So let’s do it!
I know some of you are thinking, what? Books?
Yep:
I mean think about it:
Where else can you go through time, space, and all over the world?
Nowhere except in a book.
So:
And go on an adventure!
For more book-filled posts, go to Dream Location, Dream Guy
For more Lloyd Alexander, go to Helping Hands
For more on Supernatural, go to Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads
For more of my favorite quotes, go to Cat Lovers All Know This
Tea is amazing
Think about it. China, some of the best inventors; The Brits, some of the best authors. It could be the reason.
Hmm
Well whether it is or isn’t don’t forget to take time out for it.
Tea first, then adventure.
Yep:
For more on Tea, go to Words to Live By
For more on Peter Pan, go to Now You’re Gone
For more book filled posts, go to A FANtastic Voyage
For more of my favorite quotes, go to Helping Hands
Romantic Moment #4
Up (2009)
In Up, young Carl Fredrickson is a huge fan of Charles F. Muntz. He goes to the theater to watch his reels over and over. There he meets Ellie, a fellow Muntz fan, who takes him to her secret hideout, an old house that is falling apart. The two end up growing up together, getting married, and restoring the old house. They move in there and hope to create a family, but unfortunately Ellie is infertile. Instead the two plan a huge trip to South America and begin saving up. Just as they have enough money, Ellie becomes sick and dies.
A few years later, Carl has become a crotchety old man. He gets into an argument with a construction worker over damage to his mailbox and Carl injures the man. The court orders him to a retirement home, but Carl refuses to go. Instead he blows up a gazillion helium balloons, turning his house into a hot air balloon.
After Carl has taken flight, he discovered a wilderness boy (i.e. boy scout), Russell, had been on the porch in hopes of getting his merit badge for assisting the elderly. When they reach South America their crew grows to include a tall flightless bird Russell names Kevin and a dog with a collar that enables it to speak English, Dug.
They run into a pack of dogs all with the same collar and discover that they were created and are owned by Charles F. Muntz. Muntz had discovered a new type of bird, but no one believed him, and after that left forever. When Muntz hears of Kevin, he thinks the two are trying to steal his discovery, going after Kevin with Carl and Russell having to save her. It is an extremely fun and adorable film.
****Most Romantic Moment****
The most romantic moment has to be the Carl and Ellie scenes. They don’t last very long but are extremely adorable. You see the ups and downs of married life and how strong their love is to work through disappointments, accidents, problems, etc.
Even when Ellie is dying she makes sure to leave Karl a note in her scrapbook in order to make sure he continues with his life.
Perfect!
I hope that if I ever get married I have something as special as they do.
Who needs riches or anything really if you have a love like this.
To start Romance is in the Air: Part III, go to I Can See Your Beauty: The Breakfast Club (1985)
For the previous post, go to A Tender Toll-Booth Token: While You Were Sleeping (1995)
For more on Disney, go to Right to Vote
This postcard did not lie. I had quite the adventure in San Francisco.
Now I have traveled to San Francisco numerous times and have loved it. I have had all kind of adventures from getting lost in San Francisco, going to historic sites, traveling to see The Godfather on the big screen, touring Alcatraz at night; but nothing compares to this last trip.
So it started out very tame. My friend and I had been enjoying Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday weekend. As the spring term had just started, we didn’t have much homework and decided to do a Lord of the Rings marathon. As we were watching Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, one of my friends, Alex, brought up the idea of shopping in San Francisco.
Alex wanted to go to Union Square and Elaine was eager to join him. I wasn’t sure as I had work later that day, but Elaine had work too, so both assured me we would be home in plenty of time.
Yeah right.
I was waffling, but then they dangled a trip to the de Young museum. Now to some that might sound really boring, but to me that was the deal breaker. They were having this exhibit on the Dutch Masters, and I am a huge fan. Johannes Vermeer, Jan Van Eyck, Jacob Van Rusidael, Rembrandt, William Kalf, Rachel Ruysch, etc. So that was it, I was in.
So the trip was on and I was excited!
So the next day went reasonably well. We started out to San Francisco talking about music, movies, philosophy, whatever. And we headed down to Union Square.
Now I am not completely adept at fashion. In most cases I know what looks good on me and always try to dress well. Or at least matching to what I expect the day to be like.
And after all Marc Jacobs says:
Well that’s all fine for Marc, but when you go into those high end shops in San Francisco, not only do I become aware of how little money I have, but also everything that is old or wrong with my outfit. You know missing buttons, scuff marks, frizzies on the sweaters, etc.
I actually didn’t feel as self-conscious this time. And it’s not because I was wearing some great outfit. Actually, most of the clothes I saw there were just ugly. To me the colors were wrong, designs, and even the accessories. The shoes were cute though.
