Photography

June Photo A Day Challenge 2019

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena

It’s summertime!!!!🙂 In this post you will find the challenge list, some ideas for each day’s prompt and then the list with it’s corresponding hashtags so you can use those on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter if you would like. If you need a refresher on how to play/where to post your pictures click here. If you would like to see my pictures from May you can find them in my May Photo A Day album. Happy picture taking!!

1. This is good
What’s good today? Take a photo and share it.

2. I care about this
What do you care about? Take a photo and share it.

3. Repeat
Something that repeats is something that occurs again in the same form. Can you show something repeating?

4. Herbs
Yum! Take a photo of some herbs, either in the garden or in the kitchen!

5. Object
Take a photo of something! An object!

6. A drink
Cheers! Take a photo of a drink.

7. Perfect
Take a photo of something perfect!

8 Imperfect
Take a photo of something not-so-perfect!

9. Sock
Take a photo of a sock. Sounds boring, right? How can you be creative. Hang it on the line and head outside to take photo of it. Tell a story.

10. A room
Take a photo of a room, perhaps your favorite room!

11. I like to eat this!
What do you like to eat? Share it in a photo.

12. Spotty
Take a photo of something spotty. If you own a Dalmatian, you’re in luck!

13. Open up
Take a photo of something open.

14. Purple
Take a photo of something purple!

15. Chocolate
Yum! Take a photo of some chocolate.

16. In a bowl
What’s in a bowl? Do you have a fruit bowl? Are you making cookies or a salad? Take a photo.

17. Circle
Take a photo of a circle!

18. Peace
Peace baby! Take a photo of something peaceful.

19. I watched this…
What did you watch today? A TV show, kids playing, the sun rising or setting? Take a photo and share it.

20. Money
Take a photo of money. It’s fun to see the different kinds of money from around the world.

21. On my mind
What’s on your mind today? Share it in a photo.

22. Musical
Let’s get musical! Think instruments and music-y things. Snap them in a photo.

23. A story
Share a story in a photo. You could take a photo of a book you love or are currently reading. Or perhaps you can tell a story in your photo and in your caption.

24. Unexpected
Unexpected is not expected or regarded as likely to happen.

25. This season
What season is it where you are? Share it in a photo.

26. I’m passionate about this
What are you passionate about? I’m passionate about dumplings and my family. Share yours in a photo.

27. Sun
Take a photo of the sun. It could be setting or rising.

28. Orange
Take a photo of something orange.

29. On my fridge
What’s on your fridge? Photos? Artworks? Nothing? Take a photo and share it.

30. Hole
Take a photo of a hole. I like donut holes best, what about you?

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Photography

May Photo A Day Challenge 2019

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena

Tomorrow it’s gonna be May (if you didn’t read that in your best *Nsync singing voice I don’t think we can be friends, hehe) and we are officially moved into our new place! Here’s to new surroundings for my picture taking!! 🙂 In this post you will find the challenge list, some ideas for each day’s prompt and then the list with it’s corresponding hashtags so you can use those on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter if you would like. If you need a refresher on how to play/where to post your pictures click here. If you would like to see my pictures from April you can find them in my April Photo A Day album. Happy picture taking!!

Here are the prompts and a little more detail on what they mean. This month it’s pretty obvious though!

1. white
Take a photo of something white!

2. black
Take a photo of something black!

3. red
Take a photo of something red!

4. orange
Take a photo of something orange!

5. yellow
Take a photo of something yellow!

6. green
Take a photo of something green!

7. blue
Take a photo of something blue!

8. purple
Take a photo of something purple!

9. aqua
Take a photo of something aqua!

10. pink
Take a photo of something pink!

11. grey
Take a photo of something grey!

12. brown
Take a photo of something brown!

13. silver
Take a photo of something silver!

14. gold
Take a photo of something gold!

15. pop of color!
Take a photo and show off a pop of color!

16. matching
Take a photo of something that matches. Perhaps a pair, or something that goes together.

17. pastel
Pastel is a soft and delicate shade of color. Show it in a photo.

18. bright
Vivid! Bold! Colorful. Share it in a photo.

19. natural
Natural is usually a tone found in nature, often an off-white color.

20. one color
Take a photo of something that is one color.

21. two colors
Take a photo of something that is two colors. Which colors will you pick?

22. pattern
Take a photo of a pattern. You might see it in nature, or out and about in your travels.

