love, lo

Books I Read: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Oh. My. God.

No book review this time, just two simple words I pray you follow: read this.

last night, I curled up on the couch with my two very best Ireland girls, some caramel apples, and Sleepy Ned stretched across our laps. we sat down to watch the movie we’ve been talking about since we met, P. S. I Love You. it’s about love—but what resonated with us was Ireland. always, always Ireland.

it was Whelan’s. and it was the Wicklow Mountains. and it was everything I remember, and everything I can do to make sure I don’t forget the boundless love, comfort, and joy I felt while in that remarkable country.

and then, it occurred to me. what was making me cry wasn’t the story line, it was missing Ireland down to my very core. something feels so right about that place. for a long time, I felt this unexplainable urge. I knew I needed to go abroad and live for a while “to spread my wings and figure it out,” I told my Momma. and then I did, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I grew up. I spread my wings. I figured it out. and then I came back to Michigan, where nothing quite feels the same, and I still feel the longing pull to go go go — but this time to go back to Ireland.

maybe there’s something waiting for me there. maybe there’s nothing but the green, rolling landscape and the crystal clear water and the music that soothes me every time and the smell of hops and fresh fish in the air. and maybe all it takes is pooling some money, buying a plane ticket and then…spreading my wings. figuring it out. falling in love with that perfect place all over again.

you’re going to move very soon, and it is breaking my heart.

for 21 years, you have been the best mentor, the best consultant, and the best friend a younger sister could ever ask for, and the notion that you’re not going to be right by my side anymore is .. too much.

i’ve had to do so little things in life without you there — either paving the way, or going at it right along with me. you’re about to do some great things in the big, wide world of ours, and that company doesn’t know how blessed they are to have you. i’m so excited for you, and i’m so happy for you, but i’m so miserable, because i want you to stay here, too. my dear brother: i hope you know how very much i am going to miss you. (also, let me stay on your couch, because i won’t be able to keep away too long).

There’s no other love like the love for a brother. There’s no other love like the love from a brother. - Terri Guillemets

dear future husband,

if you don’t love Lord of the Rings at least half as much as I do, then you’re doing it wrong.

(source)

1. fix two important things I broke

2. graduate

3. get myself in better shape

4. find big girl job somewhere grand 

5. not panic too much about the million things that are changing in life

6. embrace everything while it is all still here

happy soon to be 2012. let’s all make it a resolution to be happy, to love, and to eat too much (but like…not have it count towards your calorie count for the day?). and then let’s look back on that year, and sigh, and squeeze each others hands, and say, “damn, that was nice.” / not die in the impending mystery that is dec. 21 2012.