Ice Storm

When I look outside, it looks like snow. It's quite easy to pretend. Then the wind blows, and a shower of meltwater lights the air like silver rain. The ice is so thick that it's wrapped the smallest twigs as thickly as my thumb, yet from far away the trees all look like glittering diamond chandeliers, and the fields look frothy and soft.

I haven't seen too many ice storms before this year. For a while we had a good deal of snow. Then we had... not so much snow. Now we have ice storms.

My parents are from Cape Girardieau, that's a college town two hours south. They used to listen to our weather forecasts in longing, wishing for snow. They used to take all the ice storms. It's moving north.

(See An Inconvenient Truth)

!!!

St. Louis...

Ego Non Habeo Patriam

Time Magazine Asks: "Does sending more soldiers to Iraq make any sense?"

Bush is sending them. 21,500 of them.

We watched the speech. Protests were ringing in the background. We couldn't make out the words, but it soundedn an awful lot like "F--- Bush" to us. In the news footage afterwards, some bigshot in the media declared that the American Empire was over. My mom whimpered. It's existed a long time for her. Not a brief second in history, only a few years of my own childhood. But a long time for her.

"Miranda, can I go with you when you move to Norway?" My sister.

"Of course. Mom?"

"If both of you are there, why not!"

Then we hit the brick wall of practicalities. Mom thinks every place in the world other than the US is too cold or dangerous, with the lone exception of the UK, which is "too expensive". France was considered, but she doesn't know French. That's fine, actually. Curacao was her favourite choice - they speak English, and it's warm, and it's cheap... but she didn't want us so far away.

And it hit me, we were considering it. We still have everything here, and Dad doesn't know a word of our scheming, and nothing comes to anything, but we're considering it. And I've been considering it for a long time. And the question comes to me: Could I really do it? Could I really leave America? I'd be an ex-patriate. The idea scares me somehow. But the answer comes to me just as quickly. Harshly, in rough Latin, it etches itself across my mind.

Ego Non Habeo Patriam.

Finals

Yay, the finals this semester are not very stressful, and the most stressful one is pretty much out of my hands...

English - I want to review vocabulary and maybe the "Love Nest" short story in preparation. English finals are hard to study for, but I want an A in the class and an A on the final would really help.

Chemistry - I'm doing a study session with Stephanie. I should have a solid B, and therefore no worries, but just to be safe...

Spanish - I don't know the exact status of my A, so it would probably be beneficial to study a little. Hopefully, if I get a B or an A, I'm fine.

Math - Even though as long as I get about a 70%, I've got a B, I think I'll study as much as possible. Math is hard.

Gym - Yeah... the final is to Squaredance....

Government - I'm going to the study session, but I don't think it will help and I don't think it needs to. I have a solid B.

German - Yeah, I'd have to get about a 25% on the final to kill my A. No studying.

Always a Globe

I will always have a globe around the house for my children to look at, and run their fingers over, and love as I do. We'll have a big atlas, too, for specifics and close ups and colour photos of Mount Everest and Macchu Picchu, the Grand Canyon and the Snows of Kilimanjaro, Rheinfels Castle and the Fjords of Norway. The globe will be for seeing all together, perfect and real, so incomprehensibly gargantuan and yet so small, and so beautiful...

They will see it and see nature, know what they have to love and experience and know what they have to protect. They will see it and see history, know the paths that have led to their time and their country. They will see it and see humanity - see the globe as I see it, bleeding with culture. A thousand gods and a thousand dreams, a thousand signs to wish on and a thousand ways to say, "I love you".

Sunset Photos

Sunsets are coming at slightly more natural times now that we're a couple weeks past the equinox. Today's ended by about 5, but went on for almost forty five minutes in a really exceptional display. At about 4:30 the sky was normal blue, but the clouds were all pink and yellow. Then the sky turned all rosy for 360 degrees - something to be able to see out of every window in my house. Hard to imagine what it would look like somewhere with a view. Even now at about 5:20, in the deepening blue, there are still little displays of amber in the far west. I grabbed a camera which amazingly had both batteries and a memory card and took a few, however I couldn't get one of the windows open so those look a little odd...