23. black and white
Take a photo of something black and white, or use a black and white filter to make your photo black and white.

24. rainbow
Take a photo of something rainbow in color.

25. my fave color
What’s your favorite color? Take a photo of it.

26. clashing
Clashing is: appearing discordant or ugly when placed close to each other. Can you make two colors or patterns clash?

27. light
Take a photo of something light. It could be a light color, or it could actually be a light, like the sun or a lamp.

28. dark
Take a photo of something dark.

29. what i wore today
What did you wear today? Share it in a photo.

30. on my feet
What did you wear on your feet today? Take a photo.

31. on my head
What’s on your head? Share it in a photo.

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Reading

Review: Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks by Annie Spence

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks by Annie SpenceDear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks by Annie Spence
Published by Flatiron Books on September 26th 2017
Genre: Nonfiction
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 244
Challenge Theme: A book about a hobby


Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:
A Gen-X librarian’s snarky, laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving collection of love letters and break-up notes to the books in her life.

Librarians spend their lives weeding–not weeds but books! Books that have reached the end of their shelf life, both literally and figuratively. They remove the books that patrons no longer check out. And they put back the books they treasure. Annie Spence, who has a decade of experience as a Midwestern librarian, does this not only at her Michigan library but also at home, for her neighbors, at cocktail parties—everywhere. In Dear Fahrenheit 451, she addresses those books directly. We read her love letters to The Goldfinch and Matilda, as well as her snarky break-ups with Fifty Shades of Grey and Dear John. Her notes to The Virgin Suicides and The Time Traveler’s Wife feel like classics, sure to strike a powerful chord with readers. Through the lens of the books in her life, Annie comments on everything from women’s psychology to gay culture to health to poverty to childhood aspirations. Hilarious, compassionate, and wise, Dear Fahrenheit 451 is the consummate book-lover’s birthday present, stocking stuffer, holiday gift, and all-purpose humor book.

Review:
As an avid reader I really enjoyed this book. It was short, quick, and very witty. It also gave me a ton of books to add to my TBR list. This is a perfect gift for any book lover in your life. I would love Spence to write a follow up!

Favorite Quotes:
“Reading has shaped me, guided me, reflected me and helped me understand and connect with, and this is not hyperbole, HUMANITY.”

“If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve experienced bouts of antisocial behavior and “read rage” outbursts toward friends and family. Because, although you participate in society as much as necessary to convince your mom and the shrink your mom hired that you’re not a shut-in, truth is, you’d rather be reading than doing just about anything. Did you think it was just you? It’s not. You’ve just never met any of the others because we don’t want to talk to you either.”

“Even though she could never be an actual librarian because her love for books is only matched by her disdain for the general public.”

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Reading

Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: Fangirl by Rainbow RowellFangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Published by St. Martin's Griffin on September 10th 2013
Genre: Young Adult
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 438
Challenge Theme: A book by an author whose first and last name starts with the same letter


Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:
CATH IS A SIMON SNOW FAN. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan… But for Cath, being a fan is her life–and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fanfiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath that she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend; a fiction-writing professor who thinks fanfiction is the end of the civilized world; a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words…and she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Review:
I have been behind on my reviews and I read this a month ago so I am going to try to remember my thoughts on the book. I know I enjoyed the book but I wasn’t blown away by it. I absolutely LOVED Eleanor & Park so this book had a lot to live up to. The parts of this book I enjoyed was the fan fiction aspect and also the examinations of the different relationships. Unfortunately I did not fall in love with either Cath or Wren, I found them both to be a bit irritating, for very different reasons. I didn’t like how Wren completely ditched her sister knowing how badly she was coping and I didn’t like how Cath was so unwilling to try anything new. Overall it was an enjoyable read.

Favorite Quotes:
“I don’t trust anybody. Not anybody. And the more that I care about someone, the more sure I am they’re going to get tired of me and take off.”

“To really be a nerd, she’d decided, you had to prefer fictional worlds to the real one.”

“Just… isn’t giving up allowed sometimes? Isn’t it okay to say, ‘This really hurts, so I’m going to stop trying’?”
“It sets a dangerous precedent.”
“For avoiding pain?”
“For avoiding life.”

“Happily ever after, or even just together ever after, is not cheesy,” Wren said. “It’s the noblest, like, the most courageous thing two people can shoot for.”

