A humorous Easter prelude

During Good Friday service this evening I was sitting with my five-year-old brother, Elhendur, on my lap. He's a very clever, imaginative, and goofy little boy, and halfway through the service was extremely excited when he noticed that my grandmother and aunt were sitting two pews behind us. He grimaced and grinned in their direction for a while, trying to get their attention, and after a few minutes my aunt evidently noticed him, but my grandmother did not.

"I'm going to keep staring at her," he whispered to me, "until she sees me." Whereupon he fixed this ghastly stare and impossibly wide grin on his face and commenced his leering. This lasted about seven minutes, until his five-year-old patience wore thin and more drastic measures were apparently called for.

He tapped me on the arm. At this point in the service there was a hymn being sung and the priest had gone to bring in the Eucharist from where it was in repose after being taking out of the church in a procession the night before for Holy Thursday. So things were somewhat lulled. Still, I was somewhat distracted because I was listening to the choir--which was remarkably good tonight--and so only paid the cunning little guy half my attention.

"Say this," he was telling me. "Say: hibbly dibbly hobbly doo, I make Booma look at you!" ('I' meaning me, and 'You' meaning himself, and 'Booma' being the name my siblings and I give to my grandmother (long story.).)

Not thinking much of the request (I have really weird siblings, okay?), I did as he asked, in a church-appropriate undertone. He looked intently to where my grandmother was sitting, still oblivious.

After a moment he sagged in disappointment against my front, clearly put-out that nothing of note happened. But ever the optimist he then leaned back, looked up at me thoughtfully, and remarked musingly:

'I think you need a broom.'

And that was when I suddenly was very glad that the choir was singing loud enough to prevent anyone else from noticing that my younger brother had just been encouraging me to attempt witchcraft in the middle of the Good Friday church service.

Little kids. You gotta love them.

. . . Even when they matter-of-factly reveal that they think you are a witch in the middle of Mass.

My life's shifting again . . .

On Monday I begin registering for my Fall classes, and as simply as that I am back in the university-going game. It's been a long time, and my life feels somewhat surreal at the moment: I devote my time to my writing and my family and my dance right now, and yet begin to feel subconsciously the pull of Hawaii and the duties of academia that await me there. There is a great pall of impermanence over everything I do at the moment, which is somewhat disheartening. I hate feeling the sand slipping under my feet.

Another event which has reminded me of how fragile things are is the sad news of the passing of Elisabeth Sladen, our Whovians' own Sarah Jane Smith. The character she played (along with Donna Noble and Tegan Jovanka) was my favorite female Doctor Who companion. The fact that her death comes so soon after that of Nicholas Courtney a.k.a. The Brigadier (who was, along with Jamie McCrimmon, Harry Sullivan, and Rory Williams my favorite male DW companion) just compounds the tragedy. If you haven't watched any episodes with these two, do so as soon as possible, you don't know what you're missing.

On the subject of Doctor Who, is anyone else excited about the new series beginning tomorrow? Well, okay, I know that there are many, many excited people out there, but HOW excited are you? I am absolutely bursting. I'm also very proud that I've managed to keep away from spoilers all this time--no mean feat for me, alas. There's some fish fingers in the fridge; I should make custard tomorrow and take video of me giving the combo a go, that'd be a laugh!

I've probably read over 2,000 pages this month already, which is fantastic. I'll have lots of books to talk about in my next Book Review post. Speaking of which, I'm open to suggestions on what to post about in this blog, since I'm usually either too busy or too lazy to come up with interesting topics on my own (yes, I'm a woman of extremes). A monthly writing update? More in-depth book reviews, perhaps a post for each book (I can always delve deeper when discussing the written word)? More artwork? Television or film discussions? Random day-in-my-life posts? Let me know in the comments!

Well, I'd best be getting to bed now. Tomorrow I have to get up early--maybe make that custard--clean up a bit--dance--maybe run, if this dratted cough will let me--paint--write--and read some more. Good Friday is always very quiet, a time for staying at home with family, for busying oneself with good works, and for a little bit of private contemplation. Then comes Holy Saturday--I've promised my younger sister I'll help her make a cake for Easter, or rather supervise as she attempts to bake one for the very first time, and then of course there's Doctor Who! And then comes wonderful Easter, a holiday I have not celebrated at home with my family for two years now.

. . . And first thing in the morning on Monday is my class registration. See what a jumble of the future and the present my life is contorting itself into at the moment? I need a TARDIS.

