In the Immortal Words of Patsy Clairmont:

Jason, our youngest, has two goals in life. One is to have fun, and the other is to rest. He does both quite well. So I shouldn't have been surprised by what happened when I sent him to school on fall day. As Jason headed off for the bus, I imediately busied myself preparing for a full day. The knock on the door was a surpise and disruptive to my morning rhythm, which is not something I have a lot of. I flew to the door, jerked it open, only to find myself looking at Jason.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded. "I've quit school," he boldly announced. "Quit school?" I repeated in dispelief and at a decibel too high for human ears. "Why have you quit school?" Without hesitation he proclaimed, "It's too long, it's too hard, and its too boring!"

"Jason," I instantly retorted, "you have just described life. Get on the bus!"

Well, I cannot tell you how many times the Lord has had to echo the counsel back to me - times when I've questioned, "Lord, You say You never give us more than we can bear. You must not be looking. This is hard, very hard! And by the way, Lord, it's been lasting a l-o-o-o-o-o-o-ng time. And if you want to know the truth, it's getting bo-ring!"

About that time, in the recesses of my mind, I hear the refrain, "It's life; get on the bus!"

Find of the day -- a book from 1834. I now own it. Thanks in large part to the "Friends of the Library" fund raiser.

I'm costuming. Forever. And a day. Mr. Aslanian didn't like a scene, but unfortunatly there are no costumes in the theater department to be had....so I'm making them. From scratch...three days from dress rehearsal. So I'm not going to be blogging much. And I have a test on monday. blech. So anyway -- back to the sewing machine. See you guys when the dust settles. My apartment looks like a fabric tornado went through it.

Success!!!! I have survived day one of the book hunt....oh it was a thrilling race -- hundreds of people stood in line eying their maps and picking their gameplan. Upon entering the building I fought off the little kiddies in the children's section, then dashed to the antique books, and made a beeline for the religion section. Somehow people were much politer there -- "Who was looking for latin? I found one!" We had quite a choreographed dance going, with people heading both directions, weaving around each other -- it was an 18th century line dance around a table, with nearly as much small talk. I found myself between a young seminarian and a pastor grappling for the new testament commentaries, and darting in between for Catherine Marshall. C.S. Lewis was not to be found, but I did find "God uses Cracked Pots" by Patsy Clairmont. I won't bore you with a complete total -- actually, yes I will. This is my blog and I want a record before I head back on sunday for the "everything-you-can-stuff-in-a-bag-for-$5" sale.

1. A Wrinkle in Time -- Madeline L'Engle

2. Peter Pan -- J.M. Barry

3. Wolf by the Ears -- Ann Rinaldi

4.Daddy Long Legs -- Jean Webster

5.Saddle Club Book #14 (for my sister)

6.Matilda -- Roald Dahl

7. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle -- Betty MacDonald

8. Hello, Mrs. Piggle-WIggle -- Betty MacDonald

9 The bells of Heaven, the story of Joan of Arc -- Bick

10. Something More -- Catherine Marshall

11. Adventures in Prayer -- Catherine Marshall

12. To live again -- Catherine Marshall

13. The Helper -- Catherine Marshall

14. Beyond Ourselves -- Catherine Marshall

15. God Uses Cracked Pots/ Normal is just a setting on your dryer/Under his wings -- Patsy Clairmont

16. Navpress bible study on 1,2,3 John

17. Navpress study on Colossians and Philemon

18.Navpress study on Proverbs

19. Navpress study on Joshua

20. Emily Post's book on Etiquette

21. Is there life after Housecleaning -- Don Aslett (hoping to be inspired)

22. Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew

23,24., Commentary on the Gospel of Mark 1&2

25. Commentary on the Gospel of Luke

26,27., Commentary on the Gospel of John 1&2

28. Do-it-yourself needlepoint

29. Making Sunday Special -- Karen Mains

30. A Present Day Challenge to Prayer -- copyright 1922

31. Kept for the Masters Use -- Havergal, copyright 1908

32. Jubilate Deo -- Hymnbook copyright 1900

So that's it -- that's all. Now I just need to go find room on my shelves for them all

Thank goodness its thursday. In the middle of weekday madness, only having one class, and at 2 at that, is such a relief. Today there is a book fair fundraiser for the local library. Every book except a few is a dollar apiece. HEAVEN!! $5 to get in as well. I think I'll take 20. Surely I won't need more than 15 books to add to my collection. I'd take 40...maybe I'll take 40 -- maybe I should go rearrange my bookcases and figure out exactly how much room I have to put them. There's always room for more. I'll just build some wall shelves or something! More news on this when I get back from the hunt!

I really do not want to go to class today. Why should I...I'm having a perfectly wonderful time reading sappy love stories. Not romances -- those are rediculous. But Pride and Prejudice will suffice, and Jane Eyre, and Emma, and Little Women. What is wrong with a book that imposes a moral? Some consider it Victorian and old-fashioned. OH well...There's something refreshing about a method of entertainment that takes its influence and responsiblility seriously. One of my favorites (I keep trying to spell it with an "ou" -- too many british novels) is "An Old Fashioned Girl" by Louisa May Alcott. It goes to great pains to instill the idea that values and morals are much more important than being fashionable. All of her children's books have a second half that shows them making adult decisions, and all of her later characters are my age. I think C.S. Lewis was wise when he said that any book that is good for children should be equally applicable to an adult. What is wrong with morals and values and sacrifice and virtue being good and proper. I turned on my television last evening, something I rarely do anymore, and I was reminded WHY I don't watch television -- the majority of it isn't worth watching. Anyway -- I must get off my soapbox and into the shower. More on this subject later..

I'm very tired. Why? No clue. I'm sleeping...taking evening naps and everything. I've become the smoothie goddess. I bought a new blender -- give me anything and I'll puree it. It's very fun. My current favorite recipe? Take 5 icecubes, 6 frozen strawberries, one banana and a healthy splash of banana/strawberry/orange/pineapple juice. Blend until creamy -- enjoy! Very good. Once I get tired of strawberries, I'll experiment with the raspberries and berry blends in my freezer. Oh, and who knew how many varieties of "cream of" soup they have. I had "cream of shrimp" the other day. Very tasty -- even little bits of pureed shrimp in there. I highly recommend -- don't leave it warming on the stove though -- it develops a personality and subculture of its own in remarkably short time (like 20 minutes and it was shrimp gelatin). Makes you wonder what its doing in your stomach...

Term Paper Madness

I wrote my term paper, handed it in on time and everything, It's official title: Claudio Monteverdi: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. What was it really about? Not so sure anymore. It was a case of -- I checked out all of my resources weeks ago, and they proceeded to sit around my apartment so that I felt like I was actually doing something. Wednesday I finally went and checked out some scores (ie: printed copies of music for the full opera), recordings and videos -- in the hopes that they would help narrow the topic down. Thursday: my class is cancelled, which leaves all day to write paper. Time spent watching video - 2 hours. Time spent putting clever little post it notes all over book to use as quotes: 3 hours. Time I actually started working on the research project now due in less than 24 hours? 9:00pm. Procrastination works for me. At 1:00am I decided that I was too tired to type anymore, and that I just needed to lay down for a sec....which turned into about 7 hours. Amazingly I spent the whole night curled up on my couch -- which for those of you who know my couch, not such an easy proposition. So I woke up, skipped a class and finished my term paper at 12:35 -- jumped in the shower while it was printing, and got it to class on time....yay me. Now I can have my weekend. I'm glad that's over. Now all I have to do is get ready for finals...ooh and study for one more blasted italian vocabulary quiz.....

I'm so happy that I voted. Apparently Texas was one of those states that decided whether the republicans control the Legislature or not. Woohoo -- like one vote in a sea of republican votes is going to count. But I'm glad I did anyway. Sorry Daryl...but I'm really hoping that if the congress gets their act together they can pass the partial birth abortion ban. Maybe they can do something about human cloning, and keep the institution of marriage and family a priority. On the downside, we do have a greater chance of going to war now -- and we can forget about the environment. (The prevailing attitude here in George Dubleya's state is "Air Pollution? What air pollution? sniff...sniff..Smells fine to me -- besides the wind currents blow it all to Mexico anyway.") Oh well...the ups and downs of politics. And best of all...now that the elections are over, we can go back to tv without "Rick Perry SAYS he supports gun control.....but last term, instead of voting....he was out SHOOTING ANIMALS AT THE ZOO WITH A MISSILE LAUNCHER! Rick Perry. Not as good as he seems. (paid for by the committee to elect Tony Sanchez)" I hate political commercials. By the end of the last few months I didn't want to vote for either of them. I would have voted for a ficus tree had one been running this election. But, c'est la vie. Thank heavens we'll go back to car commercials. The volume is slightly lower than that of political ads

I'm tired. I really have nothing profound. I did vote. That took bloody forever -- I went 4 different places to figure out which precinct I'm now in (I've moved three times since I registered here). When I finally did vote I got a sticker. I want 3 stickers. One for each polling facility I visited.