Tenebrific in Troutdale

My seemingly endless summer has wasted away to a few mere hours! Alas, I weep for my soon to be lost freedom...It's hard to believe that tomorrow is my first day of school and that I'm going to be a Junior. My Freshman year seems like it was just yeaterday, and, for that matter, I feel like school just got out for summer break.

In some ways I'm really excited about school starting. I mean, I'm in Expressions, I get to be an upperclassman, I can leave campus, I'll see all the people I know from school...But there are also several reasons i really don't want to go back to school like: I'm taking some scary classes, homework, I'll see all the people I know from school...

We dropped Nathan off at Whitworth this weekend. It was sad. Of course, Nathan (being the kind, sesitive brother that he is) made fun of me every time I would cry, but I suppose that's to be expected...I'll miss Nathan, but I think this is going to be really good for him.

Yesterday after we brought Bennett home from the kennel he stayed at while we were in Spokane, I let Bennett out to go to the bathroom. Now, while this is usually not a Blog-worthy experience, something happened yesterday that made it such. When I let Bennett out I went and sat on the steps of our deck, waiting for Bennett to finish his "business". While I was there I saw one of the squirrels that lives in our backyard (it's actually a series of tunnels beneath our shed) jump from the top of our fence to a tree behind said fence. I thought little of it and went back to waiting for the dog. Meanwhile, Bennett (in his search for the perfect place to "relieve himself") wandered over to the area near the aforementioned tree. Suddenly, the squirrel jumped from the tree into our backyard and was quickly noticed by Bennett, who made chase.

Even at this point I wasn't too worried, Bennett is usually far too slow to catch any of the squirrels, so I expected Mr. Squirrel to arrive safely at one of his holes. Alas, this was not the case. My dog quickly followed the squirrel through the gap behind our shed and the fence, and as soon as they appeared on the other side of the shed I knew something was wrong. Bennet grabbed the little guy in his mouth and started shaking him. I began to scream my head off at the dog, trying to get him to realease the "defenseless" little creature, but, it seems I underestimated the fighting power of the little guy. As I began to run towards my dog he released a loud yelp as the "victim" bit (or possibly scratched, we're still not sure) him in the cheek.The squirrel speedily began to run away again, but unfortunately (for Mr. Squirrel at least), Bennett recovered from his injury and began pursuit again. Just as the squirrel was about to jump into the safety of his hole, Bennett caught him again. As they began to wrestle and fight one another, I got close enough and kicked my dog with as much strength as I could muster. Bennett, in his surprise, dropped the squirrel and the furry prey (after a moment of disorientation) was finally able to get safetly into his home.

The whole time this was going on I was pretty much screaming my head off at the dog, and as soon as I saw the poor wretch was safe in his hole, I "escorted" the dog into the house and began crying. I was so horrified by what Bennett had done, and what could've happened, I was completely overcome by emotion. My mom (who had rushed to my aid when she heard my shouts) hugged me and said I should go to my room to be alone for a while. I was only up there for a short while before I heard my parents telling Bennett he was a "bad dog". Now, while I'll agree that his behavior was less than satisfactory, I would hardly expect him to act any differently. He's a dog, his natural instincts tell him to hunt, so he did. So, upon hearing this, I went downstairs to defend my poor, stupid little animal.

I first noticed the wound on Bennett's cheeck when I got downstairs. It was really deep, amd I ended up tending to it almost all day because he would rub his face on things and open it up again every time it would start to heal. But I digress, he's doing fine now and I can only hope the squirrel is fairing just as well.

What's in a Name?

If you hadn't noticed already that I changed the name of my site today, you might want to click the "refresh" button on your browser. That being done, you may wonder "Why the change?" or "Why do I care?" Well, I can't answer the last question, but the change is due to the fact that I think the new title is more descriptive of myself, and more amusing. If you haven't figured it out already, it's reminiscent of the book title Black Like Me. Although, unlike author John Howard Griffin's skin color, my height is not drug-enduced, nor a result of my plans to explore the world of racial bigomy.

The only less-than-satisfying result of this name-change is that my URL will remain the same, and doesn't make as much sense as it did withe old name. The only solution I could come up with to rectify the solution was to change the "summary" section (see above).

