50 Things About Me

So...the second day of the celebration-thingy. I'm wondering if posting every day for a week will be kind of intense! :)

1. My middle initial is B.

2. I wasn't born in a state.

3. I do three instruments--voice (unofficially), piano, and Irish Tinwhistle

4. I have super-bendy ankles.

5. Speaking of ankles, I sprain them all the time. Playing soccer, going down the stairs...

6. This was not the first blog I started.

7. I have very faint freckles.

8. My hair is black at the roots, and light/medium brown at the tips.

9. Actually, three friends and Erestor say that my hair has a purple undertone. :)

10. I used to be obsessed with the Laura Ingalls Series.

11. I still think that 'Ingalls' is fun to say.

12. Once, I ate an unwashed peach. You know how pollen sticks to the peach fuzz? Well, I got hives from it.

13. My birthday is coming up!

14. I'm the oldest kid in the house. :(

15. My favorite colors are green, silver, blue, brown...basically all of them.

16. My birthstone is an emerald.

17. My Chinese year is...well, a rat. I would have preferred dragon.

18. I think that 50 things is a lot. I'm only on 18.

19. I have played the piano for about eight years.

20. I have had three piano teachers.

21. I had one of those piano teachers for maybe two or three months.

22. I am a 'fall person', meaning I look my best in fall colors.

23. I used to be able to do the splits.

24. My fingernails are now chipped silver.

25. I started another journal exactly a week ago.

26. I actually post on four blogs. I share two.

27. I love photography, but I'm basically learning by trial and error.

28. I actually used to take pictures 'blind' because my screen was broken. Some turned out really good, others...not.

29. One of my friends is 1/4 inches taller than me. :( She's a lot younger, too.

30. Only one of my first cousins is a blood-relative to me.

31. I used to be able to speak Russian pretty well.

32. Now, however, all I know is 'niet' and 'spasiba'. (that's not how 'spasiba' is spelled, but I'm just spelling it the way it's pronounced). If you didn't know, that means 'no' and 'thank you'.

33. Oh, and I also know how to say 'brush your teeth', 'good night', and 'watermelon' in Russian.

34. I speak pretty fast sometimes.

35. The initials of the ends of my names are E. N. N.

36. I like to swim in our creek. Everyone looks at me like I'm crazy when I say that.

37. I consider myself 'eccentric'.

38. I don't like my middle name.

39. Oh, and did you know that my parents were going to name me Moses if I was a boy?

40. They were going to name me Catherine, but a nurse interfered. Why did mom have to ask her opinion?

41. I am a short-distance runner. I'm pretty fast, but I can hardly run a mile.

42. I have had a HUGE splinter lodged into my palm once, and I basically had to perform surgery on it right there in my friend's backyard with a stick and my teeth.

43. I would love to name my first daughter Colleen.

44. Only six more to go...I have been in at least four life-threatening experiences.

45. When we go to the beach, I can always be found in the water. Even in January.

46. I am very un-politically correct.

47. My hair is more than half-way down my back.

48. Okay, obvious one here--I LOOOOOOOVE Lord of the Rings.

49. Oh, and I can't decide between Haldir and Aragorn. True, Aragorn needs to bathe, but Frodo didn't really, either. But they both (or all three) rock.

50. I have very noisy siblings! I can't hear myself think!

And that was 50! Did we all survive? YES! Are we all asleep? YES! Are you all with me? NO!

Izori

My Caption Contest, and a prayer request

Well...the long awaited day has finally arrived! Happy 1st Blog Anniversary to me! Er, to the blog. Whatever.

Here are your pictures:

#1.



#2.



#3



#4



#5





Okay. Now here are your guidelines:

#1. Contest ends on March 16, 2010 at...well, 11:59 ET.

#2. Number your captions according to the picture it's supposed to go to, please. Otherwise I won't be able to tell what it's for. I could in some cases make an educated guess, but it's not guaranteed that I'll guess correctly.

#3. There are no prizes other than the satisfaction that you've won the caption contest.

#4. Out of all the captions, I will choose one overall winner.
And rules:

#1. PLEASE no swearing, taking the Lord's name in vain, cussing, or uh...interesting...captions. Basically, nothing that you wouldn't say in a church. I will delete any caption that I think violates this.

#2. Good sportsmanship is also a must.

#3. And it'd be really cool if you tried to use good punctuation/spelling/capitalization. Not necessary, but really cool.

Thanks! I'm very interested in what people have for #5!

And now for my prayer request...

