# 5 (Books/Reading)

"A well composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter any other way." --Caroline Gordon

"Books are the greatest device for transporting you into another person's mind. Movies excel that depicting action with a bit of talk, theater excels at depicting talk with a bit of action, and radio it all talk. But books can take you deeper into people's thought and feeling than any other media. Until we invent telepathy, books are our best choice for understanding the rest of humanity." --Christopher Paolini

I would have to ditto both of these quotes. I totally agree. I adore books.

I love the smell, the feel, the appearance. I love the smell of old books (like in the library) and the smell of new books (like in a bookstore). I love to see the brand new crisp pages filled with little, tiny letters. Books just waiting to be cracked open and read! Oh! And the old wrinkled, slightly yellow pages of books whose bindings are falling apart, books that have been read and re-read. =) It's so.. beautiful. I love those thick heavy hard bound books. Books that--That contain epic adventures! Books that hold secrets and legacies! I love paper backs. The kind that you can fit into a back pocket or a bag. The old go-to books. Not quite at foreboding... Full of more giggles and fancies.

Books are like friends. They can rescue you. When I've been sad or lonely, I was able to read a book and just for a while be transported someplace else. Someplace full of giggles and inside jokes. Oh! Speaking of being transported... =D You know you've found an amazing book if when in the middle of summer you can be sitting in your room on your bed reading about frost-bitten toes and icy winds, and when you step out into the sunshine and are shocked! The spell is broken... You know that it's 80 degrees and humid, surely not cold and windy! I just am so joyous when I find a book like that! I've been extremely lucky too, as I've found hundreds of such books. =)

Y'all know how someone write an amazing book? One that is either literary genius (Pride and Prejudice) or just has a cult like following (Twilight)? I love those kinda books, but ya know what? When some stupid person somewhere in Hollywood decides to make it into a movie--Ugh! I hate that! I'm never one who enjoys any sorta movie mad from a book. They never get it right, and that just drives me up the wall! I mean... Sometimes it's just not that difficult! My fam hates to watch movies that were first a book. *blush* So yeah... I sometimes like the movie, but that is rare. And anyways... (as I'm sure you might be able to tell from the above) I'm more of a book person anyways. =P

Actually, reading is one of the things that I am most thankful for some days. When I'm sitting curled up on my at midnight with my headlamp on reading some book... I want to run into my mummy's room and wake her up and thank her for teaching me to read! I'm so thankful for my mother. She taught me to read. It was my Mother Ellen that instilled in me this love of reading. As a little girl she'd ever be reading to me. =) Every Christmas and birthday since I was born I have been given books. =D One in particular...

James Herriot's Treasury for Children. My parents gave it to me on my very first Christmas, way back in 1992. In it my mother wrote:

"Dearest Mariah Gayle,
This is but the first of our many wonderful Christmases together. You have brought us so much love and joy. We hope that you enjoy this book but most of all we hope that you learn the love of reading.
Merry Christmas!!
Love,
your adoring parents
Mom and Dad

Even now that makes me well up. =) I did indeed fall in love with books, with reading. =D And it was all thanks to my parents. I thanks God everyday for my amazing parents. That ^ is just one of the things I'm thankful for in regards to my parents. =)

I love reading. I can't imagine not being able to. I cannot remember a time that I couldn't--wasn't reading. I pray that one day I too can teach my kids to read. Help them fall in love with reading, with books.

Oi. Now I think I'm just about finished raving about books and reading. =P I hope that at least some of y'all can relate to and understand what I mean.

Laters,
~Riah

# 4 (Thanksgiving)

^_^ Well... Happy Thanksgiving!!! =D

I know, I know... I'm a bit late for the actual holiday, but you can never really be 'late' when it comes to giving thanks.

I had a wonderful thanksgiving. I spent it at home with my most amazing and loving family. We didn't have anyone to the house. We didn't do anything to terribly special. But it was amazing all the same.

Sadly, I didn't get to do any cooking. =( On Wednesday, I was much to busy cleaning the upstairs, and then the downstairs... I rearranged the furniture in the living room to make room for the Christmas tree. ^_^ I had a lot of fun doing it all. My fabulous little sister, Grace was helping the whole while and even did an entire upstairs bathroom. B-) She learned from the best. *wink* (Yes, I mean me.) All the while Emma and Mummy were coming up with a menu and cooking.

Hehe. On Thursday I actually got up that morning and... ya know... Started my day. Shockin' I know. I bathed and all that good stuff. Then ED and I took Ugali on a walk. =D It was really quite nice. =D I found a lovely stick and crunched through a lot of leaves... The kinda things that make my walks just perfect! ;) We came home and played "Duck, Duck, Bruce" with the midgets... It was happyful. =D

In short, I had an amazing thanksgiving. I'm so thankful for so very much. God is beyond great. He is awesome, amazing, and perfect. I love Him so much.

Here is my post from GenJ of things that I am thankful for... It was perfect for how I was feeling... Hyper and over the top with joy and thanks:

I am thankful for:

--My salvation!
--My family! Mummy, Daddy, Jake, ED, Izzy, Gracie, Mikey, and Ugali!!!
--My amazing friends that for some reason love me. y'all!
--My health and that of mine fam.
--My home, and all that other good stuff like food and clothes.
--Prayer! Being able to speak with God anytime, anyplace.
--Ice cream
--My freedom!
--Smiley faces
--Clouds, rain, snow, sunshine, wind
--Music!!! Especially country.
--Good hair days, high heels, sharpies, and dresses!
--Hugs, snuggles, and kisses.
--GenJ!
--And many multitudes of things more... But I shall spare y'all. I'll just stick to going walks with my sister where together we rattle it all off.
So... Erm... Yeah. =P I guess that is everything... I really do ramble way to much in my posts...
~Mariah

# 3 (Cooking/Meat)

So... I'm not sure why I'm writing right now. I'm watchin' TV, chatting to some peeps... And thinking.

