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What is a childhood memory that still haunts you?
Watching ET. It freaked me out when he was "dying" at the end, all gray and nasty. Out of curiosity, did anyone watch that movie as a child and really enjoy it? Adults are always all, "What a great children's movie!" and pretty much everyone I've talked to who saw it as a child thought it was freaky.
What's making you smile today?
One thing making me smile is the bag of books I bought today:
I kept this review spoiler-free, so those who haven't read the book can read this if they wish.
This year has been all about the reread, for me. I never reread, at least not a cover-to-cover linear reread, and this year I've done two rereads of teenage favorites: The Count of Monte Cristo and now The Lord of the Rings. Count was a very encouraging experience. It was easy to get back into the story and the story itself was as compelling and exciting as I remembered it to be.
With LoTR, I one day realized that I hadn't read the dang thing in about 4 or 5 years. Now, I was obsessed with Rings as a teen, as I've no doubt written before. I powered through the book in about 3 days, eventually wearing the edges of the pages soft and taping newspaper clippings inside the front pages. As the years went on I didn't reread as much, and the vivid memories of the book faded. The emotions I felt at 14 settled down in the back of my brain somewhere.
So here I am now, approaching 20, with a little more maturity and life experience guiding my reading.
I'm so glad I reread it.
But what can I say about it? It's an enormously popular book and since the movies came out it's even more engrained in popular culture. I am not a good enough writer to say anything new or even very interesting about the immense scope of Middle-Earth or the care put into the crafting of the languages and cultures. I can only talk about what
the story means to me.
It was such a joy reading it for the second time, because I didn't have to worry about the plot. I read slowly, going through the book in roughly a week and a half, savoring the chapters and characters. Passages that felt tedious the first time around were now opportunities to see character growth or exuses to use my imagination to picture the setting and people more vividly.
An a more emotional level, it was like seeing old friends or coming home. That's so stupid and overused, but the easiest way of describing it. I read these books at a time of upheaval in my life. I was 13. It was 5 months from September 11 and 6 months until I entered high school. I was moving into a new house. The Lord of the Rings (book and movie alike) was something noble and epic and comforting that I could fixate on and escape into. I grew to love these characters and the whole world of Middle-Earth: the sweet and spunky hobbits, the fiery men and women of Rohan, the dignified Gondorians, and, of course, the ageless Elves.
I loved seeing them all again. I loved remembering favorite passages and discovering new ones. The Lord of the Rings is truly a classic, both objectively and personally. It's one of the books I'm excited to share with future nieces and nephews, maybe even my own children.
What are five things that make you unique?
Submitted by RA<3TA.
Unique...that's a tough one. I can think of a lot of things that make me unusual, but very few that make me unique. Let's see...
- I am the only biological daughter of my parents.
- I am the first person named Alex to live in my house.
- I may be the only person to have named their guinea pig Oakie, but I have no way of knowing that!
And then there are a few obvious ones like my fingerprints and overall genetic makeup.
We had a nice little thunderstorm earlier, and the cooler air felt lovely, especially since I'm getting sick and fever-y. (And whiny, too. At home I am not a graceful person in illness!) Then the parents, sisters, and I drove down to the Lake to see the sunset. We missed the bulk of it, unfortunately, and the pictures I did get don't really capture the colors, but any pictures are better than none, right?
Yesterday was the summer solstice for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. How did you celebrate the arrival of summer and the longest day of the year?
I went to my dear friend Marie's* wedding shower! I'll try to get some pictures up when my friends upload them to Facebook. She looked gorgeous and happy and it was nice seeing my friends from high school. It was supremely weird to see one of my oldest friends in a wedding gown kissing her husband.
I better get used to that feeling, because my friend and Vox neighbor Amanda has her wedding later this summer!
*Not her real name.
First, a picture of my brother and my dog Griffin.
It pretty much epitomizes the goofiness of my brother and the grumpiness of my dog. :-)
Today I hit the lake to take some pictures because it was deliciously grey outside. Sadly, my pictures are no good. It's hard to capture the beauty and atmosphere of the lake at any time, and for some reason moody, rainy weather makes it even harder. Probably because the beauty of the lake at a sunset is dramatic and bold, while the beauty in a grey day is more subtle. Or, I am not a good photogropher. ;-) Here are a few of the better ones:
This doesn't do justice to the extreme turbulence of the waves, but it did capture the lighting rather well.
Oh, here's one that shows a little wave:
What does your flag mean to you?
I had typed out a whole response, but I think it stinks. I had more clarity in my head, but I don't think it quite translated. Long story short: I repect the passion others have for the flag, but for me the flag itself is not sacred nor does it encompass all the nuances of loving one's country. Patriotism is so much deeper and more complex than flag-waving, and it bothers me when people try to simplify it. However, the flag is an important visual representative of the U.S.A.
Longer answer: If you had asked me this when I was younger, I would've answered, "Nothing. It's a piece of cloth." In some ways I do still feel that way, because the flag in and of itself is just that. I've always supported respecting the flag, but stuff like flag burnings only made me a little sad, not angry or infuriated.
Now that I'm older I understand more why people love the flag so much and how some see it as a physical emblem of their country. I do too, to some extent. Compared to many Americans, though, I'm a bit lukewarm. It's not that I don't love America or the flag, because I do. It's just that my family and I never been big into visual patriotism. My ancestors were quietly patriotic immigrants, loving their country through the jobs they got and the opportunities their children had.
I'm a wee bit early writing this right at the stroke of midnight because I'm heading home for the summer tomorrow. Anyway, a happy happy birthday to Mr. Hugh Laurie! He is 49 today. Which makes him...yikes. 29 years older than me. Attraction knows no age, I guess. ;-)
