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

i'm like everyone else -- i see the world in terms of what i would like to happen, not what actually does

"All our young lives, we search for someone to love, someone who makes us complete. We choose partners and change partners. We dance to a song of heartbreak and hope, all the while wondering if somewhere, somehow, there's someone perfect who might be searching for us."
-The Wonder Years

"Whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"If you start out by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work toward getting it."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"Here I am, between my flock and my treasure, the boy thought. He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted to have. There was also the merchant's daughter, but she wasn't as important as his flock, because she didn't depend on him. Maybe she didn't even remember him. He was sure that it made no difference to her on which day he appeared: for her, every day was the same, and when each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their life every day that the sun rises."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"It's called the principle of favorabiity. When you play cards the first time, you are almost sure to win. Beginner's luck. ... There is a force that wants you to realize your Personal Legend; it whets your appetite with a taste of success."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"He wept because God was unfair, and because this was the way God repaid those who believed in their dreams."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"I'm like everyone else -- I see the world in terms of what I would like to happen, not what actually does."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"There must be a language that doesn't depend on words, the boy thought."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"It's the thought of Mecca that keeps me alive. That's what helps me face these days that are all the same, these mute crystals on the shelves, and lunch and dinner at that same horrible cafe. I'm afraid that if my dream is realized, I'll have no reason to go on living."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"He still had some doubts about the decision he had made. But he was able to understand one thing: making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where all the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it's all written there."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"There is a principle that governs all things ... In alchemy, it's called the Soul of the World. When you want something with all your heart, that's when you are closest to the Soul of the World. It's always a positive force."
-from The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

"I left behind a glass slipper and a business card, in case the prince is really dumb."
-from Gilmore Girls (Episode 2x06 - Presenting Lorelai Gilmore)

"See, here's what's going to go down -- two choices: You stay here and I crack one of your nuts, right or left, that's your choice. Or you walk away, and live to be a douchebag another day."
-from Glee (Episode 2x17 - Night of Neglect)

Under haunted skies I see,
Where love is lost, your ghost is found
I've braved a hundred storms to leave you
As hard as you try, no, I will never be knocked down
-"Turning Tables" by Adele

There I was again tonight
Forcing laughter faking smiles
Same old tired lonely place
Walls of insincerity
Shifting eyes and vacany
Vanished when I saw your face
All I can say is I was enchanted to meet you
Your eyes whispered have we met
Across the room your silhouette starts to make it's way to me
The playful conversation starts
Counter all your quick remarks
Like passing notes in secrecy
And it was enchanting to meet you
All I can say is I was enchanted to meet you
This night is sparkling don't you let it go
I'm wonder-struck, blushing all the way home,
I'll spend forever wondering if you know
I was enchanted to meet you
Lingering question keeps me up
2 a.m., who do you love?
I wonder 'til I'm wide awake
Now I'm pacing back and forth
Wishing you were at my door
I'd open up and you would say
It was enchanting to meet you
All I can say is I was enchanted to meet you ..
This is me praying that
This was the very first page
Not where the storyline ends
My thoughts will echo your name
Until I see you again
These are the words I held back as I was leaving too soon
I was enchanted to meet you ...
Please don't be in love with someone else
Please don't have somebody waiting on you
Please don't be in love with someone else
Please don't have somebody waiting on you
-"Enchanted" by Taylor Swift

The way you move is a like a full on rainstorm
And I'm a house of cards
You're the kind of reckless that should send me running
But I kind of know that I won't get far
You stood there in front of me just close enough to touch
Close enough to hope you couldn't see what I was thinking of
Drop everything now
Meet me in the pouring rain
Kiss me on the sidewalk, take away the pain
'Cause I see sparks fly
Whenever you smile
Get me with those green eyes baby as the lights go down
Give me something that'll haunt me when you're not around
'Cause I see sparks fly
Whenever you smile
... You touched me once and it was really something
You find I'm even better than you imagined I would feel ...
Just keep on keeping your eyes on me,
It's just wrong enough to make you feel right,
And lead me up the staircase baby,
Won't you whisper soft and slow,
I'm captivated by you baby
Like a fireworks show
-"Sparks Fly" by Taylor Swift

I'm trying so hard not to get caught up now
But you're just so cool, run your fingers through your hair
Absentmindedly making me want you
-"Fearless" by Taylor Swift

I wish I could tie you up in my shoes
Make you feel un-pretty too
I was told I was beauitful
But what does that mean to you?
Look into the mirror who's inside there?
The one with the long hair
Same old me again today
My outsides are cool, my insides are blue
Every time I think I'm through
It's because of you
I try different ways, but it's all the same
At the end of the day, I have myself to blame
I'm just trippin'
You can buy you hair if it won't grow
You can fix your nose if he says so
You can buy all the makeup that MAC can make
But if you can't look inside you, find out who am I to
Be in a position to make me feel so damn un-pretty
-"Unpretty" covered by Dianna Agron & Lea Michele (originally by TLC)