Baby's First Word, among other things

My baby said her first word yesterday. I'm excluding the word "Mama" as her first word because she uses it more as a wail than a word ("Mamamamamama..."). Last night my brother had a box of the ice cream treat known as Dibs, little pieces of chocolate with ice cream inside. Zoe saw my sister eating one of these and somehow identified them as ice cream (yes, we feed our one-year-old baby ice cream). "Ice?" she said to Noah, holding out her hand. Only it sounded more like "ishe." Aww.

This morning my brother had me tell him the first part of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when Lucy, Edmund and Eustace fall into the water and Caspian saves them. Fast-forward 20 minutes: I came out of my room to find two of my sisters thrashing about on the floor while Noah called out, "You don't see me yet, you have to hear a splash first." He made a splashing noise and proceeded to rescue them and bring them aboard the Dawn Treader.

Now for Katie's meme. Sorry it took me so long!

1. pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
The Once And Future King by T.H. White

2. Open to page 123

3. Find the fifth sentence:


4. Post the next three sentences:
"One of these paths ended at a clod with a natural hollow underneath it. In the hollow - again with the strange appearance of aimless purpose - he found two dead ants. They were laid there tidily but yet untidily, as if a very tidy person had taken them to the place, but had forgotten the reason when he got there."

So that's random. Dead ants, woohoo. Part One of The Once And Future King (The Sword In The Stone) is very random like that.

I thought I had some other news to tell, but I guess I haven't.

Oh. Yes. I have to have Act 2 of Music Man memorized tomorrow. Eeeeeeek! Actually, it's not a big deal. I have only a handful of lines to learn in Act 2, and I know them.

Some Little Things

I'm still recovering from the suddenness of arriving for a performance of The Comedy of Errors at one in the afternoon on a Saturday, and then not realizing until after the curtain call that ... there wouldn't be another the next day or the next weekend. Of course, it all wasn't officially over until the cast party, and even now... I just miss it. I feel like I won't ever get over that. But I may get to be in The Music Man with my cousins and Hannah this fall, and the woman who played Adriana in Comedy wants to start a Shakespearean acting class for children, and there's most likely going to be some musical theatre involved, so I feel consoled.

I attended the last show of You Can't Take It With You on Sunday. Despite some obvious fumbling (well, obvious to me at any rate: I had already seen the show twice before) it was a fantastic show, and the cast received a standing ovation. I was so proud of them all. And sad that I'd never get to see them as those characters again. Ooh, it was sad indeed.

But I really am quite WELL! and to quote Kolenkov from "Can't," "Life is chasing inside of me like a ... squirrel!" I'm happy. Some things that are making me happy:

1. The audio book of The Goose Girl. *SPOILERS* Ani's voice is good. Selia's is good. Geric's is sort of... too... um... I can't think of a word. But he doesn't sound right - he doesn't sound earnest and boyish and sweet, while still sounding strong and noble. He just sounds mostly strong and noble. I'm not crazy about the narrator's voice - the words seem more beautiful when I'm reading them in my head, with my own voice. I just finished listening to the scene where Ani is talking to Falada's head. It was beautiful on paper, and beautiful in audio. However, I did have it imagined so clearly in my mind that it fell a little short. I imagined it all more desperate. When Ani said Falada's name in her mind, the sound of it echoed through my mind for pages afterward when I first read it. I never imagined any line of diologue in any book as clearly as I did that. It was an imaginary cry to an imaginary character, heart-broken, echoing in an imaginary cold, and I heard it and felt it so clearly it still makes me shiver. But even so, in the audio book, that scene was amazing. *END SPOILERS*

2. Guitar: I never realized how good I had become at playing guitar until I tried to learn to play with my right hand. I'm a leftie, playing on a left-handed guitar, but since my dad plays and collects guitars, there is certainly no shortage of normal guitars. So I picked up my dad's acoustic-electric Taylor that he won in some drawing that he randomly entered (although I'd rather play his Gibson Southern Jumbo - but alas, it's out of tune and rather collectible) and decided to learn to play the "right" way. Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch, painful! My fingers have felt like they're on fire, and all the frustration of my first months as a student of guitaritry (new word!) are coming back. I'm recalling how hard it was - is! - to make each string make a sound in a chord like D minor, which is now so simple for me, almost like a habit (on a left-handed guitar, that is). So that's making me happy. The thought that I can pick up my guitar and play a few chords quickly and cleanly, do a few hammer-ons, slides, and play the beginning of a George Gershwin song - that makes me very happy.

3. Arsenic And Old Lace. I watched the movie twice this past week, once with my sister and once with my father, and I put the play on hold at the library (I'm looking forward to seeing how different it is from the movie). It's SO fun! And quotable. And morbid, and hilarious. When the play arrives from the library, I shall write up a blogpost full of funny quotes from it.

4. The Shakespeare Authorship Controversy. My dad and I stayed up late a few nights ago talking about it. Someday I'll post about it on The Shakespeare Journal, and where my father and I stand, but first I have to do a lot more research. That's just the way I am, you know.

5. The trailer for Harry Potter 6. Time flies. Seems like just yesterday we were at 4, and I was on the way to the theater thinking that I hoped to goodness that they would play a trailer for The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe. They did, as we were walking up to the top seats. I practically had to be dragged up the stairs. I was a silly little Narnia-fangurl back then. Very silly. Hopefully I've matured in my love for the series and following of the movies and their production. (Says the girl who burst into tears at the end of Prince Caspian) But yes, about that trailer: I like it. There's nothing about it that I like in particular (well... Young Tom Riddle is pretty awesome), but I'm just so glad it's HERE.

And I guess that's about all I wanted to say. Except for this:

Noah: Mommy, I'm Plumpy. (Referring to a character in the game of Candyland)
Mom: Okay. I'm Queen Frostine. (Referring to another character in the game)
Noah: ... No. You're Plumpy's mommy.
Mom: I am? Why can't I be someone more -
Noah: (Interrupting) You're Plumpy's mommy.

Poor Plumpy's mommy. ;)

Prince Caspian (The Movie)

SPOILER ALERT!

My sisters and I saw Prince Caspian with Hannah and Lainey, as I mentioned we would be doing in my previous post. My sister, Desirae was hopping and screaming with excitement, but I was feeling sick. Really stomach-sick, I mean. It wasn't nervousness, or excitement.

So... we got into the theatre without tripping over the rugs, or something dreadful like that. We had excellent seats in the very top row - why did we think it was going to be crowded? There was less than twenty people in the theatre.

When the movie actually started, I didn't even realize it. It was like I was numb or something. First, we see Queen Prunaprismia giving birth to Miraz's son, and then Cornelius waking Caspian up. It all moved very fast. During the credits, when Caspian was running away from the palace, with the Telmarine soldiers in pursuit, it started to hit me that this was IT! I had been waiting so long that I just gotten used to waiting... During that whole chase scene, I had my hands clasped underneath my chin, as if I was praying (I almost was). I finally put them down on the armrests, so I wouldn't look too strange.

Prince Caspian was just a better movie than The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. It was more emotional, more majestic, and funnier. And there was Reepicheep. The changes They made didn't bother me as much as they should have. ;) I don't even feel guilty about saying that!

My sister and Lainey were giggling every time Susan and Caspian looked at each other. When the movie was over, Hannah, Lainey, and my sisters were all laughing about The Kiss, and they thought I was, too. I was shaking, and I had my hands over my mouth. I tried not to... but when the Regina Spektor song started playing, and the Pevensie's went through the door, I couldn't bear it - I started crying. We're not talking about a little tearing up; that happened when Caspian hugged Susan. After they all went through the door, I started CRYING. I said to Hannah, "Oh, my gosh! That was so..." "Are you laughing?" she said, laughing herself. "No! Crying! I'm...crying!" I said, trying to act as if I wasn't going to go into total hysterics. It didn't work. I put my head on my lap and just burst into tears. Courtney came up to me, "See! What'd I tell you! It was AWFUL!" (Meaning The Kiss)

"No!" I said, "It was wonderful!"
She looked rather disturbed, "What, the kissing?"
"No," I moved my hands wildly, "Everything. All of it... in general."
"Are you laughing or crying?" she asked, disbelievingly.
"Both!" I nearly shrieked.

It's hard to move on, in a way, after seeing it. I feel like I felt after I finished reading Waking Rose, and Anne of the Island. Sort of ... lost. But happy.

Assorted News and Updates

I tried out for a play. Two plays, actually - The Comedy Of Errors and You Can't Take It With You. I will probably get a part in one of them, because there's so few people. I hope it's not mushy, though... Both roles I read at the audition were romantic leads. *gulp* However, I'm very happy that I went. When I was 10 I went to an audition and chickened out. *sigh* I had my song (Castle on A Cloud) all ready and everything. But when I saw the other little girls singing their songs with such feeling, I just couldn't do it. When I went to This Audition, I came in and almost left when the lady who greeted me handed me The Piece of Paper and said, "Could you fill this out, please?" I dropped the pen. Then, I filled it out, and started watching the people auditioning. It was Shakespeare. And funny. "I can't do this," I said to my mom. "You don't have to do this," she said. I didn't mean that I wanted to leave, and she knew it. So... Tuesday night was my first audition, and pretty much my first time acting. Exciting. :D

Some funny, semi-interesting conversations at my house:

Three-year-old Noah: "Blaaaaaauuugh! Mommy, Courtney won't let me brush her hair! Her hair is awful. I don't like it like that!"

Some boys were calling my little sister today and hanging up. My dad came home and put a stop to it. "Here," he said, "Let me answer it next time." We did. The phone rang, and he said, "San Francisco Police Department." Click. It was kind of funny... we don't even live in San Francisco!

Me, to my sister: "You're a lot more mature than some thirteen-year-olds your age."
Sister starts laughing hysterically.

We're seeing Prince Caspian TOMORROW! :D After a whole year of thinking we wouldn't be able to see it on May 16th... we ARE! And hopefully with Hannah and Lainey. (I would put a link to your blog, Lainey, but Blogger is being mean.)

The Midnight Dancers' first chapter is up on the website! (:D So is the prologue, but you have to hunt for it. (Hint, to Alyosha: It's on the chapter one page. On a picture. Find it, you. :P )