12 Favorite Speeches from Whedon Shows (and Serenity)

So, this began as a list of 10 favorite speeches, but then I found too many. And I didn't have the energy to make it 15 or 20 or some other dividend of 5. So, here it is, my list of 12 favorite speeches from Whedon creations :-)

LIST OF WHEDON SHOW AWESOMENESS


1. Amends, Buffy

Angel: Am I a thing worth saving? Am I a righteous man? The world wants me gone!

Buffy: What about me? I love you so much... And I tried to make you go away... I killed you and it didn't help. And I hate it! I hate that it's so hard and that you can hurt me so much. I know everything that you did, because you did it to me. Oh, God! I wish that I wished you dead. I don't. I can't.

Angel: Buffy, please. Just this once... let me be strong.

Buffy: Strong is fighting! It's hard, and it's painful, and it's every day. It's what we have to do. And we can do it together. But if you're too much of a coward for that, then burn. If I can't convince you that you belong in this world, then I don't know what can. But do not expect me to watch. And don't expect me to mourn for you . . .
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2. Fool For Love, Buffy

Death is your art. You make it with your hands, day after day. That final gasp, that look of peace...Part of you is desperate to know... What's it like? Where does it lead you? That's also a warrior's question. A warrior's curiosity.So you see, that's the secret. Not the punch she didn't throw or the kick she didn't land. She simply wanted it. Every Slayer has a death wish. Even you. The only reason you've lasted as long as you have is, you've got ties to the world. Your Mum. Brat kid sister. Scoobies. They tie you here but you're just putting off the inevitable. Sooner or later, you're gonna want it and the second that happens, I pray to God I'm there. I'll slip in, have myself a real good day.
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3. Hells Bells, Buffy

I, Anya, want to marry you, Xander, because I love you and I always will. Before I met you, I was, like, a different person. Not even a person, really....and I had seen what love did to people. It was hurt. And sadness. Alone was better. And then suddenly there was you, and you knew me, you saw me, and it was this...thing. You make me feel warm, and safe. So I get it now. I finally get love, Xander. I really do.
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4. Grave, Buffy

Willow: You can't stop this.
Xander: 
Yeah, I get that. It's just - where else am I going to go? You've been
my best friend my whole life. World gonna end - where else would I want to be? [. . .] 
I'm not joking. I know you're in pain. I can't imagine the pain you're in. I know you're about to do something apocalyptically evil and stupid and hey, still want to hang. You're Willow. First day of kindergarten you cried 'cause you broke the yellow crayon and you were too afraid to tell anyone. You've come pretty far, ending the world, not a terrific notion but the thing is, yeah. I love you. I loved crayon-breaky Willow and I love scary veiny Willow. So if I'm going out, it's here. You wanna kill the world you start with me. I've earned that.
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5. Beneath You, Buffy

Buffy, shame on you. Why does a man do what he mustn't? For her. To be hers. To be the kind of man who would nev— (looks away) to be a kind of man. She shall look on him with forgiveness, and everybody will forgive and love. He will be loved. So everything's OK, right? (sighs) Can—can we rest now, Buffy . . . can we rest?
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Potential, Buffy

They'll never know how tough it is, Dawnie, to be the one who isn't chosen. To live so near to the spotlight and never step in it. But I know. I see more than anybody realizes because nobody's watching me. I saw you last night. I see you working here today. You're not special. You're extraordinary.
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7. Touched, Buffy

You listen to me. I've been alive a bit longer than you, and dead a lot longer than that. I've seen things you couldn't imagine, and done things I prefer you didn't. Don't exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood... which doesn't exactly rush in the direction of my brain. So I make a lot of mistakes. A lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred-plus years, and there's only one thing I've ever been sure of. You. . . . When I say I love you, it's not because I want you, or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are. What you do. How you try. I've seen your kindness, and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you, and I understand, with perfect clarity, exactly what you are. You're a hell of a woman. You're the One, Buffy.
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8. End of Days, Buffy

I've seen a lot more, gotten to know people . . . seen what they're capable of, and I guess I just realized how amazingly screwed-up they all are. I mean really, really screwed-up in a monumental fashion.And they have no purpose that unites them, so they just drift around, blundering through life until they die, which they-they know is coming, yet every single one of them is surprised when it happens to them. They're incapable of thinking about what they want beyond the moment. They kill each other, which is clearly insane, and yet here's the thing. When it's something that really matters, they fight. I mean, they're lame morons for fighting, but they do! They never . . . they never quit. So I guess I'll keep fighting too.
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9. Habeas Corpses, Angel

Wesley: There is a line, Lilah. Black and white, good and evil.
Lilah: Funny thing about black and white — you mix it together and you get gray. And it doesn't matter how much white you try and put back in, you're never gonna get anything but gray.
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10. Home, Angel

Lilah: Flames wouldn't be eternal if they actually consumed anything. But it means something that you tried.

