Costuming Class: Part I

It’s been very long time and finals are looming but... I decided to post about my costuming class that I started back in January…and subsequently dropped. I always start out with an extra class anyway so I can drop the one I like the least. :-)

It’s the first day of class and I’m sitting in the stuffy basement dressing of the performing arts centre with about ten other kids I don’t know at all. Finally, the teacher arrives and we begin to go over the syllabus. We are to meet twice a week and in different classrooms on different days. “But,” says our teacher, “We’ll be meeting in Robin’s classroom next Monday and then be back to the schedule next week.” The other kids nod, they obviously know who Robin is, but I am left to ponder these intriguing questions, “Where is Robin’s classroom? Why does she have a classroom? What does she teach? For that matter, who is Robin?!”

:-)

Farewell Ick... but not the in the way you might think...

I must confess something…. I like Ick now. This will be the last time I ever refer to it as Ick. My change in feeling probably has something to do with being interviewed for another school last December and a stuffy dean asking me in hauteur-type voice, “So, why did you choose the community college route?” and a few other questions dripping with snobbery. I didn’t let it make me mad until afterwards but then, I tell you it made me so mad I wanted to wring his neck. I’m NOT going to his school and I intend to stay at my community college next year and I LIKE MY COLLEGE!! And my education is NOT inferior to anyone else's!! Ahem… rant over… mostly. :-) Strange how you don’t realize how much you like something until someone else picks on it.

:-)

The Wedding

My cousin’s wedding is over… and now I’m a little let down. *sob* :-( But it was a lovely wedding…they’re two really great people and the whole thing went beautifully. Of course, there were a few hitches.... First, my sister and I were the guest book attendants (it’s a very important job) and at the beginning of the seating, the ushers were missing and nobody knew where they were! And I discovered that ushers really are important because people expect someone to be there to guide them. If no ushers are standing at the door, the guests are completely helpless about knowing where to sit. :-) But the ushers finally did appear and all was well…for a time…. As the bridesmaids were going up the steps to the platform, each one tripped on her dress but thankfully, they were hanging onto a groomsman and so none of them went headlong into the pastor. Then, during the vows, one of the bridesmaids calmly knelt and put her head down and then, after a moment, she stood up and slipped out a back door. (I don’t even think the bride and groom noticed…they were into their vows so….) The bridesmaid did come back after a bit, resumed her position, and walked out with the others. Later, she said that she felt like she was going to faint. (It was rather warm in the sanctuary of the church and she had to stand up for a long time…so that was understandable.) So other than a few small things, and one near crisis, the wedding went beautifully. "I love weddings. Drinks all around!" (Don't worry, I only had one sip of champagne and one sip of chocolate raspberry wine and they were both very nasty. I've decided that I really don't like alcoholic beverages at all.) :-) I didn’t get to sleep until 11:45 last night…and I had to get up at 7:00 for church this morning… so I’ve been walking into doors and dropping things and mixing up words like I usually do when I’m sleep deprived. :-) (It’s dangerous!) And, then, last night, at 11:30, I remembered that I’d forgotten to sign the guestbook. :-D

:-)

That Matchmaking Gleam

Okay, so the ceremony was over, and there was a little cake and punch reception at the church before the dinner reception somewhere else, and one of my Mom’s old friends came over to talk to my sister and I. She asked about our ages and school situations and then she said, “Do you have beaus?” I wanted to laugh but held it together enough to reply that no, I don’t have a boyfriend and exchanged a look of amusement with my sister as she said she didn’t have a boyfriend either. “Well, you know, there’s plenty of time for that…let me tell you how my sister met her husband at a hospital.” (Remember my sister is a nurse.) So she told us the story and it was a nice one and I liked it…but then, she said sorrowfully, “But, she lost him five years ago, in his sleep, and now she’s dying of cancer…so it wasn’t a happily ever after story.” I was completely stunned but managed to gasp “I’m…so…sorry.” My mom’s friend is very matter of fact and a Christian so she wasn’t being morbid but, yikes! She moved on then and a gleam came into her eyes, “Now, I do have three nephews and two of them are about your ages…” “Horrors! A matchmaker!” I groaned inwardly and exchanged another look with my sister. So, then she told us about her nephews and how they want to go to Med. School and how they don’t have girlfriends and all their good points and ages…. Sounded like she was trying to start a clinic or build a bridge or something. Such a nice lady but, oh, for pity’s sake, I don’t want to buy your nephews! :-D When we politely got away, I dragged my sister out to the hall and groaned, “Wasn’t that just awful?!” And then we practically collapsed laughing...it was all so ridiculous…we just couldn’t help it. :-)

:-)

