Actually reading actual books

A few minutes ago I finished a book... and it so happens to be the FIRST book I've finished since the beginning of July. This is crazy!! So not acceptable, but my insane busy summer left me practically no time to read. And TV shows take up so much less brain space than books, and I need brain space for other things. So in the last week of summer Mom suggested "Why don't you get a book out?" and since I was kind of sick I thought it would be relaxing. I missed it so much!! All the other books I had tried to pick up didn't keep my attention but I loved the feel of 13 Treasures and it was just the right thing to read.

13 Treasures is about a girl who is sent to her Grandmother's house for the summer when her mother becomes fed up with her 'trouble making'-- a result of the fact that Tanya can see fairies and no one else can. At her Grandmother's she finds mysteries at every turn, and her attempts to solve them only lead her closer to the danger hiding at every turn.

Evil fairies, old mysteries, frightening woods... I knew I was going to like this book as soon as I read the flap. I do love my evil fairies. Though there was actually not very many fairies in it other things made up for it, the detailed look into the world of people who can see them was done very well and you really felt for the characters. Something was always happening with the plot and the different threads wove together perfectly. Tanya was 13 and the book had a little bit of a younger feel, but it didn't really bother me. It was Michelle Harrison's first novel and I'll definitely be looking forward to her next-- and I really hope I continue to read more.

One thing that might help is that Mockingjay is in at me for the library! I am SO excited to read it, I'm just scared at what a roller coaster it's going to be. Fingers crossed that no one I love dies!

(Also I have to say, that I love the cover of 13 Treasures. It's so perfect, with those gorgeous gates and the raven, and it's glittery!)

Kelia

This is where I fail at blogging

So yes, I fail. It's now been more than a month (!!!) since I've posted on my blog. This summer has turned out to be a lot busier than I thought... and I'm a little bit lazy too.

Right after my last blog post I went off to piano camp, which was completely amazing, though different than last year. Last year I kind of assumed that all the same people would come again, but only about half did and half were new people. I really missed some of my friends from last year but it was awesome meeting the new people, even though we all only really started talking the last 3 days. We all decided it needs to be 2 weeks long! That would make it perfect. What with the whirlwind of master classes, trying to snag a room to practice in (and ending up sharing rooms a lot) concerts, and lessons, it feels like it passes in the blink of an eye. It was amazing seeing my friends from last year who did come, and all the teachers, and being surrounded by music every day. The thing I love most about the camp is the atmosphere of living and breathing music and pushing yourself to do the best you can. My new favorite song is Chasse-neige by Liszt, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lZ_52DOXis which you have to go listen to, it's incredible. My teacher said I couldn't learn it though (and maybe not ever) because my hands are waaay too tiny to do the jumps. :( But she said I could start learning the Chopin etudes!! I'm so excited for that, I'm getting the music on Wednesday.

I have to go but I'll leave you with another song that I absolutely love but cannot find the music for, I think I'd have to go to Bulgaria to get it. It's Nocturne by Vladigerov, and I don't think this video quite does it justice but it's the best I can find on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RszzQgTWmPs

Next time I post it's going to be all about theatre again!

Kelia

Theatre

"You know that feeling you get, when you see lovely folks that you used to work with (that you liked), or old friends that you have lost touch with (whom you enjoyed), and you get this deliriously giddy feeling in your soul?

And, just like that, you realize that you missed them, and you didn't even know it?"

(A quote from the lovely blog A Fanciful Twist.)

This is exactly how I felt when I started doing theatre again last month. I hadn't done any since Emma in 2008 (which seems like such a long time ago now) and only got vague wishings to do it again sometime... and then when I started doing it it was like oh my goodness I LOVE this I've missed it so much!!!

