"Two" Stephen Dunn

Also read "The Trains" Paul Zimmer

When I first saw this essay I thought it would be about something totally different. I didn't really know what the word "scruples" meant, so I looked it up: Scruples-a doubt or hesitation that troubles the conscience or that comes from the difficulty of determining whether something is right. The first part of this essay really captures that. The first part of this essay is talking about how a professor asked anonymously about if his class would kill someone in another country if they would receive 1 million dollars and never be caught. He noticed that the number of people that said yes grew a little each year. He also asked them for their reasons behind doing it and the reasons varied. The point of this part of the essay was him asking himself how they know what is right and wrong to do in this situation. "I love that it wasn't high-mindedness back then, merely the obvious, and that so many wished to do good. Experience took years to show us what we could not sustain."

The second part of this essay was titled "Saints". The second part was written much differently than the first part. The first part was written like someone reflecting on a memory, while the second part was written more of how someone feels about the other people. The two different writing styles helped to play in with the title of the essay. "Those who earn their names know what suffering is...and elect it anyway. They love without ambivalence one shining  thing, yet some-the even more saintly-are tortured by the manifold richness of the discernible world."

Spring Break: Revision

            The trip started about a month before break when I emailed my uncle to see if we could stay at his house in Connecticut. He lives about an hour from NYC and Boston. It was the perfect place to stay. I was more than excited to be going back to NYC and going to Boston for my first time. I was even more excited that I was going with my best friend Hannah. Hannah and I had been best friends since I was in sixth grade and she was in fourth. She lived next door and we were always together.  We spent the next month planning everything. We talked about the amount of money we would be planning on spending, gas, driving and what we would be doing when we got there.

            Finally it was time to be on our way. I spent the whole day Thursday packing, not knowing what I would need for the thirteen hour drive there and for the few days I would be there. I said my goodbyes to my family and headed to Hannah’s house for our slumber party, as we were leaving the next morning. We laid in her room all night talking about the trip and how excited we were to go. It was next to impossible to sleep.

            When the alarm went off at seven the next morning, it was entirely too early. But we got out of bed and started to get ready and pack the car. When we walked outside we noticed there was a light dusting of snow on the car and ground.  After a quick stop at the gas station, we got on the interstate, programed the GPS and began our long trip.

I started the first shift of driving. As we got onto I-70 west I knew that our trip was truly beginning. Hannah and I lit our black and milds (we were trying to be cool) and started to enjoy the trip. I remember I had my jacket on and decided that I needed it off. So I unbuckled my seatbelt and started to remove my jacket, while I was still driving and smoking. Realizing my black and mild was almost out I decided to throw it out the window.

            The wind decided that the black and mild needed to come back into my car (while still lit) and hit me in the head and then falling in between the seat and middle part of my car. This then scared the shit out of me and I started to swerve all over the road. I was screaming, swerving and frantically searching for the smoking item next to my seat, I hear Hannah say “There’s the cops!”

“Shit” and then I realized I was speeding, so I slowed down and passed the state trooper at 77. The blue and red flashing lights were the highlight of my day.

“Do you know how fast you were going?”

“Uhh like 75?”

“No, 77. And you weren’t wearing a seatbelt. Can I see your license and insurance card?” I handed her my license and searched for my insurance card, only to realize it was one that was expired (three weeks later I got a letter saying my license was going to be suspended unless I mailed in proof of insurance). The officer then brought me my ticket for not wearing a seatbelt and warning for speeding.

            I never knew it would take me four hours to get out of the state of Ohio. I have always thought that Ohio was so small, but four hours to get out of the state? It was even worse going through Pennsylvania. I had no idea it was going to take almost a third of the trip to go through the state. The trip went great, except that it was snowing on and off as we were driving. Both Hannah and I were disappointed that we could not drive with the windows down and music up.

            It was about nine at night when we arrived to my uncle’s house. We talked about the trip and our plans for when we would go to NYC. We agreed that we would go the next day since it was the only day my uncle didn’t have to work. This made sleeping that night almost impossible. We were both way to excited to go to NYC. Eight came too early the next morning but it was an early morning I was more than happy to be a part of. It was a twenty minute drive to the train station, and then an hour to Grand Central Station.

            I love Grand Central Station. The ceiling is so high, not to mention it is decorated to fit the start constellations. It is so beautiful inside and I love when I take that first step out of Grand Central and into the huge city. The city just opens up right in front of you; the sky is blue with the contrast of the dark buildings against it. No matter where you would look, there was a building going into the sky. The hustle of the city took me in and I became overwhelmed with the amount of cars and people that filled the city.

