Lately, I've been a Harry Potter craze. I've been listening to Harry Potter Podcasts, rereading the books, rewatching the movies, looking up theories about Harry Potter. I even bought the first two books at Goodwill because I never owned them. When I first read Harry Potter I checked them out of the library. My love for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter began at age 5. I know what you're thinking, how could you have read a book like Harry Potter at age 5? You're right to believe that I was too young to fully understand what I was reading. I read it and immediately forgot minor plot points and that is to be expected at such a young age. However, even though I did not fully understand what I was reading I loved what I did understand! I was immediately hooked. Upon completion, I checked out Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Once again, I didn't fully understand what I was reading but I loved it. My mom knew I had a love for these characters and bought me the first two movies on VHS and DVD. I watched them day in and day out I scratched the DVDs because of constantly putting them in and out of the DVD player. My mom and I were obsessed with Harry Potter and read each book and saw the movies. Well, recently, I decided to fall into peer pressure and create an account for the Wizarding World (formerly know as Pottermore) and took the Hogwarts house, wand, and Patronus quizzes. Here were my results: Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw Patronus: Nebelung cat Wand: Pear. I was rather shocked at my results because I always thought I would have been placed into either Slytherin or Hufflepuff. I know, what odd choices. When I got Ravenclaw I was confused because I don't see myself smart enough to be in Ravenclaw. It didn't seem to be the right fit upon initial impression. After doing some research on Ravenclaw I found out that they’re more than just smart nerds. They're creative, loyal, witty, and other things I felt described me. Being a Ravenclaw grew on me rather quickly.
As for my Patronus, I hate that I have a cat! One, I hate cats. And, two, I hate that I have the same Patronus as Dolores Umbridge! Ugh, oh well upon doing further research on why my Patronus is a cat I found this description: "Having a Nebelung cat as your Patronus means you find comfort in and are strengthened by understanding. You prefer to know everything about a situation, and you don't like it when something is new or surprising (like a stranger)." After reading that, I guess that's perfect for me. I still hate that my Patronus is a cat though! Lastly, my wand is a Pear. I wasn't upset when I got this wand because honestly, I didn't know much about what each wand represented in the first place. Upon doing research on the wands this is what I found about a Pear wand: "This golden-toned wood produces wands of splendid magical powers, which give of their best in the hands of the warm-hearted, the generous and the wise. Possessors of pear wands are, in my experience, usually popular and well-respected. I do not know of a single instance where a pear wand has been discovered in the possession of a Dark witch or wizard. Pear wands are among the most resilient, and I have often observed that they may still present a remarkable appearance of newness, even after many years of hard use." I think I can live with this. The description of the wand takes me back to therapy when my therapist would praise me for my resilience to move forward after hardship and trauma. I won't lie I felt very proud to have gotten this as my wand. Are you a Harry Potter super fan like I am? What is your Hogwarts house, your Patronus, and your wand? Let me know in the comments! If you don't know any of these things but would like to you can find out at: https://www.wizardingworld.com/ It is free to sign up! ;)
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Yesterday while Anthony was at work he came across a puppy tied to a tree, malnourished, and left out in the cold. He decided that if the puppy was still there after he got off of work he would bring it home with him. Well, Anthony went back and the poor pup was still there so he brought him home. Upon Anthony and the pup arriving at the house, I already knew of his plan and welcomed the pup with loving arms. We fed him, gave him water and bathed him. He was a bit smelly. We even named him. His name is Jack! We don’t know his breed but I see a terrier of some sort mixed with something else. He had a harness and a collar with a tag on him. So, I looked up his tag on Pet Link and the tag belongs to a Siberian Husky named Dasher. I’m 99% certain that this tag doesn’t belong to Jack. I am being responsible and looking out for a possible owner looking for their missing pup. We don’t know if he actually has an owner but even if he does he was clearly neglected. I think Jack is better off in our care. We plan to nurse this pup back to health and potentially keep him. Anthony and I love animals and it kills us to see them in harm's way. I love that Anthony rescued Jack. It shows what an amazing person he is.