I'm starting to teach piano on Tuesday. My student is someone who I've known for nearly all of their life, and who I'm pretty good friends with. As in, we goof off together all the time. Could you pray that everything goes all right? My main concern is that I won't be able to make the transition from fellow goof to piano teacher and back, and if it would change anything in our 'goofing' relationship. Thank you so much!


Izori

P.S. These pictures were taken from 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves', 'Lord of the Rings', 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe', and 'The Princess Bride'.

My Week, Tagged by Celtic Traveler, and Daybook

All of the post's you've seen this week (except for this one) was scheduled. Not from any forethought of mine, but just because I wanted to schedule something. Well, it turned out that it was for the better!

On Monday, we had co-op and schoolwork. I began getting a really bad headache from the cedar pollen.

On Tuesday, I had piano lessons and schoolwork. I still had a headache from allergies.

On Wednesday, we did schoolwork and Mom took Luthien for a hearing test.

On Thursday, we had schoolwork, ice-skating, and then torture. Did I say torture? I meant Accompaniment Class. I was probably the most prepared of all 4 students. Yep, all four. Including me, those were the only four that came, other than the teachers, of course. :) It was actually on the fun side. However, I came away with my CTS really, really bothering me.

On Friday, I did schoolwork. My wrists were still, like, killing me, and I'm was still having allergies.

Today hasn't really begun yet, but the allergy meds that Mom bought for me are now working. Yay!

And so, add it all up and you get a loaded week!

So I'm very glad that I scheduled posts.

Here is the tag from Celtic Traveler:

Rules:

You grab a book, turn to pg. 123. Then go to the the fifth sentence and post the next 4 sentences. The tag 5 people. So, here goes:

'A multitude of paws hauled him swiftly up through the hole. Shrill voices chanted jubilantly, "Yikyik! Gorramouse! Yeeeeeeeh!"

Skipper could not make out what was going on up ahead. Hearing the sounds, he dashed toward the shaft of light.'

--'Doomwyte' by Brian Jacques

Now I tag...

Catherine Morland

Eldarwen

Lady Milisande Awnia Grim

J.T. Norlander

Emma

And now for the Writer's Daybook.

What time is it...9:57 AM

I'm feeling...irritated, annoyed, pained.

Outside is...very good weather.

Today I...guess what! I get to...*drumroll, please*...go to the Alpaca 4-H club! Yay...not. Yuck and grrrrrrr. It's a waste of a beautiful day, that's what!

I am hearing...Luthien.

I am hoping...somehow Alpaca club will be canceled! Only an hour to go!

I'm looking forward to...being done with alpacas.

I am glad that...Alpaca club only lasts two hours. And that my wrists are hurting, because that might keep me from handling alpacas.

What I'm currently working on writing-wise...my story about a girl, a dragon, and a crazy pirate.

What I just finished reading...nothing, really.

What I'm hoping to read...Jane Eyre. But we haven't gotten it out of the library yet.

Writing buddy who I talked to last...igirl.

Writing tip of the week...drawing a blank here. I'm peck-typing because my left wrist is in no shape to type. Excuse any typos, please!

Number of words I wrote this week...2,000 or so.

What time is it...10:07 AM

Izori

Wee Random Thoughts

It's kind of interesting to read an author's books after you've read their biography. If you look hard enough, you can see little pieces of their lives written into their work, and it adds so much more insight.

Take 'The Magician's Nephew' by C.S. Lewis for example. Digory's mother is very sick, and there doesn't seem to be much hope for her until (WARNING: SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ 'TMN' YET--WHO HASN'T?) Digory brings her a magic apple. (END OF SPOILER) C.S. Lewis' mother died of cancer when he was at a fairly young age. Could he have written that wishing that he could have been in Digory's situation?

Just a little thought that I had--tell me what y'all think!

Izori

Tagged by Siminy! This is the second time I've done this...oh well.

Here are the rules:

1.List 8 stories or books that you would like to live in (for two weeks)

2.List 8 other bloggers who deserve this award

3.Comment on their blog, and tell them they won an award

The Lord of the Rings (only two weeks?!)

The Door Within Trilogy

The Chronicles of Narnia

Michael Strogoff

A Series of Unfortunate Events (hey, it's only for two weeks)

Emma (I'm finally getting into it...a month too late. Whoops)

The Spiderwick Chronicles

And I don't have an eighth.



And I tag...

...anyone who comments!

