3 Cheers for Randomness and Reading!

I finally woke up before nine in the morning today. Isn't that wonderful? And the day just got better from there. A little bit of everything: family, cleaning, playing, books, silliness, writing, rats, film, the great outdoors . . .

My writer's block is finally clearing. I am writing again! So look for a new installment of 'The Sons of Cwendor' to be posted here sometime this weekend! The issue that's been bugging me is getting ironed out, so it's moving fairly smoothly now. Not the swift, dreamlike smoothly that I like best, but a steady sort that does what I want, instead of doing things of its own that I have to catch up to later. The writing kept me locked in my room for two hours after I woke up, so some people (namely, my brother oldest brother) refused to believe I wasn't asleep all that time. But I was awake, and now it's in print, which makes it true, right? 

After a late breakfast of toast--it's still strange to me how much I am craving toast after being in Hawaii, as I never really craved it before--and sliced apple which I ended up feeding most of to my cute little toddling siblings (who have an uncanny sixth sense when it comes to sensing that I have food to share), I determined to take all the sibs outside to a square of grass behind our house. Living in suburbia limits one's contact with trees and green things outdoors, but fortunately we live in a pretty quiet neighborhood, and the grass behind our house, though not extremely large, is large enough for a few tall trees and gentle hills, which we roll down. Yep, I still roll down grassy hills.

So we trooped out there and began a game of Peter Pan, as my youngest brother is currently obsessed with Pan. I was Captain Hook, since I had the long hair and was wearing a huge coat, and my second brother kindly found me a curled leaf to use as a hook. There were a few difficulties due to Elhendur preferring to use is Pan powers to fly instead of save Wendy, but fortunately (for my Sister No.2, I guess, not for me) he decided at the last moment to swoop in and save her from walking the plank (ie. jumping off the stone bench at one end of the grass), and then Brother No. 2 showed up as the crocodile and I was soundly trounced. In the excitement, everyone forgot about poor Tiger-Lily sitting on a hilltop as the fictional water came in, and I suppose she drowned, so my Hook had at least a little triumph. Sister No. 1 was a little put out, though.

Anyway, eventually Brother No. 1 and I tired of being restricted to only Peter Pan's universe, so we suddenly whirled around, yelled out that we were Ols from 'Deltora Quest', and swiftly dispatched Wendy, Tiger-Lily, and the Ticking Crocodile. Little Elhendur kept his wits about him, however, and decided that if we had entered the realm of Deltora, he was Lief and keeper of the Nectar of Life, with which he swiftly restored our fallen foes. These, upon springing up from the grass, bellowed that they were Jasmine, Barda, and, um, Wendy again, and charged us, taking us by surprise and felling us. But Elhendur was impartial, and so revived Brother No. 1 and I both, and I decided I had come back as Bigwig from 'Watership Down', and Brother No. 1 was Speedwell. This worked out fine, and I had an amusing time hopping on the grass, until Barda killed me for no reason whatsoever. Whereupon I came back as Feanor and after a brief stick-duel defeated Barda/Brother No. 2. 

And so on. The game became what my brothers later called 'A Literary Mario Bros. Smash Bros.', with each person strategically changing upon death into a character more likely to defeat the other characters, and Elhendur, who created an ingenious cup from bark with a twig for a straw, went about reviving fallen characters who would then regenerate. Brilliant fun and utterly mad. During the course of the game I transformed into Madame Defarge, Robin Hood, Eilonwy, Anne of Green Gables, Frodo, Nathaniel, Bartimaeus, Sherlock Holmes, Watson, Marley's Ghost, Ged, Fflewddur Flam, Radagast the Brown, Farmer Giles of Ham, Farmer Maggot, Amalthea, Achilles, and Cluny the Scourge, among others I have now forgotten. It was great fun impersonating these characters, almost as fun as watching my siblings impersonating theirs.

The best part probably--for me, anyway--was when we ended up engaging in an Encyclopedia Brown vs. Sherlock Holmes fistfight. As Brother No. 1 said happily: 'Now this is something that I've always wanted to see!' Sorry, Brown fans, Holmes won.

When we had all tired ourselves out, we assigned each person a character of the Fellowship of the Ring (yours truly was Aragorn, of course . . .), linked hands according to the order of march in Moria, and trooped off back home while singing 'The Fellowship' theme from the film. There was a bit of trouble when I addressed my mother at our door as 'O Lady Galadriel, we seek refuge in Lothlorien,' because she thought at first I said 'Old Lady Galadriel', but apart from that the whole thing went remarkably well for being so random and mad.

Later in the afternoon I was left at home with the youngest three kids and Brother No. 2, so I put on 'Ratatouille' and we watched that together for the first time in a long time. Elhendur fell asleep, but he had been getting cranky, so just as well. I then led the other kids in a cleaning effort and thereby cleaned the kitchen and dining room, which was fun when all the little ones were pitching in. Now all I have to do is muster what vestiges of my energy are left and go practice my dance, and my day will be complete. Oh, and I'll probably stay up a little late writing. Then it will all have come full circle.

How good it is to be alive, book-crazy, and the eldest of seven children!

Pic