Wuthering Heights has been controversial from its very beginning. It is two parts romance, six parts mental dysfunction, one part ghost story, and engaging from beginning to end in any adaptation. People love it because the characters are batshit crazy and extreme in ways most of us never even dream of being, yet they confront very common issues.
Heathcliff : Everyone thinks they are above me. I'll show them.
Catherine : I love the dark brooding handsome bad boy, but I love the sensitive, sweet guy who can give me a better future too.
Edgar : I like this girl, but damn, she is crazy!
Isabella : Heathcliff is so attractive and dark. I bet I could change him. He'd never hurt me. He loves me. Right?
Wuthering Heights also does something pretty unique that internet fandoms do all the time. It continues on and shows you the children of the pairings you know and love and how they interact beyond the watchful eyes of their parents. Where the first half of Wuthering Heights is damaging and harsh, passionate and brutal, the second half offers redemption. Little Catherine is sheltered and naive, but because of her father's love she is never afraid of loving after she's been hurt. Hareton is raised as a savage but his independence from being neglected allows him to think for himself and resist when he thinks something is wrong. Linton, being the product of a one-sided love and an over protective mother never learns to be anything but spoiled and selfish, and in being selfish he brings everyone together and promptly dies. Thank goodness, because he was an annoying little monster. But, this rant has gone on far too long. On to fangirling!
When I really enjoy a story or a set of characters, I usually make things and then hide them away so nobody will ever see my secret shame. I have recently been informed that this is silly and I should share the things I make, even if I don't like what I make because my passion could inspire someone else to get into the things I like.
My first creations are always fashion.
I would have made the boys too, but I only use Modcloth clothes, and they don't have a great selection for men.
Rome is one of those major cities that everyone fantasizes about seeing at least once in their lives. It's been glorified in our imaginations by movies as old and glamorous as Roman Holiday and as new and quirky as The Lizzie McGuire Movie. We fantasize about seeing the Coliseum and imagining its former splendor and tossing a coin in the Trevi Fountain and having some fantastical wish come true. But what would I do in Rome if I had the chance to go?
1) The Vatican City
The Vatican is the world's smallest country, fitting snugly within the city limits of Rome. Even before Christianity, it was considered a sacred place. It's name is derived from a Latin word meaning seer or prophesy, making it a hub of activity. Once chosen as the center of the Christian world, it attracted artists who painted, sculpted, and built it up to be one of the most beautiful places in the world.
2)The Pantheon
One of the best preserved Roman buildings in existence, the Pantheon is a temple built in honor of all gods. That's what "Pantheon" literally translates to. The Oculus at the top is a topic of debate. Some people say it's main function is light, some say it was seen as a link to the gods themselves, and others say it was used as a sun dial. In any case, it's something I would love to see for myself.
3)The Roman Forum
This is by far my favorite and the one I would be the most excited to see. It was the first inhabited part of Rome and one of the most active areas once all of Rome was built. Due to debris build up over the years, the forum is now a full 25 feet lower than the street level of Rome. The best part of all this is that the public is allowed in! One day I hope to walk where the Romans walked and see what they built.
June 15th
The Best Part of Travel
Solveig and Stevie wanted to go see a castle, and Tammy and I weren't feeling it, so the group split two ways for the day. They saw the castle (which they assured me was gorgeous) and Tammy and I decided to got explore Old Town on our own. As is usually the way with travel, things did not go as we had planned.We got off the train in the morning and set out for Old Town, using the lions along the street to guide our way. What we didn't realize was that, while the lions could have guided us to our destination, we were heading in the opposite direction of the right way. When the street stopped looking familiar, we found a themed spa with a lush garden in front. We wandered down the garden path until we found a bench. We rested and laid out our plan for getting back to where we thought we wanted to be. Well rested and ready to find our way, we proceeded to get even more lost. We happened across a shop that had gorgeous masks and silk and lace in the window, so we went inside. This turned out to be a sneaky sex shop. As mature ladies, the obvious course of action was to giggle our way through the shop. The shopkeepers thought we were funny and watched as we figured out what the shop really was. Not far from there, we found a hill that rose suddenly in the middle of the street with a park on top We stopped there a while and watched as some people barbecued, some people walked dogs, and a large statue of a naked man sat there, judging us for getting lost. We were starting to get hungry. We set out for food and happened upon a cute (touristy) cafe where we got wine and cake because on vacation we eat what we want! .
This was the best cake ever.
Then we decided to move to the tables outside to enjoy the weather. I (in Solveig's jacket that she got a few days before that she hadn't even worn yet) stole Tammy's hipster glasses so I could be Hipster Ariel
And then Tammy took them back.
We left and suddenly found what appeared to be a major sporting event.
Somehow, we found our way back to Solveig's and passed out for the night.
