The Final Chapter and a New Scene

Oh boy oh boy oh boy... very exciting things happening in my life right now!

1. I just got a new microphone, so I can now record the audiobook of my novel.  Why is this exciting, you may ask?  The sooner I get it done, the sooner my parents read my novel.  Neither has any time (or in my mom's case) any desire to read, but both spend an inordinate amount of time in the car.  Put my book on CDs and they both can read it.  Plus, I like recording myself playing stuff and my old microphone got lost while we cleaned the playroom.  And this one is much nicer anyway.
2. Also just got a new book of French horn music- and it's DISNEY! Why wouldn't this be exciting?  I've spent most of the night playing Prince Ali and Go the Distance.  Prince Ali is stuck in my head.  But I love it.
3. Elli's birthday presents came today. She's going to love them.
4. I just got paid $121 for babysitting.  Seems my life has been babysitting.  
5. I finished editing my novel.  Am working on getting it up on CreateSpace.  I also shared it with a few people, which is exciting.
6. Elli's getting her novel up on CreateSpace as well.  It's a lot smaller than she anticipated, but it looks cute and will be a good beginning chapter book.
7. I figured out who to dedicate my book to.  And no, I'm not telling.  It's a secret!
8. In a matter of 2 hours and 15 minutes Camp NaNoWriMo starts!!! Twice Upon a Time, here I come.  (I was acting it out for Elli the other night using a small Mary statue as Jennie, a silver cross as Micah, a wood cross as Nolan, and an angel statue thing as Connie.  I will never look at that silver cross the same way again.  I felt ridiculous.  It was also like 11pm...)
9. My cousin's getting married this weekend!  Need I say more?
10. We just got memberships at the Y which is kinda fun.  Did my orientation tonight and discovered that there are machine where you can bike and read AT THE SAME TIME!  Forget the ellipticals and treadmills with the TVs- give me a good book and a crash free stationary bike that is klutz proof.  Lee's so funny.  He's so excited to go there and work out.  He thinks he's so cool.  "Haili, can we go to the Y every day?  I need to *flexes* work out" (keep in mind, he's 11... dear me...)

Reasons why I'm not happy

1. CreateSpace is being obnoxious with formatting my book.  And I mean OBNOXIOUS.  Every time I upload my novel, it screws something up and I have to go fix it.

Story Epiphanies and Frustration

At the moment, I should not be on the computer, being that my room is not clean.  But I am on the computer because I have to re-sync my iPod.  "Why?" you might ask, "Why, Haili, must you re-sync your iPod?"  Because, oh curious blog reader of mine, my younger brothers though it was perfectly acceptable to take my iPod, erase it of my music (ALL of it) and sync it with whatever was in their wimpy iTunes library.  (which was sample music...)

Now, if you don't know my brothers, you won't know that they have sticky fingers and are always getting in trouble for stealing everything from my dad's sugar (he's diabetic, so when he needs it, he needs it.) to taking my sister's and my Easter candy.  You also will not know that I am the ONLY person in my house that owns an iPod of any sort (mine's a 4th gen iPod nano that I won in a drawing at Winterblast in 8th grade, a few days after my birthday).  Come to think of it, I'm the only person who own anything made by Apple.  My siblings have MP3 players, but they're all the same, so it's easy to see why they might take Elli's "on accident" And Elli and my brothers each got a mini DVD player (the boys share) and they're exactly the same.  Elli put some kitten stickers on hers and the boys have foil stars on theirs.  But they got theirs taken away and have stolen Elli's several times.  (Elli bought it with her allowance money, after the few weeks that we had allowances).

So, anyway, there I was, cleaning my room like a good daughter, and after finally getting my iPod boombox to work and failing to get Air1 to come in on the radio, I decided to find my iPod, which I had recently recovered from the boys, and put in some tunes.  Imagine my surprise when some Willie Nelson song comes on and all my playlists,(including a high-energy one that inspired last year's NaNoWriMo) are gone.  Let's just say I was not happy.  And a few less- than- savory words escaped my mouth.

But... I fixed it.  I can fix anything, right?  Right.

