First Post of the Year (true to form, three weeks late)

Happy New Year?

Seems I do everything belatedly. Ah, well. I have a good excuse this time: we moved!

And I'm sure y'all know that already.

Dad just set the computer up last night, so this is the first chance I've had to really sit down and use a computer in probably two weeks. Yes, I know we're in the third week of January, but it's been a busy month.

Whoa. Three weeks into the new year. Yikes!

I don't have much to say right now. I just needed to blog, especially with it being Tuesday. If any of my devoted readers have noticed, I changed my title, as I said I would. I don't remember when exactly I decided on it. I remembered this post, which I didn't realize until now was the first post ever for this blog! (Also, the song mentioned in that post has still not been written. It may never get written,  unfortunately.)

Around the time I settled on my new title, a friend shared this with another friend on facebook:

Life is But a Weaving
Corrie Ten Boom (The Tapestry Poem)

My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I cannot choose the colors
He weaveth steadily.
Oft' times He weaveth sorrow;
And I in foolish pride
... Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.
Not 'til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas
And reveal the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver's skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned
He knows, He loves, He cares;
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives the very best to those
Who leave the choice to Him.

 

It's not exactly the idea I had behind "Tapestry", but it's very close, so it deserves sharing. It's also just a good poem.

My right pinkie is getting numb in this cold office, so I'll be wrapping this up. (I know. Me being brief. Weird, huh?)

The new house is great! Okay, so it has its quirks, but none we can't deal with. Probably the biggest for me (yes, bigger than tricky doors and weak heating upstairs) is the well water. At least, the hot water that smells like sulfur.

The first morning here, I woke up, and in my semi-conscious state* I thought someone was cooking eggs. Then I sat up and realized that wasn't quite right. Then I realized it was someone running hot water in the kitchen.

But we're surviving. More space (I mean, way more than we've ever had to my knowledge), the ability to look out of any window and now be looking into the neighbor's house, and being surrounded by cornfields has its perks. We're not much furthur from everything, though we're trying to develop the habit of getting all of our in-town errands done in the fewest runs possible (which means I do a lot when I go in for work). Oh, and we don't have a dryer yet, because ours is gas and it's electric here. We make do.

I feel guilty having the largest room in the house, but it comes with conditions. Namely, Mom and Dad get it when guests come over (and we will be getting more guests) and I bunk with one of the girls. We raided a friend's garage when we first moved in and she shared some of her old furniture, which resulted in a bed and bookcase for me and almost a chair, but it was too wide for the stairs.

Oh, and the stairs could be implemented in a training program for hiking the Machu Picchu trail. (In that they're steep, not that they're carved out of a mountain.) (Also, I was going to use a picture with a human in it, but felt funny posting "Claire's" picture on my blog, even though it did put things in perspective as far as the stairs went.)

I'm losing feeling in my entire right hand now, so I'm going to leave. I'll be back soon, I promise.

*I didn't want to insert this into the body of the post with parentheses:
I get the dictionary.com Word of the Day, and this one came up a few days ago: hypnopompic \hip-nuh-POM-pik\, adjective: Of or pertaining to the semiconscious state prior to complete wakefulness.
As if even I would ever use this word. I'm still stumbling a bit over the pronunciation. I was going to use this word instead of "semi-conscious", but thought better of it.
Then there's Peter Pan: "You know that place between sleeping and awake, that place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always think of you."

Dreaming of a Real Winter (Also: Back to the Issue of Titles)

Last year around this time (okay, in September) I wrote a blog post about autumn, and about the different "visions of autumn", like gray and drizzly with the bright colors or sunshiny and clear and vibrant. This year, I haven't even been able to enjoy the colors all that much. Our color peak came a couple weeks early, and then wind and rain brough most of that color to the ground in a few days. We're still getting some shifting trees, but mostly it's all brown. And it's been gray and rainy.

