Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America

Just finished reading Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America. Though many of the translators [bracketted] notes drove me crazy, it was a rather interesting voyage of a lost conquistador wandering his way around enslaved by half the native population and idolized by the other half. It had sort of a Dances with Wolves feel to the end of it when, after eight years, he and his three companions find more prosperous invaders who instead of "spreading Christianity and peace" (mainly through idolatry and superstition)enslaved and scattered the people they met.

Cabeza de Vaca and his troop would send a few runners off to the next village informing them that the white men were from Heaven. When the Christians and their former hosts arrived to the next village, the villagers would give all their possessions to the host villagers who would happily return home. The new hosts would then start the process over again and raid the next village. They managed to get all the way from Florida to Arizona, down to Mexico in this manner. He argued that even if the tribes were at war with each other, when the Spaniards left, the villages were at peace which justified the constant plundering.

Rather odd...

Now I've got to read Thelma and Louise. Brain is beginning to fog.

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

I soooo forgot to mention.

The wonderful Lady Liz informed me of this... man, you'd think she had a Masters in Library Science or something...

"The sixth book in the popular Harry Potter series will be titled "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince," the books' author J.K. Rowling has announced."

Rather strange name... but she assures us that the half blood prince is neither Harry nor the One Who Must Not Be Named.

Just hit midnight. I realized that I have to go to school on my birthday. Sigh.

Long Time No Blog... and Summer School

SWOTD: Cabeza de Vaca - the name of the guy whose book I'm supposed to read by Thursday. Literally means head of a cow. Yes. I want to name my child Cow Head. I shall have to write that in my book of baby names.

Yeah, I've thought about blogging since school got out, but I really haven't had all that much time... which is weird. So maybe it's more of a gumption thing. I have had all sorts of car problems and living with the rents for a while and now that I'm back on my own turf I might be able to get some stuff done.

Went to my first summer school classes ever today. I'm taking two classes. History - Formation of the US, 1492-1790... but if the prof doesn't speed up her delivery I might be in for some trouble. Teachers don't always make the best students. I wanted to sit her down, write out a script and get her to give us the info she did in half the time. I felt like she was deliberately running down the clock trying to waste my time so she didn't let us out early.

The second class was a lot different. The prof obviously knew what she was doing and I'm not saying that because we have to keep a journal and she agreed that blogs count so she might be reading this. :) She spoke quickly, but clearly and used a lot of clear analogies that I couldn't go near with my kids.

So we're working in groups in that class. Right. So we're supposed to go and stand in the corner of the genre we want to work on. Dark comedy, broad comedy, romance or romantic comedy, drama, and action/thriller. I was the only one standing in my corner. I was sad and lonely. Nobody wants to write a romantic comedy??? Sigh. We managed to talk one more person into my corner for a group of two. It should work. She knows nothing about film, and is taking the class for the credit and I'm trying to make a second career out of being a writer. At least I felt useful, re-explaining the notes the professor gave in class, using examples from the book. She'd taken over a page and a half of notes. I had about half a page in a little journal size notebook.

So the homework in this class - write a journal every day, and go see a movie once a week in the theater. Hey! Now I have an excuse. But Mommy... it's my homework!

So we were trying to brainstorm ideas and I had nothin'. Not even a G. Nothin'. Then on the ride home I realize... of course I have something! Idea! Idea! But it's getting late.

On the way home I stopped at the grocery store to buy those essentials... like OJ, milk, eggs, cheese, and CPK frozen pizzas. I get to the checkout stand and there it was, staring at me. Impulse buy! So I went home after buying my dinner and a movie and sat and watched Frodo and Sam and the delicious Vigo and Orlando fight the evils of Sauron.

Yum!

Friday, June 11, 2004

Grads, Pimpy, and Trek

Sitting in my empty classroom, getting ready to turn my computer off. Everything's put away or labeled ominously with stickies that say "MATHIS 167" It's amazing how dusty everything looks when you take all the papers away.

Listening to Pimpy and getting some emailing done before heading off to the grand finale of Brazilian BBQ Buffet. Lots of the teachers were upset by this choice. Hey, never tried it... and the food's not really the point... it's the comradery really.