PS: I am currently again obsessed with the amazingness that is Jamie McCrimmon. Thanks for that, Linden :D

"Tangled" Tomorrow!

I am so extremely excited about this film, it's unbelievable. It's an obsession. I'm terrified it won't live up to my expectations. Augh, why do I do this to myself?

Here's a shiny new trailer--Japanese, no less!--which is a million times better than the standard American trailers. Why couldn't the American trailer been more like this one in tone? It gave both me AND my 16-year old brother goosebumps. Take a look. The audio is in English, never fear, although the voiceover is Japanese. I tried to get my brother to translate for me, but he was able to manage translating only about 60% of it.



I've been kidding my younger sister and saying that we shouldn't comb our hair until we watch the film. My younger sister is 10 and has never had a haircut, and my own hair is down to my knees, so we are major Rapunzel fans.

Sacramento was gorgeous and fun. The drive there and back went pretty well, all things considered--we got a new 12-seater van, which was really strange, especially since I was sitting in the back and found out the hard way that my parents in the front seats can't hear me when I'm way back there unless I yell at the top of my lungs. HR, my 6-week-old baby sister, cried sporadically but overall was extremely well-behaved. I'm very proud of her.

I did not recall in my championship, but I did place 22nd. To be ranked 22nd in the entire Western Region is not a bad thing; sure I wish I had placed high enough to be recalled, but I am grateful I was able to dance at all, and enjoyed myself. I haven't been to any big competitions in a long while.

My little siblings weren't that excited about the competitions, since they go to feises all the time; dance is old news now. Instead, they were excited about other things: a horde of cows we saw (and smelled) on the drive; trying to translate the Latin painted on the walls of the cathedral we attended Mass in; howling with laughter when the wind blew my umbrella inside-out during a rainstorm; seeing magpies for the first time; collecting the bright-red fallen maple leaves. I liked all that too, as well as the cold weather; it was nippy, but so refreshing a change, especially seeing all the fall colors.

There was a basketball court at the hotel we stayed at, so my dad got a basketball from the front desk and we all trooped outside to play. The littlest kids have never played basketball before, so it was fun teaching them and seeing them attempt to dribble and shoot a ball which is basically as big as them. Then we had an impromptu game after dividing up into teams. It was fun until my 16-year old brother for some reason decided to pass the ball to me by throwing it as hard as he could at my face while I was standing about two feet away from him. I was afraid I had broken my nose at first, but it seems okay now, though still very sore if I touch it. That was the end of the game for me, anyway.

Now I will spend the rest of the month focusing on exercising, "Tangled" (I am saving to buy the soundtrack and graphic novel), Thanksgiving, and my NaNoWriMo novel. Said novel is currently only at 15,000 words, partly because I spent the last week or so devoting all my writing energies to writing a birthday story for one of my sisters (it ended up being 38 pages long), and partly because of how dance has been eating up my time this month. I wrote a lot more on the car trip though, and I'm determined to get back on track. Somehow. I'll do it. I WILL.

7 Days

In one week at the most I will have another little sibling to cuddle! I had lots of fun today spending time with other siblings. We played outside: A challenging game they invented called 'Hen, Chickens, and Fox' which was basically a complicated, crazy game of tag and surprisingly fun; hide-and-go-seek; a game they invented based on 'How to Train Your Dragon', and a few others. I then took the two youngest on a walk, which was so relaxing and pleasant . . . I should go on a walk every day. Everything just seemed to mellow down, become peaceful and calm . . . I made lemonade for them as a treat when we got back to the house, and then we all made cupcakes together! I had never tried this particular recipe before, but it was delicious and chocolate-y. I had such a wonderful day today, and the little ones were talking and talking about how much fun they had. I hope to make my newest sibling as happy once she is born.

Now I'm going to grab a half-hour or so of writing time before bed, and then will probably read more of my Revolutionary War history book before actually turning off the light. That's another luxury I've been starving myself of lately, in addition to taking leisurely walks: Reading in bed.

I just finished watching the latest episode of "Fringe", which is why I'm up so late. Seriously, "Fringe" has been amaaaazing this season. I'm so glad I decided to stick with this show after the lacklustre opening episodes of the first season, because it's incredibly good now. Especially Torv; I really disliked her character in the beginning of the show and thought her acting was horrid, and now I both love BOTH versions of Olivia and am consistently wowed by Torv's acting. So good.

All right, back to my book now!

