Lousy Days and Lawn Mowers

Recently I commented on a friend, Elenatintil's blog about lawn mowing. Coincidentally, I was pressed into mowing the lawn that very evening. That day was particularly abysmal (a word here meaning dreadful or lousy) for me. Work was piling up, I didn't feel well, and I ended up babysitting my little sister while trying to cook dinner. After things had calmed down, all I wanted to do was veg out in front of the TV and forget about all the math that was waiting for me when I got around to finishing my homework. Instead, I was Jedi-mind-tricked into agreeing to mow the lawn. After and hour and forty-five minutes of sweaty and the mind-numbing task of pushing a heavy, electronic version of a baby stroller with blades underneath, I felt much better. Oddly. After that, I washed up, went outside, and planted some flowers, felt ten-times better, and still didn't want to finish my math.

Six Word Journal, Day Two (yesterday):

Happy Birthday to my amazing mother!

PS In case any of you were wondering, yes, my parents' birthdays are one right after the other, and my dad is exactly 1 day older than my mom. How sweet is that? 

River Sticks and Birthday Wishes

I don't have time for much today, but I had an interesting dream. So keeping with the 10-lb. Marshmallow Challenge spirit I'll tell you about it.

I was near this river, and I was with a massive group of people and we all had sticks about 1m long. The river was lined with trees, and looked like it was winding through a forest. We were told that our job was to go along the river, and "clean" it with our sticks. So we walked in and along the river (it wasn't very deep) until we got to a place where the river just stopped. It looked like it was plugged up with sand and to "clean" the river we had to push the sand away with our sticks. So all of us are standing there swinging our sticks trying to clean out this river. Apparently it was very important, because when I woke up to the sound of my roommate's hair dryer my subconscious self tried to go back to sleep and finish cleaning out the river!
Pretty. Odd.

In other news...

Your Day in Six Words

This was a challenge I got off of a website. To keep a journal for everyday for six months summarizing your day in six words. So, for day one (yesterday):

Happy birthday to my wonderful father!

The Word of Today

I love words. I love made up words, and long complicated words. I love words in different languages, and combining several languages. I love synonyms and antonyms. I love definitions but not parts of speech. I love expanding the vocabulary of everyone around me. So, how about a word of today? I can’t say word of the day because that would mean that there would have to be a word every day, and maybe I just don’t feel like doing that. But maybe you could find your own word of the day within all these irrelevancies... Anyways, your word of today will be “irrelevant”. Some synonyms are extraneous, beside the point, inappropriate, unrelated, neither here nor there, and immaterial. An antonym would be: relevant. The definition: not applicable, not relevant or important. In Spanish: irrelevante. In French: hors de propos. In Polish: nie ma znaczenia. In Chinese: 形容词. (Can you pronounce that? Neither can I.) I guess, there's supposed to  be a point to this, but as I think I already explained, you need to find your own point, underlying truth, or end to this. Because after all, you're the reader. No matter what I write, you get to decipher (a word here meaning, to make sense of) the ending for yourself.

Dream Running

Yesterday after church I went running for the first time in a very, very long time.

There,  I said it!

Yes, I promised myself when the school year began that I would keep up with my running, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. While on my run I discovered several things about love, life, and mostly, irrelevant stuff..

1. I need to have my ipod charged more than halfway if I want to have music by the time I get out of my neighborhood.
2. I really like my new kicks. They're actually from my brother's friend who outgrew them, so they're not exactly brand new... But, they're Nike and they're black and yellow! For the longest time I have wanted black and (insert a really loud color other than hot pink here) shoes. In case you haven't noticed, tennis shoes are pretty expensive, so I've been planning to save up for said shoes after my summer escapades. Now, there's no need! I've got comfy black and bright yellow shoes for free.
3. Someone planted petunias in the ditch beside our road. Or, the petunias planted themselves in the ditch beside our road.

Now, for the part you've all been waiting for...

(Honestly, I don't know what you've been waiting for so I'll just tell you about my dreams I had last night.)

I think I had two dreams, or maybe just one dream that didn't really fit together at all. During the first part of the dream I was at these tennis courts having a picnic with my family. During the second part, I was on a road with my family and we were looking for the beach house we would be staying in  this summer. So we looked all over this neighborhood and found a bunch of keys, so we tried them in all the different houses but we couldn't find the key for our house. So then, we just go up to our house and there's a key in then door. So we unlock the door and go in. That's when we get unceremoniously (a word here meaning without ceremony or fanfare) kicked out of the house by these people cleaning the house.

Then I woke up.

The End.

Epilogue

Actually, this is more like a PS, but anyways... I bet you thought this post was going to be about something weird called "Dream Running" or maybe not, maybe you knew that I was just making things up so I could actually have a title...

Luck and a Ten-Pound Marshmallow

I have always wanted to keep a dream journal, as I tend to (like most people) have very interesting and rather bizarre dreams, but I have never had the proper motivation. Today I stumbled upon a blog that gave me a challenge and some motivation to actually start a dream journal. The challenge is to keep a dream journal, called Sogno Diario which means sleep journal in another language (Espanol). So basically, what I'm saying is that for an indefinite amount of time (I've gotten motivation for at least a month), I'm supposed to be posting about a dream I had at least once a week. You'll have to excuse the weirdness or maybe lack of posts pertaining to irrelevant subjects until I get the hang of this.  Wish me luck!

In case you are ever trapped in an elevator...

According to Lemony Snicket, everyone should be able to do one card trick, tell two jokes, and recite three poems in case they are ever trapped in an elevator. So in order to be prepared for the day when I will behaving like a miscreant (a word here meaning somebody who does wrong) and get trapped in an elevator, I would like to share with you the card trick, two jokes, and three poems that I will have ready to entertain myself, or the other palpable (a word here meaning easily observed) passengers of the unfortunate elevator.

