Hannah’s Blog

I haven’t got anything very interesting to say, but I’d like to write something. Anyway, it’s not as though “my readers are depending on me!” as Than would say.
I got up at nine-thirty today and went back to bed at twelve-thirty, and then didn’t get up again until three-thirty, at which time I took a shower. Then I threw on a coat and went for a walk. It gets dark so early. I’ve lived here all my life, and somehow it still surprises me every year. You’d think I’d be used to the darkness by now.
Deep doldrums today. It has been so grey, and that makes everything harder. My walk was nice, though. It was warm but misting, which felt very nice on my hot cheeks. I’ve always hated the way my face turns so brilliantly red. Isn’t it enough that I have spots? I don’t need to be red, too.
Well, before I regret typing that, I’ll move on. Standish is a nice place to walk. I feel safe from people, anyway. The woods are very thick and brooding at night, and with the woodsmoke from the scattered houses and the mustiness of leaves and the fresh smell of the rain, there was a very nice scent. So I enjoyed that somewhat.
I did get the Communist Manifesto and am reading it. One chapter left in the Titanic book, and then I think I’m going to read some Elsie Dinsmore. I like those books.

We (the Libbys and I) are having a dinner entirely composed of pie tonight. We had a full leftover apple pie from a church supper last night, and Mrs. L made a chicken pot pie to precede it. Excellent.

I’m starting to feel my interest in writing return. It’s been several months since I’ve written regularly in my diary. After five years, I’m reluctant to let myself stop. So I’m thankful that my desire to chronicle is coming back.

Books are nice, aren’t they? Suddenly my interest in classics has been piqued. Right now, I’m reading a book titled The Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters. It was written directly after the Titanic was sunk, and is now republished by Vision Forum. I find it very interesting for a few reasons: firstly, because I’ve really not paid attention to the story of the Titanic before, secondly, because it was written in a time before revisionist histories, when ‘women and children first’ was honorable instead of undignified, and thirdly, because it’s full of “thrilling stories of survivors with photographs and sketches.”

I talked on the phone with Matt last night, and he mentioned he was going to the library, so I asked him to look for The Communist Manifesto for me. I’ve been wanting to read it and don’t often have a chance to get to the library myself. I tried reading Das Kapital at one point, and failed dismally.

Also on my list of subjects right now are several topics that I’ve run into and decided I want to read more about: Anastasia and Tsar Nicholas II’s family, more Russian history in general, the Birkenhead Drill (another sea disaster), the Reformation, Norse Mythology, the Brothers Grimm because my Matt recommended them, and I think it’s time I finally read the Kalevala, the national Finnish epic Mom gave me for Christmas three years ago. I’ve been saving it for a rainy…month.

Additionally, I found a book lying on the floor by the head of the stairs that looked nice and read it. It was called Quest for the Faradawn, and had a faded, seventies-fantasy cover. It dawned on me that I very rarely read new books that I don’t have some explicit reason to read, so I picked it up. Quest for the Faradawn, isn’t that a nice name? The book was pleasant.

Speaking of books, I laughed at myself the other day when I looked at one of my bookshelves. It’s really a mounting cupboard that is leaning against the wall, and I started stacking books on it because the dinky bookshelf I inherited from Dad is not big enough for all my collection. Here’s what I saw on this shelf:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Holy Bible (from 1865)
The Lord of the Rings one volume illustrated by A. Lee
Hits for Misses (monologues)
Abraham Lincoln (play)
Pride and Prejudice (play)
Better Speeches for All Occasions
I Kissed Dating Goodbye
Dear America: The Diary of a Prairie Teacher
The Bible Promise Book
Spiritual Privileges (Mostrom)
Intimacy with God (Mostrom)
Little Faith
Costume Monologues
The Road Unseen
NIV New Testament
Piled above these horizontally are: Boy Meets Girl, The New Manners and Customs of Bible Times, and Calvin’s The Institutes of Christian Religion.

The following three shelves are mostly things like my seven filled diaries and journals, but a few books:
Little Women
Charles Dickens Works
NIV NT from the Gideons
Daily Light
Proverbs, The Message
The Origin of the Bible
The Message
How to Stay Alive in the Woods
Health Foods
The Heart of the Chronicles of Narnia

And to top it off, these are stacked nearby:
Psalms for Singing
Moominvalley in November, Comet in Moominland, Moominland Midwinter, and The Exploits of Moominpappa
Encountering the Old Testament
and John Greenleaf Whittier.

Hmm. So, just for the record…college didn’t happen.

There’s a girl, Holly, probably about twenty-one, in my English Comp class, and she’s really, really masculine. In my head I’d been calling her a butch, because she’s tattooed and hole-punched within an inch of her life and wears mens’ clothing and swears every other word and smokes and is rude to the teacher. I told Dad about her with distaste.
But then the other day, she caught up to me after class and said, “So who’s that guy you meet up with after class? Is he your dad?” I said yeah. “Well, last week when you were leaving, I walked by and he turned his head and looked at me and shook it slowly.”
Oops.
So now I don’t call her butch in my head. I call her Holly. Dad doesn’t remember shaking his head at her, but it was wrong of me to think of her so negatively. Last night we had a test, and she appeared behind me as I was leaving and asked me how I thought I’d done. So we had a friendly conversation about it as we walked down the road. She, lighting up and smoking, dressed in droopy jeans and a skater hoodie and a flat black cap. Me, clutching my sewing, dressed in pink with a pretty scarf and my long hair around my face.
Which one of us is better? Certainly not me.

Yesterday I said:

I met a lady who has a lot of old Gunnies she needs to find something to do with. Enter me. It was extremely exciting. We’re going to meet and I shall look through them.

Today, Mom and I drove to Lynn’s house. When we got there, she pulled out the ten or so Gunne Sax dresses she had…and I tried them on. Meanwhile, she pulled out more and more and more dresses and blouses and skirts that she thought I might like, getting more and more excited as time went on. She was so friendly and easy to like, and the best part was, she was as excited as I was about the whole business. She was moving and needed to cut down drastically on her closet space, but didn’t want to just give her well-loved dresses to Goodwill. She was so glad to give them to me, to someone who would wear them and love them and use them!
We were there for some time, and she went all through her closets and then her basement, and unbelievably, and I mean that I am still in shock, I came home with a LOT of things.
Over twenty dresses. Six blouses. Sweaters, skirts, three antique petticoats (which I really needed), a fur coat, mink, hats, and more. And to top it all off, she gave me a beautiful steamer trunk, twice the size of my existing trunk, lined in cedar.
This makes such a huge dent in the amount of things I needed for my wardrobe, and so many of these things are really beautiful! Now, some of them are really hilarious, like the red polka dotted frilly skirt and shirt. But this woman was so generous. And she gave it all to me completely free. She didn’t want any money. She kept a list, too, of other things she wanted to show me that she couldn’t find at the time, and has another friend with Gunnies whom she’s going to talk to. So we’re going to stay in touch, schedule another date.
And you know? I did some quick calculating in my head (amazing, I know), and I think that if I had bought these things from dealers, they would’ve cost a few hundred dollars. Maybe several hundred.
I am so overwhelmed and incredibly grateful. Yes, some of my friends have spoken for the things I can’t keep, so Sonja and Krissy, you’re second on the list. We’ll see if there’s anything, I’ll need to go through it again eventually.

Someday I’ll get pictures up. Lynn wants to see them. I am so happy. Two great and surprising things so far this week. And Mrs. Konczal got to touch the Marquis de Montcalm’s face!

I started blogging five years ago. Interesting. Thanks for the blog, Ted, it’s been nice.

