Gandalf the Yellow-haired

Noah, my four-year-old brother, after watching an animated movie of The Hobbit: "Could you put on my cape?"

I said, "Sure. Do you want the Superman S facing in, or out?"

Noah said, "In. 'Cause Gandalf doesn't fly."

I straightened up and grinned at my sister. "Oh!" I said, "Are you Gandalf?"

"Yep," said the little wizard in the Superman cape, "Only I'm a different kind of wizard, with a sword and shield. I'm a boy Gandalf."

Then a few minutes later, I saw him wearing a red Santa hat. It was his wizard hat, of course! "But it doesn't stay up very good," he admitted to me.

Then for part of today he was St. Michael the Archangel. With a spear, so he could "poke the devil."

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.

I Love You People

I came home from an interesting Music Man rehearsal to find myself awarded on my dear Lady Rose's blog, tagged by Katie, and begged to update by the same. You dear, dear people certainly know how to make a person feel loved. So Katie, I will do your meme the next time I get on the computer, because the nearest books are all schoolbooks. :P

Lady Rose awarded me this lovely award on her blog:



Thank you! I award... ah... Elenatintil, Leigha, Serendipity, Miss C.N.W., Olivia, The Real Katie, and Alyosha.

Now, some updates: I mentioned that we had an interesting Music Man rehearsal tonight. Let me tell you about that...

Last week, our musical director told us that we would have a "special guest" tonight. "He's had a lot of experience, and you're going to like him," she promised. Tonight, before my younger sister's rehearsal, we were talking to a friend of hers. "You're in for a surprise tonight," she said. "You mean you know who the special guest person thingy is?" (That was his nickname before we knew who he was: Special Guest Person Thingy.) "Yeah, but I can't tell," said the friend. That was only mildly aggravating.

Then my sister and her friends went in, and some of my group people arrived. So we were all talking about character shoes and movies and dancing and such, when we heard the younger crowd screaming inside as the real special guest person thingy entered. So one of the girls peeked in... and saw a guy standing on the stage. "That's him? I don't recognize him," she said. I peeked. "That's what they were screaming about?" I thought, "Hmm..."

Then I started talking to people again. And another scream was heard. The girls peeking in the window jumped back with a gasp. "Oh... it's... it's..."

Then one girl said, "Oh no! I really don't like High School Musical!"

Yes. It was Corbin Bleu, from High School Musical. There was general pandemonium outside, ranging from, "Noooooo!" to "Hm... wow..." and "Really?" Then more people arrived, peeked, and shrieked and "Corbin Bleu is here!!!" was whispered constantly for the next 15 minutes.

So, yeah. He gave a talk on theatre and acting, and answered questions (among them, "Is that your real hair?" HA) which was neat. And a lot of people went up and got his autograph. And we danced the Shipoopi for him. Hahaha... yeah, that's coming along pretty well, actually. :) But... the screaming... squealing... whispering. Fans scare me.

AND THEN came the really exciting part. ;) We learned part of "Marian the Librarian"!!! I was so excited to learn that the ensemble gets to dance in that song! I was beginning to think we wouldn't. That dance is probably going to be my favorite. That, and "Trouble." :)

I got some cavities filled today. My teeth are still in pain... but the dentist said that I'll probably have "sensitivity" for the next two weeks to two months. Fun. My mouth was numb for about two hours. I had a lot of fun poking, scratching and pinching my chin to see if I would feel anything at all. I didn't. :D (Yes, I get enjoyment out of strange things.)

Have a lovely week, everyone!

Happenings

Apparently I'm hard-hearted: On Saturday after my sister's soccer game, someone came to the field with a box full of puppies marked "Free." The kids picked up the puppies, annoyed their parents to ask if they could keep them, and apparently the lady considered the dogs as "claimed." As far as I can gather from my mom and sister's versions of the tale, my mother told Courtney to put the dog she had picked up back in the box, but the lady had already put the box away and said she wasn't going to take it. So off Courtney went to my mom again - she again said no. But the lady was gone. GAH. So we were the owners of this puppy for about 20 hours. I didn't want to keep it, although my sisters did call upon me to name it (Elinor, or "Ellie."). And then of course I was accused of being "mean" because I didn't want it... Ah, well. We found a home for it with a family that I like very much. I'll call them the V's.
Mrs. V is the dramaturg for my town's Shakespeare Festival. She ... knows a lot about Shakespeare. And literature. And she does NaNoWriMo every year!
Mr. V is a musician - he leads the community band. He's played on movie soundtracks such as Ratatouille and Pirates of the Caribbean - and on the Focus on the Family Narnia productions. So they got those for free, I think. Way cool.
Little V the elder knits and acts - she and her cousins put on their own Thanksgiving Shakespeare Festival each year. This year she's playing Katerina/Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew. She and Little V the younger are in The Music Man with me, and she played the Duke in The Comedy of Errors.
Little V the younger loves piggy-back rides. We established this as a fact on July 4th, 2008. After a long, hot Comedy of Errors rehearsal, both of our families drove up to a nearish town to watch fireworks. We sat around for a few hours waiting for them, and in that time I swordfought with both Little V's, gave them piggy-back rides, spun them around, etc. Quite fun. And she looks like Georgie Henley sometimes.

