethnography class this Saturday.
3. I have said Ethnography class in ten minutes, and I am still in my room, in my pajamas.
4. Iceland, ten days, spring break. SO EXCITED. You don't even know.
5. Also, so broke after buying my ticket to Iceland, but I am excellent at living off of a meal card.


(-:
Birdy!

Why Emma Watson has my life.

Let me start by saying that I think Emma Watson is fantastic, I truly admire her and I wish her the best in life, but secretly I am a bitter ball of misguided hate. Hate is a strong and inaccurate word in this case, but I shall use it anyways because it makes me feel empowered and helps relieve the above mentioned bitterness. 

Now that you are aware of the very one sided love-hate relationship I have with Emma Watson, please do let me explain why I feel the way I do. This is a post I have been wanting to do since I first started this blog, but I have held off in order to be sure that I really had everything down pat in my own head, to prevent has much confusion as possible on paper. All of this being said here is why Emma Watson has my life.

Before you begin reading I should not that italicized section are stories of my own life that often hold little if any relevance to what the other things I am writing, so feel free to skip over them and cut down on your reading experience!

Emma and I are very close in age, we were both born in 1990 (I'm to lazy to look up her actual birthdate at the moment, plus that's a bit to creepy, but I believe she is five or six months older). Sharing a birth year is the only similarity between the two of us, other than that she has lead a life I am envious of, not a perfect life no, but a life of excellent adventures and experiences, starting with where she was born.

Emma Watson was born in France (somewhere in Paris I believe), and she later moved to England. This is epicly cool because like many other Americans my age I am OBSESSED with foreigners. 

Random unnecessary anecdote: When I decided upon entering high school that I was going to take French instead of Spanish someone asked me "Why, especially when Spanish is much more useful in the States, especially Arizona?" I responded "Uhmm, because I don't plan on living in Arizona for ever, I want to move to Europe."

After moving to England, Emma lived her life for a few years and then on one magical day in around 1999, young Emma was given a fantastic opportunity, the chance to audition for the film version of the books that defined my childhood. Well as if being born in France and raised in England wasn't reason enough to 'hate' Emma Watson, her landing the role of Hermione Granger in the film adaptations was.

Random unnecessary anecdote #2: Growing up I had two best friends, both boys, a set of twins. I spent so much time at their house that I had a change of clothes and a pair of pajamas stashed in one of their drawers for the all to common nights when we would trick our parents into letting us have a sleepover. Sometimes I would spend entire weekends at their house, getting in and out of trouble doing school projects, chores, and of course reading, talking about, watching and reenacting Harry Potter. The younger of the two was always Harry (he fit the description marvelously) the older was always Ron (he did not fit the looks, but played his part well) and I was Hermione, complete with ridiculously unmanageable hair. If I can find some pictures of us in our outfits, I'll post them.

Emma preformed exceedingly well in her role and at the same time managed to do well in school. Did I mention I 'hate' her? Because up until this point in my life I just thought she was very cool, and then in all of her awesomeness she was accepted into Brown University.

Random unnecessary anecdote #3: Brown, for anyone who doesn't know me, is one of my most prominent obsessions, I fell in LOVE with the school after visiting it and sitting in on a class during the inevitable "fit as many college tours as possible into one weekend" trip.

When I found out that Emma had decided to attend Brown, I also decided that she lived my life, all of these things that I loved and looked at longingly from afar were things that define who she is in the public eye. 

Random unnecessary anecdote #4: I thought I had gotten over my initial jealousy of Emma when I went to visit some friends in Boston a month or so into my freshman year, nope I was wrong. While in Boston we came across several large adds for the British trench coat company, Burberry. The relevance? The adds centered not around models, but around Emma. She was accompanied by her brother and a series of other young British males (who if I'm not mistaken are rather well known in the U.K.). Now I have never paid much attention to Burberry, I am not a fashionable person nor do I have the ducats to spend on their products, but the adds stirred up my bitter 'hatred' again, WHY DOES SHE GET TO BE SO PRETTY AND FASHIONABLE, AS WELL AS INTELLIGENT, TALENTED, AND FROM FRANCE/ENGLAND?! Not fair, if you ask me.

Overall I think Emma has thus far grown up gracefully, she has yet to display any signs of the tragic downfalls so common among young celebrities these days, she is focusing on her education above her career, she is not afraid to be herself (her new short, short haircut is another point of jealousy. RUA#5 I had a bowl cut for a long time, and it NEVER made me look cute, ever.) She is a great example of Harry Potter's influence on my life, because I do admire her and although she is less than a year older than me, I see her as a great example of a flawless transition into adulthood.

