a tale of streets

Last night Emily and Suzka joined me on my usual evening walk. As we walked, Emily started telling a story. Here it is:
There was once a Coppersmith. Everyone called him Old Forge. He lived down by the GristMill in Tarrytown and all he drank was Brandy and Wine. One day he decided to commit a terrible crime: a Catskill. The crime scene was soon discovered but all that was left was a bunch of Gunpowder. They soon caught the criminal and shut him up in a Chatterhouse, where they beat him with a Clapborad. The End.
So, ths may not seem al that funny to you until you find out that she told this story using all the streets in our neighbourhood. Coppersmith, Old Forge, Gristmill, Tarrytown, Brandywine, Catskill, Gunpowder, Chatterhouse, and Clapboard are all streets within a mile of our house.

just a little update...

Just a couple little pieces of news about me:

• I have a new favorite band - the Decembrist. I really like them! Taylor and I listened to them yesterday on our four hour drive to hope and back. I like their sound a lot. Alos, i like that they are story tellers. All their songs, most of which are a bit weird, buthey... are stories.
• I nearly broke my back today craayig the biggest bag of dog food I've ever bought.
• My new favorite drink is Birch Beer - it's like root beer but better - by the Boylan company
• I've started experimenting with paint mediums...lately I've tried painting on wood, fingerpainting with temper paints on homemade canvas, painting the cover fo some notebooks with India Ink, burning designs on wood and painting pictures around those designs, and more...it's been fun
• I have decided to sell my car and get a moped
• My new favorite book of the Bible is Ephesians
• I have a very nsty paper cut on my right middle finger
• I accidently completely smoked out my room the other day burning the wood for my little project (kids, don't try that at home!)
• I'm excited for August and September, because Breaking Dawn and Bersinger come out then (the first is the fourth stephenie meyer book and the second is the third of the Inheritence Cycle)
• I'm surprised and excited to find out that the Inheritence Trilogy is now the Inheritence Cycle, because there will be a fourth book!
• Alex had a wreck, but is fine thankfully...not sure what I'd do if something had happened to her
• I'm now even more obsessed with oil lamps than i was before, which was the cause of my second smoking out of my room...

Hope you've enjoyed little snippets of my life of late...

seventeen, eighteen, nineteen....fifty...

Well, I am slowly coming to terms with my age (I know, I don't even want to think about the state I will be in when I turn fourty or fifty...). I am not quite there yet, but ninteen is settling a bit. I keep thinking, though, "Why be nineteen when you have exactly the same priveledges and responsibilities as when you were eighteen? Why not just stay eighteen." I had been quite determined to stay seventeen for the remainder of my life, but when I ended up turning eighteen enyways, I had to come to terms with it, after much destress and stubborn resentment of the natural ways of this world. Then I thought, well eighteen's not so bad...
I am now considered an official adult, there are bound to be some pluses to being ayear older than seventeen, so after a bit I decided there was no sense in fighting it. But now, after a year of being somewhat satisfied, I must add another year to my age (though I objected highly) and gain no priviledges at all, making the process so much harder than the year before. Oh well...Imagine being Bilbo and having to deal with an eleventieth birthday...sheesh...
I guess it is time for me officialluy announce the news that this summer I will be in Europe! I am helping my dad lead a teem for an English camp in Poprad, Slovakia. After the camp and a couple days of follow-up, Hudson and I will be staying for an additional three weeks, along with Alex, Seth, and Kari. Uderstandably, I am elated! We will be spending time both in Slovakia and Czech, traveling a lot, most likely. I just wanted everyone to be aware of this so that no one can say i didn't tell them. Well, I need to get to class.
Oh yes, and please pray for me I have been exhausted lately and not feeling completely well and am a bit frightened I might have mono or something similar. I cannot afford to be sick like that, so please keep me in mind...

nineteen...