            Time Square was the first stop we made. People filled the sidewalks and streets as they walked past the stores that lined the roads. We made our way through the crowd of people to a restaurant called “Ellen’s Startdust Diner”. This is a diner that has hopeful Broadway stars working. They wait your tables and then put on musical numbers. All the people that work in the restaurant go to school to be actors and to be in musicals. Many of the people that work there go on to be in musicals.

After lunch, we walked back out in the city. We began our journey to the Statue of Liberty. We walked for a bit and then got on the subway. I love riding the subway; it makes me feel like I am actually part of the city. Little did we know that when we got there we wouldn’t be able to take the ferry to the statue because Hannah had mace in her purse.  We took the typical tourist pictures with the statue in the background, and made our way to ground zero.

            I’ve been to New York twice; both times I wondered what it would have been like to see the Twin Towers in the skyline. Instead, I got to see the Freedom Tower being built. Looking around the area where the Twin Towers once stood, it was weird to see all the apartment buildings and business that surround the area and how it must have been when the towers came tumbling down.

            We spent the rest of the day walking around and meeting with my uncle’s friends. We caught the nine o’clock train back to Connecticut and drove back to the house. Needless to say that both Hannah and I were exhausted after the last two days we had, and spent the next day in bed. We decided to go to Boston the next day, which I was so excited about. I had never been to Boston and was looking forward to going.

            When I woke up in the morning I felt terrible, but decided to keep with the plan of going to Boston anyways. We got ready and were on our way. Being from Ohio and never having to deal with tolls, it was interesting to drive through three of them on the way to Boston. When we got to the second one, we drove right through the “fast lane”, because you didn’t have to stop and pay someone. An hour later we were in Boston and finding our way to the underground parking garage that my uncle had told me about. After we had parked the car, we walked up to street level, and the cold air had never felt better. At that point in time I had felt way worse than I had that morning when I got up.

            Hannah and I found a little convenience store so that I could get some Advil for my now pounding headache. I took the pills, dry swallowing them, and we started walking down the street. We stopped at a corner, trying to decide which way we should go, when a smell (which was very nauseating) hit me like a ton of bricks. “Wow that smells good” Hannah said to me

“No it doesn’t” I said and I immediately looked for something to throw up in, it was just my luck that there were no trashcans nearby and I knew that I wouldn’t make it into a store. I threw up right there where I was standing on the street.

“Do you need any help?” Two Indian men asked me after I stopped.

“No thank you.” That was when our trip to Boston ended and we decided to drive an hour back to Connecticut. From the five minutes I spent in Boston, I can say that it was a beautiful city. 

"Daylight Savings Time"- M.J. Iuppa

Also read "Getting Yourself Home" by Brenda Miller

As I was reading this I was so confused on what the subject of this was. At first it seemed that it was about heartbreak, then love and lastly it was about being alone. I realized that the story about a woman who was waiting at a bus stop. She was then on the bus talking to the bus driver about his love life, and then lastly got him to stop the bus to look at a maple tree. The writer was also using long descriptive sentences in this piece.
"That autumn day was much like today's weather. Air pungent and sharp with its smells of wet leaves and earth and distant chimney smoke is loaded with melancholy, just lingering to be breathed in and set loose in a sudden gush, a thought of someone not quite forgotten, someone whose embrace felt dangerous and ticklish like electricity, like power surge before blackout." I really enjoyed reading this and I loved the way the writer wrote it.

"Moving Water, Tucson"- Peggy Shumaker

Also read "Brief History of my Thumb" by Lucia Perillo

As I was reading this piece, I was reminded of some of Virginia Woolf's writing. Shumaker used long wordy sentences throughout the whole piece. She would describe things with such detail and it was amazing.
"We stood on edges of sand, waiting for brown walls of water. We could hear it, massive water, not far off. The whole desert might come apart at once, might send horny toads and Gila monsters swirling, wet nightmares clawing both banks of the worst they could imagine and then some."
This is my favorite part of the essay. In this paragraph she describes the water and what it carries and it is in such great detail. I love it.

Spring Break

            Spring break is always the break that students look forward to (besides summer break of course). Spring break gives you that refreshed feeling in the middle of the semester, just when you are starting to give up hope because the end of the semester seems so far away. Spring break is the typical time to go to Florida or somewhere warm, and to lie on the beach all day. This dose of sunshine really helps out those Ohio winter time blues. Although I have had many spring breaks throughout my life, my most memorable one has to be the trip I took to New York City and Boston.