They have a dog named Curly who has, as Mrs. V said, fallen in love with Ellie or Spicy as they have named her (she is a sort of spicy color :) ). So I don't feel bad at all about not wanting her. :P

I woke up this morning at six o'clock with a stuffy nose and the kind of sore throat that makes you feel like you're going to swallow your whole throat when you gulp. So I got up, nodded sleepily to my parents (dad leaves for work very early) and made myself a cup of chamomile tea. My mother made me take some Airborne (gag), which I managed somehow, between a cup of water and a box of crackers. It was a mild lemon-lime flavor - definitely not as nauseating as the orange stuff I took last year. Blech. So I drank my tea and went back to sleep for a few hours, and woke up feeling a bit better. Then at around 2 o'clock I lost my voice. I've never lost my voice before. It was very strange: I would try to say something, and finally just give up because I could barely hear myself. I was very worried, since we had a Music Man rehearsal tonight; but I drank a lot of special Throat Coat tea, and I feel a bit better now.

On Wednesday we Music Man leads had our first run-through of Act 1: with double and triple cast characters, this was interesting. It usually meant that whoever was more prepared would do one scene or another, and both the Harold Hills and Marians did their songs together for extra practice. I had a lot of fun doing a scene with one of the Harold Hills. We had blocked it, but never acted it out before, so it was fun to experiment a little. But my favorite moment was watching Marian the Librarian. Some of the cutest blocking I've ever seen, involving the Harolds lying down and folding their arms over their chest at "I could lie on your floor unnoticed, till my body had turned to carrion." I'm used to the movie, so I just about fell off my seat laughing. Next favorite was watching one of our Alma's do a small scene in the middle of Iowa Stubborn: "And there I was, in Madison Hospital, and no one come to see me!" Both of our Alma's are small 12-year-olds with POWERFUL voices. So it's a lot of fun to watch them.

I'd love to sit here and type up the whole evening (I've committed much of it to memory) but I'm being told to get off the computer now. Have a lovely week, everyone! :)

Dead Tired

Some things to say before I drop off to sleep in front of the keyboard:

We had a long, hard rehearsal tonight. I can't remember my Iowa Stubborn alto harmony for the life of me whenever we start singing. The sopranos have it so easy. Bleh. We worked on partner dancing tonight. My cousin Lindsay was my partner first, which was fine because we both know the dance, and we're about the same height. But then I danced with a boy who was a good deal shorter than me, so his elbow angle was obtuse where it ought to have been right. (Yes, I'm doing Geometry this year...)

During my little sister's rehearsal, I got to stand around for about 45 minutes with my town's Shakespeare Festival's "dramaturg," talking Shakespeare. AND NANOWRIMO!!! I'm not doing NaNo this year (I'd love to try it... maybe next year) but as I know so many who are participating, and follow their wordcount status eagerly, I was SO thrilled to learn that she is participating - and has for years! And she's gotten to 50k every time. Wow. Her 9 or 10-year-old daughter who played our duke in Comedy of Errors is also doing NaNo. :D

My very wonderful confirmation class teacher gave all of her students little pro-life pins. The exact replica in size and shape of an unborn baby's feet at 10 weeks after conception. The pin is titled "Precious Feet" for good reason. When I showed my four-year-old brother, he asked why I was wearing it. How can you explain "pro-life" and abortion to a four-year-old? So I just said, "To show that I love all the babies in mommies' tummies." Well, it's true.

Um... I think that's all I have to say tonight. ;)

Et Cetera

I read yesterday that Martin Luther wanted to get rid of the book of James from the Bible because of chapter 2 verses 24 and 26:

"You see that a person is justified by his works and not by faith alone... As the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead."

