16 January, 2012
New
I need to be inspired again.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me and all the good things that have come from this blog.
http://www.her-glorious-curls.blogspot.com
03 August, 2011
Friends With Benefits
Starting with the beginning, with surprise appearances from Andy Samberg (whom I love) and Emma Stone (with whom I was very pleasantly surprised), I was laughing more than I have at a movie I have seen in theatres in a very, very long time. The whole movie ended up exceeding my expectations, from the acting to the storyline and even to the music choices. I am and have always been a Justin Timberlake fan (ever since his N'SYNC days!) so I had high hopes for him, that he undoubtedly lived up to. I usually find Mila Kunis annoying and too girly, but she showed a different side of her that was more real and easier for me to relate to.
As for the story, I was never squirming out of discomfort at the cheesy lines or awkward cliches. I laughed at every single one of the jokes, which was basically every time Justin opened his mouth. I even almost shed a tear (which means nothing, really, since I cry at almost anything) at the reality of Justin's character's father's Alzheimer's (which might also be because they played I Will Follow You Into the Dark, which is one of my all time favorite songs because it's so beautiful, and fit beautifully into the scene.)
Basically, to be cliche, I laughed, I cried, and I walked out of the theatre wishing I could sit down and watch it again right that second. I haven't been this impressed with a recent movie in a very long time!
01 August, 2011
Summer
As I've been brainstorming about my college essay, I've discovered that my creative writing juices have been clogged by an increased intake in pictures. As much as I love to look at pretty pictures, and as inspiring as they can be, it seems I've gotten into a lazy funk, scrolling through pictures rather than words because it's just, simply, easier.
I've decided, though, to vow to write more. I love staying up late on a random night, letting my fingers graze the keyboard, spilling out stupid stories and underdeveloped characters. I can spend hours scrolling through pictures that I will never remember, pressing one simple button to put them on my blog, and as convenient that is, I feel as if I am becoming increasingly lazy, finding it easier to reblog someone else's post rather than post something myself. I've started to find my own pictures from Flickr pages I've discovered myself, but even that has become somewhat routine.
In short, I've found myself in simple routine that, from the outside, seems creative and educational, due to the photographers, websites, and cultures I have learned about through constantly reblogging, but it is time I spend less time being inspired from hundreds of other people, and start inspiring myself. Of course, I might never stop using tumblr, because the website makes it so easy to learn about things that I find most interesting, but I need to devote more time to my own blog, where I can search for myself, and write, and ponder, and comment on life rather than just look at it for a second or two and never really go beyond the surface.
This is the last year that I will be living in my house, seeing all of my friends every single day, knowing every single person in my class and my school, and have comfort in knowing that people know who I am. I need to start reaching out and relying more on myself rather than other people and things, because I'm leaving for college soon and I have no other choice but to grow up.
18 May, 2011
Transformation
Yes I do remember, actually. I do remember when I was friends with her. I remember when I met her on the morning bus on the first day of school. I remember when I introduced myself to her and her sister, and we sat together for the rest of the year. I remember when we discovered that we had the same lunch period, and I invited her to sit with us, ignoring the objection from you and the others. I remember when we walked over to the table and I told her she could sit with us even though everyone else publicly objected. I remember when I sat down with her and everyone got up and left. I remember being alienated from my lunch table because I wanted her to sit with us. I could see the judgment in your eyes. She dresses differently. She obviously doesn't have as much money as us. She's not as good as us. I remember going to her house to get ready for the Christmas dance: doing our hair and makeup, and eating dinner with her parents. I remember having fun with her. I also remember growing apart. I remember myself avoiding her, slowly, throughout the year and the next one because I was self conscious. Regrets.
But, yes, I remember when I was friends with her. I don't remember when you were, though, sorry.
It's sad to say that although your tendencies are shown less, you have not changed at all.
23 April, 2011
Prompt
Oliver walked briskly through the crowd, until he reached the sidewalk. Once out of the chaos, he was able to catch his breath and slow his pace. He adjusted the straps of his backpack and patted his pockets, obsessively making sure his wallet was still in its place. Ever since he lost his last wallet last week, which contained his food money and ID cards, he had been extra careful about keeping this one in his sight at all times.
As he turned the corner and moved further and further away from the crowd, his pace became slower and slower, and his posture became more relaxed. He walked until the sky turned from a bright blue to a light purple. When he reached the view of the lake, he stopped moving for a moment, took in a large breath of fresh air, and walked around to sit on a park bench facing the picturesque scenery. He pulled his backpack around onto his lap, pulled out his iPod, and set music to the landscape, watching as the waves and the trees seemed to dance to his music.