Why I Shouldn't Procrastinate

I'm busily working on my little brother's birthday card. Since it's in the wee hours of the morning now, it is already his birthday. This is why I should not put off making cards and things until the last minute; I always end up losing sleep. To make things extra difficult, he asked that his card be butterfly themed. I don't know why. He assigned each sibling a theme: Dragons, Dinosaurs, and so on. I got the butterfly card. Problem is, butterflies are just about my least favorite things to draw. That might sound silly, but I mean it. I've just got a block when it comes to drawing butterflies. Even back in first grade, I remember being frustrated with them. I simply cannot draw a good butterfly.

So now I'm painstakingly trying to copy butterfly shapes and colors from various reference pictures online and having a ridiculously difficult time of it. He had better like this card when he gets it tomorrow ^_^

I'm listening to the "Inception" score while drawing. This helps a little bit.

The blisters on my feet, especially on my right foot, are really, really nasty and painful, but I'm trying to do everything I can to speed-heal them so I can compete this weekend without making an utter fool of myself onstage, eg., limping around instead of dancing. This is, scarily enough, a very real possibility, since I was not even able to put my soft shoe on my right foot at class today, let alone a hard shoe! I tried looking up tips online about how to heal blisters quickly, but I just ended up finding a bunch of articles warning me to take blisters easily because if they get infected they can lead to death or amputation. I'm paranoid enough without reading stuff like that, thank you kindly.

I think I'll finish this card tomorrow morning. I mean, today morning. Later. When the sun is up. Right.

'Night! Or . . . Morning! Whatever you like.

Rambling and "The Big Bang" [NO Spoilers]

So I watched "The Big Bang" today. I won't give out any spoilers apart from saying that I liked it. And so did my little sister who had never watched a full episode of DW before. Her verdict was that it was clever.

I'm currently slogging through yet another horrid cold, which is hateful, especially the racking coughing. This does mean I'm getting more writing done, which is the silver lining I suppose. At least I'm beginning to breathe normally again, so I'm hoping to get some dance practice in tomorrow.

I had a great time at the Irish fair last weekend; I bought a wooden sword that looks like Anduril, since my mother still won't let me get a real sword on the grounds that there are too many little kids in this house. It's a simple thing, but I mean to sand it and paint it and stuff to make it look really good. I also got really sunburned because I was busy putting sunscreen on little siblings and so forgot to get my own shoulders . . . they're peeling, and it's really irritating me so I'm trying to ignore it.

Nothing else much of note has happened lately. I went to a used bookshop today and nearly bought the first 3 Aubrey-Maturin novels, but that's a slippery slope considering how many of them there are, so I didn't buy them after all. My two-year-old sister was talking a bit about Mario from the Nintendo games (my younger brothers are obsessed with those games and she likes to watch), and she told me quite seriously that "Mario is the bluest boy in this angry world." It almost sounds deep, but I don't know what she meant. You can puzzle over that until next post :)

In the Kitchen, Mostly

Nothing much to report about the last few days. I baked biscuits today, and yesterday I made cream of mushroom soup for lunch. All my siblings of course didn't want to eat it, so I tried to think of a way to get them more enthused about it. My solution: Dye it green!

The end result was that half of them loved the colour change and ate it happily, while the other half only became more adamant in saying they didn't want it. So I guess the experiment was a success?

I was watching "Tombs of the Cybermen" today with Lathspell, who had previously never seen it before. He's enjoying it so far, which makes me happy. Oh, and I practiced dance for about forty minutes today, and would have worked longer, but my toe is really hurting me again, so I decided it'd be most prudent to go ice it instead. I hope I can compete in top form at the competition in a few weeks' time. My left ankle is also being a bit dodgy.

Nothing else to report, really. Life's just moving along at a nice pace, and I'm starting to study the DMV manual, and perhaps am thinking seriously about getting my driver's license at last, oh no! Yeah, I'm nineteen and don't drive . . . I happen to like the bus system in Hawaii, but now that I'm back home, where things are a lot more spaced out, I really do need to start transporting myself places under my own power. I just don't like the idea very much. Drivers are crazy here. The only other bit of daily life that could possibly pass as news right now is that I got distracted while adding sugar to my tea at breakfast this morning and as a result ended up with three heaping spoonfuls of it, haha! It tasted like tea-flavored candy . . . I was very energetic the rest of the day, and put that energy to good use by cleaning up the kitchen, the front hall, the living room, and most of the dining room. I have to learn to not talk about books while preparing breakfast; it never ends well!

Writer's Block?

Well, no, I don't really have a block in my way so much as a field of mud. Despite my best efforts, everything is going so very slowly, and so tediously, which makes me suspect that they are therefore not my best efforts after all. I'm planning on giving up Facebook for July to see if that makes any changes, but for now I'm just continuing my life as usual, just trying to write every day and get back into the swing of writing seriously every day.

Today I baked banana bread, which I have actually never done before. I just guesstimated how much nutmeg to use, and was terribly anxious the whole thing would come to pieces when I flipped it out of the baking pan, but it stayed together nicely and tasted great spread thinly with margarine. It made me very happy, and my siblings and parents liked it too. There's just enough of the loaf left to eat at breakfast tomorrow alongside my usual grapefruit, so I'm looking forward to getting a yummy start to the day!

My brother's currently reading "The Tempest" for the first time, and I think he's enjoying it. My nine-year-old sister is just starting in on "The Return of the King", how exciting for her to be reading that amazing book for the first time! I wish sometimes I could rewind the clock just to read my favorite books for the first time. There's a special feel to reading them a thousand times, a sort of worn and comfortable and happy feel, but the first read is always so exhilarating, and alas, it only happens once. At least I got to read LotR for the first time when I was six, completely unaware of what would be in store for me on the next page--She's grown up surrounded by LotR movie posters, books, movie books, art books, and a wall I papered entirely with newsclippings from when the films were being released, hehe. So she's known who Frodo and Gollum and Aragorn, etc., are since birth. That's got to make for a different reading experience.

I myself am reading--well, nothing really. It's very bizarre. I desperately need new books to read--Namely, Chesterton's "The Napoleon of Notting Hill", the next few books in the Aubrey-Maturin series, a long list of Sutcliff books, more works by Faulkner after "As I Lay Dying" whet my appetite for his work back in April, Silvius' "Achilleid", "Seven Against Thebes", and sundry other reads. I'm still reading "Le Morte d'Arthur", but the going isn't very fast, and I'd like to be able to leapfrog between five books at once like I usually do. I started "Guy Mannering" yesterday, but so far it's not really caught me, though I'm sure it will eventually--that's generally how Sir Walter Scott books go. I'm going to start reading to my sisters at bedtime again, but the problem is that we had just started "The High King" when I left for college two years ago, and never finished it, so they want me to finish it now, but I feel obligated to begin the entire Prydain series over again from "The Book of Three" because otherwise they won't understand everything that happens in "The High King", the best book in the series, because they'll only have fuzzy memories of who everyone is, especially side-characters like Prince Rhun and Magg. What a muddle.

The good news is that I've FINALLY begun writing chapter one of my novel today. Remember I referred to my current authorial state earlier as a slogging through a field of mud? Well, it's coming along. I've been expending all my extra thought on the problem of this beginning for the past week, and I think I finally made a breakthrough this evening. I have written most of the first few chapters, as well as eighty pages all told of the actual novel, but the very beginning has always escaped me despite innumerable rewritings and has left me rather stymied. I think, however (although I have thought it before) that today I've begun the process of conquering it, which is a glad thing indeed. I'll try to get it all written tomorrow, and then on with the story! I'm determined to use this year off of school to write my novel, and of course NaNoWriMo is quickly approaching again! This time I'll be ready for it. I have a few ideas about what I wish to write, but I'm determinedly not thinking too much about it because I want to be free enough to write 50,000 words quickly without worrying about niceties of plot and things.

Any other happenings around here? Um, no, not really, other than "Vincent and the Doctor" continued "Doctor Who"'s winning streak for me that really began with "Vampires of Venice" and hasn't let up since, huzzah! In fact, "Vincent" might be my favorite of the new Doctor's stories so far, but I'm not sure. "Amy's Choice" was also excellent. And "The Lodger" looks to be nothing but more goodness. But "Vincent" made my eyes tear up a few times, and was all-in-all very well done indeed. Scenes like the one below were amazing (don't watch if you haven't seen it yet, of course!).