We put the cat to sleep on Thursday, and while the morning was fraught with tears, I know it was for the best. I'll miss Mittsy, but I know that it's better that she went peacefully than to have suffered any more. Mom said that after a while we can get another cat, so it seems I won't have to go too horribly long without any feline companionship.

Friday marked my first solo journey as a driver, and though I was nervous to begin with, it turned out well. Nothing bad happened, and it was actually kinda fun. I got to listen to my own music, sing along as loud as I wanted, and I got to decide exactly were I wanted to go. My first trek was to Target and then Walmart in search of a few last items I couldn't find when I went school shopping on Wednesday with my mom.

I don't have much planned for these last precious weeks of vacation, though today I will start working on re-finishing a chest of drawers Grandma gave us because she didn't need/want them at the new house.

Gettin' My Education On

After wrastlin' with the usual problems I encounter at the start of each academic year, I now have my official school schedule and I'm surprisingly pleased with it how it turned out. Usually I have one day full of completely awful classes, and the other is a breeze, but not this time around. My classes are pretty balanced out, and I'm only really disappointed about one of the teachers I got.

"A" Days:

0 - Expressions - Mrs. Bohart
1 - Advanced AMerican History - Mr. Beaman
3 - Integrated Math 400 - Mrs. Lindow
5 - Teacher Internship - Mr. Barger/Mr. Mayer
7 - Teacher internship - Mr. Barger/ Mr. Mayer

"B" Days:

0 - Expressions - Mrs. Bohart
2 - Pro Cantorum - Mrs. Bohart
4 - Principles of Technology - Mr. Wells
6 - Psychology - Mz. McGauley
8 - AP English Writing - Mz. Thomas

The only teacher I'm very unhappy about is Mz. McGauley. I've heard she's not exactly open-minded about certain issues (like religion), but I plan on going into the class with a positive and mature attitude.

Other than school preparations, the only major thing happening is the current status of our kitty. It seems that Mittsy had another seizure this morning and it was really bad. Mom made an appointment to have the cat put down on Thursday. Though Nathan seems realtively unphased by the news (by which I mean he was cracking jokes about it soon after he found out) I'm upset. I can't remember a time when we didn't have a cat, this cat, at our house. It's going to be weird not having heraround and it makes me really sad. I still haven't decided if I want to be there when they put her down, I guess I'll have to think about it...

Contact Lenses: $$$

Backup Eyeglasses: $$

Vision: Priceless

I went in for my yearly checkup with my eye doctor the other day. For some odd reason I always look forward to going to see Dr. Clay (my optometrist) for my appointments. When I still wore glasses on a regular basis I only went to the office every other year, and going to see the good doctor also meant the joy of going to Eyesight Fashions (the company associated with Dr. Clay's office) to get glasses. Now that I have contact lenses I (get to) go to the office every year but don't get to pick out glasses. This time around, due to the fact that I needed to replace my backup glasses, I got to return to my vision care roots and pay a visit to Eyesigth Fashions. The weird thing for me was that I could actually see myself clearly when trying on various frames. Before I got contact lenses my vision was so poor I couldn't see myself in the mirror as I tried on frames, now everything was perfectly visible!

Speaking of poor vision, I found out what my actual prescriptions are for my eyes. For many people their prescriptions are +.50 in one eye and maybe +.75 in the other. Well, my eyes are +10.25 and +10.50. I also may need to get reading glasses in the next few months if my new boosted contact lense prescription doesn't cut it for close work.

Now for the announcement you've all (not) been eagarly awaiting: the results of my driving test this morning....

*drumroll*

I PASSED!

That's right people, I passed both the written and in-car parts of my driving test with relative ease. I'm not at liberty to divulge specifics concerning my actual test scores, but I think I did a pretty snazzy job. Go team Lynsey! Thank God! Et cetera!

On much less happy note, it seems my cat Mittsy's days are numbered. She's been having seizures lately, and apparently this morning she had a particularly bad one. My mom says we should think about puting her down. That makes me sad because we've had Mittsy for as long as I can remember. I was so little (only about three) when we got her, I didn't know better than to squeeze and pull on her when I was playing with her. She used to get a little angry about the rough treatment and scratch me. I still have a scar or two on my neck and upper chest as a result of my youthful blunders.

