I am having so much fun posting this stuff and I hope I'm not boring any of you :)
First things first... here is the Italy prize pack! It's not much, just little souvenirs from each of the places I visited PLUS, not pictured, one of my now-practically-famous-but-not-so-much owls :D
The little guy on the left is a Pinocchio puppet. They were everywhere in Italy. I got this one at Graves on our day out in the Chianti region. The calendar and pencil are both from Siena. The circle at the top there is a tooled leather bracelet from the leather market in Florence. And the little weird thing on the right is a marble (I think?) owl that I picked up in Rome. It was too cute and funny. I saw them a number of places and finally decided to get one for the prize pack. So there you have it. You have a chance to earn up to five entries just by commenting on each of the posts this week!
Now for my adventures in Chianti!
These first few pictures are from the little town of Castellina.
The region we visited is known for it's red wine - in particular the Chianti Classico. Real Chianti Classico is marked with the black rooster. There's a funny folk tale about the black rooster which I will regale you with. There is an intense rivalry between Florence and Siena. Has been for a very long time and it still continues today. At one point they were trying to find a fair way to decide where the border fell between the two towns so they determined on the following contest: Both towns would send a rider out toward the other town. The place where the riders met would be considered the border. In order to start at approximately the same time they agreed to begin when the first rooster crowed. The people of Florence took a black rooster and locked it in a room for a couple of days without food. When they let it out, early on the morning of the contest, it was so upset and disoriented that it began to crow right away, even though it was still long before daybreak. The Florentine rider started and covered considerably more distance than the Senese rider, even though they were better known for their horse skills. The place they met is what is now the town of Castellina.
I love the flower gardens in everybody's yards.
I can't remember if I took this in Castellina or at our next stop...
Some Etruscan tombs! They were empty, but it was so cool to see them!
The view from the hill was gorgeous! We spent a nice chunk of time just relaxing and enjoying the area.
Vineyards!
I just can't get enough of the countryside!
Grapevines at Villa Cafaggio - we got a tour of the winery!
Barrels of Chianti Classico (and other wines)
Look at how GIANT these barrels are!
There were stacks and stacks of bottles of wine just resting and aging. Crazy!
Vineyards!
I"m partial to this picture
My very first ever taste of wine. Yes. Ever. It was bitter and I didn't really like it, but how many people can say that the first time they ever tasted wine was at a winery in Chianti?
This is the town of Graves (pronounced GRE-ves [both 'e's are short]). There are all these cute little shops around a square. We just stopped her briefly on our way back to the hotel.
And that's it for today. Lots of pictures, but I loved this outing! Tomorrow... to Florence and then ROME on Friday!
So leave me a comment to enter the contest and tell me, do you remember the first time you tasted wine? Was it as momentous as mine? :P What wine do you like?
First I want to shout out that today is Elana Johnson's BOOK BIRTHDAY!
If you haven't ordered or gotten your copy of her book you should definitely go do that. It's amazing, just like she is! AND you can even enter to win a signed copy. All this week there are contests going on to celebrate. Today it's over at Lisa and Laura Roecker's blog so go check it out!
Non-Spoilery review:
Vi keeps breaking the rules, but she doesn't really consider herself a baddie. Until she gets banished to the badlands for walking in the park with a boy. Even though the boy is her match, Zenn. Totally unfair. And she gets stuck with the total baddie Jag who is driving her crazy. In more ways than one. The Thinkers have always made the decisions, but now Vi has to make her own choices. Real choices. And no matter what she chooses someone is going to get hurt.
Go. Buy. My blog will still be here when you get back. :)
Okay, now on to more tales from Tuscany!
I know I said this yesterday, but I just adored my time in Siena. We were there the longest out of the three places we visited, but I just loved the people, the atmosphere, the town itself. One of the biggest things is the major sense of community that everyone has and I really think this grows out of their districts or contrade. The contrade were originally formed in the Middle Ages, but are still a huge part of the city today. Siena is divided into 17 contrade and each contrada has its own church, museum, and group of leaders. To join a contrada you go through a secular baptism and you pay a yearly membership fee that helps support the community and, in particular, the Palio, the bi-yearly horse race that is, according to everyone who has seen it, crazy and amazing.
Here are a few of the contrada symbols. They have these little plaques at the borders of the contrada so everyone knows where one ends and another begins.
Top left - turtle, top right - forest, bottom left - eagle, bottom right - um... wave I think.
Our one guide was from the snail contrada and their rivals are the turtles. Another guide we had was from the tower contrada and he took us into their church and museum. It was a really interesting look into their culture and it is so interesting how very passionate they are about their contrada.
The Tower church - the contrada's horse is brought here to be blessed before the Palio. Yes, INTO the church.
The tower and the elephant contrada were combined, which is why both figure in their banner.
Each contrada also has a fountain - this is the dragon contrada's. The fountain is where the secular baptism takes place and if the contrada wins the Palio they put wine in the fountain to celebrate!
I would love to be there during a Palio some day. They put clay down all around the Piazza del Campo, packing it over the cobblestones for the horse's protection.
This is the town hall. All around the edge of this Piazza is where the race is held and the area in the middle is where the people pack in. I could write an entire post just on what we learned about the Palio, but here's a video just to give you a little taste. It was hard to choose one that showed a quick overview. If you want, you can just search Palio on YouTube and there are a ton of videos.
You'll notice that there end up being riderless horses. According to the rules, it is the horse that wins, not the jockey. The jockeys are basically just paid to ride, they aren't connected to the contrada in any way. So a horse can win without a rider. Because of the tight turns, there are usually several horses without riders by the end.
Okay, enough contrada and Palio. On to something new!
The Duomo in Siena is absolutely gorgeous. We were also allowed to take pictures inside, so here's a few of my favorite shots both in and out.
I love the way that window reflects the clouds. Love it.
Breathtaking. Absolutely breathtaking. The arches and the painting and everything. I love the black and white marble.
I don't know what it is about stained glass windows, but I'm always fascinated with them!
The dome from the inside.
I look so small! The pink and white and green marble is just gorgeous!
I think that's it for today. Come back tomorrow for the tale of our daytrip into Chianti and pictures of wine country. Probably my favorite day of our whole trip! Also, pictures of the prize pack (minus the owl because it is not made yet).
So to enter today, leave a comment on this post and let me know which contrada you think you would like to be a part of!
And if you didn't check out yesterday's post take a look and leave a comment there too. I had so much fun learning a little bit more about all of you!
Get ready for some Italy fun AND that contest I was telling y'all about :)
My flight to Italy was ... interesting.
The woman in front of me had 1: obscene halitosis. I could tell every time she turned her head. I was wishing the oxygen masks would fall. 2: a desire to lean back the entire trip. They had to tell her to raise her seat when they brought dinner because there wasn't enough room to set the food in front of me.
My seat was a problem because 1: It wouldn't recline. Of course I didn't discover this until it was at a point where I couldn't do anything about it. *sigh* So I had a very small area to be in for 8 hours. 2: the headphone jack was crackly so I couldn't really understand anything that was being said so I couldn't watch any movies that I hadn't seen before because I had no idea what was going on.
Oh! And guess what! Before I even got on the plane they put me in the body scanner (Which went like this: "step in here. feet on the prints. Hands over your head. Come out." Read that without pauses between the sentences and that's how fast it went.) and apparently I moved. Hm. Well maybe if they had actually told me what was going on or NOT TO MOVE it wouldn't have been a problem. So I got the full body pat down too. Oh joy. AND just as they pull me to the side this ear-splitting alarm went off so she's having to yell the instructions. It ended up being more ridiculous than anything else and i just went with it. Until they didn't return my sweater and then almost lost my laptop. I was putting my shoes back on and this guy starts waving my laptop over his head yelling, "Who's is this?" Really? They gave me back my case, but not my laptop. I was glad to take my stuff and run after that.
So that was a fun adventure before I'd even gotten on the plane.
I went with a group from my university. There were 9 undergrads (all girls), 5 grad students (3 girls, 2 guys), 2 professors, and one of the professors brought his wife and 3 year old daughter. So it was a pretty big group.
We all met up in the airport and then climbed aboard a bus to drive 3 more hours to Siena. Our bus driver was insane and I'm pretty sure we almost died about 20 times. But somehow we made it to the hotel.
We spent our first week in Siena, which is an absolutely gorgeous town. It's a small, walled city with a really strong sense of its historical heritage and a fierce pride amongst its inhabitants even today. It's built into a hill, so your legs get a serious workout no matter where you go. More about Siena tomorrow. Get ready for a bunch of pictures!
