Three Wishes!

If I was to have three wishes, my very first wish would be for Amber, Madeline, and I to buy our matching tee shirts from Vistaprint. I was listening to Pandora in Online Publishing one day and an ad for Vistaprint came on, exclaiming that “it’s not a party unless someone is wearing a two dollar tee shirt!” Madeline and I immediately went to their website to see if we could buy these “$2 tee shirts”. We got Amber in on our plan, and decided to make our own shirts that have a car with a guitar on top, with “Madelaurber” written above it. It’s all of our names combined, with a pretty spiffy picture that we all loved! With my next two wishes, I would use one of them wishing that my best friend and I had our own cottage in Crystal Beach. It would just be so much more freeing and convenient if we had a place to call our own and we could do whatever we wanted with it. There was one for rent a few years ago, and it was right on the path to the beach. It was so cool because the front yard was sand! It was small and relatively cheap, so it would be perfect for me and my best friend. We would also be able to invite our other friends that we usually share a cottage with! I wish that we were able to rent that perfect cottage. Lastly, I wish that I had a better sense of direction. I recently realized that when I drive alone without anyone telling me which roads to take, I pretty much have no idea where I’m going once I get out of Alden. It would be nice to not have to call people and have them tell me where to go or rely on a GPS.

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

What is my favorite music genre? That question is almost impossible to answer. I listen to almost every genre of music that there is, and I usually have a favorite artist from each genre. If I had to choose, I would say my absolute favorite genre of music is Alternative Rock. I like music from the nineties and stuff like that as well. For example, some of my favorite bands from this genre are Third Eye Blind, Oasis, The Tragically Hip, Counting Crows, Coldplay, and Smashing Pumpkins. The Tragically Hip are actually my favorite band ever. I listen to all of their music, both new and old, and they’ve been putting out music since the late eighties. Similarly, I love the Indie Rock genre and bands like Band of Horses, Bon Iver, and MGMT. Another genre that I like to listen to is rap. I love Mac Miller, Wiz Khalifa, Sam Adams, Drake, and Kanye West. I’ve been listening to this genre the most lately. It always just puts me in a good mood and it’s good to drive to and work out to. Then there are some bands/artists that I love but I don’t necessarily like the whole genre; there’s The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Sublime, Tom Petty, stuff like that. What I want to listen to at a certain time really just depends on my mood. My taste in music is very diverse, but I love it. For example, my Pandora stations consist of Pink Floyd, Kenny Chesney, Nicki Minaj, Wonderwall by Oasis (which just so happens to be my favorite song ever), Cherub Rock by Smashing Pumpkins, Bon Iver, Frank Sinatra, Mac Miller, Sam Adams, Lil Wayne, and Jack’s Mannequin Radio to name a few. So I guess you could say that I don’t have a favorite genre of music, I just have favorite artists, and I just like what I like!

Get some popcorn, it's movie time.

It’s hard to pick just a few, by I would have to say my three favorite movies are, in order, The Devil Wears Prada, Aquamarine, and Bend It like Beckham. The Devil Wears Prada is hilarious, and it deals with fashion and I like that a lot also. I first saw it at a sleepover with my friend at like three in the morning on a movie channel. I didn’t really remember much from the movie because I was so tired and half watching it at the time, so I rented it a few days later and watched it by myself. I immediately fell in love with it, and now I can probably recite every word of it to you. Aquamarine is also one of my very favorite movies. It is based on a book, and I read the book when I was really young and way before the movie was made. When the movie came out I was in seventh grade, and I watched it every day. I knew I would love it because I had already loved the book. Yes, it’s a cheesy love story, but there are many reasons why I love it. It came out when I was in seventh grade, and my best friend moved away when I was in seventh grade. The movie also deals with a girl who moves away from her best friend, and we related to that obviously. We would always quote the movie to each other when we were dealing with a similar problem that they had to go through.  Lastly, there’s Bend It like Beckham. It’s about an Indian girl living in England who wants to play soccer professionally, but her parents and strict Hindu culture won’t allow her to. I think I like this movie so much because I play soccer, and I have actually always been interested in other cultures. It’s a pretty good mix, I think. My favorite movies involve fashion, mermaids, and soccer.

You'll always be my Summer Sister.

My favorite book should come as no surprise. My favorite book is Summer Sisters by Judy Blume. Summer Sisters is one of her only adult novels. It’s a story about two young girls Caitlin and Victoria (or Vix for short), who are total opposites but become best friends and spend every summer together in Martha’s Vineyard. As they grow up, they begin dating two boys, who are also best friends. On Victoria’s seventeenth birthday at the beach, Caitlin betrays Vix by kissing her boyfriend. After that, things begin to fall apart. Vix leaves the cottage that she stayed in with Caitlin and her family, and Caitlin begins dating Vix’s old boyfriend. VIx’s autistic brother also dies, and she has to go home to see to that. They begin to grow further apart when Vix goes to Harvard and gets an education and Caitlin makes a living on odd jobs and travels the world. After years of not seeing each other and barely talking, Caitlin calls Vix up and invites her to her wedding, to the man that Vix had been in love with for ten years. She agrees to go and to also be a bridesmaid, but it’s incredibly difficult. Years pass, and Caitlin has a child but her marriage falls apart. Vix visits Caitlin in Italy, and they have a heart to heart about their pasts together. They reveal that no matter how many boys, arguments, or miles are between them, they will always be best friends (and it makes me cry every time). Caitlin ends up dying and Vix takes care of her daughter, appropriately named Summer. My explanation of it makes it sound unbelievably corny and cliché, but I can guarantee you that it’s not. It’s a great book, and it’s been my favorite ever since eight grade. It also has a special place in my heart because it is almost an exact story of me and my best friend, minus the marriage and children and such. We spend every summer together in a cottage at Crystal Beach, and we are literally like “summer sisters”. Both of us have only brothers, so this story is very relatable to me. It’s an impeccable story that will make you laugh and cry, but you’ll be glad you read it if you choose to do so!

Giving thanks.

I absolutely love the holidays. Thanksgiving, in my opinion, is the perfect way to kick off the season. When I arrive home from school on the Wednesday before thanksgiving, I can thoroughly relax because I know I will be surrounded by my family during the weekend. We have two thanksgiving celebrations, because we go to dinner at my Aunts house and my Grandmothers. The first day, My Dad, Mom, Joe, and I go to my Aunts house and celebrate with my Dads side of the family. My Dad is the youngest of seven children, so we have a giant thanksgiving dinner when we get together with them. Being that he has four sisters, the gathering is at a different Aunts house every year, and sometimes it’s even at ours. I adore going to my other Aunts houses, because they live in North Buffalo and the surrounding areas, and I enjoy spending my time out there. It’s lovely spending the day in a warm, toasty, house that smells like delicious food; all while being surrounded by my numerous cousins that I can chat with for hours. My Dad and his siblings are almost one hundred percent polish, so we have perogies with our traditional turkey and such. Our festivities usually start around two in the afternoon, and we don’t ordinarily leave until eight or nine o’ clock at night. I also always make sure we come home with leftovers like mashed potatoes (because they are one of my favorite foods) and of course pie. That same weekend, we have a second thanksgiving dinner at my Grandmother’s house. It’s a much smaller house and a much smaller family, but just as enjoyable. To celebrate my Mom’s side of the family, we have thanksgiving with my Great Grandma and Grandmother, my Aunt, two Uncles, and cousins. Both of my Grandma’s are exceptional bakers, so I think that is the part of that meal that I look forward to the most. Both celebrations of Thanksgiving are a perfect way to spend the weekend and it really does make me thankful for all that I have!