The Hero Sings In This Scene//Day 5

Today is my sister's birthday, and it is still very bizarre. I have gorged myself on pizza, chips, breadsticks, and pasta, with cake to come later, so I'm sure I will gain like 40 lbs today. Trying to keep her and her friends from tearing up the house because they are insane, so no real post today. Something more lengthy (and book-related!) tomorrow- I promise! ((My internet died, but thank goodness Blogger had already saved this really newsworthy post already!))

Actually, in real book news, today I received two new books- The Perks of Being a Wallflower and It's Kind of a Funny Story. I am on a huge YA kick now, and I tend to really lean toward the angsty things anyway...because as much as I may want to think my teen years were like that, they totally weren't. Rereading all of the slambooks I had with Wendy made me see that while there were a few crazier events, high school life was fairly normal. We were all excessively dramatic, and many of us still are, but after being so far removed from that situation, I can clearly see how ridiculous some of the things we worried about were. When you are 23 and have virtually no money to your name yet still have to pay off your credit cards, have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, are hoping you will get into a grad program, and searching for some sort of job in a market that is only getting bleaker (despite what experts might be saying...those idiots clearly already have jobs and don't care about those of us that have to fight for a shitty paying minimum wage job against hundreds of other applicants)...then you realize you have problems. And I know that my problems right now aren't even that bad, compared to much more terrible things. Back then, I worried about saying the wrong thing to a friend and us hatingeachotherforevernadohmygodwhatwillido, when, honestly, the friends I have now, most of us have been friends for many years. Years of us having awesome times, years of us getting into fights and not speaking to each other, years of us making up and being ok.

Because that is life. And for as much as they might be "YA" the protagonists are often dealing with some very adult issues. Sometimes I might get angry with them for a choice they make, but it always makes me wonder what I would do in that some position. Which is why I think more people need to actually READ some YA novels before pushing them away as childish or silly...

*Post title from Mayday Parade's "Black Cat"


Day 5
Again, I am cheating on the "places I have visited" picture...and am including a few of my favorite travels! And, in order, the locations are: St Thomas (Koki Beach), Bahamas (Atlantis Resort), St Maarten, Ohio (Downtown Columbus), and Texas (Kemah Boardwalk, near Houston)