Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus Quotes

“Sometimes the friends you make aren’t the ones you expected. And sometimes the place you find yourself in isn’t the place you were hoping for. And sometimes, if you keep an open mind, you’ll find they’re so much better than what you imagined.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Don’t ever let anyone make you think you’re not good enough or smart enough or talented enough or brave enough. I let people make me feel that way. They hurt me. They wounded me. On the outside. On the inside. I carried that hurt with me my whole life. I never had anyone around to tell me that even my insignificant life was worth something. But you have so many people who love you and believe in you. And you are worth more than you know. Don’t let any one person take that away.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Let’s live like we mean it
Because today is the youngest we’ll ever be
For the rest of our lives.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Josephine was in the leisure room as usual, reading some terrible book. As usual. This week's selection had a pirate with a hairy chest on the cover.
I sat down next to her on the couch. "You should be embarrassed to read those books in public," I said.
She set it down on the table next to her. "Why should I be? They have them all here in the library. Obvious, they intend for someone to read them."
"Don't they have any, like, quality reading material here?"
"This is quality," Josephine insisted.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“I’ll be there for you
When it all falls apart.
I’ll be there for you
When they break your heart.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Don’t ever let anyone make you feel like you’re not enough.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“No action means no results.
Get up. Get moving. Get out of your seat.
Fight, fight, fight.
You can take the heat.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Henry. Aven was my mother. Joe is my grandmother. Remember? Joe is at the retirement center with Milford the stalker.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“No one could ever take your place, Spaghetti.
We love you forever, Spaghetti.
Not meatballs, not baked ziti, not even lasagna.
Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.
We love you forever, Spaghetti. — Kids from Alcatraz
(debut song—five downloads sold)”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“The doctor shined a light in my eyes, asked me to follow his finger, moved my head around to check my neck, asked me a bunch of questions about how vomity I felt, and then determined that yes, I did have a concussion. But I wasn’t dead. So I wasn’t all that concerned.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“I think there comes a point when your sadness gets too great that you can no longer feel anything at all. You just become numb. Because in that moment, I couldn’t possibly grieve for Henry and Spaghetti and my friendship with Zion and everything else going wrong in my life at the same time. I think I’d finally run out of tears. And I didn’t even know that was possible.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“There was a knock on the door, and Mrs. Hill opened it. Connor walked in wearing a dog costume. “What are you?” I asked him. He barked. “Guess.” “Krypto,” said Mrs. Hill. “Nope,” said Connor. “Lockjaw,” said Mrs. Hill. “Nope.” “Wonder Dog.” “Nope.” “Cosmo the Space Dog.” “Nope.” “Dylan Dog.” “Nope.” “Geez,” I said. “How many dog comic book characters are there?” “A lot,” said Mrs. Hill, then she jumped up and down. “Oh, oh, oh! Lucky the Pizza Dog!” “Yes!” said Connor.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Someone’s gonna get hurt,” Mrs. Hill said, but she didn’t seem too terribly worried as she loaded the dishwasher.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“It doesn’t mean I don’t care.
If you only knew.