I Could Have Danced All Night

At the wedding reception last night, I danced. No really, I did―I grabbed my brother and pulled him out to the dance floor and discovered that I love dancing. I always thought I would like it but I’ve never really had the chance to try. My sister had already asked my grandpa to dance and my great aunt and uncle were swing dancing―they were really good and I never knew they could dance like that! Before long, we had my first cousins (ages 9 & 13) in on the act and were doing what I’d call demi-swing because we knew a few things and then made up the rest. :-) (Unfortunately, only one song out of three was worth dancing to―that’s the way it goes these days―and not many songs were exactly the swing type. :-/) It was great…especially because the boys soon figured out how much fun it is (and they were really good) and kept asking my sister and I (and my grandma and aunt) to dance. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen my brother demi-swing dancing with my great aunt! (Check out the introverted, un-socialized home-educated kids! :-D) We also did line dancing and waltzing. Towards the end, I was waltzing with my nine-year-old cousin (so fun!) and then, I nearly fell over in a heap. Why? Because my parents were on the dance floor and, get this, they had never danced before last night. Never. My dad hates it so much that they didn’t even have dancing at their wedding. It was truly a miracle. As we were leaving, Thriller came on and we all started groaning because we didn’t get to dance to it…even the boys were sad. :-)

:-)

Things I Don’t Want to See in Your Christmas Letter

We’re being slowly flooded with Christmas epistles…from family and friends…and the boasters abound. Why is it that Christmas is used as an excuse to send out boastful letters? I don’t get it. Christmas is completely about humility―I mean, God came to earth and was born as an ordinary man in a common place―that’s about as humble as you can get.
So here’s what I don’t want to read or see in Christmas letters…I’m sure many of you will agree with me...and maybe I'll even add more things when more letters come. :-)

1. That your teenage daughter went to Japan with her “friend” Joe. (That actually makes me kinda sick. :-D)

2. That you managed to find a house in one of the fashionable parts of town. (We’re all real impressed.)

3. “I’m being tutored in Biblical Greek!” (At sixteen?! I like Greek but good grief!)

4. About your son or daughter’s new girl/boy friend. (Here today, gone tomorrow…tell me when they get engaged.)

5. Detailed lists of each child’s personal activities, hobbies, aspirations, and college perspectives. (Thank you…but we’re not looking to hire them for upper management.)

6. How you spent the past year in the car driving kids to various activities. (That’s actually rather sad…)

7. Brand-names. (We’re all so happy that you can afford a Lexus, Mac, or Coach bag and told us so.)

8. A list of places you went, what you did, and how great, great, great it was. (Never fails to be nauseating.)

9. Lots of posed pictures, edited on Photoshop, and strategically placed around the 2-3 page letter. (This isn’t a bloody catalogue cover…just tuck in one nice picture for us to put on the fridge!)

10. And in the last paragraph, tell us about your high-blood pressure problem or palpitating heart issue or breathing concern…and how the doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong. (We all know what’s wrong and how we know has something to do with how out of breath we felt just by reading about your life.)

I like hearing from people but why can’t they be honest and real? You’re supposed to be sending letters to people who care about you…so tell us what really happened and skip the bragging. Being blessed does not give you an excuse to boast.

P.S. Mom read this before you send out our Christmas greetings. :-)

:-)

