Carmerella > Recent Status Updates

I’d been an orphan, in and out of the foster system since birth. A multimillionaire plucking me out of poverty, installing me in her palatial home, making me heir to her fortune? - Camden

And there was this darkness that seemed to cling to me, a past that people only ever spoke about in whispers. A suspicion, even inside my own heart, that I had been placed in the wrong life, living out a role written for someone else. - Ruby McTavish

No one knew what to make of me. I was a rich man’s daughter who hid at parties rather than flirt with available bachelors. I was pretty enough, but there were other more beautiful girls. I did well enough in school, but wasn’t a brain.

“It’s stupid, but it’s like I keep forgetting that I’m going back there with someone,” he says, and then he squeezes my hand. “With you. Whenever I think about being back there, I picture it like it was before. All of them as this … united front. And me. Alone.” He lifts our joined hands, kissing my knuckles. “But now, I’m not alone.” “Never will be again,” I tell him, meaning it. Cam/Jules

My observation: every family have their own deep dark secrets and a murky past. The McTavishes are no different, except they are wealthier than most families.

The Blue Ridge Mountains surrounding the McTavish mansion are indeed stunning, but they are also full of hidden dangers—steep cliffs, boggy areas, and, of course, wild animals.

Everything about my estrangement from my family makes perfect sense to Jules because I’ve made it make perfect sense. I’ve told her the truth, or at least the most basic version of it, and she’s accepted it. - Cam

Mr. Durbeyfield and his wife decide to send Tess to the d’Urberville mansion, where they hope Mrs. d’Urberville will make Tess’s fortune. In reality, Mrs. d’Urberville is no relation to Tess at all: her husband, the merchant Simon Stokes, simply changed his name to d’Urberville after he retired. But Tess does not know this fact,

In Tess of the d’Urbervilles and other novels, Hardy demonstrates his deep sense of moral sympathy for England’s lower classes, particularly for rural women. He became famous for his compassionate, often controversial portrayal of young women victimized by the self-righteous rigidity of English social morality. Perhaps his most famous depiction of such a young woman is in Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

Literally, WHAT!?!

“My mother always says the only way two people can keep a secret,” she says, “is if one of them is dead.” - Patricia (Tricia)

In the experiment from Milgram, more than half of the subjects administered the 450 V electric shock—a dose of electricity which would have proven fatal if it had been real. They didn’t want to do it, but they did it. All because they were told to do it. - Adrienne

He lowers the bottle to read the label. “It’s a Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s from… Stellenbosch, South Africa.” “A wine from South Africa?” “Oh yeah. There are a lot of good Cabernets from South Africa.” - Tricia

Tape recordings don’t lie.

Some people deal with rejection better than others. Paige won’t deal with it well.

Human beings don’t deal well with rejection. Back when our ancestors were hunters and gatherers, being ostracized from a tribe was akin to a death sentence. For that reason, rejection is experienced by human beings as being incredibly painful. - Adrienne

How are you? The three most useless words in the universe of communication. Nobody who asks that question wants to know the answer. And nobody who answers ever tells the truth. - Adrienne

Before The Grinch, there was Scrooge - the original Christmas killjoy, the anti-Christmas if you will. Until, that is, he is paid a visit by the Christmas spirit and realises that Christmas time is less about worldly possessions and money and more about giving, family and spreading cheer.

A Christmas Carol is certainly the perfect little read come Christmas time.

They were not a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty; and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside of a pawnbroker’s. But they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time;

“A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!” Which all the family re-echoed. “God bless us every one!” said Tiny Tim, the last of all.

Treasure the woman or man you decide to marry, more than worldly acclaim or gold. The latter will buy you things that cannot make you as happy as the first.

Treat your employees with the same love and respect you would your own family

First spirit / Ghost of Christmas past

Never forget where you come from

“A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!” said Scrooge, buttoning his great-coat to the chin. “But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next morning!”

If I could work my will,” said Scrooge, indignantly, “every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas,’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!” “Uncle!” pleaded the nephew. - Ebenezer Scrooge

Dickens is buried in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey.

Originally conceived as a pamphlet against exploitative capitalism

Its reception was so ecstatic that it is credited with helping to revive interest among the Victorians in Christmas traditions, including caroling and holiday cards, as well as inciting an unexpected wave of charitable giving from Britain’s Industrial Age robber barons.

Standing in the bright spotlight, I attracted a host of fans from the insect world, ending up with a moth in my bra, another in my eye, and one in my mouth. Since I was mid-song, I pocketed the latter in my cheek and eventually swallowed it at a discreet moment. Yuck.

we were invited to a party at the home of a very powerful Hollywood agent. I can’t remember why we chose to attend; we were so seldom partygoers. When we arrived at the house, we were confronted by a classic “scene” for those days, but one that I had yet to witness. A group of guests were doing lines of coke in the sunken living room. During dinner, the coke was passed around as dessert.