A Bookworm Builds Her Cocoon

Dear Nonnie, Poppop, and everyone else,

First and foremost, happy anniversary! I was trying to call you last night, but the Internet was being a hater and my phone has terrible service.

Second, happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I know my shout-outs are a little late, but hey, yesterday was special! My school is really weird.

Monday was pretty good. It was a relatively normal day, until I went on Facebook around seven or eight o'clock. One of the boys had posted something about school being cancelled tomorrow-- I was more than a little confused. He said it was a "stop day." I had no idea what that meant, but more and more people posted about it. I kept checking my school email to see if it was true, but I had no official email from anyone. It was starting to get ridiculous. But-- heaven on earth-- school was cancelled!

Unfortunately, I only missed two classes. Even more unfortunate, "stop day" is the school's way of saying "snow day," and according to Andrew, there is only one snow day every year. On Tuesday, there was no snow at all until nighttime. Today, we got about six inches, and it's supposed to snow overnight. Go figure, right? But it's all good, because my new room is twenty degrees warmer at night than my last one.

My novel is going well, I guess-- I have rough character outlines and a very primitive introduction outline. Hopefully with time I'll complete the first draft. That's gonna be hard-- I only have until school ends, which is less than four months; I'll have to write ten pages every week and read one book every week. Of course, I read enough online fiction to last several books, but the truth is, I need to get into more of the beautiful paper pages. There are over twenty books under my bed, and the only problem I'm going to have with them after the reading is complete, is figuring out how to get rid of them. Originally I was planning to donate them for others to read, but then I realized that I'd have to try to force my sister to read them. SOPHIE. Also, I think half of them are my other sister's. Shhh.

I have a fort. The popular thing to do nowadays is build forts, apparently-- there's a small chance that I'm ten years too old for it, but oh well. My fort consists of one Pokemon bedsheet pinned to the corner of my wall, connecting to my bed and finally filled with pillows and amazingness. I love hanging out in my fort, but after a while my butt starts to hurt despite the soft pillows and blankets.

I think that whoever decided that cleaning your room once a week was a good idea, was very, very sane. I can actually walk around, see my floor, avoid tripping... We also have everything we need in here. There is tea, there is hot chocolate, I have two bowls, three cups, several spoons, honey, sugar, and a water boiler. Not only that, but I've purchased emergency dinners that are microwavable (there's a microwave in the common room) in case I have a ton of homework and no time for the dining hall. Also, I believe that my friend is going to bring me some Thin Mint girlscout cookies tomorrow, and that is a serious plus. Life is good, people. Life is good.

Of course, life isn't all good. You heard me talk about the snow, right? Well, the whole time it was snowing, I was locked away in class and had to watch miserably as the path back home got deeper and deeper in the chilly substance. Seriously, I watched miserably. The windows in the classroom take up more than half the walls. Not only did I not have my coat (the morning looked SUNNY!), but I didn't have my boots on, gloves, a hat, scarf... Luckily it wasn't bitter cold, and the black ice hadn't formed yet. Tomorrow I am bundling up like a caterpillar in a cocoon.

Apologies, dear readers, but it seems that my Internet is soon going to die, and there are things to do before that happens. As always, have a great week, and thank you for reading!!

Love,

Callie

P.S. Happy anniversary, Nonnie and Poppop!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for the card, it's very appreciated! I'm tacking it up on the wall with the rest of my cards. :)

P.P.S. Thanks for the care package, Mom! I was seriously just talking to my friend about how I needed to buy more hot chocolate! Scary!! Haha. Puppers says hi!!!! The bubbles are SO COOL.

The sky, lighter class load, my new dorm, major project...

Dear everyone,

My favorite part about Idyllwild at night is the sky. There are so many stars, and there are always rings of light around the moon. The other day, we were walking back to the dorms and saw someone sitting on the sidewalk, looking up at the sky. She said it was the best place for seeing the stars, and I went back there a few days later-- wow. It was amazing. Hardly any trees blocked the nighttime sky, and the weather was warm enough that I could sit there for ten whole minutes.

My second favorite part about Idyllwild at night are the shadows. I'll be walking back from dinner, and up the hill, my shadow stretches ten feet, but behind me, there's a pipsqueak, and then to my left is a normal one. Since the darkness embraces the mountain so early, there's tons of artificial lighting all around campus. They point at you and make the shadows. I'm always fascinated by how they get shorter when I walk towards the light-- not that I don't know how it happens. Science provides me with that. But it's still cool.

Second semester is full of free time. I only have two art classes every week, which gives me a major chunk of time to work on my tutorial project. The tutorial project is the second-semester writing assignment that we wrote a proposal for a couple of weeks ago. Basically, it can be anything from a play, a collection of poems, to a novel. I'm writing a novel, and am planning for about two hundred pages for the rough draft by the end of the school year. Hopefully, if I end up coming to this school again next year (which, if possible, could be a million times better than this year,) then I'll be able to continue with the novel and write a second, even third draft. It's by far the biggest writing project I've ever attempted.

As I said last week, my new end of the dorm is very social. I feel a lot better at Idyllwild now that I have a roommate closer in age to me who shares one of my classes. It's pretty loud over here, which is welcomed-- I don't mind people coming into my room unannounced. It's a pleasant surprise, most of the time. In fact someone just walked into my room because we have Internet and she doesn't. Haha.

My final grades are wonderful! Nothing below a B-, which is a new high for me, not counting fifth grade and below. I think. I can't really remember elementary school very well, nothing was really memorable. The finals seemed easy-- except for Spanish. I got good grades in two of them, but the other two, not so much. It's all okay, though, as long as I have good grades on the final report. Which I do. So I'm good to go!

I mentioned free time in this blog post, and having no free time in the last blog post. This probably makes you think I'll be more true to my blog posts in general. I'm thinking YES. Hopefully now that I don't have any excuses, I can't put it off any longer. Here we go! Extra Callie typing. That ought to be pleasant for you all. I've been told you like to read these!

So I have this new class, "Adaptations." We're beginning with fairy tale adaptations and in the first class we discussed the fact that The Little Red Riding Hood is about sex. It was an interesting conversation to say the least, and the essay plus adaptations of the story were very strange as well. I like the class, and Amy even sent me her CD's and a book to share! Thank you Amy!! They arrived today!

I finally got a bigger pot for my plant, Raisa-- it's getting bigger, drinking more water, needing more sunlight. Good thing I have the window seat now! The sill is very useful for my desk items that need to be put somewhere other than my desk. I also, for some reason, keep my Spanish dictionary at hand when I'm sleeping. Pretty weird if you ask me.

Well, everyone, that's really all I have to say. I'll write in time for Valentine's Day! Have a good rest of your week!

Love,

Callie

P.S. MOMMY I WANT MY PUPPY BACK PLEASE!!!!!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE MOMMY!

P.P.S. My Pikachu hat seems to have lost its way. It's still in Cleveland!!

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

.