I played with Seth and James this morning. I would venture to say that we played one of our best games yet. Seth and James have seen up until the recent Avatar finale, and so we played Avatar as we often do. James was Aang, and Seth was Zuko, and I was Katara. Oh crumbs, I just realized that I can’t really explain because Krissy hasn’t seen the end yet.
Well, anyway, they quoted a lot from what they had seen, then came up with their own ending since they hadn’t seen it. Basically, we used waterbending and put the comet out. Yay, world saved.
Honestly, having these little friends is a great thing for me. I have a legitimate excuse for running around flailing my arms, pretending to move water and earth and such.

I got two Gunne Sax skirts for six dollars recently. I won’t get into it all because it’d take a little while to explain, but basically I was performing at Buxton’s town day and met a lady who has a lot of old Gunnies she needs to find something to do with. Enter me. It was extremely exciting. We’re going to meet and I shall look through them. I got the two long skirts though, which is a real blessing, as I needed about two more long winter skirts! The waists were a little too small, but I cut through the bands, opened up the side seams, and inserted wedges in contrasting colors, and I am happy to say that despite the fact that I had no idea what I was doing, they turned out really well!

Me: This is the rare [name of plant] and it’s interesting because [insert interesting, exceptionally lengthy monologue].
Sonja: This is a leek, and it’s good for everything except boats.

Happy July, everyone!

Today Christchurch’s pirate-themed vacation Bible school kicked off. I wasn’t going to be able to go to much of it, but for some inexplicable reason, I didn’t get scheduled until Saturday! Really odd, and really welcome. So I’ll be there every day, most likely.
It went well…I, of course, was there mostly for the excuse to dress up. I wore my pre-Raphaelite dress, with various fun accessories like my vouz medallion and mug, my Redwall satchel, a seashell necklace Keturah made me, etc. I think I looked reasonably piratical. It was hot, but I didn’t suffer until I got roped into playing octopus outside and won the first game. >.< No one had told me that when you won, you had to be it.
We didn’t get as many kids as we expected, but the ones that turned up were well-behaved and interested. One little girl, named Tabitha, I hadn’t met before. We were in the bathroom, she washing her hands, when suddenly-
“How many gods do you believe in?”
“Er..what was that?”
“How many gods do you believe in?”
“Oh. Only one. There is only one God.”
“Oh.”
I waited, but she didn’t say anything, so I prompted.
“How many gods do you believe in?”
“One.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“I thought you believed in two gods or something.”
“Er…no, just the one. Maybe you heard us talking about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit? The trinity?”
Luckily, Mrs. Noonan showed up just then and I smoothly dumped the responsibility of explaining that theological conundrum. I’m not quite ready to explain the Trinity to six-year-olds…she smiled and used an apple analogy.

There wasn’t a whole lot for me to do, since I’d signed up late, so I ended up with the video camera, taping Than and the rest of the worship team up front, prancing about and doing motions to the songs. They did a good job, I know I wouldn’t have been able to swallow my affected dignity quite so well, even for the sake of a lot of impressionable kids.
Actually, I do have one other responsibility…Mom and I share custody (so to speak) of Crew #2. We have to escort them to their various stations. Mom’ll be gone most of the week, so they’ll be mine. I like our group; I think they’re about ages 5-8. One of the boys, Peter, is the sweetest chocolate-colored little boy I’ve ever met. I think we’ll be good friends.

Mal came over on a whim today, during the most exciting thunderstorm we’ve had in this week of daily thunderstorms, and now we are dubbing around (as my mom would say) on my computer. In a few moments we intend to make cookies.
Did you know you can eat skunk cabbage? *slightly weirded out*
By the way, watch this video. This is Mal’s friend’s brother, and I think it’s great. (family friendly goobers, don’t worry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lj44BwxC68

I had a doctor’s appointment today, just a physical. I always try to make the nurses and doctor laugh because I reckon they get a lot of people who are pretty dismal to be around. I had a meningitis shot, which was fun, and now I’m not going to die of meningitis.
The nurse was probably pretty weirded out.
“Any tobacco?”
Me: Hahahahaha!
“Alcohol?”
Me: *snork*
“Drugs?”

