Another Update--My Life is Full of Them

Hello, internet. My laptop is not fixed yet, nor do I think it ever will be. I write from my mom's iMac desktop. It's getting late and I'm trying to wind down before I go to sleep, so I figured I might as well write a blog post, so you can learn what has been happening in my life recently.

First and foremost, I got a boyfriend.

*falls out of chair in surprise*

*gets back in chair and falls out again*

I know, dear reader. I was shocked too.

I met him last November at a 4-H camp. This is the post where I release it into the public, so I'll say that  he is very nice and I wish for all the world he lived in the same town I do.

But, alas, we live two hours away... much to the relief of both of our moms I'm sure.

I liked him enough that I gave him the link to my blog, so he's probably going to read this post. Probably. A message:

Hi Michael! I like your face! - Hannah

..

Second, I got rejected by two literary magazines. I told you a few posts ago about Lightning Cake, the tiny zine that publishes flash fiction... I did not tell you about The Luna Station Quarterly, which caters to women sci-fi writers. I submitted a piece that I wrote back in October (on my birthday, to be exact).

They wrote me a really nice letter back critiquing the little pieces in the story that made them ultimately reject it, and I think I'll print it out and frame it.

Lightning Cake was also really nice about it all. Though my story (about a girl with a love impediment) fit the requirements and was well within the word count limit, they wrote back telling me that my story had too much bulk to it to be successful in their magazine. This was the first rejection I got, so I was pretty down in the dumps for a while. Then, after I'd consumed some ice cream (yeah, sorry, mom) I went back to my computer and reread the piece, and of course I agreed with everything they said.

Currently I am writing this piece about a girl named Amelia who is spending her final summer in her little hometown before she "runs away" to college. She works in an orchard and dates a boy who's afraid of animals, and the whole thing is so absurd and silly, but it's so much fun to write.

I don't know how long it will get, but as-of-now it is on its way to being a good-length novel. How many scenes I want to write yet! It's so much fun, and this summer I am putting it first and foremost on my long list of things to finish. Maybe I'll get it done by August if I just saddle down and do it.

It's a goal.

My normal computer might be broken, meaning there will be no new post in the next couple of weeks. Sorry.

An Update

April has been a lot of fun so far. Though the weather fluctuates more than me or my family would like, and I injured myself last Sunday and have been on crutches since, I've loved this month so far. 

For one, I've had to use less layers of clothing to keep myself warm. This means that once again I can walk outside in merely jeans and a t-shirt and be perfectly fine--no freezing or anything.

For twice, the tulips bloomed. Their yellow, red, and orange blooms were a stark contrast against the bleary shades of brown I'd grown so used to seeing this past winter I could see it behind my eyelids if I closed them. Unfortunately, almost as soon as the tulips had opened their petals to the world, a sharp wind and snowstorm blew them to the ground, snapping their stems. 

I took as many of them inside as I could, and put them in a shallow vase. There, they lit up the area above the microwave nicely, until they finally wilted and died a few days later.

For thrice, the aspect of school being let out next month makes me both sad and jumping at the bit for my summer vacation. I will be sad to leave my homeschooling group, because I know that for many of my friends I will not see them again until the fall, when classes resume. However, I am ready to sleep in every morning, because band class starts first hour and all through the cold, dark winter made me rise before sunrise. 

Which I both hated and appreciated. 

On the subject of band, this week we were required to give presentations. Basically, we had to pick an old classical piece and compare it to a modern day song. I've never been good at public presentations (I get a tremor in my voice, I think), and so I was nervous for this assignment. I chose to compare Night on Bald Mountain, by Mussorgsky, and Lovers' Eyes, by Mumford & Sons.

I compared tone and mood. By the end of the presentation the band teacher was enthused, and I had to replay Night on Bald Mountain for the class. Needless to say, I think I got an a. Which is good.

With spring just now warming up for good, I wonder what the next few months will bring: lots of rain, and sun? Or more cold days with freezing wind?