Natalie ran through the park, laughing loudly. Her hair was flying behind her, pushed back by the wind. She looked back towards the forest and noticed that no one was following her, but she could hear their laughter. She looked around quickly and saw a park bench facing the lake. She turned around again quickly just in time to see her friends coming out of the woods. She quickly turned around and jetted behind the park bench, looking for safety. She didn’t notice until then that the bench was occupied. The boy there looked startled as her briskness and laughter awoke him.
He shot her a confused look as she crouched by his legs. She put her finger to her lips, hoping to keep him quiet. He looked at her again and turned around just as three other girls sprinted by the bench, laughing. As they passed the bench, the girl let out a huge sigh and sat on the bench next to the boy.
“Thanks,” she said, gratefully.
He didn’t reply. He was too tired and lax to process what was occurring. Natalie stood up and sat on the bench next to the boy. He hadn’t put back in his headphones, and she wasn’t sure if he was going to talk to her or not. For what felt like an eternity, she sat on the opposite side of the bench, looking across to the lake.
Oliver sat in silence for a moment, formulating words in his head.
“So, uh, what were you doing?” he asked the girl after a few seconds.
She laughed at him without taking her eyes off of the scenery in front of her. “I’m a member of this group where we play extreme games. They’re basically just games we all played when we were kids, but we play without boundaries. This week it has been extreme tag!”
He honestly didn’t know how to reply. He had never heard of anything so ridiculous, but spontaneous in his life. “That sounds… interesting.”
“Oh, it is! One week we did extreme hide-and-seek, and I think my favorite so far has been extreme Ping-Pong.”
He could help but chuckle. “Extreme Ping-Pong?”
She laughed with him. “It’s great! It just like regular Ping-Pong except you’re allowed to hit it off the floor and walls and stuff. It’s actually quite a work out!”
Oliver just laughed. When he looked over at her, she was still looking ahead at the lake, giggling to herself.
“I’m Oliver, by the way,” he said.
She turned her head and her eyes met his. “Hello Oliver, I’m Natalie.” She stuck out her hand, and he took it in his, shaking it.
I don't know if this is finished. Or if I will ever finish it. But it was inspired by this, so here you go :)
p.s. I copied this from a Word document and it won't let me fix the formatting so it doesn't look very attractive...
06 April, 2011
PROM PROM PROM
Anyway, rather than expressing my extreme excitement (which I can't even put into words, hence the poor explanation) I will dedicate this post to my SHOES.
Now, I am not usually a "shoe" girl (I have three pairs of shoes I wear every single day, and two of them are sneakers). At first, I wanted to go with a simple, nude pump to tone down my cobalt blue dress. I searched at TJ Maxx finding heels too high or sizes too big, before I came across what I thought were the perfect shoes at none other than my favorite store of all time: Target. I bought them for about 20 bucks, and they looked so perfect with my dress.
The second I put them on, though, my mom started telling me I needed to add "bling" to them to dress them up a bit. I kept telling her that my dress was so bright, I needed the shoes to tone them down a bit, but she eventually convinced me that I needed to add more to them.
After searching for inspiration here, I set out on an adventure to Joann's to search for ribbon and other pretty things. As I walked down the aisles, I came across a shelf with "headband accessories." My sight immediately went to the stack of peacock feathers. I showed them to my dad, laughing, remembering the twenties headband I tried on at the dress shop. I walked around aimlessly, leaving the feathers behind, searching for goodies. After a while, with nothing in my hand but blue ribbon, I came back to the feathers. I started to look closer at them and think of ideas. My dad and I agreed that the little blue in the feathers would match my dress perfectly, and after a quick call to my mom for advice, I was on my way home with two peacock feathered "headband accessories."
After some trial and error, I attached the accessory to my shoes and I fell in love.
Before:

AFTER!



p.s. sorry for the awkward/poor quality photos. my camera is broken so I have to use photobooth... haha
04 April, 2011
I am sick of you. I am done dealing with you. I am sick of you complaining when others make a suggestion. I am sick of you blaming other people for something they didn't do. I'm sick of you expecting people to give you the work they worked hard on so that you can copy it. I'm sick of you thinking that you are the sun. You are not the sun; you are not even a star. You are an asteroid, creating craters in relationships and contentedness.