In April of 2018, I joined a local community of women and contributed to their blog. After almost two years of the blog being shut down, it's given me a lot of time to think. In this time, I've come to realize I joined Cushy for all the wrong reasons. I started reading Cushy in early 2017. Around the same time, I started building a website for my blog. I started my blog with the intent to share my random thoughts and coping mechanisms with the world, in hope that maybe I could become an advocate for people with similar stories to my own. I started adding content to my site in March of 2018. As expected, I didn’t have a lot of followers. In fact, I think I only had one follower and it was my Mom. (Hi Mom! I love you!) At first, I didn’t let the number of followers affect me. I was just glad to be sharing my content with the world. Well, as mentioned before I was already a follower of Cushy. I loved what Cushy was about. I followed them on all of my social media. I LOVED this blog and wanted to be apart of it. I did everything possible to be noticed. I was a huge stalker. I am not afraid to admit it anymore. Well, once I got the attention of Cushy’s CEO and she offered me a position as a contributor I accepted with no hesitation. Yes! I was now a part of something wonderful! At the time of becoming a contributor, I noticed a change in myself. I noticed a shift in the reason why I was writing. Originally, I wrote because of my love of writing and being able to share my writing publicly. Now, I was writing to gain followers. Deep down I knew the true reason I joined Cushy, but I refused to admit it. Now, after almost two years of the blog being down I have come to accept the real reason why I joined their community in the first place. To put it simply, I joined Cushy to gain followers and get my work published in print. Before joining, I knew their goal was to publish a magazine. Knowing that I used it as the fuel to get noticed and become a contributor. A very selfish reason to join a community of women artists. It took me this long to accept the truth, and I am willing to admit I screwed up. Bad! I befriended some of the contributors on Facebook and followed them on other forms of social media as well. I became obsessed with these women and their lives. I was especially obsessed with the CEO. I wouldn’t leave her alone. I wanted to contribute more to the blog. I wanted so much more. I was crazy! Luckily for me, she didn’t seem to care (at that time.) Cushy had already printed the first issue of their magazine. As you can imagine, I ordered it and loved it! I became even more obsessed with being published I made sure I had the chance to be a part of the next magazine. I got approval and was asked to send in submissions. I sent in my submissions, got them edited and sent back to me, then came the day where I got that email. I got the email that Cushy was coming to an end. All my hard work, my dream of having my work published in print was being stripped away from me. I was extremely hurt. We had the opportunity to publish our final pieces written for the website before the site shut down, but I refused to publish mine because it wasn’t truly worth it in my eyes. I will admit I was rude at the end. I’m amazed Liz and Erin even talked to me after that. Well, I figured I might as well not waste my hard work and I published my submissions (meant for the magazine) onto My Heart Beats NM. I also got inspiration from other contributor’s ideas on the shared google doc for the second issue of the magazine. Someone told me afterward that I was stealing the ideas of others. Yes, I used their initial ideas but created something of my own. I was inspired by the ideas of others. My intention was never to steal their work but some feel I blatantly stole ideas and were quite upset with me. Then a few months after, I was ghosted by two of the contributors I looked up to. It truly hurt being deleted and blocked by these women. But now, after time to accept the past for what it is. I don’t blame them for doing what they did. I mean, look at what I did. I stalked and bossed my way up to the top, and where did it get me? It got me ghosted, upset with myself, and with no published work. If I could take it all back, I would. I wish things had never gone the way they did, but it’s my fault this happened. I let popularity get the best of me. I refuse to let something like that happen again.
Initial thoughts: Man, I wish Anthony had woken me up at 5 am! Daylight is burning you jerk! Also, eff this tent. It keeps smacking me in the face because of the wind!
Well, today Anthony and I hit screw it and decided to hunt from 7 am-10 am then call a quits. In the 3 hours, we looked around we didn’t see a single Buck. We did see 5 Bulls though. They must have been bachelor’s because they were moving together in a herd. There was no Cow insight. We then went to Sleepygrass Canyon (behind Cloudcroft). No luck. Miguel has to leave today because he needs to take his daughter to school tomorrow morning. Anthony and I wanted to stay till Thursday to try again tomorrow morning, but since we are beating Ol Red we don't want to risk not making it home. We packed up camp and left at 1 pm. This hunt was far from easy! We didn't even make a dent in our unit. We went to all the places that others have been lucky and we saw nothing. The wind also snapped our tent poles. That's why it kept collapsing on my face… It sucks we had to leave but it's better than not having a tent to sleep in and still coming out with nothing. Overall, I had a wonderful time hunting with my love. I will definitely put in for hunting with Anthony again. Maybe the next time we go hunting we will come out with something. Thanks for sticking this out with me and I hope you enjoyed my rants. Have a great rest of your week! Initial thoughts: Do you know how many tree stumps look like Deer bedded? Too many!
