Day 2: procrastination (and a self portrait)

Day 1: tres

The Ides of March and Other Odd Things

"On a thyme-scented, bird hatching morning in May... ." *

Today is The Ides of March.

Saturday is St. Patrick's Day. Being Irish, I like this holiday. Wear green e'en if you aren't Irish!

Next Wednesday is the first day of Spring.

Next month, I'll attend a lecture about Emily Dickinson. It will be given by Claudia Emerson (A lovely lady, and a Pulitzer Prize winning poet). I'm looking forward to it.

*From Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy. Depressing book. I'd recommend Far from the Madding Crowd.

Books

I've been reading ever since I can remember, and in the last few years I've acquired a lot of books. My grandparents built these the other day as a late birthday present. I was thrilled, and stayed up en extra hour shelving books.

They wrap around my room, and I filled them almost halfway.

Merry Christmas!

Reflections

More Pictures

Portraits

Chansons Innocentes III by E.E. Cummings

little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly

i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don't be afraid

look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,

put up your little arms
and i'll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy

then when you're quite dressed
you'll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they'll stare!
oh but you'll be very proud

and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at out beautiful tree
we'll dance and sing
"Noel Noel"

Places I've Been

(not including Israel, gas stations, land flown over, or the people I've seen)



create your own personalized map of the USA

Patience

Happy December 1st!

Only 24 more days.

Chatham Manor

Where I was Saturday afternoon.

Chatham Manor is a late 1800's wealthy manor house. For a brief description, read the Wikipedia article here, or click here for the National Park Service's lengthier history.

The view of Fredericksburg.

Black Friday

It all began very late Thursday night, after way too much pie and eggnog ice cream. I was wondering about Black Friday jokes. People shoving old ladies, bodies run over by carts, etc. Until I could see one for myself, I decided not to make any final judgements. I convinced Dad to go shopping with me the next morning. After flipping through the dozens of fliers that had come in the mail, I went to bed at 10:15.

At 4 the next morning, I was up. We left at 4:30, and were met by a grand sight--stars!

Wal-Mart was our first stop. Since it stays open all night, and the sale didn't start until 5, people were waiting in lines beside the piles of items. I felt conspicuous walking nonchalantly down the aisles in front of all the slightly impatient shoppers. As Dad and I perused the store, we passed one woman with a satisfied grin on her face pushing a cart filled six feet high with boxes. Dad congratulated her, saying, "You win the shopper of the year award!" Keep in mind, this is about 5:10 am...

After Wal Mart, we drove to Best Buy. Finding a parking spot was literally impossible, and the line to get inside snaked around the side of the building (and Best Buy isn't a small store!) We went to Target. It didn't open until 6, and there was a line out front, so we went to Sears. Dad and I looked around, but didn't find anything. The sun was just beginning to creep up the sky. Back to Target. It was open now, and there was no more line outside. Inside, the store was abuzz with people. Luckily, we didn't have a shopping cart, otherwise we would have joined the jammed rows of carts and people. Tip: If you are in a crowded store, take shortcuts through the empty aisles, like 'greeting cards', and 'home decor'. I got two DVDs (Pirates of the Caribbean & Pride and Prejudice) for 5.50 apiece, and a Christmas present. The checkout lines were pretty bad--stretching across the store--but the cashiers were whipping along, so the wait wasn't too horrible. After Target, we crossed the street to Borders, where we browsed, glad for the quiet after the noisy stores. I bought one Christmas present there, nothing else--even on Black Friday, the place is ridiculously overpriced! Pride and Prejudice was on sale there, and it was still $16! (original price, $20...)
It was 8:30 when we got home, and people were just waking up.

Final thoughts? In some ways, it was just like I had imagined. There were the material people, waiting in line at indecent hours just to buy a piece of metal and wires. But it was also different than I had pictured. Black Friday is an adventure. You wake up while the stars are still twinkling, and go shopping with relatives. You buy electronics and Christmas presents and have a shopping experience like no other. When you get home, you nap and eat left-over pie for breakfast. Nearly everyone I saw was smiling.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We've just eaten Thanksgiving dinner with my aunt, cousin, and her husband. Everyone is still a bit woozy from the tryptophan & excess food, so I'm here to squeeze in a quick post.

Some things I've learned recently.

Sweet Potatoes contain 190% DV Vitamin A in a single serving.

An egg contains 71% DV Cholesterol.

You can roast mini marshmallows on a toothpick over a candle.

You shouldn't freeze pumpkin pie. The filling will pull away from the crust.

If you blow out a candle too fast and hard, you might get hot wax stuck in your lashes. This happened to me.

to keep you from wondering where I disappeared to

Last night, I went to see seven of my friends perform in a Christian Youth Theater production of Roger & Hammerstein's Cinderella. Hope, who played the ugly stepsister Portia, gave me a free ticket for my birthday, but I had no idea I would be sitting front row, right next to the orchestra... wow. It was a smashing performance.


I decorated this mug yesterday.

It has my favorite words on it.

Happy Birthday.

call it fall

Dream Children

When the world is all so ho hum and they can’t think of any more to say
When we need to speak our minds but we really want to sing and play
We really ought to stomp and yell because otherwise wouldn’t it all just be so boring.

Get a life, man and woman
Rise above the stupid meaningless
of this petty world and shake off
the sleep dust that is pulling you
beneath the waves of tired plodding sorrow
that is this depressing world—
free yourself from everything.
And let loose your baby voice
until it is a shout loud enough
to be heard everywhere—
until you have nothing left to say.
That is the point, for you to realize
your very own mind and leave your
shining finger prints all over the history
book that is not a textbook but a dream that is real.
Let the world understand what you’re.
Unthinkable hope is my connotation,
and whoever heard of something real
that didn’t die or go out of fashion?
You are the only thing that will never die,
because you are simply put
thought soul mind poetry inspiration. who can kill
what is kept in a safe place beyond our bounds of time. It
is a mystery that will never be solved by the undreamers.
We are the dream children with a
voice bigger than creation and
we will never die.

colors

good or bad?

this is fall

Fall is here.
And all of a sudden
the mornings are 48 degrees,
and your sixteenth birthday
is in two days.
The first autumn leaves
are two bright spatters
on the tree outside the kitchen window.