There's snow in the forecast for next week. Considering our poor winter last year, I'm super excited. I'd love to actually have snow on the ground for Christmas - Thanksgiving, even - and be able to build a few forts and things like that.

The only thing that worries me is driving in the snow. I took driver's ed in November last year, but it wasn't really wintry weather yet. (And when we finally did get snow, it didn't last long.)

Mom and Dad like to use the old-school methods of predicting the weather; chiefly, how the animals are behaving. (But then, this is Michigan, and our wildlife is always a little abnormal.) I've seen some pretty obese squirrels lately, which Mom says could mean either lots of snow or lots of bitter cold. I'm hoping for the former.

The bad weather all year meant poor crops. Where the apple trees were overloaded two years ago, they're empty this year. The next time someone complains about having too much snow and wishing for more southern weather, I'm going to point to last winter and the one before and the subsuquent harvests. And I'll probably be struggling to refrain from kicking them solidly in the shins. If you want southern climates, move south. This is Michigan, for crying out loud!

Of course, the warmer weather last winter meant I was puddle-jumping for my birthday instead of throwing snowballs, and that part was fun.

My biggest problem with a decent winter is that I'm going to have to be careful to not spend all of my money on fun winter clothing. And boots. With colorful winter inserts. And fingerless gloves. And a new NaNoWriMo t-shirt. Especially with the big ladies' shopping trip coming up.

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, this will be the second year in a row that I'm not doing it. I'm still struggling with my superhero story ( and to any of you reading this who read that, I'm so sorry) and the story about the dragon who can't fly (which I'm wise enough to only share with my sister before it's completed). There's also the matter of my not having a computer of my own. Hopefully, a couple more paychecks will fix that (although the other thing that needs to be fixed is my dog, and that's a more pressing issue), but until then I'm using Dad's computer, and that won't work for word wars.

I'm sure about mid-January I won't be half so happy about snow (if we do in fact get it and not the alternative of bitter cold), but right now I can't wait for it. Actually, about the time we start subbing our youth pastor's boys' paper routes is when I'll be hating it.

I finally broke out the Christmas music this week. Sometimes we start listening to it in August, but this year and last we started late. I'm not very excited for when the radios start playing it, though. How many different versions of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" can they come up with?

In other news, I've still been pondering the matter of a new blog title. Yeah, even I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it.

What about "Slapdash Serendipity"? Yup. I seriously just made that one up. But I really do like the word "serendipity". However, "perfunctory" is rather a fun word as well, but it's definition isn't all that great ("lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm").

Something that's been stuck in my head since yesterday is the phrase "banana guilt", a concept introduced to me last week. It's where we look at a banana that's not yellow but more brown and a tad mushy, and we would prefer not to use it, when in fact that's the best time to use bananas, because that's when they have the most flavor. Which explains why banana bread recipes call for overripe bananas.

I had the idea yesterday that, were I ever to write a biography of sorts, even fictionalizing it a little, "Banana Guilt" could be a fun title.

Seems that, currently, I'm leaning toward fun phrases as opposed to a title with my name in it. I even briefly considered "Defying Gravity", because I'm thoroughly enjoying the "Wicked" soundtrack I borrowed from Jessi. (Up until a few weeks ago, I'd only heard a few songs.) Then there's my continued attempts to think up a good phrase from a favorite poem, quote, or verse.

It's probably because I can't track down a decent adjective that flows with my name. I don't even care right now if it starts with "a".  I still like "abstract", "absentminded" suits me, "anecdote" is fun, and "ambidexterity" has the same first three letters as my name, but none of those really seems to work.

Did you know that "somniloquence" is talking in your sleep? Yes, I'm browsing dictionary.com.

Ah, well. Guess I keep pondering that. Maybe eventually I'll come up with something.

The Search for a Title Continues

Why do I want to change my blog title, you ask? I've asked myself the same question. It took me considerable effort to come up with "Breathless". I know I have a bad habit of switching up my blog as it is, but here's the deal: what I have right now still isn't the style I want to go for.

