:: in just-spring ::

it isn't really just-spring. we got snow sunday night -- about five inches of it. (in march, people!) spring has got to be, as frog and toad would put it, just around the corner.

I have read 'call of the wild' (poem, not book) about four times already this week. robert service is heartbreaking.

when will the snow go away? when will I see the sun again? I've got to go. I've got to go somewhere. it's been too long since I've been on a road trip or moved or done anything. I get this wanderlust every year, a cross between cabin fever and adolescent dreams of adventure, but it hurts more this year than ever before -- maybe because winter this year has lasted from about november until march, and I'm sick of the cold and the everlasting whiteness of everything.

oh my heart…

- - -

Let us probe the wild places, let us see what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling… let us go.

:: another warning - this is about 1d ::

"that's controversial!"

all good opinions are, sweetheart.

and this is one heck of a good opinion.

so I was listening to 'story of my life' for the, like, 6,000th time since october and something hit me, so utterly genius I had to share it. 

consider the first part of the chorus.

the story of my life
I take her home
I drive all night to keep her warm
and time is frozen

okay, what are their three albums? take me home. up all night. midnight memories. (so that's not in order. work with me, here.) let's see:

the story of their lives
they "take me home"
they're "up all night"
to keep her warm so that one doesn't quite fit but be a sport
and time is frozen (like, memories? get it?)

I think that's pretty cool.
that is pretty cool, right? I mean, I suppose it could be kind of... convoluted. like, I didn't totally squeeze meaning into it, did I? it sounded so good in my head!

:: warning! read with caution! ::

!! this sentence has been known to induce fainting in elegant females. !!

“you must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” 

- pride & prejudice, ch. 34
(jane austen) 

:: valentine hangover ::

today is sunny and clear but I feel like listening to sappy, anguished love songs. what better excuse than valentine's day?

…or, you know, the week after. besides, it's february, and nothing happens in february, I swear.

the sappy (or anguished) love songs I'm listening to*

- your wildest dreams (moody blues)
- crazy love (mindy gledhill)
- white flag (dido)
- why am I falling (ramin karimloo)
- collide (lee mead)
- promise the stars (we the kings)
- big blue wave (hey ocean)
- if my heart was a house (owl city)
- till kingdom come (coldplay)
- summer love (1d)
- you always make me smile (kyle andrews)
- love you lately (daniel powter)
- falling in love in a coffee shop (landon pigg)
- till we get there (keith jack)
- it might as well rain until september (carole king)
- through the dark (1d)
- if I were a ship (hey ocean)
- dreams (the cranberries)
- when I need you the most (lee mead)
- there never was a time (frank wildhorn/scarlet pimpernel)
- vanilla twilight (owl city)

*some are more sappy than others.

enjoy the aftereffects of february 14th (on which I myself did nothing special). why the hangover? just drunk on life, guys, just drunk on life.

:: it's friday, I'm in love ::

(perfect song for valentine's day 2014, no?)

ah, love quotes. love quotes are the greatest thing in the world, except for a nice MLT -- mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, when the mutton is lean and the tomato is ripe. they're so perky. I love that.

today, messieurs et mademoiselles, is a commercial holiday promoting spending money. we, however, are going to defy the culture and improve our minds (reading love quotes like these, from Good Books). 

I've posted before about the perfect proposal. today I'm focusing solely on my favorite love-related words; featuring people like winnie foster, john chivery, and george knightley. 

get ready. 

- - -

And then Ness came and put her thin brown hands on his shoulders and said, as though she knew what he was thinking, "Have you regretted it?"

   "Why should I regret it?" asked Aquila, and put his hands over hers.

(lantern bearers) 

"For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. Try to hold me in your mind, at some quiet times, as ardent and sincere in this one thing. The time will come, the time will not be long in coming, when new ties will be formed about you -- ties that will bind you yet more tenderly and strongly to the home you so adorn -- the dearest ties that will ever grace and gladden you. O Miss Manette, when the little picture of a happy father's face looks up in yours, when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!"

(a tale of two cities)

"It isn't possible to love and to part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal. … What nonsense I have talked -- how abstract and remote! And I have made you cry! Dear girl, forgive my prosiness; marry my boy. When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love -- Marry him; it is one of the moments for which the world was made."

