A Yarny Recap: Where I Went & What I Did

Now where on Earth did I go for just over two weeks?  Somewhere without internet connection or the ability to socialize, apparently.  Ok, so that's not entirely true.  I actually stayed right where I'm sitting as I type this, at my desk, in my room, drinking tea and over caffeinating ( as usual ).  I may have also been consuming copious amounts of peanut butter.   Can neither confirm nor deny.

But I'm back now, and here to give you the recap of the past two weeks or so.  Let's a make a bullet list.  Yes, I think a bullet list will do nicely.

• I finished my Egypt mythology book!!!  Yes, isn't it exciting!  I even wrote an essay on it, albeit a very confused one because I was trying to cram all of the things I found interesting into a tiny little essay without turning it into a 500 page thesis or something.  Here's the opening paragraph.

"The waters of the Ancient Egyptian mind are murky and uncertain regions to traverse.  Even in today’s world of the internet and seemingly endless knowledge where we think we know it all, much of the Ancient Egyptian world and it’s thoughts still remain shrouded behind the curtain of the Nile, lost deep within it’s dark waters and muddied banks.  Plunderers, grave robbers, and even the Egyptian people themselves caused damaged that has lead to a deficit in our understanding of their ancient world.  But the biggest culprit?  Time.  It is the age of Egypt that bars our way most strongly, that has caused much of it’s old world to be, almost literally, lost to the sands of time."

Intriguing, yes?  Makes you want to read the whole essay, doesn't it?  Well trust me, you don't.  But please, continue to think that I am a master of the essay.  Some lies are ok to believe ( but only the little ones I give you, ok?   Don't go believing everything everybody tells you, because they don't have your best interests at heart like I do. ).

Back to the bullet list.

• My next culture to study?  The Irish!!!  I have to tell you that I'm super excited about this one too, possibly even more excited then I was about Egypt.  Though I am a little concerned about the size of this Irish book.  It's over 600 pages long.  Mildly concerned that it might crush me by accident.

• On the subject of books, I finished "A Gathering of Shadows" and I loved it!!!

• Oh, and "The Bell Jar"?  It was definitely one heck of a book.  I can't say too much without running the story for you ( and I HATE that ), so just go read it.  Like, right about now.

• I have a new plant.  What does this mean, you wonder?  Well my Johny-Jump-Up died, sadly.  The one I had sitting in a little glass container on my windowsill.  It was't going to last forever, and after it seeded, it was gone.  But I have now planted some of my very own bachelor's buttons in the glass container, and they are doing great!  I am questioning that decision now though, because they are a tall plant.  A very tall plant.  In a little container.  On my windowsill.  But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

• I drew this little guy!  How cute is he?!  I just love him.  My little bitty ghost, looking a bit unsure of things, probably slightly concerned with the sanity of the person who drew him ( at least I would be, if I were him, and, you know, if he were actually alive but shhh ).

• Oh and this.  I drew this.  I'm just gonna' leave it right there.

• Yoga has become a regular ( -ish ) part of my weeks and it has done me a ton of good.  I basically do hours of walking and lifting heavy things where I work and I have to admit that I am a small person, so this does not exactly make my little back feel good.  But yoga does.  It also helps me relax, because I get kind of stressed about time a lot.  Turns out, I'm not actually as flexible as I thought I was!  But that's getting better too.  I haven't managed to rip anything important yet so I'm counting that as a win.

• I have also a) been continuing with my editing b) been super busy with school and work and responsibility ( ick ) which is the main reason I disappeared into the unknowable void that is my room and c) been working on starting a new book focused blog but never fear!  I have plans to move to Wordpress ( shhh, don't tell Google ) and I believe I can have multiple sections, so to speak, under one blag name, which means the main part of my blog will be for books, and on the side I can still do some journal blogging just like I do here.  I'll keep you posted on this. Like, literally posted.  Because that's what these are, you know.  Blog posts.  Anyways.

So now I'm back ( for now ) and I will stay back ( for now ) so don't worry!  You don't have to miss me anymore!  I certainly missed all of you and missed writing a blog post or two here and there but boy, was I super busy ( also, I might have spent some time just lying on my bed stressing about how busy I was but you know ).  I think I have my act together now ( at least slightly more together then it was before ) so all there is to do is continue pressing forward!

Em

My Favorite Book?