Oh, yeah, the contest... I picked up a few little items in each city we stayed in to put together a little Italy prize pack for one lucky winner. I'm also going to make an Italy owl. So come back each day this week for a chance to enter.
For today I want to know a little bit more about you! My lovely followers. So, leave a comment on this post and tell me something you are proud about your hometown or state or the place you consider yourself to be from.
(p.s. the contest is limited to those of you in the US and Canada, because, as much as I adore my overseas friends, it's just a little too costly to mail things to you :( But I'd love to hear your answers!)
And now PICTURES:
See those little raised areas on the left and right. Those are pretty much the only thing keeping you from sliding all the way down the hill. Absolutely wonderful for someone like me who is afraid of steep inclines and hills.
The cars are what amazed me. How they drive and park on these crazy hills!
x
Our travel agent had contacts in the area and through that we got to meet a lovely Senese woman named Ninfa. She showed us around the city a little bit and even had us over to her house for homemade Senese lasagna, which was pretty much the most amazing food I had on the trip. She lives in the city with her husband and they have a patio/balcony with a view similar to this (I forgot to take pictures at her house). It was amazing. I would love to be able to eat while looking out over the Tuscan countryside every day.
The tower is town hall. More pics of that tomorrow
This is me in front of the Duomo. You could climb a spiral staircase to get up to this panoramic view. So worth it. More pics of the Duomo tomorrow as well :)
Me and one of my friends at a cafe. I got Marguerita pizza here and it was SO good.
I kept saying that I was done taking pictures and then I'd come across a view like this and not be able to resist pulling the camera out for "just one more shot."
Italy was so amazing and I have about a batrillion pictures and just as many stories to tell, some of which I will share with y'all right here and very soon.
I'm taking today to do pretty much nothing (except laundry), but I want to get it all together to share some of the highlights with all of you!
AND
As promised I have put together a little Italy prize pack for one lucky winner. More details on that to come soon.
Those of you that won the postcards should start getting them over the next couple of weeks. Most of them didn't get mailed until yesterday. It was a lot harder to buy stamps than you would believe.
First off, going to the post office in Italy is like going to the DMV here. You have to go to this little machine and push the right button to get a ticket with a number. Everything is in Italian. Everything. So I took my best guess and picked the "P" button because it had a little envelope icon. Then you have to sit in an uncomfortable plastic chair and wait for your number to pop up on the little screen so you know which window to go to. The problem is, people come in, push a button, look at the number and then decide that the wait is too long, so they throw the ticket away and leave. So there were like 10 numbers that no one actually had, but they had to wait a decent amount of time for each number, just in case the person was on the other side of the room or something.
So after about ten or fifteen minutes, my number finally came up. Two of my friends were there too, and we had decided just to put all our postcards together so we only had to do one transaction. We jump up and run to the window and I hand her the stack of postcards.
Woman: US?
Me: Yes.
Woman: (throws cards back at me) No! (walks away)
My friend and I stare in shock at each other trying to figure out what just happened. After a heated conversation with a guy two windows over she finally comes back and directs us over to him.
We go over and I hold out the postcards again, rather gingerly this time. He asks how many and I say 18. He looks at us for a moment and then shuffles through something and then says, "I have 10."
How does a post office not have stamps? This is in Florence. A big city and a very touristy town.
My friend asks, rather incredulously, "Only 10? You don't have more?"
He says that he only has 10. So we buy them, but then we have the fun of trying to decide, between the 3 of us, which are the most important cards to send right away. And it wasn't until Monday that I was finally able to make it back to a post office to get more stamps to send out the rest of them.
But those of you that sent me your addresses will be receiving them eventually.
and now I shall leave you with a picture of me in San Gimignano:
And I'll be back soon with more info on the contest and more fun and games from Italy!
Finished up school, got my finals taken and graded and the grades entered. So nice for it to be over! And I promise to catch up on my blog reading when I get back because boy do I miss all y'all!
Those of you that entered my contest will have a postcard heading your way. If you didn't get your address to me you've got a few more hours to e-mail me at sonshinemusic (at) gmail (dot) com. If you get it to me after I leave I'll still get you one, but have to send it once I get back :)
And I know I said that I was going to do a contest while I was gone, but I've decided to do it when I get back, so I can combine the contest with showing off pictures and such!
So have a wonderful couple of weeks and I'll see you when I get back!
