An Inflated Tragedy

Yesterday, my dear friend Lara Jean told me a very sad tale about some balloons that she saw. 

It was a very traumatic story, and it inspired me to write this here poem. 

Enjoi.

At a circus 

lived two balloons

One was red

And one was blue

Said the blue to the red

"Dearest, do you

want to travel the world

and the oceans too?"

Said the Red to the Blue

"Of course I do!

I'll be home anywhere

If I'm with you"

So they took to the sky

And off they flew.

The blue balloon 

And the red one too.

They flew across oceans

And islands too

Past Australia where they 

Met an angry kangaroo.

To places like Egypt

And Kathmandu

The red balloon 

And the blue one too.

"Now we've seen it all!"

Said the red to the blue,

And some of our journeys

Were perilous too

But I knew I'd be fine

If I was with you"

Then an arrow whooshed by

And stuck her clear through.

"Oh what have I done?

Oh my Darling!" cried blue

"If we'd stayed home none of this

would have happened to you!

How I'll live with myself

I haven't a clue!"

Then he wept very freely 

And mournfully too.

"Hush Darling" said Red

"Look at all we've been through!

I don't regret any of it 

for a second, do you?

My time may be ending, 

yes that much is true

But I've lived a great life

Happier than most ever do

And greatest of all

I've lived it with you."

 Blue wept and watched as she fell

And she landed into

The street where she was crumpled

and torn in two.

She soon disappeared

And so did poor blue. 

They'd had a love that was pure

And real and true.

But everyone around

had more important things to do

So nobody noticed or cared

Not even you.

Bird Whisperer

A few things have happened these past few weeks

that lead me to believe that I have a strange gift.

I can talk to birds.

I'm not even kidding.

I don't know if this is an ability that I've always had but never noticed, or if it is something that I've recently acquired. 

All I know is that it's real. 

Here's my proof:

Last Monday, I went to FHE. Outside of my FHE leader's apartment was a random duck. I guess this duck has taken up residence in Old Farm for the last few weeks and spends his days lazily meandering around the many apartment buildings. So there I was, there the duck was, and I started talking to it.

Now. Before you start thinking that I'm a crazy person for talking to the duck- you have to know that I often talk to animals and inanimate objects that can't speak back to me. 

It's just one of those things I do

so talking to a duck is most definitely not out of character for me. 

Back to my tale. I start talking to the duck, expecting the duck to ignore me/ be afraid and fly away.

To my amazement, the duck started quacking at me. Not just idle quacking either, it really seemed like the duck was trying to talk to me. And it kept waddling closer to me, just quacking away. 

I felt like Marlin in Finding Nemo

"It's like he's trying to SPEAK to me, I know it!!"

{THEN}

Over the weekend I was in Denver, Colorado for a big swing dance competition. It was amazing times, I got to meet a ton of awesome people, the live band was great, and I got to dance all night long. Also, Saturday morning, a bunch of us went to the Denver Zoo together and I got further proof of my bird-speaking powers.

We were just walking around the zoo, lookin' at all the aminals. There were super cute elephants that I loved. There was an Orangutan family that I loved even more. And then there was a very

depressed

Cassowary.

A Cassowary is a big bird.

Like such as:

This one is happy.

The one I saw most definitely wasn't.

He was sitting in the corner of his little enclosure

Head drooped

Staring dejectedly at the ground

He looked as if he was carrying all the burdens and woes of the world on his shoulders. 

I'm not even joking, he was the saddest thing I'd ever seen and my heart was breaking just looking at him.

So I walked up to him and said,

"Cheer up buttercup! You're at the zoo!"

His eye met mine for a split second, then he returned his gaze to the ground and slowly shook his head.

I'm not even joking.

I have witnesses.

I spoke to this morose Cassowary

and he understood me.

It blew my mind.

And now I'm convinced.

I

Brittany Ophelia Daniels

can speak to birds.

Be jealous.

I Object

I love things.

I love most things.

But there are things that I 

Do

Not Love

Things that I am opposed to.

Things that I dislike with most fibers of my being.