Whatever it is, I'll have to sludge through it.

Bits and Pieces: April Edition

Picture/Photo Find:

Something I Did:

Yesterday I traveled to Hays, Kansas, for my last ever robotics competition. Because I'm fifteen, I have outgrown the welcome of the FLL robotics team, and so I can't compete next year.

Being with my friends all day definitely kept me from feeling too nostalgic, but at the end of the day, as they dropped me off at my house, I couldn't help but feel a little sad (also, I was emotionally compromised because we had just been watching the saddest part of Life of Pi, when my friend Erin paused it to dump me off).

One of the best parts of the tournaments is that you are surrounded, literally surrounded, by geeks and nerds alike. They crush you with their nerd-dom, something that is both familiar and comforting. You can talk about Loki freely with a group of people who understand his character development. You can show people your Figment page because they actually know what Figment is and are interested in reading your stuff. Really, it was great.

I plan to help my robotics coach next year and maybe attend the competitions with them, but it won't be the same--not only because I won't be part of the team, but also because I won't be competing. I'll be helping.

There's a certain part to growing up that really slays me, and it's that the bigger you grow the more responsible of things you are, and the less fun things you get to do.

A Writer Thing:

The short story: I submitted my first story o a lit mag.

The elongated story: After shuffling my feet and dreaming of the days when I would finally grow some balls and write a cover letter so I could send some short stories out to literary magazines, I finally took the initiative, sat down, and wrote it.

Then, I carefully submitted a short story to a small, online magazine called Lightning Cake.

Their description:

Lightning Cake is a tiny zine of illustrated speculative flash fiction. New electrifying bites published weekly. Cut yourself a slice and chomp in.

I thought it sounded like just my cup of tea, so I submitted. Plus, it does not hurt in the least that I know the editor from Figment, and I am very comfortable submitting my stuff to her. It has been a learning experience, and even when I get rejected I will be grateful for the experience.

A Song for Your Ears:

You may remember a few months ago in this one Bits and Pieces post, where I told you that I watched a lot of these anime movies by a guy named Hayao Miyazaki. Hoping to gain yet another layer from these movies, I started listening to the scores from them.

My favorite is from Howl's Moving Castle. Have a listen; I like the violin parts most of all, because they move and take the melody, but I think the piano bits are especially breathtaking. 

What am I Doing Tonight?

Well, tonight is my high school's prom. My sister Hope will be going with her boyfriend (also known by close friends as "Rhett"), and I will be staying at home, dreaming of the day when I will have a boyfriend--or at least a friend--to attend with. 

Perhaps I will do some reading.  

The Band

I'm currently writing this blog post in the car on the drive back to my family's house, suckling off of my sister's wifi connection like a day-old pig, praying tat it doesn't give out in the time it takes to write this post. 

The other night my sister and I were out late milking goats (I know, not the bad-girl stuff you expected me to be doing late at night. I'm lame like that), joking about this one time we wanted to perform in a band. 

It would be great, the best sister duo there ever was. I think I was about eight or so, and she was nine, so it wasn't as though we were all that musically talented. I had this little kid guitar that I was too busy to learn how to play, but thought I was pretty good at, and Hope had her voice. We wrote our first song on Christmas Eve, and practiced it in the living room most of the afternoon. 

The song was called Milk & Cookies for Santa, and though the sheet of paper that the original lyrics is on is long gone (who knows, maybe I'll find it some day), it went something like this:

Milk and Cookies for Santa

Oh, we're layin' out milk and cookies for Santaaaaa

You should too,

We're gonna get presennntttsss in the morrrninnnngggg

MILK AND COOKIES FOR SANTA, YEAH!

We were lyrical geniuses. 

Last year I read the blog that my mom used to keep and I discovered, among other things, that she had heard us performing our timeless song and deemed it important enough to blog about. To this day, it is one of my most embarrassing memories, aside from the time I climbed into another person' excursion at the post office while they were in the car.

... Anyway.

