#late twenties - been here since 2011 - i talk to my tags a lot

[fairy-ganj-mother]

finally created my own little world, goodbye

[leavetwn]

* AMANDA CAMPANA, NOBINARY + SHE/HER/THEY/THEM  | you know RAMONA GALLO, right? they’re TWENTY-THREE, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, TWENTY-THREE YEARS? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to CRYING ON THE BATHROOM FLOOR BY MUNA like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole COLD PIZZA AS A HANGOVER CURE, TALKING SHIT ABOUT CUSTOMERS IN THE BREAKROOM, LONGING FOR WHAT COULD'VE BEEN,  thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is AUGUST 17TH, so they’re a LEO, which is unsurprising, all things considered. ( claire, 22, est, she/her )

HEY , BESTIES ! happy new year (the way it’s 11:55pm here so barely) !! my name’s claire and i’m 22. i’m livin in the est timezone, and my pronouns are she/her. i’m bringing y’all a mess of a muse 😈 because well  ,,, it’s what i’m best at. if you’re feelin ramona & wanna plot, just go ahead and like this & i’ll hit you up. i usually plot on discord, but if you prefer the tumblr ims, that’s no problem at all. anyway, lemme stop waistin time and get to introducing you to ramona. * tw: mentions of cheating & alcohol. 

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 .

full name: ramona gallo.  nickname(s): anything your muse wants to call her tbh. age: twenty-three. date of birth: august 17th. zodiac sign: leo. gender/pronouns: non-binary, she/her/they/them. sexual orientation: bisexual. romantic orientation: biromantic. hometown: irving, north carolina. current residence: irving, north carolina. occupation: employee at zoinkies currently,  a lifeguard during the summer. eye color: brown. hair color/style: had long hair up until her breakup then had one of those breakdowns and cut her own hair into a bob and then her own bangs. i bet it was a mess lol so she probably called her friends or went to a salon the very next day to get it fixed. also highlighted the ends red but her natural color is brown. height : 5′5″. clothing style: simple and comfortable. t-shirts, croptops, turtlenecks, all usually paired with either jean shorts or jeans in general. she prefers to feel cozy rather than cute. tattoos: yes. a small one on her wrist. wants more eventually. piercings: both ears peirced & a navel piercing that she did herself against better judgement lol.

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 .

you were born on a scorching hot day in irving , your father says so, anyway. you’re convinced he’s being dramatic. your birth went smoothly; after two previous children, your parents had become disillusioned by childbirth. just another one to add to the bunch, and one that was meant to save a dying marriage. still, they loved you nonetheless. your father, to this day. your mother, until you were ten, and then she up and left without a warning. 

your father keeps food on the table by fixing cars. you spend your days in the hot sun watching him replace parts and continuously try to crank vehicles until they run. he fist pumps every time one does. ‘ how lame, ’ you think, but it’s inspiring how hard he works to take care of three kids. and he does a good job. 

therefore , you spend much of your early life trying to make him proud. you’re smart as a whip, and all your teachers have good things to say about you when it comes to academics. you’re a bit of a troublemaker, though. your father doesn’t mind that too much; he was the same at your age. and he’s proud  —  proud to see you work so hard. 

you spend your teenage years doing much of the same. though , you begin to come home a bit later than usual, and your excuse is that you’ve been at ashley’s or samantha’s, but really all three of you were out partying. you don’t think your father would care (your grades are fine & he wants you to live like a normal teenager) ,  but you still lie about it. why ? well, who knows, maybe you like the adrenaline rush it gives you. like most things, you do them for the thrill. 

you join the swim team. you’re kind of bad , but that’s okay. just like always , you work hard, and you realize that you’re kind of a natural. your father cheers louder than anyone else in the stands. it pushes you to do better. with your good grades and athletics , your guidance counselor tells you you’re a shoo in for a scholarship from whatever university you want. you apply to several. if it’s one thing you hate, its this town. you can’t wait to make it out, and you figure, this might be your only way. 

you’re eighteen, and you’re in love. it’s crazy how love can make you see things differently. suddenly , this town doesn’t seem half bad. all your friends find it cute , and you tell them everything. the things he tells you or the way he makes you feel. it’s a crazy feeling; you never want it to end. 

you throw your cap in the air. finally , high school is over. college is looming. you’ve been accepted to several & received scholarships from at least a few. you lie in bed thinking about it. now, you suddenly don’t want to leave so bad. don’t want to leave him behind. how could someone leave another they love so easily? it makes you hate your mother more.

for the first time, you disappoint your father. you don’t go to college. you don’t give a damn. you want to stay where love is. you’re addicted to the feeling. this lasts for three years. now, you’re twenty-one; you’ve gotten a job at zoinkies, and that keeps you away for most of the day. you randomly decide to visit your boyfriend during a lunch break one day. you find him in bed with someone else. suddenly , you realize love isn’t as addicting as you once thought. what once made the world beautiful now made it hideous. what once made you feel so high had somehow made you feel so low. it was horrible, and you’d realized your mistakes. 

