Now we are Six(teen)

All right, Mom, your complaints have finally been heard. I’m writing something on here again. And, tagging your name under it.
Mom: “My name on your blog is getting very small. I check up on these things you know.”
(a few days later) “Look! You still haven’t posted anything! And my name just gets smaller and smaller every day….”

So, now, here I am. I guess several things have happened since you last heard from me, which is too bad, because I still feel I have brain-block over here. My mind keeps freezing up whenever I try to write anything, especially when I try to write about things that happened to me, even if they were entertaining. If I’ve already told the story then it loses its sparkle for me. But I’ll try.

First of all, my birthday. Shocking is all I have to say about it. I actually do feel older, which I almost never do, so that’s a nice change. I did 16 of my favorite things instead of a party and ate pie instead of cake and generally didn’t have the “normal” 16th birthday at all, which made it so much fun.

Well, in relation to the huge amount of snow we’re having….
Tuesday night, I went sledding with Dad, Dodge, and Poncho. It was the first time I’ve been sledding in AGES, maybe two years or something, and it was so fun!!! We went up and down the local sledding hill for about two hours. It was dark, and the moon was out… and it felt like being in a parallel world. The hill is right next to the road, but surrounded by a bit of the Metroparks, and the road is only visible from spaces in the trees. Standing at the top of the hill, there is orangey light from the streetlights and the gas station across the road, but then you fly down the hill and all you see is untouched snow stretching on toward the woods… And when you see the road it’s like some other world overlapping with yours, and you are invisible.
In less poetic terms, we played “missile” and Poncho even suggested we play “Santa Assassin”, but that did not sound fun to me because I don’t like crashing. I’m not afraid of hills, but I am afradi of knocking into someone, which almost happened a few times. Once Poncho and I almost crashed into some random brick thing but I saved us just in time.

Since that was so fun, the next day we played outside in the yard, and built a snow-wall, which was supposed to be a snow cave but then Dodge decided he didn’t feel like digging it out. Then we sledded down our front yard, which happens to be slightly inclined, and took turns pushing each other in the snow. I can’t wait for winter camp now!!

Hmmm…  I just got word that JPII is being beatified on May 1st, apparently, which is cool. And yesterday I had an interesting conversation with Eliza and Bug about St. Dismas, and how if you think about it he’s actually the first-ever, most-guaranteed saint.

What else? Oh, yes.
The other night, Mom and I answered questionnaires about each other. The questions were made up by me, and here are the most interesting ones:
~How would the applicant respond should she learn that a comet is about to crash into the earth? (I said Mom would probably Google it, and Mom said I might not actually find out because I would be reading a book.)
~What is the applicant’s favorite historical era and what does this say about them? (I said Mom’s was Now, which says she likes modern conveniences, and she loves having access to tons of information. Mom said mine was the 1930′s, which says I’m resourceful and thrifty, which is true if I do say so myself. I also love the clothes they wore in the 30′s… hats! and the roller skates! Dresses made from chicken feed bags! It was awesome!)
~If the applicant were lost in the forest, how would she react? (Mom said I would sit on a log and read, and I said “why would Mom be in the forest anyway?”)

So, that was pretty much my week. I shall go now, and read, most likely.

Mom just came in… “What are you blogging about?”
Me: “You.”
Mom: “Yay! Now my name will be big again!”

 

it’s Christmas time in the city…

and everywhere else too.

The final phases of putting up and decorating the tree are done. Pretty much everything is ready, though I am still trying to find a few presents for people. Etcetera, etcetera, ho ho ho.

Every time I see wrapping paper that says Ho Ho Ho I mistakenly think it says Ohio.

It is still snowing off and on. I love it, and today after Mass I saw a huge flock of Canada geese grazing in the field beside the church. They all raised their heads when I walked by, crunching ice. Then when I made goose noises at them they resumed ignoring me and allowed me to watch them eat, annoy each other, honk, and walk around. Their steps actually made noise on the frozen grass. Somehow, when I could hear them walking and hear their feathers flapping, it made them seem actually real and alive. Not that I didn’t know they were before, but it just struck me that way.

Hmmm. I don’t have much to say, but I am posting anyway because it’s been too long.