It’s super windy here at Unit 34 and our tent keeps collapsing on my face! We started our day near our camp and dropped Miguel and Brownie off on the top of 16 springs and he walked down to the valley. While Miguel did that, Anthony and I drove to Potato Canyon which is behind where we dropped off Miguel. Potato Canyon was a four-wheeler trail and very scary for the two of us and Ol Red. Thankfully we made it through and we went back to get Miguel and Brownie. After our near-death experience on Potato Canyon we went back to Mayhill, but today we went to the north side and the southeast side instead. Today was our first day seeing actual Bucks! Unfortunately, they were laying in a shady spot in the Mayhill graveyard. So they were off-limits since that is private land. Never underestimate a Deer they are quite smart! We hiked Bible canyon and as usual, Anthony took a bit of a detour off the trail. We saw a beautiful valley and it looked promising. But slacker me didn’t have my phone and couldn’t take a picture of it. (Booo.) Trust me when I say it was stunning. Upon getting to the top of Bible canyon Anthony and I rested and took a selfie. (We are millennial don’t judge us!) We hiked back down and the entire hike roundtrip was 4 miles. Thankfully that hike was nowhere near as bad as yesterday. It helped that I ate beforehand but still. I forgot to mention this morning when we looked in our usual spot near camp we ran into 4 cow elks and 1 bull. Oh, and guess what else we saw? More Doe! Ugh! Why did the only Bucks we saw have to be in private land? Well, isn’t that how it works? When you hunt you see everything but what you are actually hunting. Today’s Doe count is 15. Bull count 1. Cow count 4. Let’s see what tomorrow brings! Initial thoughts: I’m sleep deprived and my alarm just went off. Snooze! I couldn't really sleep last night because the corner of our tent (where I sleep) kept collapsing on my face and almost suffocated me. Throughout the night I kept catching it and trying to push it back up. Anthony could tell I was irritated and told me to just leave the tent alone. When I didn't do that, he bungeed the tent down to Ol Red. It helped, but I already lost too much sleep.
We started our day at approximately 7 am. We walked about 5 miles in the canyon behind the campsite. That walk was pretty painful. I was sore from hiking yesterday. Oh, and just in case you all forgot, I fell pretty hard. I’m pretty sure I have bruises from yesterday. My feet hurt and I was getting hungry. Nobody wants to deal with a hungry Drea. We hiked all the way back to camp and we ate breakfast. I don’t think I have ever been so happy to eat in my life. Chris, Martha, and Stephanie had to take off back to Albuquerque today. They left at about 1 pm. It was fun hanging out with them. I enjoyed not being the only female amongst all the males. After they left, Anthony, Miguel, I and Brownie shot up to Mayhill and visited Curtis Canyon and Graveyard Canyon (I think that was what the second place was called). I had to take pictures of the beautiful scenery out in Mayhill. I absolutely love how beautiful New Mexico is. After passing through each canyon and not seeing anything but hunters and Doe we went back to camp. Anthony and I were hopeful and went down by the water hole again to see if we saw anything. Once again, we saw nothing. Total Doe count: 15. Initial thoughts: Holy shit it's cold! Thank goodness Anthony and I brought our Heater Buddy. I'm wearing my thick camo clothes today!
