While I Was Out...

Taking a break from blogging sure gives one a lot more unanticipated free time and {I'm discovering} fresh energy to get back to it once one's blog has been updated and all the links are working again.

Thanks, Rachel!

As I posted last time, my life underwent some rather substantial changes over the past few months. However, it also underwent some minor and significantly less important changes that were a lot less stressful and infinitely more fun!


1
I got my hair chopped off

Before

6 inches and a plethora of layers later...

Ponytails required a lot of clips for a while, but otherwise I was incredibly happy with the results :)

2
I finished a novel

It's in two chunks there, but when I printed it off, double-spaced, it was almost a full ream of paper and that's not actually all of it. After rewriting it 3 times, it's a little surreal to know that this is the last time I'll be going over it before...what? Sending out query letters? Taking the next step to my dream of publication? I confess I'm dragging my feet a bit here because the fact that it's almost done is somehow more daunting than facing the blank pages at the beginning and filling them.

3
 I turned 21 and was legally allowed to paint my toenails

I chose OPI's Live, Love, Carnaval for this much-anticipated moment

...and got frozen yogurt with plenty of s'mores crunch.

4
I ditched my eucharisteo box {read about that here} and started a journal

It sits on my desk at work and I use different colored pens each day. The box had its time and when I emptied it it was pretty full, but now that I have a more stationary life the journal is more sensible. I've also ditched the idea that my 'gifts' {read Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts if you have no idea what I'm talking about} have to sound like poetry. If I'm thankful for the way my chair rolls over the plastic sheet on the floor that's as poetic as it's going to be on the page.

5
I finally made the journal-calendar-box-memory-catcher thingamajig that I found on the internet forever ago and have always intended to construct.

Here is the link that explains what this is and how to make your very own. I will add my personal warning though: you will need more than one package of the index cards because it takes a LOT. I still have to get some more before sometime in the middle of May. I also have to find something I want to use for a month divider and decorate the box. For now, that's still in the decision stage.

Anything else? Probably - but those are all the pictures I have to share.

Till next time!

The Story of My Life

I really shouldn't interrupt myself - because swabbing down my flute with rubbing alcohol is such a FASCINATING business - but I haven't blogged for a while {something you've probably noticed if you're still following after all this unforgivable neglect} and I do miss the old thing.

*pause for effect as I dutifully wipe away*

I have been incredibly productive during my absence, though, in case you were thinking that I've spent my hiatus sitting on my bum eating chocolate {which I only did a tiny bit of}.

Let's do a tick-off and I'll fill you in on the details:

- I was dead sick for three days before the turn came and I felt better. I didn't get the flu thing that was going around, but I did get the cold virus - and that with a vengeance.

- I have done pound upon pound of laundry. After dead-sickness there is, of course, all the militant germ-ridding that must be done. Sheets, blankets, towels, sweatshirts, pajamas, flutes and the like.

- Two of my sisters and I have now begun the task of cleaning our church once a week {we're being paid to do it, before you think I'm holier than I am}. I think I'm going to give myself tennis elbow or something from vacuuming.

- Of course, work must be gone to and completed every day.

- Christmas for us lasted until January 5th, so the busyness lasted that long as well.

- I'm going to MN this weekend to visit a friend and the planning that such a venture entails is astoundingly staggering.

- I've been catching up on some backed-up shopping - which always takes time, as we ladies know.  ;-)

- I am in the midst of editing a Nano novel {not mine}, major plotting for several novels, and not learning a Bible lesson that I am scheduled to demonstrate for a class on January 26th {eep!}.

- My brother, two sisters, two friends and I have recently become involved with POBLO ministries {People of the Book Lutheran Outreach}, which meets every Thursday night for two hours and is a class where we teach {or try to teach} local, inner-city immigrants the English language.

- Trying to finish I Capture the Castle for book club.

- Battling with our eternally slow internet connection. You never know how much you rely on it until it doesn't work, you know?

- Writing three thousand blog posts in my head - and typing none of them...

- Catching up on backed up organization and clean up.

- And, my biggest triumph this month: taking the 4.5 yards of black fabric I bought months ago and turning it into a skirt! {Pictures may be forthcoming, but I assure you, it is one of the greatest triumphs of my sewing career {a limited career - don't over expect}}.

And that is the story of my life.

Signed copies of this post are available upon request. :)

Perhaps someday I shall be rich and famous and it'll be worth something.

Haha.

