Little sisters and ironic beach pictures

As my parents left my friend Abigail and I with my ten year old sister, it was a bit of a problem. On the boardwalk in Pensacola, who knows what she could manage to do. The sun was setting, and because we simply couldn't leave the beach without taking artsy pictures, whether ironically or because we actually wanted to, we came to the realization that it was necessary that Celia was there, because even if she "accidentally" dropped my phone into the sand or off the pier, we needed a cameraman.
Then came the problem that to get a picture of the sunset, you needed to focus the camera on the sunset, and if we needed a picture of our faces, we need it focused on us. Seeing as mostly everyone I know understands that, after the first couple of pictures I looked at the pictures to see that all of them were focused on the sunset, which was okay for some of them, and the others... well I would have to try and edit them. The pier we were on was shaped like a giant T and for a while we were standing on the part that is attached to the land, because we prefer to observe rather than be in the midst of people, and there was a lot of people. At a certain point, the group of teenagers on the end of the pier closest to the sunset, we immediately seized the opportunity and walked to it.
Thank the lord we kept our distance, because almost everyone on the pier was smoking. Saying this as a child whose dad runs a cancer center, I really just don't appreciate the contribution to the air around me. We walked quickly past the groups of people, and to the end of the pier, where I instructed my sister as to what to do and when to do it. Not that the pictures turned out like I wanted them, but luckily my phone has some very handy picture editing apps.
Eventually my phone decided to be difficult and refuse to take any more pictures, and the sun was almost gone anyway, so we went back to the boardwalk where we decided to get pizza for dinner and then some ice cream. Anytime you sit at a small table with a friend and a little sister, almost everything your sister does is annoying.
At the end of everything, when my parents came to tell us we needed to walk back to my beach condo while they went to watch a band preform live across the street, my sister bounced down the sidewalk with them telling them about everything we did and how much fun she had, so at the end of the day, I had some great pictures to edit, and she had fun, so I guess it wasn't so much of a problem anyway.

reading response: City of ashes

I started this book, which is the second in a series, because I read the first a while ago and since then, I met a new friend who is obsessed with the series, and the movie for the first book just came out. As movies can be, the movie was so wrong, and yet so right. But they also said and did things that I don't remember being in the book. Now, normally if I really like a book that clearly has more story to come in the next book, I get and start the next book as soon as I can. I'm not sure why I didn't read this sooner, but because the movie gave a away some things that I felt I desperately needed to understand. Obviously, for people that have patience for the next movie or are simply unmotivated to read, they can just wait for the next movie and get their answers. I am not that person. I am not patient, and I probably would feel guilty if I watched the second movie without reading the books.
So far, they have not cleared up my conflicts (and I feel extremely conflicted at the moment). My main issues relate to things that you think are true from the last book, or unresolved things that went unnoticed by the characters that should hold high importance. In the movie, they managed to make a character say somethings suggesting that the main characters are lied to, and they also managed to show a somewhat emotional moment that lingered on a picture of something that seems very life changing.
Needless to say the person how went to the movies with me and my friend with the obsession with the books, had a long conversation over the phone with us that involved yelling questions and getting those annoying answers, "read the next book," and "you find out soon in the next book."
We did manage to get her to admit the really huge question that had us basically beside ourselves with confusion, and now I'm just waiting for how it is introduced and how the characters react to it.

the city of ashes:
August 25- 2 hours
August 26- 1 and a half hours
August 26 Norton field guide mentor texts- 15 mins
total: 225 mins

outside reading 8/12-8/18

Through the Looking Glass:
8/13- 95 minutes to page 184
8/15- 75 minutes to page 219
total- 170 minutes (unsure of pages because I'm not sure where I started reading on Tuesday 8/13)

Free post~ is there really such a thing as being completely sane?

As you walk through the halls you soon notice that no one is around. The walls are white, and there's no sign of any doors. You wander aimlessly, and just as you begin to panic, you turn the corner to come to a tall white door with black patterns swirling around it. The lines almost seem to dance, but you haven't abandoned sensible thinking. Well you not quite yet.
Seeing that this may be the only way out, and you can't even remember how you got here, you tug on the iron door handle. Now there is no mistaking the movement of the black lines, they move elegantly to write in script, Push. Unsure what to think of the door, you place both hands on the side of the door and crack it open.
You can't process what you see, so you push the door open and step through. You let the door fall closed, and even though you didn't look, it was no longer there. The floor you stand on is impossible to see under a layer of something that looks like clouds, and you can't see the walls where the room ends anywhere.
It is like a forest, it has trees and a creek and bushes. But it is unlike anything you've ever seen. Everything is white, and the leaves on the trees are lined with black. the pebbles in the creek are black and different shades of grey.
You are unsure of the floor's tangibility, so as you begin to take a step you hesitate, then become more sure of yourself. Walking around, you eventually come to a glass door, it puzzles you so you walk around it. It stands alone, its hinges seemingly attached to the air, but you feel compelled to open it. You push the door open and suddenly your standing on the sidewalk in front of your house. This time you turn to see the door, but there is no door. Now you are no longer sure that anything that had happened actually happened and begin to question your sanity. You tell no one, for fear of being sent to a therapist, and forever remember the day you were lost in a place you will never really understand.

reading response: Dracula

               From the time I picked up the book Dracula and really the whole time I was reading it, I felt sure it was going to go out in a big bang. You know, like the Count would put up this big fight and by some miracle the characters would defeat him and in the end there would be this huge sigh of relief when he went down. But no. After everything, after months and months of struggle, they find him in his coffin, fight off a couple of traders and stake him and preform the whole ritual, while he's "sleeping". I was very invested in the characters, and if anyone else got hurt I would be upset but honestly, the famous Count Dracula goes out in his sleep? I've never really been unsatisfied with the death of a "demon" or just a general antagonist but honestly the whole book was about ridding the world of this extremely dangerous creature with "superior and cunning" intelligence, and yet the death of "the woman in black" towards the middle of the book was more extravagant. Suspense, and the fact that they hadn't slain a vampire before could have something to do with that, but the death of the Count had no element of suspense and never did I doubt that they were going to kill him in that moment, and it only took about a page and a half to explain the events in the moments when they found him to when all that was left of Dracula was dust. 

              Moving to another topic, how on earth did Edward Cullen come from something that started with Count Dracula? Where did the majority of twilight and other vampire stories come from? I admire the writers imagination and ability to mold the characters with abilities that need explanation, but honestly the only resemblance between Dracula and the Cullens is that they both drink blood, and the Cullens don't even drink human blood. Also, where did the vampires vs. werewolves come from? In the book, the wolves listened to Dracula. There was the whole ordeal with the missing wolf at the zoo which I never really understood how that fit into the book, but I might have missed something if it wasn't a big thing. 

               I really liked how the book was arranged in journal entries, letters, records, and news paper articles according to when the events took place, because I knew what each character was thinking, and what was happening, even when the other characters didn't know. The only person I didn't always understand what his whereabouts and agenda were was Dracula, but the is obviously not going to be a part of the records they kept while attempting to hunt him down.