No no. It’s weird when you turn fifteen or so and they start asking questions flat out…more leading ones, too…the first time Allison (doctor) asked me that I thought I’d choke on my tonsils.

So, Mal and I are going to go back to doing not much of anything and soon, baking cookies.

I am sitting in Jane Clukey’s front yard, listening as Than and several others practice their lines for Jane’s production of the play The Importance of Being Ernest. Than is Algernon and I am Miss Prism.
It’s actually a bit crazy. There’s always someone distracted. I’m a bit overwhelmed.
We keep getting off onto rabbit trails…I wish Matt was here! Or maybe I don’t, he’d probably contribute to the distraction.
Feeling rather miserable. Will update later.

It went all right, it really did. I had so much trouble sitting still through church on Sunday, I was so antsy and nervous. But then things got rolling afterward. Sonja and Krissy arrived and we dressed their form in my dryad clothes..I put on my dress and practiced music with various people…about a hundred and twenty people filed in and sat down, and we started.

The concert was fair. It probably wasn’t terribly smart for me to start with the piece that was hardest technically, but I knew if I didn’t get it out of the way I’d mess up all of the others from nervousness. I was shaky, as people who know my voice confirmed, and had a little trouble with those high notes, but it was really nice to get to sing that song after wanting to for so many years (thanks Aunt Joni and Uncle Ted for giving me that Grieg CD years ago. That’s what got me interested in classical music again), and to be honest, I think this was my favorite part of the concert, because I got to do something with my cousin Matt. I really enjoyed that.
The other solo had a flubbed low note, but no one can be annoyed with me for only being able to sing high. The Chopin piece went really, really well! That was one of our best run throughs, and we’d had some horrendous ones. Krissy and Sonja and I had fun, and I heard that at least Caleb appreciated “Benjy met the bear,” so I consider it a success. Mom and Dad and I did pretty well on our piece. Worship team made it through, and I think that the song with Kayla and Bethany was the nicest, even if I did forget to turn the page so Kayla couldn’t see the words during her solo.

There. Analyzing over. The slideshow was great fun, though it was a little hard to see it go by so fast after so many hours of work! It was funny, seeing which pictures people liked best. I loved hearing individual people laugh when someone they knew came on the screen, like Aunt Joni at that picture of baby Hannah and Matt hugging, Krissy laughing when she was dressed up like Luna Lovegood, Mal and Megan groaning at the LotR exhibit picture. Everyone liked the one of Than buried in stuffed animals; great, wasn’t it? And some of the pictures had special meaning for some that others couldn’t know- the picture of Sonja and her bunny made people laugh appreciatively, but no one knew that this bunny had died just a few months ago, after a long happy life with the Birthisels.

It was a good day. I was really taken aback when I saw the pile of gifts and cards; considering I hadn’t known until a few days before that people give gifts for graduation, I’d say it was a nice surprise. What is really incredible, however, is that when I opened them all later, with Mom and Than and Sonja and Krissy watching, the tally of monetary gifts ended at about nine hundred dollars.
What a blessing- there’s my laptop. I was glad I had sensible Sonja around. “That’s a blessing,” she said definitively.
But you know, the gifts that I really smiled at were ones like the locket from Grammie, into which she’d carefully pasted pictures of me and of herself, the handmade walking stick from Alex, who I am slowly coming to realize is a very great friend (the sort that comes upon you gradually and never disappears), the story written by John, my ten year old gnome, the necklace made by Keturah…and all of my relatives, just their presence. I love my family. Grammie, thank you for having six children, because it meant that I have a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins. And Nana, thank you, too, because Aunt Sandy is one of my favorite people in the whole world, whether she knows it or not.

I have to go get ready. Mom and Dad are taking me and my gnome out to meet his family at Original NorthEastern Primitive Rendezvous- that means we’re going to dress like mountain men, F&I people, or Regency in my case. I have my hair in curlers and hopefully I’ll have nice little Regency bangs, we’ll see. It’s going to be fun.

Thanks, everyone. My graduation was a good day and I think I shall remember it most favorably.