you threw away your future for love. something as rotten and twisted as love. something you swore you’d never let yourself feel again. something that you put away in a locked box with no key. irving was the same place you’d always known it to be. boring, drab, familiar. at least you had your family. that was barely enough to keep you sane, though, and it was hard to feel normal.

you turned to the thing that help. alcohol, partying, any escape at all. you lacked coping skills   —  that much was clear, but you didn’t care. you blamed it on something else entirely. just as your teachers had said, you’re a bit of a troublemaker. you do anything to make yourself feel alive, to make yourself feel free of the hurt. 

it’s two years later now. you’re still not over it in some ways, as regret turns to anger and resentment. you’re bitter. who wouldn’t be? but you feel like you’ve had time to mourn. maybe it’s because you never acknowledged it in the way you should’ve ( it’s still locked away in that box. ) you still have your bad habits. you still work at your stupid job that you hate. you’re lost, but you’ll figure it out. you always do. so, you continue to float , seemingly stuck in the town that you never let go of, and you wonder what comes next. only time will tell.

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 .

still swims but doesn’t have as much time for it. probably not as good, but since she spends the summer lifeguarding, she uses that time to practice & try to get back to where she was. also kinda jaded asf so even if she says she wants to get back into it, she probably won’t lmaoo.

is a horrible driver. how did she get a license ?? not even she knows. def the type to like have a leg up on the dash board, hand out the window, and only one hand on the wheel while speedin idk how she makes it out alive

can take a car apart and put it back together again thanks to her dad. also changes her own tires so let her change your tires. im just sayin 

stays up way too late & would sleep until 2 pm everyday if she didn’t have to work. should probably work on being an adult and going to bed at a normal time but just half the time doesn’t give a fuck so she’s probably sleep deprived a lot. therefore also has a 

character parallels: alice ayres/jane jones (closer, 2004) , clementine (eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, 2004) , fiona gallagher (shameless, 2011-present) , more to be added.

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 .

ok but plots really do be making my world go ‘round. 😳 i love em, so literally hmu with anything you’re feeling, and i’ll be down. just wanna plot & write with everyone 💕 but here’s a couple of wanted connections for y’all. i’ll prolly have a most wanted tag sooner or later & i’ma be make a plot page soon.  

* the unholy trinity  — these two are the friends she cherishes most. i’m assuming they’ve been friends since at least early high school , maybe earlier. they went through a lot together. these two were with her through all her relationship troubles. true ride or dies. she’s do absolutely anything for them, and she trusts that they feel the same way. they’re rowdy & wild, do whatever they want, and have a damn good time doin it. also have a gc where they just talk shit and send tiktoks idk just gimme this plsss 🥺

* friends with benefits / one night stands  —  this would probably be the extent of ramona. clearly not over what happened to her the last time 😭, so she’d have plenty of these tbh. she probably wouldn’t think too much about it, but it could be awkward for you muse maybe, etc. 

* unrequited love / crush  —  here’s a toast to the ones who crush on ramona. it would be an absolute tragedy lmaoo. she’s not really mean about it, but she is 100% certain she’s not looking for any type of relationship. could be really dramatic and messy and those are tha best kind. literally this

* former friends / enemies  —  she’s lived here her whole life, so she’s at least got one. these two just don’t get along/no longer get along for whatever reason that can be plotted out. 

* coworkers   — she works zoinkies throughout the year and picks up shifts as a lifeguard during the summer so your muses could know her from that. could delve into a close friend territory too lmao. they probably just sit in break rooms and talk about rude customers or bossy managers lmaooo.

* literally anything your heart desires — a lot could work. we could even just start from nowhere & have them meet for the first time if they’re newer/just to town. 

[turquoiseskye]

Answer the questions & tag 20 people you’d like to get to know better!

I wasn’t tagged but I stole this from @elissastillstands​ EDIT: @interluxetumbra actually tagged me a bit after I started this. Some of the questions were answered up to nine days ago. NOTE: I filled out most of this like last June, and yes its January now. That only really pertains to time sensitive questions, like the outfit one. I'm still five four.

Nickname: Jackie

Gender: Female

Star sign: Aquarius Sun, Cancer Moon, Cancer Mars, Aries Venus, Gemini Rising...those are the important ones right? I’ve got a few other planets in Aquarius also I think, those lesser ones.

Height: Five four.

Time: Now? 4:50 PM, Pacific Standard. I was born at 1:52 PM, in case that’s what you meant (how else would I know my whole astrology chart?)

Birthday: Day after groundhogs day.