My only critique for this series really is its fondness of Earth. Very, very few stories have been set outside of Earth (Okay, "Amy's Choice" was kinda not Earth, but it kinda was still), and although I've loved the time traveling, which I felt wasn't done enough with Tennant, I miss the space traveling. And with the finale taking place at Stonehenge (yaaay, Stonehenge, I remember going there! It was very windy and very wet), it seems the series will be sticking with Earth until the end. At least it's broken out of the previous series' fondness of London, though, ha. Hopefully next season will have more planet-hopping action. And more aliens that are truly evil, too, not just misunderstood creatures :)

Oh, and I keep meaning to post some art on this blog again, but I keep forgetting, and though I have remembered now, it's late and time for me to be getting to bed, so it'll have to wait. Good night!

PS-I just realized that my last post was number 200. Wow.

I'm really, really home.

My grandmother left to go to the airport about an hour ago, so now I really am home, settling back into normalcy, my old pre-college routines. It's a bit weird how comfortable it all feels. I thought I'd be experiencing a bit more of a culture shock or something, but nope. I haven't gotten as much writing done yet as I had been planning, but this week is when I really settle into a new schedule instead of just sleeping in every morning and watching my favorite films on dvd repeatedly, hehe. The new daily to-do list:

1) Practice my dance at least an hour
2) Read
3) Play with the siblings
4) Write at least a page of my novel
5) Go running

Of course I'm also going to mix baking, needlepoint, and art in there too, along with schooling my siblings. I haven't been able to draw since coming home because I used up all my charcoal in Hawaii, and left all the art supplies I bought in Hawaii there too, which is sad. I hope to make a run to a good art supply store soon!

Also, I hope to go to the library soon. I really miss the school library and even the Hawaii public library system, because it was so easy to keep a fresh supply of new books in my room at all times. Now I'm stagnating and hunting the backs of my own bookshelves for reads I never completed or forgot to complete. So far my search has turned up "Rob Roy", "Portrait of a Lady", and "Warrior Scarlet". A nice selection, sure, but I also want to finish the Aubrey-Maturin series and read some more Faulkner after falling in love with "As I Lay Dying" last semester!

Still, being back at home is mostly pleasant. I'm really enjoying my dance practices again, and am feeling much more motivated at classes than I used to, I think because after being starved for so long, I really appreciate anew just how much I love Irish dancing and how much it means to me. I've also enjoyed hanging out with my siblings again; today in the car Lathspell and I spontaneously burst into a rousing rendition of a medley of songs from "Les Miserables", I introduced my youngest brother to the joys of playing in a ball pit at his cousin's birthday party despite his initial reluctance to jump in (having a very serious four-year old cross his arms firmly across his chest, glare at you, and say "I refuse!" to your suggestion that he play in a ball pit is an extremely adorable and hilarious experience!), my two-year-old sister saw I was wearing a necklace and a straw hat to the party and so insisted I find a necklace and straw hat for her too (I did), and my dad is borrowing "Eagle of the Ninth" to read while he chaperones my eldest brother at a home school high school ball tonight (I can't wait to hear what he thinks of Sutcliff's writing when he comes home!). Also, I really enjoyed taking the siblings to see "How to Train Your Dragon" last week, and they've already scoffed the first batch of chocolate chip cookies that I baked and are demanding that I now prepare scones, lembas bread, and watercress soup. I think I'll tackle the lembas bread tonight. We haven't had it in a while, and it's very good!

Happy Birthday, Katherine!

My only great-grandmother still living turns 98 today. What a changing world she has lived in! A blog post is not really the best tribute I can offer her and her amazing life, but it will have to do. How wonderful to live so long--and, more importantly, so well.

Home Again

Already Hawaii feels like sooooo very long ago. I've been home a few days now and have begun to settle back into the routine here. It's fantastic to have little kids everywhere again, and although I'm still jetlagged, I'm still managing to get a lot of stuff done. Yesterday I took my siblings--most of them, anyway--to see "How To Train Your Dragon", and they loved it. It was their first time watching it, but I was also enjoyed seeing it again. I've promised my youngest brother a batch of cookies, and am determined to figure out how to make a cupcake version of Zippy's delicious haupia cake. Also, I have discovered so far that I got an A in Art, an A in Nutrition, and an A+ in English 321, so my grades are very satisfactory so far, even to my perfectionist self.

The only damper on all this happiness is that my grandmother spilled soda on my laptop on the plane, and so I'm terrified that he (yes, my laptop is a he, his name is Gareth--in hindsight I should have perhaps given him a less ominous name) is damaged. He's been shut off since the incident, so I do not know yet. He has all my writings and photographs and videos on him, and is infinitely precious to me, so please pray that he is unharmed--It's not really just a hunk of electronics you'd be praying for, it's a very important part of me.

