My babysitting war..

It was the winter of my freshman year, and my aunt and cousins were over for christmas. I really didn't want to babysit because I just wanted to hang out with them, but I had already told this family that I would a long time ago. So I sucked it up and went over there only to find out that both the kids were sick. I knew it was going to be a long night, but I didn't see what was to come. The kids parents left, and I was just supposed to let the kids watch a movie, and they would fall asleep, at least that's what the mom said. Everything was going pretty well until the little boy who was probably 5 at the time had to go to the bathroom. He was in there for a long time, so I went to check on him to make sure everything was okay, but it wasn't because he had thrown up. While I was in the bathroom, the little girl got mad because I wasn't helping her write her name or something so she started screaming. I walked out of the bathroom and saw her crying in the corner, and I walked over there to see that she had thrown up all over the carpet. I knew she felt bad but still it really was not fun to clean up. So I'm sitting there clean it up, and then I hear the little girl yell my name and tell me that her brother pooped on my jacket. I just sat there for a while because I didn't even know how to deal with it. After like ten minutes, I went over there and the little boy is sitting on my jacket with no pants on with poop all over the place. It was horrible and the kids were getting even more wild because they knew there was nothing I could do to stop them. By this point, it was probably around nine and the kids were supposed to be in bed an hour ago, so I called my aunt because she is a daycare director to ask her what to do. She told me that I should call the parents and tell them they need to come home and deal with there kids. I didn't want to be rude by calling them, but there was really nothing else I could do to stop them, so I called. They said they would be home in a little bit and to give the kids a bath hopefully settling them done. I gave them a bath, finally got everything cleaned up, and had managed to get these devil children to sleep by the time their parents got home three hours after they said they would! I was so mad because seriously what parent does that. They knew the kids were sick and obviously had to have known that they had some pretty wild kids. It was honestly the longest night of my life and no amount of money could make up for what happened!

Metamorphosis

From what I had read, I didn't think I was going to like the book after the first chapter. It's just so awkward that he turned into a bug out of no where. There's really nothing for me to relate to because I've definitely never had this experience. It was also confusing because his parents just seemed to ignore everything which made me think that everything was in his head. I finished the second chapter and saw the humor in what was happening. It is so strange how his parents just lock him away in his room, trying to pretend nothing is going on when really there is a huge problem! I really like his sister because she's trying to help him and is the only one who seems to be acknowledging what is going on. The stuff that Gregor does is extremely weird like hanging onto a picture on the wall and just staring out the window for countless hours. I guess if I was locked in a room I would do the same, it's just so random. I didn't know if this picture had some importance because the author never gave any background information which made me kind of mad. I hope that when I finish the story, it somehow makes sense because right now it seems like the author is going to leave it pretty open ended.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

At first when I read this poem I didn't understand it at all but after reading it a little closer I kind of got a sense of what the author was trying to get across. It talks about the black bird in so many different ways and places that I think it means that everyone is connected in some way. A sense of chaos comes off to me in the first and second stanza's because he's talking about the blackbird in multiple places. It's weird how the blackbird is included in everything, and all the different situations don't seem to be related to each other at all. He also could be talking about the fact that everyone sees the same situation differently because everyone in the story somehow sees the blackbird.
Another thought I had was that the author was talking about wishing you had something that you already do, but just can't see it. It also could mean that everyone has so many things that they don't realize the simple things in life are taken for granted. This makes a lot of sense when looking at the seventh stanza because he talks about golden birds which seem much more important than a blackbird.



I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

VII O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?

VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.

XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.

XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.

This I believe...

I believe that everyone should live like they are dying. After listening to the song Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw and going through some personal experiences, I realized how short life really can be. I don't think most people understand how fast something can be taken from you, and that when someone is gone, they are gone forever.

A lot of times, people only focus on the past and live their lives regretting things that already happened. This prevents them from excelling today and looking towards the future and the accomplishments they could achieve. Because I lost three members of my extended by the time I was 12, I spent a lot of time wondering what could have been, but after a recent death in my family, I understood that there is really no point in focusing on things that you can't change and wasting energy that could be put towards building new relationships and strengthening the old.

By living in the present, you can make sure that if something ever happened you know you lived your life to the fullest without regrets. The last thing you want is to end up sick, and to think back about your life and wish you would've done things differently.

He said I was in my early forties  with a lot of life before me  when a moment came that stopped me on a dime  and I spent most of the next days looking at the x-rays  Talking bout the options  and talking bout sweet time I asked him when it sank in  that this might really be the real end  how's it hit you when you get that kinda news  man what'd you do   and he said I went sky diving  I went Rocky Mountain climbing  I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu  and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter  and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying  and he said someday I hope you get the chance  to live like you were dying.  He said I was finally the husband  that most the time I wasn't  and I became a friend a friend would like to have  and all the sudden going fishin  wasn't such an imposition  and I went three times that year I lost my dad  well I finally read the good book  and I took a good long hard look  at what I'd do if I could do it all again   and then  I went sky diving  I went Rocky Mountain climbing  I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu  and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter  and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying  and he said someday I hope you get the chance  to live like you were dying.  Like tomorrow was a gift and you got eternity to think about  what'd you do with it what did you do with it  what did I do with it  what would I do with it?   Sky diving  I went Rocky Mountain climbing  I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu  and then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter  and I watched an eagle as it was flying  and he said someday I hope you get the chance  to live like you were dying. To live like you were dying  To live like you were dying To live like you were dying  To live like you were dying