It’s because I care so much
That I get mad at you.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Why all this sudden interest in your father?” Mom asked. “Just curious.” “Well, you know what they say about curiosity,” Mom said. “It killed the cat.” “Nope,” Mom said. “It’s the sign of a powerful brain.” I smiled. “Who says that?” “Science.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“He does not,” Josephine insisted. “Men like that are only after one thing.” I looked at Milford, sitting over the chessboard, shoulders slumped. “I know. You already said that, but I still don’t understand what that is.” “Someone to clean up after them.” “But you have housekeeping here.” “Someone to cook them all their meals.” “But you all eat in the cafeteria. No one cooks here.” “Someone to keep track of all their medicine.” “But you have nurses to do that for you.” Josephine jerked her head at me. “Well, don’t you have an answer for everything?”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“How are you feeling, Aven?” “Why?” “Because you’ve been sick,” Lando said. “You were sick all week. I was worried about you.” “Why?” Lando laughed. “Are you always this suspicious?” “I just don’t understand why you’d care.” Lando grabbed his chest. “Ouch. Straight to the heart. So what did you have?” Oh my gosh. What did I have? I couldn’t think of anything. “Botulism,” I blurted out. “I had botulism.” Lando looked from me to Zion. Zion nodded seriously. “Yes, that’s what she had.” “Geez,” Lando said. “We learned about that in bio.” Oh, shoot.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Around midnight, I got up from my bed and sat at my computer. I typed out a new blog post. I guess I’ve been sort of lucky in my life. Most of the people I’ve known have been pretty nice. Even when they haven’t known how to react to me or they’ve said something stupid or they’ve given me one of the looks, at least it wasn’t out of meanness. Maybe fear. Maybe ignorance. But not usually meanness. Sure, people have said mean things. People have made fun of me. People have been rude to me. But I never knew the degree to which people could be mean. And it turns out people can be meaner than I ever imagined. So I guess I’ve been lucky that I made it all the way to fourteen without having to come face to face with this unbearable level of meanness. And I don’t know what to do with this knowledge right now. I’ve always liked to believe the best in people—that people can change. That there’s good in everyone—or at least more good than bad in everyone. But I know now that I was wrong. It sucks to be wrong. And I don’t ever want to be wrong about that again. Then I deleted it.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Just then a lady with a poufy blonde wig and a disheveled polka-dot blouse walked up to us. “Have you seen my teeth?” she asked. “I think I left them on the side table here.” My mouth dropped open, but Josephine pointed at the woman in the maroon dress who was now sitting in a chair watching the television, which wasn’t on. “I think Betty over there has them.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“She took a deep breath. “Wherever I am, I find him sitting not far away, starin’ at me like that with those beady eyes. Stalker eyes!” she cried out again. “Plus, he eats the chess pieces.” I gawked at him. “What?” I watched as he literally picked up a piece from the chessboard and put it in his mouth.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Then we met Zion, and things got even better. Our trio was invincible. We were like Harry, Ron, and, Hermione—but with far less wizarding. And cloaks. Though cloaks would be amazing.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“ONCE, WHEN I WAS THIRTEEN YEARS old, my parents moved me from the land of flat, grassy prairies and towering, angry tornadoes and life-giving cool country air to the mysterious land of suffocating dust and prickly cactus and life-sucking desert heat to lord over a park of western-themed amusements that bring delight to many young children and a handful of immature grown-ups. In other words, we moved from Kansas to Arizona to run a theme park, but it sounds much more exciting when I say it the other way, and I want you to think this is going to be an exciting story. What I mean is, it’s absolutely going to be an exciting story. Prepare yourselves accordingly.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“I'm seeing things clearly now, for the first time ever. I see me. I'm not what they thought. I am what I believe.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Sometimes the friends you make aren't the ones you expected. And sometimes the place you find yourself in isn't the place you were hoping for. And sometimes, if you keep an open mind, you'll find they're so much better than what you imagined.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“(I was clearly the tomato since tomatoes are red and don’t have arms and Zion was the lettuce since lettuce is all wilty).”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Let's live like we mean it
Because today is the youngest we'll ever be
For the rest of our lives.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“You can do it. But listening to me would definitely make your life a lot easier.” “Oh my gosh, I get it!” I cried. “I should have listened to you.” Zion crossed his arms. “Mm-hm.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Did you do the jump yet?” “Meh.” “Why haven’t you done it?” I moved my eyes from the bright window to Zion. “I can’t hold on. I’ll fall off.” I rolled my eyes. “Duh.” Zion crossed his arms. “Duh?” “Would you want to ride a big roller coaster without a harness?” “That’s not a very good comparison.” “Would you skydive without a parachute?” “That’s worse,” Zion said. “Not even close. Just do the jump. Stop being a scaredy-cat.” “No one says scaredy-cat.” “I totally just did.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“I glanced around the lunchroom for a moment. “Ignore them,” Zion said. “Don’t even look at their table.” I focused on Zion like I was booby trapped, and if I took my eyes off him for only a moment, I would explode—just a big poof of red hair and gone. “I won’t. I’m not. Are they looking at me?” “No.” “Are you lying?” “No.” “Do I need to check to see if they’re looking at me?” “No.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

“Suck, suck, suck.
Everything sucks.
And everywhere sucks.
And everyone sucks.
Suck, suck, suck.”
― Dusti Bowling, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus