A Long Sisters' Original

Scene: 9:59pm Thursday evening. Top bedroom, corner house. Samantha at her painting. I engrossed in my work. The only sounds come from the scraping of her palate knife and my munching on noodles.

"Ohp, time for bed!" announces Samantha. Without warning, the room is plunged into darkness.

"Ah!" I exclaimed, totally unprepared for the obscurity in which I suddenly found myself. "I can't see my noodles!"

"You don't need to see your food," she insisted, in a voice not unlike Dr. Doofenshmirtz. "Blind people don't starve!"

My Creativity has Returned!

Just a few tidbits from the first few weeks of classes, but that’s still something. Finally the muse and desire have merged and the following is the product.

Gnats. Why did we decide to create these again? Their only apparent purposes, at least discernable to me, are to serve as sustenance for larger, borderline repulsive organisms, and to irritate the rest of us higher beings. Maybe they are just another tangible trial of patience. Anyhow, I had forgotten about these flying gems until I walked through a random cloud of them. That’s another thing: why do they always congregate in nonsensical locations? It’s like they are intentionally preying upon us, the poor unsuspecting populous. As I was walking through afore mentioned cloud, I uttered some unladylike sound akin to a raspberry at precisely the same moment that another fellow, traveling in the opposite direction, emitted the exact same sound. Those volant villains had claimed two victims in one fell swoop! After recovering from the revulsion, I realized the humor of the occurrence and proceeded to chuckle about it for a good 20 minutes.

This one looks strangely like my father...

My next source of inspiration came from an unlikely and unlucky sidewalk smattering. I was walking to class and I noticed what looked like the remnants of a lunch murder - tomatoes, cucumbers, shredded lettuce and crushed olives strewn across the walkway, no doubt by some unfortunate event of Subway spillage. My initial reaction was to shake my head in dismay at the current state of humanity. Why would someone sully our campus thus and then continue on their way, expecting someone else to fulfill their cleansing duty? As I continued to contemplate the image of that crushed olive, however, I was overcome with an overwhelming craving for a hoagie. I started mentally constructing it and I could practically taste it - the bun crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, salami, pepperjack cheese, ripe tomatoes sliced thin, cucumbers, peppers, olives, salt and pepper - my mouth watered for hours. So we did it.

Accompanied by salty potato chips, of course.

We are super excited!

Of course we needed to have some high-quality entertainment while we feasted, so naturally The Cosby Show fit the bill. It was quite appropriate timing, as the night before we had watched this episode:



I know you are all inspired now, so happy hoagie-ing!

A Dose of Suspense

Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a pretty fantastic read, right up with the first book. Reichs really knows how to keep up the suspense. I love how she keeps multiple story lines going and then weaves them all together in the end. It's not just about one murder; the whole world doesn't stop just because one person got killed and they have to investigate. And yet despite the mounding casework, midterm exams still need to be graded, students need help, and family problems persist. The fact that they still find new cases while current ones are open, as well as the fact that regular life continues outside the LML helps to put it in better perspective. People really do this.



*SPOILER ALERT*



I'm really glad she didn't kill off Harry in this one. The formula seemed very similar to her first book, so I thought that might happen. I think that was better. Maybe it would have been poetic - Brennan can figure out what happened to people, yet she can't save the living or protect her family from the carnage that surrounds her life - but if new traumatic experiences of lost loved ones continued to compound throughout the series, Brennan would become an emotional wreak, or else unbelievable as a character. I think her cat scare (which I'm SO glad was false!) and the cult encounter, along with Ryan's near-death brush was enough for this time around.



*END OF SPOILERS*



The discussion of cults really presents an opportunity for contemplation and introspection. It calls to attention the way we think and interact with the world. Are we being diluted and blinded by those around us, or are we making our own decisions? I always appreciate the opportunity for evaluation and this fit flawlessly into the plot. Very well written in that regard.



There was a bit of scandalous-ness that could have been done without. I think the attempt was to humanize Brennan more, but I think there is plenty of that. She really does ache for the victims she sees and she is not immune to fear or injury.



As far as the murders themselves, I always like seeing the description of the lab work and her interactions with the Québecois. I wish there would have been more elaboration on the reason for the disembowelment as well as the ring symbol on the skin. I also missed an explanation of where the Rohypnol came from, but I suppose those are minor details.



The imagery is superb; I love the way she uses the weather to heighten the suspense as well as to reflect the moods. Overall it was a fantastically thrilling read. I'd pick it up again anytime.



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Leaf, Meet other Leaf

This was the gorgeous fall day I reveled in a few weeks ago.

 

As I was raking, a little girl came riding up on her scooter and after a quick "HI!" proudly announced, "I'm 4." I tried to smother a giggle at the seemingly out of place exclamation that was my initial reaction. So what if we had never seen each other before, what's to prevent us from forging connections and sharing? That's what the human experience is about, right? She proceeded to inform me that her birthday was coming up and that then she would be 5. I returned with an encouraging, "Oh, cool!" Then she said after she was 5 she would be 6. The simplicity of our conversation made me really happy. Talking to people doesn't have to be hard. Yet I always make it out to be this huge thing. Just as I was really warming up to our conversation, her dad came behind her and bustled her along, apologizing in an embarrassed manner. It made me sad for him. I don't think we should ever be embarrassed by the examples of the children around us. It was an unexpected profundity I did not expect to encounter among the leaves that day.

True connection

Not to make this melodramatic, but I thought about that a lot as I finished my task. We are a lot like the leaves, all tossed together, but very rarely making true contact, soul to soul as it were.

There were a lot of leaves...

There you have it. Beauty and a thought brought to you by autumn.

Time for a Review

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I thought it was pretty well written and moved at a good pace. I didn't see the end coming at all, which was fun, but frustrating at the same time. I wanted to see more of Miss Marple, but I thought her character was very well developed - not too pushy or nosy, but with a sort of mystery about her own person that lent credibility to her skills of observation. Lettice was really irksome to me, but I couldn't help feeling for her at the end. I liked seeing it from the Vicar's point of view as opposed to an omniscient one; I could try to figure it out along with him, as opposed to just being told what to think. You also get his biases and mortal weaknesses, which are valuable in realizing that it is truly difficult to obtain a purely factual view and which also leads credence to him as a character. Christie was wise to take this path I feel, because as a writer who knows how it will end, it would be extremely difficult to achieve that unbiased anonymity. Coming from seeing the movies first, I thought I would want to read it from Miss Marple's viewpoint, but on reflection, I think that would be just as unsatisfying as an omniscient voice. All in all, an enjoyable read.



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The Reason For Pitstops

To guarantee at least two minutes to think in this hectic world. ~Samantha

You may have noticed...

I decided to change the name of my blog. I've wanted to for a while, I just haven't found the right one until now. Those close to me will tell you that I am terrible at making decisions and this further proves it. I think this is more appropriate. I live in the same world as everyone else. I just have different stories to tell. Maybe it should be "Novellas of a Girl..." I do seem to ramble on at times.