03 April, 2011
Friends Forever
Seeing them made me miss you. I miss talking to you everyday and going to church with you after volleyball. I miss us being able to read each other's minds. I miss talking to you about anything and everything and going to your house for a sleepover or downtown to eat crepes. I miss you.
I want us to be the little old ladies who go to church together with smiles on our faces and twinkles in our eyes.
23 March, 2011
I hate that I'm so sad all the time.
18 March, 2011
11 February, 2011
29 January, 2011
NEW LAPTOP!
Hello!
I FINALLY bought a NEW laptop that actually has WiFi and actually loads faster than a turtle and clicks where and when I want it to. I haven't been the best blogger lately because I have been going through the hell that is midterm week, but the week is over, and I have lots to share. So, now that I have better access to the internet and far more time, I will be able to write a lot more often!
So, some topics that you should expect to hear about it the near future:
- PROM!
- Glamour Gals
- School/College venting
- Jewelry parties
- SKINS! (and Greek)
etc, etc, in addition to many random posts to help me through my day.
Here is a loverly photo of moi from photobooth on my brand spankin' new MAC!
loveeeee,H :)
04 January, 2011
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Before watching an old movie over the summer, I saw a preview for this book-turned-movie. I remember my mother and grandmother reading it and found it sitting on the bookshelf at my camp. I asked for my grandmother's permission and borrowed it from our camp, bringing it home and leaving it sitting on a table in my room for a few months. After a few months passed and I finished reading the current book for English class, I was looking for a good book and re-stumbled upon this. I picked it up and immediately couldn't put it down. I found myself taking this book out of my backpack during the school day, and staying up later than I should have, not being able to pull myself away. The setting immediately intrigued me, as I am one to search for knowledge of other cultures. What I did not expect, though, was how much I could relate to the characters. Although the tragedy of the story is more horrific than anything I could ever live through, the feelings of guilt, sorrow, and Amir's ability to eventually absolve his heavy self-inflicted burdens reminded me of my past and inspired me for my future.
I immediately became attached to every single one of the characters. Most books I have read have an easily lovable character and an easily hateable one, though as I learned about the regretful pasts of many of the characters, I could not help but to love them even more.
The growth and actions of the characters really made me think about my own life and how I've been living. I don't want to give away the ending, so I will keep it vague, but it truly inspired me. The way Amir acted at the end of the story, though he lived his whole life with the guilt of many important parts of his and his father's life, he acted with courage and ultimate strength.
When I make decisions now, and sometimes even randomly during the day, I think of this book and of Amir, Hassan, and Baba. It makes me think of how much your decisions can affect another person's entire life and how much courage counts. Courage, strength, and redemption: three very important things in life that this book taught me to always think about. Courage, for being able to strive for what you want; strength, to be able to persevere; and redemption, knowing that as long as you have the courage and strength to strive and persevere, you will be forgiven, in some way, shape, or form.
26 December, 2010
Hello Again
I hope everyone's holiday was fantastic! I had a great day. I woke up at about 8:30, finished knitting my sister's scarf, wrapped it and went downstairs.
After waking up my father, my sister and I went downstairs to open our stockings and presents. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of gifts I received, due to the fact that I told my parents I truly did not want anything (I've been saving up for a Mac Book.)
In all, we finished opening our presents and drove down to my grandparent's house. We hung out, ate snacks, read an article on my great-grandfather's grocery store, and ate a delicious dinner. I know it sounds cliche, but I really love this time of year solely because I get to see my family. We have Christmas parties at my mother's dad and stepmother's house and her mother and stepfather's house. Christmas day, we open presents, eat a delicious egg dish, and then visit my dad's parents. It is wonderful.
After the joy of Christmas, I can only count down the hours until New Year's (my favorite holiday) because all of my cousin's from my dad's side come up to my grandparent's house. We all shop, lunch, dine, catch up on all that we've missed from each other (since we only see each other during this time and maybe once over the summer.) It is a wonderful, happy time and I never ever want it to end
A few weeks ago, I learned, from an article in the New York Times, of a website designed for young writers. I immediately typed www.figment.com into my browser and signed up.
Posting in the forums and reading the stories has given me back my inspiration and motivation to write. It was two years ago this vacation that I started my first novel, and have since finished the story line, but have yet to edit and improve it. I still haven't even looked at it since this vacation started, but have started two other stories since starting my membership.
I have published on my page a short story I wrote, and a few poems that I had originally posted on here a year or so ago, but other than the short story, I have not published anything of much significance. I hope that by the end of this vacation I will have let myself publish on the internet something that I have let no other eyes read before. Because, after all, this is the year of taking chances. I have gone out of my comfort zone many times already since starting school, and I can't keep myself back now!
I love how it starts off slow, and then does the same song again, but more faster. Plus, the lyrics are amazing.
I think I'm just really into the slower songs right now...
Tragic but adorable.
Shun me for listening to Disney music, but I'm actually in love with this song...
I could honestly listen to this song over and over again. It's like an acid trip for your ears.
I will always love The Kooks.
I usually don't listen to rap, but...
1. I love the slow tempo of this.
2. As much as I dislike Kanye, his rap makes me smile everytime I hear this song
3. Cudi is so precious in this video.
This song semi inspired my story line. Plus, every favorites playlist I have has atleast one song by The Kooks.
I hope your holidays are festive fantastic!
-H
16 December, 2010
Renaissance
In addition, I have recently noticed that my entire Bloglovin' feed consists of pictures. My thoughts were further proven when I decided to download Picasa and realized that I have over 13,000 pictures saved onto my laptop. Not only is that awful for my harddrive, but my obsession with pictures and neglect of words caused my blog to become a screen, rather than a person. With my increase in reading blogs with simply pictures, my own blog morphed into the thousands of others that just reblog every new outfit trend and editorial. I forgot about my personality.
The way I've been treating my blog can also be paralleled to my current state of living. As I've gotten older, I've had a lot more responsibilities. Since getting my first job in April, my childhood has been quickly swirling down the drain. With my entrance into my junior year of high school, I have seemed to lose sense of who I actually am. Granted, many amazing things that I will hold with me for the rest of my life will stay with me, but I have seemed to lose those good things in all the stress of my life. All the pressure.
I started this blog to vent about my life and to share my thoughts. As my responsibilities grew, my creativity shrank. As the school work was piled on, my stories became pushed to the side. I always feel like I have to do things to please other people: my teachers, my coach, my parents, my friends, and I lose myself.
As I looked through my posts from the year, I noticed the loss of myself. The posts became shorter with less words, and my personality dwindled. There was no substance, nothing to separate me from the rest. I was just there, barely hanging on, with nothing to hold me back from falling over the edge.
That is why I believe I need to have a blog Renaissance. I will not create a new blog to start over, because I don't want to start over. I want to grow. I want to remember how I used to be, how the words rolled out of my brain into my fingers and onto a keyboard or a sheet of paper. I want to change, but I don't want to forget. I can not forget because if I forget how I feel, I will forget how to save myself from slipping off the edge.
03 December, 2010
Oh the weather outside is frightful...
25 November, 2010
13 November, 2010
25 October, 2010

09 October, 2010
What is your purpose in life?
One three-day-long experience that I think of everyday is a leadership seminar called HOBY. In my life as my "pre-HOBY" self, I knew right from wrong, I had done some community service, valued my family and friends, and knew exactly what I wanted to do in life to make sure that I was happy. During HOBY, though, I learned to open my eyes, mind, and heart. I was taught not only to do community service, but how to. I was given so many opportunities to make other people smile, whether it was delivering gifts to the elderly at a nursing home, or cheering extra loud to show your appreciation for someone. My groups that I spent the whole three days with became my family. After the last meeting, my dad walked with me back to my dorm as tears rolled down my face because of the realization that I would not see my HOBY family the next morning and that the best weekend of my life was ending.
I cried all the way home and again when I got home, knowing that it was over. These intense emotions, though, inspired me. I stopped stressing out about school and remembered how great I felt by making other people smile. I signed the HOBY commitment to doing 100 hours of community service by the next seminar, not because I had to, but because I wanted to.
I think my "pre-HOBY" self would answer the proposed question with something along the lines of "write for a fashion magazine," or "become a mom," but now I look at the question and actually think about it. What is the thing I want to accomplish most? My answer: I want everyone to feel at some point in their lives the way I felt that weekend. I want to be someone's cheerleader (another thing I learned at HOBY: you can't be sad when cheering as loud as possible!). I want to help someone remember love and happiness who has lost those feelings along the way.
So what is my purpose in life? I don't know exactly, but what I do know is that every time I see a glow stick, meet someone named Bob, eat a burrito, or hear "Don't Stop Believing," I will be reminded of my commitment and desire to make other people feel true happiness.


