            The trip started about a month before break when I emailed my uncle to see if we could stay at his house in Connecticut. He lives about an hour from NYC and Boston. It was the perfect place to stay. I was more than excited to be going back to NYC and going to Boston for my first time. I was even more excited that I was going with my best friend Hannah. The trip planning started right away. We spent the next month planning everything. We talked about the amount of money we would be planning on spending, gas, driving and what we would be doing when we got there.

            Finally it was time to be on our way. I spent the whole day Thursday packing, not knowing what I would need for the thirteen hour drive there and for the few days I would be there. I said my goodbyes to my family and headed to Hannah’s house for our slumber party, as we were leaving the next morning. It was so hard to sleep that night because we were so excited to be on our way.

            When the alarm went off at seven the next morning, it was entirely too early. But we got out of bed and started to get ready and pack the car. After a quick stop at the gas station, we got on the interstate, programed the GPS and began our long trip. I started the first shift of driving. As we got onto I-70 west I knew that our trip was truly beginning. I knew that our trip was off to a great start as the red and blue lights started flashing behind me. Apparently going 75 on the interstate is a big no no.

            I never knew it would take me four hours to get out of the state of Ohio. I have always thought that Ohio was so small, but four hours to get out of the state? It was even worse going through Pennsylvania. I had no idea it was going to take almost six hours to get through that state. The trip went great, except that it was snowing on and off as we were driving. Both Hannah and I were disappointed that we could not drive with the windows down and music up.

            It was about nine at night when we arrived to my uncle’s house. We talked about the trip and our plans for when we would go to NYC. We agreed that we would go the next day since it was the only day my uncle didn’t have to work. This made sleeping that night almost impossible. We were both way to excited to go to NYC. Eight came too early the next morning but it was an early morning I was more than happy to be a part of. It was a twenty minute drive to the train station, and then an hour to Grand Central Station.

            I love Grand Central Station. It is beautiful inside and out and I love when I take that first step out of Grand Central and into the huge city. The city just opens up right in front of you; the sky is blue with the contrast of the dark buildings against it. No matter where you would look, there was a building going into the sky. The hustle of the city took me in and I became overwhelmed with the amount of cars and people that filled the city.

            Time Square was the first stop we made. People filled the sidewalks and streets as they walked past the stores that lined the roads. We made our way through the crowd of people to a restaurant called “Ellen’s Startdust Diner”. This is a diner that has hopeful Broadway stars working. They wait your tables and then put on musical numbers. After lunch, we walked back out in the city. We began our journey to the Statue of Liberty. Little did we know that when we got there we wouldn’t be able to take the ferry to the statue because Hannah had mace in her purse.  We took the typical tourist pictures with the statue in the background, and made our way to ground zero.

            I’ve been to New York twice; both times I wondered what it would have been like to see the Twin Towers in the skyline. Instead, I got to see the Freedom Tower being built. Looking around the area where the Twin Towers once stood, it was weird to see all the apartment buildings and business that surround the area and how it must have been when the towers came tumbling down.

            We spent the rest of the day walking around and meeting with my uncle’s friends. We caught the nine o’clock train back to Connecticut and drove back to the house. Needless to say that both Hannah and I were exhausted after the last two days we had, and spent the next day in bed. We decided to go to Boston the next day, which I was so excited about. I had never been to Boston and was looking forward to going.

            When I woke up in the morning I felt terrible, but decided to keep with the plan of going to Boston anyways. We got ready and were on our way. An hour later we were in Boston and finding our way to the underground parking garage that my uncle had told me about. After we had parked the car, we walked up to street level, and the cold air had never felt better. At that point in time I had felt way worse than I had that morning when I got up.

            Hannah and I found a little convenience store so that I could get some Advil for my now pounding headache. I took the pills and we started walking down the street. We stopped at a corner, trying to decide which way we should go, when a smell (which was very nauseating) hit me like a ton of bricks. “Wow that smells good” Hannah said to me

“No it doesn’t” I said as I threw up all over the street we were standing on. That was when our trip to Boston ended and we decided to drive an hour back to Connecticut. From the five minutes I spent in Boston, I can say that it was a beautiful city. 

