Bit of Ivory

Gah, this time next week I’ll be holding OotP in my hot little hand. I can’t wait. I *can’t wait*!!!!

I’d like to state, for the record, that my lack of online presence has been caused by Lord Miles Vorkosigan, et. al. Just finished A Civil Campaign. It’s a good thing there’s only one book left, or I wouldn’t get anything done before OotP. As it is, I’m going to be busy next week. Oh well. Just the thing to pass the time.

I *did* finally read Erica H. Smith’s HP/Vorkosigan crossovers, and am quite frankly amazed at the parallels she is able to make. You’d think the two were mutually exclusive, but no. Brilliance. Of course, what else could we expect from her?

Now, must get some sleep. It’s going to be hard enough to work at Deseret Book tomorrow without being dead on my feet from reading too late, which is what I’ve been doing the past few nights.

SIIIIXXX DAAAAAAYS!!!!!!!

I’d better get a real job soon, ’cause I’m just not disciplined enough for this freelance stuff. I *will* do editing tomorrow, I will I will I will.

Today I sent e-mails off to many of my favorite fanfic authors, asking if I could borrow their Original Characters. Mellie’s latest Intermission has given birth to a ravenous plot bunny who just won’t leave me alone. Some have already said yes, so I’ve started writing. It’s going to be great fun.

The family watched Evelyn tonight. I thought it was a *very* good movie. Highly recommended, and not just because Pierce Brosnan is in it, either (although it certainly doesn’t hurt ).

Am halfway through Memory. The plot bunny has even lessened my interest in poor Miles, although I do feel awfully sorry for the chap at the mo.

Didn’t get a chance to take a pic of Harry POTter. Sorry. Will definitely do that tomorrow.

The teaser excerpt from TLC was very interesting. NINE DAYS!!!! We’re into single digits! WAHOO!!!!

I’m getting waaay too excited. I need to fish out all the elements of my Penelope Clearwater costume from their various places, scattered around my room. We’re planning on taking a trip to London Market to buy some Chocolate Frogs, Fizzing Whizbees and Acid Pops, as well as various Cadbury products to keep us busy on the 20th. Can. Not. Wait.

Finished Mirror Dance. o. O. I want to keep reading, but I have to do some editing work tomorrow first. Especially considering that the guy sent me a check. Must do something to deserve it.

Lisa is home from the hospital, and is doing very well. She’s still really sleepy, and she has to keep the incision dry for a week, but really, considering that this operation could have left her paralyzed, the recovery time is astonishing. Certainly a lot different from my 15-minutes-asleep causing two weeks of misery.

Jen brought over my birthday present for me today. She made me a Harry POTter. I’ll take pictures tomorrow so you can see exactly what I mean. I love it.

I’m so tired tonight I think I might actually be able to fall asleep relatively early.

but I’m not ready to fall asleep, so I might as well blog. After 3 years of being perpetually tired, I’ve found sleepiness to be something I have to work up to of late. In my earlier days of tiredness, when I actually had mono, a valid excuse, I had trouble falling asleep. This was replaced by being able to fall asleep very easily, but having difficulty staying asleep. Now I can’t seem to do either. I wonder if this is some after-affect of the drugs from my tonsilectomy. Dang it all, I had the darn thing to *help* me sleep, not to make it more difficult. I sometimes wonder if I’m not really tired all the time at all, that this is just the way normal people feel. Kind of like when you’re sick and can’t remember what it’s like to feel well. It’s been so long since I’ve felt properly awake and alert, I literally can’t remember what it’s supposed to feel like. Can anyone give me a good description? ‘Cause I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever feel awake again. Or maybe I do feel awake. I don’t know anymore.

Today (or yesterday I suppose) was rather busy. My poor sister Lisa had back surgery this morning– she had to be at the hospital at the ungodly hour of 5:30. The surgery itself was a potentially complicated one– she had what’s called a tethered spinal cord, where the spinal cord attaches itself to one side of your vertabrae, causing it to stretch and do some odd things to your nerves. Luckily for Lisa, the surgery went very well, and she’s doing much better than I expected. She had to stay in the hospital overnight, but the doctor said that when she comes home, the only two activites that are barred for her are jumping on the trampoline and playing hockey– not two activites she usually indulges in. I’m sure she’ll actually spend quite a bit of time on the couch, milking it for all she can get (who wouldn’t?). But it looks like although the surgery itself was much more invasive and delicate than mine, it will have a much faster and easier recovery time. Strange.

Dad used the time while Lisa was in surgery and recovery to start reading David Eddings. He’s already finished Pawn of Prophecy and is halfway through Queen of Sorcery. This makes the rest of the family very happy, as he will now be able to share in our Eddings in-jokes. It will be similar to how happy we were when he listened to Harry Potter, except in this case, he’ll probably just add his own opinion on how to pronounce “Riva” and “Torak” and half of the other names in Eddings. At least Tolkien provided a pronunciation guide.

I, when I wasn’t driving back and forth from the hospital and cooking dinner, have gotten about 1/3 of the way through Mirror Dance. Is v. good. I’ll probably finish it tomorrow.

Jen will be very happy to know that I did an initial beta on Retrospection ch. 5 today as well.

I’d probably better start reading Persuasion. Maybe I’ll actually get sleepy.

that I neve thought I’d do: I’m going to link to my LJ on this post. ‘Cause the meme I did has all these tags in them that only work in LJ, and it would be WAAY too hard to clean it up for here. So look here for the Killer Meme.

Feel free to comment here, though. Don’t want the blog to feel left out.

I have an early meeting tomorrow, so this will be rather short.

Ate salad at dinner. And crusty bread. Is major breakthrough, recovery-wise. Popcorn next.

AtE 41 makes me happy, if only because it means June 21 is closer.

Will do the Killer Meme tomorrow. Bye.

I didn’t update until now. I was too tired last night to post. First I’d like to say thank you, thank you, thank you, to all who wished me Happy Birthday. It really meant a lot to me.

I had a pretty good birthday, considering. I wasn’t up to the marathon I had last year, so it was basically a quiet birthday at home. I read Bujold for most of the morning, and went to East Coast Subs for lunch, which I’ve been craving for quite a while. Hmm. Read Bujold again in the afternoon. Dad barbequed steak for dinner, which I was actually able to eat. After dinner I went to Blockbuster and rented Tuck Everlasting, which my parents and brother had never seen. After blowing out the three candles on my Backer’s birthday cake (chocolate with raspberry filling), we watched the movie. Then I went to bed, Ginny in hand, and ended up chatting with for about 2 hours, with a couple of conversations with and Jen in between. Also caught up with all the LJ and blog entries I’d missed throughout the day, and filtered through all the AtE list messages (boy, that list has been active, especially since there hasn’t been a new chapter). So, not too exciting, but still enjoyable.

Read more Bujold today, which is why I didn’t blog earlier. Have now finished Borders of Infinity, and would like to start Brothers in Arms, but it’s the only book I couldn’t get when I checked them out. It’s there now, though, so I’ll go get it tomorrow, and take back the books I’ve already read.

Just got back from What a Girl Wants. Will definitely be buying that movie. Colin Firth is entirely too cute in it. Well, he’s entirely too cute period, but he’s especially cute in this flick. I’m willing to put up with Amanda Bynes for the sheer joy of seeing Colin in leather trousers, dancing in front of a mirror. Wahoo!

Am turning in an application for my coveted job at the BYU library tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Went shopping today. Am siriusly exhausted as a result.

I’m up to Ceteganda in the Vorkosigan Saga. Am enjoying them v. much. I don’t usually go for Sci-Fi, either (at least not in book form, I enjoy Star Trek and Star Wars very much), so this is a good thing. The character of Miles is very intriguing. This is going to sound like an odd connection, but in a way he reminds me of Perry Mason. Now, I’m talking about the book Mason more than the TV show Mason, although TV Mason does have some of what I’m talking about. In the books, Perry Mason is a brilliant lawyer, who wants nothing more than justice. To obtain that goal, he does things that are often unethical and sometimes downright illegal. He plants evidence and switches doorbells and hides clients and mails murder weapons and other evidence to himself to keep the police from getting their hands on them. His overactive curiosity leads him into big trouble. In order to protect his client (whos’s usually lying to him) he sometimes backs himself (and his employees and detectives) into a corner that is seemingly inescapable. Most of the time he succeeds in getting himself (and his employees and detectives) out of these sticky situations by the seat of his pants, often with a whole lot of luck. He can think up brilliant plans on the spot. He’s a master of quick thinking, and he’s not afraid to cut corners. He earns himself either outright hatred (as with Sargeant Holcomb) or grudging respect (as with Lieutenant Tragg) from his opponents. Some, like Hamilton Burger, would love nothing better than to bring him down. He gives people around him heartburn or ulcers or both (poor Paul Drake and his bicarbonate of soda and hamburger sandwiches, while Perry and Della are dining on steak, french fried onions and potatoes lionnaise). Tragg knows that where Perry is, trouble is soon to follow, usually in the form of a dead body. But he always wins, and somehow, he not only wins but wins spectacularly. He ends up with more than he starts out with. He helps people that are down on their luck–working on $1 retainers at times–but isn’t afraid to stick it to someone who can afford to and deserves to pay big.

