leah the packrat

i find comfort in movies about seemingly perfect suburban families with gorgeously decorated kitchens and problems galore. they have good quotes: "we need a witness to our lives. there's a billion people on the planet. i mean, what does any one life really mean? but in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. the good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. you're saying 'your life will not go unnoticed because i will notice it. your life will not go un-witnessed because i will be your witness'."

um, why do i feel silly for listening to songs and relating them directly to my life? i know that's what you're supposed to do, but still, i feel silly.

last night after scary "shark!" and a shared 1 1/2 pint of ice cream, i spent about an hour flipping through old photo albums. my dad's photo albums rock because he hardly let any of my life events go unphotographed. i love it now, hated it at the time. it allows me to physically see the progression of my life thus far. with the turn of a page, i am able to see the changes in learning how to dress myself in t-shirts that fit and then, things other than t-shirts, and then, things other than abercrombie & fitch. i am proud to know that i am able to dress myself better and better as the years go on. when seeing my younger self smile back at me, i remember that stage of top-row-of-teeth-showing-only smiles that i practiced in the mirror endlessly, producing ridiculous results. i see myself at birthdays, proms and family holidays, then can't but help wonder like a grandma... where did the years go and how many of them do i remember? since when did we go from discussing whether or not we want to be rock stars to whether or not we want to be young moms? good god. even though i am still so young, it's pleasantly exciting to look back on "all of the years" because i love my life. obviously all memories are not fond... nono, but i still love IT. it's this every so often that i realize the over-used, gag-worthy "life is a gift" quote is absolutely true. most people are so afraid of being unoriginal and sounding cliched, but really, where would we be without cliches? where would we be if nobody spoke the obvious or invented little inspirational magnets reminding us to live life to its fullest?

i wish i knew the key code for the accented e's character, along with a lot of other important things.

right now i kinda want to stand by my sister and beg with her to mum/dad for permission to go to the midnight showing of star wars on a school night. oh, who wants to go play on the new bamber big toy? i heard it's awesome. movie-hopping tonight :D

favorite onion article of the week