Well, my friends, it's true. I am nineteen. Either life is too short or years are too fast. I don't know. However, i did have a very nice birthday this year. I hadn't been planning on a big party or anything. A nice family dinner (with Alex there), then a play at the Arkansas Rep with Suzka and Alex and a walk around downtown. That part was very fun! See my facebook for pictures! Alex gave me this big pink boa, so we took a bunch of pictures with it (color accent made it really fun!). Then came Sunday, which was pretty normal other than quite a few Birthday wishes from people. Then Monday. Alex told me we were going to Taylor's to watch Lost or soemthing of the sort, but t turned out to be a very nice surprise birthday part! It was quite a lot of fun! WE played catch phrase and listened to some crazy music and just hung out! Oh and Taylor baked me a cake! It was very good and very nice. A bit lopsided, as he pointed out to me (I thought it was cool that way) because the chocolate half didn't rise as much as the white half for some reason, but very tasty.
So, really my birthday was the highlight of the past few weeks since I last wrote. I really haven't done too much other than that! I've painted a little and done a bit of writing...nothing special, just sketches in both areas... I did start reading the Stephenie Meyers books, which i kind of fell in love with. I'm half way through the third one ( I started it yesterday. I read the other two in three days...yes, they are that good! No, they're not short - 1200 or so pages together, the two.) So if you are a girl (they're definitely girl books, though!) you should read them!
Well, school work awaits! I'll write again soon!

just a quick note on something rather funny...

Well, I don't have much time, but I'm just sitting here at my computer and have finally decidedto write something that hasreally been annoying me lately. It's actually Bingley, my dog. for some reason he has been doing this thing lately and I am certain he only does it to annoy me. The little retard will pant loudly, non sotp, while staring at me. I'll tell him to stop and he does for about four seconds after I look away, then he'll start back up again. I thought maybe he does it because he's thirsty, so I refilled his water bowl, but even after drinking he still does it. it's like he gets into these panting moods and just does it. He knows it annoys me because he only does it while staring at me and as soon as I say his name he will stop for a couple of seconds only to start right up again even louder than before. It's annoying when i'm trying to write a paper and this enormous golden lab sits two feet away, staring at me and panting. I'm not sure what to do. If you have any suggestions, please help me! Frankly, I'm losing my mind (he just started doing it again!).

boredom can be very boring...

For the next week I remained quite bored most of the time. I was either sitting at home bored, or standing at the podium at work bored. I worked everyday that week and kind of spent a lot of time thinking, sleeping and reading. Yes, I finally got back into the habbit of reading. Alex gave me one of the best presents I've gotten in a while, something I've been wanting ever sinc eI first picked it up - the Harry Potter books. So the day she gave them to me, I began reading. That week went by quite slowly and when Monday came, I was both dreading and looking forward to going to school again.
School turned out to be a very nice change. I really like my my teachers and am much more satisfied with my schedule than I was last year. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have Rhetoric at eight, Cultural Anthro. at nine, and Arts at ten, which means I'm done with school for the day by eleven and am free for a few hours before I have to be at work (either four or five o'clock). Tuesdays and Thursdays could have worked out a bit better, but I am not going to complain. I have World Civ. at nine twenty-five, then have an hour and a half break (which is fine because I get time to get some lunch this way) before I go to Physical Anthro. at twelve fifteen. This one is a Lab and a lecture combined, so it is two and a half hours long and doesn't end until two fifty-five. All this to say, school is looking pretty good so far for this semester.

Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer...

Christmas...ahhh. Well, before I skip to Christmas, I must give a brief mention of all my crammed-in Christmas shopping in between work and school and all other aspects of life. I will say that I am a bit proud of myself this year - I felt really good about the gifts I got people. Because naming them all would be long and tedious and I'm sure you have better things to do than to read my Christmas list, I will only mention a few of my highlight gifts. My favorite gift to give was the one I gave Alex. Really, I'm not sure you could call it a gift, but what I did was I took her to Conway, where there happens to be many an antique shop, and we shopped around all day for something she would like. I ended up getting her a pretty cool old chair, a book, and an old sign that says "sunflowers"! My next favorite gifts was my gift to Susannah, which was a hot pink thong about ten sizes too big for her, accompanied by a nice see-thu one that would fit her. And lastly, I got Hudson a little pocket watch. So there are my highlight gifts for the year.
Christmas was wonderful. Unlike last year, we were home for the holidays and we all thoroughly enjoyed them. On Christmas Eve we had our traditional Mexican fiesta and opened gifts. Mamaw and Pappaw came down for Christmas day and we ate Christmas dinner together and spent the next couple days with them. Susannah's birthday was, of course, the next day and we had a nice little family celeration. Alex and I took her( a couple days later) to get her nails done and got her a yummy icecream cake. Hudson's birthday was next, and in true Hudson style, he held a huge party for friends here at our house. Shortly after that, the holidays ended for everyone but me. All te highschols went back to school, but I had a week left.

semester one - over and done with...

