Quotes About Anticipation

D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, Austin... and you. I'll be there soon.

And that was as far as he got before i heard it. The thumping of footsteps, running up the lawn toward me: It seemed like I could hear it through the grass, like leaning your ear to a railroad track and feeling the train coming, miles away. As the noise got closer I could hear ragged breaths, and then a voice. It was my mother.

You know the minute you stop thinking about it, it'll happen.

But even more so, it reminded me that this was all really happening. Stanford. The end of the summer. The beginning of my real life. It was no longer just creeping up, peeking over the horizon, but instead lingering in plain sight.

We sat there, not talking, for a few minutes. He ate the Moon Pie; only skinny people can scarf down junk food like that. Finally, I said, Norman? Yeah? Are you ever going to show me the painting? Man, he said. You are, like, so impatient. I am not, I said. I've been waiting forever. Okay, okay. He stood up and went over to the corner, picking up the painting and bringing it over to rest against the bright pink belly of one of the mannequins. Then, he handed me a bandana. Tie that on.

I don't think anyone would think that an ellipsis represents doubt or anything. I think it's more, you know, hinting at the future. What lies ahead.

Because' I repeated, as a breeze blew over us, sometimes things just happen. That aren't expected. Or on the list. Such as? he asked I don't know, I said, frustrated. That's the point. It would be out of the blue, taking us by surprise. Something we might not be prepared for. But we will be prepared, he said, confused. We'll have the list.

Sure, there was no guarantee any of these things would actually happen as he envisioned. But maybe that wasn"t the point.It was the planning that counted, whether it ever came to fruition or not.

When you've never gotten love from someone, you dob't know what it might look like if it ever does appear.

So close, I thought. A shorter fence, a fatter dog, and everything would be different.

My father's new life was progressing as planned, one neat step at a time. And I felt it, again, that same feeling I got whenever another change or shift in my life was announced to me – selling the house, Ashley's tantrums, now the baby – that need to dig in my heels and prepare myself for the next shock and its aftermath. I was tired of hanging on, taking the torn pieces to make something whole with them.

I never expected anything from anyone. Which was not the same thing as not wanting, ever, to be surprised.

I was doing it again, jumping around. But it was so hard to start at the beginning when you knew how it would end.

Earlier in the summer, I'd found the syllabi to a couple of the courses I was taking at Defriese in the fall, and I'd hunted down a few of the texts at the U bookstore, figuring it couldn't hurt to acquaint myself with the material.

You never know what lay ahead; the future was one thing that could never be broken, because it had not yet had the chance to be anything.

Just because you don't get your chance right when you want or expect it doesn't mean it won't come. Fate doesn't punch a time clock or consult a schedule.

It was like I'd waited all my life to have something like this, and I knew even then, at the start, that it would be hard, so hard to lose. The big stuff always is.

If you'd asked me, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. But of course, nobody had asked me.

for once life is comfortable, there is nothing to fear, nothing to fight for. Which means in turn that there is nothing to look forward to.

on fading passion) Sex was like the can of baking powder she kept on a high shelf in her pantry, something she didn't need right now but that she knew she could get her hands on without too much trouble.

We build model ships in bottles, whispering life into the toothpicks and wire; we make plans and blueprints for the one we hope is coming. And come they do. Fleets of vessels. Battleships and barges. They arrive on the horizon, flags to the sky.

I will wake up early with my heavy heartbeat. You will say. Can't we just sleep in, and I will say, No, trust me. You don't want to miss a thing.

Then. I used to practice what I would look like when someone was falling in love with me.

Today was very full, but the problem isn't today. It's tomorrow. I'd be able to recover from today if it weren't for tomorrow. There should be extra days, buffer days, between real days.