Thanks for reading,

Birdy

Sorry.

I have neglected you dear Blog. I have been busy, thoughts have been plentiful, and yet the urges to write have been few and far between. This is not your fault however Blog, this is because writing essays for class, and emails for various things that one may need to write long boring emails for, temporally sucked the fun out of writing. Also, I went to Boston this weekend, and not once did I log onto the internet the entire time, excepting a few minutes on the bus ride back that ended when the wifi stopped working suddenly. I do not have much time before I fall asleep, but I just wanted to let you know that I have not forgotten about you, that you do still matter, and that I hope we can still be friends after my week long neglection of you. Yes, I know that neglection is not a real word, it is however now a fake word, a neologism if you will. (For those of you less obsessed with random words, well I shall let you enjoy the adventure of looking neologism it up for yourself.) To make it up to you Blog, I shall write at least one decent (in my own opinion at least, I understand that writing is a subjective art) post, possibly even two, because I have several that I have been meaning to write for a while now. Please do accept my humble apology and forgive me. I shall visit with you more on the morrow. 


Birdy


P.S. I got you a present because, as I said I am obsessed with random words, and as I didn't say, I am obsessed with random facts, so I hope you enjoy my small token of my apology. I am also obsessed with commas, even those essays that I previously mentioned were told so.

Anonymous Coment

First off, hello, thank you for being the first official comment on this particular blog. Seriously, thank you, I was starting to think I was on my own here. Secondly, great question.


I've decide to answer your question as a post, and not simply as another comment for one main reason, it was also a question that I myself asked. Just to make it easy for any other possible readers here was the question...


Anonymous said...

Why did you choose the premiere of (what I assume to be) the first movie? Wouldn't the second film make more sense as it will be the conclusion of the Harry Potter Saga as our generation knows it.[sic]

As previously mentioned, this was something that I myself wondered. Before starting this blog I knew I needed a point of reference, something of symbolic value with a set date to try and figure adulthood out by. I decided on using the U.S. premier of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 as this symbolic standard. 

Part 1 was chosen for three reasons: First, I liked that it premiered not long after my birthday, thus condensing my quest to find out what it means to be an adult. Second, I figured that if I wasn't satisfied with my findings by the time Part 1 premiered, I could then use Part 2 as a back up, giving myself a few more months to navigate my way into adulthood. Third, I decided that Part 1 is really the beginning of the end, and true it isn't the absolute conclusion of the saga thus far, BUT it is the turning point of the series. I don't want to leave any spoilers but the events and turmoil that I am assuming will take place in Part 1 represent (in my "weird brain") the turmoil and changes that I am currently experiencing in my quest for adulthood.

I hope this answers your question, and I apologize, I am half asleep and fairly certain that most of this is incomprehensible, so if that is the case, leave another comment and I will fix it! (-;


Also, I am not sure why there are so many numbers (first, second etc) I guess I'm just in a counting mood, and also also, sorry if the font/spacing shows up all weird, I'm also not sure why that is happening, also also also wondering if anyone will catch my not so sneaky reference.

Love.

Sometimes you love a person for no other reason then that you know they deserve the love more than anyone else you know. You are not the only person who loves them, you are one of many. You love inexplicably with a fierce passion this person whom you hardly know, but it is the closest equivalent to love at first sight that you will ever know, and they are worthy. You are happy when they succeed, when they do more than you even dreamed possible, more than you will ever do, and you cannot be jealous of them not matter how hard you may try, because they are a bred above the rest, they are the epitome of love, and you love them for it. This is why I love you, why I miss you, and why I am glad that you are my friend.

Story Time

AKA my week so far in eclectic, often uninteresting stories.


1. My parents bought a dog for my little sister, on (or very close to) my 20th birthday. I saw this as an inexcusable slap in the face, and boy did it sting. 


