Craft Extravaganza

I recently got a couple of days off work and got to do lots of fun stuff around the house (as well as lots of chores).

Chalkboard fridge panel:

My mom came up with the idea for the chalkboard paint on the side of the fridge when she saw it in a magazine - we'd already done the painting. Recently I stenciled and put up a Coldplay quote.

Bingo Card Wedding Date Art:

I got some vintage Bingo cards with my friend during her Bachelorette celebration. I had the idea that if one of them had a 4 and 28 in the first two columns (our wedding date), I'd mark it like you mark a Bingo card, like a save the date, but just as art for my wall. I found two cards that would work - this one looked better. I didn't have a stamper, so I just used my thumb in some stamp ink. A cooler idea would have been for me to use my thumbprint on one number and Matt to do his on the other. Still, I think it's pretty neat.

Collage Wall:

Self explanatory, I just wanted to show it off.

Hopefully more crafts to come in the future!

Excellence

You know something good has just happened when you receive a folder with only the word "excellence" written on it in gold letters in the mail.

This certificate is telling me that I did an outstanding job on the English Content Area Praxis II exam, the test I have to pass before I can become an English teacher. It cost somewhere around $130 to take, so knowing that I passed it the first time was a relief. After receiving this packet in the mail, I quickly went to check my scores online, as test-takers have 45 days to download their scores once they are released. 

Fingers crossed ...

I got a 199! The possible scores range from 100 (if you get zero to about seven or eight questions correct) to 200 (if you miss zero to about seven or eight questions). There are 120 questions. I missed 9 out of the 120 according to my score sheet. Darn, one more point would have been nice, but I'll happily take the 199 and fancy "excellence" folder and certificate! YES!

National Book Festival 2011

Matt and I recently attended the National Book Festival, an annual event that I am ashamed to have never heard of until this year. This year, the 11th year of the Festival, it spanned two full days at the National Mall in Washington D.C. One good thing to come out of Matt's two-years of traveling between Missouri and D.C. for work is that he is pretty good at navigating D.C., so when I found out about the Festival just a month or so before it was scheduled, he was all for going. So that's what we did.

It was amazing.

We flew in Friday evening, leaving Warrensburg right after my last class finished at 3:00 and arriving in D.C. around 10:00. We stayed at a Best Western about 3 miles from the Mall, so we took the Metro a lot to get around between our hotel, the Mall, and Georgetown, where we had dinner on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, we took the Metro in an hour early, of which I am glad, because I needed that hour to calm down before listening to the first speaker.

As soon as we made it to the top of the steps coming out of the Metro and I saw all the big white tents set up all along the Mall, I was ecstatic. We grabbed a program and I was off, trying to take in everything at once. There was so much free stuff It was a future teacher's dream. I got a big bag from C-SPAN2 and a copy of the official Festival poster (I actually ended up with three of these, because I had already requested one before the festival, also free, and I picked up a third on Sunday. Seriously, there were about 100 stacks with probably 500 or more posters in each one. There were a ton). In the Pavilion of the States tent I got a bunch of bookmarks and magazines, two poem posters from the Pennsylvania booth, and a poster for "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure," a progressive story game played by several of the authors I had come to the festival to see. I saw the Magic School Bus and scouted out all the pavilions and signing areas of the authors I wanted to see. Then, the Festival officially began.

We started by hearing Toni Morrison speak. It was amazing to see such a famous novelist so close and hear her speak. We tried to stand in line to get her to sign a copy of her book, but I couldn't even estimate how many people were in line. Hundreds, definitely. I decided I wanted to see Gregory Maguire speak more than I wanted her signature, so Matt and I left the line. We probably would not have made it to her in the allotted signing time even if we had stayed, I think.

Gregory Maguire was awesome. He read an excerpt from his newest book, the last in the Oz series. He was hilarious, too. Matt generously volunteered to go hold a spot for me in line for the next author, Sarah Dessen, who I wanted to have sign a book for my sister. When Gregory Maguire's lecture ended, I quickly went to get in line for his autograph in my copy of Wicked, as well as a friend's copy. I talked for a while with the couple in front of me (we waited about 45 minutes for his signing to actually start, and by the time it had started there were about 7 more lines of people stacked next to us, all in line for him as well. We were luckily pretty close to the front of Maguire's line). It was so cool to see so many other people who loved books that much. I think that was one of the best parts -- seeing so many readers all packed together on the Mall. Matt and I tried at one point to estimate how many people were there. I am no good at estimating amounts, but the Library of Congress weekly email newsletter I signed up for did the job for me: an estimated 200,000 people attended the event this year. I can't even comprehend that many people and I'm not sure how they estimate that, but let me tell you, there were a lot of people.

Matt got Dessen's signature on my sister's book and then went to hold a place in line for me in to get Katherine Paterson's signature on Bridge to Terabithia. I did not get to see Paterson speak because her lecture was at the same time as Maguire's, but, thankfully, the Library of Congress videotaped all the lectures and has just started uploading them to the Library of Congress website, so I will be able to watch all the ones I missed and share the rest of Maguire's lecture with Matt. Here is the link to the ones that are up so far:

http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/results.php?mode=s&cat=58

After I got Maguire's signature, I met Matt to get Paterson's, and then we took a break after all the rushing around. We stopped at the Family Storytelling Stage where we got to see actress Julianne Moore (who has written 3 children's books based on her childhood nickname) read one of her books to the kids. That evening we ate at Clyde's in Georgetown, which was delicious, and had Ben and Jerry's for dessert.

Sunday we were lucky to have a later start and time to sleep in after a long day of walking on Saturday. 

This day the festival officially opened at 1:00, so we had decided to leave the hotel around 10:30, stop by Chipotle for lunch and walk the three miles to the Mall. We stopped near the Iwo Jima memorial to eat our lunch. It really wasn't too bad of a walk, except that I was very excited and didn't want to be late, so I wanted to go fast and it was pretty warm out. I should have brought shorts, for sure. But we got there with time to spare. We got front front row seats very close to the center to see Susan Cooper, the author I was most excited to see speak. I'm waiting for her webcast to appear online to see if we might have made it into the video!

She was great!  I can't describe it -- she was funny and it was so awesome to hear her stories and her thoughts on the inspiration for her books. Matt said he wants to read them now, which made my entire weekend, hearing him say he wanted to read a series of books I absolutely adore just because he heard the author speak about them (the series I am referring to is the Dark is Rising series). After we saw Susan Cooper, I got in line for Sherman Alexi to sign my copy of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Matt held my place in Susan Cooper's line. Again, I am excited to watch Alexi's lecture online since I missed it that day. I was within the first 30 people of his line, so I quickly met up with Matt. We were close to the beginning of Susan Cooper's line, too, and she was still doing personalized messages in books when we got close to the front. I wrote Matt's name and mine on a sheet of paper for her to sign the book for us, and then we were there. I won't pretend I got to really talk to Susan Cooper or anything, which would have been the most awesome thing ever, but she did sign our book "with all good wishes." So cool!

We milled around a bit more after this, saw some PBS characters (I took a picture with Martha the Dog from Martha Speaks) and then headed out from the Book Festival. This night we ate at Founding Farmers, a really organic but sort of fancy restaurant. Matt had mac and cheese with lobster bits on top. I had the thickest and best tomato soup ever and a grilled cheese sandwich with about 5 kinds of cheese, and a raspberry cucumber cooler (that's non-alcoholic, it is basically like water flavored with raspberry and cucumber ... it was actually pretty great).

Monday, I flew home by myself (Matt had to stay the week for work) and drove to Warrensburg for class (thank you classes that don't start until noon on Monday this semester), with my one bookback of weekend trip items back to bursting with three new books (one of which being the complete Dark is Rising, which was too cool to pass up even though I already owned all the books), a ton of free bookmarks and magazines, and 5 posters all rolled up in a newspaper that I counted as my personal item. Packing extraordinaire, yes I am.

It was an awesome trip, full and fun. We WILL be making it an annual trip! Especially if there are more of my favorite authors next year ... I can't wait to watch all the lectures I missed and look through all my cool free stuff. It's been a couple weeks, but I still haven't had time to go through everything. I'm so glad I got to go with Matt. Planning everything out, navigating together, and getting to see and do all the things I wanted to was superb.

http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/

Subtlety: A Lost Art?

Today I heard a new song for the first time. It was the typical modern pop song - not exactly remarkable as it sounded like practically every other one. However, one line did stand out to me: "I got a sex drive that's push to start." What?!

I found out the song is by Dev and is called "In the Dark." Just hearing that line made me think of several other songs I've heard recently that are explicitly about sex, and it made me think, "What happened to the art of subtlety?" Or, if not subtlety, at least the use of euphemisms or something.

What happened to great songs like "Crazy on You" by Heart? Listen to the lyrics of that song. It's definitely about a romantic, sexual relationship. Yet I don't feel awkward when I listen to it. Now, however, the songs that top the charts (at least on the "pop" stations) include lyrics such as:

"Let's have some fun, this beat is sick / I wanna take a ride on your disco stick" and "I'm educated in sex, yes / And now I want it bad" (from Lady Gaga's "Love Game.")

and

"Sex in the air / I don't care / I love the smell of it" (from Rihanna's "S&M")

One of my guy friends says he used to really like Rihanna until she started singing a ton of songs (overtly) about sex. I can see what he means when I hear her song "California King Bed," which actually sounds very pretty and is slightly more "subtle" despite the obvious implications of a song about a bed ... until she gets to this line:

"With the curtains drawn / And a little last night on these sheets"

Yuck!

How could whoever wrote that song ruin it that completely? Unless you are fervently trying to imagine that Rihanna is just talking about some ice cream she spilled in bed the night before when she was having a midnight snack, that line is enough to make almost anyone feel awkward and repulsed. Every time, I'm thinking "Oh, this song is kinda pretty," and then BAM! I feel like puking.

I find it sad that so many songwriters today have lost or abandoned their talent for crafting songs about the more intimate aspects of relationships that are still beautiful and subtle enough for listeners to enjoy without feeling like they are listening to an R-rated song.

"Let me go crazy, crazy on you ... / I was a willow last night in my dream /I bent down over a clear running stream /Sang you the song that I heard up above / And you kept me alive with your sweet flowing love."

"You Can Tell a Lot About a Culture ..."

"... by its language." It is true.

I am interested in the Welsh culture and language. I know a bit about Wales, but certainly not a ton. However, if I knew nothing about Wales whatsoever, the past few days of "research" I've done regarding words and names would have told me a lot.

1). Wales is located near the water. This is obvious when one looks at the sheer amount of words and names that have to do with water. Llyr means sea, llyn means lake, the suffix wy means river, rhys supposedly (according to some sites, but not my Welsh-English dictionary) means stream, dŵr means water. Likewise, SO many Welsh names have to do with water or the ocean. Morien means "sea-born" (and most other names with "mor" have something to do with the sea; Morgan, Morwen, etc), Dylan means "of the sea/ocean," Guinevere means "white wave," Merin also has to do with the sea, Cemlyn means "bent lake," Glyndwr means "valley of water," Merlin means "sea fort," and so on. Definitely not a surprise that Wales is surrounded by water on three sides.