June 16th
CHIBORI!
Today was the much anticipated day that we got to go to the fun park! I was so excited. You know how everyone is always saying that clowns are scary? All lies. There was a hilarious clown on a unicycle telling jokes as we got there. It was raining, but damn it, we were having fun at that fun park whether we liked it or not! We started on a roller coaster for little kids called The Lady Bug, which was a lot scarier than I expected.
Stevie, Solveig, and I getting psyched for the ride!
We rode lots of rides. Some spun us. Some bounced us. One shook us up and smashed us into each other. We went through the fun house.We even went on a haunted house roller coaster that was genuinely scary.
That night we went out to a club called Sommar to meet up with Lisa's friends. We met Oscar and Erik and we hung out with Axel again. After the people we went with left (Solveig and Stevie at 11-ish because Stevie wasn't well and Lisa and Trevor were tired at 12-ish) we kept saying we were going to stay just one more song, and then a better one would come on. Lisa left us in the capable hands of her friends, and when we wound up still out at 4 a.m. , Oscar just let us sleep at his place instead of us trying to find our way back to Solveig's.
June 17th
Waking up in Stockholm
We got up at noon- ish and Oscar brought us to the train and told us how to get to Lisa's. We stopped by Lisa's, grabbed our stuff, and then had a cozy day at Solveig's house. I finally took my heels off and saw that in dancing with them on all night, blood had pooled up under my toenails. It was SO painful, so the day of rest and games of Bullshit were a perfect fit.
June 18th
The Vasa/Skansen Debacle
Solvieg had work on this day, so we went vintage shopping in the morning and then we parted ways. Tammy and I wanted to see Skansen and Stevie wanted to see The Vasa, so we split up saying we would meet at Skansen after we were done. Well, when we arrived Skansen was closed. Stevie arrived at he Vasa with only half an hour to spare. We thought we would give her some time to explore, not knowing she was thinking the same thing. It was several hours until we met up, and when we found out that we had all spent the day just sort of waiting, we decided to go to the mall.
Later on in the night, Lisa and Trevor wanted to meet up for a movie. They took us to an awesome candy store, which unfortunately did not take cards without a chip in them. Then we saw Snow White and the Huntsman, which Trevor and I agreed was just Joan of Arc without the character development.
June 19th
The Summer House
Stevie left at early o'clock in the morning for America. She had been on a study abroad even before Sweden, so I'm sure she was quite ready to be back in her own bed. Solveig got up to do things before we got up, and wound up getting to the train a few hours before we did. We went to catch up with her so we could all take the same bus to Max's family's house in the woods. We made it, got to the little town, and got some stuff for the barbecue. We went to a second bus stop to wait before then long walk to the house.
Also, Tammy and I got pizza in the town. So yummy.
That night we barbecued, went swimming at the lake (where there was a stand off about who should jump in first.Max lost. Tammy and Lisa didn't go in at all.) and we played charades and bullshit. Solveig and I dominated everyone else at charades and Trevor was going to come out to hang out, but it was too late.
June 20th
To ze Subway!
Back at Solveig's this day. Solveig and I wanted to go out and explore and Tammy wanted more sleeps, so off we went! We hit up some more thrift shops, but I didn't find anything I wanted. We went through Old Town again and then it got cold so we decided to tour the coolest subway stations.
Then we went to the store to gather supplies and Max came over for dinner and another billion games of bullshit. We stayed up much too late.
June 21st
Fleeing the Country
We got up way too early after being up far too late. Groggy as hell, Max and Solveig kindly took us to the station where we caught Swebus back to the airport. We waited at the gate playing the puzzle game again until our flight arrived. Once we got to Germany, we realized how nice long layovers are. We were rushing from the moment we hit the ground, until we were stuck standing in the longest lines full of the crankiest people. It was like Disneyland, but with no upside. We stood in line until we got on the plane, where we were seated in the middle. It was long and uncomfortable and I was so happy when it was time to land. Unfortunately, the pilot apparently hadn't been paying very close attention and we weren't at the right altitude. We had to circle around way too many times to remember and it made me feel ill and cranky. Then we landed and had to go through security. I learned that I quite easily could (should) have brought alcohol back into the country, because apparently being small, white, and female, I was incapable of sneaking anything in to the country. They didn't even try to look through my bag. Then we made our way home where I promptly passed out.
Then we all wound up back at Solveig's (minus Trevor due to work, plus Max because he took us around the island and we had been hanging out) and we made my potato soup. Then we played a few rounds of Bullshit and fell asleep.
June 11th
Tammy's Birthday!
