Another looooong post

I think I left off on Wednesday, the next couple of days after that are pretty "short" and then leave off with today: Sunday.

In the morning we woke up pretty early, the people we were staying with were very busy with work, they have a shop on their property that they work out of and Mr. HR had to get up and work early and Mrs. HR gets up with him. I'm a pretty light sleeper so as soon as there was any kind of bustle I was awake (before they came down into the room) but I stayed in bed for a bit so I could get some more rest, knowing I would have to drive about four and a half hours back home later that day. We played a few games and I showed her my magazines that Mr. Y had given me. It's nice to be able to share them with someone else who appreciates them as much as I do! She oo-ed and ah-ed over them and had me take a couple of pictures of them for her, which I'll send to her as soon as I'm back to my regular high speed Internet.

We played Mario Kart together (with our wireless systems) and had a lot of fun. She thinks that we are very good racers but I have to say that she DID beat my youngest brother FAIR AND SQUARE on Mario Kart: Double Dash. We all wrote an e-mail to a friend who was in California, letting her know that we had seen the movie, some basic impressions and just generally "hello." The time went all too quickly, she fed us very well and after lunch we really had to get going. I didn't want to get home too late, so we said our good-byes and headed on out. It was a most enjoyable time and I was very thankful that we were able to get the chance to visit.

On the drive home we sang a couple of songs and then my brother lamented the fact that he didn't have a voice of his own, whenever he sings he always is mimicking the voice of whoever the person was who sang that song, and I had to agree because I feel much the same way! When I sing "Chivalrous Shark" it's in a Michael Strange voice, when I sing "King of the Road" it's more in a hobo sounding voice, when "Puff the Magic Dragon" it's in a voice like Peter or Paul, and when singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" it's in a high-pitched falsetto..... but I guess that's understandable. The song would NOT be the same without that. But I guess after doing voices for a long time and trying to mimic other people, it's hard to have a voice that is one's own. I mean, I can deepen and make it sound more operatic, or go flatter, softer, etc. all fairly easily. Perhaps they all don't sound fantastic, but it's hard to say that I have one voice that is my own, even the voice that I have when speaking to others doesn't sound (to me) like a normal one, it seems more "whispery" or something. I guess it's all fine but just an interesting subject to speak about.

On the drive home (which is pretty long and non-interesting for the most part) there was a car that I was coming up on. I could see a girl driving and another girl in the passenger seat so I leaned back and said "watch out for this car boys, whenever you see two girls in a car you have to be extra careful." She was of course spending most of the time looking over and chatting away happily with her passenger and going slower than the speed limit so I passed her and pulled over to the right lane after getting a short distance ahead.

About a few minutes later, she comes zooming past me and then goes into the right lane where after a few minutes, her speed once again starts dropping. I glance down at my speedometer, I'm going right at 70mph and I've had the cruise control on the entire time so I know it isn't ME that is fluctuating here. I had no alternative but to go into the left lane again. Apparently the girl noticed me this time because she glanced over (or so I was told, I was staring straight ahead, I didn't want to be nosy or anything) and then, before I went back to the right lane, she zoomed ahead of us and blew a kiss in our direction (the passenger side).

My brother sat there in shock, mumbling "she blew us a kiss" in a stunned voice every few minutes for the next half hour, I muttered something about crazy girls and just kept driving. It was kind of funny I suppose but I was NOT going to play at their game, whatever it was. It just seemed weird for a carload of girls (it turned out there was four in there, goodness gracious) to be doing something like that but then again..... it WAS a carload of girls and you should always be be careful about those!

After a bit we arrived back home, there really wasn't a whole lot else that happened on the trip. Oh, aside from stopping at a Walmart to pick up a couple of games for the boys. There was only two copies and I really wanted the game to (to play over the break) and actually got it for myself but in the car, well, I was driving and my younger brother just sitting in the back and I knew that I would want to play it in the car if I had it so I let him take that copy. I'm just letting you know LES that I actually did have a copy for a very short time but I never opened it, I still don't have one yet. LES has been wanting me to get the game so we can play online and visit eachother's towns when I get back to school. Sometime soon I hope.



Thursday and Friday

I'm just going to lump these two days together because they are essentially the same, I did pretty much the same thing both days, and that is that I cleaned up things that were in the camper and things I'd brought in and tried to prepare things for next semester. Being home again is a bit odd because I'm not sure where to put a lot of stuff, generally it gets stacked up on top of my dresser. In BIG piles. I still haven't gotten used to where everything is in this house, I find myself looking around for washcloths or the hotpads, and wondering where I should put such and such in my room. I've still got so many books in boxes but most of my favourite ones are out, my boys' series that I've been gathering for years. Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, etc. Lots of good boys books that I rarely look at any more but have read to my siblings. I think I'll hang onto them for a while, I may want them in the future.

So that was pretty much it for those two days, just eat, sleep, read a little (very little) and clean up and organize. Not very interesting stuff so I'll bore you with them no further.


