Home Is Where The Heart Is

People often say
that home is where the heart is
and if you asked me
where my home is
I don't know if I would spout off my address
or if I would say

That home to me
is waves crashing on the shore
and the scent of salt in the air
and worn down buildings
and cement stairs
and the sound of flip flops on gravel
and squeaky doors and broken stoves
and ugly bedding.

Home is where kites fly high above,
where cousins swing on rusty swing sets,
and dogs run.

Home is where all the paintings look the same,
and there's a bell in the little shop,
and when you can just tell when you're almost there,
and you've broken out of the trees,
and the cliffs are coming up.

Home is where reeds slap your legs,
where the water is icy cold.

Home is the start of summer,
and comfort food,
and sodas kept in a cooler.

Home is camp fires
and camping chairs,
and little condos
where the floor always has a fine layer of sand covering it,
and the chairs squeak,
and no one can quite figure out the microwave,
or where they've put the spoons this year.

Home is a little balcony
connected to my aunt's room
where dogs squeeze through the bars from one room to another,
and where I can curl up with a book,
and look out over the waves.

So yes,
while home is the brick house I've lived in,
for my entire life,
home is also on the beach shore
at the start of every summer.

On The Road

{Via}

I'm a city girl.  The America that I know is tall buildings, neighborhoods tightly packed with houses, the constant rumble of cars, nature experience only when you walk to the park, or climb the tree on the parking strip.

Road trips give me a small glimpse into the rest of the world, the America that exists outside of my city-bubble.  Because really, that's what cities are.  They're little bubbles or pockets of people, people everywhere.

Rolling hills of grass, yellowed by the August sun, not getting enough water.  Green trees contrasting the grass.  Old houses, old cars, big billboards advertising things that people probably rarely use or buy or go to.  Big green highway signs, produce stands nestled just off the road, cherries for 5$, 'We have avocados!', u-pick blueberries.  Towns glimpsed from the highway, signs saying wrong way, do not pass, exit next left, dirt roads, green street signs perched atop stop signs.  Hot sun streaming into the backseat, fluffy white clouds ringing the circle of sky I can see from the ground  To one side, mostly flat land, to the other, oxymoronic (?) tiny mountains, perhaps classified as big hills.  Exit 20 M.P.H., tiny lakes, barns, identical houses all in a row.  White siding, gray roof, brown fence.  Power lines edging the road, a roadside Dairy Queen, a motor home parked in the parking lot. A rusty car, a beat up truck, a cool orchard of fruit trees, all in a row.

My reflection clear in the window, my hands shadow clear on the paper.  Bizarre roadside contraptions I couldn't begin to figure out.  Cool shade just for seconds at a time, speed 45, McDonald's next left, pickup trucks, motor homes, community college, movie theater.  Cookie-cutter houses, roadside museums, clouds creeping in.  Antiques, hay bales, winding roads, dirt driveways, brief forests full of green trees and blessed shade.

And then we're in the city again, but not my city.  And it's full of tall buildings and people everywhere, and stores, and pay-to-park signs, and trees on parking strips.  And people dancing in the park that used to be a parking lot, and pizza places that make their own fruit soda, and hipster colleges and famous bookstores.  And an old man yelling about the end of the world while his dog looks resigned, and people clamoring about petitions, and frozen yogurt, and the farmers market and a street filled with food trucks.

And then we're off again, and we cross the border back to my state, and it's rush hour and familiar trees and yellowed grass.  And then it's wondering about license plates and finishing books, and pink turtle window stickers, and bumper stickers loudly stating opinions, and no-parking-tow-away-zone signs.

And then it's home again, back to a familiar city, with familiar buildings.  Familiar trees and road construction and businesses and cars and jokes.  Home again, home again after a brief adventure in another state.

A Bit of a Vacation

{Via}

Hello lovelies!

This is just a bit of an update-y post.  But, I just wanted to say that I'm going to be on vacation until the 19th of May, so I will probably not be posting.  I may have one or two, as I will have the laptop with me, but I don't know how likely that is.

Anyways.  I won't be posting because of this.  I will be back after the 19th, though I'm not sure when.

It's funny.  This trip has been planned for months now, but it's only now, the evening before we depart, that it's finally hitting me-- I'm leaving.  I'm packing up my stuff, and just leaving for nine days.  Skipping six days of school, and just... leaving.  It's weird.  In the entire time I've been at my middle school, I've missed two days.  Once in sixth grade, when we went to New York, and once this year, when I hurt my neck.  It's funny to think that in after just missing two days in three years, I'm just missing six more.

