Books and many more...

So, yesterday while I was bored I decided to make a list of all the books I want to read. Well, of course, there is the Twilight Saga and I have decided to read all of them thanks to Marissa. First, I want to read Twilight, In the Shadow of the Ark, finish To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, and this book in my language. I can't really translate it and pronounce it so I will let you know after I have completed reading it. 

Okay, so unto other people's lists of things to do. Today I decided to go to the mall to see what Black Friday was all about. There is this saying that my grandmother uses when she wants to say how busy a place is. She says that it's so busy when you dropped a nickel, it didn't reach the ground. Well, actually she says "when you dropped a needle". Get it? In other words, the amount of people there did not allow the needle to safely hit the ground even though it's really small. Dumbfounded, I dragged my grandfather and mother into going shopping with me to see what was on sale. So, it all began when we were looking for a parking space. Again it was so crowded  and there was no parking place to be found. We spent exactly half an hour trying to exit through the nearest exit but there were so many many cars ahead of us. It was impossible so my mother started to complain and we began to argue. So, there was this guy in a convertible ahead of us. He said something not fit so say but I will use symbols instead of the words but you know what I mean. "You crazy people. What the @#$& are you looking for? You are shopping for nothing. No @#$%! reason at all." I don't know if he was frustrated or something but I kind of understood what you was trying to say other than the swear words. He was trying to say that people are shopping for the wrong reasons and not really thinking about anything worthwhile. I mean I am not saying that it's bad to buy paraphernalia for you loved ones but it's also important to donate a few dollars for those who are less fortunate. There are a lot of frustrated people during the holidays that are not afraid to speak their minds. Literally!!! 

Alone on Thanksgiving

Anybody who knows me knows the fact that I love Los Angeles. All my friends and family members live there. It's not a good place to live, in my opinion, but having fun with friends and family is like the cherry on top of an ice cream. I love my family members and I was hoping to spend Thanksgiving day with them. However, on such short notice I realized on Tuesday that my mother would be working this week. So, she told me that I could go ahead and go but there was this really sad tone to her voice. I decided to ignore the tone even though my heart was racing and I was noncommittal about visiting LA. Just yesterday, I woke up around 6:00 a.m. deciding whether to go to LA or not. We had decided that my aunt would pick me up at 12:00 so we could begin our 4-hour road trip earlier. I had my suitcase packed and took a long look at it until a voice in my head said "don't go". You couldn't believe how much I had waited for Thanksgiving to approach in order to visit my relatives but the sympathy that I shared for my mother was really strong. My mother urged me to go but I just really didn't want to leave her alone on Thanksgiving. So, I bid my aunt and grandmother good-bye and headed off to school. Giving up this perfect opportunity to spend some time with my dear family members did not bother me all that much until this morning. I woke up realizing that I would be alone for Thanksgiving. Just my mother and my grandfather and started to feel really depressed. However, so far it's actually going great. So, alone on Thanksgiving should not develop into a negative connotation because it's not so bad....

Holidays

Holidays are a great time to be with families and spending time with your loved ones. However the holidays are also a great time for those who are struggling and need assistance. These days and especially these days when Thanksgiving is approaching, I see many people who are raising money to help homeless children or those who don't have families and need comfort. I am so glad that people in our society are stepping up to help people in this time of need and just helping out no matter what the circumstances are. A few days ago, I was walking down a street when I saw this little girl carrying a box that said "Please donate money for kids like me and many more." You know, tears just welded up in my eyes and I had no idea what came over me. My mom and I opened our wallets and donated money. The way the girl approached me and the way this big smile came over her face was such an incredible moment. I mean she couldn't have been older than 5 or 6 years of age but managed to help out. As I was walking, I began to think about what Atticus once said. No matter how cruel, greedy, and bitter a person may be, there is still some goodness waiting to jump out of them. This little girl was such an amazing and helpful child who could melt a person's heart. She reminded me of Scout and how she walked up to the mob when they were attacking Atticus. Scout had a responsibility to help her father and this little girl had a responsibility to help children like her. It was a very touching moment. 

Laughing babies!

Okay, so I finally managed to post a video on my blog. It was easier than I thought. So, I got this video off of youtube (obviously) and it's about these six babies that are laughing in unison. It's really funny! Their father is trying to make them laugh and their laughs are so cute. Enjoy!
(It kind of gets freaky at the end)

Deja Vu; What is it?

