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!

Done!

I've actually survived finals week yet again! I still find it hard to believe . . . I guess the Doctor is right, we humans really are capable of amazing things ;)

I'm utterly exhausted, so I'll leave you now to take a quick nap before getting all my packing done. I got three hours of sleep last night and three the night before, so I'm pretty wiped out. And I leave on the plane early tomorrow morning, so all that packing that I've been unable to do due to being busy studying? That needs to be done pronto.

I wrote nine pages of essay for my last English exam today, six for yesterday's exam, and two for Tuesday's. That's a lot of essays in a very short amount of time. My wrist still hasn't recovered. Oww.

One Down, Four to Go

I have completed my Russian 202 course, what a relief! The final exam went pretty well. Now I'm studying for my exam on Dante and Arthurian legend, which is tomorrow--And this studying is MUCH more enjoyable than studying for Russian, I can tell you that much!

A new trailer for "Inception" was released today. I've been wanting to watch this movie ever since I saw the first teaser, and it's just looking better and better with every trailer and poster. I hope it's as excellent as it seems, because this new trailer? AMAZING.



I didn't even really like "The Dark Knight", so that's not a factor here--this film just looks like it'll be intelligent, mind-bending, well-acted, and--what makes me most happy in this age of film adaptations and tired sequels--original. Exciting!