So I took this silly little internet quiz just the other day saying that it could guess what my favorite book is.  Normally I ignore these sorts of things, but I was bored, had nothing better to do, and it was really the only thing left on my Pinterest feed that I hadn't looked at yet.  So I took it.

The result I got was a book that I had never actually heard of before.  "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath.  I was intrigued.  How was it that I had never heard of this book before, yet the quiz said it was my favorite book?

( Now the obvious answer to this is the fact that it is a silly little internet quiz that doesn't know me at all and has only a limited number of books to chose from based off of the choices of whoever made the quiz, and all paths are predetermined by the small number of questions there are, of which were also chosen by the person who made the quiz, who we can assume is not in fact a psychologist or a master at 20 Questions. )

I decided to check the book out from my library and read it for myself, to see if it really did turn out to be my Favorite book, or at least one of my favorite books.  I have lots of favorites, you see, but there is only one Favorite.

Now you'll have to wait to find out if it ends up being one of my favorite books, because I haven't actually started reading it yet.   I know, I know, but you can't be too mad at me.  I was busy reading my first Egypt book ( which I've finished now ) for my myths and legends study, and I had some important catching up to do on "A Darker Shade of Magic" by V. E. Schwab that I sadly had not gotten around to reading yet until this week, even though it's been out for over a year ( don't worry, I won't take so long to read the second one ).

Sylvia Plath, though, is a name that I have heard before, even if I've never read any of her work.  She was a poet in the 1900's, who tragically committed suicide in 1963 at the age of 30.  After divorcing her husband and moving to London with her two children, she had some issues getting this book published.  But it finally was, just a few weeks before her death, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, though everyone in London knew she was the real author.

"The Bell Jar" is an American classic about a woman descending into a mental breakdown, and I can't wait to read it.  There's something about mental health stories that I can't seem to get enough of.  Sylvia's story makes me want to read it even more, because of how the plot of the story ( at first glance ) appears to be an insight as to what happened to her, in her mind.  It is said that her first suicide attempt is chronicled in the summer mentioned in this book.

So now I read, and maybe you will, too.  I think it's important, in a way, to try to understand what it's like for people who are hurt in this way, so that maybe one day there will be a better chance of helping them to save themselves.

Em

Myths and Legends: a Study

Ok, so I've been a bit off my game this past week.  You might not have noticed this from the other two posts that I did on Sunday and Thursday, but guess what?  That's because I  didn't actually write them this week.  I know, can you believe it?  I wrote them last Saturday, and then set them to post this week.  Perhaps I should not be giving this secret out, but I tend to break all the rules anyways so oh well.

On Monday I actually woke up thinking that it was Thursday for some reason.  I almost walked out of the house before 8 in the morning thinking I had to be somewhere when really I didn't because it was not in fact Thursday yet.  I spent one super late night this week being almost overwhelmed by a somewhat threatening swarm of small children soaking me with plastic fish for three hours.  Just this afternoon I randomly started drinking from a molasses bottle because I wanted to see what it tasted like instead of just maybe dipping my pinky or something in it like a normal person would ( it was super sweet and kind of sickly tasting all by itself, if you were wondering ).

So yeah, just a bit off my game.

But amongst all this off-ness there has been one thing that I've been enjoying immensely.

My study of myths and legends from around the world.

I have taken it upon myself to do a nine month study of nine different cultures that I chose for myself based on how curious I am about them.  They are Rome, India, Japan, Iceland, Egypt, Russia, England, the Celts, and the Vikings.  How exciting does this sound?!

It's not anything professional or a collage course or something.  It's just me being curious and wanting to know more about the old stories that have always fascinated me.  I spent a few months collecting books from used book stores and even antique stores that contained collections of myths from the cultures and peoples I wanted to learn about.  I also picked up at least one history book on each of the cultures as well, because the more I thought I about it, the more I wanted to learn about the people who actually came up with these stories as well as the stories themselves.

So now I shall read.  And read, and read.  I take notes, mark pages with stickies ( but never dog ear ), compare information, etc., and when I've finished with one culture, I'm going to take the opportunity to practice writing reports and essays ( just for me ) on the information I have found for myself.

I gotta tell you, I am so super excited for this.