“That moment,” she told Cath, “when you realize that a guy’s looking at you differently—that you’re taking up more space in his field of vision. That moment when you know he can’t see past you anymore.”

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Reading

March Reading Recap!

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena

The books I read this month were just so so. Nothing really stood out as a must read, unfortunately.

Here are my stats for March:

  • Read 4 books
  •  1,325 pages read
  • 1 Fiction; 2 Mystery/Thriller/Suspense; 1 Young Adult
  • Challenge Themes Completed:
    A book set on a college or university campus
    A book with a question in the title
    A book featuring an amateur detective
    A debut novel
  • Favorite book I read this month: The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Below are the books I read this month, click on the book cover to be directed to my review 🙂

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Photography

April Photo A Day Challenge 2019

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena

Welcome April! This month we are moving, after living in our apartment for 5 and a half years, so there will be a new perspective to some of my pictures. We can’t wait! In this post you will find the challenge list, some ideas for each day’s prompt and then the list with it’s corresponding hashtags so you can use those on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter if you would like. If you need a refresher on how to play/where to post your pictures click here. If you would like to see my pictures from March you can find them in my March Photo A Day album. Happy picture taking!!

If you want more help with the prompts, and ideas of what to take photos below, read on:

1. Fun
What do you think of when you think of fun? I think of smiling faces, jumping, confetti and balloons. Jam pack some fun into a photo.

2. This is me
What’s you? Show you in a photo. It could be a self portrait, or it might even be something that represents you.

3. Environment
Environment means your surroundings – so share what’s around you in a photo.

4. Flat lay
A flat lay is basically when you’re shooting items from directly above. Usually those items will be arranged or styled on a flat surface.

5. Walk
Take a photo of someone walking, or a place you walked too, or even the green light on the traffic light that signals for a person to walk.

6. In bed
Well isn’t this a good excuse to lie in and be a little lazy?! Take a photo of in bed. You might like to even set a timer on your camera and snuggle up for the shot.

7. Broken
Broken… not in one piece. Share that in a photo. Sometimes broken things make the most magical photos!

8. Something weird
I honestly think we’re all a little bit weird and wonderful, and if you look hard enough you can find beauty in the weird things around you. Take a look and snap a photo.

9. Yellow
Take a photo of something yellow in color today.

10. I did this today
What did you do today? Share it in a photo.

11. Four
Perhaps you have a child who is four, or you might be celebrating four years of marriage, or you might want to make four cupcakes, or you might find a number 4 sign in your travels. Whatever it is, snap FOUR in a photo.

12. Cheese
SAY CHEESE! Or eat cheese! Take a cheesy photo and share it!

13. Letters
It might be time to bring out the Scrabble letters to make up a word for this photo. Or grab a pen. Or just look for letters in your travels.

14. Makes me laugh
What makes you laugh? For me it’s FRIENDS, my husband, my kids and my silly dog. What about you?

15. Night sky
I hope we have a clear sky tonight. Head outside and take a photo of what you can see.

16. PJs
Will you be vulnerable and share a photo in your PJs? Eek!

17. Lunch
Don’t skip lunch today {or any day for that matter}. Show us what you’re enjoying this lunchtime.

18. Pink
My favorite color! Take a photo of something pink, please.

19. A good thing
I love good things, and I know you do too. So what’s a good thing to you? Share it in a photo.

20. Someone you love
Aww, love. You might be spending time with family and friends this Easter weekend, so share a photo of someone you love. Extra points if you share a photo of yourself. It’s good to love you!

21. Eggs
Yum, EGGS! Preferably the chocolate kind. Can you share a photo of eggs today? Might be good reason for an egg hunt. If you don’t celebrate Easter, normal eggs are fun to shoot too!

22. High
Get high! Not really. I mean, go high and take a photo looking down. Or get low and shoot a photo looking up.

23. Apple
Potentially the most popular fruit in the world, take a photo of a delicious apple.

24. Grass
I have a feeling that macro-lovers are going to love this one. Take a photo of grass. Use your phone or camera to get a close up of the bright green strands of grass.

25. Low
So we got high a few days ago, now it’s time to get low. How can you show the difference from your earlier photo?

26. Blue
Beautiful blue! Take a photo of anything {absolutely anything!} blue!

27. A green food
It’s time to eat your veggies, or maybe find another green food… and take a photo!

28. Dirty
It’s time to get dirty – take a photo of something dirty. Perhaps your dog/pet has played in the mud, or maybe your kitchen is a bit chaotic – whatever it is, we want to see it!