Have you ever felt like an event in your life has taken place before? You don't know how or why you feel this way but there is this voice that says "it has happened". It's this surge of feelings that overwhelm you when you feel like a deja vu is taking place. The term deja vu, if you look it up in a dictionary, means "a feeling of having already experienced the present situation." It's funny how you try to recreate a scene that has taken place in your life but it doesn't seem to work. Deja Vu takes place in your life when you don't eve know it. Today, my mother was driving me to the library and we began to talk about school, college, and stuff. As I looked through the window, a man carrying a suitcase caught my attention the moment my mother was talking. All of a sudden I felt a feeling of deja vu. It was very interesting how my mother's words, "it's very difficult for you" and the man with the suitcase seemed so so so so familiar to me. Maybe in my "past life" I have gone through this situation and that's why I remember. This leads me to my second definition of deja vu. Some people say that deja vu takes place in your life because of rebirth. In your past life, you must have experienced a familiar state and this is why a sudden surge of feelings come over you. You feel emotional at that instant moment because you can remember the very moment in your past life again in this life. It's very interesting and I will find some more information about deja vu to write in my next blog.

To Kill a Mockingbird

So, this is not my first time reading To Kill a Mockingbird and let me tell you that the second time is better than the first. There were so many minor details that I did not understand in certain chapters that left me confused at the end of the story. Talking about it in class and discussing certain texts helped me connect the different situations that took place in the story. From this chapter on it gets so exciting, I can hardly keep it in; you know the ending of the story and all. I am not going to give anything away but know that Mr. Ewell is going to come back again. This time for a nasty revenge! I absolutely love this book because there are so many messages worth learning about. I always thought that Mr. "Boo" Radley was this mysterious fellow who hated to come out of his house. Living in a neighborhood were everybody knew everything taking place in your life can be annoying. I have lived in a little town for 3 years where everybody walked through open doors without knocking and interfered in your lives. You know, I felt sympathetic for Mr. Radley until Jem uttered something very interesting at the end of Chapter 23. "Scout, I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time... it's because he wants to stay inside." Duh, of course that's obvious but there is another reason I came up with. I think it's because he is ashamed of the world; he's ashamed to listen to all this ridicule and segregation taking place around him. He just wants to create a barricade where no body can be heard or felt threatened. Boo is in his own world; a world of joy, equality, and love. A world we are all searching for! Scout and Jem were feeling sorry for him but now they understand the bravery and courage inside his heart. He is locking himself up as to not let words betray him or allow the words coming from his mouth to betray others. He is a very smart man in my opinion.

Old friends!!!

This blog is dedicated to all those who have had best best best friends but were forced to break up because of change. What I mean by the word change is that you either had to move or saw a side to your friends that you have never seen before. I experienced both of these issues in my life. Many of them involved me crying, screaming, or laughing because I would be reacquainted with them again very soon. 

Today while I was walking, I noticed one of my best best best friends from a long time ago. We were very close to each other and were practically sisters because our mothers were like peas in a pod when they were little. So, anyways a few years ago we had a nasty fight and were forced to break up. We were in middle school and she did something very terrible. Not only did she lie to my face, embarrass me in front of the whole school, and also pushed me. This last one wouldn't have hurt me as much if I hadn't fallen and scraped both my knees and elbows. Today, I saw her again! 

What stabbed my heart was that she smiles towards my direction and I vacuously walked up to her. She had a posse around her and I did not care whether or not I would be ashamed in front of her "cool" friends. My heart was practically in my mouth. I mean this was the same girl who made eighth grade the worst year of my life and I was the one who was approaching her. I did not know what I was thinking. So, she looks at me and then all of a sudden turns around and walks the opposite direction. There I was, humiliated, embarrassed, disappointed, betrayed, hurt once again. All the memories and pain came back to me and I started to cry; tears that would not stop. Right then and there all of my pain from this week and many more all came back. I started to cry nonstop and felt like I would throw up. However, I am glad that I approached her and understood what kind of a friend she was deep down. All these years I regretted breaking up with her because of stupid reasons and now I really understood. It wasn't because of stupid reasons, it was because I couldn't believe such a friend or sister would ever treat me this way. I was blinded by the truth but today my tears made it possible to see again.

I mean I am not disappointed or anything but all I want to say is that friends come and go. Just like Friends and Seinfeld, they all had to break up some day soon when the show had its last season. That's how life is! Maybe my friend and I had our "last season".