It's true. You end up regretting the things you DON'T do.



(Thankfully I have a best friend who knows when to give me a swift kick in the ass to get me going.)



I hate the Yankees.

Screw this, I'm going outside.

It's about time I think less and do more.

:]

The U.S. Patriot Act was a terrible step backwards for America. Now, this is not a new revelation, but I recently had a friend who was detained coming back into the U.S. from Canada. Using a terrorist attack to build fear to pass an act is ridiculous, but what is more ridiculous is we as citizens did not question this more until we realized it was too late and our personal liberties were diminished.

God bless, America!


On another note: I googled my name today for the hell of it and I can't believe how many Heather Bowers are out there. :( I'm having an identity crisis.

The best piece of advice I ever got from an ISU professor:
"Thinking people change their minds."

I love socially inadequate people who tell the truth all the time, but not in a way that intentionally attacks another. It's refreshing.
I bring this up because I recently saw a trailer for the movie Adam. In the movie, a man with Asperger's Disorder starts a relationship with a woman who has moved into his apartment building. Asperger's is a mild variant of Autistic Disorder and individuals can function in society but are more likely to be socially inept. People with this disorder tend to have difficulty reading the emotions of others and understanding how to react to them. They tend to speak the truth and can say hurtful things without realizing that the other person perceives it that way. This in and of itself could cause problems in a relationship, but the idea of speaking the truth in a constructive and loving manner instead of filling a relationship up with lies is profound. How much better would everything be if we all just told the truth as often and as positively as possible? How much room would be left for the important things when all the lies are cleared out?
I've known people who lie daily and I can't help but feel that they are unfortunately underdeveloped. Will they ever realize that telling the truth is so much more efficient? The one big obstacle we all face is the fact that sometimes, the truth hurts. Hell, sometimes it even burns you more than anything ever will, but I still think it's better than piling up lie after lie until there is no way to tell which is real anymore.
Also, before we can begin to tell others the truth, we have to learn how to accept it for ourselves, which is much harder. Sometimes, we don't even know what the truth is.
I'm going to make it a point in my life to tell the truth as often as possible and to tell it in a developed way that is used to propel things forward. I think the more you tell someone the truth, the more they will want to have you in their life.

Truth #1: I have no idea what I'm talking about. I'm just a 22 year old girl for God's sake. Take what I say and develop your own ideas. Then tell me about them. I love hearing other people's perspectives.

I wanted to write something about my good friend Shannon. I recently reconnected with her after not seeing her for three years and the circumstance that brought us back together was the death of her father. Shannon and I were best friends all throughout junior high and high school and were really close so it was weird that we drifted apart for awhile, but that's how life is I guess. Anyway, her father died last Monday from Lou Gehrig's Disease. He was only 47. We went out for dinner the night after the wake and she told me all about what she had been through these past two years.
First of all, her mother and father were divorced years ago and her mother has been married and divorced two other times. Also, she is an alcoholic who is completely unreliable, so Shannon is basically an orphan. She has an older brother and sister, but she is the only one who still lives in the area, so she was the one who took her dying father to doctors appointments and went to his house to make him dinner so he could eat and dealt with his banking and decided to finally put him in a nursing home. This girl just turned 22. This isn't something she should have had to deal with and her dad was one of the nicest guys I have ever known. Sometimes life is unbelievably unfair.
The thing is, I admire her and her siblings for their strength. I admire how they don't hate God or the world for taking their father away. I'd imagine that it would be so easy to do those things.

I look at people who have real problems and thank my lucky stars that I have it so easy.

Today's philosophical rant is brought to you by own of my all-time favorite movies, Forrest Gump.

"I happen to believe you make your own destiny. You have to do the best with what God gave you."
"What's my destiny, Momma?"
"You're gonna have to figure that out for yourself, life is like a box of chocolates, Forrest, you never know what you're gonna get."

We are all alone in our lives trying to find out what our purpose is. No one will ever be able to find it for us and there's something profoundly beautiful in that.

This video is so kickass!

I've been on a Modest Mouse kick lately. I love them.

While we're on the subject
Could we change the subject now?
I was knocking on your ears
Don't worry, you were always out
Looking towards the future
We were begging for the past
Well, we know we had the good things
But those never seemed to last
Oh, please just last

Everyone's unhappy
Everyone's ashamed
Well we all just got caught looking
At somebody else's page
Well, nothing ever went
Quite exactly as we planned
Our ideas held no water
But we used them like a dam

I can't can't can't can't can't can't can't can't CAN'T wait to move to Chicago.

I'm thinking of setting up a P.O. box where people can send donations to the Heather Bowers Fund for Future Establishment.

I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together."
- Mark Twain, a Biography

I think this will happen to me too being that I can be an unaccountable freak at times. I came into the world in 1986 and will leave it in 2061.