29. Freedom
What does freedom feel like to you? For me, it’s being on the beach, alone, early in the morning before the world has really started to wake… watching the sunrise. Show us in a photo.

30. Golden hour
Golden Hour is the hour before sunset. It’s when the sky is golden and the light is soft. Google when the sun sets in your area and head out with your camera just before it happens!

 

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Reading

Review: The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: The Perfect Mother by Aimee MolloyThe Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
Published by HarperCollins on May 1st 2018
Genre: Mystery + Thriller + Suspense
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 317
Challenge Theme: A debut novel


Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:
They call themselves the May Mothers—a collection of new moms who gave birth in the same month. Twice a week, with strollers in tow, they get together in Prospect Park, seeking refuge from the isolation of new motherhood; sharing the fears, joys, and anxieties of their new child-centered lives.

When the group’s members agree to meet for drinks at a hip local bar, they have in mind a casual evening of fun, a brief break from their daily routine. But on this sultry Fourth of July night during the hottest summer in Brooklyn’s history, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is abducted from his crib. Winnie, a single mom, was reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a babysitter, but the May Mothers insisted that everything would be fine. Now Midas is missing, the police are asking disturbing questions, and Winnie’s very private life has become fodder for a ravenous media.

Though none of the other members in the group are close to the reserved Winnie, three of them will go to increasingly risky lengths to help her find her son. And as the police bungle the investigation and the media begin to scrutinize the mothers in the days that follow, damaging secrets are exposed, marriages are tested, and friendships are formed and fractured.

Review:
When there are no quotes that stick out to me in a book that usually isn’t the best sign. To me this book was just so so. The positives are that it kept my interest well enough and I did enjoy SOME of the characters. The story itself had potential but I absolutely HATED the twist at the end, see spoiler section for why. I found the going back and forth to be a tad confusing at the beginning. Once I got a handle on all the different character perspectives it got to be better. I have high expectations for the mystery/thriller genre and to me this just didn’t deliver.

***SPOILER ALERT***

When I found out that the culprit was Scarlet all I said was “who?” I didn’t even remember that character so I was just so disappointed that some character out of nowhere was the culprit. Maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention. Then I had to go back to read the flashbacks to understand that they were Scarlett when they were made to seem to be Winne’s POV. I found that part interesting, after understanding I was reading it from the wrong perspective, but not enough to save the ending for me.

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Reading

Review: The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: The Last Time I Lied by Riley SagerThe Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
Published by Dutton Books on July 3rd 2018
Genre: Mystery + Thriller + Suspense
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 370
Challenge Theme: A book featuring an amateur detective


Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:
Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she–or anyone–saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings–massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends.

Yet it’s immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp’s twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.

Review:
When I really LOVE a thriller it sucks me in from the start and I can’t put it down, usually finishing it within a couple days. This book did not do that for me. It took me a while to get into it but about halfway through I started to get really invested in learning what happened to Vivian, Natalie & Allison. I can’t talk too much more about it without spoiling anything so I will continue below with a spoiler alert.

***SPOILER ALERT***

From the start I had a feeling Chet was the person involved in the original disappearance and the subsequent harassment of Emma and disappearances of the new girls. Turns out I was only part right. When it was revealed that the girls accidentally drowned the first time around I was annoyed. Like really? I invested all this time reading for it to be an accident. Lame. You can imagine when I read that final chapter how shocked I was. I did not see that coming, not even a little bit. I have to say thank goodness that was the choice the author made because had it really ended with it being an accident the rating on this book would have been a lot less. The whole Chet getting revenge on Emma would not have been enough for me. The book definitely ended on a high note, like a thriller should.

Favorite Quotes:
“Sometimes the only way out is through.”

“Everything is a game, Em. Whether you know it or not. Which means that sometimes a lie is more than just a lie. Sometimes it’s the only way to win.”

“Omnes vulnerant; ultima necat. I remember the phrase from high school Latin class, although not because I excelled at the language. In fact, I was terrible at it. I remember only because it sent a chill through me when I first learned what it meant. All hours wound; the last one kills.”

“My future is quite literally a blank canvas, waiting for me to fill it.”