Nationality: Californian.

Favorite band: *cracks knuckles* Smashing Pumpkins, Radkey, Ramones, Type O Negative, Tool, Dead Kennedys, Rob Zombie, KMFDM, Jane's Addiction, and like I dunno brah I've been listening to a lot of Ministry lately.

[This question always makes me feel like I gotta answer as thoroughly as possible but that's too much to ask and people are just so JUDGEY about so many things I like and maybe it's because I've become friends with some of these sorts of people but I've just been really stressed out about it lately. I'm twenty six I shouldn't have to deal with this still.]

Favorite solo artist: I feel like I don’t really like that many solo artists because they don’t often fall into the flavor of sound I groove to (but perhaps I could think of more if I sit here long enough), but Elle King needs more attention, I love her and her whole debut album.

Favorite colors: Golden poppy orange, reddish orange, magenta, turquoise. The 70s.

Wearing: Aftershock 2015 Bear Flag festival t-shirt, distressed light denim shorts and sandals. It’s hot up here in Northern California, and I just bleached my hair, so I didn’t want to wear anything nice.

Last thing I googled: The hair dye I am going to put over the bleach, whether or not I absolutely need the developer (I do.). Update: My hair is mostly dark pink now. Update: 7 months or so later, my hair is back to normal. Also that developer is good for getting yellowing stains out of plastic.

Last show I watched: Haven’t been watching much TV, I was rewatching project runway with my boyfriend who hadn’t yet seen all of them a month or two ago, and I occasionally check back in with Steven Universe at work (it’s okay, it’s one of the licensed properties we have, it’s research.) OH WHAT AM I SAYING. Boyfriend and I rewatched the 10th Kingdom because we both loved it as kids and wanted to experience it again together. 

Last movie I watched: Two Towers, almost done. I haven’t seen LotR since it was in theaters, so I wanted to see if I liked them more this time around (I was 9, things were confusing. Also I think I forgot to wear my glasses when I saw Return of the King, that one is literally blurry.....heeeh.) Update: We’re on to Return of the King but it turned out to be the extended cut so not sure how I feel about that. It may have been Two Towers that was blurry after all. Update: I think it was most of Mandy.

Lucky number: I feel like every filled out one of these I read picked multiples of 3 or something so I don’t want to seem like an utter basic thief, but, you know, I WAS born on the third. 

Why did I choose my url: Turquoise Skye was my hippie name, this blog was supposed to be quasi satire, some pseudo hippie chick's blog. But then it turned out I was kinda a pseudo hippie chick in some ways, and it evolved into this photo inspirational exploration of all the sunny parts of me. (I have a blog for my moon side too. And Mars. The crab parts of me. See astrology question. And @decadent-devil )

When did I create my blog: summer 2011 right after graduating high school. I started this account and @blubbingbeautifully , my primary I can't get rid of, in 2009 I think.

What do I post: I've got a link on my main page that answers that question at length, although it may be slightly outdated. Doing all these asks and surveys is more recent due to the polypocalypse, I miss talking to people.

Do you have any other blogs: I have a link for that as well, either here or on aformented primary.

Do you get asks: when I do those ask survey things like earlier today.

Blogs who follow you: about fifteen hundred bots and half a dozen people I knew from polyvore. And my dad.

Average hours of sleep: 7. I commute an hour to work, I wake up at 5. Update: I no longer do this! But I moved just in time to be displaced by a wildfire! But my apartment survived! But there is no water! So I live with my coworker! And only commute 25 minutes. And I get the same amount of sleep somehow.

Dream trip: I'm in Italy and all I do is look at art and eat all day every say for about three weeks.

Instruments: Do I play any or which do I like? Because I play absolutely zero. And I like all the ones that go into hard rock. And the fiddle, which is the devil’s instrument; I have a fiddle weakness.

How many blankets do I sleep with: all of them in the winter, but at least one except on those hottest hot summer nights.

I don’t know enough usernames on tumblr so steal it from me if ya’ll wanna, it’s fine.

[citrinecanary]

Again, but Better: Thoughts

I think I like this whole “ranting to tumblr about books I’ve read recently” thing. It makes me feel like my words don’t carry any weight, but I’m putting them out into the void anyway. 

So, for as long as I feel like it, I think I’m going to continue doing this. I’ll probably tag these as “Julia’s Book Thoughts!” or something so if you’re annoyed by posts like these, you can backlist them. But for now, here are my thoughts on Again, but Better! 

I’d like to start by saying that I adore Christine, and anything I’m about to say is not an attack on her personally. 

I gave the book 3 stars on Goodreads, and I really wanted to give it a higher rating, but I don’t think that the book deserved it. There were too many aspects of the book that felt underdeveloped, or unforeshadowed, or shallow. 

Let’s start from the beginning. 