2) The people of Wales probably were (and are) fair skinned. The words gwyn (masculine form) and gwen (feminine form) mean white, and used in names they can mean white, fair, or blessed. Though obviously the following names are only a sampling of Welsh names, notice the reoccurring theme of "white." Branwen means "white raven," Bronwen means "white-breasted," Guinevere (or Gwenevere) means "white wave," Morwen is "white sea," Lilwen means "white lily," Lynwen is "white vale," Meinwen means "slender and fair," Olwen is "white footprint," Prydwyn means "white complexion," Rhonwyn means "white lance," Sulwen means "white sun," Tangwyn means "white peace," Tanwen means "white fire," and Gweneth "white or fair." There are also a few names to do with red-hair; Rhydderch meaning "reddish-brown," and Griffin/Griffith meaning "reddish." What I was looking for in my "research" was a name that mean "dark-haired," or "dark" (not as in skin, but as in as opposed to fair and light). I could not find any. Apparently the Welsh were pretty fair-skinned.

Anyway, I know that this probably doesn't interest anyone but me, but I found it surprising how much information the names alone of a culture/language could hint at.

Misquotations: Avoid Them

Sometimes, a misquotation (especially one done on purpose) can be pretty funny. For example, the hilarious meme below:

However, in almost all other circumstances, a misquotation is annoying and potentially embarrassing. A few weeks ago, I was looking up some romance/love quotes from favorite novels of mine so that I could use them for scrapbooking or for other creative projects. I came across one that read "When I fall in love, it will be forever." The quote was attributed to Jane Austen, from her novel Sense and Sensibility. I have read the book, but it has been a while, so instead of wondering why that quote didn't immediately sound familiar, I assumed I just didn't remember it and went on with being excited to find such a perfect quote. 

It is simple yet powerful, and it states exactly how I feel. I had planned to use it on future wedding programs (when that time comes along). I'm not sure the exact site I found the quote on, but here is a likely one where the quote can be seen about halfway down the list of quotations, attributed to S&S: 

http://www.romantic-ideas-online.com/jane-austen-quotes.html.

Just the other day, as I was searching for some more Jane Austen quotes, I can across a different site which attributes the quote to "Sense and Sensibility The Screenplay;" http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/72339. Uh-oh, I thought. Maybe the quote is NOT from the novel, but from a screenplay, or a movie? I was slightly miffed, so I started looking stuff up. I looked up the screenplay, which was apparently written by Emma Thompson and became a movie in 1995 (starring her). I found the screenplay transcribed online and used control-F to search for the quote. It was not to be found. Then, I had my boyfriend help me search some more. We looked up Sense and Sensibility on Gutenberg, opened the HTML file, and used the magical control-F to search for the quote there. No luck. 

In fact, I'm pretty sure that the word "forever" is not even used one time in Sense and Sensibility.

So, now I am pretty annoyed. The super-awesome quote is NOT from the novel. It definitely should not be attributed to Jane Austen at all. And, I could not even find the quote in the screenplay, so now I am thinking the quote is ... I dunno, totally made up? I'm very upset, because I almost made a fool of myself (although nobody but me would have known) by using that quote and attributing it to Jane Austen.

What I'm thinking might possibly have happened is that when the screenplay became a movie, some lines were changed or added, and that quote got inserted. I really don't know that for sure, because I have not seen the 1995 movie. **If someone has, they should comment on this post and tell me whether the quote is in there or not, so I don't go nuts.** I could imagine that someone might have seen the movie, heard the quote, and VERY mistakenly assumed that the quote came straight from the novel, and therefore they posted it somewhere as a Jane Austen quote. I could see that happening, but it still makes me pretty annoyed. I didn't want a great movie quote, I wanted a great book quote, and my hopes were raised by misquoters and then cruelly dashed when I found out the truth!

Too Funny and Coincidental

As I tried to post the previous post about the poem, this error message came up:

Bhahahaha.

Now, I assume Matt must be the guy who runs Wordpress, but it was pretty darn funny that I had just tried to post something in which I mentioned Matt, my boyfriend, who is a tech-savvy nerd (I mean that in a good way!) and so my mind immediately jumped to him. I was like "What? That's hilarious! How did they do that?" Once I realized that Wordpress's error message was referring to a different Matt, it was still funny. What a coincidence.