And in case you're wondering how I managed to only miss two days-- I don't really get sick.  Colds, yeah, but not really fevers or the flu or anything.  Which is how I managed to only miss two days, and one of them was for vacation.  The other was because I twisted my neck in my sleep somehow.

I'm excited, though.  I'm getting on an airplane-- which, strangely enough, I don't hate.  I kind of enjoy them, in fact.  I like the idea of knowing that I'm going somewhere new-- or not new, but loved-- and getting to have new experiences and memories because of it.

Speaking of it just hitting me-- we literally just sent our dog, Milo, off with the woman who's going to dogsit him while we're gone.  We've known her for years.  Seventeen years in fact, I believe.  She has an adorable little bischon frise, named Bitzer, who adores Milo.  Milo's not so sure about him, though.

Anyways, this was just to let you guys know that I'm going to not really be around for the next week or so.  I hope you all have a lovely ten days while I'm gone.

The Dandy Lioness

Happy Thanksgiving

Hello lovelies!  I wish you all a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it.  To those who don't, I hope your Thursday is fabulous.

Eagle, I'm going with your Snoopy theme.

What am I thankful for?

Blogging, of course, which, though I only recently started, I love.  Also, all my blogging friends.  You guys rock.

NaNoWriMo, for which I would have never actually written a novel.  Also, I have hit 40k.

A special thread on the NaNoWriMo forums, The Purple Elephants.  You guys rock, and I am so glad to have you as my friends.

Family, who I am going to see today.  Also, my sister, who, while I won't see her today, will be coming back for a month in December.  

Friends, who invite me and my family to their cabin for Thanksgiving weekend every year.  It's really fun, and we get our Christmas tree!

Teachers, who gave me no homework (except for a French project, but I just have to outline and color that).  

What are you guys thankful for?

The Dandy Lioness

Welcome to my Cottage

{ Via }

Hello!


Here in the blog-world, you can call me the Dandy Lioness.  In reality, I'm known as Sofia.


There are lots of things I love-- writing, books, Harry Potter, flowers, photography (but I don't really take any pictures myself), quotes, Pinterest (but I don't have an account), talking to blog-friends, reading...  The list goes on and on.  I'm thirteen years old, and have been lurking around the blog-world for almost two years now-- I decided to (finally) take a shot at the actual blog-writing aspect of it.  I go to a public school in the USA that I don't really like.  I take French, but I'm not very good at it.  I read obsessively, and write just as much.  I did NaNoWriMo last year, and won.  I hope to try it again this year.  I've written one novel, one novella, and am about 19,000 words into a new project.  I'm a travel-addict, especially foreign countries.  I have one sister, and she is currently in college.


I probably watch way too much TV, and have WAY too many favorite shows.  Law and Order (and spin-offs), Doctor Who, House, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Community, The Office, The Closer, Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, and Rizzoli and Isles.  (And do note that I don't watch Law and Order weekly, and these shows aren't all on in the same season.  So it's not like I watch a zillion shows in a week.)  Oh!  And Robin Hood BBC.  I'm watching that at the moment.


This summer I went to France with my sister, and we stayed with some of our dear friends who live there.  My family (on my mother's side) is mostly Irish, so I'd love to visit Ireland one day.  I would love to re-visit Paris (I went there a few years ago-- sadly, no visits this summer), the Cinque Terre and London.


My favorite color is purple, but I also love silver, and anything elegant.  My room had goose wallpaper, that my sister picked out when she was six.  It is currently covered in maps, mostly of Europe.  I love pictures of colors-- colored pencils, colored zippers, colored trees. I love elephants too-- and I will often say at the randomest times, "Anything unrelated to elephants is irrelephant."  My friends think I'm crazy, but I'm not so much a loud, jumping around crazy as a quiet crazy that only they ever seem to encounter.


Also, I love floors.  Lying on the floor can just be so wonderful.  Don't look at me like I'm crazy, my other friends do this too.  I also love dancing around our kitchen.


I do gymnastics and take Irish dance.  For dance, I just started hard shoes.  For gymnastics, I've been doing it since I was about six, and still aren't terribly advanced.  I'm blessed to not have any allergies, and I love all kinds of food.  Thai, French, Italian, Mexican, I'll eat it all. Thai especially.


Now, this has gotten long, and rambles quite a bit, so I'm going to end it here.  Hat's off to you, if you read it all.  And in the beginning, I apologize for the fact that the whole URL is there.  I'm not quite sure how to add a  hyperlink, so you get the whole URL.  Please leave a comment (and if you know how to add a hyperlink, please tell me how!)    Thanks for helping, Eagle!


The Dandy Lioness