My dear, far-away friend Carolyn Wason at Ya Salaam! tagged me for the 'Blissful Blogger' chain, where I write 9 facts about myself and tag others to do the same! Technically I am supposed to tag seven others, but seeing as I don't have that many followers and can't retag Carolyn (this is depressing....), I will tag only one: Kathe at Acadia Dawns!
...so as I sit with a cup of vanilla cinnamon black tea and pumpkin muffins baking in the oven while the first torrents of Miss Irene arrive, here goes:
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1. My favorite stores to shop in are music stores. I could spend hours in them..... last week I went to a local music store to check out the guitars, as I am hoping to buy one of my own (I've been using my father's for the past couple of years). After exploring the guitar selection, I then moved on to play around on the mandolins (an instrument of which I am now an owner!!!), and the ukeleles, and the pianos and keyboards, and the harps.... etc, etc. I hope to one day own all sorts of different instruments, and be able to play - in some way - all of them! And on a similar note....
2. I want with all my heart to learn the cello. I love the violin dearly (obviously!), but there is something that captivates me about the cello.... I think it is the resonance and depth of its tone. This year (or next year, depending upon when I am able to graduate...) I hope to borrow the school's instrument and teach myself as my senior exhibition (required project for graduation eligibility). When I am older, I hope to take lessons to gain some skills, too.
3. I have never before finished a piece of creative writing in story form. One of my life aspirations is to write a book at some point - not necessarily publish a book, but simply for the purpose of writing a story or a novel that is complete (though publishing something would be pretty sweet...). I have never before finished a piece of creative writing in story form. When I was young, I used to write all the time; stories from the point of view of animals, about fantastical creatures, friends experiencing the loss of someone close... lots of different plot-lines (often topics I couldn't really empathize with... like death, or life from the point of view of a pre-civil war African American. I guess they fascinated me because they were things I had never experienced).
Some of these pieces were several chapters long, yet never had a bona fide ending. If for school I was instructed to end something, I would do so, but it wouldn't be a true ending; one into which I would put meaning.... it would be more of a finish-this-up-somehow-so-I-can-pass-it-in ending, which usually resulted in pretty weak tie-ups (my sixth grade teacher once sat me down and said "Alexa, you are a great writer - but you really need to learn how to write a good ending!").
I wonder if I am afraid, somehow, of creating conclusions for my free-writing... I think there is something that intimidates me about committing to a certain completion of plot, and leaving them open to completion is an avoidance of this.... or I'm just silly and can't finish pleasure writing. IN any case.... I have never finished a piece of creative writing beyond poems, and I aspire to write a book/novel and do so!
4. I drink a fair amount of hot water. Yes, that's right - plain old hot water. I'm a total tea-addict (ahem... blog title) but sometimes I skip the tea bag and go straight for the water. I started several months ago at the recommendation of my acupuncturist... apparently it's very good for your digestive system. Cold water, albeit tremendously wonderful on hot days, isn't actually very soothing for your stomach. But hot water is very soothing, and thus helps with digestion and avoidance of discomfort. And because there is nothing to process, it goes straight through and is very cleansing. So to keep my stomach happy and body hydrated, I sip on hot wattah.
5. I have an obsession with prunes. I don't know why I love them so much, but I DO. If we don't have chocolate in the house and I am craving dessert (or sometimes when we do have chocolate and I really need to lay-off what's left...) I turn to prunes. They're so sweet and juicy and wonderful.... my friend and sister think I'm a total old lady.... between the prunes and the hot water, I suppose I can't blame them.
6. I used to dream about flying ALL the time. I could not count how many dreams I have had where I am able to fly.... they used to come so often! And I never flew with wings - no, just a bit of a run and a jump and I would be off. Sometimes they were good dreams, where I was flying over and through beautiful forests, but others were pretty intense.... I often dreamt of being chased and flying to escape (I've never yet had a dream where I was caught while flying! ...knock on wood...)
Sadly, I have not had a flying dream in a long, long time.... now the closest I ever come to flying is running a bit and jumping like I used to, but then floating back down to the ground. Kind of depressing.
7. I'm a nerd and actually like school. I always have. Sure, I definitely don't like homework and boring classes and boring teachers, and definitely don't always want to go to school - but who does? When I'm truly learning and being opened up to what is out there, I love school, and even during my grumbly days I look forward to experiencing this when I go.
8. I've never had a broken bone. I think it's because skim milk is my favorite drink in the whole wide world, and I drank so much of it as a child.... my skeleton is essentially steel at this point. Once, playing football at recess, I got a pretty bad sprain... but that's the closest I've come to breaking something.
9. I sometimes want to spend time with adults more than I desire to spend time with people my age. It's a little weird, actually.... and has become more true in the past couple of years. I think more recently it has been somewhat circumstantial... as I have been ill and spent a great amount of time reflecting and exploring who I am and how and why and what I feel, wisdom and experience and guidance are all things I have needed. And I have found these things in adults. NOT to say that I have not found any of these things in people my age.... that is not the case at all! I am blessed with many incredibly wise and guiding close friends (one especially comes to mind...) who have supported me in these ways, too. But it is helpful, I guess, to talk to someone who has had experiences similar to my own and can thus offer a certain empathy and guidance that others cannot.
Why else this is the case I am still exploring.... it is strange and can become unhealthy if I spend less time with people my age. It is good that I am able to get along well with adults, certainly, but I think relationships feed different parts of our beings, and excluding any relationships leaves an aspect of our being unfulfilled.
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...and 50 bajillion paragraphs later, those are my nine facts! I hope I didn't bore you to sleep in the process of exposing some random bits about myself. Now I must be off to do the schoolwork that needs to get done quite soon....
Adios!
I dream about flying too!! I may perhaps have written like, a whole page in my latest letter to you about how much I wish I could fly.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm more comfortable around adults, too.
:)