Izori

My Musical Story

A five year old girl sits on the wooden piano bench, her chubby fingers poised stiffly on the white keys. A worn, well-used book rests on the music stand, it's yellowy pages bent with old age. The pout on the girl's face could curdle milk as she rebelliously stares down the notes. The endless ticking of the metronome is the only sound in the tiny room.

The oldish man sitting next to the girl sighs. "So. Are you going to play the piece for me?"

Reluctantly, the girl nods and starts plunking out the awkward notes, wishing she was somewhere else. Playing outside with her brother would be fun...even doing math would be better than piano lessons, in her opinion.

Yep. That was me at about age five. My mom signed me up for piano lessons at an old shop that no longer exists. And boy, oh boy, did I ever give her grief about it! She says that it was my idea to start piano lessons...but I don't ever remember saying that I wanted to. I'm not doubting my mom or anything (well, okay. Maybe I am) but I seriously don't remember.

So...did you get the picture that I didn't really want to be playing the piano? Basically everyone else did. My mom, my dad, my brother, my teacher, my friends...

I think it was because of the scales. My teacher made me practice C scale five times before we began music lessons. And D scale. And F scale. And A scale. And...

The point is, I couldn't see the point. I felt that it was a waste of time just running my fingers up and down the keyboard. And I didn't really feel that I was very good at it, anyway.

After about six more painful years of scales and exercises, I finally started to notice something. I was improving! I could do long scale runs very fast in songs, and generally move my fingers quicker. Now I had moved out of the boring lane and gotten to the point where things got really fun. I actually got a little enthusiastic about going to piano lessons.

And then the music shop closed down. So we decided to switch--to an actual music school. My old teacher was more of a composer (maybe he'll be Beethoven II someday! Who knows?) and this would be an actual official music school.

I was really, really nervous, because I still didn't consider myself that skilled at piano. Erestor and I (Erestor plays the guitar) both had the same music teacher, who majored in guitar. And he taught me piano. Seriously.

However, there was only a few months of that before that piano teacher's wife began to teach me. And she is a wonderfully skilled pianist, not to mention a lot of fun. Sometimes she brings her dog, Bo, with her to lessons, and he'll sit under my bench.

Mrs. Y-- is still my teacher today, and she's a very good one. Although I got a lot of technical skills with my first teacher, not to mention my basic training and the beginnings of appreciation for music, a lot of my enthusiasm comes from Mrs. Y--. She makes lessons a lot of fun, and we end up talking about half the time. XD

Now, I'm possibly considering majoring in music in college, and also teaching (that actually would start at age 16).

One thing I learned from all of this...

Do. Scales. Every. Single. Day. You'll go very far.

Izori

Tagged by Elrania!

1. What's your favorite time of day, and why?
Idk.

2. If health weren't an issue, what would you live off?
Ooooh! Brownies!

3. If you could have one wish granted (besides wishing for more wishes) what would it be?
To have the ability to travel into different books/movies. Then I could go to LotR, or Star Wars, or Inkheart...

4. What is one thing you get teased about a lot?
My Elven-ness (or my love of LotR in general).

5. If you could chose one movie, book, of TV show to live in what would it be? What kind of a character would you be?
Lord of the Rings. I'd be um...an unknown elf who joined the Fellowship.


6. If you could have a talent that you don't already have, what would it be?
Uh...stealth.

7. If money were no object, where would you go on vacation?
Scotland or Ireland, or New Zealand...whoa. That's scary. Am I spelling 'Zealand' correctly? It's either that or blogger doesn't have it in their dictionary. Man, that's creepy.

8. If you were an awesome singer, what genre would you sing?
IF I were an awesome singer?! Does that mean I'm NOT?! Lol. IF I were an awesome singer, I would sing Celtic music.

9. If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, which one would it be?
Book store dedicated to fantasy works.

10. If you could live in any point in time, what would it be?
Um...The Time That Never Happened.


11. If every outfit in your wardrobe had to be one color, what would it be?
Green.

12. If you were one of the seven dwarves, which one would you be?
O.o ...Doc or Dopey or Happy or Bashful.

13. What's the last album you listened to?
'Celtic Woman'

14. What would be something that we'd be surprised to know about you?
He-he, wouldn't you want to know?! Okay, listen carefully. *whispers* I am Legolas' sister. Shush, and don't tell anyone! Oh. You mean for real? Well, I'm actually pretty mysterious...there are a lot of things about me people would be surprised about. Maybe that I'm a pretty good archer?

And I tag...

...anyone who's birthday is on an even numbered day in an odd numbered month! Like, if you were born in September (7th month) on the 14th.

Izori