(a room with a view)

"I can be miserable alone, I can be cut up by myself; why should I also make miserable, and cut up one, that I would fling myself off that parapet to give half a moment's joy to! Not that that's much to do, for I'd do it for a twopence."

(little dorrit)

He fell upon the seat, she by his side. There were no more words. The stars were beginning to shine. How was it that their lips met? How is it that the birds sing, that the snow melts, that the rose opens, that May blooms, that the dawn whitens behind the black trees on the shivering summit of the hills?

(les misérables)

The Tucks untangled themselves and turned to her. One by one, as the rain began, they drew her to them and kissed her. One by one she kissed them back. Was it rain on Mae's face? Or Tuck's? Or was it tears? Jesse was last. He put his arms around her and hugged her tight, and whispered the single word, "Remember!"

(tuck everlasting)

"I cannot make speeches, Emma," -- he soon resumed; and in a tone of such sincere, decided, intelligible tenderness as was tolerably convincing, -- "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. -- You hear nothing but truth me. -- I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it."

(emma)

My steadfast aim is now to follow in my mother's footsteps; to imitate her cheerfulness, her benevolence, her bright, inspiring ways; and never rest until in place of my selfish nature I become as full of Christ's love as she became. I am glad she is at last relieved from the knowledge of all my cares; and though I often and often yearn to throw myself into her arms and pour out my cares and trials into her sympathizing ears, I would not have her back for all the world. She has got away from all the turmoil and suffering of life; let her stay!

(stepping heavenward)

"I am very grateful to you. I feel that you make Cosette happy. If you knew, Monsieur Pontmercy, her beautiful rosy cheeks were my joy; when I saw her a little pale, I was sad. There is a 500-franc bill in the bureau. I have not touched it. It is for the poor. Cosette, do you see your little dress, there on the bed? do you recognize it? Yet it was only ten years ago. We have been very happy. My children, do not weep, I am not going very far, I shall see you from there. You will only have to look when it is night, you will see me smile."

(les misérables)

George: Emily, I'm going to do my best. I love you, Emily. I need you.

Emily: Well, if you love me, help me. All I want is someone to love me.

George: I will, Emily. Emily, I'll try.

Emily: And I mean for ever. Do you hear? For ever and ever.

(our town)

They were sitting side by side, leaning up against a rock, and he had rested his aching head on her shoulder. She certainly now deserved the name of "the happiest woman in Europe." 

   "It is a case of the blind leading the lame, sweetheart, is it not?" he said with his good-natured smile of old. "Odd's life! but I do not know which are the more sore -- my shoulders or your little feet." … And his arms, still vigorous in spite of fatigue and suffering, closed round Marguerite's poor, weary body, and lifted her as gently as if she had been a feather.

(the scarlet pimpernel)  

[and I would be remiss if I did not include something from The Ultimate Romance Manual.]

"You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever." 

   Elizabeth…gave him to understand, that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure, his present assurances. The happiness which this reply produced, was such as he had probably never felt before; and he expressed himself on this occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be expected to do.

(pride and prejudice)

- - -

oh -- wuv; twoo wuv. beautiful, isn't it? 

:: v-tines are for losers ::

let me 'splain.
too long. let me sum up.
ever seen that bumper sticker, "virginia is for lovers"? well, it is easily mis-seen and has thus become a family joke: "[insert here] is for losers lovers!" I really wasn't being a hater.

personally, I am not hugely into the 14th of february as a holiday. maybe because I don't have a better half? …maybe because I never have, and indifference is my revenge? (geez, I really am a hater.) my favorite celebration of it, ever, was making cookies in the afternoon and eating them at night while watching the twilight zone.

que romantico!

but I'm willing to get in the spirit of things, and as part of the festivities, I'm stuffing my face with chocolate doing a valentine's day link-up. this is so much fun, I'd suggest you go to jessica grayson's blog and do it, too.

so. without further ado, silly songs with *ahem*. moving on.

what book do I love that everyone else seems to hate?
a separate peace. it was an impressively narrated, heartbreaking story that revealed a lot of truth about the human heart. I loved it and I reread it and it makes me cry every time (that was one of the top three "hangover" books I've read in my lifetime. the other two are shining company and return of the king). but nobody else seems to appreciate it the way I do!

what book does everyone else love that I don't?
don quixote. not that everyone else seriously loves it, but why is it a classic? I probably have an uncultured mind, is all. oh well.