Today

Right now…I’m going to focus on the annoying things that happened to me today…which are almost always funnier than the nice things...right? :-)
This morning, I awoke from a dream that it was next week and the day of my cousin’s wedding. I’d miscalculated the time and was running around trying to get ready but kept getting hung up somehow. My hair wouldn’t obey or I lost my skirt or my top had a rip…and so on. Very annoying. (Next week though, I will remember to start getting ready way ahead of time. :-) ) I also had a dream that I could play the guitar…which I want to learn so I was mad when I woke up from that one and found that I still can’t play the guitar. How typical!
The book I inter-library loaned though Ick, by one of my favourite biography authors, was an utter waste of time. I skimmed though part of it last night and first, it’s supposed to be in Tudor times but the characters don’t speak with “thee” and “thou”… they speak like they just came out of the supermarket in Ohio. Second, (and much worse) it’s all mushy and kissy. Blecck! I hate mushy books! So now, I’m reading Wind in the Willows to soothe my injured feelings and the other book is going to be returned. I’m really quite surprised at this author…I expected better…especially since she wrote in the 50’s and 60’s. If she were still alive, I’d write her a letter expressing my sentiments.
We cleaned the entire house today (because the family is coming tomorrow for my birthday and oh my goodness! The house absolutely must be clean, clean, clean or they might slonk over dust bunnies and sue us! :-D) and moved the tree into the living room. We went out in the frozen cold yesterday to buy it but it wasn’t that cold and I do love real trees (you can’t make a fake tree smell real). I cleaned the bathroom (my job around here―yeah, fun, I know, but I keep them in top order) and asked everyone to not slime up the sink before tomorrow but we’ll see how well they do.
Tonight, when I took off the band-aid that I'd had on my finger since last night, the place where the band-aid had been looked all weird and shriveled like a corpse. (In short, the rest of me is alive but I think my finger died.) It was helpful though because later when my sister grabbed my hand and cooed, “Your hands are so soft!” I held out my middle finger and said, “Doesn’t this look like a corpse?” She let go quickly and I don’t know what she was squealing about…. :-)
My brother and I played Lego Star Wars (my one decidedly “non-academic” weakness) and he kept cheating me… I don’t know how he does it but he always steals my points! I build something and he takes all the studs or he hops in front of me and grabs the blue studs (1,000 points) before I can get there. *grrr* And worse, we have invincibility so my character can’t shoot his! When we get too mad at each other or bored, we turn off invincibility and have duels. Mouse droid races are also fun. If you don’t have a knowledge of Lego Star Wars you’re probably lost by now…so I’ll move on. :-)
I found old pictures of me at nine years old in a Bible study folder and oh my goodness, I looked fat! I have never been fat but people always manage to snap pictures of me looking like I’ve eaten nothing but pop tarts my whole life. *sigh* *groan* And, I wanted to throw the photos away but Mom wouldn’t let me and said they were cute. Cute!!? Oh well.
Lastly, something I’ve always noticed… when your birthday’s coming up people yell things at you like, “Don’t come in here!” and do things like stop talking when you walk into the room and then stare strangely at you. Happy Birthday. I guess the presents make up for the shunning beforehand…well...mostly.

:-)

The Forest and the Trees

The interview is over… (it went well but that’s the first time I’ve ever been asked to summarize Descartes Meditations in 3-4 sentences) three of my exams are done and only one short paper to go… so I can now resume more frequent posts! (Aren’t you happy? :-D) It’s amazing what you have the time and patience to do when your semester is nearly over. The air seems fresher…the sun shines brighter…just kidding, school isn’t that bad and I mostly like it…but a break is always good. :-) You do see things that you barely noticed during the semester…. Like I just realized that I should tidy up my trunk which could/should be a place to sit but can’t since I leave things on top of it. Since fall break ended (the last time I actually noticed my room) the top of my trunk’s been a hopeless sea of French verb note cards, old to-do lists, bookmarks, drawing pencils, pens (of varying ink levels…some don’t work at all), books, Altoids tins―in short, there are places in my room which look like a refuse tip. I’m also realizing that hey, it’s December and my birthday is in three days (yay!), my cousin’s wedding is only a week away, and Christmas is only 14 days away. (Not all my shopping’s done…eek!) I think somehow I missed the fact that December began over 10 days ago. :-D

:-)

Strange Tastes

I’m in the middle of finals work (talk about nightmares for final exams you have taken!) and thus, my creative ability has been significantly diminished of late. I have a phone interview with the college that I really want to go to tomorrow night. I’m sure it’ll be fine…. *gulp* (Pray for me…please.) Anyway, as I drove home from Ick today and was trying not to think about finals, I remembered something I did back in the day which amuses me now. When I was three or four, Mom had a small Christmas tree on a card table (I think to keep the presents off the floor and away from little fingers) and I think there was a tablecloth over the table too. In any case, I remember taking a fresh package of cream cheese out of the fridge, getting a knife, and crawling under the card table to eat it. I know I got the foil package open and ate some of it with the knife…but I don’t remember how much I managed to eat before Mom looked under the table and found me. :-D As if that isn’t all… I used to eat frozen raw bacon from the butcher shop too. (I guess it is cured or smoked…but still….) My sister and I actually got away with that a few times before Mom caught us. My brother is also known to have tried to eat a stick of butter in a similar way to my cream cheese episode…. My poor mother… :-) (Don’t worry we weren’t habitually rotten. :-D) Ah, childhood. It’s a wonder anyone survives it.

:-)

Grey Sky’s Blue

As I was driving home today from Ick, under the cloudy sky, it began to rain. It’s done that a lot this year. And at times, I wonder, “Is it raining in space?” :-) But then I remembered something. I noticed this in 2005, when I was flying home from Florida. It was a beautiful, clear day but as the plane landed, we went through many layers of grey clouds. By the time we were on the runway, it was misting and the clouds were so low they nearly touched the ground. But above the clouds… I knew that the sky was still blue. It had some kind of effect upon me because when it’s nasty outside I often remember that experience. The sky is always blue above the clouds and the stars still shine even when you can’t see them.

:-)