Tammy has had internet friends in Sweden for a couple years now, so for her birthday we decided to go meet them. She wanted to go to meet one friend, I wanted to go to see if he was a serial killer. My research into the matter is still inconclusive. We woke up early and left for the bus station. Tammy got her cell phone situation sorted and we had some coffee while we waited for a bus. I got a Mumin coloring book so we could have something to do while we waited. We got on the Swebus and were whisked away to a land of man-made waterfalls and bone-chilling wind. Her friend Martin met us at the bus station with a friend of his own, and they greeted us with Starbucks. He was tall, with a serious case of Swedish face (Tammy and I have a theory that people who look very Swedish are either gorgeous or hideous. There is no middle ground.)He was wearing ghastly harem pants and concealer over his stubble. Why would you do that? Why wouldn't you just shave? Anyway, his friend noticed the coloring book and mentioned that there was a Mumin exhibit in town, which we decided to do instead of the aquarium or the zoo since both were closed. It was fun, but I understood very little. We wandered around and looked at some other exhibits before deciding it was time for soda and ice cream. There was this adorable (and freezing when the clouds came out) little place for snacks and drinks, so we stopped there to take in the glorious day. We sat down in an area for four, until Martin's friend wandered over to a swing. He followed, leaving the two of us with two empty seats and some confusion about etiquette. His friend needed something from the store so off we went to this magnificent and confusing shopping center. I may or may not have gotten lost for a while because the Swedes wandered off speaking Swedish privately and then Tammy had to find a bathroom. We all met up again and Martin and Tammy decided to try each other's cigarettes. They both called the other's brand gross. The weather took a turn for the worse and it was time to get back to the bus station. We got back to Stockholm, met up with Solveig, and went to Max's apartment to celebrate with Swedish pizzas. One was a bananas and curry pizza, which is apparently a logical combination. I thought it was gross. We watched a Batman movie and headed back to Solveig's.
June 12th
Blueberry Trail
Sounds like an adorable hike, right? It was, except for the feathery demons who were eyeballing me while we ate. Solveig and Lisa led Tammy, Stevie, and I there and we had DELICIOUS cake to celebrate Tammy's Birthday. It was beautiful there and as a cruise ship passed us, we got some of the passengers to wave to us.
June 13th
Touring
Tammy went to visit another friend. The rest of us went to the lake.
June 14th
NO SANTA! NO! Tammy went to visit a third friend, and I went out to see the city with Solveig and Stevie. Stevie was a shutterbug that day, and she got some great pictures.
We made our way to Stockholm's smallest street. When we got there, there was a portly man with a white beard and a red turtleneck staring very intently at us out a window. Some time between these:
And this one.
The man came out of the house, completely naked. He was just staring at us. I told Stevie and Solveig that there was a naked man and that we should leave as fast as we could. Stevie started packing up, trying to avoid seeing, but she accidentally turned the wrong way and saw naked Santa. She froze in shock for a minute.. Solveig didn't think I meant that he was totally naked, so she looked too. She froze too. It was like seeing Medusa. Turning the opposite way down the street we ran from the Medusa man, we decided to go to the cutest little cafe to calm down and eat. We got Swedish pancakes and then ventured back out into the world.
We returned to Solveig's to share our horror story with Tammy.
So finally (eight months later) I've decided to post about my incredible trip to Sweden. Let's take it day by day!
June 5th
The Ride
After having to stop to snag some forgotten vital items, we headed to the airport, arriving three or four hours early. We had a hilarious trip there which resulted in pictures like this one. We got there and I panicked, remembering I had forgotten to call my bank. The reception in the terminals at McCarran sucks, go figure. After I dealt with that business, I sat down with Tammy and almost immediately got another call. This time from my aunt Nikki to tell me to be safe and that she was very excited for me. Tammy and I play a cool star puzzle game until we boarded. Then we said goodbye to Las Vegas and hello to Tammy's first plane ride! She didn't really know what to expect, but she handled it very well. For the following sixteen (was it sixteen?) hours, we played the star game, watched Funny Girl while we ate a delicious dinner. Then we drugged ourselves to sleep (only with Benadryl) and when we woke up, it was time for a very refreshing breakfast. We landed soon afterward.
June 6th
Assault on Germany
The Bee Gees was playing as we were lead off the plane and into a misty, rainy day in Germany. The Frankfurt Airport was amazing! It was so huge and we got German chocolate as we got off the plane. I purchased my first alcoholic beverage ever. I ate a pretzel. We found a secret microphone hanging from the ceiling, so we decided to say things that could potentially get us in trouble. There were a lot of Nazi jokes.
Our layover was four hours, and we thought it would be too long, but we actually enjoyed the airport so much that we didn't mind. We forgot to request seats near each other, so for a couple hours we were separated, but we (accidentally) caught a nap on the way to Stockholm.
