Thanksgiving and a Grimm trip to the druggist.

Dear everyone,

I'm late!!!!! :(

I just got back from seeing Puss in Boots with Amy and Dennis! It was very funny. I also saw Happy Feet 2 with them, and that was fun as well. In fact I've been having loads of fun with Amy and Dennis. They've got the perfect sized house, and go out to do things more often than Garfield eats lasagna. I kid you not. We've gone to the movies, to stores, to other peoples' houses, to breakfast, lunch, dinner, a hockey game... lots! Plus Thanksgiving... of course!

On Friday I was awake until three o'clock in the morning. Then, I was woken up at five thirty and hastily hurried with my packed suitcase to the bus. We left promptly, having been told we were the first ones who had ever left so early and on time. For some strange reason, I didn't sleep on the bus but listened to lots of Beatles music on the way down the hill. Upon reaching my aunt and uncle's house, I fell into bed and snoozed for a long, long time. My sleep schedule was slightly tampered with now, but that was okay. At least I'm alive to tell the tale! :)

Eight days of Amy and Dennis. That's all it took, and I'm sick of them! Haha, just kidding. As I mentioned earlier, we've had loads of fun together. Early in the week we learned that there was to be rain... RAIN... on Thanksgiving, and that was a big no-no. I did say their house was the perfect size, but not for fourteen people. The grassy backyard is more fit for a Thanksgiving meal. Unfortunately we had to postpone Thanksgiving and thank God that our plans were ruined. Then, as it turned out, the rest of the week was sunny with a dash of chill. The clouds did not feel sad enough to tear up in the sky this week. That's good of course but I think they were laughing at us from up there, wherever THEY are.

Amy and I went clothes shopping (before Black Friday, so no trampling occurred), and purchased several new pieces of habiliment for me! Habiliment is clothing-- learned that from Edgar Allan Poe. He was one of the guest writers, and his reading was quite lovely. The guy wrote a LOT of poetry but he did have fiction pieces in there as well. I enjoyed meeting him... but I don't know, he seemed a bit depressed. His face was gray like an old movie or something.

The other day Dennis asked me if I wanted to walk to the drug store. I shrugged and tagged along for the fifteen minute walk. We passed Barnes and Nobles on the way there, and somehow I ended up in that store. Later Dennis found me reading a book and suddenly it was mine-- Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales. I ended up reading the shortest story I could find to my uncle:

"Once in the wintertime when the snow was very deep, a poor boy had to go out and fetch wood on a sled. After he had gathered it together and loaded it, he did not want to go straight home, because he was so frozen, but instead to make a fire and warm himself a little first. So he scraped the snow away, and while he was thus clearing the ground he found a small golden key. Now he believed that where there was a key, there must also be a lock, so he dug in the ground and found a little iron chest. "If only the key fits!" he thought. "Certainly there are valuable things in the chest." He looked, but there was no keyhole. Finally he found one, but so small that it could scarcely be seen. He tried the key, and fortunately it fitted. Then he turned it once, and now we must wait until he has finished unlocking it and has opened the lid. Then we shall find out what kind of wonderful things there were in the little chest."

A less-than-two-hundred-word charm. It was insanely uneventful, as you can see. But the other stories are delightful! Haha. You know, all about death and whatnot. :)

I'm going to write more about what's been happening soon, so please bear with me! I hope to be able to do so. I've been having a really hard time lately trying to write things that aren't fictional. Being at school again should unquestionably help with that.

Thanks for reading! Hope you had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!

Love,

Callie

Thanksgiving prep

Dear everyone,

It’s almost time for Thanksgiving, but unfortunately I still have to write a blog next week. Not that I hate doing it, just that there won’t be much to say, will there?

Andrew handed back our detective stories today. I would post mine, but I only got a 97% grade on it, so I do have to fix up a bit. Has to be at least 99.99% to be worth reading at all. Plus, that longass story could put a ghost to sleep (because, you know, ghosts don’t sleep). No, actually, I’m quite proud of it, but I’ve been told that a few of the things I’ve inserted aren’t 19th-century-ish. If you couldn’t tell, I’m not really 19th-century-ish myself. Short. Cropped. Sentences. Were. Not. Considered. Good. Grammar.