1,3,4,5,7

Mussels in White Wine and Garlic

This recipe sounds fancy and will impress people, especially when you're just making it for an afternoon snack. However, it's actually really simple.

Ingredients:
6-12 Mussels
1/8 Cup Water
1/8 Cup White Wine
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Clove Garlic
Pinch of Parsley

Preparation:
In a normal sized soup pan, heat olive oil and parsley, add garlic. When the garlic is sizzling as you add it, add water, white wine, and mussels. Make sure to clean the mussels first. The mussels actually open up really fast, or did for me, so go ahead and cover the pan and let them steam a while anyway to make the flavour good. Take them out of the shells and serve or leave to steam/boil more in the sauce. Serve with some sort of 'hard-carb'. I recommend French Bread, cooked Italian Bread, or Town House Crackers. The Sauce is delicious too, so make sure to dip the carb in it and absorb as much as possible.

No More Horizon

There's nothing in this world that time can't kill,
Heaven is empty and the stars are still.
There's only now, there's only us,
But whoever said that wasn't enough?

Yksi and Kaksi, and Dinner with Christy

Today I went to Starbucks with Christy. It was half study session, half hang out. She got Chai, a sort of spiced tea that even I, who have no taste for either coffee or it's British counterpart, admit is rather drinkable. Especially the pumpkin kind that comes out in fall. I got a white hot chocolate. I love that stuff. It needs to be more mass marketed.

We did Government Study and she took my friend quiz. She tied with Austin, although I gave her one of the answers when she had it narrowed down to 50-50. I was studying the Finnish for words 1-10, and joking about how random they all were, and how I really had to get creative. For number 6, for example, Kuusi, I imagined six Koozie Cups. No, my memory was not really so perfect as to keep the image of all six of them firmly in its memory, but the effort in doing so managed to tie Kuusi to Koozie and Koozie to Six quickly and efficiently. I honestly have no idea how it works, but if you can tie a word to an English word, it really doesn't matter what English word, it will help you remember the English meaning. I'll study it someday. (Note: This can be hard with Japanese and Chinese.)

The fun began with Kaksi, I was thinking of two, you see, and Kaksi... Two Roosters! Of course. Translate that into 'horny' teenage girl, and you have a well remembered word. So Christy was proud of knowing Kaksi, so I made her learn Yski as well, so she could count to two in Finnish. When she proudly told her mom this, of course, her mom that she said, "Count to two and finish", and wasn't impressed. She also learned Kumennen because I put her to work helping me come up with a memory trick. This one was even lamer, but again, did the trick. Cum (Latin for with), Men, In. Withmenin. Even pulling in the pitstop in Latin, it actually works. Huh.

Yksi - Kaksi - Kolme - Neljä - Viisi - Kuusi - Seitsemän - Kahdeksan - Yhdeksän - Kumennen

After this, we decided to watch "An Inconvenient Truth", that movie Al Gore made about Global Warming. I wasn't sure what to expect, but Christy seemed fired up about it, and I respect her sense of humour if nothing else. (We both are very, very easily amused by banal grammar mistakes, etc.) But, I didn't want to watch it crowded around her laptop, no matter how proud of it she was.

We hadn't eaten, so we went to Dierbergs and bought a Pomegranate, Mussels, Sole Stuffed with Lobster and Shrimp, Italian Bread, and Two Heads of Broccoli. Oh, we're healthy and capable girls. I paid for the mussels myself, since I was the only one who wanted them and didn't even make them that night. Other than that, we split the cost, which was fair because even though I kept the leftovers, I made most of the food, so it worked out. I know Christy probably wasn't even thinking that deeply on the whole matter, and I love her for that, because petty people suck, but I never want to be a freeloader.

It was a good dinner and cheap for as much as we got. The only letown was the Pomegranate, which seemed to our admittedly less than expert eyes to be... moldy. Not all of it was thus 'infected', but to be safe we threw the whole thing out. We also made fun of the box on the Fish, which listed under ingredients, right next to each other, "...Lobster, Lobster Meat..."

Yes, it was a fun evening, but I don't want my serious review of "An Inconvenient Truth" meshed with my ramblings, so I'll post it seperately later. :D

New Years Party

I went to Kates house for New Years, drove there myself (yay!). The people who came were me, Gwen, Stephanie, and Mary. First we all played DDR for a really long time, surprisingly I wasn't the worst. Despite having no rhythm or dancing skills, I played the game like Spider-Squash or the similar and wider known game Whack-a-Mole, and managed to pass every round, albeit with a D. Apparently I looked really, really funny though, because everyone was in stitches and they took video. I also got the best work out. Go me. :D Mary was a genius at DDR because, well, she owns it. But it was still neat to watch. Gwen wasn't bad, got a B or two on the easier setting. Kate and Stephanie were about my level, maybe Kate was a bit worse. (Sorry Kate!) Mrs. Schlarman was hilarious.

Then we played Super Smash Brothers Melee. If we had had the original, I would have owned with Pikachu. As it was, Mary HAD to have Pikachu, and so I got to play Link with a new controller. Ah well, I won once or twice, and it was mindless and fun. We got hungry and made ravioli and taquitos, but of course with Stephanie as a vegetarian we also had to make white pizza. I love Spinach. :D

We did a few fireworks, just fountains really, and then we watched Pitch Black with Vin Diesel. It really went in line with Scary Movie night a few days back. A creepy sort of mass slaughter movie with a bit of charector development thrown in. I thought Caroline-Fry's death at the end was a little unecessary, though. And apparently the movie has two sequals that don't even go along with the first movie, which I find strange. It's like having an RPG sequal to a first person shooter.

After this Gwen and I talked about dimensions, multiple worlds, the perserverance of the mind and soul after death, and all the crazy things Norwegians do. Mary had gone to sleep halfway through Pitch Black because she wimped out, and Stephanie just took out her hearing aides and was down for the count, but I'm sure we kept poor Kate up. Sorry!

AND HAPPY NEW YEARS!

The break is so amazing! The sun has been so bright and the rain has smelled cold and sweet, and I've been free from parents and school and stress for just a few days. Working hard to catch up!

A Year Behind

This year was the happiest and the saddest of my life.

This year was the busiest and the most introspective of my life.

This was the year I got a job and a drivers license.

This was the year I went to Greece and met Norwegians.

This was the year I looked ahead to life and found myself small and inadequate.

This was the year I looked behind to memory and found strength.

This was the year I had a Christmas in Curacao.

This was the year I looked at my friends and found goths and nerds and druggies.

This was the year I listened, and felt the words of others.

This was the year I spread my wings, shook them out, and folded them again.

This was the year I lied and snuck into a bar.

This was the year I walked the city of Mainz alone and without English.

This was the year I stood on a stage without shaking.

This was the year I won a sports trophy.

This was the year I twice loved and was twice wounded.

This was the year I couldn't count on a smile.

This was the year I felt the sunlight.

This was the year I faltered from my path.

This was the year I kept walking.

The Parking Lot

I love you and I hate you as you come out of your huge SUV with your Supersized Burger shouting curse words into your cell with a smile, filling the cool air of a winter noon with the sight of your enormous red coat and flushed cheeks.

I love you and I hate you, you teenage girls with skinny, shapeless forms and five-colour-highlighted hair, whispering and smirking and staring and pointing, congregating for half an hour before you leave in a savvy hurry.

I love you and I hate you, you are my family and you are strangers. I mock you and then I follow you into Quiznos.

Borders

I went to Borders today for the first time in a while. I was planning to buy more than I did, and I had the money too, but I figured I had to save some for the rest of the week in case I go out. I really wanted Teach Yourself Finnish, but it was about 30$, and I only had 90$ total. I ended up buying a European Phrasebook (with Finnish, German, Norwegian, Spanish, and some less important languages all bundled into a TINY little Berlitz book), another all audio Italian course (I finished the last one... the first foreign language course I've ACTUALLY finished?), and Eragon (for some mindless, clean reading).

I had to park a long way from the mall, as it's still Holiday season. That was fine walking in, the weather was really pleasant. It's very cloudy lately, with muted, colourful sunlight, which makes for absolutely gorgeous skies. When I came out, however, it was pouring down rain, and I ran all the way to my car. It was a good thing I had brought my grocery shopping bag to fill with books, because it rebels water a little, but my jeans and shirt were absolutely soaked. Still, I was happy, which goes to show that personality, circumstances at a whole, and some mysterious X factor have far more to do with mood than comfort and other fleeting things. I sang the approximately one-fourth appropriate Dido song "Thank You" and dreamed of a nice hot bath on the way home.

Scary Movie Night

Work Yesterday was a little meh, I need to get back into the rhythm, I guess. The hardest part about working in a library is that it leads to lot of sneak peaks at cover summaries, and sometimes if there isn't a cover summary you're forced to flip through the book, and even if you resist it leads to daydreaming... Oh well, I sped up towards the end. :P

Mr. Mina is in Egypt, so there was no Arabic Church and Maddy and I took the opportunity to have our scary movie night. I was really proud of myself - I drove to her house on directions. My first time driving on directions, actually!

We watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre first. It wasn't brilliant or anything, but I guess it served as a decent introduction to the genre. I thought the best part was the ending; a blurry still frame of the killers face that produced a far more effective after image than the girl getting away or even the last moments of the chainsaw guy chasing her.

After that we watched Frailty. The movie goes on for most of its duration with a man telling the story of his childhood, when his father suddenly started claiming god was sending him messages to kill 'demons', who were ordinary people. God then sent him 'magic weapons' and lists of names. The boy resisted and tried to tell the sherrif, etc, the dad locked him in the celler for two weeks until he pretended to have a vision from god and go through with his dad's plan. He turned at the last minute and killed his dad. This was all alright, but the most interesting part of the movie was the plot twist at the end. In short, the demons were real, secretly murderers and rapists, and the little boy in the story was also a demon who later became a serial killer.

After that we were considering watching What Lies Beneath or The Ring, and I wasn't tired yet. BUT, I had to drive home, so I didn't want to wait until I was tired. So we watched a couple episodes of Laguna Beach... awful. They were so real... I hated them all. :P Who would want to watch something like that? Of course, it seemed even more shallow in juxtaposition with the horror films. Then we talked for about an hour, and then I drove home in the rain and the dark and didn't crash and die. ^^ Yay!

Eragon

I saw Eragon the other day with Christina, Gwen, Sabrina, and Stephanie. The best part of the movie was hanging out with them, of course. It wasn't absolutely terrible, either. The bad guys were HORRIBLY acted... at points I was close to laughing out loud at them. The ending was terrible, too. But, I didn't mind the main charector, even if most people say he's acted blandly and always looks blank. Hey, he's a teenage boy, so it's realistic. And hey, he's cute, so it's forgivable. One minor thing that did bother me was the dragon egg... it sounded really metallic and hollow, looked dull, and basically reminded me of a huge jelly bean left out for a year and glazed over.

Honestly, though, the movie was passable, if quickly moving and stereotypical. The scenary was gorgous, somewhere between The Lord of the Rings breathtaking vistas and the Thomas Kincaid Panoramas of The Chronicals of Narnia. And, it won points with me with the language being the focal point of magic. Everyone says the book is better, so next time I'm looking for a clichéd and mindless fantasy read, I'll pick it up. It can't be worse than Urshurak...

Self Absorbtion!

I made a Quiz. Try it out! ;)

http://www.quizyourfriends.com/quizpage.php?quizname=061219232919-636191&

Layla and Harvard

I haven't posted since the crap with Layla really started. I guess that dates both things.

Anyway, I was really depressed and sad today, because I waited with Layla and listened to all of her angst rants and I was so worried and hopeful about her getting into Harvard. Well, she did. Yay for her. Party!

But I was the last one to know... Even the Principal knew first... and I couldn't hug her or anything... I could barely just smile and say, "Congratulations".

Life is Hell. Humanity is Hell. Pride is the lowest level of Hell.

Mail to Finland

Never send a Christmas Present to Finland. I don't care how nice the person is, or how perfect the present is, or how cheap the present was, or how much you owe the person, or anything. Just don't do it.

I considered grabbing my babysitting money from a few weeks back, but decided the ten in my wallet would cover postage. I show up with this little bitty pound-and-a-half package, and they're like,

"Finland? Oh boy, Finland and Russia are expensive..."

Yeah, I was digging coins out of my ash tray.

Killer Dolphins!

http://snopes.com/katrina/rumor/dolphins.asp