On to happier things.  After seeing the Avengers with my family (because it was a rainy day) we went to drop off a dresser at Salvation Army and my dad wanted to find some short sleeved dress shirts, so we went in.  That place is HUGE!!  I love consignment stores, so I had a hayday.  I only found four things- a pretty gold headband that I am currently wearing, an orange shirt with pretty little flowers on it, a brown/tan shirt with blue flowers on it, and my mom found a really pretty pair of heels that matches it exactly.  I'm wearing those and my jean skirt to church tomorrow... all of this for like $12.

Also, had a major story breakthrough on the Storm Children front.  While cleaning my room, (go figure) I found an old school library book of Elli's about fairy tales and proceeded to read it.  I came upon the last story, The Snow Queen, and remembered my attempt at retelling this fascinating fairy tale.  Then I realized- my storm children!  I renamed Rain Vallisri to Rain Gerdasri (ger DA sri) and made her into the Gerda character.  I made Ciro (wind) visible and gave him a last name, Ciro Kayten.  He's the Kay character.  I made Ferren Thorling (thunder) into the "Robber Girl" character (only he's a boy...) and had Elysia (lightning) be another girl the old lady at the beginning of the story has under her spell.  She and Rain escape together and Elysia helps Rain find Ciro.

Rain's still a gypsy girl, taken in by Ciro's mountain dwelling family after her parents are killed by the townspeople.  When Ciro goes missing/is kidnapped by the Snow Queen, Rain decides to repay the debt to Ciro's family by saving her best friend.  In the tale, Gerda often speaks to the river.  I may give Rain the power of water-speaking (to borrow a phrase from Shannon Hale, another retold fairy tale author).  And the other children similar powers.  Of course the Snow Queen and Rain's battle shall be interesting... cold and water...hmm...

gotta go- more later.

My Hunger Games Review and Stormy Stories

So last night, I finished the last Hunger Games book.  I have to say, I liked them.  They were certainly better than Twilight.  (Okay, I can't judge fairly since I haven't read Twilight and I'm not going to unless someone comes up with a really good argument) I'm just not the type of girl who likes to read straight romance novels.  It's like drinking maple syrup.  I do, however, love it when romance comes into play in a novel in a significant way, so long as the book still has some semblance of a plot if the romance component were removed.

So, Hunger Games, yes, you were good.  And yes, I read you very quickly, so you weren't a drag.  Story line was good, and now I finally understand all these Hunger Games things I see on the internet.  Was it worth my time?  Yes.  Were they good books?  Yes.  Great, even.  Would I read them again?  Probably.  Will I become a screaming fangirl?  Most likely not.

Though this picture made me laugh so hard last night...

((URG, can't find it... I'll edit this later when and if I find it... you'll just have to wait in suspense until then...MWHAHAHA!!))

Last night it stormed, as it did all of today, and I couldn't sleep and being the girl I am, I came up with yet another story idea- Storm Children.  Four kids are born on the same night during a vicious storm.  Elysia, the child of lightning, Farren, the son of thunder, Raina "Rain" (guess...) and Ciro, our narrator, the son of wind.

Rain is the daughter of a gypsy woman and is born outdoors in the pouring rain.  Hence, her name.

Elysia is born as lighting strikes, illuminating her home as if it were day.  I can't remember who her parents were.

The next town over, Farren is born a few minutes later, his first cries drowned out by the sound of thunder.  Can't remember his family status either, only that he ends up movie to Elysia's village, or maybe it was the other way around.

Ciro is the most interesting.  His first breath is stolen by the wind and somehow he is carried away and taken by the wind, becoming the wind in a way.  Ciro's a bit of an invisible ghost.  At this point.  He finds his way to Elysia and Ferren's village, as does Rain.  Something happens.  I have no plot at this point.  But I like the idea of a story that addresses an issue with society; having it set in a dystopian society, like the Hunger Games or Birthmarked.  Like I said, this was 11 o clock last night...

The most interesting thing about Storm Children is that I'm planning to write it in 2nd person present tense.  As in, "The moment you drew your first breath, the Wind itself stole it away from you.  You hear your mother screaming, "Ciro!  Ciro!" But there's nothing you can do..." (the YOU narrator being Ciro, if that wasn't obvious enough.)  For the times Ciro's not there, I'll use 3rd person... just an idea.  I'm crazy.

