netflix summaries.

i was feeling nostalgic today, so i started watching the beginning of that confusing but cleverly written show: LOST.

Al comes in halfway through my re-watching of the pilot, part 1.

"i love this show! i want to watch too!" she says and plops herself down on the couch beside me.

the beginning scenes of that show are so emotionally raw (Jack waking up all alone in the jungle and then wandering out onto the beach, finding the huge chunks of plane and wreckage and stumbling to one wounded passenger after another, trying his best to fix them all), that i could literally feel my breath catching in my throat.

how could i have forgotten how completely wonderful this show is?

i tell Al that we actually watched the second episode of the series in one of my film classes (i believe it was my screenplay writing class...) and discussed the merits of the show, of which there were many. my professor had nothing but deliriously good things to say about it, and that's back when it was still on the air. he always got a little quiet when he talked about Lost, mentioning that he felt the show was responsible for a great shift in the quality of network television. and i agree--it's one of those shows that is just fantastically made.

anyway, me and Al watch to the end of the second episode (the one where Charlie dramatically pauses to ask, "Guys, where ARE we?" before the trademark single beat and LOST shows up on the screen). the netflix menu comes back up, and we read the summary for the show:

"After their plane crashes on a deserted island, a diverse group of people must adapt to their new home and contend with the island's enigmatic forces."

Al and i agree that in no way does this summary fully capture the essence of the show.

so i offer my own summary:

"Plane crashes. Awesomeness ensues."

if that wouldn't get a reluctant viewer to try this show out, i don't know what would.

friday friday friday.

(btw, that song has officially been banned from my classroom. it is both catchy, and an abomination, and as such, i can have it nowhere near me.)

so, today was a crappy day.

things went pretty well. and then lunch came and went. after lunch on a friday? well, let's just say that the natives get pretty restless on a friday afternoon. and by "natives," i mean 7th and 8th graders.

second to last period, i had to spend 10 minutes lecturing my 8th graders on treating each other with respect. and as i was lecturing, aiming my words at a specific two students who'd just finished pushing each others' belongings off their desks, another student decides to trip one of his classmates. i kind of lost it at that point.

last period, i recited some words of wisdom from The Office. i was explaining to the class that sometimes, we need to think before we act. and then it hit me! you know who has said this better than i will ever be able to say it?

answer: Dwight Schrute.

now, before i imparted the following nugget of wisdom, i prefaced myself by saying, "just so we're clear, i am not calling any of you an idiot. i just think this will clearly explain what i am trying to say to you. Dwight Schrute once said:

'Before I do anything I ask myself “Would an idiot do that?”
And if the answer is yes, I do not do that thing.'

i think these are words we should all live by in this class."

i thought i'd be able to leave it at that. the class was actually much better than they normally are last period on a warm, friday afternoon, and things were going well.

about ten minutes before class ended, i looked over at one of the tables, and noticed two boys with their hands covering their noses and mouths, making fake fart sounds.

so i said, "stop! what did we talk about earlier, guys?"

i saw the wheels turning in their heads. and then i saw the glimmer of recognition as they remembered Dwight's brilliant words and slowly attempted to apply them to their own lives. they both lowered their hands, and i suggested to the class that perhaps i should find a way to inscribe the words on my wall...to remind us all that we should think before making *cough! (idiotic) poor behavioral choices.

the two boys' classmates agreed wholeheartedly.

Top 20 Dwight Schrute Quotes

LATER.

happy hour.

having a good time, drinking some happy hour specials. finally, it's time to go. i'm about to head straight home, but i decide there's someplace special i want to go first.

that's right, ladies and gentlemen.

i went to HALF PRICE BOOKS.

i wandered around for a bit, picked out WAY more books than i should have, and purchased all of them without considering the consequences at all. in fact, all i could think as i hauled my stack of books out of the store and into my car was, "so many books for so little money! amazing!"

on my way home, i decided that maybe it's not such a good idea to go half-price book shopping when i have alcohol flowing through my veins. i seriously don't need more books. i've got so many, they're currently taking over my bedroom. i fear that soon there will be no place for me to sleep. i will have to make a bed from yellowing paperbacks.

anyway, i get home, push open the door and make my way inside where i find my sister on the couch watching Gossip Girl.

i clear my throat. "i have been drinking," i announce to her as she pauses her show. "also, i have made some bad decisions today."

she took one look at the stack of books in my hand and cocked an eyebrow at me. "half-price books, huh?"

"yep."

"more Buffy the Vampire Slayer books?"

"yep."

here's the thing: if buying cheesy paperbacks based on a campy 90s television show is the worst decision i've made all week, i think i will take my bad decisions and run with them.

my friend B-Rock shops online when drunk. apparently, i book shop.

i could get used to this.

the eleventh plague.

so, i am happy to say that i am totally on a roll with reading this year!

last year, i set a goodreads goal of 50 books (i set it halfway through the year, but it was still a goal!), and didn't even make it close.

but this is the year! this year of 2012 is MY YEAR!

not only am i going to the gym on a regular basis and eating healthier, but i am GOING to reach my goal of 50 BOOKS this year.

the most recent one i finished (and #4 book of the year) is a dystopian/science-fiction novel:

The Eleventh Plague
by Jeff Hirscsh

you can read more about the book at the official website HERE.

it's a pretty good read. it's in the same vein as some other young adult books i've been reading lately (e.g. The Hunger Games trilogy and Divergent), and i thought it was pretty decent. what made it such a great book is that it's scarily realistic. unlike some other science fiction books i've read, this one takes what we are right now, and follows it down the path we're creating for ourselves. it's not a pretty picture.

but this is one of the reasons i love science fiction, which is a pretty recent love, i have to admit. i avoided it for so long because i always felt there was some sort of stigma attached to it.

but you know what? i'm a nerd. and i embrace it wholeheartedly.

"Tonight I can write the saddest lines" by Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example,'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her void. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

"If You Forget Me" by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine

why we broke up.

H at work gave me the following book:

Why We Broke Up
by Daniel Handler
art by Maira Kalman

i finished reading it this afternoon during my lunch break. and let me just say...THIS IS THE BOOK I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO WRITE, BUT DIDN'T KNOW HOW. it's incredible how close to home it hits. it's about this high school girl's first love...and it's clear from the beginning that the relationship is doomed. but you feel for the girl, or at least i did, because you know how it is.

i told H this afternoon, after i'd finished reading it, that this book is like the last 6 years of my life, rolled into 345 pages and a shorter time frame (less than 2 months).

this blog is a project devoted to the book, where readers can write their own "why we broke up" stories:

whywebrokeupproject.

here is mine.

we broke up because
i realized we weren't forever,
and no amount of wishing or trying
would make it so.