**UPDATE*** I accidentally put the wrong e-mail. good heavens. that just shows where my brain is. It is fixed now, so if you tried to send it, try again with the one below *headdesk*
Hi! I seriously miss all of you! SERIOUSLY.
It's that end of the semester crunch, following hard on the heels of the thumb escapade, and trying to think of all the things I have to do before I get on the plane a WEEK FROM TODAY. *dies*
But you guys are so swell and forgive me when I abandon you for like two months :(
So real quick... I have decided that YOU ARE ALL WINNERS. Because I am nice like that.
SO you will ALL get a loverly postcard from Italy with some sort of lame "Look where I got to go! I'm sending you a picture! Be jealous!" note on the back from yours truly :)
So if you (wow... I just realized that's the third little paragraph that started with the word "so") could e-mail me your address, I will put it in my fancy travel notebook and then send you a card! I will need them by Monday. But if you haven't gotten it to me, I will buy you a postcard and mail it when I get home, which will not be as exciting since it won't have an Italy postmark, but you'll still get a card.
Anyhoodles. e-mail me at sonshinemusic (at) gmail (dot) com
And check back next week for the super Italy contest that I'll be hosting while I'm gone with an unknown, undisclosed Italy prizepack!
I am going with a class from my university led by two professors, both of whom I had this semester and loved, so I am really psyched. Also, two of my TA friends are also going and we are going to have a blast! We are flying into Rome and also going to Florence and Siena! Woohoo!
And I thought you might like a little taste of Italy for yourself!
So, this is just a little prize, but someone did this a year or so ago and I loved getting a postcard from Spain so I thought you guys might like getting a postcard from Italy!
What do you think?
All you have to do is leave a comment and be willing to e-mail me your address if you win.
AND (here's the best part) I will probably announce multiple winners (depending on how many enter) AND I will put up a post right before I leave for a second half of the contest where anyone who enters will get a little prize pack FROM ITALY and maybe even an Italian owl. So what do you think of THAT?!
The postcard part is open to ANYONE, but the prize pack will sadly be limited to US and Canada because I will have no money for shipping when I get back from this trip :)
And here's a little Italy for your week :)
In fact, it's the reason that I picked this book up at all. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. The story is as startling and painfully beautiful as the cover.
Quick, unspoilery review:
Jane wakes up in the hospital, broken and bruised and paralyzed without any idea of how she got there. As she remembers bits and pieces of the days leading up to the accident, regains mobility, and talks with friends and family Jane tries to put together the events she has forgotten. Strange phone calls and threatening events convince her that whoever put her in the hospital hasn't given up and won't give up until she's dead.
A terrifying and heart-rending story of popularity, friendship, and love, Rosebush will keep you turning the pages and guessing and second-guessing as you try to solve the mystery along with Jane.
FIRST I'm sure you noticed my fabulous new HEADER with the owl and the books and the fancy writing! It's courtesy miss Mia Hayson who made it for me, because I won the contest she had. Isn't it amazing?! Aren't you jealous?!
SECOND
Yeah! The cast is off! The pin is out! My thumb still won't bend, but it's SO much better and I am slowly regaining mobility. Thank you all for the prayers and well wishes!
I don't really have time to do a full blown Retail Wednesday post today, so I thought I would list some of the ridiculous jokes and responses I got from people when my thumb was all bandaged. Because people are continually weird.
Note: if you are shopping and one of the salespeople has a cast or bandage 1)don't STARE AT IT 2)Don't ask how it happened 3)Don't ask if it hurts 4)TREAT THEM LIKE A NORMAL HUMAN BEING
Bad Jokes:
Don't hit me! (from a middle aged woman. Yes.)
Did you have a hitchhiking accident? (okay, this was pretty funny)
You're about ready to break your other hand on me, aren't you? (after saying something rude about the store to set himself up. LAME.)
Who won? (To which I responded, "The Sidewalk!")
Awkwardness:
Customer: I'm looking for a book.
Me: What book?
Customer: Oh! What did you do?
Me: I hurt my thumb.
Customer: You broke it?
Me: No, dislocated it. (just tell me what book already)
Customer: How did you do that?
Me: Tripped on a sidewalk.
Customer: And they had to put that big a cast on it?
Me: well, I needed surgery. They put a pin in it.
Customer: That's terrible. Does it hurt?
Me: Not really.
Customer: Well, it's got to be really hard. Are you right handed?
Me: Yup. (what BOOK DO YOU WANT?!)
Customer: That's really bad. You seem to be doing all right.
Me. Yup.
Customer: I bet it's hard to write and things.
Me. Yup.
Or the woman that stared at my arm the ENTIRE time I was helping her. Never looked at my face, only my bandage as we had a fairly extended conversation about the type of book she was looking for. She starts to walk away, gets about fifteen feet away then turns and calls back over her shoulder, "Oh, what did you do?"
Guy: How did you do that?
Me: Tripped on a sidewalk.
Guy: Is that like *air quotes* "I ran into a door"?
Me: (I can't believe you just asked that) No, I literally tripped on a sidewalk *death glare*
Most people were decent. It just does get tiring to have everybody ask, "Oh, how did you do that" Especially when I knew I was never going to see them again.
So it's nice to have my hand back and to be able to type and function a little more normally! Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully next week I'll have a "real" Retail Wednesday post :D
So the ever fabulous Lisa and Laura Roecker do this very entertaining post most Tuesdays where they admit some sort of hilarious truth. Maybe it's not supposed to be so hilarious as I find it, but I'm easily entertained. Also I can so see my sister and I in a few years every time I read a post.
But today they are doing something different and having us post our tell the truths on our blogs rather than in their comments. I figured, hey, WHY NOT.
so here goes:
1. My arm looks like something out of a bad horror movie called "Lizard Arm" or something. I just got my cast off from my thumb surgery and the skin is dry and peeling and... well, you get the idea.
2. I am writing this post in order to procrastinate reading more feminist literary theory for my class tonight.
3. I am TERRIFIED that one of the customers I make fun of in my Retail Wednesday blogposts will read it and come after me.
4. I am so not a poetry fan, but I am finding it the easiest section to teach in my English Composition class.
5. I must end all lists like this on a multiple of five or the WORLD MIGHT END.
There are so many cool contests going on right now that you need to check out!
Tahereh Mafi, sweetness personified, is FINALLY giving away ARCs of Shatter Me. So Exciting! Check it out! It's super easy to enter! Contest ends April 24!
THEN Elana Johnson, who's totally frawesome, is giving away swag and a signed ARC of Possessionand all kinds of totally amazing stuff if you'll just play TAG, or rather NOT TAG. Um, I'm not explaining that very well. So check out the link or click the button on the sidebar.
Do you like mysteries? Because the iClue contest is made of so much WIN! Lisa and Laura Roecker, Beth Revis, Kimberly Derting, Adele Griffin, Mandy Hubbard, and Lee Nichols have teamed up to provide 6 mysteries YOU get to solve and each one correctly answered gets you an entry to win an iPod touch loaded with all 6 of their books! Click on the button on the sidebar to see more! There's a mystery a week for 6 weeks and we're only on week 2!
Are you as stoked as I am about Kiersten White's (who's like one of my heroes and a fellow Damon eye admirerer) Supernaturally? Do you want to win an ARC, plus an ARC for Jon Skovron's Misfit? Cindy Pon is doing a giveaway! Ends April 22.
And that's all I've got for now!
My thumb pin comes out on Monday for those of you following my progress. Thanks for all the well wishes!
Hi there! Long time no anything, huh? Man do I miss you guys. Like a lot. I miss posting, I miss reading *sigh* Just typing my school assignments is strenuous enough, so blogging has to go on the very back burner. I still manage to tweet, though. And I started a Tumblr. Shh... don't tell anyone. It's easy to post tiny things there.
But anyways.
Okay, there isn't any literal death going on in our house, but Naomi, my Dad, and my brother are ill. Brother got diagnosed with type A influenza and by all signs my dad and sis have it too. ugh.
This is why I am holed up in my room and taking copious doses of Elderberry.
Yesterday I went in for my two week post op appointment. They took out the stitches and did x-rays and said that everything is looking good. I go back a week from Monday for them to take out the pin and then I'll have physical therapy.
THEN.
They put my hand in a cast. For real.
Never ever trip on an uneven sidewalk. Or if you do, don't use your thumb to break your fall.
So we're just a hot mess right now, but there is a bright side... Things can only look up from here :)
First I wanted to thank you guys for all the prayers and well wishes.
I had thumb surgery on Friday. It turned out that a tendon had gotten caught between the bone which was why it wouldn't un-dislocate... relocate? stay in place.
