Whisper Of The Heart

 Isn't it funny how we stubbornly hold on to our opinion of things we know little to nothing about? A couple of years ago I discovered Harry Potter, having grown up in a household that regarded it as dark and witchcrafty I didn't ever watch the films or read the books growing up. Then one day my sister who had seen the movies with a friend decided I should watch the first one, I instantly fell in love and have now read all seven books. Later that same year I decided to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender on a whim and a friend's recommendation. I'd turn up my nose at it for years because A) The first time I ever heard about it was when the movie was coming out and we all know what that was like. B) It was on Nick and I thought everything on that channel must be like Sponge Bob and other stupid cartoons I've hated since I can remember. And finally the stupidest reason, C) Because Aang was bald. And once again all my superficial preconceptions were dead wrong and I was hooked. There are even more examples of me being foolish and judgmental but for now I'll skip to the most recent. So currently my older sister is up towards Orlando doing a photography internship with a friend of our mom's, the two of us bunk together so her absence has left a creepy hush hanging over our room. Now I could simply play some music and take care of some stuff like cleaning, or reading, or actually writing down one of the million and ten novel ideas floating around in my head, but instead I've decided to pass my evenings watching movies. Now usually when sister of mine is gone it's only for a weekend and I'll just rewatch Sabrina and Roman Holiday for the umpteenth time, but since it's still a spanking new year I decided I wanted to watch something I'd never seen before. Since Big Hero 6 wasn't up yet I wasn't left with a lot of options since I wanted to watch something animated. "Ghibi!" whispered a little voice in my head. "Ghibi?" I scoffed, "I don't want to watch a Ghibi movie, those are weird!". Oh, but I did, readers, secretly I did indeed. Lemme tell you where this ill informed opinion came from; A few years ago my Titi (auntie to all the non Hispanics out there) invited me and my sister over to watch a movie, much to my surprise it was animated. And it wasn't even American! My Titi generally doesn't like animated movie so when she put on Howl's Moving Castle I was more than a bit surprised. Oh, Howl's Moving Castle...Word to the wise, if you want to introduce somebody to Ghibi do not start with that movie. Long story short it ended up weirding both my sister and myself out so much we turned it off and watched something else. Now don't think I'm against Japanese animation here, I've watched a small share of anime, and considering at that point it I'd only seen FMA and Bleach I really shouldn't have been that weirded out (not that I've ever found either of those shows normal), but I was. Hence forth I turned up my nose at anything Studio Ghibi, and let me tell you, that made trips to a certain pavilion in EPCOT a little awkward. But seeing all these gifs, screen caps, and fan art on Pinterest and Tumblr got me wondering if all their movies were really as weird as Howl's Moving Castle... And then about a week or two ago after consulting some trusted internet sources I decided to watch Kiki's Delivery Service and found the movie completely adorable. The animation and simple plot warmed my jaded little heart and soon my eyes were glued to the computer screen while I oohed and ahhed. Then tonight I decided to settle in with a slice of leftover birthday cake (I just celebrated my birthday on Saturday) and watch Whisper Of The Heart. I went in with cautiously low expectations only to once again have my eyes locked on my laptop the whole time and find myself cheering when everything ended happily. I started the film knowing very little about the plot except that it was a coming of age story and that Country Roads was somehow involved and I was pleasantly surprised when the main character turned out to be a young writer, and that like Kiki I found her very relatable. When the movie was over I found myself encouraged and my desire to write renewed. I drank up every moment of gorgeous animation, and was surprised to find out that the voices of Riku and Namine from Kingdom Hearts played the two main characters. Now I don't expect to like every single Studio Ghibi flick like most of the internet claims to and I don't expect I'll give Howl's Moving Castle another shot, but hopefully I'll be a little more open minded in the future about these things. That's it for now! Much Love, Gabby    