Hope and I sat around for forever one afternoon in the summertime trying to come up with a good band name. Sweat poured off of our foreheads as we tanned in the grass, giggling like maniacs as we tried to come up with a name to title ourselves. 

I asked Hope about it, and she said we never settled on anything, but that one of our top choices was The Purple Dolphins.

There's probably a reason why our band didn't kickstart, but I'm just not sure where we went wrong.

 

 I read this book a while ago called The Disenchantments, which is about the world's worst girl band going on a road trip. These girls suck--but what got me was that no one cares after a while, because they're hot and are really into the music they make. 

What got me the most about the book was that it brought up memories of being a brief member of The Purple Dolphins. It reminded me so much of how much fun I had strumming an out-of-tune guitar and singing a few songs which lyrics needed working on. 

The book also made me want to start a band. Not to get famous or anything--I know just how impossible that is. Just to have a good time. Though I know I probably never will start another, band, perhaps I'll look more fondly at the days I was a musician.

Easter at my Grandparent's

This is the first time I have ever blogged away from home. Usually, when there's something interesting going on worth blogging about and I'm away, there almost always isn't any wifi. I'm at my grandparent's house, tucked under the layers and layers of sheets that my Grandma insists there be on every single bed, and now that I'm winding down I figured now is a perfect time to post what I've been up to.

Today I woke up very early for a Saturday, went and milked the goats, and when I came back I lazed around and read some of The Host again (Hope and I went and saw the movie last night). At around two I finally started packing, and then after I stalled them for a bit over whether or not we should take the dogs with us, we were off on the road.

While driving the two-and-a-half hours to get to my grandparent's house, I got on my laptop and made my little sisters outline a story with me. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Ainsley, what should my girl main character's name be?

Ainsley: Um... [pause] Janet.

Me: I'm not naming my main character Janet.

Ainsley: Okay, um... Margaret?

Me: [types it into the outline] Good! Where does she live?

Elizabeth [joining in]: She should live in a shoe.

Ainsley: Yeah, a shoe! [giggles profusely]

Me: She's not living in a shoe. Do you know how predictable that is?

Elizabeth: Fine. A Victorian. But it has to be green.

Me: [types in information] That's gold. 

 Eventually we came up with this story about a girl who works at a fruit stand, with eyes that can stare into your soul, who falls in love with this boy whose father was killed in a freak tiger accident at the zoo, and who is ultimately afraid of animals because he believes they're going to change into bloodthirsty killers and eat hit also.

I started speaking like Lumpy Space Princess off of Adventure Time after a while while outlining, which was hugely successful and got my sisters and giggly and full of energy. Then I got bored with outlining and decided to take a nap. 

When I woke up we were at our grandparent's house. It's a quaint house, with white siding and more irises than you can count growing in various spots around the yard. My grandparents are getting frail in their old age, and so they have this wheelchair ramp-thing that takes up half the sidewalk, but is fun to walk up. 

My parents decided to take us to a movie at the local theater; the movie was The Croods. So we ate some sandwiches and went to the theater, which was packed with little kids all chattering about this cartoon show that I love called Gravity Falls. I wanted to join in so badly, but I refrained and talked to my sisters about other things while Hope and my brother Noah got popcorn. 

The movie was really good, and if you have the chance to see it you definitely should.

 I helped Grandma make up beds when we got back, and then I changed into my pajamas and brought out my computer to write this blog post. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, so I will be at church in the morning in a brand new dress with a color scheme that matches the rest of my family's--this year the color scheme is purple and green. It's good to be spending Easter here with my family, and I'm sure tomorrow will be fun. 

Happy Easter!

My Day in Adventure Time Gifs

How I feel looking in the mirror every morning:

When I get to breakfast at the public school:

When I get out of band class:

While I'm milking the goats:

When I go on my computer/read:

LUNCH TIME!

While I do my homework:

When I complete it:

While doing my horse chores:

When I get home:

SUPPER?

How I feel at the end of the day: