I'm Getting Somewhere!

Today I gathered all (or nearly all) my library books onto my bed and checked to see which ones I was reading, had read, and wanted to read. I'm done with 6 of them; 5 I read and 1 was book 5 in a mystery series that I just checked out so I could look up the rest of the series later.
I finished Maisie Dobbs: Birds of a Feather today. After I got about half way into the book the pace picked up and I could hardly put it down. Thus I spent a leeetle too much time reading today, but you know ... I found Winter Season, A Dancer's Journal by Toni Bentley that I had got about 3/4 of the way through and forgotten about. I finished off the rest of it and put it in the pile of books to go back to the library. I began and finished my Dear America book over the weekend. One more to go back. Also in the pile are La Vagabonde and On Pointe. I am getting through them! ^_^
Now I only have about 9 or 10 library books waiting to be read.
All this came about because I got on Amazon.com and discovered tons of historical mysteries that I am itching to check out of the library. If I'm not careful, I could end up completely buried in library books. I really must get through most of the ones I have before I get anymore!

My First Challenge!

Yay! I joined a challenge. ^_^ I'm excited. 2+ medical mysteries/thrillers between June 1st and November 1st. I'm trying not to look forward to it *too* much, however, because I do not need the next few weeks to hurry by, I've got SO much to do, hehee.










I've only picked one book so far, that being ... oh dear, now that I look closer at it, I'm not sure it's actually a mystery. Bother. Ok, well, selections coming soon.

Hmm ... Well, At Least I Tried

This 30 days of pictures thing is not going so well. What can I say? It's not very high on my list of priorities at the moment between finishing senior year, planning a graduation, and getting ready for a dance recital. Maybe I should postpone it to a summer project. I'm a little disappointed, but one does have to prioritize. I did take some nice pictures two days ago, though, that I will try to upload when I can.
Well, I must be off, I've got to make a run to the store and *ahem* stop in "quickly" at the library - which is ok, though, because it's just a branch, not the main one. Hehee.

///EDIT///
I'm home again. I had a fun/annoying at times outing. I was saved from doing any serious damage at the library by arriving there 15-20 minutes before they closed. As we were pulling into the library parking lot my friend said, "are you returning books or getting some?"
"Well, I'm just looking," I replied. "...But whatever happens, happens." *grin*
I only found two books:

• The Coffee Trader by David Liss - I may or may not find this interesting. Anyone know if it's any good? I read a little bit in the car on the way to Wal-Mart (don't worry, my mom was driving) and it seemed like it could be a little bit ... mediocre.
• I Walk in Dread by Lisa Rowe Fraustino. This is, I am almost embarrassed to say, a Dear America book. But oh well - so what if I am not totally ready to give up all of my childhood?

I also picked up a little booklet of Express Books (books that you can only keep for a week instead of the usual 3) that come in this month. There were a few that jumped out at me, particularly The Camel Bookmobile by Marsha Hamilton and April in Paris by Michael Wallner.

The somewhat annoying time was when I was at Wal-Mart. I wasn't really there on my own time, I had to keep my sister and friend happy, so I got a bit frustrated. Plus, it's not fun to need to go to the other end of the isle and have someone totally blocking the way. What is it with people needing the whole entire isle to shop?

Thick

I was sitting in the other room, happily visiting book blogs. I had a stack of my current reads sitting on the piano in the living room. "Look how thick that one is," I hear my aunt say. "Jeez," says my grandma. "I can barely get through the little thin ones."
"Look at that sucker," my aunt marveled.
I smile to myself. They are referring to my biography on Margot Fonteyn and yes, it is quite thick. 580 pages, an inch and a half.
--
It's funny, lately I've been feeling so torn between reading books and book blogs. When I'm blog-hopping I want to be reading, and then when I'm reading I want to be blogging about it.
I love this new discovery of book blogs, I don't know why I never thought to look them up before. Reading is a huge part of my life. Sometimes I get busy and inadvertently "forget" to read for weeks on end. All of a sudden I'll think, "I haven't been reading at all," and I have this urge to find a book and start reading again. Once I start, I realize how imbalanced I've felt without reading. Reading, in a way, keeps me feeling "right". Does anyone else notice this? Anyway, it's nice to find other people who are so into reading. A lot even more than me, but still. With all these intriguing new blogs I'm exploring (oh the trails one can travel, going from link to link to link ... ) I've been using up most of my spare time. Hehee, hopefully I'll calm down pretty soon and things will go back to being more normal.

Day 2 ~ 30 Days of Photos

Day 1

I remembered today that I wanted to do one of those 30 day art projects. I considered doing a snapshot a day, but I get a little shutter-happy when I get my Canon PowerShot SD 600 (lol) out and can't really just take one. So, I decided I would make it a little photo essay (is that what you would call it?) a day, which would work out a lot better for me. The challenge isn't going to be taking the pictures, but rather finding enough subjects in that time span to keep the photos fresh and interesting.

Here are my photos for today.

It's so Cute!

My Pointe Shoes

Lace Curtain

My Little Baby

Ballet

I was able to go to class last night for the first time in 5 weeks. I had an unfortunate complication that kept me away. We spent our time going over our piece that we will be performing in a recital in May. It's a challenging piece - at best. Lots of difficult poses that makes gravity feel twice as strong. I was very glad that I practiced during my time away from class and didn't totally slack off; I ended up being the only one who had the correct timing and had to go to the front of the class so everyone could follow me. Not trying to brag or anything ... but there are so few times when I feel I'm really good at anything. ^_^

Unfortunately, five weeks off is a life time when it comes to pointe. Everyone else was in tip-top shape and given a tip-top lesson, and there I was, completely bewildered, trying not to break down and cry, in pointe shoes that felt as though I hadn't even broken them in. It's not often anymore that I get so upset during class, I've overcome a lot of my self-consciousness, but pointe is in a league of it's own.

Anne of Green Gables

I'm currently reading the Anne of Green Gables series for the third time. I first completed the 6 Anne books and the 2 "other" books that are about her children (but still have her in them) two summers ago and was completely enraptured. I decided to reread the series every spring/summer. Last year, I got sidetracked in June after getting about half-way through the 5th book (I think). Hopefully I'll do better this time around, but with all my other books ...

But anyway, yes, here I am at 19 reading Anne of Green Gables. You just can't put age limits on good literature. The Anne books have a special place in my heart, right along with Little Women (oh yeah, I need to reread that one again). I absolutely adore them. I love being taken on the journey of Anne's life, going through her ups and downs, watching her grow up and get married. I cried at many points during the story, so deeply touched by all the facets of life, love, and even death that L. M. Montgomery so eloquently captured.

Unfortunately, my memories and emotions about the subject are a bit rusty and this isn't coming out as well as I wanted it to. I'll have to post more as I go along. I'll try to remembert to post a little update after I finish each book.

"Anne dropped on her knees and gazed out into the June morning, her eyes glistening with delight. Oh, wasn't it beautiful? Wasn't it a lovely place? Suppose she wasn't really going to stay here! She would imagine she was. There was scope for imagination here.
"A huge cherry-tree grew outside, so close that its boughs tapped against the house, and it was so thick-set with blossoms that hardly a leaf was to be seen. On both sides of the house was a big orchard, one of apple-trees and one of cherry-trees, also showered over with blossoms; and their grass was all sprinkled with dandelions. In the garden below were lilac-trees purple with flowers, and their dizzily sweet fragrance drifted up to the window on the morning wind.
"Below the garden a green field lush with clover sloped down to the hollow where the brook ran and where scores of white birches grew, upspringing airily out of an undergrowth suggestive of delightful possibilities in ferns and mosses and woodsy things generally. Beyond it was a hill, green and feathery with spruce and fir; there was a gap in it where the gray gable end of the little house she had seen from the other side of the Lake of Shining Waters was visible.
"Off to the left were the big barns and beyond them, away down over green, low-sloping fields, was a sparkling blue glimpse of sea.
"Anne's beauty-loving eyes lingered on it all, taking everything greedily in. She had looked on so many unlovely places in her life, poor child; but this was as lovely as anything she had ever dreamed."

From Anne of Green Gables

The Legend Lives On

I recently decided I wanted to learn a little bit more about the legendary Marilyn Monroe. I watched some videos on YouTube and was astounded to learn who she really was inside. In fact, I've been in a rather melancholy mood for a couple of days thinking about it. She wasn't a dumb blonde, she wasn't sex, she was a lost little girl who wanted so badly to be loved, needed, and accepted. I'm amazed at how timeless she was and how real she was. In the photos from her last few months of life she was completely honest, she put her whole self out there and you can still feel her, just by looking at those pictures, today. That blows my mind. She somehow gets you under her skin and makes you feel what she's feeling. How many people do you know of who can do that?

Of course, we all know how her story ended, but I don't think we should judge her so harshly. Too many people misunderstand fame, hoping that it will solve all their problems, erase all their hurt. Having hundreds of thousands of adoring fans may seem like a good idea, but at the end of the day they're just a remote source of trivial fascination. To survive unscathed in Hollywood you have to go into the business relatively healthy with a solid foundation outside of your work. You have to look at it as what it is, a high profile job, not your salvation. It will only magnify any problems and insecurities you already have and dump new ones on top of you. She, unfortunately, got tangled up in this downward spiral, but I forgive her for that.

Before all this, I had been watching documentaries on Audrey Hepburn and the contrast between these two actresses was heartbreakingly apparent. To Audrey, acting was a career and a career only. It wasn't even terribly important to her. She always kept things in perspective and wasn't afraid to do what she had to do. She took long respites away from Hollywood to be with her family and friends, not caring what effects it might have on her career, and was all the better for it.

Too many stars become slaves to the business because they don't have any other source of being and it all ends in tragedy. It's depressing to think about. And I have been thinking about it - a lot. I've been so deeply moved by Marilyn’s life and I can't really express all that I'm feeling right now. It's strange. Maybe I'm mourning her, in a way; mourning not only her death but her life. She was a real person, all stars are real people. It's strange to think so, but Marilyn reminds me that it's true. It's so easy to connect with her, to feel that "human element", because she was thinking what we all think. We all know what it is to need to be needed, loved, wanted, and cared for. She was honest about it, maybe not in so many words, but you look at her and you just know. And it breaks my heart. At her highest points and at her lowest points she was always honestly and distinctly human. That's a lot to contemplate, but I think it's worth the effort.

This tribute to Marilyn is beautiful, poignant, and haunting:

So little time
Try to understand that I'm
Trying to make a move just to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody's changing
And I don't feel the same.

-Keane

Hello, anyone there?

I think I am going to make Saturday a telephone day. I can think of three people right now ... wait, four ... that I told I would probably call and never got around to it. Each call could take an hour. Make that five.

30 Days

Today started out nice and then the weather turned cold and wet. Dreary. Rain is splattering my window. My economics book lies open on the desk in front of me and I put off studying the disadvantages of sole proprietorship a little longer. I want to try one of those 30 days of creativity things. You know, you pick an art medium and do something with it every day for a month. A daily photo, poem, free write, painting - whatever you want. I was also thinking it would be interesting to do this for several months in a row with different mediums. I believe that everyone's life is rich and textured if only they can find the motivation to open their eyes and look closely; doing a 30 day exploration into the little things that make life so substantial could change a person in beautiful ways.