Saturday

Now this was an interesting day, I was in my parent's office on the comptuer when a package arrived for me. I was surprised because I didn't remember what it was, I'll often do that, order something and then forget about it until it arrives, I guess I'm not the impatient type...
Actually there were two packages, one of them was another of my textbooks for the coming semester, the other package was.... Charlie Horse! I'd been thinking about getting my own puppet for a long time since I've dabbled in ventriloquism and really just enjoyed puppets for as long as I can remember, yet I've never had one. So I looked around on Ebay and found one that I liked, he was cheap (about $5 including shipping and handling) and so I bought him. We've been getting to know eachother for the past couple of days, he has barely left my side!

Actually it is rather nice to have an actual character now to take on the personalities that I'm making all the time. Charlie is actually rather expressive and very cute. He's also more clever than he looks, and he looks adorable in my opinion.

It's amazing how he really started developing his own personality though, I'll be sitting reading a book and he'll be glancing around, periodically (with a bored look) check out what I'm reading. I don't pay him any attention though, just keep on reading. Then he glances backward to see what everyone is doing in the kitchen and give a big yawn and ask if he can go elswhere and play. It's almost as though my hand isn't moving though, he'll just do things on his own and it's really quite interesting! Oh! He's been showing me his "Aslan" imitation (from the old movies) and I think it's quite good, he's not very good at imitating voices of course, but he mimics the mouth movements beautifully!

My father thinks it hilarious to see a 20-year old playing with a puppet (and loving it). Well I like Charlie a lot and he's just what I need to keep me company in my camper while I'm away at school. He's already learning about a lot of new stuff, such as Linux and other computer things. He led a sheltered life before he came to live with me I think ;)

His favourite movies are westerns because they have lots of horses in them! He had a shocking habit though when he first arrived. He began dancing to the country music that was playing! I had to explain to him that country music was NOT good music and he really should refine his tastes more. I don't blame him though, he doesn't know any better.

That evening we sang a few Christmas songs and then read Luke chapter 1 and played Scattergories. I did terrible on round 2 and 3. I just couldn't think of anything for some reason until after the buzzer had gone off. Perhaps that's my problem, being used to quiet while I think and study and then to play games where I'm trying to concentrate and the buzzer is grinding away etc. I don't know, but I should have done better :)


SUNDAY

And that brings me to today and then I'm all caught up! Hurrah! Mom didn't know that Charlie was coming to stay with us so she get a stocking for him, but he didn't mind too much, I won't let him eat any candy because I've heard it might be bad for horses. He did gnaw on a piece of grass yesterday but didn't care for it too much. We all opened our stockings and then went to church. The service was said to be a "multi-sensory, multimedia experience" and some points were good but for the most part I was disappointed and missing my second family back up in Stillwater and wishing I could be in church that Sunday. It lasted for an hour, three people said "hi" to me and then we left. I didn't see many people I knew though and the place was packed and they had a second service coming up right afterwards.

We picked up my grandma from the care center she is living at. It's actually an assisted living facility, she has alzheimers and isn't doing to well sometimes. She has never wanted to be out here and keeps insisting we take her back (she can get onery). It's really sad to see her like that at times, we were never very close to her but still, she is my grandma. As she was leaving my mom told her "Merry Christmas" and she said "Oh yes, my goodness, it will be upon us quick, only a few days won't it?" Her memory has failed very quickly it seems.

I believe that if one keeps active in their later years by learning new things, or continuing to exercise their mind, that they will have a much less chance of developing alzheimers or dementia and will be able to survive much better. I hope I never go through it but then again, I love learning and am constantly trying new things out (I hope I do that all my life) whereas my grandma would just watch TV all day, every day and not do anything else. She was set in her ways and didn't want any new-fangled stuff to mess up her life. She wouldn't read or play games or go to the social club etc. so in a way I feel like she has brought it upon herself and yet I of course still feel sad for her. I am almost certain she is not a believer as well, there has been no fruits in her life ever.

We opened presents and had a nice lunch (with sweet potatoes and scalloped potatoes!) and we also watched a movie I had bought recently, quite a famous movie too! It's called Casablanca and my brother and I watched it a few nights ago and really liked it, so I watched it again with the family. During the movie I was worried that the situation would get icky but it turned out very well and I think it's one of my favourite movies I've seen. Lots of little subtle things to watch out for and quite humourous at times as well. I wish they made movies like that still, that were essentially clean and were clever and funny at times without being stupid like the new Steve Martin movies, I don't even want to hear about them.

By the way, while I am on the subject of movies, I'm sure everyone checks out movies before they think of going to them, but I've heard (from LES) about a movie I believe is called "Broke Back Ridge" that is supposed to be coming out in theatres. DO NOT SEE IT. It is disgusting, promoting a way of life that is sinful. And hollywood says this is one of the best things ever and it's about time something like this came out and it's supposed to win academy awards etc. I can hardly believe it's come to this, it makes me really appreciate the old days and how it was good, and clean. The cowboys I remember are Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger, and Hopalong Cassidy, not these horrid cowboys they are making in this new movie. I can't even speak about them further.

Charlie Horse would like to say goodnight:

gudnite evreebudie!

We may need to work on his spelling but I think he's doing quite well considering he's only been with me a day. At least he doesn't say things like "u rock" and such ;) I jest!