Now I would like to relate the recent events and thoughts of my life coherently, in order and conjunction one with another, but such is impossible. I am unlike other bloggers in so far as I am incapable of presenting my thoughts, opinions and stories in a manner pleasing to the skilled writer. So, again, I am forced to let the random swirling thoughts in my head direct the flow of my post.
(writing like that is so much fun! it seems sort of dignified, in a certain Katie-is-trying-too-hard-to-sound-smart manner. it's deff the influence of my reading, since a lot of what I read was written at least 90 years ago. aren't I such a geeky, unsocialized, homeschooler. awesome.)
I finished the
Fall of the House of Usher. Maaaaaaajor creepiness! It was great.
If you look to the right of the screen, you will see on my fantastic sidebar that I'm reading
John Adams by James McCullough. I'm still on the first chapter (it's one of those books with super long chapters that are divided into parts). It's pretty good. More and more I find myself liking this guy, and more and more I find that I can relate to him. For example, it says he would constantly be making resolutions to study harder and daydream less, and break them. Me all over.
I'm almost finished with
Farewell to Manzanar. Pretty good book.
On Thursday I had a doctor's appointment at Christus Santa Rosa, which is the hospital downtown. So I got to spend the day at work with Dad. Sounds boring, right? Not so. I of course brought along plenty of schoolwork and got more done than I usually do at home. Really, how can the Persian and Greek wars be boring? Cool stuff, I tell ya. Besides, I like any chance I get to go downtown. I don't know why, but I love the city. Just overall, it's a really fun, cool place to be.
I met several people, of course, and saw two who I had already met. Mom was all worried because she thought Dad might give me a crummy lunch. FYI: Daddy is in the grocery business (his company helps stores with their store brand stuff. so he works with H-E-B, our local grocery store) and there are shelves in his office filled with the stuff he deals in. Mostly canned/jarred/dried veggies and fruit, and beans and rice too I think. Occasionally Dad will just eat some of that for his lunch. And while I love dried fruit as a snack, it wouldn't make much of a meal. But Mom's commanding Dad to feed me real food was needless. As it turned out, some of his workmates invited him to lunch at a very nice restaurant. It's a few doors down from the Majestic Theater, which is where all the big shows are. People eat dinner there before going to their show, which is what Mom and I did on the night we went to see Phantom. All the meals and such are named after musicals and composers. It's a fancier restaurant then I'm used to. When Mom and I went, I had NO CLUE what to order. A lot of it was seafood, something I'm not a big fan of. The waitress must have noticed my perplexity as I gazed, somewhat wide-eyed, at the menu. This, added to the fact that I probably looked like and 11-year-old (where height is concerned) must have made me look totally lost and inexperienced. Not that I wasn't, but we couldn't help being a little amused when the waitress kindly told me that if I wanted, they could make some spaghetti with regular marinara sauce on it. Eventually I ordered some lemon-chickeny-thing, which was very good. The waitress must have been surprised when I asked for tiramisu for desert.
So when I went with Dad, I planned on getting the same thing. It didn't hit me that the lunch menu would be different from the dinner menu. I was even more confused than the last time, and took an extra ten minutes to decide after everyone else had ordered. Then, when I DID decide, the waiter teased me by saying sorry, they couldn't make that salad that day. I totally believed him and replied with "umm, OK, can I have the tomato soup instead?" But no, he was teasing and I could have the salad. At least I wasn't the only one who believed him. Dad and (hopefully) a couple other people were also fooled.
When we left the office Dad expected me to bored out of my skull, for they were going to talk business. The business conversation wasn't boring, as I enjoy hearing about Dad's work and all the little pros and cons about working with H-E-B. Mostly cons, from what I hear. The conversations about Wii (yoga and karate), Guitar Hero, and Mary Kay were even less boring. Dad works with some pretty nice, fun people.
As for the doctor's appointment, it went well. I'm alive, healthy, and they had to take blood but I survived. They were very efficient about it, the blood I mean. I don't think I sat in the chair for more than 30 seconds. So the whole thing went off well.
The worldwide Twilight obsession is growing constantly, as you no doubt already know. Even my best friend has been lost to it. It happened with Harry Potter. It will pass... eventually. As for myself, I'm not terribly interested. It's not that I think it's creepy or anything. I know the storyline fairly well, from various sources, and I'm aware of the fact that it's not Dracula-level vampireness or anything. It's just not my thing. I've heard the books are good, but it doesn't seem like something I'd enjoy much. It's fine if other people do, of course. I'm just not going to go and buy all the books and go crazy about Edward, etc.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....
But I can't help wishing it weren't. Can't people at least wait until December? Really! And then the commercials, the sales, the constant pressure to BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY. I'm with Charlie Brown here. The materialism surrounding Christmas bugs me. Although it's great to give and receive presents, the most important gift is the one Jesus gave to us: Himself. We should be trying at this time of year to give what gifts we can to Him, and they can't be found in a Wal-Mart. Little deaths to ourselves, acts of charity, saying an extra prayer, you get the idea.
I love Christmas. Who doesn't? I love the lights, the songs, the old claymation movies, the overall feeling that something wonderful is going to happen/is happening. But that wonderful thing isn't the Guitar Hero game or the Blackberry phone that everyone wants in their stocking. It's the birth of Jesus, coming to us in all meekness and humility, in a stable, in a manger, surrounded by animals and his loving, saintly parents. It's the glorious gift of God's love, for which we can only give so much in return. For Advent this year I'm trying to get my parents to turn off the TV, except for movies (Gotta love Elf!).
Thanksgiving this year promises to be fun and delicious. Mom goes shopping tomorrow, and you can bet that as soon as everything is put away she'll start cooking. She plans to start with the pies. Pecan, pumpkin, apple, you name it. Cheesecake too. On Thursday our table will be groaning. It should be on a weight loss program, I think. Sitting in the middle at our Thanksgiving dinner. Passing stuff back and forth, back and forth, will be a workout. There'll be any number of delicious things to eat. Everybody says it about their own mother and I'll say it again; my mom is the best cook ever. I think I'll fast on Wednesday...
Our cousin Gabriel is in basic training at nearby Lackland Air Force Base. They have a program called "Operation Homecook" in which cadets can go to a friend's or family's house for Thanksgiving dinner and bring a friend. So we'll be hosting Gabriel and his friend Mark.
I should here say something nice about the meaning of Thanksgiving. I'll just say that we ought to be thankful for God's love, for the blessings He's given us, and that He even bothered to create us in the first place. I know I am.
Deo gratias. Thankful to our friends for being our friends, and thankful to our family for whatever. I should end the post here, on a nice, sentimental note, but I have one more thing to be thankful for.
Macy's! What would Thanksgiving be without the Macy's parade? *Mr. Green*