On arriving in Sweden, we got horribly, terribly lost at Arlanda. We wandered around a while looking at the shops and wondering where we were supposed to be. We finally found Lisa, Trevor, and Stevie and I was greeted with a running hug from Lisa. I hadn't seen her in so long and I was so tired, I might have teared up a bit. Then we packed up the car with our enormous luggage and off to Lisa's house we went. We met her parents and her sister Sara, which was nice because we had heard about them for so long. Then we ate Sweden's most bought car with Lisa and Trevor and went to bed.
June 7th
Picnics and Swedes
The day before Lisa's graduation we went to a store to get our transit passes (and super chocolatey muffins and things) and then to the picnic with her classmates! They taught us this fun game where you use pegs to knock down other pegs and you are on teams and... It was fun. I can't explain it, but I would gladly play again. We went to a store with out of order bears and got SO MUCH BEER for the beer truck.
Then we went back to the house and talked about life and gossip on the swing in Lisa's yard drinking orange juice. It was a very relaxing day. Lisa's parents made a fantastic dinner with this delicious meat substitute and I don't remember what it was called, but we ate dinner over stories about Lisa's younger life. I believe this was the night we watched Dirty Dancing (I had never seen it before) but I don't remember.
June 8th
GRADUATION!
This was the reason I went to Sweden in the first place. We got there early, loaded up the beer truck, and waited. It got crowded and then Solvieg showed up. There was a great running of the students and then a grand reunion!
Then we got on the beer truck! We got on, shook up some beers and sprayed them all over. We cheered as we went over the bridge into Stockholm where we weren't allowed to be. We were very cold until about halfway through. Then things started getting... Dizzy. Although I hadn't actually ingested any beer, somehow I was still drunk. There was singing, dancing, loud music and hilarious people. Then it was time for Lisa's graduation party. We had to get cleaned up and un-beer a little, but then we went to go be with all the lovely people there to celebrate a milestone in Lisa's life. There may have been a little too much champagne in my system on too little food, because when we left with Solveig to go stay with her, the weight of my suitcase dragged me backward down an escalator. Not fun. We got back, learned how to work the shower, showered up, and went to sleep.
June 9th
Biological Warfare
Solveig had been in Ireland before we arrived, and due to a chain of awful luck, she wasn't able to arrive in Stockholm until right before Lisa's graduation started. While in Ireland, she contracted a foreign cold. A cold she was kind enough to pass on to two of her three visitors. Tammy and I took a sick day while Solveig and Stevie went out adventuring. By the time they got back, we were feeling up to an excursion so we went to see Moonrise Kingdom. We stopped for McDonald's on the way home.
So I don't really update this a whole lot, but I have such an awful memory that I probably should. I moved in October from tiny stifling Southern Utah to larger, overstimulating Ogden. Since moving, a lot has happened and changed very quickly. I now seem to have developed a slight case of agoraphobia (which darling David and lovely Tammy are forcing me to overcome every chance they get,) I've started school, I've got an awesome job, I have fallen in love, and I have gone through terrible loss. I'd like to start with those last two.
This itty bitty darling is Jiji. He was brought to me by Tammy when she came up for orientation at Weber. He was playful and sweet and he loved laps. He did not seem to realize, however, that laps belong to people. Once in a while, people need to move around. He would walk up, claim your lap as his rightful throne and then grump and bitch and complain whenever you got up to eat or shower. He was the sweetest little thing that ever walked the Earth. Little did Dave and I realize, he wouldn't be walking the Earth for long. Our poor Jiji was infected with FIP, a disease that most cats get, but a small percentage can't handle. We didn't realize that, having been a stray, he was at an increased risk of dying from it. We didn't even know he had it until we took him to the vet and they told us the kindest thing we could do would be to put him down. I'll spare you the heart-wrenching details of that visit, partly because it's so depressing, partly because I can't even think of it without crying. Jiji lived with us a month, but losing him felt as heartbreaking as losing someone I'd known my entire life. I still can't help feeling like it's my fault, but Dave and Aunt Nikki, as well as the kind vet who guided us through our tears, told me there wasn't anything we could have done.
Then school happened.
I realized I picked the right major when I tried to tell my professor that his class was the high point of my week and all his responses were as rushed and awkward as mine. He's by far the most interesting professor I've met and I'm enjoying Anthropology 1000. Not so much my English class, but that's to be expected.
I interviewed for and got a fantastic job.
My hair has grown like weeds.
I have found a new favorite store.
A new favorite person to argue with. (This is a lie. Dave and I have been together a year and a half. Not that new.)
And I've discovered an appreciation for tea that I never had before. This face is because of being sick at the time, not the tea. The tea is lovely.
Life is pretty great.
P.S. I also went to a a masquerade with Kayla and Solveig that was SO MUCH FUN! And Tammy couldn't go, haha Tammy.