I did not like the writing style in the beginning. I got a few pages in and just thought to myself, ohhh boy. It just feels like something I would have written back in eighth grade. The sentences are choppy and the descriptions are very plain and obvious; I think there was even a point in the book where I snapchatted my best friend a picture of the page, circled a series of sentences, and said “Why does this passage feel like a standardized test, where I have to pick the option that best combines sentences 3 and 4?” I did not like it. As soon as we switched from 2011 to 2017, it was like taking a breath of fresh air -- the writing instantly got better, more intelligent-sounding. The more I think about it, the more I realize that this was probably intentional; Christine probably wanted Shane to sound more juvenile in 2011 than in 2017 to show the fact that she got older, that she matured, that she developed. While this was a very creative stylistic choice, I just don’t think that it was the best idea to implement it in a debut novel from a “business” standpoint (since when am I qualified to talk about business??). Considering that “Take 1″ of the study abroad experience takes up more than half of the book, we don’t see Christine’s “real writing” until we come back to 2017, and by then people who won’t tolerate that style of writing may have turned away. You don’t realize that it’s a stylistic choice until you’ve read most of the book. I think that if Christine were to do this as, say, a second or third novel, then her loyal readers would realize it sooner, and give her a chance. But now she faces a lot of readers who might be turned away because of the choices she made. And I’m not sure that that was a smart decision. 

The whole “time travel” thing bothers me. I think Christine herself has talked in her booktalks about how time travel bothers her because there are so many loopholes and conflicting rules... and I couldn’t help but notice that here. I got more okay with the time travel as the book went on, because it presented interesting issues (such as the whole button issue, and not being able to remember their experiences were they to travel forward in time again)... but if you think about it? Pilot and Shane are 27-year-olds in 21-year-old bodies??? And what happens to their original timeline??? Integrating fantasy elements into a contemporary novel is an interesting idea, and it’s very Christine... I just think it could have been executed better. 

I didn’t like Shane’s breakdown in “Study Abroad: Take 2,” when Pilot hasn’t broken up with Amy and she realizes that her whole life is revolving around him and she needs to live for herself. I think that it’s a good message, but it was very unforeshadowed and... dramatic? 

While we’re on the topic, Pilot never got over his fear of confrontation. I mean, he broke up with Amy, I guess... but we didn’t get to see him do it. We never got a moment with him, where he realized his mistakes and vowed to become better. 

And also while we’re on the topic of Pilot... there was too much. Too much Pilot, and not enough of everyone else. My dear friend Lauren (hi, Lauren! <3) put up a review on Goodreads (check out her reviews!!! she’s fantastic!!!) where she said that the other characters (Babe, Leo, etc.) only existed when Shane needed them to exist, and I couldn’t agree more. I feel like they never got any depth. Pilot almost did... but it wasn’t quite there all the way. Even Shane felt flat to me sometimes. I wish we got to know Babe better! I wish Leo’s gay-ness was explored more! Instead, we spent all. of. our. time. with Pilot. Whenever Shane was sitting alone, or walking somewhere, we knew before the scene even started that it was going to end in a momentous interaction with Pilot. That drove me a little crazy. I think that if the background characters were more developed, and if we got to see more of Shane’s relationships with them, that it would have given the story as a whole more depth. But instead it just felt very “boy crazy.” 

Some of Shane and Pilot’s banter also felt forced. Like, it was too smooth. As a shy, twenty-year-old, introverted, book-loving girl who loves writing and expected to relate to Shane and her situation very much, 90% of what Shane says with no prethought n e v e r would have come out of my mouth without thinking about it for at least ten minutes first. And then there was just too much of it, to the point where it took me out of the story. This conversation is witty, but what is it doing to advance the story or the characters? What is the point? 

I think I’m going to conclude this, because it’s getting late and I’m running out of thoughts. I think it’s my own fault that my expectations were so high, since I’ve been following Christine for years and watching her “book writing” series and seeing how much hard work and how many 3 am epiphanies she went through during the process of writing this one... and I am proud, for how far she seems to have grown and how much she has accomplished. This book may not have been my cup of tea, but I’ve seen people who have absolutely loved it, and all power to them. I had a point to this, and I’ve lost it. 

I plan to read Christine’s future books. This book has left so much room for improvement, and now that the second half of ABB has exposed me a bit to her “true” writing style, I’m excited to see a new book full of it, in addition to even more growth as a writer. 

Parts of this book were very cute! I loved Pilot’s proposal, and I really liked watching them fall in love over all of the landmarks of Europe. I also liked the storyline with her parents, at times. And the whole “book reviewer coming full-circle” in the epilogue was very cute. 

I think I’m going to end this now, as I’m very sleepy and my brain is turning to mush. I sincerely apologize for the quality of the end of this “review.” Sleep tight.