You might be thinking, "Ehh, what a nerd.", but hey!  At least I'm a happy one!  Or perhaps you are reading this and are now thinking, "Hey, that sounds like fun.  I am suddenly inspired to learn more about something I love, too!!!"  If that's the case, then go you!  You definitely should go do some learning, because guess what?  You are actually never too old to learn something new.  And who said you can't teach yourself?  I mean really, the only teachers I've ever had are my parents and myself, and look how great I turned out.  I have my life so together.

( You might wanna ignore paragraphs 1-3 and then that last statement will be much easier to believe. )

I'm studying Egypt right now, staring with the myths before the history book.  One thing that I'm realizing though is that there is actually a lot of history you find inside the myths that people used to tell.  How they thought, how they acted, what rituals were present in their day to day life because of these beliefs that they had.  It's all been very fascinating to read, and I only starting doing this last week.  I still have nine more months of all this wonderful learning to go.  It's just, well, wonderful!

Now I know this going to be consuming quite a good bit of my free time, but don't worry!  I will not stop posting on my blog, because I know that you would just be absolutely devastated if I didn't post a few times a week.  I will not neglect you.  You don't have to miss me any more than you already do on the those few days when I don't post already.

So here is to reading, learning, and being self-taught.  May these three things never be stopped!

Em

( Oh and here are the molasses cookies my mom made with the very same molasses I was drinking earlier.  They taste great. )

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Switching Up the Shevles

How do you organize your books on your shelves?

It's a big question.  A truly life altering decision.  Your books are, after all, some your closest friends and companions.  How should they be placed upon your shelves?  By author?  By title?  By series?  By date published or date acquired?

The decision becomes even harder to make when you have limited shelf space, and you have other items besides your books that need to be stored on your shelves.  Sometimes, you just can't decide how you should do it.  Or maybe you do, for a little while, only to decide a few weeks or a few months later that you want to take everything off and rearrange it all again.

I happen to be one of those people.  If I had more shelves to keep everything on in the exact order that I want them in, I might not be so prone to changing things all the time.  I mostly have to go with wherever I can get all of them to fit and be happy with that.

Every now and then I'll try something new.  This time it was organize by color ( for the most part ).  I even took a few of my nicknacks and placed them in front of their corresponding color, which I found very pleasing for some reason.  Some of the results are shown below.

The most enjoyable part in all this was when had all the different colored stacks sitting tall on my floor.  They looked so beautiful!  And they still do, even after being put on the shelves.  I love how it looks.  Color is a very important part of my life.  It comforts me, makes me happy, and can even be a source of inspiration when I write.  So to have all my book colors looking so nice is wonderful.

For the most part, anyways.  The trouble I have run into with this set up is that I don't have the perfect shelving system of my dreams.  So when I went from having everything stacked sideways and upright and on top and however else to use up every single bit of space I could, to having all my books laying normally so that the colors would look their best, I ran out of room for a good portion of my books.

This, despite however nice most of my books look now, is making me a bit upset.  Yet I don't want to get rid of my nice colors quite yet.  The time I spent working on this was not total loss, though, as I actually quite enjoy rearranging my things every now and then.  There are certain arrangements that I like best and that work best for me, but sometimes it's fun to switch it up for a while just for the heck of it.

So in the end, I love the sorting by color style.  It is, in my opinion, one of the best looking ways to have your books done up on your shelves.  I'll keep them like this for a few weeks, maybe, but then it'll all have to go back to wherever I can get it all to fit, so that the poor books I had to take off my shelves can find their way back on ( and I can put my series back together ).

There is something sort of enduring about seeing books stacked in all directions.  Having to go searching through your shelves to see where a particular book you're looking for is.  Filling in all the empty space till the wall behind them is no longer visible.  Having so many books that you have no choice but to use this method.  No matter how many other ways of shelving fail you, or how many times they update the Dewey Decimal System ( if you're crazy enough to use it at home ( which I might be ) ), you can always revert back to this method.  It will never fail you, and honestly, it will always look good.

Though really, won't books always look good anyways?  I think so.

Em

Calligraphy, Someday

So once again, my local library ends up being totally and completely awesome.

There is this one very special corner by the front doors that has books for sale all the time.  You can stroll over, find what you want, and drop the required payment into a wooden box before strolling out with more books you obviously need despite not actually having room for them anymore.

