YAY!

This is genius:



From Will Write for Chocolate.

All shall be well

Woo hoo! My philosophy class has been canceled for the day! I hope everything's okay with the professor, but I'm glad to have extra free time. Also, my P&P seminar has moved into a new stage where we'll pretty much be meeting with the professor once a week and writing on our own the rest of the time. I'm meeting with him today.

My room did not get cleaned last night. Did I already say that? I kind of feel like I did. Oh well. I did get my curtains put up.

I also watched House. Anyone else watch it regularly? If you do, I have only this to say: Whoa. Whammy of an episode. I loved the part where House is talking to Wilson and Wilson says something and House gets his AHA! look on his face and Wilson says, "I just gave you the answer, didn't I? You're now going to walk out of here without saying a word." As House walks out the door he replies, "Nope."

We had quite the rousing discussion in my English class this morning. Veered off of Milton and onto free will/predestination. Take that, people who say that a secular school hates religion. Ahem. I will try to be kind, really. I put my two cents in, but I felt like people were kind of misunderstanding me. Hopefully that can get cleared up on Friday. Incidentally I realized this morning that I accidentally read ahead in that class, so I have like two pages of reading for Friday. Yaaaay.

Last night I had this feeling that yesterday had been a good day but I was setting myself up to have an awful day today. So far that prediction has not come true and I hope it continues to not come true.

I do need to:
~call the travel agency about tickets
~fill out my ballot
~clean my room
~wash dishes
~figure out somewhere to put my picture
~figure out some way to keep my curtain rod from sagging
~meet with my professor
~get everything ready to go to the bank
~check my mail
~e-mail my priest and his wife (evidently they have a birthday present waiting for me at home)

*wipes away tears*

If you have read Pride and Prejudice and have never seen the 1940 version with Lawrence Olivier and Greer Garson go rent it NOW. We just finished watching it and it was possibly the most hilarious thing I have ever seen. I won't reveal all of the plot twists, but suffice it to say that Lady Catherine is quite a character, Mr. Darcy is sweet and shy, and the ladies all wear dresses at least forty years too late.

See the trailer:




And the first proposal scene:




If that doesn't convince you, nothing will.

This is terrible, but I kind of want to own this version. When I am sick and unhappy it would cheer me up and restore my faith in the unintentional hilarity of humanity.

By the way, this is my 401st post on this blog. Pity I didn't notice the numbers earlier. We could have had a party.

More fall

I've been thinking more about it, and I think one of the reasons I love fall so much is that it's going towards winter, towards death and hibernation. But instead of being boring, grey, and quiet, fall is gorgeous. I look forward to fall's colors all year. It reminds me a little of the one thing I really like about Nietzsche's philosophy: the idea that we should not be merely resigned to our lives but instead we should affirm them. It also reminds me of one of my absolute favorite e.e. cummings poems:

who are you,little i

(five or six years old)
peering from some high

window;at the gold


of november sunset

(and feeling that:if day
has to become night

this is a beautiful way)

My mission for today: to live in a fallish way.

Fall days

I was really grumpy today until Sam and I went to an orchard where we drank apple cider and ate doughnuts and sat in the sun and talked.

I really love fall. It's a season that somehow feels very peaceful to me, even when there are storms and rain and wind. I think I've decided it's my favorite of all the seasons.

Dinner soon...not sure where we're going tonight. Probably somewhere cheap and Asian.

Life

A somewhat productive day today. I slept in because I did not sleep well at all last night and I'd been tired all day yesterday. I still felt a little groggy all day.

Working on my P+P paper. I'm going through North and South now, marking all the parts I think are relevant. I'm almost done with it. Then I have to go through both books and organize the relevant parts. Then I have to make some kind of a thesis. Then I have to write the paper. Oh. Joy.

I'm complaining a lot, but I am interested. I am engaged. It's just a lot of work, especially since I'm using two texts which means twice the reading, twice the social commentary, etc.

I have nothing on Thursdays until 5 pm and then I have work from 5-6, swing at 7, Bible study at 8, and the Office at 9. Most of these are optional, if they really need to be, but they're kind of my scheduled people time so I try not to miss them. I am an introvert, but having a single has impressed on me the value of people time.