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11. Not Fade Away, Angel


[Why] don't I go off and have one last perfect day? Smell the flowers, or sky-dive [. . .] or whatever the hell one is supposed to do in this situation? There is no perfect day for me, Illyria. There is no sunset or painting or finely-aged scotch that's going to sum up my life and make tonight any . . . There is nothing that I want. [. . .] The first lesson a watcher learns is to separate truth from illusion. Because in the world of magics, it's the hardest thing to do. The truth is that Fred is gone. To pretend anything else would be a lie. And since I don't actually intend to die tonight, I won't accept a lie.
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12. Serenity

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave.

So it's been almost forever since I've posted on here. Life was pretty busy for awhile, and it still is, but now I feel like I have a moment to sit down and write a post. Yay :-)

So . . . since the last few times I've posted . . .

January: My apartment flooded; I moved to North Liberty.
February: I worked on moving into my apartment and tried to catch up on schoolwork after a couple of moving-intensive weeks. Also, went to Nebraska with my family to my cousin's wedding.
March: Shari came to visit for a week. We celebrated "our birthday" (the day exactly in between our two birthdays-haha-yeah. We're dorks ) by going to the Quad Cities for dinner and taking a bunch of pictures on the way back at the "World's Largest Truck Stop" (no, really, we *are* dorks . . .) and generally had a great time. Spring Break was not so fun, but the week was followed by a great trip to California with my mom. I did research with Oscar Wilde's manuscripts on Thursday and we spent the weekend exploring LA.
This week: Got back from California. I came home to a ton of school work that I am still working on . . . Yay weekend! Planning to write a 6 page presentation, a 3 page annotated bibliography, and a 2-3 page paper. Tomorrow. Yeah . . . But thankfully, I write quickly, so . . . only 6 hours of writing? I'm hopeful :-)

Anyway, I think I'll be back to the blogging world for awhile!

Water Water Everywhere: Please Pray!

Okay, so here is a quick overview of what's happened the last few days . . .

Thursday night: Came home after an extremely long day, starting at 8 AM at the post office, having half my hand numbed at the dermatologists, and generally running around like crazy trying to get everything done. I heard a funny noise in my bedroom and discovered that it was water--lots of water--pouring in off of my light fixture. After freaking out and having a few not-so-fun tornado flashbacks, I managed to call people I know and find a friend (thanks, Alyce!) who helped me move my bed out of the way. Josh came over later to help move my mattress and dresser out of the room. Once I had emptied the room of everything I could, I went out for pie with Tiffany and came back to the apartment to crash for a few hours of sleep.

Friday: My so-very-amazing dad left at 5 AM to come and help me through the situation. The day was pretty much filled with insurance and property owner calls, plus class and work in the afternoon. That night, we packed up and left for a hotel. No dripping water!!!

Saturday: There was so much water between my bedroom and the hallway outside my apartment, that things were starting to smell really mildew-y, and we decided I needed to move out as soon as possible before a) any other leaks developed and b) the mold started infecting my stuff. Within eight hours, twelve friends came and helped me pack up my entire apartment and move my stuff out. I truly have some amazing friends! Went out to dinner and crashed at the hotel.

Sunday: (Slightly) less crazy day. Stopped off at the apartment for a few things and to pick up my car, went to church, and then spent the afternoon figuring out apartment possibilities and driving around Iowa City and North Liberty to check them out from the outside. Came back just in time for a very disappointing Viking's defeat.

To do today: Find an apartment and make it through two hours of teaching and three hours of classes!