I want something a little more personal than "Breathless". And perhaps less quietly poetic and more perky. Something that suits my personality and the style of my posts a little better. However, I absolutely detest coming up with titles and slogans and whatnot. No thank you.

Looking around at some of the blogs I follow, I notice that girls my age often like to have their name in the title along with a word (an adjective, a lot of the time) that usually has the same first letter as their name. It makes the title catchy and simple, and I like alliterations. I liked this idea, but it's hard to find a decent "a" adjective. 

I went through dictionary.com and looked at the words starting "amb-". Not much there, really. I did discover "ambisinister", which, evil as it sounds, simply means "clumsy or unskillful with both hands". There's also "ambition", "ambivalence" (uncertainty or fluctuation, especialy when caused by inability to make a choice or by a simultaneous desire to say or do two opposite or conflicting things), "amble", and "ambry" (which is simply, "chiefly British dialect", a closet or pantry). Not really helpful, all in all. 

Some people make the title a simple definition of what their blog is about, like "Magical Moments". However, I don't keep my posts to one general subject or theme. It's just me.

Then there are people whose title is simply something they like, like my sister's "Stained Glass". I like a lot of stuff, from writing to gardening to my mom's new bike.

Some people just try to be as catchy as possible. My other sister has "Locket Full of Fairydust". (Like "pocket full of stardust". I helped.)

As I do in most predicaments of this kind, I started making a list. (Don't judge. It helps me organize my thoughts.) Here's an idea of what I came up with:

Definition of Me (as I mentioned previously)

(insert word here) A la Amber

The World Through Amber-Colored Glasses (I know, sooo cheesy. I'm rather ashamed)

Abstract(ion)

(insert word here) Yours, Amber

Absent-Minded

Misadventures

Note to Self

Those are just the ideas I am still considering. There were more, but I'm not so big on them now.

In another vein of thought, I started browsing through all of the quotes I've collected on Goodreads.com. And then I got stuck on this whole "carpe diem" idea. (Latin for "I seize the day".)

I know. "Seize the day" is quite cliche. (Ha ha. Rhyme.) But the fact that it's a song in "Newsies" means I associate it with lots of energy and boldness and some of the best choreography I've ever seen.

I found a number of quotes related in one way or another to "seize the day":

"Life is an adventure: dare it." - Mother Teresa (or possibly part of some Hindi proverb. I saw it attributed to both.)

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." - Helen Keller

"Do not dare not to dare." - Aslan, Chronicles of Narnia (though I'm not sure which book)

Obviously, "dare" is a theme in there as well. So I looked up the definition:

"To have necessary courage or boldness; to be bold enough to meet defiantly. Dare emphasizes the state of mind that makes one willing to meet danger."

Okay, so I only dream of being "daring".

As much as I found this whole "dare the adventure" idea intriguing and inspirational, I also had the feeling that it was a bit.... I don't have the right word. It's sort of a battle-cry for an unsaved person, I guess. Sure, we all ought to make the most out of life, but "seize the day" almost has the idea of just "living it up", getting all the thrills you can. It's a different sort of "making every moment count" than I prefer. For the Christian, we have to live in the knowledge that "this world is not my home" and we're living for something more, so we can't sit around wasting time when we could be doing something that will matter. (That last bit is courtesy of my dad.) So I kind of put away the idea.

Currently, I'm most stuck on the "(word) + my name" style of titling, but I haven't really found the right word. I do like "abstractions" and "anecdotes", but I don't know how to make them flow in a title.

By now I'm sure some of you, if not all, are thinking, "Good grief! All this for just a blog title? Just pick one already and get over it!"

I know, I know. I agree. And I'm working on it. But for now, this is all you get. Haha!

Hey! Three posts in a week isn't bad. Now let's see if I can keep up the momentum.