My room is really messy, but our independent Bible study tomorrow will force me to clean it. I am resolved.

Okay. I think I'm going to do some more reading and then maybe figure out something to watch.

The birthday

So...my birthday weekend. I went home Friday night--my mother came up and picked me up after work. When we got home I watched a little of "House of Flying Daggers" (good movie, a few FFW scenes) and then realized I needed to go to bed.

Saturday we worked on getting the house cleaned up a bit and food made. Two frineds came over about 11:30. We talked a bit and then ate lunch. Bratwurst or hamburgers, potato salad, tomatoes, pickles, and carrot sticks. My father was working until 1:00 so we played Taboo and Clue until then. When he got home we had cake and I opened presents. Rested a bit, talked to my sister, and went to Vespers and Matins. It was a really nice day, full of good things and people who love me.

Today we went to church, came home and then I left about 2:15. It was a great blessing to have communion.

The day ended nicely with dinner (at the cafeteria, yes I am lame) with friends, Mulan, and white chocolate raspberry truffle ice cream. *falls over* That stuff is amazing!

And now....the presents! (Click on the pictures to see them full-sized...I can't fiddle with them right now as I need to go to bed.)


My father made me spoons. Which is just super cool! I'd been hoping he would make some for me sometime but it was nice to get them now.


My friends gave me an English tea. Scone mix, Twinings Earl Grey, Nutella, digestive biscuits, mushroom pate, lemon curd, rolls, an English cucumber, Devon cream, smoked salmon, English cheddar cheese with carmelized onions. All in a lovely basket!

Close-up of the basket


My sister painted me a picture! Isn't it lovely?


Books...yes, my brother gave me the King of Attolia.


Second hand baking pans.


Origami


My gag joke from my friend Nick--he made the cover to fit on some random book...because he likes to get me mad by talking about Jane Eyre as if Jane Austen wrote it.

And! The gift that you can't see because it was taking all of these pictures...a digital camera! It was really sweet of my parents to get it for me.

Not pictured: a red sweater (YAY!), a cream shirt, and a traveling skirt.

So...some good, some bad. At the moment I'm tired which is not helping my attitude. Hopefully sleep and a new day will.

I also realized when I got back that my alarm clock would have gone off at 8:30 am both days. Ooooops. Sorry neighbors. Maybe I should give them some of the cookies I made last week.

Prayer

"God is truth, and my prayer should be truth as well as life; God is light and my prayer should be offered in the light of the mind and the heart; God is fire and my prayer should be ardent; God is perfectly free, and my prayer should be the free outpouring of the heart."
~St. John of Kronstadat, Spiritual Counsels

Ta ta

I'm off to work and then my mother is coming to pick me up and take me home for the weekend. I'll be back sometime Sunday afternoon. See you then!

More on Twilight

I saw someone in the cafeteria wearing a Twilight shirt.

Uh.

For some reason my initial reaction to the books was fairly balanced and mild but now I'm kind of in this "WHY???" stage where people are annoying me. I think it's mostly a counterbalance to the people who are like: "tHis iS thE greAtest bOok EVARRR!!!!!!!!!!!!" Uh, no. It's not a terrible book, but it is NOT the greatest book ever. There are issues of writing and plot that should probably have been addressed by the editors. Like tightening up that first 150 pages.

I am also vastly scared by the number of people who think Edward is the most perfect human being in the whole world. I know there are extremes of fangirldom for almost every book/movie/tv show out there, and I squee over a good number of characters myself. (Gen, Ned, Lord Peter Whimsey...) But Twilight seems to breed them for some reason. And, sorry Team Edward, I just don't see it. I mean, from the first book I like him better than Jacob who basically is just like, "Dude sucks." But if you find it extremely romantic for a guy to watch through your bedroom window while you're sleeping before you're even officially together, I just don't know what to say to you.

Also, he sparkles.

Now, I'm not, not, not saying that you can't enjoy these books! There was certainly some part of me that liked the one I've read. What I am saying is that you can't claim them as great literature, or great YA literature. (Robin McKinley, Ursula Le Guin, Madeline L'Engle, Megan Whalen Turner and L.M. Montgomery are much better choices. Lloyd Alexander too. And Robin McKinley even wrote a vampire book.) If you want to keep your hoard of S. Meyer books around for when you need that kind of book, go for it. Who am I to judge? I am reading through Georgette Heyer one after another. Just give up the claims to eternal glory.