love in books -- love it or hate it?
done well, I love it. a quarter of the way through any jane austen (persuasion. be still, my beating heart) I'm practically begging for a couple. or dickens (our mutual friend! nicholas nickleby! bleak house!). there have been quite a few books I've read, though, that have handled romance so clumsily I've laughed at them in embarrassment -- pick any YA novel, seriously. gregor the overlander. the unwanteds. ("WHO…says…that?!")

favorite friendship, brother- or sisterhood 
1. justin and flavius or the mac clydno brothers
2. arthur (lord godalming), quincey morris, dr. seward, jonathan and mina harker
3. clive and ann
4. the penderwick sisters
5. pip and merry

I ship couples when I read. (and some of my favorites -- that sailed, or didn't.)
I actually still have a paper on which I progressively shipped while reading war & peace… I kind of totally called it. well, by the end. and what about andrei and sonya? ANDREI AND SONYA. do you feel me, here??? ann and major merrion in the merriweather chronicles. it didn't happen hasn't happened yet, but IT WILL. also drem and blai. charlie and rose. beatrice and benedict. cynan and niamh, for heaven's sake!

I still exchange valentines.
mainly with my family. this year I might branch out, because I'll be "celebrating" with friends this friday (haha, watching gregory peck and audrey hepburn and cary grant. what better way to celebrate loooooove?).

favorite valentine gift:
chocolate. ghirardelli 60% cacao.

personal views on valentine's day?
they were kind of laid out up there. I'm pretty 'whatever' about it. I don't really care about getting roses and candy -- well, no, candy's good -- as a way of showing love. hallmark cards are totally meh. I'd be a huge proponent if my love interest was into it, but as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather a day off to read :)

favorite sweet read?
hope was here. walk two moons. iron peacock.

favorite fairytale and why?
I love the one about the prince of denmark-turned-shepherd who gets the princess to love him by being kind to her. it's a roundabout way: first he tricks her into marrying him and then gives her tasks to do which she fails at (being a helpless princess), but he isn't upset with her -- she ends up saying she'd rather live in their hovel with him than be princess. except that he turns out to be prince, so she gets the best of both. I've loved it ever since I can remember.

favorite romantic gesture in a book?
when ness puts her hands on aquila's shoulders. I feel like crying every time. or sydney carton, putting the rag over charles darnay's face. I do cry every time. pat saying, "my lamb, what on earth is the matter?" and letting peggy cry on his shoulder and use his handkerchief ("not that handkerchief, you idiot! I've been using it to wipe down the windscreen. this one!"). of course, sheftu's public claim of mara's loyalty: "whatever bargain we make, daughter of the sun, must include her freedom." *fans self*

AND. after marguerite bites through the rope around sir percy's wrists, when he carries her back to the ship -- because her feet are so bruised and cut from following him so far.

favorite romantic movie?
princess bride and singin' in the rain are obviously going to rate pretty high, but I think my absolute favorite is roman holiday. which is ironic, considering the end, but their parting is such sweet sorrow that… oh, and now I'm quoting shakespeare. better stop.

my favorite literary couple
that's just mean. I can't stick to one answer when it's merely "favorite romantic gesture", are you kidding? probably, though, if my life depended on picking it… oh gosh. I'll just say one of my favorites, okay? jessica and lorenzo. they are adorable and hilarious. I want to marry a guy just like him when I grow up. x)

favorite opinion about love from a character
"I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If I ever get married, I'll certainly try to forget the fact."

favorite quote about love
actually, you'll just have to wait until the 14th for this one. ("one"? who am I kidding. you'll have to wait for those. plural.) but they'll be good, I promise.

have fun anticipating :)

:: now's when my life begins ::

this past week I finished all my application forms and portfolio stuff and turned in the entire package to the arts department at UofL. 

I'm done.

I'm all done.
!!!!!!!
I could go running, and racing, and dancing, and chasing, and leaping, and bounding, hair flying, heart pounding -- 

no more essays! no more evaluating and naming artwork! no more scanning, re-scans, re-dos, recommendation letters, frustrations, or uncertainty! I mean, I'm still not certain I'll be accepted, but there's no heck of a way I can do anything about it now, so I might as well relax and enjoy it.  

you know, it's very strange. I have been in the studio-art-application business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.

actually, I was at the library yesterday. grass doesn't grow under my feet.

see you in the promised land. arrivederci, baby!