Showing posts with label hayleyghoover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hayleyghoover. Show all posts

Monday, April 23, 2012

Hayley's poetry challenge

I had an idea for a post all ready but then I read Hayley's blog, as I am prone to doing, and found this irresistible. So here we go.

This poem will contain: a statistic, a dish eaten cold, three forms of heat, a smell you can't forget, a line from a movie, something out of a textbook, two things you wish you had said, a reference to an aunt or uncle, some kind of moving vehicle, two words beginning with R and ending with "-ion", a stage direction, two distinct hours of the day, an historical figure, an adhesive, an animal only seen up close in the zoo, a slang expression ("call it quits," for example), something really bad that you did, something that undermines or negates everything else you've said. (Hayley, you had better appreciate this because I had to get up of my bed and get one of the textbooks I couldn't sell back this semester out from under my desk and look up something to use from it. That's dedication.)


Relaxation does not always come around by 5 pm
Though if I had my way it would come much sooner.
People often say things like "That's so cliche" but
The secrets of life are hidden behind that word.

With my Zebra stripe gum that no one
actually knows the real name of,
I hit the road on a piece of bamboo 
with wheels, red wheels that remind
me of the sky around 8 at night, or
whenever else the sun decides to set and
look really nice, and also make me think of
a wood burning stove.

I ride the board to the left and right, front and back,
until I come upon signs that basically say,
"You shall not pass" and I turn around, looking,
searching for a way past, like Lewis and Clark,
except I know where I'm going, and I don't have to
worry about not eating lunch, unless I fall and crash
and skid across the asphalt. In which case the burn 
of road rash will send me straight on home.

My shoes contact the street, rubber on 
gray like duct tape, once black, pavement.
It's a chill time on the streets at sundown,
but sweet as well, though only in feeling and
not so much in taste. Which reminds me of
these thoughts: If revenge is a dish best served
cold . . . And if revenge is also sweet,
Does that make revenge ice cream?

It's a time of full of my own ruminations,
when nothing else matters but that slight tail
wind. I think of missing him terribly, the one
who gave me music that in effect changed my
life. I find my mind both blank and full because
of it; because of the one with the green hat.
That green hat means a lot and represents the past and 
the future. So who would have thought fabric
and string and cardboard could mean something?

There's a 50/50 chance when the return comes that
things may change. It's exhilarating and ridiculous all
at once, yet nothing will change that fact that I do care. 
Passing through streets with lawns out in front, large and small,
I wish for fresh cut Wisconsin grass and even the sound 
of a lawn mower with the threatening of large storm. Because I swear, 
Wisconsin cut grass is something special with rain clouds on the way.

There are people with kids who see me going by and riding around,
and I'm pretty sure they hope their kids don't follow too closely in my
push offs and wheel tracks. Let's face it: a less than one inch thick piece of 
board with grip tape is not much. But it's enough and gives me more
than one would ever think could be a product of such basic things.
So no it's not a time of relaxation, not really. It's an adrenaline rush of the most 
basic kind and gives a lot to me from not so much while at the same time giving
me nothing for all I can give it. 

Maybe it's humanistic psychology at its best, but I
wouldn't really know since we kind of skipped over that
part on New Age day of American religious history since
that war between those above and below the Mason Dixon.
So like Augustus Waters said, we don't get to choose 
whether we get hurt in this world. But we do get to choose 
who hurts us. And I like to think that applies to my recreation, 
and maybe to those with hats, as well. I know I'll get hurt,
eventually, but at least I chose it. And had a great time along that paved way.


That was actually really awesome to write. And I know it probably doesn't make much sense, poetic or otherwise, but I guess that's the point? At least to a degree. And like Hayley said in her blog, I'm not much for writing poetry though I do enjoy reading it. I, too, just made some haphazard line breaks with random punctuation. At least it looks kind of cool. And I know in yesterday's post I said I would rehash Sunday's events here but since I wrote this little poem instead I don't want to mush all that jazz together. So look for that in another post possibly laster today. Or maybe not. I intend to enjoy my last day before it's back to classes for spring semester so my computer time won't be that prominent today. It's also going to be 80F today! I need to be outside, that's for sure.


Last YouTube video I watched: Ultimate Red Velvet Cupcakes

Friday, January 13, 2012

Hey Hayley

I decided to take a break from studying and preparing my swimming/diving and gymnastics recaps to write this instead. This post is specifically for hayleyghoover but maybe the rest of you will find something interesting in it as well.

Hey Hayley. I just wanted to take a little time and say thanks to you for helping make my life what it is. To some degree you've changed my life, but that always sounds a little overdramatic to me, so let's just say you helped make it what it is.

I'm sure you'll remember the time you finally wrote that post about losing weight and just getting to feel good about yourself after not really owning up to it online for some time. I remember reading that and thinking, "Man, Hayley's got herself together. And that is awesome." That really made me want to get myself together. (This is not to say I think you always have it together or anything like that; we all have bad things happen to us that mess things up. I don't even think it's possible for college students to really be okay with everything going on in their lives. But you definitely have some great things going for you, which is freaking awesome.)