YAY!!!

I just got an e-mail.

The King of Attolia* is waiting for me in my mailbox.

I'm now somewhat tempted to ditch all the responsible things I had planned to do today and read instead.



*the book, obviously. The alternative would be a little creepy.

I love books!

So yesterday I went to check an e-mail account that I use solely for signing up for stuff. One of the things that's associated with that e-mail is my Amazon account. And in all of the unread messages there was one reminding me that I had a refund coming from an order that never arrived to me. So, I had $17.96 to spend on Amazon. :D

First I bought The King of Attolia because I have the other books in the series and I WANT that one. Then I bought Gentian Hill by Elizabeth Goudge because it's always been one of my favorites and I don't own it. Good thing I only bought two books, because shipping was quite high.

So in a few days I will be receiving a package. With BOOKS in it!

Oh, ugh

I have a cold.

Passion

I just finished watching "Amadeus"--and before you music majors (are there any of you out there?) or general music history buffs jump down my throat, yes I know it's a fictional story without much of the truth about it. It was still interesting. And it was Mozart. Mozart is my comfort music. Seriously, I'm having an awful day, I start listening to Mozart, it gets better.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about.

See, the thing I noticed about the character of Mozart in the film was how much he was committed. Sure, he was interested in a lot of frivolous, worldly things and frittered away his time and money. But he also spent hours working and working and working. He was passionate about his music.

It strikes me that I need some of that passion. Not that I need to kill myself by working too hard. But I need to care, not just exist. This applies in my spiritual life and in whatever I do as well.



[NOTE: For those of you who haven't seen/heard of "Amadeus," I'd probably approach it with caution. There are definitely some FFW scenes.]

Saturday

Pretty nice day today. Went to Saturday Market this morning with Jessica and bought apples and farm fresh eggs. The man I bought the eggs from could seriously have been friends with my parents thirty years ago. Also, he has an ADORABLE daughter who was wearing a darling smock-dress-thing.

I haven't gotten anything like as much as I needed to done today, but I did clean up a bit and work on my paper a little. And then we went out to dinner--sushi, very delicious. It was at this place where the sushi is on plates on a conveyor belt and you pick out the ones you want. They're priced according to plate, so the red plates are $1.25, the yellow plates are $1.65, etc. I ate a fair amount and ended up paying about nine dollars, which is not at all bad for good sushi. I ate almost all the $1.25 plates and they were quite yummy. Especially the crab salad.

I'm in love

with John Donne. (I think I'll end up being the girl who cried wolf...someday I'm going to make a real, honest to goodness Announcement, and everyone will zoom by it because they'll think I'm just being silly again. Anyway, John Donne.)

No, but seriously! The man was incredible. He wrote about faith and love and death, some of the themes that devolve into cheesiness and cliches most often, with wit, humor, and extremely original images. And not the sort of images that you read them and go, Oh back when they were writing them they were fresh, but now we're used to that sort of thing. No, no, no. His words are just as fresh four hundred years later as they were the day he penned them.

Holy Sonnet 1

Thou has made me, and shall thy work decay?
Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste;
I run to death and death meets me as fast,
And all my pleasures are like yesterday.
I dare not move my dim eyes any way,
Despair behind, and death before doth cast
Such terror, and my feeble flesh doth waste
By sin in it, which it towards hell doth weigh.
Only thou art above, and when towards thee
By thy leave I can look, I rise again;
But our old subtle foe so tempteth me
That not one hour myself I can sustain.
Ty grace may wing me to prevent his art,
And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart.

(Adamant is a magnetic stone.)

See? Amazing.

Some of his love poetry is fairly bawdy, but not all of it. He also wrote Meditation 17 which, if you have not read it, is astounding.

In other news, I am trying to avoid the plague that is going around campus. By plague I mean cold type sickness not literally the plague. Although if it was literally the plague Sam would be excited. She likes diseases like I like books. And John Donne.

Also, it was CHILLY today. I even have on a sweater. And my red Attolia earrings. Because they match the sweater, not because it's cold.