So Alex didn’t find anything that he wanted, and Elaine and I did not have the money for anything even if we saw something we love. So we headed down to the museum.
As we start heading to the museum…that’s when it happened.
When the engine overheats.
Ahhh!
So we need to turn the car off and let the engine cool, and figure out what to do. Only one problem, we’re in San Francisco. That means…NO PARKING!!!!!!!!!!
Crap!
Yep we drove around and around and around and around trying to find a spot but where getting NOTHING!!!! Not only is there NO parking, but all the empty spots are now reserved for smart cars. It made us all so furious!!!!!!!!
We didn’t do that. We were able to finally find a place to park. The only problem now is that Alex didn’t know anything about his car.
He had just gotten it. While he started calling his father, Elaine called her father and started looking for the manuel.
It turned out that since Alex’s car was really fancy and expensive, he needed a special kind of coolant. So then began more calls as we had to figure out which store carried the coolant to put in the car. After we found a store we had to try to get to one and find parking.
Yep, this meant we spent another 20 mins trying to find a place to park.
Crap!
We finally founs a place near an O’Reilly’s and put in the coolant. Now, by this time it was too late to go anywhere else. Alex thought we had a chance of going to the museum and then heading back, but Elaine and I both agree to not risk it. So we said good-bye to San Francisco and started heading off toward home when…
Yep you guessed it, the adventure is not over yet.
As we start driving across the bridge the light comes on AGAIN!
AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We were so scared. Now for some of you who have never been on the Golden Gate Bridge, let me tell you that is a place you DO NOT want to get stuck on. I just started praying we would make it off before something happened.
Luckily we made it off the bridge and decided to stop at the nearby Vista Point to call a tow truck.
Now I’ve never been to Vista Point before, I wasn’t ever really aware of it before this time, but apparently it is a BIG tourist attraction as the place was packed chock full of people. We couldn’t find parking ANYWHERE!
I know, just not our day. Am I right?
So we drive around and around, hoping and praying for a parking spot. Along with hoping and praying that the car doesn’t break down while we are searching for it.
And it was kind of weird because I noticed a piano mover’s truck there. Why would a piano mover stop at Vista Point and stay there? They were there for quite some time. It was weird.
Weird
Anyways, so we finally manage to find a parking spot and Alex calls a tow truck. And we all begining calling people to try and find a ride into the city with the car and a ride home.
I’m thinking, this’ll be easy!
First I call work and let them know there is no way I’ll be able to make it in and then I immediately think to call my Aunt Ann and Uncle Jeff as they live in San Francisco, and I know they would help us out. Unfortunately no answer.
So then I call my cousin Celeste who also lives in San Francisco. No answer.
Then I call my cousin Erik, who doesn’t live in San Francisco, but was visting his mom, my Aunt Ann. No answer! By now I am getting pretty upset, and wondering why NO ONE is answering their phones. This was how I felt:
(I later found out that my Aunt and Uncle didn’t answer as they were not in San Francisco but in Napa visiting friends; my cousin Celeste was in Los Angeles visiting family; and my cousin Erik was heading back to school.)
Alex and Elaine were also having no luck reaching our friends. Our friend Aylin had gone home for the weekend, as did our friends Haley and Allie. Our friend Julie was in San Francisco visiting friends, but had gotten sick and couldn’t get us either. Alex called his roommate Roger, but Roger had lent his car to his girlfriend Cora.
So we were stuck and it sucked.
Elaine’s parents lived not too far away, although with traffic it was going to be like two hours, but they offered to pick us up if we couldn’t find anybody. We didn’t really want to have them drive all that way and back, so Alex decided to call a cab into the city as soon as the tow truck took the car.
So were stuck waiting at Vista Point.
Now usually I bring a book with me in my purse just in case of situations like these.
But this was the ONE time I didn’t and it could have really come in handy.
Instead we ended up making up stories about the people who were there visiting Vista Point, in order to pass the time. The best one was the one Elaine came up with, making one couple spies on some super secret mission involving my suspicious piano movers.
Eventually the tow truck came and picked up the car. As soon as it was gone, Alex called the cab company who said they could meet us in 15.
BUT…
There is always a but
We had to go on the other side of the bridge. Yep, we had to go down the creepy stairs under the bridge that looked like they were going to fall apart.
Noooooooooo!!!!!!!
Yes, and I’m not kidding. Underneath the bridge is uber creepy. It’s the kind of place that serial killers or rapists would hang out.
I actually wouldn’t be that surprised if I saw him there. Or him.
So we finally make it to the other side and are waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting, and waiting. 15 mins pass and no cab.
Grab your torches and sharpen your pitchforks!
