New York is Big

I have actually zero time to write this... 

This post is due in approximately 2 hours and I am busy so this is gonna be quick and poorly written so I apologize. 

How is this photo a thing?

Ok, for those of you who give a shit about how my life is going (yay you!) I am in New York right now which is one of my favorite places in the world. Why? I love the city so so so much and needles to say, Park City, Utah isn't exactly a city... Ok, yeah Salt Lake City is a city but let be real, its in Utah and I personally believe that Utah is boring as hell. Thats right I said it, Utah is boring and I know I live in the place with "the greatest snow on earth" but - friends I apologize for this- I don't like skiing... I'm not saying I didn't try to like it I really gave every lesson my all. But when your a 7 year old who moves from Las Vegas, Nevada where your literally burning in hell year round, to a place who's temperatures range from freezing cold to a "warm summer day" in Antartica, it's kind of hard to adapt. Every. Single. Person (minus like 4)  I know, loves to ski. (or snowboard but were not getting into that argument just yet). They're all like stupidly good at it too. I mean, they've been doing it since birth so why wouldn't they be? They could probably go to the next Winter Olympics and bring home the gold at the age of 15. I am not kidding. 

So its been established that all my friends are hard core skiers and I am...well.. not. 

This brings me back to why I love cities so much. Theres no mountains around here and frankly I've been surrounded by mountains my whole life and I honestly believe I can live without them. Here in NY theres less mountains, skiing, ridiculously athletic fetus's, and the same amount of coldness. But here theres more people and more smiles and laughs and ideas and stories and restaurants with good food, and clothes and theaters ( ;) ) and lights and cars and buildings and book stores ( ;) ). 

So in simpler terms: PC = small, NY = big. 

I like big.

New York always has something going on, from a play every night to the naked cowboy in Times Square, you’ll probably never be bored. 

As the attractive Italian waiter said to me today, “ my life is boring in Rome, So I mov to New York” his English was shit but his face sure wasn’t. 

In Park City there’s a lot of beautiful mountains, which I’ve expressed I’ve seen enough of.

I have strong feelings towards Utah…

Needless to say, I do not plan on living there for very much longer.

But New York is great, I just saw Wicked which was fantastic. I realized after working on Shrek, that there were quite a few similarities between the two, and the plays both being musicals was not one of them. The main characters both being green wasn’t one either…. (although that did occur to me much later than it should have). I started to notice the things that I feel like most people wouldn’t. Like where they put their microphones (on their forehead) and how the flying monkeys are actually able to fly ( someone puts on a harness and throws them across the stage). It was quite interesting actually to see all this. But again Wicked, and almost everything about New York  is interesting so I’m happy.

Not that any of y’all particularly care about my well being but I don’t really care…

See ya!

Olivia

 P.S. Ya’ll should just start expecting another fabulous booktuber  at the end of all these: Her name is Sasha and yes, she's fabulous

"Shrek the Musical" and Some Advice as it Relates to Theater

Well it's official, I've heard "Its's a great big beautiful world" 500 more times than the average person should hear it in a single life time. 

For those of you who are unaware, that is the opening song of “Shrek the musical” which my high school is performing and I am on the stage crew for. First of all let me just say that I love theater but I am not an aspiring actress because I can't act for shit. Second; this play is so. Much. Fun. Being apart of the stage crew, is even better.

Does anyone ever have that feeling where you all of a sudden feel like you "belong"? Like I'm not tying to be the depressed, loner, "my life is so hard", "I don't belong anywhere” high school student; what I'm talking about is on a much broader spectrum.

Let me take it back.

Nope, she's not Shrek.... Sam Bedworth

For those of you who have read my first post ever, you know I was quite a shy and awkward child. Not much has changed except that I'm not as shy, and just more awkward. But recently, I have decided that I am going to be less awkward, and try as hard as I possibly can to just not let myself be uncomfortable in situations that can seemingly lead to complete and utter embarrassment. 

I’ve learned from being apart of the production of this play, is that  things won't affect you unless YOU let it. In other words, if you are hit in the head with a rock, stabbed in the chest, or shot in the heart, you can be sure that there will be some kind of a negative affect. But if someone told you that you look like shit, it's you who decides if that comment bothers you, if it will make you cry, if it will make you feel bad about yourself. We automatically assume that when someone insults us we should feel insulted, ridiculed, or put down, but the thing is that we don't have to feel that way unless we chose too. Obviously its not nice to tell someone that they look like shit, but this is planet earth, and we are all humans who aren't very nice all of the time. 