The card trick:

The jokes:        Two guys walk into a bar. You'd think at least one of them would've ducked.

         Where do you find a dog with no legs?
                      Right where you left him!

The poems:             

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

~William Ernest Henley

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words have forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blase like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

~Dylan Thomas

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee; --

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love--

I and my Annabel Lee--

With a love that the winged seraphs of Heaven

Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her high-born kinsman came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

Went envying her and me--

Yes! --That was the reason (as all men know,

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we--

Of the many far wiser than we--

And neither the angels in Heaven above,

Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee: --

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee,

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; --

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride,

In the sepulchre there by the sea--

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

~Edgar Allen Poe

A Tag From a Friend

Special thanks to Kathleen for this Tag...

First list twelve characters from any fandome, then answer the questions below.

1. Auden (Along for the Ride) 
2. Obi Wan Kenobi (Star Wars)
3. Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride)
4. Ear of Corn (Lord of the Beans)
5. Rose Brier (Fairy Tale Novels)
6. Ian Malcom (Jurassic Park)
7. Percy Jackson (The Lightning Thief)
8. Ida B (Ida B)
9. Katniss (The Hunger Games)
10. Alex Rider (Stormbreaker)
11. Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean)
12. Evan (August Rush)

1. Who would make a better collage professor, 6 or 11?
Jack Sparrow could tell some great stories, but Ian Malcom is a certified genius and an expert on non-linear mathematics...


2. Do you think #2 is hot?
He's dead now, didn't you watch A New Hope?


3. 12 sends 8 on a mission. What is it? Does it work?
It would probably be something to do with music or families. Honestly? I have no idea. What kind of missions would two twelve-year-olds living on the planet earth send each other on?


4. What is or would be 9's favorite book?
Katniss' favorite book would probably be something on survival, or maybe music....


5. Would it make more sense for 2 to swear fealty to 6 or the other way around?
Obi Wan would never swear fealty to Ian, but I think Ian would swear fealty to Obi Wan once he saw his lightsaber...

6. For some reason 5 is looking for a roommate. Should (s)he room with 9 or 10?
Rose should definitely room with Katniss! I think they would get along well!

7. 2, 7 and 4 are going out to dinner. Where do they go, and what do they discuss?
They would probably get something to eat at the Mos Eisley Cantina and would discuss the adventures that they've had.

8. 3 challenges 10 to a duel, who wins?
Sorry Alex, but Inigo has already proved himself in that category, and he won with style!
9. If 1 stole 8's most precious possession, how would (s)he get it back?
Auden, stealing? Never! If she did, Ida would probably just sneak into Auden's room at night and steal it back.

10. Suggest a story title in which 7 and 4 both attain what they desire.
A Peaceful Life and Another Gig as the Elvish Impersonator
11. What kind kind of plot devise would you have to use if you wanted 1 and 4 to work together?
I think Auden would have to become a vegetable, and then a vegetable poet who gets on the cover of Veggie Beat magazine with the movie star Ear of Corn. 

12. If 7 visited you for the weekend, how would it go?
A weekend with Percy Jackson!?!? I'd invite all my friends who were fans over and we'd all have a party and listen to his stories!

13. If you could command 3 to perform any service or task for you, what would it be?
I would make Inigo defend and protect me for life.

14. Does anyone on your friends list write or draw 11?
Lots of people I know draw Jack! How could you not?

15. If 2 had to chose between 4 and 5, what side would (s)he choose?
Obi Wan would choose Rose over a vegetable, and not because he's a vegetable. I just think Rose is more likable.

16. What might 10 shout out while charging into battle?
I don't think Alex would have a battle cry... 

17. If you had to choose a song to best describe 8, what would it be?
Fireflies its sweet and innocent and in love with nature, just like Ida.
18. 1,6 and 9 are having a dim sum at a Chinese Restaurant. There is only one scallion pancake left, and they all reach for it the same time. Who gets it?
Auden would watch Ian and Katniss fight over it. Eventually, Ian would let Katniss have it because he realizes it isn't worth the fuss.


19. What would a good pickup line for 2 to say to 10?
Well, they're both boys. I think if they ever encountered each other one would kill the other before they said anything...
20. What would 5 most likely get arrested for?
Rose, ARRESTED?!?! If she did, it would probably for doing something illegal to help her friends.

21. What is 6's secret?
Ian's secret... I actually think that deep down he's a sweetheart. He puts up a brave front, but the world is hard on him. He's got to be stubborn and proud to get people to take him seriously.

22. If 11 and 9 were racing to a destination, who would get there first?
Definitely Katniss because she's really speedy and because Jack would probably be drunk.

 23. If you had to walk home through a bad neighborhood late at night, who would you feel more comfortable walking home with, 7 or 8?
Definitely Percy. No contest with Ida, I would have to worry about protecting HER.

24. 1 and 9 reluctantly team up to save the world from the threat posed by 4's sinister secret organization. 11 volunteers to help them, but it is later discovered that (s)he is actually a spy for 4. Meanwhile 4 has kidnapped 12 in an attempt to force their surrender. Following the wise advice of 5, they seek out 3, who gives them what they need to complete their quest. What title would you give this fic?
I can definitely see Auden and Katniss reluctantly teaming up but Ear of Corn would never have a sinister secret organization, unless it was forcing everyone to wear those big poofy yellow winter coats... Jack would definitely be a double-crosser. Poor Evan, I think he would either go crazy and be scared to death by Jack, or get along really well with him after Jack takes a sudden liking to his music. Rose would probably have some wise (or crazy) advice and Inigo would definitely be able to help them. The title? A Not So Sinister Secret Organization