Things like such as:

• My body's allergic reaction to watermelon.
• Seal clubbing (as in smashing seals with clubs, not seals that attend clubs)
• The fact that they don't sell light up shoes for grown-ups
• Harry Potter is over
• Tom Felton's girlfriend
• Oatmeal Raisin cookies
• Dolphins
• People that clap on 1&3 instead of 2&4
• The holocaust
• How Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie are way too expensive for my present income
• How I don't own any mint green skinny jeans
• Hallmark Movies
• Country Swing Dancing
• How I have no money
• Also no pet elephant
• Hayden Christiansen as Anakin Skywalker
• Geology
• I can never win at Words With Friends
• I'm not a spice girl
• Or even a little bit Asian
• Johnny Depp is 47
• Rebecca Black
• Slivers
• The way my hair looks when it air-dries
• The guy at the computer in front of me (I'm currently in the Library) is playing this game called rabbit sniper. It makes me sad.
• I'm not Zooey Deschanel
• Or Regina Spektor
• Or very tall
• Onions
• Ponies that bite
• Tater tots that are soggy
• I don't have a mustache
• Also I would be severely mocked if I did have one
• How you NEVER find out what happened to Zuko's mom!

There are more, but I can't think of them at present. Also I have to go to class.

Peace Muggles.

 

Adventures

Remember how I'm not wasting my life sitting on my butt anymore?
How I'm going to live on the edge and have wild adventures?

Well, so far, so good.

Last night me and a bunch of my dance buddies caravan-ed to the good old Salt Lake for some good old swing-dancing joy.
And we had some good old times.
There was food and a live band and tons of just awesome people, I met a bunch of really great dancers and was reacquainted with others that I had met before, and we all just danced and talked and partied until the cows came home!

(Actually, we didn't have any cows. We do big band swing, not silly Country dancing. So we danced until the cows came somewhere else. Like Wyoming. There's lots of cows there.)

I think the last song ended at around 2am, I was a pretty tired pigeon by then- I had been dancing for a solid four hours and was looking forward to passing out on the drive back to Logan. However, I guess it is some type of ritual among the dancers in Salt Lake, to end a night of wonderful dancing with some wonderful food at the Village Inn. So at 2 in the morning, fifteen or so of us partied it up among many delicious pies and breakfast platters and had ourselves a good old time.
Also, when it's 2 in the morning, and you just got a monster sugar rush from a slice of oreo pie, everything is funny. I don't even know what we were talking about half the time, but I thought everything was hilarious. 
When we had all finished our food, and our sugar rushes were starting to wear off, we bid adieu to our new friends and made the long, long drive back to Logan. 
I finally got back to my apartment at around 4:30 this morning, and I barely made it to my bed before I passed out.
It was awesome.
And an adventure.

The End.
 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changing

So, 

in my apartment

we watch a lot of friends.

Like

a LOT of friends.

And I love it.

I wish I was Phoebe, and that I could marry Chandler, and that Gunther was my best friend, and that I could live in New York and drink coffee at the Central Perk and have play Jenga with Alec Baldwin and all kinds of crazy adventures.

And then I look at my life,

and realize that I could be making people wish they were me, and I could be doing all sort of awesome things and having crazy adventures...

and mostly I just don't.

I do fun things sometimes...

I went to Iowa with my swing dance team,

I spent Friday night running around in a park with a bunch of people that I didn't really even know

I went to the Festival of Colors

I went mouse-boat racing

I jumped in a dam in my underwear

I got trapped in a dress at the Dillards

I walked around campus for an entire day wearing a fake mustache

I took Chinese

 And other things like such as...

But all these fun things are widely spaced between long periods of just sitting in my apartment watching Friends.

It's time for a change.

I'm 20 years old, I'm in the prime of my life

and when I look back in another 20 years I don't want to have to tell my children that I spent the days of my youth watching other people live.

I want to be able to tell them all of the crazy adventures I had

And stupid things I did

And awesome people I met.

I want to live.

I want to run when it says walk

And talk to people I don't know

And take long walks

And dance in the rain

And hold hands 

And look at the stars

And catch fireflies

And go dancing

And make mistakes.

And by Jove, I'm going to do it! 

 Starting now, I'm going to really live!

And you all are welcome to join me.

The End.