Anthony and I woke up at 5 am and headed West. Anthony and I decided to hit up a canyon near our campsite first. Rather than take the trail, we decided to make our own trail. It was a good idea until Anthony slipped on a rock. He got up and continued walking. I noticed where he fell and was more careful in that particular area. Not even 2 minutes later I slip and fall. I hit my elbow and butt pretty hard. Pretty sure I got a big bruise on my butt. I also scratched my .224 Valkyrie, but no major damage was done to me or my rifle. I contemplated breaking up with Anthony while sitting on the ground... Haha just kidding. After both of us fell, we decided to stick to trails from then on. While hiking it got hot so we decided to head back to camp to shed some gear and layers and continue hiking. It was much cooler wearing my lighter jacket and made the hike much more enjoyable. After hiking a few hours and having no luck we came back to camp to eat breakfast. After eating we hopped into Ol Red (Anthony’s Truck) and we went road hunting. That was way easier for me especially since I was pretty sore from my fall. Anthony and I went in Ol Red and Chris, Miguel (Anthony’s cousin), and Brownie (Miguel’s dog) went in Chris’ side by side to see if we could find any Bucks. We saw was Doe all over. What baffled me was seeing so many Doe but no Bucks anywhere. After hunting all afternoon we came back to camp empty-handed. Martha and her daughter Stephanie said they saw a fork by the water hole near our campsite and Anthony and I decided to check it out. Just like earlier we only saw Doe. Chris had taken Martha and Stephanie on a ride on the side by side and when they came back they told Anthony, Miguel and me that they saw a lot of Doe and maybe we would be lucky. Chris took us on the side by side where he saw the Doe and we hiked for a few miles but saw nothing. Our total Doe count for today one was 25. This mini-series is based on my experience while going hunting for the first time with Anthony. I've decided to document each day describing my initial thoughts and overall experiences throughout my trip. We are hunting Deer in Unit 34 of New Mexico. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope you enjoy! Initial thoughts: Man that was a long drive. I really need to pee! I'm totally fine doing my business in the woods I just need to find a hidden area from the road and a nice tree.
I've passed through Cloudcroft before but never really paid attention to how beautiful it is. I think I am going to enjoy it here. It's definitely going to be the R&R I need. We just finished setting up camp and we decided to make a quick but yummy breakfast. We made breakfast burritos using Anthony's new camp chef! Let me tell you, using the camp chef made cooking 1000x easier! After breakfast, I pulled out my chair, put my feet up and read a few chapters in the book I'm currently reading to relax. Around 5 pm we lit a fire and made dinner. (Beans and Red Chile, yum!) It was a wonderful day. I was super tired from leaving Albuquerque at 5 am and wanted to go to bed early. But, our friend Chris and his girlfriend Martha didn't arrive until 9:30 pm. So I toughed it out until they got there then called a quits and went to bed shortly after. The men and Martha stayed up until after midnight and I was alone in the tent freezing to death until Anthony came to bed. These nights are going to be killer. Let’s see how tomorrow goes for day one of our hunt! With the Joker movie out everyone is developing theories about the movie and choosing their new favorite Joker. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and compare Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix and choose which actor played the iconic character better. I am choosing the better of the two by five categories: style/look, convoluted plots, laugh, motivations/madness, and finally voice. There are some spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen The Dark Knight or the new Joker movie, so this is my spoiler warning! With that being said, here we go! Style/look Phoenix: Phoenix wears more of a traditional suit and for the most part it follows the typical color scheme of Joker. Purple (or in this case burgundy), yellow and green. He also rocks green hair and a traditional clown look for his face paint. He has blue triangles around his eyes, red eyebrows, and red lips. Ledger: Ledger, like Phoenix, rocks a purple suit. Where they differ in regards to the suit is Ledger's suit, has a long trench coat and has no trace of yellow in his suit. Apart from that, it's a standard Joker suit. Ledger also rocks green hair and a white face, but he has black around his eyes. He also has red lips, and oh yeah, don't forget about his scars! This category was tough for me to choose one. I love both of their looks and I had to narrow it down to what I love most about the Joker. With that being said, I am a girl who loves the classics so I chose Joaquin Phoenix for this round! Convoluted plots Phoenix: He doesn't plan to start a movement when he killed the guys on the Subway. He was just protecting himself. He also didn't plan to be on the Murray Franklin show. What he did plan was killing himself on live TV, but ended up killing Murray instead. In this adaptation, I see Joker more as a psychotic killer. I know, the Joker is a psychotic killer, but he does it in a different way. Ledger: Even though Heath Ledger's Joker claims he's not a guy with a plan, he totally is. He planned to corrupt Harvey Dent into madness. He wanted to show people that anybody can take on a life of crime by being