There's not always something good over there ( it's mostly beat up romance paperbacks and unwanted children's books ), because the stock for it comes strictly from donations made to the library.  But every now and then you find something that's pretty neat.  Or, in this case, really neat.

"The Complete Calligraphy Set" was standing suggestively on the bottom shelf when I turned, just about to leave the library, to see it staring at me.

"Come," it said to me.  "You KNOW you want to take me home."

"I do?" I wondered.  And then, "Yes.  Yes I DO want to take you home."

But did I have enough cash to take it home?  Or was money going to come between us?

The little yellow sticker on the top of it said it was only $6.  So no, thank goodness, money was not going to come between us.

Thus it now stands along side my other meager calligraphy items, slowly preparing me for the day when I will actually sit down and teach myself calligraphy.  It has been a dream of mine since last summer, when I checked out no less than 10 calligraphy books to do just that, but sadly, Life came in and slapped me back to reality.

I did not have enough time, you see, to sit for hours and hours to properly be able to learn calligraphy, nor do I really have the time right now, not with everything else I'm trying to do all at once.  One day, when I finish with the 12 dozen other things I having going on right now, I'll do it.

( Though I'll have to go get some more ink first, as the little bottle my set came with, is all used up. )

And when I do, you can guess how absolutely fabulous this blog is going to look.

Em

Bibliophile Book Sale Spree

I got 41 books for $8 over the weekend.

Don't believe me?

Here's how it happened.

My library had it's spring book sale on Friday and Saturday.  It's always super cheap.  50 cents for a paperback, $1 for a hardback, or $7 for however many books you can fit into a plastic grocery bag.  If you buy more than one bag, you get a dollar off for every bag you buy, down the lowest price of $4 a bag.  They also have super rare and old books, but they are sold separately for $3 a book, and are not included in the bag price.

My sister and I went to this sale.  Together we got 3 bags; one for me, two for her.  That meant each bag only cost $5 instead of $7.  I fit 18 books into my bag.  And I thought that was the end of it.

But then on the second day of the sale, I noticed that during the final hour of the sale, everything was listed as half off, including the old, rarer books.  With spare change included, I had $6 of pocket money left.  So I went back to the book sale to get myself 4 old books to add to my collection.

Turns out, the ladies running the book sale had dropped the price even lower than what they originally said.  It was now only $1 a bag, and the old books were now included in the bag price instead of being sold separately!  So that's when 4 more books turned into 1 more bag.

Then, as I was browsing, one of the ladies came up to me, super excited to see a younger person interested in books, and began to help me put books into my bag.  When that one filled up, she got me another one, and then one more.  And that's when 1 more bag turned into 3 more bags.  3 bags that I only paid $3 for.

So both days combined, I only spent $8 for 4 bags of books.  And in those 4 bags, I managed to fit 41 books.

Shall I go through what they all are, or would that be too long and boring for you?

You know what, I'm so excited that I'm going to do it anyways, just in case you can't read all the spine labels.  So let's go top to bottom in the pictures.  Please forgive me.

To start with, my wonderful, super heavy dictionary set from 1927.  These puppies hold the real english language in it if you ask me.  There are so many old words that don't make it into today's dictionarys, and there's no twerking or selfie nonsense to be had.  These dictionarys have style, from back when the English language had class.  And as a bonus, there's a built in Thesaurus, a proper name dictionary for looking up famous people of history and myth, and a cities and countries dictionary in the back of the second volume.

"The Beacon Lights of History" set.  I have volumes 1, 3, 8, 10, and 14.  I don't how many there are all together or where I could ever find the others, but these are still gems.  Inside of one of them was a newspaper clipping from 1899.  Can you believe it?  I got to read how the stocks and weather were that day in November over a century ago!  How cool is that?

Then there's "Twelve Way to Build a Better Vocabulary".  "Cathcart's Literary Reader" and "History of English Literature" are for studying all the famous written works without having to actually read them.  "Great Adventures and Explorations" are about the old explorers.  The last book in that picture is, "The Art of Clear Thinking".

"The Elegant Auctioneers", I'm not even sure what's it's about.  But it's stamped on the inside, saying it came from a New York hospital library.  "Paradise Lost and Other Poems", "A Tale of Two Cities", and "Bleak House".  I'm pretty sure "Pearls From Many Seas" is a work of fiction, but the first few pages are so dry that they're cracking, so I haven't looked further.