Friday Nights

Friday nights are something that are always looked forward too. When you're little it's because that is the day that you get to stay up a whole half hour later and maybe Kelly will get to spend the night. It's the night your older sibling gets home from college for the weekend, and you are so excited to see them. It's the night during the summer when your parents take you to the drive in, and you watch a kids movie first, and then you turn the car around and your parents watch a movie, while you sleep in the cab of the truck.
Once you get into junior high, Friday night is when everyone in the sixth grade goes NightSky coffee house and then across the street to the rec (the coffee house and the rec were across the street from each other). At the rec you would hang out with your friends and see all the other cute boys while dancing to the cha cha slide.
But Friday nights were a whole different story in high school. The Friday night football games were what was looked forward to. All the people in the stands, the marching band playing the fight song and the student section going wild as the football team runs onto the field; nothing felt better. The energy at the games was amazing. You could feel the atmosphere change as we took a lead or as we would go down a touchdown. Then there were the basketball games, which were just as great as the football games. (maybe even better)
Then there is college, where almost any night of the week can be Friday. You stay up late anytime you want and if you want to go to the bars on a Monday, you do it. My time in college has given me a new appreciation for Fridays. It's the day I get to stay in my room all night as my roommate goes out (not that she is ever here anyways) and get all my work done, or at least tell people that I did all my homework. Some of the best Friday nights I've had while in college were spent in my room, or living room with my friends. I love that feeling of release as my last class ends and the weekend begins.

Media

This is supposed to be about media and how it has impacted me or something like that. But to be honest I have no idea how the media has done anything to me. I don't know to what extent the media has influenced my life, because its something that has always been in my life. It's like trying to imagine my life if I were a boy. I don't know who I'd be if media wasn't in my life.
Now I'm not trying to sound like the media has control of my life, because it doesn't. What I am saying is that who knows what i'd be like if there wasn't media. Would my music choices he different? What about my religious views? Would I still be this shy? Would I have decided to pick the career I did?
The media, wether formal or informal, is in everyone's lives. The commercials on the radio, bits of gossip, news shows, magazines and newspapers. All give you information about all sorts of things. Some important like the weather, marriages and deaths, and some not important, like which celeb is in jail or just broke up. WHO CARES? I certainly don't see why everyone cares so much what Kim K is doing all day everyday. Why are we so wrapped up in the lives of people who are famous? Why is there more celeb gossip on the news all the time?
I guess what I'm getting at is that we are all effected by the media. We read it, watch it and listen to it everyday. Who would we be if Keeping up with the Kardashians didn't exist? Would we be a different society who was into different things? Without the media would we have different cultural norms than now? It's hard to tell how much the media has effected me the last 21 years and how it will continue to effect me.

Eggers- Critical Post

As I was doing my reading for this week, two particular passages stuck out to me. The first passage says "Flashbulbs of course, and the screaming of things, mostly things like We Love You Bill, because everyone does love him now, because he is in the Bay Area, and he is our man, he says things we believe and is so thrillingly articulate  and he knows we love him and has come here to bask, in Berkeley even, at Chez Panisse, our town, our restaurant  and here he is, to be adored and received and thanked and urged on. Because we are in Berkeley and the president is here we are, Toph and Kirsten and I- at the white-hot, center of the entire world and history to date." 
The second passage says, "But Toph can't see, because suddenly some ugly rat bastard has shoved himself in front of us. It's unbelievable  I want to push this gut over, want to throw him to one side. How could we wait for so long and be so devoted and ready, only to have this round-backed asshole devour our chance for an audience with Bill?" 
In the first passage he is so happy and so excited to see the president in his town, but then in the next paragraph he is so angry and wants to beat someone up. His mood always changes so quickly. He can be happy and then instantly sad or mad or just ranting on about different things. These mood changes make the reader feel like they are in Eggers mind. Eggers writes what ever he is thinking in that moment, and that's why his mood changes all the time. The way he changes his tone in these two passages reminds me of when I get into a big crowd. At first your like "This is awesome! There's so many people!" And then the crowd starts to get bigger and it gets hotter and people start pushing you, and then you get angry. That's what's happening here. At first he is so excited that the president is there and then he's mad because Toph was pushed out of the way. These passages show a constant stream of thought as the crowd gets larger. The tone changing keeps the thoughts moving and really shows what Eggers was thinking at that time.

Eggers Emulation

So, I come home for winter beak. It's December 2012. I am 20 years old, a month shy of my 21st. I come home one night at about one in the morning. The next day I get a text from my mom.
"Where were you last night"
"With my friends"
"Where?"
"This place."
"Who were you with?"
"I told you my friends"
"K"
"Mom I'm 20, you can't treat me this way"
This is a typical conversation between her and I. And it's always, ALWAYS, over text messaging. Why? I couldn't honestly tell you. It's like she only knows how to communicate over technology.
But that's how everything is now. People communicate only over technology. There are no more long phone calls or sending letters. Instead we have text messages and Skype. In a way this is better, but is it really so good to be wrapped around technology?

Son of Mr. Green Jeans- Dinty W. Moore

This essay first caught my attention because of the way the first page is set up. I turn to the first page and I see the author and title and then I see,
"Allen, Tim
Best know as the father on ABC's Home Improvement (1991-99), the popular comedian was born Timothy Allen Dick, on June 13, 1953. When Allen was eleven years old, his father, Gerald Dick, was killed by a drunk drive while driving home from a University of Colorado football game."
My interest is immediately sparked. I loved Home Improvement when I was younger. I would watch with my dad and we would just laugh at the show. The essay was so good and interesting and it was interesting to  read how fathers act in different situations.  The rest of the essay goes in a similar fashion. It gives a name, a noun or even an animal and explain how fathers play a role in this. Other headings that come up are Carp, Divorce, Jaws, Y-Chromosomes and Emperor Penguins. Under each of these heading is a description of how the father plays a role in the heading. Under Carp it talks about how the father carp protects the eggs after the female lays them. If I were to write one of these it would say

"Kayla's Dad
Best known as Dave Lehman, born on May 21, 1966. Dave has four daughters and was not around much for them growing up. Now he is the reason Kayla is untrustworthy of men and can't find a decent relationship, because she looks for guys like her father. While he is a good dad, he showed Kayla a relationship for 14 years that was not okay to have."

The Life of the Butterfly- Woolf emulation

Butterflies are one of the most beautiful and elegant creatures; their wings different colors and shapes and make sure everyone sees them by not flying at night. Butterflies bring beauty upon their own species and  they bring the beauty of spring and the gentleness of everything that comes alive and blooms during this beautiful season. The butterfly brings with it the new life that comes with spring; flowers blooming, animals waking up from slumber, snow melting, colors, smells and new sights. The sight of the caterpillar spinning into a cocoon, to turn into something that will be so beautiful and look nothing like what it once was. He breaks through the cocoon like a polar bear breaking the ice to get to fish, he lets his wings spread open as to open his arms to the words and welcome everything that is. He lets his legs feel around to his old surroundings but he is seeing and feeling with new eyes. He looks over the day, with his new body, and he welcomes the world with his new wings and new legs and new everything; he walks down the branch looking at the ground seeming to ask if he should jump or not, almost to see if he would die. What happens if he jumps and his new wings don't work, will he meet an  untimely death, on the day his new life began? He looks at the ground and he jumps and lets his new wings catch him. His wings take him up towards the sky and away from where he's always been, to a place where he can be free and with his own.

South Eastern Ohio

As I drove on the winding country roads, I started to notice just how beautiful south-eastern Ohio is. I've spent a majority of my time in the last two years in Athens, but I haven't taken the time to really explore the area. I had to drive to Warren Local Schools to do some observing in a classroom. The roads I took where all back roads. Up and down hills, around bends and curves that could kill you if you weren't paying attention. Even though the trees were bare (some still had leaves) and the grass was brown, the scenery around me was beautiful. The blue sky gave a nice contrast to the brown that was covering the ground.
I also noticed the houses and small villages that were scattered about. I wondered about the people who lived here. Do they like living in a small village, where the closest town in miles away? Do they like living on a farm? Do they enjoy living in a place where everyone knows their name? Do they like living in a town where there aren't any stop lights? the town I lived in was the biggest town in our county. It only took me two minutes to get to a gas station and five minute drive to school. I always thought my town was so small, but then I drive through these villages and see how small they are. I could never imagine living somewhere so small, where everyone would know everything about me.

Mood Music

Music effects my mood, as I'm sure it does to everyone else. Anytime I hear the right song, my mood will change instantly. If I hear the song "I can Only Imagine" by MercyMe I instantly tear up as it was the song played during my grandmothers funeral. It reminds me of the funeral home, the side show and the sadness that surrounded that day.
When "Yesterday" by The Beatles comes on, I start to think about when I'm sad; because when I'm sad, I listen to this song on repeat. I know that I should be listening to happy music to make my mood better, perhaps I should be listening to "Here Comes the Sun" which seems to always bring a smile to my face.