Thought I really did enjoy my first semester of college, I must admit that when the end of it arrived, I was very much relieved and happy. December fifth was my last day of classes and all I had left to do was wait to find out how bad I had done. Later that month, however, I was happy to find that I did much better than I'd been dreading I'd done and I decided I liked college a lot more than I thought I did. Right around this time I also registered for my next semester of classes. With a tinge of aversion, I signed up for my next classes which were to be: Rhetoric II, Cultural Anthropology, Intro to Fine Arts, World Civilization II, and Physical Anthropology. Now that I have started and have experienced them a little, I must admit that I chose faily well; however, at the time I wanted to have nothing to do with school. I was very glad to be free for an entire month.

what else can i say...

It's true. I know...I have let you all down. It has been nearly two months since I wrote to you all. I apologize, sincerely from the heart! You see the problem was I find that when one is not ispired to write it makes it quite hard, not fun, and less effective. Therefore, I believe one would almost be better off not write without inspiration than writing and making a mess of it all. Sadly, for nearly two months now I have found myself quite unispired. However, the good news is, I am now isnspired, fired up, and ready to bring you all up to date. Instead of writing one long droning post, I ave decided to break it up into three or four smaller posts to make things more interestng. And...if my computer cooperates, I might even put up a few pictures! So, get excited for what is about to come! yay...

it's not really beginning to look a lot like christmas...

Well I have finally come around to write another post. Ilife has pretty much just been normal. Well other than the fact that Thanksgiving just came and went. Thanksgiving is my second favotire holiday so I guess I cannot say nothing has been happening. After I wrote two Tuesdays ago nothing too exciting happened that week. Friday I went to my first basketball game of the season, which turned out to be only mildly exciting. The rest of the weekend was about the same.

Then, on Monday, the Monday of Thanksgiving week, I had school. However, this time I was not alone on campus. Alex, because she had the entire week off, took a college day, or rather just decided to shadow me all day at school. It was much fun. She met me at my house bright and early at six thirty for my cursed seven o'clock class and we got to class right on time. Then basically she just followed me around to my classes all day with a quick trip to the mall just down the road for lunch! After school she had to go home to help her mom out with something, so I went home and cleaned up my room a bit (I never seem to completely clean up my room...it's always just a bit...earning me coments from my dad like "sometime i would love to actually be able to SEE your room rather than have to look for it under this mess"). Then I took a quick nap and got ready for Heather's birthday party. heather, hudson's girlfriend and a friend of mine was turning sixteen so her parents threw her a big party at the church - complete with a DJ and cool colored lights. The party was much fun and all the girls came over to our house afterwards for a few episodes of Gilmore Girls (NOT my choice!) and to spend the night.

The rest of the week all my classes had been cancelled so I kind of just hung out at home, went to work, and just did whatever. Tuesday I was home in the morning doing just hanging out with Kailey who was the only girl left at my house once I finally woke up. I then went to work in the afternoon. Wednesday I was at home most of the day, helping my mom get ready for eighteen people to come for Thanksgiving and actually doing a somewhat good cleaning of my room, which I proudly displayed to my dad afterwards which earned me a small smile and nod from him. Then that evening I went to the Erwins to hang out with people. As always we basically ended up doing nothing, so Kailey, Alex, and I got Ratatouille and watched it while everyone else sat upstairs and talked very loudly.