Graduation went really smoothly. Aftwards usually cheerful Gabriel was was wandering around looking totally lost and about to cry. I gave him a hug and told him to be happy. He became even more somber and wandered away. Sigh.

Between practice and graduation I walked up the street to get some lunch then back to my apartment where I hunkered down and read a book... the one Liz stole from me and read while I was waiting for HP3 to start. It's Dancing Barefoot by Wil Wheaton. Short but sweet but I understand why Liz was laughing hilariously at certain moments. I especially liked the last story about a Vegas Trek Convention where Wil talks about the craziness and WFS.

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Final Exams and Monster Quilts

SWOTD: Limpiando - cleaning

I've been cleaning my room out for the past several days... and then I find out they probably won't use it for summer school. Oh well, it means I'll have less junk to deal with next year. Still feel like I've got papers everywhere. I've got two more finals to go, and then I'm outta here.

8:30 Sunday morning I hear my telephone go off. Mom rambles on the machine. So I get out of bed and call her back. She wants to know if I want to go to a quilt show in Saddleback. So I say sure, and off we go. It's rather strange, like going to an art gallery where the art's made up of cloth and they'll put anybody's painting up on the wall. I fell in love with this one "monster" quilt. It was made up of squares with applique monsters on them. I voted it as my favorite.

After we browsed through the rows of quilts, Mom insisted we take a Diet Coke break and rest our feet before looking at the vendors. Mom bought some hand died material and a ruler and scissor rack. I bought kits for 4 of the 9 monsters. Thought I'd just see how well I liked putting it together before putting in the $17 a kit for a full quilt. It would make a cute wall hanging either way.

Mom also told me to sit down and watch this woman making a rug with one inch scrap strips of material. "I bought a kit a while back and you can use it as a summer project." I began to wonder how far back she bought it. Either way, she sprang for Islands on the way home and cut up some strips for me. It's a fairly easy process that uses a crochet hook with a needle eye on the other end. I went to town while watching The Bridge Over the River Kwai... yet another Alec Guiness, Willian Holden movie I'd never seen.

In a less than logical and chronological order, I went shopping on Saturday, buying a new pair of shorts, a dress and jacket, a few shirts, and lots of unmentionables. I also went to Constructive Playthings to get rewards for my classes to raffle off. I had a lot of fun picking out the items.

Friday, June 04, 2004

Must Blame Clare

I've got Bernstein running through my head.

New York, New York
It's a wonderful town
The Bronx is up and
The Battery's down
The people ride
in a hole in the ground...

How cheeky can I be, but

How cheeky can I be, but

HARRY POTTER RULEZ!

You must forgive me. It's the first day of finals and I've had less than three hours of sleep, and you know me... I'm an 8 hour kinda girl.

But it was worth it. I'd venture to say that it's better than the other two. Funnier definitely. Gonna have to go see it again. Okay... have to stop typing to be EVIL FINALS GIVING TEACHER!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

Though I wish I could open and close windows with a wave like Snape. Grrr... Alan Rickman.

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Memorial Day

SWOTD: Es corto el tiempo - Translates literally to "is short, the time," but is the equivalent to "time is short."

Getting to the end of the year. I'm going to three different luncheons next week - one on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Must keep them all separate in my mind. Today during conference I'm going to try and manage the papershuffle again. I keep working it down to manageable heighth and it keeps building back up again.

I was not a happy camper on Memorial Day. I showed up at Rose Hills at 9:45 and asked a certain choir member for my jacket. She didn't have it. She forgot that I asked her to bring it for me... so I ended up smack in the middle of the front row in my flowery white shirt and boutenir instead of spiffy new white jacket and pretty scarf. Was totally glad David the Director chose to cut one song. We weren't ready... so he substituted one that wasn't in the program. Very Glad.

Afterwards, went to 'rents house to change. I thought I was going to hang, eat lunch, enjoy the AC and then head off shopping, but I realized the store I wanted to go to was closed. So I just hung out and watched the Combat! marathon and waited until Mom served me Filet Mignon for dinner. Life is difficult. It really is.