"Stories to Remember", "Hurlbut's Story of the Bible", "The Possessed" ( translated from Russian; should be fun to read ), "Life's Extras" ( something uplifting and inspiring ), and "Silver Wings", which is a collection of addresses to children, about life, I'm assuming.

I also have a copy of The Constitution ( and apparently California's, too ),"The Unheavenly City", about the future of our urban areas, Red Cross guides to home nursing and first aid, "Ex Libris", a book about books that is one of my all time favorite books, "The Day is Dancing", an old elementary school book of poems, "The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes", and "The Pearl / The Red Pony" all wrapped up in one.

"Essays Literary and Critical by Matthew Arnold", "The Old Yellow Book", Le Morte D'arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory Volume 2", "The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson by Robert Southly", and "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush".  I'm going to be honest.  I have no idea what those ones are about beyond what their titles say.  And then there's my first little Bible.  It's illustrated, too, and super cute!

That one with the face on it is called "Evangeline", and I don't know what it is.  "Don't" is a manners book written by an American in 1880, then re-published in England in from 1986-1998.  "Sunshine and Smiles" is a collection of sermons and biographical stories.

"Austen Country" is all about, you guessed it!  Jane Austen and the region she lived in.  That book on top of it is an old school book from one of the county school's from the early 1900's.  It's falling to pieces, and it makes me so sad to see it.  I want to restore it one day, if it's possible.

So there's all of them!  Some where signed, one had a sticker from a book store in Canada, and one had a whole list of previous owners starting back in the year 1895!  That's what I love most about these old books, and what makes me sad about them.  The last imprint of people's lives are left in some of these books, and then these books are just left to crumble and be ruined.  So many stories lost, not just in the pages, but of the people who once held them.  I wish there was a way to get all those stories back.

For now all I can do is seek out and hold dear as many of these books as I can find.  I hope that there are many, many people who feel the same way about them as I do, so that more of them can be saved.

You see to me a book isn't just a book.  When some really cares about writing, they put their soul down onto those pages.  It becomes a piece of them.  Long after you die, what you write might just be in the hands of a reader somewhere, and that person will hear your thoughts, will be reading a little piece of your soul, so that while those pages are still being turned, it's almost as if you never truly died at all.

That little piece of you will live on, and as long as it exists, so do you.  If you destroy a book, you are, in a way, killing the person who wrote it.  Because as soon as all their works are gone, so too is their last memory.  Nothing can last forever, but I will work to keep these stories, and these people, alive for as long as possible.

I think all writers are a bit afraid of being lost to the sands of time.  The thought that as soon as they are gone, so too are all their thoughts and memories.  I believe that is at the heart of why we write.  A book, in my opinion, is the closest thing humans can get to immortality, at least for a while.

It's comforting to me, at least, to think that one day after I'm gone, someone might still be reading my books, knowing that there was once a time when I existed.

Em

Purple and Mint Green, and a Suitcase to Clean

This week started off with my new laptop case and keyboard cover arriving in the mail.  It's the first one I've bought for my precious computer, and I was all too excited for it.  I was hugely disappointed though, to open the envelope and find one corner of the case cracked.  The company from which I ordered from was happy to send me another one free to replace it, and so a few more days wait brought me my beautiful case and cover, both a minty green and just perfect.

In the middle of the week my family and I went to a neighboring town to go old bookstore and antique shop hopping.  To be honest, one of the only times I like to go the stores are when they're stores like that.  I walked out with an armful of books I don't have room for ( I've started putting books on top of my bookshelves because there's no more room on them anymore ), and my father walked out with a 24 volume set of 'Books of Knowledge' from the late 1800's when he had only been looking for one.  So basically it was a normal trip for us.

Then I found something I never knew I wanted in an antique store.  "What is that old, dirty green suitcase?" you might have been wondering scrolling through the pictures.  Well, for $10 it's my old, dirty green suitcase, and upon opening it I saw how much DIY and TLC it needed, but it came with it's key and is still more than sturdy enough to actually travel with, and I love it.  I'm a junkie for old things, you see.

