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A look at Jane Austen’s Emma

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(Disclaimer: This blog contains spoilers, so if you have not read or seen Emma , or other Jane Austen works, proceed with caution.) You may have guessed that I recently finished reading Emma by Jane Austen, which is known to be one of the top favorites of her works.  I did quite enjoy it myself and I agree that it is entertaining for being generally uneventful.  As I was reaching the conclusion, I realized that each novel I read before this one had some disastrous event occur before the end.  In Sense and Sensibility , Marianne Dashwood falls terribly ill and everyone is in fear of her not recovering.  Pride and Prejudice , Lydia Bennett runs off with Mr. Wickham and shames her family.  Mansfield Park , Henry Crawford, supposedly in love with Fanny Price, runs off with her married cousin, Maria Rushworth.  Mostly scandal, but always exciting in some way.  Emma lacks this exciting turn of events, unless you count the discovery of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax’s secret engagement. 
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Taking a new direction

So I recently met up with an advisor at school and he told me I should write about what I read, or read about what I write… One of the two, whichever makes more sense. Anyway, he also asked me what it was I liked so much about the books I read, and it stumped me. The best possibly answer I could think of was escape. Escape from reality, open your eyes, look up to the skies and see… Sorry got a little Queen there. Basically it’s the escape from reality and a headfirst jump into someone else’s world for a short time, living vicariously through their life, experiencing an adventure you wouldn’t normally have on your own. I can see that as being the main reason most people read fictional stories, but I hope to find more answers for myself as I continue reading. This new direction I want to take is solely for this blog. I started this blog with no real purpose in mind, except to improve my writing and maybe get feedback from my readers. Since I have such a difficult time with devoting time
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Just a moment of reflection…

I recently opened up one of my journals to look back on what I had written.  This particular journal is special.  I bought it a few years ago at Barnes & Noble (I’m pretty sure), so the origin isn’t especially exciting.  However, I also bought a long, glass pen with a jar of original black ink to go with it because I wanted to try my hand at calligraphy again.  Since it had been so long, I wanted to practice before I tried writing in it and ruining it.  Unfortunately I got distracted with life and never got the opportunity, but I always kept it close by in case I had something significant to write.  Eventually I cracked it open, carefully as to not bend the spine, and scrawled a few quotes from songs and the Bible.  Based on what I wrote, I would figure that it was early 2010.  The next page has a different quote, followed by a promise made to myself to experience life.  I remember this was later in the year and it felt as if I was turning a new page in my life and I had to make it
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so recently…

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I have come to the realization that I have not had the best attitude about certain aspects in my life. For some reason, everything affects me deeply and I cannot seem to get out of this funk. They just keep piling onto one another until I am to the point where I just want to scream. All it takes is one minute of stepping outside to look in (and maybe a slap in the face) and suddenly it’s another perspective on things. We all need to have some perspective on life’s little trifles once in a while, but you start to forget when those same trifles just keep coming at you and you have no chance at a refreshing point of view. I tried this attitude adjustment before a few months back already. I was always frustrated about something for some reason and finally I thought it was time to appreciate what I had. I seemed to have forgotten that again and can only see things in a pessimistic way. No matter what happens or what someone tells me, everything sucks. Life, relationships, growing up, every
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so yeah…

I am horrible at keeping up with this. I blame school. And work. And myself. Note to self: stop being lame. Okay…so anyway, here is what’s been going on lately: Last September, I got hired at Starbucks close to Mom’s office and everything has been great. I work with awesome people, I get to meet and talk to awesome people, and I have learned how to make all of these drinks that people love, including myself. I have gotten much more adventurous than I used to be back in high school. I used to get a hazelnut white mocha, but now it’s too sweet for me. I still can’t drink coffee with flavor or sweetener, but I just bought a French press to try the all the coffee we sell. I’m learning little by little. We went back to New York in October for a week and were able to see some things that we missed before. We visited Ellis Island, walked across Ground Zero and saw the new memorial, saw the first act of Don Giovanni at the Met, had some yummy pizza in Brooklyn, and walked across the Broo
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my current fascinations

I’m sure most of you know that the final installment of Harry Potter was released this past Friday and if you didn’t know, then it’s probably time you stopped living under that little rock of yours. I was able to see it twice the night it came out and I will admit that I sobbed uncontrollably for the last half of the movie. I thought that I would be prepared to finally let it go and move on after it all ended, but I just can’t do it. I spent most of yesterday watching YouTube videos involving featurettes and behind the scenes stuff and reading character bios on the Harry Potter Wiki page. I already want to see it again and bawl my eyes out like the sap that I am. Eventually I’d like to read through all of the books again, but I have way too many books on my list as it is. For years, I’ve been trekking through the Chronicles of Narnia series and I am determined to finish it one of these days. It’s not that they are difficult to read, they just start out a bit slow and I am easily dist
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so this weekend

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Was interesting, to say the least. It was filled so much ridiculousness and absurdity, I can’t even describe it. To start off, I must explain that my mom and her boyfriend had taken a trip to Chicago to spend some time with her siblings so I had the house all to myself…and Tiggher. Calvin spent the weekend at the lake with his family and I knew I would be stuck at home alone with nothing to do, so I decided to make the most of it and put together a massive party/sleepover for a bunch of my friends. Friday night was fairly basic with pizza, channel surfing, and my two friends crashing on the sofa bed. Saturday, however, is a completely different story. It had been brought to my attention that it was my good friend James’ birthday and since all he had planned on doing that day was play video games with his brother, I decided to throw him the most ridiculous party in existence. I went to the store, accompanied by Danielle, Lauren, and Ben, and we bought snacks and soda, balloons and stre
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