But I digress. I'm pretty sad about probably having to put our kitty down. I don't think I can even remember a time when we didn't have Mittsy, and soon she's going to be gone...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other way..." - Charles Dickens

Oh yeah, you might have noticed that I didn't start my post off with a quote like I usually do. I think I'm going to give that a rest for a while and use the quotes otherwise. Yeah.

The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it. - Dudley Moore

For those of you who haven't heard, this Thursday morning I'll be taking my driving test to get my license. As is the norm for myself, I am extremely nervous. I was sitting in bed last night half thinking about how much I wanted to kill my dog who was whining because I wouldn't let him out of my room to go bother Nathan and Scott, and half thinking about every little stupid thing that could go wrong on my test.

I did some driving practice with my dad and brother today and Dad says I'm ready for my test, but I'm still feeling a bit nervous. On the one hand I think about all of the people I know who are horrible drivers who have licenses, but then I think about everything my dad tells me they'll ding you points for... Bah!

In any case, I beseech all the people who read this Blog to post a comment if you have any bit of advice for me about how to kick this test in the posterior. And of course, prayers would be appreciated. And if you don't pray....think a happy thought or something. That way, even if I don't pass the driving test, I can give Tinkerbell a call and fly to school!

Oh my my this here Anakin guy

May be Vader someday later - now he's just a small fry

And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye

Sayin' "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi! Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi!"

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music. - George Eliot

I had my first vocal recital today. It was actually a whole lot of fun. I was really nervous leading up to it, but once I got up to sing my peace it was fine. I find that that feeling is actually quite consistent every time I have a recital. Before I perform I'm nervous and feel sick, but as soon as I get up to perform, I'm just fine.

the piece I performed today is called "Love has Eyes". It's apparently supposed to be referring to the idea that "love sees all". It's a really fun piece to sing, but the really high note at the end is a little scary. It's really fun to sing up high when you can do it well, but performing high notes for an audience is slightly frightening because if the high note sounds bad, it's not very pleasant to listen to.

Since it's August now I'm starting to get a little excited about school starting up again. We'll be getting our class schedules soon, and school clothes shopping and the last vacations of the summer will follow close after that. I'm glad summer is going to be over soon since I've been so bored this whole time, but I can't say that I'm very excited about getting homework again. Ah well, such is the price that must be paid to avoid complete tedium.

Poetry often enters through the window of irrelevance.  - M. C. Richards

Ok, funny story. I was at The Quotations Page looking for a quote to start off my post for the day, and I was having trounle deciding which quote to use. There were several good ones on the page, but after I encountered the Richards quote I knew I had to use it. You see, when I read the quote, I had to sound out the word "irrelevance". When I first glanced at the word I read it as "irreverence", but when I read it again, I knew that wasn't it. So I tried again, but didn't think I recognized the word. I finally resorted to sounding the thing out and realized what a sad little person I am. Alas and alack, my lack of activity due to the summer months has obviously resulted in my losing my ability to read.

Anyway, the reason I was looking for a quote about poetry was because I was remembering when I first named this blog, and I recalled the reason(s) that I named it what I did. As I recall, my inspiration originally came from a poem by Shel Silverstein, the title poem from his book A Light in the Attic. It wasn't really the content of the poem that gave me the idea for the title, but the picture on the cover of the book and the title of the poem. Those things reminded me of the phrase "the lights are on, but nobody's home", and since I'm rather ditzy at times, I decided this was the perfect name for my little blog. You're probably wondering why I bring this up, so I'm going to tell you.

Thinking about Silverstein and his many writings reminded me how much I loved his books when I was little. In particular, I loved the book The Giving Tree. (It's a great book. If you haven't read it, you should.) A touching story about a little boy, his tree, and being willing to give up anything for people you care about. But what I really want to share with you today, is my favorite poem of all time, (Well, that is to say, if you call most of my childhood "all time".) It's not just a cool poem, it's good advice.

Warning*

Inside everybody's nose
There lives a sharp-toothed snail.
So if you stick your finger in,
He may bite off your nail.
Stick it up farther inside,
And he may bite your ring off.
Stick it all the way, and he
May bite the whole darn thing off.

*Where the Sidewalk Ends, Copyright 1974, Harper and Row Publishing, by Shel Silverstein