Love,

An Update Taken From Life

Wow! A post that isn't a book review or an announcement! Too bad it'll be at about the same interest level, but hey, someone apparently reads this stuff.

Anyway, I am extremely excited about the Short Story Contest. So far there are eight entries and I'm sure each one is going to be an interesting bit of fiction. =D Jamie and I can't wait to read every last one! And, (as I throw in my little advertisement) there is still time to enter! Tell your friends! Enlist your followers! The prizes are for everyone!

*ahem*

So, aside from that interesting and unique addition to my life, I have been rather dull lately. I haven't been too busy to post (heavens no), but I have been experiencing some writer's block and creativity that I know, from experience, is very lethal to good writing. I generally tend to veer away from adding too much to any project in my arsenal during these times, since I generally erase it all once I get a fresh burst of brain cells anyway.

Other than that, I've been doing some reading (non-review books), but am currently stuck in one and not budging. I did recently read a good biography about Queen Victoria that makes me feel like watching The Young Victoria (fabulous movie!) again.

And, I tremble to bring forth this news, but Jamie has shut herself up in her literary world again and has been sighted pounding away furiously on the computer keys. She says she's writing a serialized detective story that she is going to post on this blog - not Scribbles, imagine that! - in tantalizingly suspenseful segments. If you ask me, from what I saw looking over her shoulder, you'll have to wait for this one until probably December. She insists she's going to actually finish it though - but right now she's sitting on the counter eating grapes and yelling at me for revealing her weakness for procrastination.

Whatever.

I am thorougly excited at the moment because tomorrow I'm going out with a friend and we're going to see Pixar's new move Brave. I have been waiting for this movie to come out forever and am sincerely hoping that it lives up to my expectations. =D From what I've already seen, it looks like it'll fit my kinks.

Well, that's all I can say at the moment! Keep your eyes peeled for Jamie's stuff. She says it's coming soon.

  

Till next time!

Requiem for an Apology

I really have no idea what that title is supposed to mean, but it sounded cool. Hope it's not going to give anyone the disturbances.

Before I begin, I think I ought to bundle all the 'sorrys' I'm am probably going to drop throughout the post together and get them out now.

- I'm sorry that it's been so long since I last posted. I could throw out the "I've been busy excuse" but I have actually had time to blog that I haven't taken advantage of.

- I'm sorry that my posts have been so boring lately. I know a lot of you are probably not very interested in book reviews. *''* (That's supposed to look like a blushing smiley; it actually looks like two asterisks with a couple apostrophes in the middle. Experiment failure strikes again!)

- I'm sorry that this post is going to be lame. If you're curious enough to see just how lame, I'm sure you'll find your way to the bottom eventually.

So, I've been mulling over several Scriptural points that have hit me in the past few weeks (they churn around in my brain and scream: 'Post about me! Post about me!' until they die of old age or I actually get around to posting them) and I've also been thinking of several new fill-in-the-blanks and, of course, there's news about how my completely revamped life is going. But no, we won't use any of those.

Instead we shall talk about

Rain.

And not really about rain either. Instead, I want to share this picture. 

Now that I've got it big enough so that you can see the pores of her skin...

Actually, we're not even going to talk about this picture. I'm going to post some more that give me that creepy, just-right feeling that a thunderstorm or a thrill or a good idea gives me. Enjoy!

I love how each of these pictures, just looking at them, puts a story in my mind. Lost hopes, shattered dreams, the thrill of hope, the tears of pain. Renewal. Sacrifice. Sorrow. Love. A thousand and a half (also known as 1,500 for you math-brained, unpoetical types) conclusions can be drawn from their expressions, their stances, their surroundings, even the way the rain is falling. It gives me thrills to my fingertips just to think about it! Someday, perhaps, I'll take a group of pictures and write a story or a poem for each one, but that's one of those "I'll do it on vacation or when I retire" pipe-dreams. Maybe someday, though. Maybe...

Have I bored you enough? Perhaps I should go up and add another 'sorry' to the list. But if you're still with me, I just want to say: isn't it so neat how most of these are either muted colors or black and white? Rain just does that to you. Makes you feel black and white, with maybe a little grey around the edges. 

No wonder some people hate it. And no wonder that I love it. 

Till next time,

And on our left...

So here I sit with my chocolate-malt ice cream bar; my current favorite album Meredith Andrew's The Invitation playing through my earbuds; an open window with an Indian summer breeze blowing through (*bliss*); and an unplugged laptop whose battery will take a nose-dive soon if I let this get too long. :(

My homework is done; I have a few hours before I leave to go to a friend's house for dinner and a Biblestudy (another installment of The Truth Project - hurrah!); I have a novel to edit; a journal entry to write; and a major discussion to have with my sister about doll costumes and NaNoWriMo plots (heh-heh).

