Jane Austen Lexicon

Hey there,

I'm back. Been awhile, but since my last post, things kind of fell by the wayside as Thanksgiving and eventually Christmas rolled around. But lately, as I'm still getting over a cold and therefore have a lot more time on my hands, I've been indulging in reading Pride & Prejudice again, and watching all of the movie versions I can find. This isn't the first time I've read the book, but it has made much more sense this time around. I have taken notes on this book in the new Jane Austen-Themed journal that my mom bought for me off of Etsy as a Christmas gift, and I've been perusing the copy of the latest issue of Jane Austen Knits that was another gift, looking for things to knit, and wondering if miss Austen would be pleased with my handiwork. It's fun to think of the charaters in her books wearing the different items shown within the magazine's pages. After I finish reading Pride & Prejudice, I will probably pick up Sense & Sensibility, and watch the movie version of Emma.

I  might be reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, after I see the new movie on Wednesday with my friends. I'm so excited! 

Saturday, October 20th, 2012

Haven't written in a couple days. But lots has happened since my last post. First and most excitedly off, mom got a call from Dr. Epstein with the results form my Halter monitor. He said he's taking me off of the Nadolol and exercise restrictions! This means I can return to dance. I'm already looking at classes and equipment. I'm not sure yet what classes I want to take, but I definitely want to do ballet. I had been in the middle of my sixth year of it when I had to quit do to the long Q-T syndrome Dr. Epstein thought I might have. I'm pretty sure I want to do hip hop too. But if I wanted to do pointe or contemporary, I would have to choose one dance studio over another. It's all rather confusing.

I've also begun reading Moon By Whale Light by Diane Ackerman for biology/nature studies. It is really fascinating. At the moment I'm still reading the first essay, all about bats. It's really sad, because really they are very gentle animals, and never purposefully hurt anyone. And many important breeds are facing extinction, which could have a huge effect on the world.

Today I got out mom's Hello Kitty sewing machine and spent a good part of the afternoon sewing a knitting bag from this great pattern I found on The Purl Bee website. I love it! The pattern was very easy to follow and this might be the first time I've used a sewing machine without getting frustrated. tomorrow I plan on making another one of these bags in a smaller size.

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

No blog post yesterday, because I stayed up late and decided to spend my time watching Dancing With the Stars and Castle. But, aside from reading part of the introduction to Light to the Nations, not much schoolwork got done. Barely anything has been accomplished because almost every day I have to be somewhere, like today, where I wasn't home from one o'clock in the afternoon until sometime around six in the evening, tagging along with mom to go shopping and drop Luke and henry off at the golf course. Not a lot of time for reading and writing.

Today I began an approach paper for The Necklace, but apparently I'm supposed to be writing some other type of essay. Oh well, I guess it is a good thing I didn't get very far. Tomorrow I have an appointment scheduled with my orthodontist at ten in the morning, but hopefully after that I can get some lessons done. I've been considering writing up a schedule for myself, maybe I will.

On another note, I received some very exciting news yesterday. Mom called Dr. Epstein back to ask about the results of my halter monitor test, and he said that he's cancelling my medication and exercise restrictions. In other words, I can do dance and any other kind of sports again! I've already begun looking at dance schools and classes. I can't wait to get started!

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Hello, I haven't been here since Friday. I completely forgot to write on Saturday, and on Sunday I had to go to Church, and then went out shopping, and then Tally came over and we went to Youth Ministry together. So as you can imagine, I was kind of tired.

So today, I slept in until eleven, and went to the post office with mom and Luke. Unfortunately, I didn't finish Peace Like a River over the weekend, but I have read The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant, which is the next short story in the EIL lineup.

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Honestly, I barely got anything done today. I didn't even do much reading. I got up late and kind of lazed around.

Henry and I got to go for a walk down the road this afternoon though, and I enjoyed that. It was bitterly cold, requiring a coat, hat and gloves. I really should knit some more. The walk provided good time to think, and good exercise. I also worked on some drawings.

Thursday, October 11th, 2012

I've finished my approach paper! Rejoice with me. I still have to look over it one more time and maybe do some editing, but it is done and I am very pleased with it. When it 's entirely finished I'll post a copy here.

I'm also halfway through Peace Like a River, and I still remain enthralled with it. The writing style is wonderful, humorous and sad, romantic and frank all at the same time. Lief Enger is a genius. It makes me think a lot about the characters and their situations. What is Davy doing right now? Does he plan on seeing his family again? How much did he plan ahead before he escaped? What would I do in his situation? Or Reuben's or Swede's or even Jeremiah's for that matter? I think I'll write an approach paper for this book too.

Tonight we watched the vice-presidential debates. I really enjoyed listening to Paul Ryan. He has a lot of integrity and seems very smart; he kniws what he is talking about. Joe Biden didn't impress me at all. I'm probably prejudiced, but he was being incredibly rude, bullying, my mom says, interrupting Paul many times, and laughing when he shouldn't have. I didn't like anything he stood for either. It was interesting to learn that both Ryan and Biden are Catholics, yet Biden is pro-choice while Ryan is very pro-life. I really hope that Ryan and Romney win the election. When Romney was first elected to run against Obama, I wasn't sure I liked him. But now, even though he may not be the best candidate, I like him and his plans for America's future.

Wednesday, October 10th 2012

Mom and I got our teeth cleaned this morning, and we went shopping before and after the appointment. While I didn't make progress on any of my school assignments, I did get a lot of non-school-related reading done. At the dentist's office I read most of articles in the new issue of Vogue magazine that mom bought the other day, a lot of which I found to be rather depressing and quite a few made political statements I didn't agree with. They had some interesting fashion ideas, and a good piece on Tim Tebow, but other than that I wasn't very impressed.

I also started reading Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, a novel I remember loving back when mom read it to me and my siblings a few years ago, but hadn't picked up since. It's fantastic! Even better than I remembered. I read about five chapters of that and plan on finishing it this coming weekend. My goal for tomorrow is to finish my approach paper for The White Heron, write up the accompanying essay and read the next short story required for unit one.

Tuesday, October 9th 2012

Today I got up early and worked on my approach paper for The White Heron as part of unit one of my Excellence in Literature course. It's almost finished, all I have left to is write the key passage explanation. When I'm finished with that, I will have to write a report using the skills I acquired writing the first paper, and then I will repeat this process for the rest of the books in the unit. So far I'm happy with my paper, and I think I did a good job with it. And even if I didn't, there isn't much that experience won't cure.

In other exciting events, mom and I went shopping and to the post-office, and we chatted about the novels we are writing. She gave me some good perspective and writing tips that I think I'll find very useful when I get back to writing. I didn't get much in the way of lessons done today, so hopefully I will have more to report tomorrow.