That paragraph rewritten in Victorian language (from what I know): 

This very day I have received feedback from Master Andrew concerning my detective narrative. I would love to share it with you dear reader, however I did not earn sufficient praise from my teacher for me to feel at ease sharing such a piece. It is quite possibly long and boring enough, to induce an immortal soul to slumber. Actually, though, I’m rather proud of the results thus far. Perhaps it could be a bit more true to the period, because my writing style isn’t so fair to it. However, I will try my best to correct what errors have been made.

Uhhh... More writing.... in fiction we’ve done like three or four stories already. It’s amaaaazing. I love it. No more poetry, right? Zip! Zero! None! Nilch! NOPE. In Karin’s class today, we started on... Poetry! There goes my fucking luck, right?? Gah. We did poetry. During academic class. I thought I’d gotten through it--- nine hours of poetry a week for what, nine weeks? Ten? That’s literally over, like, three days straight. I think I deserve a break. For a lifetime. But nooooo. More more more poetry, just shoveled in like horse manure for sickly plants.

Ahh, similes. Metaphors. Raymond Chandler used like three per page. It was amazing. We finished “The Big Sleep” and now I have to read “Farewell my Lovely” and some other story over break. Added to the fact that I have to write this, edit and finish my detective story, and do other homework on top of that. Why don’t we add whipped cream and a cherry. Mmhmm.

My friend Ashley wants me to write a story about her. She has a really interesting tale, and I think it would be really fun to write it. I have a shitload of questions to ask her-- after the first ten she said she felt like it was an interview or something.

The rest of my life is currently uneventful, at least public life, you know, what I’m willing to share. It would be awkward to put in everything. Yeah, stop reading this! You stalker.

Sorry. I’m a bit jumpy... tired, is all. Have homework still. Must pack for Thanksgiving. Have to clean room. Don’t have to, actually... but want to clean room. Weird coming from me, huh, mis padres? Español no es dificil, pero hago la tarea por la clase. Hehehehehe, could you understand that? Hehh...

We have this thing called All-School, which is a weekly assembly every Friday during which things are announced. You know, like field trips, deadlines, dance shows, readings. Stuff like that. Guess what, though. This one kid went up to the stage and ten people followed him. Everyone was holding one of those big posterboard things. Then he's all, "-name-" and everybody turned their signs over-- they read: "will u b my gf" And he had the one with the "?" on it. It was the sweetest thing ever. Everybody was talking about it all day, and us girls kept telling the boys that he was a real man. Haha. Anyway........

The hike in P.E. class today was strenuous, but you have no idea how good it felt, physically, when we were done. It hurt like hell during the uphill, three miles uphill I might add, and when I had to walk to my next class right afterward. But then, when I sat down, it was almost excruciating. Then it just felt relaxing. Yaaay exercise.

Jesus Christ, Idyllwild, what have you done to me.

Well, hope you enjoyed reading this. My detective story should be done before 2012. Before I’m fifteen. Meaning I’ll have been fourteen through the whole journey. Yaaaay.

Okey (that’s the spelling Chandler used in the 1940’s), that’s all, folks. Seeya next week. Well... Write to ya next week (doesn’t sound as, um, colloquial).

Love,

Callie

Ohmygoddon'tevenask

Dear everyone,

Whoops... didn’t finish my detective story. Fortunately though, I got to the part where I was planning to, and turned it in. Hopefully there will be a lot of red marks on it so that I can learn... and edit! I don’t want you guys to read it until I’m finished, because a lot of the facts are still a bit... err, made up by yours truly. Another week or two of waiting should be fine, right? I used the UK English spellcheck, which made Andrew happier than I thought it would.

In other news, Harry finally gave my Pikachu hat back at lunch today... it is currently sitting next to me while I listen to classical music on my (one of three pairs of) headphones and type out this lengthy blog thing, waiting endlessly for the Internet to work. They say that the boys in McNeal (one of the main male dorms) are using up the bandwidth by playing numerous online games. And I just got to a huge cliffhanger in this anime I’m watching, and if that’s ever happened to you... I doubt it has... then you know what I mean. It’s the same with books, movies, TV... cliffhangers just suck, period. And when the Internet doesn’t load but you know it’s there and ready on a hundred different websites, your mind can wander.

Have you ever read Sherlock Holmes? He’s a detective who uses a lot of deductive reasoning skills and who has no sexual interest whatsoever in anyone. Don’t believe the movies. That’s all bullshit. They twisted Irene Adler from being the only woman who could outsmart him to being a love interest. Umm, what?? Sherlock only met her like, twice anyway! Whatever. Anyway, we started a new book in class; a new author, new detective, new era, new country. It’s SO MUCH DIFFERENT. Sherlock Holmes was that classy asshole British stuck-up who is so conceited that he claims to be smarter than everyone except for his brother. Now we’re reading Chandler. And one of his detectives (the one we’ve begun with), who is called Philip Marlowe, is a very strange character indeed. As Andrew puts it, “he doesn’t do much detecting.” He basically wanders around, observes what he likes, and somehow pieces together the puzzle. In fact, I don’t even know what he’s doing. But the writing is very poetic. Our discussions are always interesting. We talked about pornography for a good portion of class today.

There’s a trip to Disneyland over the weekend. See how slyly I slipped from porn to Disney? Haaaah. Anyway, yeah, so there’s a trip there this weekend, and I think it’d be really nice to get off the cold mountain and have a good trip to a new place. A lot of kids gave me really weird looks when I said I’d never been. There’s not any snow, is there? Good. It’s been snowing on and off. The black ice is deadly. On Friday, it snowed. On Saturday, EVERYTHING melted (all three inches!). On Sunday, it snowed. On Monday, EVERYTHING melted (all two inches!). Today, it was warm. Monday morning was beautiful. I looked out the window and everything was freshly white with a good blanket of snow. However, walking to class was difficult. I almost slipped twice, but I was good. I treated my boots for the water on Saturday night, which helped. Over the weekend I ended up spending more than fifteen dollars for boot crap. Seriously?! The required spray was eight dollars (I’m rounding down), and the stuff that keeps them healthy was five (again).

AHA! THE INTERNET IS WORKING NOW! Can you feel my excitement rushing toward you like a hungry cheetah to its unfortunate prey?! Faster, even! This is the famous ‘Net! News travels faster than the speed of light!

Obviously, it was too good to last. Oh well, I’m used to it. When I get off the hill for Thanksgiving break you know I’ll load over fifty tabs of TV. At least the Internet does work during the day, usually.

I’ve been going off on random tangents; I’ve barely even talked about my day. And now I’ve reading seven hundred words. Jeez. I’m a rambler. You must be bored. Unless my “easy-to-read, conversational tone” is keeping you interested. I’ve been told I’m very literal minded and have a really relaxed, colloquial writing style. Is that good? Any fun to read? I try not to be too stiff. It’s always been difficult for me to read more than one paragraph with big words in it.

This reminds me of Chandler. But... I shouldn’t... but... I have to... okay I’ll tell you. Apparently he was raised in Britain but his characters are SO American compared to Holmes it’s not even funny. The short sentences, the slangy speech, the way people treat each other... And I can tell it’s American at first glance, even if it is from 1939. Regardless, the writing is still great.

Okay. Gotta get to my week. Okay... my week... well... more like my weekend. And Monday. Which I’ve already talked about. So. I guess my blog post is over. Which is good, because after getting to just under a thousand words in half of an hour hurts my pinky finger. The way I type is weird. I used my pointers and thumbs yet still have the speed of my mother. If you’ve seen her type then you would know. If not, then watch someone who is good at typing type. Dammit, I’m rambling again...

So before I bore you to death, dear readers, I would like to thank you for reading my posts and congratulate you for having gone through it without cutting off your fingers from sheer boredom. Thank you!

Love,

Callie

P.S. Please visit http:lovecallie.com and tell others - THANK YOU!

P.S. The Internet always lasts long enough for me to watch the thirty-second ad, but never enough to allow me access to the anime episode. How upsetting. Shrug.

