#omgabout

I was tagged by @outburstingwithsass​

I decided to go with the band that is currently playing in my playlist right now. They are Finnish symphonic metal band, it should be interesting. 

Band/Artist name: Nightwish

What’s your gender: Cadence of Her Last Breath

How are you feeling: Dead to the World

If you could go anywhere: Last of the Wilds

Favorite mode of transportation: Procession

Your best friend: Ocean Soul

Favorite time of the day: Sleeping Sun

If your life could be a tv show: Endless Forms Most Beautiful

Relationship status: Song of Myself

This was fun, thanks for tagging me!

@thebookbud tagged me three months ago!! I forgot about it and then saw the post in my drafts, where I save things I want to look at later. SORRY!!! Thank you for tagging me!

I used to write angsty poems in my teen years and three of them were published in one of my old colleges literary magazines. So, I’m a published poet!

I never completed seventh grade. I started it in GA and was there for a month and then we moved to FL and I was never enrolled because I was signed up for homeschool and then I didn’t do that either. When I moved back to GA, they just put me in 8th grade because my 6th grade FCAT scores were so high. I believe this is the reason I had such a problem with math after that. 

I did not grow up with my sister and didn’t even know I had a sister until I was 7. I have two siblings an older brother and sister. My sister is five years older and my brother is three years older. My mom had my sister when she was 14 and she deathly ill and she had a hard time seeing to her medical needs. Her husband coerced her into giving her up and my grandma adopted her. She was raised as my grandma’s youngest and I thought she was my aunt until I was told at 7 that she was really my sister. I’ve always wondered what life would have been like with her. But, I probably wouldn’t have been born had my mom been able to keep her. She divorced her husband soon after and then met my dad. 

Thank you for tagging me!!

Tagged by @anassarhenisch four months ago. I am so sorry. Thank you for the tag!!

Is there a book you reach for on a regular basis? No. I think I grab War and Peace once or twice a year, determined to read it, but that’s it. I don’t have a go-to book that I have already read.

If you had to read only ONE book  over and over for the rest of your life, what would it be? Probably Shakespeare’s complete works. If it had to be something I’ve already read, then Gone With the Wind. I’ve only read it once, but I have such vivid memories of it and I think it could make me happy forever. 

Have you memorized a poem/quote/speech? If so, spill! Nah. I don’t read a lot of poetry. I once memorized Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address for a school assignment, but that is long gone. I also used to have the first class scene in Dangerous Minds memorized. I love that movie.

What book from your childhood destroyed you emotionally? I can’t remember anything from my actual kid years. Gone With the Wind is the first book I remember having an emotional reaction to and it broke my heart, so I guess that. I read that at 13, so I was still a kid.

Would you rather only read tiny poems or 400+ page books for the rest of your life? 400+ PAGE BOOKS, of course. I would have so much to read!! I enjoy poetry, but I’ve never been that into it, I don’t think I read enough of it. 

RANDOM BONUS QUESTION: What’s one thing that you taught yourself? Guitar? Hockey? Mechanical Engineering? Nothing, I think. I learned how to make GIFs from text instructions, but you know that is instructions. I don’t know if this means just being able to do it without that. In that case, I can’t think of a single thing I was not taught how to do.

So sorry for the late response. I save things in my drafts to go back to when I have more time, but I forgot about everything!

Thank you so much for tagging me! 

I was tagged by @reviewandrepeat two months ago, sorry!! @auraseeingcoffeebean and @sophielovesbooks tagged me in this three months ago! I AM THE WORST!!

Thank you for tagging me!!

Answer 20 questions and tag 20 followers

1. Name: Hailey

2. Nicknames: Hailey Mo, MoMo, Mowgli (hardcore Jungle Book fan), Hailey Bird, and Dollface. The first three are mainly family and close friends and the last two are specific names that two of my best friends call me.

3. Zodiac: Leo

4. Height: 5′2″

5. Languages: English

6. Nationality: American

7. Favorite Season: Winter. I hate being hot. I live in the south, so it is hot up until December. 

8.Favorite Flower: I don’t have one. I like Dogwood Trees, does that count?

9. Favorite Scent: Citrus-y? 

10. Favorite Color: Teal and teal like colors

11.Favorite Animals: Snakes, cats, and dogs.

12. Favorite Fictional Characters: From Books: Liesel (The Book Thief), D’Artagnan (The Three Musketeers), Kostya (Anna Karenina), Stu Redman (The Stand) From Movies: The Tremors (Smokin’ Aces), Amsterdam and Bill the Butcher (Gangs of New York), and Ash (Evil Dead)

13. Favorite Hot Beverage: Hot Chocolate

14. Average Amount of Sleep: 7 hours

15. Dogs or Cats: I have five dogs, so I guess dogs, but I absolutely adore cats and miss having one.

16. Number of Blankets: Using two right now, but when it is clean I have heavy king size quilt. I have a lot of throw blankets. I like to covered up all the time. I am always covered when I am inside.

17. Dream Trip: Ireland. Ever since I read about Tara in Gone With the Wind, it has been my dream to go there.

18. Blog Established: This one in December of 2018, but using it consistently since August 2019. I’ve been on Tumblr since 2011 though. 

19. Followers: On this blog, 2,600. 

20. Random Fun Fact: I’m colorblind. 

I was tagged by @appleinducedsleep, thank you!

What’s the most recent book that you’ve read and absolutely fell in love with? The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo. It is a collection of folk tales she created for the Grishaverse and I think all of them are enchanting. You can see the inspiration from our own fairy tales in it, so at times it is kind of like a retelling. 

Do you keep track of how many books you’re reading every month? Yes! I use the Bookly app to track all of my reading and Goodreads as well. I also make daily posts on here about my reading sessions and overall progress with my reading goals. I am tracking all over the place.

What’s your stance on the debate as to whether or not we should dissociate their artist (writer in this case) from their art? I think it would great to try and do that and let the work stand for itself, but if you have problematic people out there doing awful things, I don’t want to read their work. I think it all depends on how involved you are in the work. I believe stories are deeply personal and I wonder how much of a person’s thoughts bleed into them. I honestly don’t have a good answer for this. 

What do you do when you can’t focus on a book? I usually don’t have a problem focusing on books. I always have background music playing and that lets me tune out other noise. Whenever I get into a book, the background music eventually fades away too. If a book is too boring to hold my attention, I usually put it down and try something else for a bit.

Do you pay attention to the gender/ethnicity/race/sexuality of the authors you’re reading, aka do you actively try to read books written by diverse writers? No, and I should. If the book looks interesting I will pick it. I’ve read more women this year than I usually do, but that is because I chose to focus on series and fantasy more. It just so happens that what I am reading is written by women. Unfortunately, I don’t think of these things and I should find a way to be more considerate when I choose something to read. 

Paperback or hardcover? Why? Paperbacks. I genuinely think most hardcovers are ugly. I like the way a paperback feels better and I think they are more manageable when reading. 

Which language would you like to learn just to be able to reads its untranslated literature? Russian! Anna Karenina is my favorite book and I would love to be able to read it in it’s original form.

Pick up the book that is closest to you. Convince me to read it in less than 10 sentences. It’s The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo. Folksy retellings of fairy-tales, from the Grishaverse, steeped in magic, and with a wintery background in most cases. Lessons of morality, sometimes wrapped in cruelty. 

Yeah, I was very sick in high-school and withdrew for medical reasons and started my coursework on line. We moved out of state and that coursework option was no longer available to me. I tried to enroll back in high-school and they said I was a drop out risk and would not let me in. That was 2007. I ended up getting my GED in 2009 and unfortunately for me back then colleges would not let you enroll without SAT/ACT scores and a GED until five years after my graduating class. I could not afford to take the ACT/SAT so I had to wait. I couldn’t start school until 2012.

I tried going in 2012 and was enrolled, but my car broke down and I had no way of going. I live in a small town and the college was in another. I couldn’t afford living on campus, even with loans. I tried a technical college in 2013 and 2014 because they were in my town, but they were programs that didn’t amount to anything. My grandma died in 2014, and I had a breakdown. I went into a severe depression and couldn’t do much for months. I started the college I got my first degree from in 2015. It took me three years to get that first degree because I had to keep taking time off for my mental health. I never seemed able to find the right medication or therapy. I got my A. A. In Psychology in 2018.

I started at the school I am at now in late 2018 but had another relapse with my depression and I thought I could overcome it and went back in 2019 and had a severe relapse and ended up messing up my loans. I had to withdraw again and now I owe 2,000 to the school and can’t go back there or anywhere else until I pay it off. I don’t know how long that will take. I’m unemployed in a small town and job searching was hard enough before COVID-19. I live with my mom and grandpa and they help me whittle it down, but it isn’t the most important thing for them, so sometimes nothing gets paid on it.

I used to feel very bad about myself for being as old as I am working on an undergrad degree. I still do sometimes, but it truly doesn’t matter. My mom is 50 and she went back to school.

I get stressed worrying my life is slipping away from me sometimes and that doesn’t help my depression, but what can you do.

I decided to answer this in a long way so other people can know my struggles with the school system. I might have started school late, but even with that I am the first person in my entire family to get a college degree. My sister has also gone back to school and she will be 36 this year and she has convinced her husband to do the same.

Life was hard for everyone in family growing up and most of us had to get our GED and do the best we can.

Read a line, replay a certain part of a song, rewind to a certain part of a show or movie over and over again?

I do that all the time! My mom thinks I am insane. I tell her I need to hear it again or see it again or read it again because it just is so good.

Some examples of things I replay a lot:

Ben Platt singing “But every sun doesn’t rise” from Waving Through A Window. I mean his voice is divine on it. I usually repeat the second verse so I can hear it, but I have straight up replayed that one part like 10 times in a row.

From True Blood, season two, Godric and Sookie speaking on the roof, but specifically Sookie saying “Are you very afraid? as she starts crying. When I first saw that episode, I watched it on demand and I kept rewinding that 3 minute scene, that my mom asked me what I was doing because she had heard it so much. 

Izzy screaming “What about me?” to Denny in Grey’s Anatomy.

Sometimes it is just the way a word is said or facial expression. I love crying scenes, so I rewind when tears fall.

I don’t have any specific book ones to give now, but I will read a certain passage or line and reread it because I love it so much.

@sb-reads tagged me, thank you!!

Rules: tag 10 followers you’d like to know more about

Name: Hailey

Gender: Female

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Favorite Animal: Snakes

Current Time: 1:34 AM

Cats or Dogs: Both, but I do have five dogs

Dream Job: Ideally, something were I get paid and don’t feel like I want to die from the tedium. I hope that job is like a librarian or an English professor

When I made my blog: December 2018, but I’ve only been truly active since August of 2019

Reason for my URL: I am not clever and oh my god reading is so great