pushed to their limits. He may not have used the Joker's gags such as gas, joke toys, and others but he planned something to get into the heads of the people of Gotham and the crime bosses. Since Phoenix never really planned anything this round goes to Ledger. Laugh Phoenix: Joaquin Phoenix and director Todd Phillips were very open about the origins of the laugh Phoenix used. Phillips had Phoenix watch videos of people who suffer from Pseudobulbar Affect and he based his laugh on those videos. I remember watching the trailer and that laugh made me cringe. What makes it more creepy is it comes out of nowhere. It typically starts off low and quiet, but then quickly goes into a cringing high pitch. Ledger: Heath Ledger literally locked himself away for weeks preparing for this role! My interpretation of his laugh is no one truly knows what laugh he will use at what time. Ledger uses different laughs for different situations. Sometimes his laugh is high pitched and quick. Sometimes it's low, slow and diabolical. He is completely aware of the right time to laugh, and it's usually at a time that torments not only the person he is interacting with but the viewer as well. Both laughs made me cringe at one time or another, but I have to give this one to Phoenix too. I left the theater hearing that laugh in my head and it gave me chills. Ledger's laugh has been my ringtone and doesn't give me chills. Motivations/Madness I have labeled this category as motivations/madness because I'm measuring it by cringe-worthy moments. Phoenix: Joaquin Phoenix's Joker is flat out psychotic! He is diagnosed with a mental illness and has uncontrollable laughter. Most people in the movie find Arthur odd/creepy. He is isolated by society and after killing the men on the Subway, stopping therapy and stopping his meds, he lets his madness take over. He kills Murray Franklin and tells him he deserved it. I left the theater happy but slightly paranoid. Ledger: "Some men just want to watch the world burn." Ledger's Joker was intense. You never knew what to expect. He played a lot of mind games to get what he wanted. He tortured people, took people's lives, blew up a hospital, and burned the money he "earned" from crime bosses just because he could. With that being said, Ledger's Joker wasn't as cringe-worthy as Phoenix's. Ledger killed it getting into the head of the Joker, but Phoenix made me question how I treat people. This one goes to Phoenix! Voice Phoenix: Joaquin Phoenix used a mellow quieter voice. His voice is empathetic and calm. It isn't until he starts killing people that he remotely sounds the way I believe the Joker should. He is rather polite most of the movie and even after his kill list grows he still sounds polite. That made his voice that much creepier because to the public (and maybe the audience) he's just a regular guy we could come in contact with daily. Ledger: Heath Ledger went with more of a standard villain voice. It's raspy and go can go from one extreme to the next. His voice is recognizable, you can definitely distinguish the Joker just by his voice if you were blindfolded. Just like his laugh, he changes his voice for each situation. He can be calm and polite like Phoenix or lower his voice to an intense growl. This category wasn't easy for me to decide, but I'm going to have to give this round to Ledger. I went this route because to me, he is what I feel the Joker should sound like. Going from one extreme to the next depending on the situation and making people cringe just by the sound of his voice. Don't get me wrong, Phoenix being polite and quite the majority of the movie along while killing people made him super creepy but I didn't feel he lived up to the Joker we all know and love with the voice he chose. Finally, with that being said, the final tally goes: two to Heath Ledger and three to Joaquin Phoenix. It was difficult being objective when these categories are subjective, but I think with my explanations I was pretty fair. This was a contest to see which Joker was better of the two different actors. However, I feel they both killed it with their performances. Ledger got an Oscar for his performance and I believe Phoenix deserves one too.
Who is your favorite Joker and why? Let me know in the comments! Hi everyone! I decided to go into my drawers and closet and clear out old clothes I don’t wear anymore. I am the person who wears the same four t-shirts and same 3 pairs of pants (that aren’t workout clothes.) So you can imagine how much clothes I have that I don’t wear or even remember existed. I call it my Fall cleaning project. I started cleaning out my drawers and pulled a lot of t-shirts. I made two piles: keep and donate. It was a lot harder than I thought to put clothes into the donate pile. I have come to learn that I am a hoarder of clothes. Some clothes have sentimental value, some I just never had the chance to wear. I told myself it didn’t matter what my reasoning was to keep them, there are others in need who could use these clothes. Currently, I am still working on my drawers but as soon as I finish I will move onto my closet. I work on it little by little each day. My goal is to finish clearing out my old clothes and donate them to Goodwill by Saturday. I’ve said for the past few years I wanted to donate old clothes but never did it. This year is different. I want to do something to help my community. This task may be a bit difficult but I am glad I am doing it.
Have you ever donated old clothes? If so, how did it make you feel? Let me know in the comments! |
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