The Chronicles Of Cookery

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young lady in a Hispanic family must be in possession of decent cooking skills. However little known the feelings or views of such a young lady may be on her first entering the kitchen, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of her surrounding family that it is considered the rightful duty of each and every of the family's daughters.Growing up in a Spanish family all the women in my life had mad cooking skills, my mother, grandmother, various aunts and cousins, and my older sister; I am the exception to this. Try as I might (though my family chooses to believe I'm not actually trying) every time I go in the kitchen it's as if the contents of Pandora's box have been dumped on my head and everything that could possibly go wrong with whatever I'm cooking does. When I was small I had a dream, that dream was to be a pastry chef when I grew up and have my own bakery. I was truly and properly devoted to this dream, I asked for a chef's hat and cook books for my birthday and Christmas, I watched cooking shows devotedly with my mother every afternoon, and when Pixar released a certain movie about a tiny chef I watched it so many times I can now quote every line...But to quote Les Mis, "There are dreams that cannot be". Despite the fact that I was entirely gun-ho on cooking and baking the only times I really did either of those things was when I was at my mother's side doing small jobs like measuring cups of flour or putting the mixer on. Tragically as the years passed my skills didn't blossom into something worthy of my own food network show, instead I ended up as the black sheep of the family. All those years of trudging around the kitchen in an apron that was too big and a Mickey Mouse chef's hat carefully watching the skilled women in my life had gone to waste. As I write this my mother is under the weather so I've been entrusted with the duties of the household and keeping her and myself fed...and when I tell you I suck at it I'm not just putting myself down. With illness bearing down on her appetite I figured all mum would want to eat would be toast (which any idiot can make) and scrambled eggs which seems to be the one thing I'm actually quite good at, and then today she asked for egg salad...Now you must understand one thing, I hate egg salad, I've never eaten it if I can help it and I've certainly never made it. But still I thought, much like my mother probably did, that even I couldn't screw up something so simple. We were terribly wrong. Perhaps there was too much mayo, or maybe too little salt and pepper? I wouldn't know, reader, because I hate the smelly stuff and didn't eat it. I thought it looked fine, I gave a little nod to myself to acknowledge a job well done and whisked the sandwich off to my very hungry patient, all seemed to be going well...And then she took the first bite and her face crinkled a bit and my heart sank to my toes. I apologized profusely before she was even done chewing, stating how it was my first crack at egg salad and I could always add something to it if she wanted. My mother, good woman that she is, assured me that it was perfectly fine and kept on eating. I left her bedside downcast, knowing that she was trying to spare my feelings and that is was in fact not fine at all. Today was a battle lost but I shall try to learn all I can in the ways of cookery and may yet win the war. But on the road to victory I see many burnt pans, smoking stoves and mangled main courses. Until next time, guys. Much love, Chef Gabby.          

Please Look After This Book

January is a comfortless month, all at once we're flung from the warm arms of Christmas time into the cold of a brand new year. When I'm plagued by post holiday blues I find myself seeking comfort wherever I can find it, Disney marathons, watching Roman Holiday for the 80th time, and right now it includes rereading an old favorite, none other than Paddington Bear. Lately I've been in a serious reading rut, I've been making my way through Inkspell slower than a turtle with glue on its feet since October, I've put it down for various things along the way thanks to a lack of patience, The Blood Of Olympus coming out, a Percy Jackson read-along, and certain stories I make a point of reading every holiday season. Normally I'd be reading whatever I got for Christmas this time of the year, but I ended up with the last books in two series I need to reread and just don't feel like it at this point. I didn't intended to pick up the giant collection of Micheal Bond's stories, I found it while rescuing my old Olivia books from a hutch full of reads from the golden days when my siblings and I were little and after hearing about the movie so often lately I felt like reading the first story, now I find myself attempting to make it through the whole collection. It's funny how much more I find myself appreciating books from when I was little these days, I notice things like how charming the characters and style of writing are. It's refreshing after something so heavily detailed with too many characters and POVs to keep track of to read something nice and simple. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't write a children's story, my writing tends to lean more towards young adult fiction, and such books tend to be doomed to obscurity if there's not a love triangle and a block buster movie, but stories like Paddington are enjoyed by generations. Now I'm not saying I could ever write something as iconic as Paddington, I'm merely stating that if I ever manage to get something finished and then, miracle of miracles, published, I'd like it to make a lasting impression, ya know? Anyways, that's it for now. Until next time, guys. Much Love, Gabby

Introductions

Every writer I've known fears the beginning of whatever they're working on, the first chapter of a book, the first line of a poem, and yes, even the first post on a blog. I must confess that I'm rather bad at first impressions, written ones included, so this entry will be brief and to the point.

Hi, my name is Gabby, I have started a blog in an attempt to get my writing out there. Currently I am a high school student with graduation looming ominously in the distance, I hope to be a writer and expect my vague aspirations will have me end up as something else entirely. My Myers-Briggs is INFJ and my Hogwarts house is Hufflepuff, which mixed together makes me a bit of a push over and annoyingly over apologetic. I tend to prefer books to the company of people, I'm a Florida girl who does not enjoy long walks on the beach because I hate walking on sand, I am more than slightly obsessed with Disney, and generally a pretty big nerd.

On this blog you can expect:

Ramblings and ranting.

Probably a bit of bad poetry.

My opinions on books, movies, video games, etc.

And stories and news from my little corner of the universe.

You're probably not wondering about the name of this blog, but just in case I shall explain. The name comes from a line in a song from Mary Poppins; It's the cool bit of Chim Chim Cheree where Bert gets a little wistful and sings, "Up where the smoke is all billowed and curled/'tween pavement and stars is the chimney sweep world/ where there's hardly no day and hardly no night/there's things half in shadow and halfway in light". That reminded be of a quote by Oscar Wilde, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars", both captured my interest and the latter seemed a pretty good description of life to me, so voila!

That's it for now, hopefully I'll have a proper entry up for you soon. Much love, Gabby