All it's pockets and straps on the inside are still just fine, but the fabric lining the inside of the case was no longer attached to the case, and so needed to be taken out.  Underneath it I found lot of orange dust.  I first thought it was rust, assuming the suitcase was metal covered with hard plastic on the outside.  Turns out, it wasn't.  As I scrubbed and scrubbed away, I found only plastic underneath it all, and if there's no metal, then there can't be rust.  As my scrubbing turned sticky, I realized it was the remains of the foam that must have padded the inside of the case once and the glue that held it in place.  A couple of cans of elbow grease later and I was able to get it all off, leaving the inside of my case as clean as can be.

The outside got a wipe down too, the pockets and straps reenforced and fray-checked, and so the only thing left to do is get more fabric to line the inside.  I don't have to, as the suitcase is fully functional as it is, but it sure would make it look pretty again.  An excursion is planed to the fabric shop tomorrow to look for just the right fabric needed.

Aside from all that I've been working on a couple of sewing projects, one for me, one for my sister.  The one for me is... something.  The pattern calls it a kimono jacket, but I'm not so sure.  I'm no expert on kimonos, but last time I looked that's not what kimonos look like.  Anyways, it's almost finished.  In fact, it would be finished, except I forgot that my sister's birthday is this weekend.  Not that I forgot when her birthday is.  I just didn't realize it was already the middle of the month.

That is where the second sewing project comes in.  A patchwork tote bag, very similar to one I made myself years ago that she always wanted to try and take from me.  Now don't worry, she doesn't read my blog, so unless you tell her something, she won't know it's for her.  It will ( hopefully ) be something she likes, and also stop her trying to steal my things.  So two birds with one stone.

I need to get to sewing though.  As you can see, I've not gotten too far past the cutting stage, and I only have a day or two to finish it.  And just in case you were wondering, I did stick my fingers in a couple of the photos just to show them off.  I haven't done my nails in over a year, no joke, and felt the need to have my purple polkadot artwork seen.  Plus purple goes really well with mint green.  My two favorite colors.

Em

55,000 Words and One Hat Latter...

    National Craft Month didn't see any of my UFO's finished like I had thought, but I did manage to pull off a few crafty things of the material sort before March took an expected turn.

    Another hat for another friend.  That makes 2 out of 5 finished.  It's a wonder I managed not to lose it amongst the chaos that was sitting on my desk at the time.  Then, from the madness, a dreamcatcher sprang.  It was a spontaneous and random decision to make it, and I enjoyed it all the more because of that.  It was the first time I've worked with lace weight crochet thread, and it wasn't at all frustrating like I thought it would be.  I got to dig into my jar of vintage buttons from an antique store to decorate it, and after having it sit on my desk for 3 weeks, I finally hung it a few days ago ( on the wall, not my drawers ).  I started a rag rug made from all the scraps of my other sewing projects, braiding them together and then hand stitching them into a coil.  It's still in progress, normally only worked during late night TV shows, but it'll get there one day.

    And that's about where my crafty-ness ended for National Craft Month.  At least, as far as fabric and yarn are concerned.  Writing, on the other hand, well, I still can't believe I did what I did.  I might have just kicked out more writing in March then I did last November.  Certainly more then I did in January and February this year combined.  To give you a bit of a visual, let's look at my calendar.  I use those colored yard sale dots to keep track of when I write and how much I write.  Different colors mean different things, ect. ect., but I won't bother you with all my nonsense on that.

So here we have January... 

February...

and then March.

I did the math.  I averaged at about 55,000 words in those last 3 weeks or so of March.

    Now, what on Earth was I doing? you might ask.  Well, I finally shook myself up and got all 28 rough drafts for my children's short stories that I would like to publish one day typed up onto my computer.  I wrote 5 new ones, and all the others I had to copy over.  I originally hand wrote all of them, you see, and it took a lot more time than I thought to get them into digital form.  But I did it.  As a matter of fact, aside from my job, this crazy new running habit I've gotten into, and Learn Storm 2016 ( which I could brag about because after 9 weeks of competitive math I think I might have earned it ), working on those stories was about all I did.  I didn't have time to do anymore crafts, play any Fallout, or, sadly, read.  But it was all worth it in the end.  I completed my goal, I completed Learn Storm, and now it's time for the next challenge.

The editing.

But first, some reading.  Did you see that big stack of books on top of my drawers, back up in the dreamcatcher picture?  That's right people, all 12 of the 'How To Train Your Dragon' books.  It's time to drink iced tea and kick my feet up outside.  'Cause I'm gonna be here a while.

Em