once you take that mental leap, the rest is easy ...

So, I've come down with bronchitis, a double ear infection, and pneumonia ... I've been doing a TON of reading and also a lot of re-watching of Glee and Gossip Girl, so there's a bit of that to this post as well. Seventy-two hours and thirty-eight minutes 'til I'm off of mandatory bed rest ...

That's me,
I just keep 'em in stitches
Doubled in half
And though I may be all wrong for a guy
I'm good for a laugh
-"Funny Girl" by Barbra Streisand

"Hold on. I'm looking up aneurysm in our medical dictionary to see if I just had one."
-said by Emily on Gilmore Girls (Episode 1x05, Cinnamon's Wake)

Don't wanna just make love,
I wanna make love last
-"Don't You Wanna Stay?" by Kelly Clarkson and Jason Aldean

"People thought I went on vacation, but I really spent the summer lost in the sewers."
-said by Brittany on Glee (Episode 2x01, Audition)

"Stop sweating and close your pores, Kirky. I always forgive ... Once."
-said by Miss Patty on Gilmore Girls (Episode 1x05, Cinnamon's Wake)


"Now my uncle, he didn't say much to me, but the one thing he did say was that if there's something in your gut that you know you feel is right you gotta go after it, no matter what. What do you say?"
-said by Max on Gilmore Girls (Episode 1x05, Cinnamon's Wake)

Those schoolgirl days, of telling tales and biting nails are gone,
But in my mind,
I know they will still live on and on,
But how do you thank someone, who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try,
If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, with Love
The time has come,
For closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave,
I know that I am leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong,
And weak from strong,
That's a lot to learn,
What, what can I give you in return?
-"To Sir, With Love" by Lulu

"I hadn't realized that Mia and Kim were a package deal, one with the other. Lose one, lose the other. But then, how else would it be?"
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman


"I'll be your mess, you be mine."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"I know better. So if I want to prove I have a brain, if I want to play in the sunshine, so to speak, it's up to me to find the project that breaks me out. ... It's all about control, really."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"Even at the start when we were in that can't-get-enough-of-you phase, there was like some invisible wall between us. At first, I tried to take it down, but it took so much effort to even make cracks. And then I got tired of trying. Then I justified it. This was just how adult relationships were, how love felt once you had a few battle scars."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"The truth is, there isn't any avoiding Mia's ghost. Bryn and I wouldn't even be together if it weren't for her. In that twisted, incestuous way of fate, Mia's a part of our history, and we're among the shards of her legacy."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"I thought we were trying to find a way to make it forever, the kind that, had we met five years later ... or had our lives not been ripped apart by all this -- I was pretty sure it would've been. I've come to realize there's a world of difference between knowing something happened, even knowing why it happened, and believing it. Because when she cut off contact, yeah, I knew it happened. But it took me a long, long time to believe it. Some days, I still don't quite believe it."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"Ancient history? Have you really relegated us to the trash of the heap of that Dumb High-School romance? And if that's case, why the hell can't I do the same?"
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"Quitting's not hard. Deciding to quit is hard. Once you take that mental leap, the rest is easy."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"You talked to me, but you didn't. I could see you having these two-sided conversations. The things you wanted to say to me. And the words that actually came out."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"Letting go. Everyone talks about it like it's the easiest thing. Unfurl your fingers one by one until your hand is open. But my hand has been clenched into a fist for three years now; it's frozen shut."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"I think I'm kind of getting the concept of closure. It's no big dramatic before-after. It's more like that melancholy feeling you get at the end of a really good vacation. Something special is ending, and you're sad, but you can't be that sad because, hey, it was good while it lasted, and there'll be other vacations, other good times."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"'But ... I thought you hated me?' Mia lets out a long, deep sigh. 'I know. I needed someone to hate, and you're the one I loved the most, so it fell to you.'"
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"I don't hate you. I don't think I ever really did. It was just anger. And once I faced it head-on, once I
understood it, it dissipated."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"You know, I thought about you a lot these last couple of years ... About who was there for you. Who held your hand while you grieved for all that you'd lost. ... It's my turn to see you through."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

"When I get closer to the side of the stage, I see her there ... I get close enough to see her eyes ... And she smiles at me, and it's like we're the only two people out here, the only ones who know what's happening."
-from Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman