Number 1. I got a haircut. It's not short enough. As of now, even though I just showered yesterday, it's filthy and hanging on my head like a rag. Am going to go sit in the tub with a book after this- that's what I do to get clean in the summer. Call me weird. anyway, my hair was down just past my shoulders. It's hanging at my shoulders now. I think I want it more towards my chin. I just have too much hair. It's not long enough to pull back, but it's not short enough NOT to pull back. *sigh*
Number 2. Just got back from a mission trip in... North Dakota! My friend Mia of Aperture Mittens is off overseas in Ukraine or France or something, and my friend Amy, who does not blog, is probably in Mexico or something. She usually is. Still, I loved North Dakota. The weather was nice, the people spoke English, the mission was only like $250 to go on, and the kids really needed it. We ran a residential camp for 1st and 2nd graders in the area. We were always with them. We never got a break. It was always "I want a piggy back!" "Can you give me a shoulder ride!" "I don't like vegetables!" "I want to go home!" "She's calling names!" (There was a lot of major fighting going on with a lot of the girls, even I got in on it the first night when my fellow counselors left me alone in the dorm full of little girls who decided to torment me and put me in "jail". Anyway, I usually ended up helping diffuse these fights. Surprisingly enough, that gave me great satisfaction when they all apologized.) I prayed with the kids when they hurt themselves, and taught this one little girl, Kateri, who kept falling and hurting the same knee, to pray for her guardian angel to protect her. Imagine my joy when she comes running up to me, saying, "Guess what? I almost fell, but my guardian angel stopped me!"
The kids are so open to God's love there. There was a Pieta statue near the game field (for those of you who don't know what that is, this is what it looks like)
And the kids would just stand there and look at it. They'd ask questions about why Jesus died, and I'd get to answer them. They asked so many questions-they were so hungry for God- I really felt like I was on mission. I've only been on one other mission our church offers (my church does like 5- most in the North Dakota area- I've been on the one in Missouri.) Anyway, during some of the fights, the kids would bring up that they learned it from their parents. A dad tosses his three year old son on to the couch, a 4 year old little brother cusses up a storm, moms are drinking, dads don't care- these kids are in desperate need of love. And being that our theme was "Love Never Fails" well... I hope we showed them.
Needless to say, I'm going back next year. It was my first time on this mission, which we call CLC, and I loved it. It was the hardest work I've ever done, I lost half my voice, but it was great.
Number 3. Camp NaNoWriMo. *sigh* I hit 47 pages. My telling my parents I would fail somehow triggered a series of events that set of a whole bunch of steam and resulted in a huge fight. Not anything I did- it would've happened later, they assured me, but I just started it earlier by crying. My dad tried to leave to give me some space, but my mom sat him back down in his chair (we were about to eat dinner, so my timing was bad) like a 2 year old. Anyway, I was really upset for most of the night, especially since this happened the night before I had to leave for missions. However, I discovered a happy place- the last scene of Beauty and the Beast (yes, with the Mob Song, Gaston and Adam/Beast's confrontation, and -eek- Adam's transformation and the happy ending- of course) I watched that and suddenly felt so much better. Thanks, Disney. :D
But you know what I discovered? Most people, when they write a screenplay, even if it's for a musical, don't write the lyrics or the music. I took on 3 times the job of a normal screenwriter, and I finished half of it in the time allotted. I'm pretty darn proud of myself, I am. I'm going to give it a rest in July, and finish it during August. And come November- it's BEAUTY IS BLIND TIME!!!!
Yes, I am happy about that story. Though it requires some serious thought. I have to work out a lot of stuff.
Also, I am Catholic, (in case you didn't know) and since there's not a ton of Catholic fiction out there (at least not as much as Christian fiction- Ted Dekker, Left Behind... you know what I'm talking about) I like to put some Catholic touches in my stories. I was trying to work out a way for Beauty and the Beast to work without magic- just curses and blessings (there are legit curses- but no one calls them that anymore. Ever notice how some families always seem to get divorced or a certain disease... my mom says that's a curse. Or something. she wouldn't really talk more about it. Praying seems to get rid of 'em.) I'm having a hard time, since I want her stillborn twin Gabriel to play the "enchantress" character, as an angel, but since he's human, he can't be an angel and God wouldn't send him- he'd send an angel... and there was a bit with a demon I'm having issues with. Both Calista (Belle) and Damien (Beast) are cursed- Calista, with blindness because of a deal her mother Elani made so that Elani's father would let her marry Flavian, since Flavian was a shepherd and Elani's father was a merchant, and Elani his only child. Calista's curse was Elani's price- maybe for not upholding her part of the bargain... hmm...
Anyway, someone has just pointed me in the direction of The Shadow of the Bear series. They are Catholic Retold Fairy tales. Am kicking myself for not discovering sooner.
Can't think of anything else right now- I'm hungry (there's no food in our house- I mean, I kept complaining and my mom's like "you have pancakes, beans, and bread" What? Yeah. Oh, and protein bars. Yum! Not.)
I have an eye appointment tomorrow- I think I need stronger glasses, so this'll be fun. whohoo.
No comments:
Post a Comment