Usual Rules Blog Post

For as little a time she has been in California, she has undergone some big changes in her family life. She has to live with a person that is entirely opposite from what she was used to before. Her mom was always "On duty" as Wendy says, always wanting her to do better and keep doing things. But her father, Garret, is so easygoing and carefree that he hardly notices that she's around. She stopped going to school a long while ago and she wanders around town with some of her new friends and lives a totally different life from New York.

Usual Rules Blog Post

Wendy is reading this book called A Member of the Wedding and there is a part where the girl feels so sad and alone that she wants the "Whole World to Die". Wendy felt the sam way when she realized that her mother was missing after that attacks on the world trade center. She had the same feeling that nothing else mattered, like there was nothing left to live for. The character of her book describes feeling that een if the bus she was on crashed into a river and was sinking that she wouldn't or couldn't care about that. Wendy says that she wishes that she could feel as the girl did and be able to run after a car screaming "Take me! Take Me!" be that kind of person to want something so badly that she'd risk so much to leave a place behind.

Usual Rules Blog Post

Since Wendy has moved to California, she has become an entirely different person. She's met new people under different names, she's stopped going to school. She is nothing like she was before all of this happened. She spends most of her days just running around town. She'll go to a new friend of hers house, Violet, she just had a baby and she's having some trouble handling it. Wendy has a connection down at the local book store, she knows the guy who works there, Alan, and she gets books and he makes her tea while she reads in his shop.
For what little time has lapsed since she arrived at her dads home, she has definitely gotten a pretty solid thing going on. She does what she wants, leads a pretty interesting life, and her dad doesn't suspect a thing. i

Usual Rules blog post

Now that Wendy has realized that her mother is most likely dead, she’s really begin to grieve. Every little thing is reminding Wendy of her. She starting to recollect all the memories she has in fear that if she doesn’t she’ll lose them forever. She’s also started to see the world for what it is. All these people that are in the city have gone right back to normal and she just cant get how they can when a terrible thing has happened in such an ordinary world.

Usual Rules blog post

It finally took reading a book to her little brother for her to get that her mom may very well be dead. Her friend had accidentally said it at lunch that day and she just shrugged it off but when she was reading “Goodbye moon” to Louie he looked up at her and said”Do you ever think is mom coming home, Sissy? I don’t think so Louie.” For her to say that took a lot of thinking. They both just sat there crying instead of reading. Josh went to the armory with her mom’s dental records and a hair sample to see if there are pieces of her in the rubble. Something that he vowed never to do…

Usual Rules blog post

Wendy has been sinking deeper and deeper into her sadness. It’s only a matter of time until she snaps. She’s surrounded by all these incredibly positive people, telling her It’ll be okay, that she can do whatever she wants to so that she’s comfortable. It’s all just bouncing off her. None of it can actually get to her and help. Not even family or her friends.

Usual Rules blog post

Although Wendy and josh haven’t been able to entirely accept that her mom/his wife is gone and may never come back; Louie, Wendy’s younger brother, has been able to put himself in a whole other world. He’s spent most of his time at his friend’s house just playing and going on with his life. He’s been able to grasp the fact that she may be gone and that he very well may never see her again.

Usual Rules blog post

Wendy and Josh haven’t really figured out that their mom/wife is dead yet. They’re still holding on to the memory of her. When someone said “She was” they’ll correct them and say “She is”. They aren’t really ready to accept it yet. From the moment that the towers fell and they realized that she was missing, Josh didn’t sleep for nearly three days because he was out looking for her at hospitals and putting up fliers.

Descriptive Essay

Mike Reynolds
Maroon 4

My Nee- Nee

It’s the one thing in this world that will never change. I’ve had it since I was born and it’s the only thing that has always been there for me no matter what. It never judges me, or changes its view of me. My grandmother made it for me when I was born and I was an infant on it. I must call it nee-nee because I probably couldn’t say Mimi. It’s been to hell and back with me and everywhere in between.

A grayish white rectangle that is tattered and torn and is worn thin from years of love. No bigger than a beach towel, yet big enough for my imagination to put me under a tent when I’m actually only covering my head. A simple design, rudimentary enough to have been made along with millions of others exactly like it. But this one is special. It’s mine. It has a flat woven design that’s surrounded by a thick canvas like border that’s perfect for running through my fingers. Made by hand and strung with love, it was one of a kind and all mine.

My favorite thing to do with my nee-nee is to run it between my fingers. I have no idea why that is so soothing for me but that has always been the one thing that I always loved to do with it. It’s such a meaningless thing that has most likely been that single most effective way for me to calm down for the past sixteen years.

Putting aside it being my go to object, I’ve also had many occasions where I’ve been with my Nee-Nee and I’ve done memorable things. It hasn’t necessarily been that reason for these memories but it was there to see me grow up and change into a man. Having three sisters it was always a way to get to me when I was little. When I was about ten years old, I was fighting with my sister, she took my Nee-Nee and I was on the other end. A tug-of-war ensued and it tore right through the middle. That hole was there for about another two or three years until I sent it to it’s creator to be mended. This was not the first time my life long friend had been damaged. He was almost beyond repair and I very well could have no longer had him to have. When he was last sent back to my Mimi, she had to trim it down and make a smaller square out of what was left of the useable material.

Usual Rules blog post

Wendy has a very deep and creative nature. she's got many tings that she does that are very unorthodox and not very normal.
She and a best friend created a secret language and they tied their desks together once. she and her friend came up with a game to play on the subway to school everyday. she's a very off the wall kind of thinker

Five senses poem: Feel

Feel

There is a thing,
Something out in front of me.
When I touch it,
It pulses up my arm.
I feel it move through my body.
The texture rebounds off my fingers.
Bouncing them as I move across its surface.
What they are conveys to me
I now know just what this is.

A random poem titled: Welcome

Welcome

Welcome to my world
A universe of feelings
A solar system of emotion
All that I am is all over.
Everything that is within me fills the air.

My passion is what inflates the clouds
Gives them their loft
Keeps them afloat.
Gives them the ability to be lighter than air.
Just how I feel when I'm with you.

Joy is the grass beneath me.
The sweet softness under my feet.
It envelops my being
Keeps me sane.

Sadness is the rain.
How it pours over me
And covers all in sight
There is no escaping it
No umbrella to hide under

The hatred inside me is what fills the core
A burning fire in the center of it all.
An inferno at the root of this place.
Its this feeling that is what balances it out
For every one there are two
For every yin
There is a yang

This planet would be nothing without me
A barren wasteland
Empty of any sustenance
Nothing but dirt
For I am this place
What gives it worth
I am it
And it is me

Two poems

Love
Lust
Fear
Passion
Loneliness
Courage
Purity
Eternity
Perfection

What are we?

What would you call this?
This thing we’re wrapped up in.
Some would call it love.
Others lust.
A thing of beauty.
A fusion of two souls,
Into one body.
Together for an eternity,
Always.

The only two people like us.
I for you,
And you’re for me.
Molded in perfection for each other.
What are we?
Made from fear,
Fear of loneliness.
Or forged in courage,
To shield us from our own monster.
There’s no describing how you make me feel…

My blanket: Nee-Nee

Simile: My blanket is like a shield from the world from the world around me.

Metaphor: My nee nee is a secret room for my soul.

Personification: It hugs me when I feel sad