To Make a Word

Ahh. .. So, spring has arrived, and with it, the wind.

Let me tell you a little bit about wind. You see, I have lived fourteen years of my life in the land of neverending wind – the Antelope Valley. My move to the lovely Madera Ranchos relieved any painful memory of the “W-word” because it is rarely breezy, let alone <i>windy</i>! 

Or so I thought. Apparently, spring a windy season for the Central Valley.

I found a wonderful quote from Charles Dickens about spring, below:

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.  ~Charles Dickens

I like this quote because it is exactly how I feel about spring. :)

School is almost over. We have less than two months, I believe, which astounds me. Time flies by so quickly! I feel that I am getting to that point at the end of the school year, where I start to become comfortable with my classmates. I was thinking about the phenomenon the other day, and how most people don’t usually have to experience. I realized that, since I have been to a new school almost every year of my education, (there were maybe two years together in early elementary school, and two years in middle school – homeschooled, though, so I don’t think it counts. . .) I have never had a real chance to settle in 100%. Strange, huh? I had never really thought about it until a while ago. . .  Not that there’s anything wrong with it – on the contrary, I think it teaches you to adjust well to new places and faces. I just think it’s sort of funny how every school I go to, there are the kids who have known each other since kindergarten, and then there’s the <i>new kid</i> – me! What is funnier is that it had never occurred to me that way exactly. . .

Lord-willing, I will have a chance to settle in here and not be the new kid for a while. :)

I suppose that I should tell you about my life lately. . . 

Spring Break is coming to a close, and I still have homework to finish – a 3-page essay about one of my heroes (I chose Corrie ten Boom), and a small assignment for my Health class. I am proud to announce that I completed my Geometry CST packet of nearly 100 problems! <i>And I didn’t cram to finish it!!</i>

Spring Break has been fairly eventful – on Tuesday, some dear friends of our family visited us. (I haven’t seen any of them in a year!) It was delightful to talk to them and see how the Lord has been working in their lives! We went shopping that evening and I got turquoise pair of shorts that I love, as well as a shirt. But enough about my wardrobe! I have a feeling that no one who reads this is very interested in that. :)

On Thursday, we departed to see the wonderful Hearst Castle, which was astounding! When we had finished there, we set off for our reserved motel, which was supposed to be in Cambria. It is, in fact in Morro Bay, which is a quarter of an hour away from Cambria. We spent almost an hour driving through Cambria in search of this motel, until we realized that the Google map was wrong. Which goes to show that Google is not 100% competent. (Although it might have also been the person who made the hotel entry.) That was a fun little adventure. The next day, we ventured forth to San Luis Obispo, which I loved! We had a great time shopping and eating – I had my first official Jamba Juice there! (Which by the way is Jamba Juice’s town of origin.) When we had finished there, we drove down the road to see Avila Beach, where my parents had spent a wonderful time on a recent anniversary trip. There, we relaxed, tossed a hacky sack around, and watched my brother, Ian freeze his rear off in the water. :) It was a truly wonderful experience!

In honor of my mother, I would like to announce her 37th birthday! 

The day is half-over, and I have “promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep.”

“But a dream within a dream.”

Don’t you just love how life goes on whether you want it to or not? It’s like a train racing along the track. There’s nothing you can do to make it stand still, because it’s so huge and so heavy and it’s going faster than we can imagine!

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

- James 4: 13 – 15

This brings to mind my favorite work by Edgar Allen Poe – a poem called “A Dream Within A Dream.”

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Edgar Allan Poe

I do believe this will be my most random post yet. I was inspired, after reading someone else’s blog, then a previous post of my own. But now I realize I do not have one collective thought to put down. . .

It is pouring outside. Pouring and rainy and muddy and simply – wonderful!  It rains quite a bit here in the ‘Cho’s. Certainly more than in the desert! I love the rain. My mom hates it. It makes her moody and depressed and unmotivated. Sometimes I wonder if rain does this to me and whether that is why I like it. . .

School is going very well right now. I think we have benchmark exams this week, which are basically tests you get in each class that cover everything you have learned in the last six weeks.

In English, we are reading Romeo & Juliet. I have never read any of Shakespeare’s work before this, so it is all quite a new experience. Now I understand why so many of the Puritans were opposed to “theater” – Shakespeare had a dirty mind. A very dirty mind. But he conceals it so well behind cultural puns and flowery words that you do not notice unless you have the translation on the opposite page. Which I do.

Choir class is alot of fun. Right now, we are working on individual solos and duets for a concert in March (which really is coming too quickly). I am singing a solo and two duets, and I am very excited about it!

In Biology, we are covering Evolution. It is very interesting, even though little of it makes sense. I won a round of Cranium because of this class! :) I mostly wish I had answers for my classmates’ questions. . . My teacher is very gracious in pointing out that “Those are their beliefs.” I have decided not to pick a quarrel with him in this subject, mostly because I don’t think it matters enough to make myself a butthead over it, and also because I don’t think he cares.

Health is a fun class, so far. I am looking forward to our next units: Fitness, and Nutrition. My teacher says tha we do some cool projects.

Geometry is . . . . well, geometry. It is not a terribly exciting or fun class. I think our teacher has finally adjusted to our class. Or maybe vice-versa. At the moment, we are working on a project about fractals. I could explain my simple understanding of them, but I don’t want to. Here is a picture of a famous fractal:

The idea is that, within a geometric figure, there are many proportional repetitions of the original figure. The ["great"] thing about fractals is that they are visible all over in nature – like in the spirals of fern leaves.

So that is my life right now. . . Church is going well. Sometimes, I find myself discouraged because we have so few people. But I know that God is on our side. I think, maybe, my lack of faith can be bringing it down. I mean, from what I can tell, my lack is not too apparent, but as they say, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”

Now that’s food for thought.

I’ll close on a happy thought, for all two of you who read this. :P

*JEALOUSY*