You see, I asked my parents for a dog from right around the time I moved in with them until I went away to college (approximately 13 years). The answer was always "No, this family will NEVER get a dog."According to them dogs were to hard to take care of. Still, I asked every birthday, every Christmas, every time I saw a stray, and I even used to visit the shelter and moon over all of the dirty mutts, I would have taken anything from a Chihuahua to a Saint Bernard, as long as it was mine. Then one day Joan came home with Penny, an alien-dog hybrid that someone had found on the street. I thought, "There's no way we are keeping this, my family hates dogs." (I was like eight and very fond of dramatic yet simple logic.) I was wrong we kept Penny, and I kept asking for a dog of my own, one that I could pick out, that I could name, that would sleep at the foot of my bed. The answer was always a definite and unyielding "No. This family will NEVER get a dog, except for Penny." Despite my persistence, my letters to Santa, all of my reasoning, crying and arguing, it was the same answer every time. 


Then when I was about eleven I was informed that a new little bundle of joy would be brought into the family. I distinctly remember using this as my passionate argument for a dog later that year, the exchange went something like this... "No, you can't have a dog!" "How come you guys got to get a dog AND a baby?" "You'll have fun with a new baby in the house." "I don't want a baby, I want a dog damnit! You want a baby, babies are harder to take care of than dogs, WHY CAN YOU GET A BABY BUT I CAN'T GET A DOG?!" Ok I toned it down for this, I believe I actually said things that were rather inappropriate at the time... Moving on. I cried so hard when I found this out, and although I love my little sister, I still don't see what logic they had in thinking that a baby would be easier to take care of than a dog.


Damn near every book I ever read growing up involved a dog as an influential character, as such I did (and secretly still do) believe that a childhood is not complete without a dog. Because of this I am still pissed that I never got one.

Flash forward to five days ago, I am on Facebook the day after my birthday, and what do I see? Pictures of a cute, BIG, puppy sitting on my parents floor. I quickly read the caption to discover that the dog was their new gift to my little sister, apparently in exchange for her not getting a little brother. 

I was already in a vulnerable state after just having faced down my scariest birthday yet, and to see that just overwhelmed me. To be honest it was all I could do not to start crying. Literally the most important thing to me throughout my entire childhood was getting a dog, and it had been denied me year after year, only to be given to my little sister, on my birthday. (This is something that my generation calls a "Bitch Move.")


Instead of crying however I analyzed my thoughts (how Adult of me), what exactly about all of this made me so upset? Once I realized why, I wrote my dad a very thought out letter about my feelings, calling it "Are you shitting me?" (What can I say, the dramatic little kid came out in me.) 


Now since most people in my family probably think that I have shared too much information already, I won't share the whole letter, but I will tell you the gist. The fact that my little sister got a dog on my birthday, upset me so much because it made me feel like she is loved more than I was. (It also made me feel like she already acts too spoiled, and this wasn't going to help.) Now whether or not this is true isn't the issue, the issue is that my heart broke when I saw those pictures of the cute puppy that I never got to have, and as much as I love my dad and the response I got back from him regarding my email, I seriously don't think I will ever completely get over that feeling.


Now, this is the eclectic part of Story Time that I mentioned...


2. I received an email from the Stage Manager of a very prominent show regarding my request to observe what goes on "behind the curtain" so to speak, in the theatre community. The response essentially said that I was welcome to pick some shows that I could attend, and we would go from there to pick one that fits in with the "rotations" (I'm only vaguely aware of what this term means, but hopefully that's one of the things observing will help me understand better). In other words, I now have a theatre to observe for my Ethnography project. This. Is. Awesome. End of story.


3. I had to write field site notes about the community that I chose for my Ethnography, my Professor edited it, leaving comments and such and her main concern was that she thought I spelt theatre wrong. No, I lived in a theatre for four years, it is actually one of the few words I know how to spell without expunging massive amounts of brain cells. Although apparently expunging is one of those words as well. Weird. Instead of telling her though, I decided to let it slide (I still got a perfect grade) and instead include why I end theatre with re in my final Ethnography.


4. I originally planed on going to bed three hours ago. Instead I spent a great deal of time looking up the costs of flights from New York to essentially everywhere, and then after a text from my dad I spent about an hour writing this over worded, ridiculously long shlop. Sorry dad, I know this probably wasn't what you had in mind when you mentioned my next blog update two and a half hours ago. Ya win some ya lose some.




Tomorrow I will actually edit this, I know I made a lot of stupid mistakes in my writing. I may also just update it a bit with another little story in hopes of childishly and ineffectively getting back at my parents.




Oh, also it should be noted that I am going to Reykjavík for Spring Break, just FYI.

Adulthood Wisdom #1

When you are an Adult, it is not ok to punch someone in the face, even if they are a meany pants.