It's so funny to look at pictures of myself with long hair now. In some ways I still feel like I have long hair--I keep waiting it for it to whip around the breeze--but I like the length I have it now. It makes me feel younger and older at the same time.

This entry has been rambly and all over the place (which is what rambly means...we like tautologies, we do!) but fear not. It is ending. I am off to cook dinner.

P.S. Pushing Daisies tonight. SQUEE!!

Not a great day today. Too much to do, not enough of it got done. And there was some personal stuff going on.

On the upside, it was sunny this morning, which is good for my rose bush. It's trying to bloom again (!!!) and I've been worried about the fact that we are entered the Rain. Also received a previously unread Diana Wynne Jones book from the library which is always a good thing.

I'm trying to remember that God is good and not let myself get weighed down in the bog.

September book list

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: This book is amazing. You should read it, if you haven't already.

The Pooh Perplex: Fake literary criticism on Winnie-the-Pooh. Funny for an English major, but not really interesting for anyone else.

Warlock at the Wheel by Diana Wynne Jones: Short stories. I enjoyed them, but I'd already read several, which made them a little less exciting.

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer: Definitely one of my favorite Heyers. Quite amusing.

Powder and Patch by Georgette Heyer: Definitely not one of my favorites.

Sweetblood by Pete Hautman: Lucy, a diabetic, believes that diabetics were the origins of the vampire myth. Meh.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer: Reviewed HERE.

Simon the Cold Heart by Georgette Heyer: It was okay, but not a favorite.

Changing Planes by Ursula LeGuin: LeGuin is almost always great (I failed to get through Left Hand of Darkness). This was no exception. A travelogue from different "planes," which you reach only when you're in an airport.

Out of Patience by Brian Meehl: This was a fun read, but nothing more. Kooky band of characters and a Curse.

Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones: Normally, I love Chrestomanci, but this was only okay. Definitely read the rest of the series before this one.

Wild Roses by Deb Calletti: This was hard to read for me. It struck far too close to home in some places.

Mixed Magics by Diana Wynne Jones: YAY DWJ!

Pistols for Two by Georgette Heyer: Short stories. I enjoyed them a lot!

Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer: Unusual main characters, but the resolution seemed a tad strained.

The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer: Definitely a favorite!

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall: Even better than the first book. In my opinion, this one puts the Penderwicks firmly in the ranks of classic children's lit.

Chalice by Robin McKinley: Amazing. Reviewed HERE.

The Power of Three by Diana Wynne Jones: Really good DWJ.

The Doctrine of Christ by Bishop Dmitri: This would be very good for a catechumen or someone interested in Orthodoxy, but I didn't find it terribly challenging.

Tales of the Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov: A series of mystery short stories centered around the Black Widower club. There are more, thank goodness, because I really enjoyed these!

Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer: Meh.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley: The more I read this book, the more I love it. Even though I keep saying I can't recommend it. And I can't--I'm also surprised every time by how much stuff there is in there. But...I still love it.

The Changeling Sea by Patricia McKillip: I've tried reading The Tower at Stony Wood several times and have never gotten through it. I think I just had the wrong book, because this one was excellent.

Hidden Turnings ed Diana Wynne Jones: It was okay. Not wild about it though.

The Toll-gate by Georgette Heyer: Another one that was okay but not great.

Erosion by Jorie Graham: Poetry. I didn't like it as well as Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts, but it was good.

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey: I love this book.

A Murder for Her Majesty by Beth Hilgartner: Nice book, probably about the 9-12 age range.

Owl in Love by Patrice Kindl: I hate to put it quite this way, but this book is in the same vein as Twilight (teenage love, fantasy) but better. Much better.

Instead of the Thorn, Barren Corn by Georgette Heyer: These books are quite similar. I was not fond of either. They're set in about the 1920s.

The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez: Mystery set in Oxford. Meh. I skimmed the last half.

Comments

I just went through the entries on the first page and responded to comments there. So if you left me a comment in the past few weeks and I hadn't responded, I probably have now.

Planned for this weekend:
~The September book list
~Why I don't like the idea of listing traits for your future husband to have

Argh

I'm bored, tired, and I have a paper to write. This is NOT a good combination.