It started with the usual bustle of trying to finish up last minute work for holidays, food shopping, preparing for my brother to come home for a few days, and general mayhem.
By Tuesday, Stew was home and I stayed up past midnight to finish work for the week so we could spend some time together. On Wednesday, I was baking away, chatting with my family, and completely oblivious to what was coming next: a three page letter that told me of my acceptance to Houghton College and the offer of a substantial scholarship, plus an invitation to interview for their honors program in the spring.
Wow.
I wasn’t expecting to hear back from any of the schools until the end of December. I already had plans of how I would literally live at the end of my driveway, camped out in anticipation of the daily mail delivery. As if all of this wasn’t enough, I also was able to check my latest SAT scores and found that I had upped my score by about 100 points. It was my day, I guess.
Thanksgiving was a nice, quiet affair this year. Being next to useless in the kitchen, my contribution to the meal was a green bean casserole and the donation of an apron to my mother. Hey, every little bit helps, right? Instead of cooking, I cleaned up from time to time and finished the fifth HP book. Really, the day turned out ideally for me: food, family and books.
Friday was, as it is every year, the day that we went to get our Christmas tree. The wind was bitter, so we picked our tree in record time—anything to get out of that cold, which is saying a lot coming from a northern girl who would rather it be below zero than above ninety. As the snow came down, the decorations went up yesterday, making our little country home feel cozier than ever, with wreaths on every window and a glowing woodstove to warm us.
Let’s hope that this week is just as fantastic.
Sunday, November 28
Tuesday, November 16
If You Can't Beat 'em...
I know that the web is all abuzz about a grave stone that’s being used as a tourist attraction due to the deceased’s name being Harry Potter, and sure, that doesn’t look good for the series right at this moment, but I’m going to blog about it anyway. Many of you know (or have realized) that I read quite a bit. I mean, my intended major is English with a focus of literature, after all. I’ve been pushing myself through a lot of weighty material lately (think Huxley and such), and I recently came to the realization that I needed a reading vacation—not from books, but just from the heavy stuff. I had made a couple of deals a while back that I would eventually get around to read the Harry Potter series, and now seemed like a good time to get that rather cumbersome monkey off my back—there are seven books, after all, and I don’t particularly like monkeys to begin with. As an added bonus, I decided to read them with a future career as an acquisitions editor in mind: what made these books different from your average teen-directed trash lit? What has made it last and become hugely popular? With this in mind, I set off on my HP journey.
The first step: conquering my pride. It’s not like I had anything against the books, but really—they’re housed the children’s room of my library. Right in front of the librarians’ desk. I’m the sort of person who usually arrives at their desk with a hearty stack of biographies, histories, folklore and even the occasional gardening book—not something that’s been carefully placed on eye level for humans exactly one-half my height. (That last bit wasn’t a joke. The shelves in the kiddie section are actually below my waist. What am I, the Jolly Green Giantess?) However, just over a week ago, I conquered this demon and strode confidently in, whispering a quiet ‘thank you’ when realizing that the room was empty. Vanity: saved.
Naively, I only grabbed the first book. Well, that was done before I turned out my light that night. I was hooked! It was well written, smart, humorous and compelling. True, the characters felt young to me, but looking from an analytical standpoint, the book was solid on all accounts. Hurrying back to the library, I grabbed the next two. Two days later, both had been stacked by my door, waiting to be returned to their short shelves. I just finished the fourth book last night, and I’m eagerly awaiting a trip to the library tomorrow to go pick up the last books. After all, a new challenge has been issued: I’m to be reading the final book by the time that college break starts next week. At this rate, it’ll take me longer to get through all of the films than the books!
I’m getting sidetracked. Basically, if you’ve been holding out on reading these books for any reason up until now, I would suggest that you give it a rest and try them. I know that there’s a lot floating about that the books are of a satanic bent, but I certainly don’t see much of a difference between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings as far as magic is concerned. They both consist of the ever-present forces of Good and Evil, showing the battle between the two as a struggle in which the champions of Good will triumph in the end. If you were to ask me, I would say that it’s a noble inspiration—and since you’re reading my blog, who cares if you actually asked me or not, right? Go indulge in some sinfully easy reading.
The first step: conquering my pride. It’s not like I had anything against the books, but really—they’re housed the children’s room of my library. Right in front of the librarians’ desk. I’m the sort of person who usually arrives at their desk with a hearty stack of biographies, histories, folklore and even the occasional gardening book—not something that’s been carefully placed on eye level for humans exactly one-half my height. (That last bit wasn’t a joke. The shelves in the kiddie section are actually below my waist. What am I, the Jolly Green Giantess?) However, just over a week ago, I conquered this demon and strode confidently in, whispering a quiet ‘thank you’ when realizing that the room was empty. Vanity: saved.