And so I kind of started trying to do that. I was never a terribly unhappy person but I knew I could be happier, both about how I looked and about how I felt. In August 2010, I even made the goal that I wanted to lose 25 pounds by May 2011. I'll come right out and say it: that didn't happen. I don't think I've even come close. However, and this is a big however, I did lose some weight and start acting differently in some ways without even doing anything specific. I don't know how I did it. I mean, I made the conscious decision back in August 2010 to eat healthier and to exercise more but I still eat some pretty craptastic food at times and I'm no example of exercising on a regular basis. Whatever I've been doing, it's been working. Over Thanksgiving break, I went shopping with my brother and his friends. I needed some new jeans and saw that PacSun was having a pretty quality sale of buy one get one free. I could not pass that up. On a whim, I decided to try on jeans a size smaller than I'd ever worn there. And they totally fit. Like, really well. So well that I was genuinely surprised at myself. "When had this happened?" I wondered. I wasn't complaining, that's for sure. And now so many of my t-shirts fit better. I always wear somewhat loose stuff but nothing too drastic apart from my soccer jerseys which are meant to be that way. The shirts that had been snug before, though not necessarily in a bad way, suddenly fit perfectly.

The coolest thing about all of the changes that have occurred is that I'm happy, sometimes ridiculously so. Between you and ShayCarl, I've been able to become someone I'm really proud to be. I'm not just happy about how I look, I hope that's not what you glean from this. I'm happy to be who I am. I like who I am in so many ways and I love how I'm living my life.

I e-mailed you once before talking about some of this stuff, Hayley. But I wanted to let you know again  how magnificent and influential you are. You mentioned (somewhat) recently on your blog how it's legitimately difficult to be this role model for all these different people. I just want you to know that I'll support you in all your endeavors, no matter what you're posting or talking about. (Well, maybe not support you in ANYTHING, because the day you swear off pizza rolls . . . We're through.) But really, I want you to post whatever, even if it might change people's perspective of you. You give all of us these little insights into your life and it's only fair that you get to be honest about who you are and share what's going on in your life if you want to. I never want you to feel as if you can't share something based solely on the fact that people might react poorly. That's really unfair to you and I wish I could stop people from acting that way at times. (What the crap is wrong with people on the internet?)

I am truly grateful to have encountered the fiveawesomegirls one day way back when and since then to have made your acquaintance in the way that only the internet can allow. Some day in the not too distant future maybe I'll get to truly make your acquaintance in real life.

And if I may be so bold as to offer you a little bit of advice: Come what may and love it.

Last YouTube video I watched: Swings: Los Angeles (I think I've used this video at the end of my posts at least three or four times. I just really like it a lot and watch it a lot.)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

You Should Know

. . . is a really great song by Mike Lombardo. In other news, here's some things I thought you would like to know about me, just for kicks and giggles:

- I don't eat the almonds out of trail mix. I currently have a Ziploc bag full of it and all I'm eating is the peanuts, cashews, raisins and M&Ms. And sometimes I don't even eat the raisins.

- I only wanted to write this blog post because I was watching HayleyGHoover videos instead of studying for three exams and writing two papers.

- Speaking of Hayley, often times I think she changed my life. Or at least helped change it. Or something like that. The way she addresses those of us that read her blog, now blogs, is incredible. I honestly feel like if I met Hayley out of the blue, we would have a completely awesome conversation about life. One time she even commented on the video I made about my 18th year of life. I was really excited. It was pretty much the best birthday present I got.

- I really like Twitter.

- Some days I think about writing a sports blog. And then I think about how hard it would be, so it gets put off to another day.

- I wear t-shirts every day not just because they're comfortable, and I'm self-conscious, but because they often express who I am and how I feel more than any words ever could.

- Make-up is kind of foreign to me. I wear it three times a week AT THE MOST. There are weeks when it never comes even close to my face, except for Burt's Bees. And that's lip balm so it doesn't even count.

- Talking about my emotions is not something I particularly enjoy, though I do like hearing about everyone else's. I enjoy story telling, though. If something exciting happens in my life, chances are I'll tell you about it because it makes me happy. I share my happiness with my friends in the hope that they'll become happy because I am happy; it always makes me happy when my friends are happy so I figure it goes both ways. It's nice to share happiness.

- On that same note, I might tell you something that's going on in my life but I tell you just enough so you think you know what's going on. It's usually not even the half of it.

And suddenly this post got kind of serious and emotional. Hmm, so uhh . . .

- I also think HayleyGHoover is super fantastically beautiful and hilarious.

- Oh, and I'm eating carrots right now.

Yep, those are some things you should know. Or maybe you didn't think you needed to know them but now you do. They're not even really things you should know. They're just kind of things about me that can be known.

[Oh, and just so we can throw in some more HayleyGHoover love: she's dating the aforementioned Mike Lombardo. Fancy that.]