As a result, I have not yet embarked upon the 'write a page every day' odyssey that I had set myself for my time at home. I did save my novel onto my flash drive before shutting down my computer, so hopefully I'll transfer that to our home computer soon and can get started on it.

I'll catch up with you again later! I am about to catch up on my weekly episode of "Lost" now. Oh, and I saw "Amy's Choice" on Sunday, due to me being in the air over the Pacific on Saturday, and it was excellent. The next two-part story looks great too--the return of the Silurians, yaaaay!

A Rambling Ramble

A lot happened over the past few days. After finding my library card literally as I went out the door to go to school, I left school early so I could hop on the bus and make it to the library to pick up my books which were on hold. After arriving at my stop, however, I was extremely not delighted to discover that, thanks to new furlough days, the libraries here are ALL CLOSED ON WEDNESDAYS. Oh, and it was a Wednesday.

So. Not. Right.

Anyway, I was stranded at a downtown bus-stop for forty minutes or so as a result. And didn't get my books, because I had no time from my crazy schedule for the rest of the week to pick them up, and anyway that was the last day I could have kept them on hold. Sometimes the world has an ironic sense of humor. Yesterday (Saturday), however, I walked to a library that's closer to where I live but much smaller, and borrowed four different books. And used my school's online library catalog to put about five more books on hold at school--I don't even remember the exact number, haha. I don't know how I'm going to read all of these before school ends and I'm flying home, but that's okay. It's better to have too many books than too few.

On Friday I finally got to watch "The Secret of Kells", a fantastic and beautiful Irish animated film about the Book of Kells. The animation is riveting, and the story is compelling too . . . the big conflict in the story, the big question, is whether to spend manpower building walls to keep out the Viking invaders, or to spend it illuminating beautiful manuscripts like the Book. If we devote all our energies to producing works of art, and to writing and knowledge and beauty, are we being foolhardy? Or is it really better to spend our time being practical and building those walls at the expense of building art and knowledge, because then we don't really have anything worth protecting? The power of the abstract vs. the practical; light vs. dark; imagination vs. reality; myth vs. mundane . . . That's some heady stuff. And of course the film is completely saturated in Irish-ness and Celtic-ness, which means I'd have loved it even if it hadn't been as good as it was, ha. The music was great too, and I did get sniffly towards the end. When this film (which, sadly, is being released only in very limited numbers of theatres in the US) is available on dvd, I strongly recommend you at least rent it. The animation alone, hand-drawn and inspired by the illustrations in the Book of Kells, is mesmerizing and unique. Here's a trailer, to give you an idea of what this film is like :)



After going to the library yesterday I had dinner with a whole side of the family I had never met before--the side I get the Hawaiian from. I enjoyed meeting everyone, and got to try all sorts of foods I've never had before--poi, lomi salmon, laulau . . . there was also some really tasty tako. All in all, it was a very good day.

And now I have to get ready for yet another crazy, busy week. Only a few more to go until I get on the plane to go home, though. Whee!

Christmas Holiday So Far

"Let me explain. --No, there is too much. Let me sum up."
-Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride


My Christmas Holiday (Thus Far) 'Sum up':

1. Watching “(500) Days of Summer” on the plane and coveting a little boy’s jester cap
2. Eating my dad’s amazing pancakes for breakfast
3. Realizing my baby sister’s vocabulary is a million times more advanced than I had imagined it to be
4. Realizing I lost all my Mario Karts Wii skillz over the past semester
5. Baking chocolate chip cookies and then scoffing them
6. Typing, printing, and then decorating menus for my little brother’s play food café
7. Tossing frisbees at the park
8. Eating carrots and watching “Star Trek” with Lathspell at two in the morning
9. Staying up until four in the morning writing a chapter of my novel with my quill pen and inkwell
10. Singing Christmas carols at the family Christmas party
11. Running around outdoors blowing mist from our mouths and pretending to be dragons
12. Attending dance lessons again
13. Trimming the tree with plastic leis
14. Reading The Pioneers, All Things Bright and Beautiful, The Mark of the Horselord, and Eagle of the Ninth all at once without getting too confused
16. The promise of Rollercoasters and Rembrandt
17. Dancing a silly sibling dance to “Cat and Moon”
18. Finalizing the menu for the Second Annual Tolkien Birthday Feast
19. Taking a nap on the sofa with Elhendur
20. Looking forward to “It’s a Wonderful Life” and mochi on New Year’s Day!

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