We can be rude, vulgar, horrible creatures, but only if we choose to be. So next time someone tells you that you look like shit, turn around, smile at them, say thank you, and go get some pizza. The next time that you want to tell someone that they look like shit, realize first, do you have something against this person? Second, realize that if you are trying to hurt them for some unknown reason, that may or may not be justified, know that insults are weak, and I personally believe that they are kind of pathetic. 

So I'm not worried that people are going to insult me; I'm worried that I am going to either do or say something that will cause an unwanted effect. So I'm the one who ends up standing alone in the corner with my mouth locked shut, and my feet in the same position they’ve been in the whole time.

I worry that I’ll say the “wrong” word, walk the “wrong” way do the “wrong” thing, and feel guilty afterwards for doing absolutely nothing! But if I do the “wrong” thing, its me who chooses if I go cry in the corner about it or just laugh it off. Just last night I was talking to a new friend, and I started a conversation (this is huge for me, I am the antichrist of conversation starting). It was all going great, I didn’t stutter, laughed, this kind human talked back, but then I walked away thinking that the conversation was over, but as the stage door closes behind me I hear that he is still talking. I immediately regret walking awday and my brain decides to jump to the conclusion that this human hates me and I am consumed with uncontrollable guilt all because I walked away from a conversation the I thought had ended. But then I think, why? Why would this be a reason for them to hate me; its not like I murdered his family or chopped off his leg, I made a mistake that doesn’t need to result in me feeling guilty for the next who knows how long. I decide to not think about this minuscule mistake but think back on how I made a new friend, and I am no longer consumed with this uncontrollable guilt. 

  It might seem impossible to do this because their your feelings, and feelings happen no matter what, but what happens after you feel that little bit of regret or shame, is up to you.

Damn… when did this post turn into an advice column? Whatever, this is some inspirational shit right here so I'm gonna keep going. 

But back to that feeling of belonging; I felt it when I worked on this musical. 

While sitting back stage and singing along to literally every song, I wasn’t worried I would say, or do, or wear something that would make for an awkward situation, because everyone else is either wearing ridiculously fabulous costumes, or singing a really catchy (and honestly, slightly annoying) song. The rest of the stage crew was focused on the story being told. 

Part of why I love the theater so much is while an actor is doing their job, its all up to them, no one else. If they make the audience cry, smile, or laugh its them who choose the effect they have on the audience. On the opening night Fiona’s crown came off which could have been really bad (I remember all of our simultaneous intakes of breath as this happened), but instead of letting it fall to the ground, she grabbed it, smiled, and made the audience laugh. She chose to not let this effect the story, but to make it even better instead. 

So yes, Shrek the Musical was fantastic and while most would think it to be boring as hell to sit around and move scenery on and off the stage - don’t get me wrong it totally was at times, all of us just wanted to go home - but I have absolutely no regrets.

Well the only thing I may regret is hearing “Its a great big beautiful world” 5000000000000000000000000 times, and it will probably haunt my dreams for the rest of eternity. 

See Ya!

Olivia

P.S

This has absolutely nothing to do with this post but heres another fabulous book tuber because why the hell not. https://www.youtube.com/user/jessethereader/videos 

Its a Miracle

Its a miracle!!
I'm actually reading!!

Ok I'm reading like 5 books at once but at least I'm doing something other than homework so I'd say life is pretty good. 

I haven't actually finished any of these 5 books yet and they are probably not gonna be finished until like Thanksgiving break. But who knows, I may finish them all tomorrow; but probably no, lets not get  ahead of ourselves here.

Okay enough of that really boring intro: this week I am going ti give some descriptions about these 5 beautiful books.

The Martian By Andy Weir

So I started this like 50000 years ago and I am still only 150 pages into this 300 page book. It's not that its bad or anything, its just that - although I like to think otherwise - my life has been taken over by homework assignments and the stress of school. Also this book has a lot to do with math; I am someone who does not like math. At all. What so ever. Nope. So I take a break every now and then.

But this book is actually amazing; if yawl haven't already seen the movie then read the book AND see the movie because its actually fantastic. This book follows Mark Watney; an astronaut who was left alone on Mars after the rest of his crew decided that he had died in a really bad storm. After the rest of the crew leaves Mark is of course found not dead and he has to figure out how to survive on Mars completely alone. He thinks there is not hope, that he'll most likely die on Mars just a few days after everyone thought he died.  But of course, this book was turned into a Hollywood blockbuster, not some no budget independent film, so we can all expect a happy ending that seemed virtually impossible.
Not that I'm trashing Hollywood, those guys are fantastic.
Bottom line is go read the Martian & see the movie because Matt Damon...and a bunch of other really cool people.

