Football, softball , and..... Edgar Allen Poe?

Last night I went to my first football game! Highschool, of course. Pretty exciting! I don't even like football that much, but you can't help but get excited, in a crowd like that. This crowd was VERY loud, very hyped up, and very large. A couple of times some amazing thing would happen and I, along with a few hundred other people, leaped to my feet cheering and clapping. Some of the time I even understood what was going on. It was much more crowded than I had expected, being used to a tiny softball stadium, with one or two bleachers in every direction from where we were sitting empty. I miss those softball games! I miss going to see the Brakettes! *sniff* Any of you who don't know who the Brakettes are, hasn't had a life until now. They're the best women's softball team in the country right in my old hometown! THEY ROCK!! I've only seen them lose once or twice that I can remember. I should say I'm proud to have a bzillion autographs, but lots of other people do too. That's one of the cool things about their games; anyone who wanted to could go down to the dugout after the game and get autographs. Sometimes they'd even recognize us. Once my friend's brother (or my brother's friend, however you want to put it) got them all to autograph a dollar bill, and they all started calling him "Dollar Boy". Anyway, they were pretty used to having little girls in baseball hats asking them to sign their glove, their hat, their shirt, whatever was handy. They were really nice most of the time. Those games were so much fun... sitting in the bleachers with all my best buds, screaming, "Run, Frankie, RUUUN!" and cheering, "Let's go Brakettes, let's go! *clap clap*", catching up on all the latest homeschool group gossip (which meant everything that had happened in the 24 hours since we saw each other last)... those were the days.
*sigh*
OK, I'm done reminiscing.
I've been into Poe lately. I got a book of his short stories at the NBTS potluck/book exchange, and I've been devouring them. Somehow I dragged Grace along with me. I've read Ligeia, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death (which I am convinced is where Gaston Leroux got the idea for the Phantom's costume at the masquerade), The Gold-Bug, The Cask of Amontillado, and the Tell-Tale Heart.
Ligeia- CREEEEEEEPY!
Pit and the Pendulum- I expected it to be scarier. I was waiting for the thrills up and down my spine, for the uncomfortable feeling in the middle of my back, for the goosebumps. They never came. The plot was scary; a man locked in a chamber, knowing he's going to die but not knowing how, and then having to watch the instrument of his death approach at an agonizingly slow rate, with no escape. But for some strange, unknown reason, it didn't scare me.
The Black Cat- Depressing and freaky.
The Masque of the Red Death- *shudder* AWESOME AND SCARY! Ohhhh... very scary, but so good. Explains the Phantom's costume at the masquerade. Which, of course, makes me like it even more, as it adds to the Phantom's creepiness.
The Gold-Bug- Not one of his scary stories, but a mystery. A pretty interesting one too.
The Cask of Amontillado- One word: evil. Liked this one.
The Tell-Tale Heart- I can't think of this without thinking of Pirates of the Carribean ("Where's the thump-thump?!?") which kinda ruins it for me. Scary though.

So that's what I've been reading lately. There are two more stories, The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Fall of the House of Usher. The Murders in the Rue Morgue is your classic murder mystery, actually considered as one of the first of it's kind and a model for such mysteries ever since. Looking forward to reading that one. No clue what the Fall of the House of Usher is about, which is all the better.

This week we're going to Port Aransas! We'll leave on Tuesday, come home on Thursday. It'll be so much fun! We haven't been there for a year. I miss the ocean. We might visit the Lexington too, an aircraft carrier at Corpus Christi that is open to the public, like the Intrepid in NY (which I went to once and it was so cool!). I'll post all about it when we get back!