This month has been a whirlwind of theatre, and it just keeps getting more crazy and fun. We did two shows in a school, I spent 9 hours at the theatre one day, one week I was there 4 days out of 7 and the next week when I had three days in a row off I didn't know what to do with myself. I was playing piano for a musical for the first time, that was really fun (when people had nothing to do they would come over to the piano and ask to run songs, usually going really fast for fun :D ) and interesting because I was the musical director and had to direct the songs. It was fun but I really missed being backstage, and seeing them rehearse made me want to be acting more than playing the piano. On the last night I actually was in it, they needed someone for the Tinker who was just in the first scene and had no songs, so that was great. I did my last show on Monday night which I'm really really sad about :( but I'm going to be doing more stuff with the theatre in July and August so I'll see most of the cast again this summer. The cast for Thumbelina was awesome, they were all good actors and singers and there were a lot of super nice people. I hope I'll be able to act in a show this fall, and I have a feeling I'll be doing stuff with this theatre for years.

I've been too busy to write many poems though, sadly. It's the first month since 2007 when I haven't written at least 4... maybe I'll get a burst of inspiration this week and write a bunch :D This is the only real one I've written, which I just wrote this moment!

When I go to bed lately

I listen to music

till it calms my mind and my limbs are immobile

soothed into a coma-state

my thoughts drop away

Until this month I'd forgotten what

it feels like to lay awake

busily thinking

for hours and hours and maybe

then sleeping

The ipod trick works

but I'd forgotten, too

how it feels to be so filled

with music and sounds and people and voices

that you never want to fall asleep

you just want to keep

reliving the day

Thoughts

Something I've always wondered: would I like myself if I met myself? It could go two ways I think, either everything I did would make sense and I'd be able to understand it all and we'd (the two me's) get along perfectly, or I'd annoy myself terribly because I'd be able to pick out all my faults from the outside, for once. I kind of think it would be a mix of the two. I'd find myself frustrating and I'd probably criticize myself a lot because we'd have the same faults, but at the same time I could be entirely myself around myself, more so than with anyone else.

So yes, just rambles :) What do you think?

Wordle Awesomeness

I just discovered this site, www.wordle.net that will show you your most used words in any piece of writing. It's so awesome! These are my most used words for nano 09. (I don't know how to make it bigger, but you can click on it to see it full size.) I figured those three names would be the most often used, but apparently I used Went, Looked, Think, Asked, Going, Like, Eyes, Just, Demon (of course) Around, Get, One, Face, Go, See, Back, Vera, and Still the most too. Probably the longest word in there is Enchantment.

I made one for my nano 06 too, and a lot of the words were the same :P Oh well. Also, I LOVE their fonts.

Changes

I've decided after almost a year of not posting that I want to get this blog started again. But it will be different, instead of posting just poems I'm going to be posting about books, music, and whatever I feel like pretty much :D I had gotten bored with posting poems (and I'm not as into writing them anymore, though hopefully that's just a stage and I am still writing them sporadically) so I want a broader range of things to talk about. It'll probably mostly be me exclaiming about things I love :D

Right now I love TV shows. I've started watching a lot more than usual this spring, just in time to get really attached to them before their season ends for the summer. Why do they all have to end at once?? The good thing about summer coming though is that Lie To Me comes back in June! And White Collar will start again in July, so those are two very good things to look forward to. And besides all the shows I watch coming back in September there are going to be a ton starting too, this link has their previews. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-13/bring-on-the-new-tv-shows I think Undercovers, Hawaii Five-O, and The Event look really good along with a bunch more.

Another thing I love: the picture at the top of the post. So many colors!

Kelia

Poem

I haven't written any very good poems lately, though I have still been writing them. But here's one I like, any advice?

We sit
in the tree,
on the sand,
on the bed in the room.
The wind is shushing
all worries away
the waves are pounding,
pulling back,
pounding, pulling back
emotions spill over
and we pull them quickly back
nothing can disturb
the hot sun
and bright sky.
The wind is shushing away
all worries
and all worries quickly fade
the rustling leaves
and yellow-green sunlight
casts a warm veil over
the tree, our tree
our tree where we are queens.
Darkness flows in
through the window
tickles our feet
the room slowly enlarges until
we see the whole world
in it's ceiling.


Also, I filled up my whole poem journal! I got it for my 9th birthday, so it's lasted me five years. It has (I think) 167 poems in it. Thank you Sarah, for giving me my first!
Kelia