My sisters and I went sledding today. The weather has been terrible for the last few weeks; much too cold to do anything. But it warmed up and dumped some lovely snow on us this weekend so we bundled up and marched to our sledding hill. We had a great time. We have been going to that same hill for so many years it has all sorts of memories attached to it. It made me think of a Christmas letter I sent out last year about sledding.
Before I had a blog, I would send out this e-mail to all the people who never write me. I would gab about my life and tell them random things I did over the summer and pretend to be fairly clever and entertaining. I didn't send one out this year, which either means that people have been writing me more often or that I have nothing clever and entertaining to say. In any case, I thought maybe you would enjoy reading last years e-mail.
Hi every one!!! *Big Cheesy grin* :D
So think of this as the Christmas letter. You know, those long typed letters on colorful christmas stationary that your friends and relatives whom you never seen any more send you once a year telling what their kids are all up to lately. I never send christmas cards. My family sends out a few every year. Dad used to use a drawing from that file of scribbles and finger paintings (that us girls would like to see burned but mom can't let go of) as a card. He would go to Kinko's and have it scaled to a bigger size (these masterpieces were often drawn on the back of the envelops you find in the pews at church) and copied off on card-stock. Every one else sent a nice card with angles on it in red and green and gold. Then they would get the Dave Mannino family christmas card featuring a half stick, half snowman with a shepherds staff looking up in awe at a similar figure floating in above the horizon line (which the shepherd is walking like a tight rope) who is sporting a pair butterfly shaped wings with tiny little bumps drawn all over them which, we must assume, represent feathers. The bottom of the card bears the holiday message in five year old handwriting and spelling: MEREE cRisMUs!!
It's snowing and the roads are horrid and it's really cold in this room. We went sledding yesterday morning. Two days ago the crowds of kids came and nicely packed down the best runs for us so they were (what is the phrase?) 'slicker 'an snot'.( Yeah that's it.) We discovered that my four year old sister does not really like to sled. She goes for one or two runs but what she really likes to do is just run up and down the hill. She struggles to the top, crawling on her hands and knees, lies panting for a few moments and then takes off running after the next sled to be launched. She bounces down a few paces of icy slop, falls and slides on her little snow-suited rump for a few yards before face planting in the snowbank. Then she enjoys a few mouthfuls of childhoods most refreshing snack (freshly fallen snow) before continuing on her way. A tiring morning for a four year old. The rest of us came home with bruised tailbones and wet socks. Sledding is fun, but between dislodged rocks the ice, rides hastily terminated by bailing out because of rapidly approaching trees (not to mention oncoming cars and rail road tracks), and the snow that gets up your pant legs and down your collar, one must question the sanity of the activity. I had a good time.
Clara and I have been building a snow fort in the back yard. We use a lunch cooler to make snow bricks and then carefully fill the cracks in between them with loose snow. Clara observed that it was definitely a girls snow fort. We were careful not to use any snow from the bottom layer of snow in our yard because then it would look all dirty. (Okay, there is a good reason for that actually. Last year Maleny eat a good portion of our snow fort. We would rather she consume air pollution without the added dirt, grass and leaves.) The sides and top are very smooth and level. We got it to where you can't tell where one manufactured brick ends and the filling snow begins. Unfortunately, this attention to detail slows down the building process quite a bit. We have two walls measuring about four or five inches tall wall where we started the second layer of bricks. It's not offering much protection as of yet. Luckily we are not expecting any attacks in the near future. The construction of the rival fortress has not even started yet. This may be because we have the only cooler.
Maleny was a very big girl today and went down the hill all by herself. Once. She really prefers having a sister or two behind her. But she actually enjoyed the sledding part and not just the snow eating (although there was a good bit of that too). We haven't built a snow fort... yet. I think we may try a new method. Instead of the time consuming brick making, perhaps we will just shovel ourselves a giant heap of snow and then dig out a nice little hole in it with a spoon. Sounds like a good idea to me.
The next part of the e-mail is pretty true to this year as well.
From the above description of my winter pastimes you may deduce that I have a lot of time to pas (if you did not figure it out by the fact that I am writing it all down). And you may wonder what Karen is up to now. She is, after all 18 and should be getting on with higher education or at least some semblance of a life. You would be right in that. I really should get a life. But I'm not planing on it in the near future. Actually, I guess that depends on your definition of 'a life'. I keep busy. *giggles*
This fall I was happy to be excepted into an obscure but prestigious institute of higher education known as St. Zita University. I applied here because they offer a major in karenhood. The home ec. program is also very good. It's a small school, the campus is very small (just one building actually). But there are lots of places to go off campus and walking between them keeps off the freshman fifteen.
As part of a mentoring program here, (a 'Big Sister Big Brother' sort of thing) my room mate is a freshman at the high-school affiliated with ZU, Zita Prep. She and I have clashing personalities but we are learning to work around our differences. Whatever our temperamental differences, we share many interests, and that helps quite a bit. I'm afraid our tastes in decorating are very contrasting. I wish she would take down some of her posters. I mean, who wants to have a larger than life picture of Vigo Mortenson (sp?), all covered in sweat, staring at you all the time? No one can claim that I am not a Lord of the Rings fan but I just don't find those posters at all attractive. She promised me that she would take them down when we repaint our room and replace them with some Middle Earth maps or something else of better taste. All and all, I am blessed in my room mate. There is an exchange student down the hall who has two room mates through the mentoring program who are at the elementary school. That's gotta be a head ache.
I spend most of my study time in the Thomas Jerome room, affectionately 'TJ': a computer lab and a small library combined. It's conveniently close to my dorm and just a short walk from The Trough and it's Tea Stand (coffee is not too popular here at ZU). The food here is no better or worse than what I was used to before. Some times I have to help prepare the meals at The Trough as part of the home ec. program. I don't enjoy it much but I suppose it's good for me. Food is such a bother in general.
A karenhood major requires knowledge of a wide variety of topics. I am taking courses in Church history, music composition, Italian, and colored pencil technique to name just a few. I am not sure how helpful my major will be on a job application since so few universities offer it. But as for applicability to life, karenhood is a great major, for me anyway.
Alright, I'll be serious now. I enjoy a pretty free schedule. It gives me lots of time to read and study things I am interested in. Fun times.
I'm spoiled. I'm still going to ZU. :P I have had a lot of people worried about me cause I'm not in college. There is a firmly fixed idea in this culture that college = success = happiness. I just don't agree. Forming my intellect is important of course but I don't think college is the only effective way to do that. Yeah, it might be harder to get a job but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I'm much to busy learning to go to school.
I actually had someone write me back and ask where ZU was located. "Um... in my computer room. It was a joke, didn't you get it?" A quick update: In addition to my Karenhood major at ZU, I've decided on a minor in history. I'm studying the American Civil War this semester and having a great time. I joined a small musical group on Gonzaga campus last winter, around the time that e-mail was written. We sing Gregorian Chant and lots of a cappella medieval polyphony. I like that a lot. It's so much fun to sing in a group and the music is beautiful. I hope to go preform with them in California in June. So I figure I'm doing pretty well as a sophomore. I'm getting things figured out slowly but surely.
This week I'm very glad I'm not in school. My half my family is out of town taking care of my Dada (dad's dad). I'm very glad I can help by being home watching the younger ones who are still here. Things work out.
That e-mail was fated to start some very interesting conversations. One of the addresses I sent it to belonged to a very old friend of mine who moved away when we were eight. (He never wrote. Ever.) When I entered the address I typed it in wrong by one letter. So it went to a complete stranger who was going to school in Texas. He seemed like a nice guy. In sorting out how the e-mail had got to him, I found out that his address was off from my friends by one letter because they had been best friends just after he moved away from me and they purposely made matching addresses. Small world.
So that's what I was up to last year at around this time. [announcer-voice] For an account of the rest of 2006, (a good bit of it anyway) see my blog archive under 'Previous SPLATness." [/announcer-voice]
Okay, I'm done. Longwinded as usual.
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