P.P.S. If I had stopped at the last P.S., there would have been exactly a thousand words. Twenty-five more isn’t that many. I guess.

#7 (or 6, or 8, or something else)

Dear everyone,

Well, yesterday (from the time I'm writing) was Halloween, and for the first time in my life, I did not go trick-or-treating. First of all, there's no such thing as that here at Idyllwild. At the time it starts, 6:00pm, the mountain is already dark, then add the fact that the houses are so spread apart... well, too bad. There is, however, a parade from 4-6. We weren't allowed to go. I had class, anyway. It's depressing, but I know that next week candy will be on sale!! Also, the Halloween dance, which at first I wasn't going to go to, was very fun. There was a bit of candy there. And we watched Rocky Horror afterwards!

Okay. That last paragraph was from Tuesday, which was sunny and warm and nice and safe. Now it's snowing and cloudy and cold and bad and slippery. It's snowing. And it's sticking. There's a full blanket of snow over everything right now. I have to walk to the dining hall soon and my backpack weighs more than ever. Seriously. I'm putting Mackenzie into it so that he doesn't get snowed/rained (this morning it was raining) on. And let me tell you, that added with my three 500-paged textbooks, makes a heavy trek uphill. If I had a boyfriend his only use would be to carry my books. Honestly.

Other than the weather, school has been going on pretty well. My highlight of the week was being too sick to attend P.E., because hiking would only make me even more sick. Today was the last day of poetry class, which we spent in Birchard instead of the library. Bad idea-- it was freezing. We were shivering the whole time. Anyway... I have yet to put that stuff on my boots to protect them from the wet, so I'm going to have to wear my sneakers until further ado. Hopefully tomorrow in town I'll be able to navigate my way around to find whatever I need. An adult can probably point me in the right direction; maybe the driver will even drop me off somewhere useful.

My red hair dye arrived the other day! My roommate says she'll help me out sometime over the weekend. Goodbye auburn, hello red-- again, finally! I really love the colour my hair becomes with the dye. My moment of narcism.

Even though this post is three days late, I still don't have much to say, Unfortunately not much is happening in this small little town of Idyllwild. Since I explained most of my classes in the first few posts, there's not much else to add. In Algebra II we had a "team test" today. It's where the people at the table all collaborate on one test and get a group grade. It's pretty awesome; I actually learned something from it.

Shambo, the World Cultures teacher, has been off the hill since Wednesday. I don't remember what he had to do, but he won't be back until Tuesday. We're only working on posters, so it's no big deal. I have to research the East India Trading Company. Shambo says it's the best but most difficult of the four choices, because there's so much information on it. Apparently the company ruled the country. Weird, huh?

We had a snowball fight half an hour ago... it was short and sweet, and my shoes are soaked (unintentional alliteration), but still. It was fun. My Victorian detective story is coming along quite well... but it's basically stealing everything from Sherlock Holmes. Oh well. My detective is nicer... 

Spanish class is pretty fun. Um, I mean, es muy divertido! Sí, sí. We've just begun to learn the preterite forms of verbs. Merlin help me...

I think that my next blog entry shouldn't be about me; it should be the first bit of my detective story. Here's the first paragraph:

"The summer of 1882 brought me  fortunes for which I am very grateful. My teaching career at the University of Cambridge was going swimmingly, and all of my students were delightful people, some of them as young as eighteen or as old as twenty-seven; two years my senior. They all seem eager to learn about apoplexy, epistaxis, suppuration, apopnixis... medical terms that few people are familiar with. I was very pleased with their final essays, and it was a bittersweet moment when we had to part for the summer break of six long weeks."

Andrew said that it's good because I let the reader know the time, place, and age of the character we're dealing with. I guess that's pretty good. Usually I'm "modest" about my writing but I seriously think this is gonna be good. Oh, I'm also using a UK spellcheck just for Andrew, who's from Britain. I think he'll really like that.

Other than that, not much is going on. I'm waking up, getting ready, eating food, and having class. And writing.

Writingwritingwritingwriting.

I need 10,000 more words over the weekend.

Wish me luck.

Love,

Callie

P.S. Please visit http:lovecallie.com and tell others - THANK YOU!