Tattoos

This part first interested me because tattoos interest me. I only have one, but how I wish my body could just be covered head to toe in tattoos. And I mean every inch, no skin showing, just an array of colors and shapes, and trust me, each and every tattoo would have some special meaning to my heart. Ackerman says it perfectly in her line "Ultimately, tattoos make unique the surface of one's self, embody one's secret dreams, adorn with magic emblems the Altamira of the flesh." (100). Tattoos have been around forever, and as time goes on they become more popular. With tattoos first starting out to mark what tribe you were in, to marking who was trouble, to now, when people get them for an array of reasons. I can't see tattoos becoming something that we teach in history that no one sees anymore. Tattoos can tell us more about someone than they could tell us. They tell us a story, a story of the person's past, or where they want to be. Tattoos can show us the happy and sad times of a person's life. I believe that's why in Tokyo the University has the skins of people that are tattooed, so that they can tell us what they can no longer say.

Stuart Dybek- Confession

Also read "Human Cruelty" by Hayden Carruth

As I am not Catholic, I have no experience going to a confession. But it is something I find myself thinking about often. A place you can go and tell all your secrets to, and then they tell you that you are forgiven. How do you know this person will keep your secrets? How do you know that they aren't telling them? As in this short story I picture an old man sitting in robes, getting bored by sitting there all day listening to people's lives.Who do the priests go to when they need to confess? Although as a priest I suppose you aren't supposed to sin, but if they do, who do they go to? Do they go to another church? I often wonder if priest judge those who go to confession.

Taste

1. to become acquainted with by experience
2. to ascertain the flavor of by taking a little into the mouth
3.to eat or drink especially in small quantities
4. to perceive or recognize as if by the sense of taste


How do you taste a person? You could always be a cannibal and eat them, but that is just not natural. Is it the taste of their lips when you kiss them? Their soft and smooth lips, the first time you touch them. Maybe the way they taste has to do with how they smell. The smell of Axe freshly sprayed. Or the smell of James Bond 007 Cologne.  The smell of their clothes as they have just been washed. Or when they just get out of the shower. Maybe its the way their breath smells that causes the taste. Like after they have just smoked a cigarette and they don't want you to know so they use mint mouthwash, but when you kiss them you can still taste the nicotine on their lips. Smell and taste go hand and hand with each other. Like a couple that compliments each other perfectly.

Wang Ping- "Book War"

This essay made me realize how lucky we are to have the freedom in our country to read what we want. To have the freedom to read fairytales and books about our past where we don't have to hide our mistakes by lies, even though we do sometimes do this. To see how much book meant to other people, is just amazing. I couldn't imagine living somewhere, where I couldn't read Harry Potter or Pride and Prejudice. "When I saw stars rising in their dimmed eyes, I knew I had won the war."

Smells

Lavender, apple pie and tulips. The way my room currently smells. Lavender calms me down and helps me sleep. It is one of the most peaceful smells. When I close my eyes I picture a field full of purple flowers and sunlight warming my skin. But when I really think about lavender, I think about my childhood in which I would put lavender on my pillow each night to fall asleep. Then I started using lavender shampoo and body wash, which would help me relax anytime I took a shower. Each time I smell this peaceful flower, I can't help but to just want to sleep.

My grandma made the best apple pie. It tasted like heaven and smelled like Jesus. I could feel myself float to cloud nine anytime I would come home from school and smell what she was making. I loved Christmas and Thanksgiving because that meant apple pie. The candle in my room smells almost as good as the real thing. 

The pink tulips sit on my desk as a present from my grandma for my birthday. Tulips are my absolute favorite flower. Tulips smell so wonderful. They smell like a spring afternoon after it has just rained. They smell like Easter morning when you go to see what the Easter Bunny has brought for you. But most importantly they smell like my grandparents who were taken entirely before their time.

Language and Meaning

Mantaigne's language and meaning in his essays is different. In "Of Smells" he says  "Nay, the sweetness even of the purest breath has nothing in it of greater perfection than to be without any offensive smell, like those of healthful children, which made Plautus say of a woman:" The language and meaning in this passage is confusing, at best. Mantaigne seems to do this with a lot of his essays. He will contradict himself in his passages and in the same sentences. It's like if I said "I love horror movies, as long as they aren't  scary", it makes no sense and there is no way a horror movie won't be scary, although some horror movies aren't scary at all, but I guess that depends on the person, or the movie, but horror movies are typically scary, sometimes.