Just kidding. But we are upset. It’s getting later and later, we are hungry and we want to get to the shop before it closes. Alex calls the cab company again, and they tell us the car is on the way.
Now the side of the bridge we were on was where bikers or cyclists as I should really say, hang out. There were large groups and a couple from Australia that were really cool. But…there were some really weird people.
Weird
So we had been waiting about 30 mins, when these two guys come up on their bikes. They had been drinking beer and biking. They saw me and Elaine and tried hitting on us, but they were pretty dumb.
Then they decide they need to pee and just whip their junk out in front of us.
I mean come on dudes. After that we had some other weirdos come, and we decided that the cab wasn’t coming (50 mins now). Alex called the tow company who told him he didn’t have to come today as his dad had already made arrangements. So we called Elaine’s parents and headed over to Vista Point as fast as we could.
So we went to Vista Point and started waiting. Shivering as it was getting colder. And then we discoverd that Vista Point didn’t have the best upkeep. Lights kept flickering.
It felt like we were in a horror film or something.
Finally Elaine’s parents get there, and we are all so happy we practically leap for joy!
We head on home, stopping for a bite along the way.
So that was my adventure in San Francisco, it wasn’t the first, and it will most definitely not be the last.
For more scenes from my everyday life, go to Five to Nine
For more on Marc Jacobs, go to Perfectly Imperfect
For more on Gilmore Girls, go to What a Fanatic!
So the other day I was reading the beginning of Northanger Abbey and I realized that Jane Austen is the queen of opening lines
Yep in all her novels she has some of the best opening lines that just pull you into her work and make you want to read on and find out what’s coming next. Check it out!
1) Sense and Sensibility
“The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance.”
Right away you pick up on a few key words, had and was.
“The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance.”
Immediately we know something dramatically changed this family’s fortune and it probably wasn’t a good thing. Now you’re sucked in and you have to find out what happens next? Why can’t they live there anymore? Who are the Dashwoods?
2) Pride and Prejudice
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in posession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
So I actually did a longer post on this, It is a Truth Universally Acknowledged…. But when you read these words, admit you are ready for the adventure of the book. In fact this hook is one that has continued to be entertaining for ages. I mean that saying never gets old, but constantly draws you in no matter how many times you have read it.
3) Mansfield Park
“About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income.”
Oooh who is this Maria Ward now Maria Bertram? Is she an upstanding lady and we should be happy at her fortune? Or she is a harlot and we hate that she used her charms to win Sir Bertram?
Either way you are intrigued and want to know more about her and her family.
4) Emma
“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”
So Emma seems like she is a blessed woman and everything is fine in her life. Or is it?
Sound suspicious
It sounds to me like there is a big ol’ but coming this way and that something going to happen to change her pristine life. What? I don’t know, but now I need to know.
5) Northanger Abbey
“No one who had ever seen Catherine Moreland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be a heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her.”
So here we have a girl that has nothing to make her life seem interesting. Pretty bland…but just those words no one “would have supposed her” means that she is going to beat all the odds and have a fantastic story! After all:
And we can’t wait to read about it!
6)Persuasion
Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who for his own amusement never took up any book but the Baronetage: there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed. This was the page at which the favorite volume always opened: — “ELLIOT OF KELLYNCH HALL. “Walter Elliot, born March 1, 1760, married, July 15, 1784, Elizabeth, daughter of James Stevenson, Esq. of South Park, in the county of Gloucester; by which lady (who died 1800) he has issue, Elizabeth, born June 1, 1785; Anne, born August 9, 1787; a still-born son, November 5, 1789; Mary, born November 20, 1791.”
Yes that paragraph is only two sentences.
I know, but the rest of the book isn’t like that. So I’m sure you’re first reaction was what an egotistical man.
Ugh men
But this pretty interesting opening. It’s the only Jane Austen book that doesn’t open about a woman or a family, but instead focuses on a man. Very different. And we see that he has three daughters, Elizabeth, Anne, and Mary. So that begs the question which girl is this book going to focus on? Or will it be about all three?
Hmm
You’ll just have to read them to find out the end
After all:
For more on Sense and Sensibility, go to A Bit Pottery About Jane Austen
For more on Pride and Prejudice, go to First Impressions
For more on Mansfield Park, go to Part IX: Adventures in Movie Lines
For more on Emma, go to It’s All Jane Austen’s Fault
For more on Northanger Abbey, go to Part VIII: The Little Movie Line List
For more on Persuasion, go to Part VI: It Was Said One Night
For more on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, go to You Can’t Have Just One
For more on Downton Abbey, go to That’s What You Get
For more on Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, go to Friday Night Fun
For more of my favorite quotes, go to A Little Bit of Love
For more book loving posts, go to You’re Doing It Wrong
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