The orthopedic had to go in through both the front and back of the thumb to take care of it. It's pinned and all bound up now. I have a follow up visit in 2 weeks, but the pin has to stay in for three.
So much bandage for such a little thumb
Needless to say I am getting really good at one handed typing.
It's sore, but doesn't hurt too badly. A lot of things are much more challenging but it could be worse and just think how amazing it will be when I have the use of my thumb again!
That little yellow thing at the end is the pin.
They told me to be careful not to bump it...
yeah, the plastic thing sticking out of the end of my thumb is going to be easy to avoid
(sarcastafont engage)
Again, thank you all for your support :) I've felt quite loved. Here's to a speedy recovery!
I love covers and I often judge books by them. Don't judge me, you know you do it too!
Anyhoo... I've seen people do features like this occasionally and I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorites. I find these just by browsing the store where I work, browsing book websites and blogs, etc.
Synopsis from Borders.com: Tessa doesn't believe in magic. But there's something weird about the dusty unicorn tapestry she discovers in a box of old books. When she accidentally pulls a thread from the tapestry, Tessa releases a terrible centuries-old secret.Tessa doesn't believe in magic. Or Fate. But there's something weird about the dusty unicorn tapestry she discovers in a box of old books. She finds the creature woven within it compelling and frightening. After the tapestry comes into her possession, Tessa experiences dreams of the past and scenes from a brutal hunt that she herself participated in. When she accidentally pulls a thread from the tapestry, Tessa releases a terrible centuries old secret. She also meets William de Chaucy, an irresistible 16th-century nobleman. His fate is as inextricably tied to the tapestry as Tessa's own. Together, they must correct the wrongs of the past. But then the Fates step in, making a tangled mess of Tessa's life. Now everyone she loves will be destroyed unless Tessa does their bidding and defeats a cruel and crafty ancient enemy.
What I love about this cover:
I love the floral pattern - the tapestry pattern - that fades across the edges of her face. I adore the color scheme. It's warm and lends the perfect atmosphere. I also love her eye. The color is mysterious and the book tag is clever.
You can also visit Maurissa's website HERE and her blog HERE.
I haven't read this book yet, but between the cover and the synopsis it is definitely on my TBR list.
Is it weird that I hear random songs in my head and then turn them into Retail Wednesday titles? Like above, the theme from Happy Days, a show I don't think I've ever seen an episode of yet inexplicably know the lyrics to? No, I didn't think it was weird either :)
On to the awards!
Phone Freak Award:
I answer the phone.
Guy: Yes, I was wondering if you had a specific computer book.
Me: What book?
Guy: Adobe Premier Pro CS4 Classroom in a Book.
Me: Hold on a second let me check. (look it up, we don't have it) I'm sorry. We don't have that one in stock, but it could be ordered on our website.
Guy: How much does it cost?
Me: $60.
Guy: It costs $60 just to order a book!!!!!!!!! (absolute shock and horror in his voice)
Woman: I'm looking for a book with a lot of pictures of like ancient Greece and Rome. You know, with a lot of pictures like of their clothes and stuff especially.
Me: I'm not sure if we have anything like that, but let's take a look in the ancient history section. (start leading her toward the section)
Woman: I just want something with a lot of pictures of what they wore and like household stuff.
Me: (as we arrive in the section) If we had something it would be here, but I don't remember seeing anything like that in the store. (We both scan the shelves, checking a couple of books, but mostly they are just text)
Woman: (holding up a book) Something like this would be good, but with pictures of their clothes and stuff.
Me: It doesn't look like we have anything that specific.
Woman: How about in the kid's section? Would there be something in there?
Me: I haven't seen anything--
Woman: (cuts me off) well, we could look, right?
Me: Yes. (I start leading the way across the store to the kid's section)
Woman: You know, something with a lot of pictures.
Me: (oh, wait! You want something with PICTURES?! <---sarcastafont engage) We'll take a look at the section. (we get to the kid's history section. There is one book about Ancient Greece, but it only has a very small amount about clothes)
Woman: Yeah, I just need something that has a lot of pictures. Like of their clothes and things.
Me: We could check and see if anything comes up on our website.
Woman: No, I'll just go look back at that other section and try to find something. It just needs to have a lot of pictures.
This is a weekly meme idea I stole borrowed from Kate Hart. I discovered it when I linked to one of her posts via Twitter last week. Basically you post two of anything, but you have to connect them somehow. This seemed like a lot of fun and a way for me to easily expand my blog content to make it a little more regular and varied.