Oh. Well, a few adventures have occured:
Dodge pulled out one of his “mostly loose” molars yesterday and showed it to me;
We got season 2 of Dr Quinn Medicine Woman;
I taught myself weaving and am learning how to make patterns;
I am teaching myself a bit of guitar;
I had a halfway OK time at HSYM tonight;
I am currently reading a book called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which is actually quite good;
and… I think that is all for now. I am in desperate need of some poem-writing…

Love,
Pen

 

Burst of Writing

Mom said to me the other day that she was afraid I am giving up on my blog. How sad! Actually what’s happened is I got my act together, culled the random thoughts for a bit, and got to work on my novel. But fear not. The random thoughts are surely building up pressure that will need to be released sooner or later. Besides, I haven’t been having many blog-material adventures, sadly. OK, actually, wait. On Thursday Dodge and I walked with Lily to the post office to mail something (a note to Bug… I wonder if she’s gotten it yet…) and on the way home there were a bunch of kids walking from school, and some weirdo kid was behind us for a while until we purposely lost him in the maze of the Acres. It was kind of creepy. But he was wearing headphones that were so lound I could hear them from like a block away, so A) he fails the Stealth portion and B) he will lose his hearing in a few years.

What was I talking about?
Oh yes.

Anyway, Mom, you ought to take the less-frequent posts as a good sign that I am doing my daily writing for my novel, and not even clicking on the internet icon because once I start to type in wordpress I somehow end up an hour later on a randomly interesting website that has instructions for, say, making blackberry jam or something like that.

In other news, within the next few days the last eggplants will be fried…
Sigh…

Love,
Pen

 

Rain, Rain on My Face

Sometimes I worry that I will run out of quotes concerning rain, and thereby titles to put on rainy-day postings. It’s like worrying about the end of the world, except not as scary.

Well, today there was such a HUGE downpour that we were inside Target (or Tar-jay, as Mom calls it) and we could hear it, the thunder and the rain just coming down in silvery sheets.
Me: “is that the rain?” Because sometimes, you know, it’s the air pressure thing or whatnot…
Mom: “I think so”
The Pharmacy Lady: “Oh it’s soo horrible!! Ugh!”
Me (at the same time): “That’s fabulous!” And it really was. It was the most glorious downpour in a while, and the sky was purplish and rolling… I do not use the word Fabulous lightly. I hope it rained on the DHFs too. That sounds kind of rude, but Bug knows what I mean– and end to writer’s/sun block.

Right now Dodge is talking to me, or the dog (I’m not really sure), saying something about how he’s “sitting here all civilized, and then that dog comes and sits by me and snorts on me, and then I start calling her Snorty…” Don’t even ask.

Well. Also while we were at Target, I became disappointed in my new shoes, because they blew my cover!! They squeaked so loud! Target is my favorite place to practice being stealthy, and alas.

I started reading two books. Both are pretty good. Mom found them for me after I spent a wretched 2 hours at the library (not my home base library, a different one) during which I could find nothing, and even the magnetic poetry wall had no good words, so I spent my time staring into space and writing in mad cursive, and listening to the librarian gossip to the other librarian about state funding.
Then Mom came to my rescue and randomly, magically found a bunch of books for me. I love her. :)

The rain also made my Dad act like a loony. He found an open can of the canned air (you know, for cleaningkeyboards and stuff) and sprayed it everywhere, and I thought he was going to get us kicked out. When we related this story to my cousin, he said, ”But it was open, you have to spray it.”

All for now. I’m going camping this weekend!! WOOO!!!

Yours till the ink wells,
Pen

P.S. I just realized how completely disorganized this post is. Ah well.

 

I just saw a cool spider. random. as is this post.

So, I feel like posting, and I would post about GS camp and how hilarious Val is etcetera, but I don’t really feel up to it right now. Meh. I will say a few short things about it, though, namely that Val and I made a very funny rendition of “Oh My My My” that my mother may put up on Youtube, and also me, Val, April and Mandy did some kind of dance to this song about California and Val was the rapper dude and her breakdance was just… priceless.
Also, we were all having one of those late-night conversations where everything is really sincere and honest and philosophical, and they had some good thoughts…. Mandy said, “I don’t want to be called hot or cute. I want beautiful.” So then we talked about why beautiful has so much more meaning behind it, and how the others are really just one thing– hot is just describing your looks or your body, cute is just describing some kind of mannerism or maybe the way you do your hair. But beautiful encompasses your whole person, the way you look and act and talk and walk, your personality and just really your core being. Beautiful is just a lot more of a loaded word, one that actually means something when you’re called it.

Well, that seemed all profound at the time, but now that I write it out it seems like something they would put in a cheesy girl-power book. Blehhhh.

In other news, my tomatoes are finally turning red, now like five a day turn and my grandma picks them for me. I am about to get the last of my onions. My humongous sunflowers (they are too big to be called huge, so I had to use humongous… Ginormous would work too) have heads as big as mine which are too heavy for the stalks, so now they lean over and I feel a little sad about that, but oh well. I want to collect the seeds, or dry the heads and hang them up. That sounded creepy, about hanging up heads, but in my mind I’m thinking “oooooo pretty flower for my bedroom”, not Adderhead Fencing Co. (That was a reference only I would get… sigh. I hate that no one understands what I’m talking about. It makes me feel so alone… *overdramatic angst face*)

While on the subject of references only I would get, I have trimmed off the shoots that our tree was growing around its base. Dad thinks it is dying because it was not planted correctly/deep enough, and every time he says that I say, “it keeps ‘smoldering at the roots/and sending up new shoots’”. But anyway I cut the shoots and am hoping to weave a basket out of them, since they are quite flexible. Tomorrow I will get started on that. Also I am wondering if I can make ink from these beautiful berries currently ripening on “the mystery weed” beside our porch. My wonderful mother allowed me to let the weed grow and mature so that I could study it, and I have concluded that it is pokeweed, a plant that is mostly poisonous but certain parts can be eaten a certain way. The berries are numerous and ripen to this rich, dark purple/indigo, but when you squeeze the juice out, the juice is this luminous purple that stains your hands and I think would be some awesome ink, and really cool dye for clothes. Yeah, I pretty much feel like living like a prairie girl… In fact, Erin said this weekend: “I think out of all of us, Pen would survive the longest in Amish Country”. I would but eventually I’d miss some stuff, like showers and computers and musical instruments. I would love making things though, as you can tell.

Also I would like to learn how to make and shoot a slingshot. It is my one regret in life that I never did that as a child. (I know I’m still young but I’m not a child. And I’m not being pretentious when I say that. I read YA, I am a YA. End of debate.) And arrows. I want to make arrows. I know how to shoot them (thanks Dad), but I want to know how to make them. I am also thinking of going squirrell hunting with Dad this year… I think hunting is pretty important, so I want to try it out.

I guess I’m getting in a big learning mood because it’s nearing back-to-school… Wait. I liked that one commercial that says: “It’s not back to school. It’s forward to what’s next.” That’s how I prefer it, and the way it really is with my schooling. I always feel like I’m learning new stuff and not just reviewing lame crap. But I think that was a cell phone commercial so whatever. I do not want a cell phone. I will have to get one when I drive alone, though, so I am getting the most minimal one possible and not letting anyone call me on it since it’ll be for emergencies only. Also I am thinking of not owning a microwave when I’m older since microwave food often grosses me out. But we shall see.

I’m reading a new book called American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of the Perfect Tree about the chestnut blight. Veeery interesting. I suppose people other than me might find it boring but I am just absorbed by it. Chestnuts are my dad’s favorite trees and he’d told me about the blight before, so I was excited to find the book…  Then I must finish Lilith, too! great book (thanks, Eliza!).

I feel like I’m just going on and on. Also, I want tea.

Good night.

Yours till the dog-tooth violets bite,
Pen

PS: “It’s hard to leave the girl you love/ when your heart is full of hope/ But it’s harder still to find the towel/ when your eyes are full of soap.” I love my autograph book. It’s such an unexpected treasure.

 

Ha. Ha.

I saw a guy’s shirt that said:

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they make no sense
Refrigerator

And I cracked up. Then told everyone about it today at the Fest (which wavery fun, blahblahblah, save it for a different post when I have more time and a better keyboard because this one is terrible…).

Speaking of shirts we got Grandpa Vegas a shirt that says “the older the fiddle, the sweeter the tune” which he seemed to like. But when I first told him we brought him a present he said, “What? A turtle?” Because Dodge and I call him Turtle Grandpa now. Which all started at the zoo, when we saw the tortioses eating, and…
Grandpa: “Ha! Look! He ain’t got no teeth. He’s like me. I’m a turtle. Just call me Turtle Grandpa.”
So we obliged, naturally.

Anyway. I’m tired now. The Fest wore me out. We (the DHFs, me, and Poncho) went into the mosh pit and moshed along with a bunch of cheering, sweaty people. Steph had to hand her (new) shirt around to us so we could each wipe the sweat from our brow. Poncho loved the Fest and became endeared to our fellow moshers.

I love how after I said I was tired, I didn’t leave.

Random.

Word of the day according to Bug.

According to Dodge, the word of the day is either “WALT!” (he does a very funny Michael impression– and a scary Ben Linus one) or “mature” (something he is trying to make Poncho become– good luck, brotha.)

Srsly though I gotta go to bed. Tis midnight AND I am 2 typos away from KILLING THIS KEYBOARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

G’night. (I’m opposite Australian! You know, cuz they say G’day….)
Wow. I’m loopy.
–Pen

Refrigerator.

 

a random post interlaced with exclamation points and gloomy poetry

Well. (You know, once someone pointed out to me that every time I launch into a long story/anecdote/explanation, I begin with “well”. Odd habit I suppose.)

 The rain has gone away for now, and I’ve been enjoying frequent bike rides. I thought it would be a good idea, like to build up endurance and flexibility for dance, but despite my best efforts, after two days of dance classes my hamstrings are shot. And my toes are practically sprained from toestands. I guess I have to go barefoot/moccasins till they heal. Oh the pain! The agony! ;)

Dad finally threw away the old awnings that’ve been sitting behind our garage since John Adams was president, so I cleared out that area for my compost heap. So much trash and small trees and disgusting bugs back there. But it was worth it, because now my compost is all nicely fenced in (with the garbage-picked fence) and raring to go. Grandma Vegas thinks compost is gross. I think it’s cool. My mom thinks nothing of it as long as she doesn’t have to look at it. Today someone told me that in Canada, you have to compost your stuff, and they give you convenient little bins (with plastic that is actually biodegradable) and then they pick it up once a week, and trash only every other week. See, people? I told you I would love Canada! Speaking of cool places, watch this.

And then  of course there’s my spinach that is still abundant and tasty, and tomorrow will be my first radish harvest!! I’m excited that my garden is turning out so well this first year. Also, my acorn squash has suddenly grown huge golden flowers that will open any day now. Acorn squash recipies, here I come!

Then of course I got two new library books (Sisters Grimm Book 8, finally!!!), watched Miss Marple (“A Pocket Full of Rye”), ate cake, learned how to do laundry, and basically had a pretty good time.

Except I really, really wish I could get outside more. Unfortunately, with Mom working, I’m stuck indoors or in the backyard until one or more of my parents comes home. But I did get paid for some extra babysitting I did, which was kind of a happy surprise, because I’m not broke anymore! Woo! And tomorrow we are going to see Toy Story 3, in 2-D (super ultra XD 3D Googly-Eyes or whatever its called makes Mom ill), don’t know if I will like this movie or not, but w/e. We shall see.

I just realized that I have been using way too many exclamtion points. Have I gone mad? (“I’m afraid so. Completely bonkers.” Guess what movie I’ve watched four times already?) 

(OHMYSTARSPLEASEDONTSHOOTME gosh Dodge’s new Nerf gun is loud and, um, shooty? Shooty is the only way I can describe it with only part of my brain working properly. Why must my peace and quiet be so disturbed?? “Hearken thee, ere voice of dread/with bitter tidings laden…” springs to mind every time Dodge says, “Hey, me and Poncho are gonna have a dart war”).

On that note…

“…and summon to unwelcome bed/a melancholy maiden/we are but older children dear/who fret to find our bedtimes near.”  And mine is near, but it’s my literal bedtime, I promise!

Crud. Another exclamation point. I must be hyper from too much cake.

Yours till the horse flies,
Pen