Naively, I only grabbed the first book. Well, that was done before I turned out my light that night. I was hooked! It was well written, smart, humorous and compelling. True, the characters felt young to me, but looking from an analytical standpoint, the book was solid on all accounts. Hurrying back to the library, I grabbed the next two. Two days later, both had been stacked by my door, waiting to be returned to their short shelves. I just finished the fourth book last night, and I’m eagerly awaiting a trip to the library tomorrow to go pick up the last books. After all, a new challenge has been issued: I’m to be reading the final book by the time that college break starts next week. At this rate, it’ll take me longer to get through all of the films than the books!
I’m getting sidetracked. Basically, if you’ve been holding out on reading these books for any reason up until now, I would suggest that you give it a rest and try them. I know that there’s a lot floating about that the books are of a satanic bent, but I certainly don’t see much of a difference between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings as far as magic is concerned. They both consist of the ever-present forces of Good and Evil, showing the battle between the two as a struggle in which the champions of Good will triumph in the end. If you were to ask me, I would say that it’s a noble inspiration—and since you’re reading my blog, who cares if you actually asked me or not, right? Go indulge in some sinfully easy reading.
Friday, November 12
The Fire
Well blogging world, it’s been a while. I’ve decided to come back to blogging, at least for a time, right hear on Ruby’s Serendipity. I’m basically too lazy to start up a new blog, and I’ve decided that I really like having semi-anonymity for blogging. I mean, when I really think about it, I don’t actually want everyone that I personally know to read this. If I did, I would have plastered links to this across social networking sites long ago, shamelessly promoting my mental regurgitation, because let’s face it: I’m not going to edit and reedit anything that goes on here, and I really don’t want to put any raw material in front of all the English and lit teachers that I know (not to mention colleges considering my applications).
Anyway, let’s start catching up on life. College is probably a good place to start, since it takes up about 60% of my waking conscious. I’m in a couple of classes out at the community college here, which is…fine. I wouldn’t want to spend more than a couple of part-time semesters out here, but it isn’t too bad. I’ve sent in applications to the three schools I finally narrowed down after three years of intense searching and many campus visits, but I won’t find out about acceptance until March. I’m pretty sure I’ll lose weight from the stress of waiting. Oh right, summer—I skipped half of that, didn’t I? Well, it was pretty great. I got my license, and realized that freedom (minus the price of gas) really is all it’s cracked up to be. That must be a first. I spent two weeks down in Tennessee at a world view training seminar, Summit, and made some amazing new friends—not to mention gaining a crazy travel epic (it’s too long to just be a story…because I like to make it sound extremely dramatic) when flying down with a friend of mine. I laughed, I cried, I learned a lot, let my brain atrophy several hours a night to make up for it, I made new friends while realizing who my true friends were, and I hope that, through it all, I grew. I think I did, at least.
Growth, as I’m sure you all know, can be painful. In fact, I’m not sure that I’ve experienced any that wasn’t. Sometimes, as I sit back, rubbing my eyes that are smarting after endless hours spent researching at the computer, I wish that I could just skip this portion of my life—I just want to get on to where I’m in college, or where I graduate, or where I have a job, or just anywhere but where I am. I have to remind myself that our lives are refined by the trials set before us, and we must not only weather them, but learn from them. As Thoreau said, “As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” Here’s to eternity, everyone!
Anyway, let’s start catching up on life. College is probably a good place to start, since it takes up about 60% of my waking conscious. I’m in a couple of classes out at the community college here, which is…fine. I wouldn’t want to spend more than a couple of part-time semesters out here, but it isn’t too bad. I’ve sent in applications to the three schools I finally narrowed down after three years of intense searching and many campus visits, but I won’t find out about acceptance until March. I’m pretty sure I’ll lose weight from the stress of waiting. Oh right, summer—I skipped half of that, didn’t I? Well, it was pretty great. I got my license, and realized that freedom (minus the price of gas) really is all it’s cracked up to be. That must be a first. I spent two weeks down in Tennessee at a world view training seminar, Summit, and made some amazing new friends—not to mention gaining a crazy travel epic (it’s too long to just be a story…because I like to make it sound extremely dramatic) when flying down with a friend of mine. I laughed, I cried, I learned a lot, let my brain atrophy several hours a night to make up for it, I made new friends while realizing who my true friends were, and I hope that, through it all, I grew. I think I did, at least.
Growth, as I’m sure you all know, can be painful. In fact, I’m not sure that I’ve experienced any that wasn’t. Sometimes, as I sit back, rubbing my eyes that are smarting after endless hours spent researching at the computer, I wish that I could just skip this portion of my life—I just want to get on to where I’m in college, or where I graduate, or where I have a job, or just anywhere but where I am. I have to remind myself that our lives are refined by the trials set before us, and we must not only weather them, but learn from them. As Thoreau said, “As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” Here’s to eternity, everyone!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)