Oh, looking at colleges and I think I found one- Concordia College at Moorhead!  so... I'm happy again.  okay... gonna go play Jewel Craft... I mean, clean my room... ;)

How I went to prom for under $50

Prom!  I'm still waiting for the pictures to come up on facebook (the reason I got facebook- see below) but you can check on www.facebook.com/catholicprom.  I'm the one in the short red dress- and yes, I found a prom dress!  First dress I tried on at Kohl's.  Ironic, huh?  Even more so because of the color.  I was planning on making a red or reddish dress for my graduation next year, since one of my high school's colors is red, and red is the main color of both of my top two colleges, St. Benedict's and Augsburg.  Lo and behold, a modest dress that is short (no hemming required!) and fit, and was on sale for like $30.  I remember praying in the car: Okay, God, I'm going to Catholic prom.  And I need a dress.  Modest would be awesome- then again, you want me to find a modest dress, I'm sure.  And under $50 would be great.  Thanks.  Love, Haili.

It turned out that most of the stores didn't open until 10:00.  I was at the stores at like 9.  So I ended up going to the one store that was open on a whim- Kohl's.  We frequent this store often and I knew they had some formals, but I was really banking on some consignment stores and Goodwill to have a nice dress.  Not Kohls.  But Kohl's had a $78 dress on sale for 60% off, and my mom had an additional 15% off (like I said, we go to Kohl's a lot.  My parents will walk out of there after paying $300 for a whole bunch of stuff and having saved like $900 [yes, we've saved $900 at Kohl's before- see why we like it?  Most of my dress shirts and dresses that aren't handmade are from this store]) So anyway, the dress was around $25.  And I was done shopping and it wasn't even 10 in the morning yet!  Yay!  So I went to the library and waited for lunch...

Prom was really awesome and I had a great time.  If you're curious about the post title, the ticket to Catholic Prom was $20 and that included mass, food, and entertainment.  Dress + Ticket= $45 (approximately)  If you don't count my shoes or accessories, which I already had.  The shoes were about $20 I think and they're fairly new- they're the heels I got to go with my easter dress- the silver ones.  My red dress had a silver buckle and I think they complemented quite nicely.  Still, that was $65 including the shoes- still well under $100 and not too far over $50.  The necklace I wore was a gift, and my hair accessory was also a gift- my little tiara.  There were two girls at prom, one named Sophie whom I dubbed Cinderella, because of her sparkling blue ball gown and jeweled headband and bun (she was brunette- that was the only difference.  She even had silver shoes!  And the best part was- she didn't plan it) and the other name Claire whom I dubbed Belle, because of her GORGEOUS gold ball gown.  It had a lace up back and the bodice was covered in tiny pearls and sparkles.  Her skirt was all tulle and sparkles and it was huge!  I was so jealous.  ;) Not really, but I loved it.  When I walked in, it was the first thing I noticed.  It was a ton of fun and I met two girls who shared my love of fairy tales, told and retold.  Whilst discussing Fairest and The Goose Girl and of course, Ella Enchanted, I told them about Beauty is Blind and not only did they love my title, but started spouting off stuff from the original fairy tale and when one started talking about Cupid and Psyche and I knew exactly what they were talking about... a friendship was born!

On to the explanation of the facebook thing above.  For those of you who know me, you will know that my parents have not let me get a facebook for the longest time.  Well, as of Sunday, I now have a facebook!  My parents are kinda paranoid when it comes to internet.  It's kinda funny- I don't have a curfew or anything, though I try to get home before midnight when I'm out and about (the only times I'm ever out that late anyway are when I'm a. babysitting, or b. at a few-and-far-between party, usually of the cast variety for a play.  And even then, I call my mom or dad first to let them know)  But when it comes to the internet, I made my own email at age 13 (the first really naughty thing I did- since I did it on my own- but once they figured out that I hadn't lied about my age to get it, they relented.  They were trying to set up an email through quest for me, but it wasn't working.  I just sped the process up.)  I made a website a long time ago that no one ever looks at, but if you're interested, it's www.misunderstandingsunderstood.webs.com but it appears webs has taken it down.  I made this blog, too, without their permission.  But I'm really careful online about stalkers and stuff.   That's why you won't see me posting where I live beyond something like my state, and why I use obscure nicknames for names on this blog to protect my identity.  I even have an online last name I use when I don't want to use my real name.  I have my real name on facebook, though.  I had to give my mom my password, but only so she can see what I see.  If I'm friends with someone she's not okay with or finds something she doesn't like, she's going to give me a chance to explain and/or fix it, and if I refuse, she has the right to change it for me.  At least until I turn 18, which isn't that far away.  I'm a good kid, and I don't think she's going to need to take those measures, but they're there just in case.  And I told her no going on and messing with my status or posting in my name like other people's moms sometimes do.  She said she wouldn't do that.  I trust her.

On another happy note, I'm done with classes (you already know this most likely) at college and have to return my books.  Only I was missing a CD set from my very expensive music textbook.  And I have to return them before June 8th.  But I had to find those CDs.  And I found them today and I'm really happy.  They've been missing almost all semester, so ironically, I never got to use them.  But now at least I have them.  So, YAY!

Things I like at this very moment:
M. J. Putney's books Dark Mirror and Dark Passage.  I'm trying to get ahold of the next book, Dark Destiny.  But it won't be released until July.  It's about time traveling mages in 1804 and 1940 England.  Just read it- it's good.

Margaret Peterson Haddix's The Missing books- Found, Sent, Sabotaged, and Torn.  I just finished Torn and really like it.  Again, time travel (wow, theme here I didn't plan)  It's about missing kids from history (Virginia Dare, John Hudson, Richard, Duke of York, and Edward V, and Leiserl Einstein, to name a few) who were kidnapped out of their time by time travelers (don't remember why- adoption?  Famous kids to be adopted?) Anyway, they're trying to fix all of history by putting the kids back.  The main character, Jonah is one of the missing kids from history, and the last book, Revealed, is supposed to tell who he is.  Between Torn and Revealed, there's supposed to be Caught (about Einstein's daughter) and Risked (supposedly set in Russia)  I can't wait this long, people!!!   This is why I hate reading new series.  You have to wait so long in between books.
Okay, I'm excited now.  But I've got to go to school...

Oh, more good news.  Finished typing Elli's novel the other day!  Now she just has to edit- it's longer than she thought.  She thought it was 6,000 words or something, but according to word, it's 7,515.  Yay, Elli!  And shhh- I'm buying her birthday presents, but I'm not telling because she's one of the two followers I have.  Come on guys- if you read this, follow it so I know that you read it!!!

okay, I'm out
-Haili

Long story short...

So, I didn't think I'd be going to prom this year because I just didn't really want to and my family couldn't really afford it.  But when I found a dress that fit (other than the fact that it was too long- but being four foot nine, that much is to be expected) for $18.99 at Goodwill, I decided that I should go.  No sooner had I done this than I realized that NOBODY, and I mean NONE of my friends were going to prom.  I was going to be alone on a boat stuck with people I barely knew and bored out of my mind.  Not to mention that the zipper on my dress went to poop and didn't work anymore.

So then I decided to sell my ticket; but I still wanted my dress fixed because I wanted to wear it.  So I brought it to the lady I babysit for since she's a seamstress.  Long story short, it would have to be hemmed 9 frikin' inches, a corset back and modesty panel put in, another panel in the front because I thought the dress was okay modestly, but she pointed out that because I'm so short EVERYONE looks DOWN at me- so I have to be extra careful.  So we'd have to put something in front, and add some off the shoulder straps for security since it was strapless.  Anyway, it would've cost $100 at least.  I didn't want to spend that much on it and I didn't even like the colors.  It was black with hot pink accents.

I had also recently figured out my "season" to find out what colors look best on me and come to the conclusion that I was a Warm Autumn.  Which basically means I can pull off golds and oranges and browns and greens and blues really well (just not ice blue) but my two big no-no colors?  Hot pink and black.  So that dress was about the worst color possible for me.

So, I decided to spend the $50 I would've spent on a prom ticket on a young women's retreat at my church that was going to happen this weekend.  Only, only four girls signed up.  My parents had also orchestrated it so that they were "kid-free" this weekend (and were probably going to celebrate their anniversary, which was Tuesday)  My brothers were on a Scout Camp and my sister was going to a friend's house and I was going to go on the retreat.  Well, that worked out well... not.

So turns out that there's Catholic Prom this weekend and my friend (who was also planning to go on the retreat) is going and wants me to go with her.  Basically, she's coming to my piano recital Friday night and I'm spending the weekend with her- so my parents ended up kid-free anyway.  So now I've got to find a prom dress before Saturday.  That's going to be my mission today- but none of the stores open til 9- it's 8:30.  *sigh*  Wish me luck!








*I'm gonna need it....

Senior Pictures...what???

Okay... sorry I haven't blogged in a while. It's been slightly crazy.  Finals are over-yay!  And I'm finally going to edit my novel from NaNo- my code expires next month- yipes! Time flies.
A little bit on my life at the moment:

• I went and saw "Beauty and the Beast" (the DISNEY version!) at a high school not far from mine.  It was great- except the girl who played Belle was more of a Megara (from Hercules) and kept belting out heartfelt lines like "Oh but then/as my life has been altered once/it can change again" from Home.  And they put her in a blue, yellow, and orange diagonal striped bodice.  You'd think as the main character, they'd find her a plain blue bodice.  Seriously.  It threw me off every time I saw her.  I give the whole performance a B.  The Beast was awesome, as were Lumiere and Cogsworth.  For some odd reason, I also found myself liking Maurice, though he didn't do anything spectacular- he just stuck out to me- in a good way.  I think.
• Went to open my Grandma's Cabin.

This is where the post title comes in.  On the way home, my mom says, "You know, we have to start thinking about senior pictures."

I was like "What?!? Oh.......wow.  Um..." I had my yearbook with me and asked my mom which senior pictures she liked.  She, of course, picked out all the boring ones- ones taken in studios with plain drab backgrounds in boring clothes that looked good, but were nothing special.  Now here's our problem.  I want my senior picture to be unique, just as quirky and odd as I am.  I want people to look back at my senior picture and remember something specific about me.  One kid had his dirt bike in his senior picture; you may not remember him, but you'll remember he liked dirt bikes by looking at his picture.  Last year, our tuba player Alex had his tuba in the picture with him.  Some people take it with a special place in the background.  Others with their musical instruments or animals, like their horse.

My mom wants me to wear a formal to semi formal outfit- preferably a green blouse that I wore this year for school pictures, with a plain background.

I want something that is more...me.  Those plain pictures can have so little personality in them and are easily forgotten.  I want to have a unique picture- something that reflects my personality.  I'm a dreamer- I suggested an eyes-up pose.  I thought about recreating this pose from my favorite movie:

In different clothes, of course.  Wouldn't want to make it too obvious that I'm basing a picture off of an animated Disney movie.

Still, the more I look at this pose (the first one, not the compilation) the more I like it.  I could wear a bow in my hair as a headband (I used a scrap of purple fabric tied in a bow as a headband one day and you wouldn't believe all the compliments I got!)  If I don't have a scrap I like, I can buy a two inch sample from Joann's (didn't know you could do that- now I do.  It's awesome!)  If not that, I could wear one of the dragonfly hair pieces I made in ninth grade.  I wore the necklace this year in my school pictures.  The hairpiece too, but you couldn't see it.  If I used a daisy instead of a dandelion, it would also mean something- daisies and dragonflies are important symbols in my life.  Dragonflies remind our family of my brother Steven (my only biological one) who died at 2 days old.  The story my parents read to 1 1/2 year old me to explain death to kids had to do with a dragonfly who couldn't go back with the water bugs.  Water bugs being the living people, dragonflies being those in heaven.  They can see us, but can't come back.  Daisy was my nickname as a baby- very little used, at that- as in oopsa-daisy.  Yep- I was always klutzy.

And not only is Beauty and the Beast my favorite fairy tale, but it's one that means a lot to me.  I'm writing a novel based on the fairy tale, so it would also reflect my writing.  She's singing in this pose, so it would represent my love of music.  And since I'm almost acting, it would also show my passion for drama.  This is the kind of picture I want- something with deep meaning... hopefully my mom agrees... :D