Obviously this doesn't jibe with his Sola Fida doctrine. *hugs the book of James tightly* But since I'm Catholic I would have had it in a bible eventually anyways. ;) I say eventually because for the first 13 years of my life I was Protestant and might never have known there was an epistle of James (not that I knew what an epistle was till last year. I guess I thought it was something similar to an apostle...)

I went to my friends' birthday party today (some of you may know Hannah and Lainey). 'Twas much fun. :) I was rather singled out by their 3-year-old brother and heard a great deal about his brother's Legos. Some of the conversation was really priceless. He told me about his father's many tools and cool garage. "Does your daddy do cool stuff?" he asked me. "My daddy plays guitar," I said, smiling. "My daddy has a cartar!" he told me excitedly. Hehehe! My brother just calls them "'tars." And my sister Courtney used to call them "kintars."

Speaking of funny children, we have all these old video tapes of me singing my little heart out when I was three years old. First it was Over The Rainbow. Dressed in a Dorothy dress, of course. I remember one time I walked into the playroom at a Christmas party and announced to the rowdy looking boys climbing on the toys that I was Dorothy Gale from Kansas. "Dorothy WHALE" they taunted. I wasn't hurt. Just a little confused and indignant. Mostly indignant. I left the room and didn't bother my head about them anymore. Silly boys.

Next it was Bye Bye Birdie. My mom was in the show when I was 3 or 4 (she was in a little group of back-up singers for Conrad Birdie), and so she had the old movie. I really liked that opening song (now I can't stand it). We have videos of me singing loudly and mournfully that there was "no more sunshine/It followed you away."

Then, around the same time, my parents had me advertise little boxes of food and such and do pretend commercials.
Me: Would you like to buy this... (Mom, prompting, "Mango tea,") Mango tea?
Dad: Well, tell me why I should.
Me: 'Cause... it's MANGO TEA! And it's very sweet, it has licorice in it.

Ah, licorice. I never considered using it as a sweetener... Then next:

Me: Would you like to buy this diet cooowke? (Said with an English accent. I don't know WHERE it came from) It's very healfy. 'Cept it has cawffeine in it. (Again, don't know where the accent came from. Too many movies, maybe?)

I guess I've always had a bit o' the stage in my soul, hm?

Oh, yes: For those of you interested in my Music Man adventures, rehearsals are coming along fine. I'm even getting the dances down. Not doing them well, I admit, but at least I sort of know what I'm supposed to be doing. ;) We blocked "Piano Lesson" on Wednesday. One of the best things about having double or triple cast characters is watching the other actors doing what you're supposed to do, and seeing how it looks. And that scene really looks so fun.

Desert Island

I'm very sorry I haven't been posting. I've been lazy, busy, tired, etc. ;) BookButterfly tagged me over at her blog, and it looked like a lot of fun. Katie of Shakespeare And Showtunes (a blog after my own heart) also tagged me for a Six Random Things meme, and I will get around to that one soon, I promise! Thanks, Katie and BB!

Beware: it's getting late and I'm exhausted and a little silly.

Rules:
1. List the 10 books/collected works/series that you would bring on a desert island.
2. (Optional) Say why you would bring them.
3. Link to the person who linked to you.
4. Tag 6 people to also do the meme.
5. Leave a comment to let those people know.

1. The Catechism of the Catholic Church. What if I were stranded on a desert island with an expectant mother and she was going to miscarry the baby and I forgot how to baptize it!? ;) Or what if this mother were an atheist? I would need my Catechism, because debates would be inevitable.

2. The Bible, I should think that ought to be enough said, but besides being divinely inspired and spiritually helpful and all the already-amazing stuff, it's really great literature.

3. The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton. That's fifty volumes. And if they get wet I am KILLING that ocean. Wait... never mind. Forget I said that.

4. Les Miserables. I can open it up at random and read something that I love.

5. The Chronicles of Narnia. They really shaped my imagination, and I couldn't go too long without at least knowing they were there.

6. The Lord of the Rings. I am STILL reading Fellowship of the Ring, and I would go crazy knowing I got stranded on this island before finishing it.

7. Regina Doman's books: The Shadow of the Bear, Black As Night, Waking Rose, and The Midnight Dancers. Because I love them very much.

8. The Complete Works of Shakespeare! It would be so hard for me to live without Shakespeare. And I pity that expectant mother I might be stranded with. Because whether I had the Complete Works or not, I'd be doing a lot of quoting.

9. The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare. I don't believe I will ever get tired of it.

10. Shadowplay by Clare Asquith, because I haven't read it yet, and I have such a beautiful copy of it.

I tag... I tag... The Real Katie, Courtney, and Lanta and Bridget of Random Profound Thoughts.