Sunday, inspired by a video Catherine linked to her Facebook feed (yes I am involved in way too much social media), I started browsing around for fun videos to use in class about plagiarism. It's always such a dull topic and I was hoping to look for ways to liven it up when I came across this hilarious and well done parody.
First I will post the original Carrie Underwood music video, because the other one is funnier if you've seen this. Also because, for reasons I just don't quite fathom, I absolutely love this song.
Second, here's the parody version.
Hope you enjoyed!
Thumb update: I go to an orthopedic tomorrow, so hopefully I will have good news then :)
Tonight Dad, Mom, Naomi, and I finished the special features on "The End of Time" - the final David Tennant Dr. Who special. Us girls found ourselves getting a bit emotional listening to the actors and watching the replay of the last scenes of the episode. It isn't the end of Dr. Who, because we know that Matt Smith has taken over and there have been two more years of Dr. Who since that ending.
But it was the end. It felt much more like a series finale than a season finale for me. I think some of that has to do with the nature of Dr. Who. Because of the regeneration, it's very much a new show with, in this case, a whole new cast and even a new producer.
(If you don't care about Dr. Who hang in here with me for a moment and I promise I'll tie it into a larger topic in a minute.)
Besides that, as brilliant as I'm sure Matt Smith is, I just think that David Tennant is absolutely brilliant and he was my first doctor. I've heard it said that you often feel a stronger connection to your first Doctor when you encounter Doctor Who.
Anyway. It's over and the specials have all been watched, but I find my thoughts lingering on the show and I find myself feeling almost depressed over the fact that this fictional character of the tenth doctor is never returning to my tv screen. Knowing I'll never see him make friends, make mistakes, continue to grow and change and LIVE makes me incredibly sad. But it was satisfying and beautiful at the same time. This got me to thinking - what makes a good ending? And then I started thinking about other endings that have affected me just as strongly and I started wondering why some are so memorable and others aren't.
I love a happy ending, but I also seem to like shows, and even books, that leave things a little bit open. I like room to imagine what's going to happen next. And honestly, I seem to like a little bit of bittersweet as well. Which is kind of a revelation for me, because I'm such a firm believer in the happy ending ending. I think it depends on how it's handled and the MOST important thing is that the ending is satisfying.
I could make a really long list, but here are a few endings I have loved:
The Hunger Games Trilogy and the Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins. I am such a Collins fangirl. I think she is absolutely brilliant. Both of these series end so bittersweetly and the thing that makes the difference is the hope. With all of the tragedy and death and horror there is hope that the characters can survive and can overcome the terrible things they've come in contact with. I get teared up just thinking about it. But the hope at the end would never have been so powerful if there hadn't been the terror right up until the last possible moment. The pain of the characters emphasizes the power of their ability to move on.
Friends. I discovered this show when I was an undergrad when a friend started lending me the seasons. I fell in love with the six characters and the ending was perfect. Each of them ready to move on with their lives, filled with possibilities, but that poignant moment when they all set down their keys and leave the apartment and the slow pan brings me to tears every time. It's an absolutely wonderful moment.
Lost. Yes, I was on the side of those that loved it. It threw me for a loop the first time I saw the finale, but after some time of processing and talking with other fans I realized that it was a beautiful and perfect ending. So there were unsolved mysteries. Wasn't that the whole point of the show? To keep people thinking and guessing and speculating? If everything was wrapped up nice and pretty it would have destroyed the power of the entire show. The characters were what really mattered. It was because of them that we cared so much about the mysteries. And each of them had some sort of conclusion to their story in a beautiful and meaningful way.
The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I cannot express my delight in these books enough. They are some of my favorites of all time and I was honestly terrified in wondering how the series would end, but I should have had more faith in Mr. Snicket. Open ended, bittersweet, and hopeful with enough bizarre twists and strange happenings to make it a worthy finale to a wonderful series.
I definitely have a lot of food for thought as I work towards the ending of my novel. Because I want to make it an ending that people will love and remember.
So what makes a good ending for you? Do you like wrapped up and happy? Or loose ended and mysterious? Or a mixture?
Due to the whole thumb fiasco and the difficulty I'm having keeping up with schoolwork, I am going to have to take a temporary sabbatical. I will keep y'all updated if there's any news on the thumb front, but for a week or two I won't be doing any of my regular features.