Thursday was thanksgiving but no one could make it to our house until late that afternoon, so we had decided not to celebrate until Friday. This was good, because I had to work Thursday afternoon. Work was okay, but somewhat boring. I got cut two hours early and went home to find a house full of little cousins and aunts and uncles and my pappaw and mammaw. We had some yummy taco soup made by my mother, then just sat around talking and doing nothing so I went in my room and painted a picture to give my dad the next day for his birthday! Susannah and Hannah joined me in my room for the weekend since their room was needed for someone else. So after we'd convinced my dad to have evryone go to bed, we chatted abit in bed, then went to sleep. Three of us tried sleeping in my bed because none of us wanted to sleep on the floor, but Suzka and Hannah both tend to take over the bed, so halfway through the night, after halling out of bed twice, I got on the floor and slept a somewhat restless sleep until my mom woke me up Friday morning to start baking. I baked three pumpkin, two apple, and a banana cream pies, all of which turned out satisfactory. Then I made some somewhat rushed dinner rolls just in time for the enormous feast we all then ate. I had really been looking forward to my Thanksgiving nap, but I soon heard my dad had planned to climb Pinnacle (the tallest mountain around which is a grand hike a mile and a half long...wow, i know!). so, with what felt like half a turkey in my stomach I climbed the mountain in order to avoid my dad whining at me for sleeping while everyone else was outside climbing. when we got back down, I took pictures as almost everyone else played football. The game was short, though bescause everyone got very cold very fast. So we returned to the house for a supper of pie and birthday cake (my dad and aunt both had a birthday on the 23rd.) as we watched first some football, then Ratatouille all together. Friday I went to bed a bit earlier than the night before.
I woke up Saturday morning to my aunt telling me we'd been rolled. Hannah and my cousin had seen that it was Taylor, Seth, and supposedly someone else (it ended up being only the two of them though). I just hung around the house all morning and into the afternoon, then went to Burns park at four, where everyone was playing soccer. However, i didn't really want to play, so I brought my bow, picked up kailey on my way over there, and went to the "archery range" at the park. We short for a while in the rain, got very cold and wet, then gave up and went to Starbucks for some Chai and coffee. We were both spending the night at Alex's house that night but we weren't expected until seven so we took our time at Starbucks, then picked up a movie (in the land of women), then picked up some food and went to Alex's. Once at Alex's we took a little time changing out of out wet clothes, getting situated, then hungrily ate our food as we watched the movie. We talked a while after the movie then got bored so we met up with Seth and Carson and went and rolled Kari. It was fun, but didn't turn out like we'd intended it to. We then returned to Alex's house and got in bed and were going to watch Moulin rouge but ended up talking instead.
Sunday morning Kailey was supposed to wake me up when she got up so we'd make it to small group. However, though she claims she woke me up twice...I remember none of it, so I overslept and Kailey had to go ahead with out me. It turned out that we didn't have small group anyways, so all was well. Alex and I arrived at church a bit late in true Tedford fashion but made it to the end of worship anyways. After church I went home with a stop at Chilis for some chips and salsa, had lunch, then took a four-hour nap to make up for my skipped Thanksgiving nap. Then Caleb called and said people were going to his house to hang out for a bit (we didn't have work because of the holiday). so I got up, made a yummy sandwich, changed out of my pj's, and went over to the Erwins'. we really didn't do much. We just sat arund talking and laughing. We started a game of pictionary, but only got to about three rounds when the game just kinda disolved into more talking and laughing. We almost watched Aladin, but again, somehow play never got pushed. So finally everyone kinda dispursed to go home and do homework, so I did the same. I didn't have as much as I thought I had, which was good because I thought I had a ton. Then I answered some emails and messages, and went to bed.
This morning I just barely got up in time for my seven o'clock class and got to school only to find that class was canceled due to a lost key or something like that. So I just sat around, wrote a letter, and started this post. i had to go to class half way through, though, then I came back here after class and am now finishing up. I have about a week and a half of school left then come the Christmas holidays, wich I'm really looking forward to! Hopefully then I'll have some more time to write on here! It's been getting steadily colder and colder outside so I will probably be spending most of the holidays inside. Meanwhile, i expect many a comment from all of you and hopefully maybe even an email or two if I get lucky!