Ahem. Sorry. I love Perry Mason novels. Anyway, Miles shares a lot of these characteristics with Perry. Add to that the fact that Miles is handicapped, and you’ve got yourself a very interesting character. Can’t wait for his next adventure.

I’m getting better by the day. I was able to eat some of my Burnt Almond Fudge last night (thanks, Jen!), and even got down some potato chips and dip after I’d made sure to chew for a long time. I made it to Sacrament Meeting yesterday, but couldn’t go to Relief Society or Sunday School. Sitting up for the 1 hour 10 min. of Sacrament Meeting was exhausting enough.

Tonight was the big Bytheway family night. We went up to my uncle’s and helped him clear all his old shingles off his roof in preparation for the roofers to come. I couldn’t help much, of course, being still rather weak, so I took pictures with my new camera and played Pretty Good Solitaire on Ginny instead. Every once in a while I’d play with my younger cousins who, of course, couldn’t help either.

Being as it’s June, I got my birthday money tonight as well. I used to get actual presents, but more often than not I get 5 bucks in an envelope. My aunt Kim and uncle John gave all of us girls some Victoria’s Secret lotion, though, so that was good. June’s a hard month for birthdays, because there’s seven of us that were born in June. I was the first (ironically, my birthday is also the earliest in the month), and my sisters came next, followed by my cousin Lauren 4 days later, then Molly, then Catherine (who’s birthday falls exactly between Lisa & Laura’s and Lauren’s), and finally my cousin Josh. My cousin Rebecca was due to have her baby in June, but actually ended up having him on the 31st of May, which was a relief to all concerned. We don’t need 8 June birthdays.

Today Murray High had an Open House. Over the past two years they’ve been building a new high school. I was very happy to hear this, as the old building was a wreck. It was a badly-planned mismash of additions. The roof leaked, the heating was so uneven that it could be 80 degrees in one classroom and 60 in the one next door. The auditorium and stage where absolutely tiny. The halls were narrow, dark, and poky, and were lined with the most hideous green tile imaginable. It was time for a new school.

On the other hand, am I very sad to see the old school go. I spent hours in that place. During the musical, I spent nearly 18 hours a day there. Choir concerts, English classes, basketball games– lots and lots of memories. After the school year ends on Tuesday, they’re going to move everything into the new school and demolish the old one. This was a chance to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. I wasn’t about to miss it.

The new school is beautiful. Wide halls with tall ceilings; windows in every classroom; a wonderful new auditorium with a gigantic stage; a big, bright choir room with lots of practice rooms and a special room for the bell choir (which makes my sister very happy, since they won’t have to set up and take down the bells every day); a large, state-of-the-art little theater; actual dressing rooms for the stage; scenery storage close to the stage rather than down in the Dungeon; a big bright commons area instead of a poky little cafeteria and so much more. It makes me quite jealous, actually. I’d love to go to school there. If I were thinking about being a teacher, I’d want to teach there.

They’ve got a program where alumni can buy a brick from the old school for $100 dollars and have their name engraved on it. It will be built into a wall just inside one of the entrances. My siblings and I are thinking of contrubting $25 each to put all our names on one.

In the old cafeteria they had all of the alumni’s permanent records. Well, the ones who had graduated 5 years and back. They let you dig through the boxes and find your file, and take it home. It’s funny to look back at all my grades. When I’m not so tired I’ll type in some of my elementary teacher’s comments. they’re hilarious.

By the time I finished walking through the old school–pausing for a moment outside my old AP US History teacher’s classroom and my Honor’s Junior English teacher’s classroom– and the three-story new school, I was completely exhausted. I didn’t stop to say goodbye to the choir room and the auditorium, which had been my real home while there, because they were torn down two years ago to make enough room for the new school. Anyway, I came straight home and lay down on the couch, and I haven’t really gotten up since.

But it was worth it. I got a piece of the green tile.

(Now before everyone thinks I gacked it, they had a box in the commons. “Free to a good home.”) All of us kids took one.