Prayer requests:
a) My health. Most of you know my health situation, and as you can imagine, something like this is anything but helpful. Pray that I will survive the stress both emotionally and physically without getting horribly sick. Also pray for my dad. He's been amazing through all this, but I know that this has been very tiring for him.

b) Finding an apartment today. We haven't talked to the owner since Friday, so pray that he is willing to help us find an apartment in one of the company's other many properties. Also pray that we can find something nice and within my budget!

c) Help moving into my apartment. (Yes, this is both a prayer request and a request :-P) Pray that I can find people who are willing to help me move into my apartment once I find one! (Hopefully sometime this week!!) If you are interested in being part of the answer to this prayer request, let me know, and I'll let you know as soon as I know when I can move in!

d) Understanding professors. This is one of the times that you really realize that you don't live in an ivory tower, and that the outside world and "real life" sometimes does interfere with the whole "my life is academia" thing. Pray that my professors are kind and understanding!

New Year Thoughts

God is good. No matter where I am in my life, he has always, always, always done what's best for me-always worked everything for my good. So often, I tend to think about how God is good and faithful during the hard times and really rely on him then, but during the less-hard times, I sometimes forget to think about the hard times God took me through to lead me to the peaceful places. And I don't always realize that it was because he took me through those times that I am capable of enjoying the blessings he has given me.

I feel like I've grown a lot, but there are still so many times that I feel like my affections are so shallow. When I hurt, I hurt deeply, but when I'm joyful, praising, loving?? I want more. I want to seek God just as earnestly in the good times as the hard. I want to learn how to love him more passionately. And I want to love people so much more . . . more unconditionally, more selflessly, more sacrificially, and more patiently.

CFS Awareness

So I never thought I'd be saying this, but thank you to Dr. Oz! A few months ago, he did a segment on fatigue, and had a doctor who's known for work on CFS there, but framed CFS--either intentionally or not--as the same kind of fatigue that results from bad eating habits, no exercise, and too much stress--like it could be fixed by just "being healthy." So, the CFS community was a little mad at him. But, today, he did a segment on his show highlighting CFS and talking about the XMRV retrovirus that researchers now think cause CFS. He had a doctor come and explain the symptoms of CFS and also a CFS sufferer. While it wasn't the most inclusive or best treatment of CFS I've seen, I'm really glad that he did the segment just because it's bringing CFS into the public eye and making people realize that it's a real, serious, and horribly debilitating disease, not just something that's "inconvenient" or--worse--"in our heads."

There's a great list that I came across through a CFS forum I'm a part of called "10 things not to say to someone with CFS." The funny part was, I had been to the hospital for a medical test earlier that day, and the technician said a ton of those things to me. It was pretty annoying. Things like, "well, I think everyone would be claiming they had that" when I told her about the symptoms--the extreme fatigue, memory problems, and muscle/joint pain. I tried to reply nicely (after all, I was going to spend two hours with this woman), but when she also said things like, "Well, I thought that it was the kind of thing they didn't think existed," it got frustrating. Thankfully, she dropped the subject quickly.

I hope more people will come to realize that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a real and horrible disease and that the people who have it need sympathy from their friends and attention from doctors, not questioning and skepticism.

I like my life right now :-)

I watched V for Vendetta last weekend. Why had I never seen it before? Maybe because of silly friends who didn't like it. But I actually really, really liked it. "A Revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having." "Apparently a fake ID works better than a Guy Fawkes mask." Haha-so great.

In not-loving-all-of-life news, I've been grading like there's no tomorrow. Which, actually isn't true, because if there were no tomorrow, I would not be grading. There wouldn't really be a point. But, anyway, yesterday I graded ten papers, and I already had eight finished, so that leaves . . . a lot. About 27? So I'm hoping for 22 today and the last five tomorrow morning.

But some things make life happy even when grading is eating your life. :-)

Anticipation

Je suis malade. Meaning, I'm sick. In French :-P

I don't think it's the flu because I don't have a fever; I'm just really dizzy and had a headache and queasy stomach this morning. So I'm hoping it goes away quickly. The dizziness is a little better now, which means I might actually get some grading done this afternoon (. . . yay? . . .)

I am so very ready for Thanksgiving break. A full week home with my family! And . . . Christmas can start after Thanksgiving! I'm so excited to come back to my apartment and set up my Christmas tree and listen to Christmas music and eat Christmas cookies! Ooh-and snow! I'm actually excited about snow! We've already had so many wet and rainy cold days that now I feel like if we're going to have cold, we should at least get some snow with it.

Ooooh, and in less than two weeks--I get to see RENT! With Adam Paschal and Anthony Rapp! I love, love, love Adam Paschal's voice. Anthony Rapp, too, but when Adam Paschal sings "One Song" or "What You Own," my heart melts. A lot.

I may be feeling miserable, but life is awesome.