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Review: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria SempleWhere'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Published by Little Brown and Company on August 14th 2012
Genre: Fiction
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368
Challenge Theme: A book with a question in the title


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Synopsis:
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle–and people in general–has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence–creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter’s role in an absurd world.

Review:
So this book was just ok to me. I will start with the things I did enjoy. I really liked the format of the first half of the book with the varying between narration from Bee to emails/memos/faxes all from different characters. At first I found it to be very confusing but once I got used to it I did enjoy it. I do feel, however, that it went on for a bit too long. The synopsis of this book makes it seem like the disappearing of Bernadette is the main plot of the story but that happens pretty late in the book. Going in I thought I was going to be reading a book about a daughter trying to find her mother but it was more about what led up to Bernadette disappearing. The middle part of the book, discussing Bernadette’s past, was just meh to me. I wanted to rush through that part. The last part of the book that finally delved into Bernadette’s disappearance held my interest, mainly because I wanted to know what happened to her. Unfortunately I found all that a little far fetched at the end of the day. The one story line I really did not like was the Soo-Lin & Elgie relationship. It felt like added fluff that wasn’t needed and quite frankly really bothered me as a reader. Final verdict: there was nothing I LOVED about this book but it was an entertaining enough read for the most part and I am interested to see what they do with the movie.

Favorite Quotes:
“My heart started racing, not the bad kind of heart racing, like I’m going to die. But the good kind of heart racing, like, Hello, can I help you with something? If not, please step aside because I’m about to kick the shit out of life.”

“That’s right,’ she told the girls. ‘You are bored. And I’m going to let you in on a little secret about life. You think it’s boring now? Well, it only gets more boring. The sooner you learn it’s on you to make life interesting, the better off you’ll be.”

“Just because it’s complicated, just because you think you can’t ever know everything about another person, it doesn’t mean you can’t try.”

“I felt so full of love for everything. But at the same time, I felt so hung out to dry there, like nobody could ever understand. I felt so alone in this world, and so loved at the same time.”

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Review: I Was Here by Gayle Forman

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: I Was Here by Gayle FormanI Was Here by Gayle Forman
Published by Viking Press on January 27th 2015
Genre: Young Adult
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 270
Challenge Theme: A book set on a college or university campus


Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:
Cody and Meg were inseparable.
Two peas in a pod.
Until . . . they weren’t anymore.

When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question.

Review:
This book was just ok, not bad but not great. I enjoyed the aspect of Cody trying to come to terms with her best friend’s suicide by trying to figure out why she would do that. Unfortunately when it comes to suicide no one ever really knows. I found the fact that there are suicide encouragement groups online horrifying. Not that it surprises me in today’s world but it is horrifying nonetheless. I also enjoyed how the relationship between Cody and her mother developed over the course of the book. What I didn’t love was the romance aspect between Cody and Ben. I just didn’t find it necessary to the story at all. I didn’t mind the relationship being in the story but would have made more sense as a friendship, at least to me. I found it to be a forced romance in a book about something else entirely. Also I probably could have found a better book to fit the theme. While some of this book is set on a college campus the majority was not. Oh well, you live and you learn!

Favorite Quotes:
“You had a pile of rocks, and you cleaned them up pretty and made a necklace. Meg got jewels, and she hung herself with them.”

“It’s funny how once you start pretending, you realize how much everyone else is too.”

“She didn’t tell me that she found life to be so unbearably painful. I mean, I didn’t even have a clue.” A kind of laugh escapes, and I know that if I’m not very careful, what follows will be something I don’t want to hear, that no one wants to hear. How can you not know that about your best friend? Even if she doesn’t tell you, how can you not know? How can you believe someone to be beautiful and amazing and just about the most magical person you’ve ever known, when it turns out she was in such pain that she had to drink poison that robbed her cells of oxygen until her heart had no choice but to stop beating? So don’t ask me about Meg. Because I don’t know shit.”

“Life can be hard and beautiful and messy, but hopefully, it will be long. If it is, you will see that it’s unpredictable, and that the dark periods comes, but they abate — sometimes with a lot of support — and the tunnel widens, allowing the sun back in. If you’re in the dark, it might feel like you will always be there. Fumbling. Alone. But you won’t — and you’re not.”

“It seems abstract when you’re dealing with people online, but they are still people, and some of them are not nice people, not the kind you ever want to be in a room with.”
Sometimes you don’t even need to be in the same room for the damage to be done.”

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