To start, I'd like to say a little something about cooking. I've discovered that I actually enjoy it! ^_^ I've been having quite a bit of fun cookin' supper almost ever night. I do most of the clean up too. =D I find that there is something about it that makes you feel really accomplished! It's fun too. You feel... inventive and creative as you add as spice here, or whatever. I love the clean up even. It's fun to make everything clean and shiny after you made a huge awful mess. ^_^

There is one part that I'm really not that keen on though. It's the whole meat thing. I really don't like meat. I really don't like raw meat. I don't like meat on the bone. I don't like meat that looks like it did when it was alive. I don't like the taste of meat. I don't really like the texture or consistency. I don't like the idea of it either... In general I am weird. BUT!!! Before y'all start lecturing me or commenting that I am a vegan *cough* let me say something else. I do not have a problem with anyone who eats meat. I support it fully. Heck, I eat meat myself. I don't care if peeps go hunting and enjoy it. It seems kinda fun to me too. =D I'm just... not a meat person. =P

So anyways. When I have a large chuck of ground beef that needs to be speedy thawed and I have to keep on stickin' it in the microwave and then touching it and scraping of the soft part to start cooking and the stickin' if back in the microwave and on, and on, and on. -_- It is not a happy thing. And it is highly gross and revolting. *gag* BUT!!! I am getting so much better. I don't really actually gag anymore like I used to. =D

So anyways... =P I made supper tonight too. It was a casserole. That is mostly what I make. Nothin' fancy or complicated. But it tastes good. And it means that mummy doesn't have to cook. Oh. And if I end up makin' dessert?! Holy shitake! Squishy is suddenly the most amazing person in the entire world! ^_^ And let me just say... Being the most amazing person in the entire world just 'cause you made dessert... Well it almost goes to your head! ;)

Anyways... Yeah... Cooking = fun. Touching/eating meat = revolting. =D

# 2 (A rant)

Okay. So... there you are.
Walking your dog. As a matter of fact you are right next to a deer carcass.
You're singing along (Yes, I know. Horrid, but there was no one around!) to "Chicken Fried" by the Zac Brown Band when you suddenly glance up to see a pizza delivery truck.

Now.

Why did you glance up in the first place?

BECAUSE SOMEONE HONKED AT YOU!!!

Now... It doesn't really happen to me all that often. But when it does... Ugh! I get so... upset. I mean... Why? I can see honking at someone you know and then, say... Waving. But that? Just being a rude jerk, honking at a girl walking her dog???

It makes me exceedingly annoyed. And pissed.

Now... I'm shushing up. I'm feeling better to for having yelled out my frustration into this. =) And a question to my reader: Does this ever happen to you? How does it make you feel?

# 1 (Volunteering)

Wow. So I've decided to start a blog. =D Hehe. First, it seems to me that blogs are like... journals. Journals that the whole world can read. Sorta an odd thought, but at the same time, they seem really good for getting what you want to say out there. If you're reading this, then cool. Thanks. You must be exceedingly bored. =P

Something that I enjoy immensely is volunteering. ^_^ I'll volunteer for anything almost. I love it. I've done a lot of it in my 16 years of life and I'll continue to do it. I'm of the opinion that it's volunteers that make the world go round, really.

Anyways, this weekend at my church my family and I volunteered to help out with LINK in our holiday food drive. There was tons of food delivered to our church and then sorted and distributed on all these tables in the Fellowship Hall. We boxed it all up and stacked it behind the tables. It was a lot of work, but there were a lot of volunteers so it didn't take to awfully long. =) My fam and I helped out with all this sorting and boxing on Thursday and Friday. Saturday was the most workingest day. My fam was at the church for 9 hours working. We did a little of everything. Stocked tables, helped peeps "shop", bagged the groceries they chose, cleaned up, hauled tables up and down stairs *a lot* and all the other things that needed to be done.

It didn't seem like we did much. I didn't feel like I was making some huge impact. I didn't really get those "warm fuzzies" that magazines like Seventeen tell you is one of the only reasons to volunteer. (The other being it looks good on college applications.) I wasn't doing it because I was forced. I volunteered my time and skills to help other people. To help the woman who never thought she'd ever being getting food from a food drive, but after an illness of her daughter's, she was compelled to do so. (By the way, I thought that this woman was really quite amazing, and I didn't even get to hear her full story. She even asked me if I thought that the coat drive at another church would be willing to take some of hers, because she had a bunch from before her daughter became ill and was heavier.) My fam and I get a lot of praise for being such great workers. And I guess we are. I mean. We were there *all* day long--longer than anyone save Betty, the woman who was running the whole thing, but I just feel silly and embarrassed having peeps get so excited and thank us so much. It's what any decent person should do. As a Christian, God commands us to do that. To help people. Treat people the way we wish to be treated. That's all I was doing...

So yeah... =P I dunno... I guess I'm not sure if there is even a point in all of this. I just think that volunteering is important, I love to do it, and I think that it's one of the most important things we can do.