New

I've had this blog for a very long time.  I will always love it, but I think it's time to move on.
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

Friends With Benefits

I was very pleasantly surprised with the hilarity of this movie. Having already seen No String Attached, I expected this to be the same thing but with better acting (I would choose Justin Timberlake over Ashton Kutcher for anything), but it was so much better than that.

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!
p.s. Justin Timberlake is so sexy, I can't even handle it... (i apologize...)

Summer

It is already August and I haven't written a word on this blog all summer! I am so embarrassed at the amount of time I spend scrolling through pictures and posts on Tumblr, causing me to neglect my blog! I miss writing, I miss reading other blogs, and I miss being able to look back at all of my old posts! (I can still do that, of course, but a year or so from now, I'll find that I had basically fallen off the face of the earth for the past year due to my extreme lack of posting.)
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.

Transformation

"Do you remember when we were friends with her?"
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.

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...