My Sister

I think my sister and I spend too much time together...

Today at our church's annual barbecue, a band was playing oldies music, and my four-year-old brother was clapping along. Desirae and I smiled at him, and I started talking about how it's neat that music is so important in our family - it's like we're born with a love for it. Zoe is absolutely mesmerized when my dad plays guitar, Noah claps along to music and likes me to teach him the words to songs; my dad and his brothers all played guitar, his brother Markie had a huge (and rather famous) guitar collection, and his mom plays piano and organ. On my mom's side of the family, both my mom and her sister sing. I've always taken it for granted that we're such a musical family. I was talking to Desirae about this, and finished with, "...and we have an appreciation for all different kinds of music..." And then Desirae interrupted with, "Wow, that's so weird! I was just thinking about musical appreciation a few minutes ago." We laughed. Things like that have happened before: sometimes we joke that we can read each other's minds.

Then just now, I was reading an Agatha Christie short story, "...the past, which cannot be altered..." someone said. And my train of thought wandered for a few second s to the movie Meet The Robinsons, which involves time-travel and wanting to alter the past, then found its way back to the story. Not one minute later Desirae quoted randomly from Meet The Robinsons, "I love baseball. It's my destiny to play that game." Haha!

"How do people make it through life without a sister?" ~Sara Corpening

Joseph and Easy Street

My sisters and I saw Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at a college this morning. It was performed by a Christian-kids-theater group. (They're doing The Music Man in the fall, and I'd REALLY love to be in it...)

Joseph was good - that is, I enjoyed it. The costumes were wild and funny, the singers were mostly very good. But I didn't like the musical very much. It's just too wacky for me, with pretty annoying characters and music. And was it ever colorful! Wow... But as I said, the singing was very good, and there was a lot of dancing.

The sons of Jacob had a random maid who came out and danced with one of them. So strange...

So after that, my sisters and I were kind of in a theaterish mood. A few nights ago we watched Annie (the newish one), and we always comment on the dancing in Easy Street. "Don't people notice them dancing like that!?" Stuff like that. Desirae (or it might have been my other sister) said, "We should do that sometime. Just dance down a street or sidewalk singing and dancing all weird like that," So today, we were walking from a restaurant to Kmart with my dad, and Desirae whispered in my and my sister's ears "Let's do Easy Street" now.

Sooo...

I did.

I took off my sweatshirt (don't ask why I was wearing it on such a day. It wasn't that hot in the restaurant) and started swinging it around. And I sang. And danced like Rooster. We were all kind of having a hard time breathing from so much laughter by the time we got to the store.

EDIT- Post #50, not counting drafts.

The City of Ember

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau is an alien-less science fiction novel for children, about an underground city called... um, yeah, Ember. The citizens of Ember are running out of supplies, and Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow decide, on finding a they need to figure out a way to get the heck out of there.

Because of some things my dad had been reading and talking about in the weeks before I read Ember, the book seemed like a political commentary to me. Ember has a corrupted government, and people in the town are waiting for things to either get absolutely better or absolutely worse. The Believers seemed to represent the kind of Christian I'm tempted to be sometimes - completely blind to all the badness in the world. And of course there was the fact that the Emberites were becoming worried that soon there would not be enough food for everyone.

The City of Ember had a wonderful premise, with average writing, fun characters and even more fun character names (Lina Mayfleet, Edward Pocket, Mrs. Murdo, etc). But I do wish that it had been a little more mature, and about 150 pages longer. I wish it could stand better on its own, because the sequel, The People of Sparks is nowhere near as interesting to me. Personally, I thought the cliffhanger at the end of Ember was a little maddening, but I like open endings just fine.

However, reading about the Emberites reaction to the real world in The People of Sparks is fun, and interesting.

Overall, I liked The City of Ember very much. It's clean, it's easy, and it's exciting; it would make an excellent read-aloud to my own children, when and if I have them someday.

Galadriel In The Mall

I love my NarniaWeb-triplets, Theophila and Bookwyrm. Theo is so sweet, with a decidedly mischievous streak; and Booky has a shiny moderator-hat and makes me laugh every time I talk to him. We used to talk almost every night on NarniaWeb's chat thread, and this is one of our conversations.

A Brief History: Bookwyrm's first avatar/signature set was of Gandalf, and Theo's was of Susan Pevensie. So I had a dream in which I met both of them in my local grocery store: Booky, looking like Gandalf's twin, was stooped over the shopping cart, and Theo, in Susan's green archery dress, was following. Strange dream. But Bookwyrm was Gandalf forever after that. So one night...

Bookwyrm: We ought to form a NW version of the Wise. I'm Gandalf of course. Who wants to be Elrond and Galadriel?

About this time, I think my laptop's dial-up internet went wonky and I was gone.

Theophila: I'll be Galadriel.

After all, I did get her as well as Elrond and Frodo on that LotR character quiz. Also there's a slight resemblance between us when I smile.

[...]

Faunius, I think you're Elrond...

Bookwyrm: I doubt anyone wants to be Radagast or Saruman.

The next night, I complained about being stuck with Elrond, and Theo giggled at my distress. They quoted the previous conversation for me, and told me if I had been paying attention I might have gotten out of being Elrond. Then we had the following conversation...

Bookwyrm:
Does that mean you have a creepy smile, Theo? 'Cause I always thought Galadriel looked a little creepy when she smiles.

Theophila:
*gives Bookwyrm a warning look* Just because I'm Galadriel right now doesn't mean I can't still give a Susan glare, you know.

Me:
I should try a creepy, wise Galadriel-smile on people sometime and see what they do...

Bookwyrm: I'll stick to stern Gandalf frowns. And maybe shouting (Insert Name), you fool!

(This right here is my favorite part of the conversation...)

Theophila:
Or, "Fool of a (Insert Last Name)!!"

I think I should go to the mall wearing elvish clothing and smiling in a creepy-wise-Galadriel fashion. Then I could walk up to random strangers, hand them the sort of mini-flashlights that go on keychains, and say, "May it be a light to you when all other lights go out." But I have nothing Elvish to wear.

If I did that, though, I could ride up and down on the escalators waving gently to anyone passing by.

Bookwyrm died laughing somewhere around here.

Bookwyrm: *comes back to life after having bought a nifty new outfit at the Gap of Rohan* White is the new grey, right?

Me: Be creative, Theo! Maybe Desirae will make you an Elvish cloak.

Theophila: The new look is good for you, Gandalf. But really, it might be a little impractical. White is so hard to maintain...

During the next part of the conversation we discussed someday dressing up at some random mall, playing imaginary instruments. (We were all part of a virtual rock band called the "Air Band." Haha.)

Theophila: I love it!! That'd be amazing. (I wonder if we'd get arrested and taken to the insane asylum.)

Me: We probably would. Three people playing imaginary instruments, in poorly made Lord of the Rings costumes...

Theophila:
Fauny, maybe by then we'll be playing real instruments better than we do now. Of course, we still might be arrested for the poorly made LotR costumes...

Bookwyrm: I imagine they get lots of weird LOTR fans over in Britain though.

Theophila: Probably you're right, Bookwyrm. But I'm sure we could manage to be even weirder. And we must do Narnia stuff, as well.

Delaney, wearing a flowing green dress and strumming a mandolin, approaches a random stranger at the mall.
"Where arrrrrrre you going?" she trills melodically.
"Um... to Barnes & Noble."
"Rrrrrreally? Why, what a funny name! 'Barrrrnes & Noble! What is that?"
"Er... a bookstore? You know, where the sell... books."
"Books? Therrrre arrrre no such things as books."
"..."
"Books do not exist. It is all in your imagination. Books do not exist."
"Books do not exist..."

Or we could run around the mall in WW2 era clothing playing hide and seek while listening to the Andrews sisters.

No... I forgot. THAT is my favorite part of the conversation.

Bookwyrm thought it was pretty funny too.

Bookwyrm: Faunius actually looks a bit like my mental version of the LOTGK. Who should we be?

Me: That's great, Theo. You know what's even funnier? I can't roll my r's at ALL! Desirae was trying to teach me, and the only sound I could make was: er....llllll...er...
Really Booky? I do? Then I just have to learn how to roll my r's.

Bookwyrm: Or we could dress up as [Dufflepuds] and go around agreeing with each other.

''That's a shoe, boys.''

That it is, chief. What a smart Chief you are!''

''So wise!''

It's okay, Fauny-dear, I can't trill my r's either. Goodness, Bookwyrm! First you say my smile is creepy, now you say Fauny looks like the Emerald witch! Just kidding, of course. I'm not yet sure who we should be EDIT: But we're girls.

(This last statement was in response to Booky's "That's a shoe, boys.")

Then I said bitterly:

Me: Yeah Theo, we're girls, and I'm ELROND!

Bookwyrm: I can trill my r's. *looks smug*

Theophila: I just realized that Galadriel has a somewhat low voice. Does that mean I have to speak lowly when we go to the mall?

Bookwyrm: Well, we could get a megaphone for you, Theo and you could talk lowly into it.
Or we could find balconies, one for Elrond and one for Galadriel and you could pretend to speak to each other with your minds. Or Theo could walk up to people and say ''Welcome Frodo Baggins, one who has seen THE EYE'' or whatever Galadriel said. And do it with dramatic eye widdening.

And that was sort of the end of the conversation. I still laugh, reading it for the tenth time (Yes, I'm very nostalgic). They're such marvelous people.

By the way the conversation was slightly edited from it's original form.

Introducing The Shakespeare Journal

Yes. Another blog. You'll all be wondering, "How will she ever have time to keep up with so many blogs!?" But I sort of needed this. Because of The Comedy of Errors, and because I need to take a test (and write an essay) on The Merchant of Venice, I have a lot to say about Shakespeare right now, though I'm hesitant to call myself a "purist" or even a big fan.

So, here it is. It will probably be semi-regular for the next few weeks... maybe. I don't know.

Enjoy...

What? My house is not a mess!

I only step on toys because we have five kids in our house! So there!

There seems to always be one certain toy on the ground on the way to my room. It's a stuffed car from the movie, Cars. For those of you who have seen the movie, it's Tow Mater. If you kick him, throw him, punch him, or step on him he talks. So lately, when I'm walking to my room and not paying attention, I step on this toy. He shouts, "OUCH!" and I jump. Then, as I walk away, he says reproachfully, "Dang. That thar wasn't very nice."

I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to post lately. Things have been busy. I don't even want to talk about the schoolwork I still have to finish, and then this Shakespeare play: I love love love it, but it's completely taken over my brain. But here is a list of a few posts I'm going to write in the nearish future:

On Dreams - mine, to be more exact. My story-ish dreams, and my dreams about The Fairy Tale Novels books, and other book-related dreams.

My thoughts on The Midnight Dancers - this one is way overdue, and is getting put off until after I finish all my schoolwork, so I have time to re-read it properly.

A funny conversation between me and my dear adopted "triplets," Theophila and Bookwyrm of NarniaWeb, aka Galadriel and Gandalf (I'm Elrond...)

On Comedy of Errors rehearsals, my first experience with seeing Shakespeare read and acted right in front of me, and our nine-year-old (and female!) Duke.

There were a few more, but I forgot all about them. Ah, well.

Wacky Math Problem

This wacky ratio problem was in my math book:

"The ratio of hopeless romantics to hard-boiled skeptics was 459 to 2. If there were 7,803 hopeless romantics in the room, how many hard-boiled skeptics were there?"

I'm thinking they were in an opera house or something, watching a bizarrely unrealistic and super-romantic opera. A really big opera house...

To Life

Yesterday at four o'clock I had a violin lesson.
I got home at six, and had to leave at 6:30 for first rehearsal of The Comedy of Errors (*squee*) and I got home from that at 10:15. I finally went to bed at about 11:30, I think.

THEN
This morning just as we were about to leave on hour hour-long drive to the big town we do our shopping and appointments and whatnot in, we get a call: "Delaney has a rehearsal today from one to four..." WHAT? So my mom had to frantically rearrange the day. She left my brother and sister to play at her friend's house (who has children their ages) until my dad (he works out there) picked them up. Then she drove me back up here, and I had to apologize for being over an hour late... which didn't turn out to be such a big deal. And I wasn't the only late person.

And now we have a "Game Night" thing with people at our church... we probably won't go - my mom is exhausted! But all I have to say is: is this what it's like for people who have a LIFE?

If so, all I can say is... To life!

And to those quiet minutes I can snatch to write a blog post and read two paragraphs of a book. :(

We had rehearsal today at a gazebo in my town (sort of). It was a nice day, and I just love listening to the other actors speak Shakespeare. They're so LOUD. And awesome.

Got MOLD?

MOLD: Mental Obsessive Literary Disorder. Have you got it?

I have. I and some of the girls on the Little Red Reading Hood message board started a support blog for those with this curiously contagious and chronic disorder. The blog is here. If you'd like to be a blog author, contact me (or any of the other girls on the blog).

And hold onto your MOLD.

Tagged! Whew...

BookButterfly has the great honor of being the first ever to "tag" me - that I'm aware of. I might have been tagged ans never known it... I hope not.

Rules
Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your meme, answer the questions, tag six people in your post, let the tagees know they’ve been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog, let the tagger know your entry is posted.

Who’s your all-time favorite author and why?
Uh... I guess C.S. Lewis, because he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, Till We Have Faces and The Great Divorce. And because he was just so jolly. I wish he was still alive. I would have written him a letter, and gotten my sister to send him her Narnia drawings. But Regina Doman is my favorite living author for many many reasons. :)

Who was your first favorite author and why? Do you still consider him/her among your favorites? First favorite was Francis Hodgson Burnett. I read The Secret Garden and A Little Princess about 8 times each when I was 8 or 9. Yes, she's still among my favorites because of the impact those two books had upon me at the time.

Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why? G.K. Chesterton, because he was witty and brilliant and not too many people read him; I have a thing for reading mostly-unknown authors and listening to mostly-unknown music and telling the world about them.


If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Regina Doman, L.M. Montgomery, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Elizabeth George Speare, George MacDonald. Those are the names that would pop out of my mouth before someone popped a cork in my mouth.

I hereby taggeth Elenatintil, Grace (when she gets back), Alyosha (anything to get her to post something! ;) Just kidding...) Lady Rose, Hannah, and Lainey

What I learned in Science Today

A line of violent thunderstorms preceding a cold front is known as a squall line.

My typo: Squeal line. That's what a line of Delaneys and Desiraes was when The Midnight Dancers' first chapter was released online.

Still babbling about that book,
Delaney

I Swear It's Not...

I swear that The Midnight Dancers hasn't been a bad influence. I'm only up at 2:45 AM because I was typing up a review of it. It won't be up for a few days, I'm afraid. I haven't said all I want to say.

Goodnight.

Exciting News

My violin teacher is going to start a choir! :D At my violin lesson tomorrow, she and my mom are going to come up with an ad to put in the paper, and see what kind of response they get. :)My mother and I have been praying for a choir for a while - a good classical one.

Side note: My violin teacher's name is Wendy and her husband's is Peter. Peter and Wendy - isn't it great? :)

THE MIDNIGHT DANCERS CAME IN THE MAIL TODAY.

Desirae is reading it right now.

EEK.

Arms of Love

Last night I finished Carmen Marcoux's novel about a young couple's chaste courtship and marriage. I appreciated the couple's devotion to Jesus and their desire to live according to His will; I appreciated that they wanted to save all the physical stuff, even kissing, for their wedding day. I appreciated that their parents were such a big part of their relationship. But there were so many things that made the book itself unrealistic and annoying.

For one thing, the big home-schooling family with eight children... The NEVER fight. No, they do fight, but it's not real. In one part, the mother, in a bad mood, yells at the 16-year-old daughter. The 16-year-old daughter, now in a bad mood as well, turns and yells at the BABY, a darling 4-year-old girl, and says some very hurtful things. I can get in a bad mood when people shout at me, but I would never ever EVER think of telling my almost-four-year old brother that he "looks so stupid." But then when the family makes up, with eloquent apologies, I feel like we're a rotten family. We're a homeschooling family with five kids, and we can't get along like that. So it sort of amazed me that, though the author claimed that they fought as families "sometimes do" (try "often") their arugments in the book seemed so contrived.

The second thing I found annoying was the fact that the author kept repeating herself. I read about three times that "Brandon was a skilled guitar player" and that "Joanie enjoyed working at the station." The adjectives also got on my nerves.

It seemed that the author set out to tell about courtship and chastity and disguise it as a novel, which isn't too bad of an idea, really. But, as I said, though I liked and was even inspired by the messages, the numerous conversions (always happyifying), and the parent-children relationships, it was dissatisfying as literature.

Personality Type Humor

Let's ask the Myers-Briggs personality types whether this glass is half empty or half full.

From this page:

ENFJ -- There's more than enough for friends to share.

ENFP -- Whooeee! Water fight!

INFP -- But look! A crystalline vessel, filled with shimmering, life-giving nectar!

INFJ -- Senator Hophnagle used the rest of it for his mud pie project.

ENTJ -- A "full" glass of water, please.

INTJ -- Yes, that glass will be the flivvium container.

ENTP -- Voila! .157 liters hydrogen hydroxide, prepared by micro gnomes ...

INTP -- Well, it seems just a little more than half full--assuming that it is water...

ESTJ -- Hey! Whose job was it to fill up this glass?

ESFJ -- I can't believe someone would leave this dirty glass out here! Clean up this mess right now!

ISTJ -- It's half empty now, and it wouldn't surprise me if it dried up completely.

ISFJ -- I bet _________ would like to have some water right now ...

ESTP -- You call that a glass of water? Why, back where I come from, ...

ISTP -- So? It's water. Big deal!

ESFP -- There's a glass of water--you know, it's healthy to drink a lot of water, why, I remember when I was growing up that
we...

ISFP -- (Holds up glass to the light, tilts it from side to side, tastes it, wiggles finger in it, grins slightly, moves on.)

Alternate Answers:

ENFJ - Look in your heart. It holds the answers to all of life's mysteries. It will tell you what the glass is.

ENFP - Hey!!! I bet if we got a Bunch of these glasses we could make a waterslide! Or maybe a pool! Oh wait, we could freeze this water and make an ice sculpture! Or we could...

INFP - Can't you see how this glass represents our world? It is neither perfect nor bad, it's simply here and its value is determined by each and every one of us. We cannot survive if we don't drink the water...if we don't get along with our fellow people.

INFJ - (closes eyes, concentrates) It's half-empty. (The INFJ is referring to a glass that is 200 miles away)

ENTJ - You call this competence?!?!?!

INTJ - How can you say it's half-full? It's half-empty! I refuse to listen to your reasoning!

ENTP - Hmm...it's...(Ingeniously constructs a hacksaw from two straws and a shoelace, cuts the glass in half)...Ah...Now it's completely full!

INTP - What? (Looks up in bewilderment after being distracted from his mathematical theory book)

ESTJ - Dag nabbit! Look! This water isn't even filled up all the way! What is this world coming to? You know, maybe if people respect the law like they used to in the good old days...

ESFJ - It's half-full! But we better fill it up all the way before our guests arrive! We must give them a cordial welcome!

ISTJ - It's half-empty. Such a lazy waiter. Things could get done around here if people worked hard and took more responsibility!

ISFJ - No, I don't want this glass. I don't deserve it. (Really a ploy to make you feel guilty!)

ESTP - Water?!?! Bah! Give me Beer! HEY ZEKE! GOT ANY BUDWEISER? And bring out the darts - me and Johnny got a bet going on!

ESFP - (Not present to answer because he/she is out at a party)

ISTP - Eh. Just water. Needs to be spiked with some Jack Daniels though.

ISFP - (Adds a pinch of lemon) Salut! (Sips while listening to Mozart)

A Properly Made Sandwich

I talked to Laura today. It was a very important conversation, because we hadn't talked in a while. During this conversation, Laura joined and became addicted to GoodReads.

Laura: *thinks about joining*
Me: thinks (evilly) about getting Laura to join in the addiction ;)
Laura: lol
I become addicted to stuff verrrry easily :P Beware.
*joins*
Me: *jumps in the air and clicks her heels*

And it was as simple as that!

Now on the title of this post: A Properly Made Sandwich.

Sandwiches are very important. That's why a properly made sandwich is so important. To me, at least. We'll talk about a simple turkey, cheese and lettuce sandwich, and the order the contents must be in:

On the first piece of BREAD, I put the MUSTARD.
On top of the MUSTARD goes the LETTUCE.
The TURKEY goes on top of the LETTUCE
Then the CHEESE
Then the other piece of BREAD.

It is very important that the lettuce and cheese are NOT next to each other. I couldn't say why, but it just IS. I don't mind it so much on hamburgers, but they are a whole different blog post.

The Midnight Dancers came out yesterday!!! We ordered our copy, and judging from past LuLu experience, the book should be here on June, the 9th.