I really wanted to do NaNoWriMo this year, but I'm afraid that'll have to be postponed due to the necessities of life called "college" and "career" (pish-posh; I didn't ask to grow up). I am determined that I shall do it someday. Maybe I'll do the spring one, depending on what God hands me life-wise by then.

Speaking of God, I stumbled across a phrase in my Bible reading this morning that I absolutely loved: sweet fellowship. Fellowship is sweet. And fellowship with God is the sweetest of all when you take the fruit He has given you (i.e. the Bible) and bite deep and find the sweetness beneath the skin. Prayer, too, is sweet fellowship. When you can open your heart to God and tell Him your fears and hurts and thank Him for your joys and the gifts He pours out on you. That is wonderfully sweet. Which makes me wonder why I never take advantage of it like I can. I'm one of the worst prayer-warriors a person could ask for. I constantly forget to pray or rush through my prayers. It's definitely something I really need to work on.

You're probably beginning to wonder if this post has a point that I'm getting too after an obscenely long introduction. I might as well let you in on the secret:

This post has no point.

Sometimes I just feel like typing and spilling things out and wandering through the caverns of my brain (always a dangerous thing to do).

If you want to come along for the ride, climb aboard. It's harmless, I assure you.

Though I can't promise much when it comes to the scenery.

Yesterday my brother and sister and I were having a discussion about how people make cds these days and how there are so many assistive devices that the person doesn't really need to have much talent besides song-writing (and I would say that many songwriters are sorely lacking in that area as well, though I'll demonstrate unusual self-control and not name names) and a voice that can hold up under the basic notes of a given range. It sure pops a delusional bubble when you find out that the song is mostly perfected electronically (they don't even have to sing in tune anymore, they just correct it with a machine).

Oh well.

I suppose the pioneers of yesteryear would say it's cheating to use a microwave.

Ok, I'm puzzling myself.

I am so excited about Christmas.

(See? I warned you about the scenery)

I can't wait for the music, the decorations, the special programs on the radio, the family time, the presents, the church services, our family tradition of watching like nine different Christmas Carol movies (not to mention It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story and The Nativity Story)...

I...can't...wait

I had something I wanted to talk about here, but I've forgotten what it is... Hmm...

I've been told I'm really morbid because I like books where people die and movies where people die and I like to write about people dying (if you've read my short story Holly and Ivy, you'd notice this). To me, death is a bigger emotional punch than a wedding or a baby or falling in love. Like Anne Shirley said (yeah, I know. I refer to her a lot...) "I'd rather make people cry than laugh".

Personally, I like to do both.

But death? There's something about it that fascinates me in writing and movies. Especially in writing. Exploring the emotions of the people around the dying person, thinking up the medical, physical and emotional aspects of the dying person's character, and everything else that goes with such deliciously morbid material - I love it.

It makes people look at me queerly, though, when I rave about a person dying in a scene of a book or film. I've found out that more people like happy endings than sad ones and they think I'm strange for liking the sad ones. There's just something about a sad ending that gives me more satisfaction than when everything works out perfectly. Plus, I love killing off characters and making people mad at me for doing it. :) You don't realize how much you really liked a character until they're dead, I always say.

Actually, I've never said that before, but you wouldn't have known that if I hadn't told you, so...

I'm lost.

This seems to be a trend right now.

I'll sign off now and let you get back to your lives - which are probably infinitely more interesting than this.

Though if this was boring you wouldn't have gotten to this message.

Haha.

All right, my computer has just informed me that it's dying. That's one death I don't like.

Tata!

'Till next time,
 

Springtime Ramble

This post is going to be dedicated to nothingness. Spring has finally come to my neck of the woods (though I'm still waiting for the temperature to show the same trend) and I recently dug out my camera and decided to snap some of the foliage in our backyard. This is the result: A few pictures from my latest photo shoot and a few shots of our rabbits, which we don't have anymore, but which still fit in the spring category nonetheless:

                                                                       Pear Blossom

I have no idea what this flower is

                                                                          Daffodils

                                                                           Daffodils

                                                                        Baby Rabbits

                                                                               Susie

                                                                   Snickers and Gracie

Lucy

'Till next time,

-- Jamie

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  -- Ecclesiastes 3:11