Point of Retreat By Colleen Hoover

It's about time everyone here learns about my love for the fabulous Colleen Hoover.
Heres what you need to know: This lady can write like no other. Her writing style doesn't really follow any specific format, each book is different and amazing. Specifically her characters are what I read her books for. They are so cool!! I know, i know, a lot of things are "so cool!!!!!!" but there is really no other better way to convey the epic-ness that is Colleen Hoovers wonderful characters.
Point of Retreat is the second book in the Slammed series that I started back in like July. I had started the second book but then I ended up needing internet to continue reading, but while being at a Lake House in Friendship (Friendship) Wisconsin its as if I went back a couple hundred years to when internet was not a thing.  Needless to say I didn't start it till this past Sunday. This series follows Lakeyn and Will who have both recently lost their parents and now have to take care of their 11 year old siblings plus they endure many hardships along the way blah blah blah, you get the point. Needless to say its absolutely fantastic.

Anna and the French kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Ok I know, the title is pretty crappy as far as title goes but DO NOT be fooled by the cheesiest title of all time. Stephanie Perkins is actually a guinness. This one follows Ann who has been forced to move to paris to attend boarding school for her senior year of high school where she meets a bunch of really cool people and a really attractive french, British, American guy. I've read it 3 times so that should be enough convincing.

Lastly I would like to mention Winter by Stephanie Meyer, which I currently am not reading right now because of all the other books i've got going on at the moment. But this one like just came out so here is Ms. Meyer's website and the unbelievable beautiful cover

AHHHDHHG ITs SO PRETTY usatoday.com

See ya!!

Olivia

Obsessions?

Has anybody every wondered why we get so attached to fictional characters?
Okay I should really say why fangirls (or that mythical fanboy out there somewhere) get so attached to fictional characters because your average person who casually watches TV and sees a movie or reads a book every now and again doesn't know what the hell I am talking about.
Now I think I can speak for all of everyone of the fandom world members when I say that the word "casually" does no exist in our vocabulary. We don't just "casually" "like" things; we obsess over them until they consume our soul, and our entire existence becomes devoted to that one thing. Whether its a band (member), TV show, a movie, or a book, it becomes our life and there is no way out of it.
This may sound extreme, but like I said, if "casually" isn't a word that exists in our vocabulary, then extreme is the only word that does.
Back to fictional characters: For me, it all started when I read Divergent by Veronica Roth for the first time (yes, there was a second time) and I decided I was going to marry Tobias Eaton, and Tris Prior would be my best friend. I became invested in these characters and they eventually became all I talked about. Like the only thing. That was it. Nothing else.
It shouldn't be a surprise that this really really really pissed off my parents.
Here's how a conversation would go:

Mom: So, Olivia how was your day?
Me: Pretty good
Mom: Bill How was your day?
Dad: I went for a wa-
Me: I think that Tris is gonna die
Mom: Oliv-
Me: Like actually though, she might not make it what is gonna happen to Four if she doesn't make it I mean will he ever love ever again? and I mean Tori, I really did not see that coming!! and Peter that little sh-
Dad: Do you ever stop talking?

... Basically...
It only got worse. By the time I actually got to Allegiant (the 3rd and final book in the Divergent series) it was spring break and my family and I were in a hotel in France. This was the first time I had been to Paris and in the end I'd say I had a good time, other than me sobbing for the majority of the week about the ending of that god damn book. I actually made my father read the whole series so I could have someone to talk to about it. For those of you who've read it, you know what ending I'm talking about. For those of you who haven't; what the hell are you doing with your life? Go read it. Right now.
A few years before this, there was of course the Grey's Anatomy emotional roller coaster that I won't even get into because I don't want to talk about Derek.

Thank you Twitter

But this whole obsession thing has just gone in a spiral motion for me, it started with Grey's, Divergent, and then the Cassandra Clare obsession who honestly deserves her own separate post. But I will say, that Cassandra Clare is the author of the Shadow Hunter chronicles which is becoming a TV show on January 12 2016  and I can not express how excited I am for this show to be real, I'm already obsessing, or I actually have been since the begging.

Okay that's enough obsessing for now.
See ya!
- Oilvia

calm down

Ok breathe...in...out...in...out
Alright thats not working!!! Who ever said "keep calm and carry on" didn't know shit about how things actually work because thats not doing anything!!!! Do you know how many times i've tried to just "calm down" and tell myself "it's all gonna be ok" in the past week? You don't do you!! But honestly we'd probably all be fine if we just learned that procrastinating is NOT the answer!!!!
 I'm back so soon because if you remember what I said in my last post about this being an assignment and that it had a due date that I can no longer procrastinate for? Well guess what I lied; you can literally procrastinate about anything and everything for as long as you need too. But why hasn't anybody realized that it's just gonna come back to bite you in the ass and then you find yourself staying up till 12:30 in the morning doing math homework that will probably take at least another hour to finish and it doesn't help that your mom keeps barging into your room to yell at you about how you still haven't finished your god damn math homework!!!
(In...out...in...out... Still not doing shit!!!)
The only way that you'll actually be able to be totally and completely "calm" will be when you have absolutely nothing that needs to be done, and you may be able to tell yourself that you''ll be fine for the time being and you can put that thing that you need to do in the back of your head and that may work until those obligations just float back up to the top and continue to nag and nag and nag which is when you decide that you may as well just kill yourself now to just be out of your misery.
But sometimes it hard to just go a head and to what needs to be done.
What am I saying? Its practically impossible to just do something the very second it needs to be done. I mean I am coming up with new and improved ways to just not do things.
For instance, after school everyday I go to a friends house and we do homework... most of the time... but lately we've been starting to do home around 6:00 and watch friends from 2:45 till then (that show never gets old). But one day while not doing homework we decide that we need to be doing something productive...so no we don't go do all of that homework that is due tomorrow and probably won't get done till the very last minute; we get the huge ass bag of M&M's from the pantry and decide to color coat them all.... It was probably the biggest waste of time in the history of the world...
We did it again last night...
But hey, its better than screwing with the Pythagorean theorem all night right? Unless you're someone who actually enjoys math then that was really an insult and I'm sorry (no I'm not).
 There really is no way to solve this problem unless you have motivation which is hard to get. So what you can try doing is just ignore the fact that you really really really don't want to do it and just take a deep breath, don't worry about not finishing it because you will eventually, and then calm down.
Or completely ignore everything I've said this entire post and just go back to not doing what you know you need to know.
I know that's exactly what I'm gonna do.
So really, the only time you're allowed to calm down is...

(well come on Pinterest gets it)
Bottom line people, thats all i'm saying.

By the way I still haven't had the time to read at all what with all the procrastinating so here is yet another link to yet another book tuber who's name is Natasha and she's fabulous: https://www.youtube.com/user/tashapolis

See ya!
- Olivia

My Mother Might Kill Me

Hello again!

First of all, the only reason i'm back this soon is because this is a school assignment that has a due date that I can no longer procrastinate for.
Second, its been quite hectic with the end of the quarter less than a week away which means I have had literally zero time to read and I'm really pissed about that.  But here is a  link to another favorite book tuber of mine because I wasn't able to do any recommendations or reviews today: https://www.youtube.com/user/Katytastic

So here in Utah, UEA is approaching and I don't actually know what it is but whenever you start hearing people say "oh, what are you doing for UEA?" that means its mid October, and there is a four day weekend that people have planned for. Like people have been discussing these plans since the last break. So now that it is finally approaching my mother has decided to yell at me a lot. Like way more than usual. Like I'm scared for life. It all started when she realized that she'll be cooking for, to quote, "50,000 people!" and  realized that she hasn't packed yet. Now this probably doesn't seem like that big of a deal, and under other circumstances it wouldn't be. But this is different.
Now let my take it back about 12 years to when my parents bought a house in southern Utah. When I was 3 I didn't have much of an opinion about it except that it wasn't as bright as Vegas was with its serious lack of stop lights (there are literally zero stoplights here). But it didn't take me very long to realize that this place is the land of the hippies with only 1 clothing store that strictly sells tye-dye everything and jewelry that, for some reason, is only made out of topaz. But if you weren't wearing any topaz or tie-dye then you were probably wearing khaki shorts, Birkenstocks, and a walking stick that you'll go hiking with. You can probably imagine what the people here look like. shortly after we moved here my mother decided she's just "not gonna give a shit" about what she wears when she comes. So this means her closet has accumulated and endless supply of sweatpants that for some reason only go to the middle of her calf, smart wool socks that go above the knee, t-shirts that either have hearts, stars, or peace signs on them, and these weird ass "arch supporting" shoes that she only wears when she comes here. But at least she's not wearing these:

Who even took this photo?

I mean seriously what the hell?
But back to my mothers poor choice of wardrobe. We've had this house for 12 years and it wasn't until recently that she decided to lose her shit and bring different clothes with her.
Ok so its partially my fault that she's out for my blood. If it wasn't for me pointing out how she usually looks when we come here, she wouldn't have thought to bring other clothes. After giving her this information, I realized what a big idiot I was and got  ready to run and hide under my bed for the rest of my life when she grabbed me by my arm, dragged me into her room and sat me on the floor with the intention of having me HELP her pack. But what really ended up happening was her showing me two options, me choosing one, and then her choosing to bring the other one. This went on till about 11:30 on a Tuesday night. Considering I had neglected to do any homework that whole day, I was panicking just a little. Eventually she released my and I then did homework for another 2 hours which was just so damn fun...
*4 days Later*
Holy shit she doesn't look completely homeless!! This is a miracle!!!
I have also managed to make it the entire weekend with my head still attached. I'd consider this break a success.
Also for those of you who can't get sarcasm, this post is very very very over dramatic and I love my mother,  I don't think she'd ever kill me so clam down.
See ya!
- Olivia 

So...

So...

 I'm not a fantastic writer in the sense that I can never get a straight thought out. I can write essay's for class but when I try to write an actual story, it'll start out with kings and queens, and end with how lucifer died (which might make sense in some circumstances but when the middle of the story is about dancing turtles then it just can't end well). 

But what I can to do pretty well is read, way too much. But I also like to talk (way to much really). I've lost count of how many times i've been told to "just shut up already, we get it". I also like to tell stories (again, I just don't shut up) about any and everything from dawn till dusk. So what I'm getting at here is that this is a place for me to write about the things that I like to talk about no matter how sucky the writing is going to be, so if you're a reader and enjoy hearing stories from a somewhat awkward drama queen then ya'll might like what I have to say. 

Or not ;)

For my first post I've decided to tell a "traumatic" story form my childhood (what better way to start a blog) and give a few book recommendation's.

I used to be shy, like really really shy. Like I used to be "scared" of asking my parents for something because I didn't want them to laugh at me... This was at age 6.  9 years later my confidence has boosted quite a bit, considering i'm no longer afraid to tell the waiter at the restaurant my order. (But i'm just as awkward, theres no changing that).  But back to age 6: Have you ever done something that you regret the second after you do it? have you ever been filled with so much guilt that you can't really move that well? You see, I have. In my younger years I used to go to a coffee shop every single morning (we can all probably guess what this coffee shop is but for the sake of my still existing paranoia i'm just not going to say it). My father would buy his coffee, get my chocolate bar and then we would be on our way. But one day, my father forgot the chocolate bar so, instead of doing the rational thing and just telling him, I decide to just take the chocolate bar for my self and stash it in my pocket. Now being a 6 year old I was NOT fully aware of the concepts of stealing so this was not that big a deal to me at the time. Fast forward another year and I now know the difference between right and wrong, which of course means that the memory of the dreaded chocolate bar comes back to haunt me for the rest of eternity. My ability to overthink literally everything did not help me in this situation. 

 I started to think that if I were to tell my parents what happened then they would send me off to jail and I would never have a life. So I just held on to this secret for close to a year until eventually I did tell my parents to which they responded with laughing... But now that I'm a little older I've learned that i'm probably not going to be hunted down and killed for taking a 4 cent candy bar. But my ability to overthink literally everything has not changed and I'm working on that. Anybody else have this ability? Because i'd love to know :) (I use to many smiley faces.)

Recommendations:

WARNING: I read quite bit of young adult so thats probably the only genre that you'll find on here.

ANOTHER WARNING : I am a teenage girl so that means that I use way to many exclamation points so if you're one of those people who think that over using exclamation points is annoying and unnecessary than you're just going to have to get over it or leave.

The Lunar Chronicles By Marisa Meyers - A sci-fi dystopian series about fairy tale retellings in the way future after about 2 more world wars happened. Now this might sound a bit cheesy or juvenile or whatever you want to call it but this series is spectacular and it is one of my absolute favorite!! The first book is Cinder (I didn't get the title till half way through the book when I learned what this series was actually about). Book 2 is Scarlet (red riding hood) the third book is Cress (Rapunzel) and the fourth book; Winter comes out in November. Heres a link to Marisa Meyers website http://www.marissameyer.com

Percy Jackson And the Olympians by Rick Riordan - If you like Greek mythology this is where it's at. This series starts with 12 year old Percy Jackson who has been kicked out of boarding schools all across New York because "weird things" keep happening, but he's not sure how. Eventually he ends up at Camp half-blood, a camp for demigods (half human half greek god). This series is 5 books long and follows percy and his half-blood friends until their 17. Then there's the spin off series called The Heroes of Olympus that still follows Percy and a few other kids from the Roman demigod camp. I'm not going into to much detail here at the chance of spoilers, but I will say that this series is so so so so hilarious. I'm pretty sure I fell out of my chair more than once from the laughs (and the feels of course). 

See ya! 

From yet another Drama Queen