Jane Austen, Christmas, and Sniffles

"You will find me a very awkward narrator, Miss Dashwood."

For it is always a trick to begin a thing in thing in the... well, in the beginning. I have been absent from this bit of cyberspace for more than a month. This is for many reasons (not the least that I had nothing particular to say and was too tired to say it anyhow), which I will now disclose. I have been:

Reading: Over Thanksgiving I reread Sense and Sensibility in preparation for —well, you'll see that below. Then a few weeks later I wasn't feeling well one Saturday, so I spent most of the day lying down and rereading Cheaper By the Dozen. That book is HILARIOUS. I read it in less than 24 hours, which is rare for me. Yesterday I reread Peter Pan. Also a delightful book which I finished with surprising speed. It's so witty. One of the amusing ways that he writes is by being rather vague about things that most authors would illuminate, or being specific about the most random details.

But you simply must fit, and Peter measures you for your tree as carefully as for a suit of clothes: the only difference being that the clothes are made to fit you, while you have to be made to fit the tree. Usually it is done quite easily, as by your wearing too many garments or too few, but if you are bumpy in awkward places or the only available tree is an odd shape, Peter does some things to you, and after that you fit.

Arthur Rackham, Peter Pan illustrator

After I finished Peter Pan and A Christmas Carol, which I had been rereading over the last few weeks, I started on an Agatha Christie mystery, which I so far like more than some of her others. There are certain books that I associate with Christmas, and oddly enough, A.C. murder mysteries are on that list (along with Howl's Moving Castle.)

In all honesty I must humbly admit that I have not followed through on the November and December Classics Challenge. Sorry. BUT I have (after a very embarrassingly long time) finished The Lord of the Rings and I am also almost finished with Bleak House, which listening to A Tale of Two Cities started me on. I don't know anyone who has read Bleak House but I'm dying to talk to someone about it, so if you have, PLEASE please comment and tell me so!

Searching: I am attempting to find some flat soled boots that are both simple and yet not extremely cheap and worthless.

I like these, but of course they're out of stock. Anybody seen something like these?

Eating: Many loaves slices of gingerbread.

Dancing: "And in winter his private balls were numerous enough for any young lady who was not suffering under the insatiable appetite of fifteen." I think to be perfectly accurate, the "insatiable appetite of fifteen" should say "insatiable appetite of fourteen through seventeen," because even now, at the ripe old age of seventeen (wait, am I seventeen? I have been considering myself sixteen for quite some time, and only just now writing it does it seem actually true. How odd.) I suffer under extreme pangs —"such tremblings and flutterings all over me!"— for a dance. It had been over a year since I had one. I was very blessed to get to hold such a dance at my house last Friday night, in conjunction with my twin. We had only seven people, but it really worked out alright. And it made me feel that having a dance is neither so difficult nor so inconvenient as I had hitherto thought. My twin popped over for a quick afternoon of some planning, then arrived an hour and a half early to help set up. The main prep was moving the furniture the night before, but this took less than twenty minutes; and so did the clean up afterward. So I now have hope that I can have another, with less time between the two!
I'm also very excited because my twin's older sister is having a dance, at which we are helping. It's nice to help, but not be quite in charge. Plus, there will be at least five times as many people. : P

Planning: I love the phone case I have right now (this painting), but if I had an iphone 5 or above, this is what I would get:

Singing: I Saw Three Ships on Christmas Day, in a loud soprano as I take a walk.

Laughing: I don't really "believe in" introverts and extroverts and MBTI types. Technically I'm an ISTJ, but of course it doesn't completely fit me. I find it very amusing to read those "How MBTI types react to stress" or "MBTI types on vacation" pages that pop up on Pinterest and laugh at how inaccurate they are (or occasionally at how accurate, as the case may be.)

Watching: It's A Wonderful Life. I love this movie.

Isn't Jimmy Stewart an amazing actor?

Sniffling: I have had a cold for a few days and am taking advantage of Christmas break to lie upon the sofa like a limp rag and do imitations of a foghorn. The latter may be annoying to some, but as I can't really hear it doesn't bother me!

Acting: I played an Irish cop and the head waitress in The Cop and The Anthem, mid November. Aaand directed The Eskimos Have Landed (which has nothing to do with Eskimos), which came off with nary a hitch.

Finding: I have found the wedding dress that I love. It is almost cheap enough that I would just buy it to prevent its being snatched up. But I'm not quite that silly.

It's from a site that sells vintage wedding dresses, and the rosettes are removable and it's lace and has cloth-covered buttons and a pretty train and the neckline is perfect and I love it.

Writing: I have a chapter and a half left in my King Arthur first draft — but I got hung up on a battle scene, which I'm terrible at writing. And right now I have an excuse. For I am writing a script. I am adapting Sense and Sensibility for our drama group, to be performed next semester. I am super excited about this. I have hesitated to tell many people of it, in case I ran out of time and we ended up buying a different script. I have one scene left in Act II, though, so I think I will have time to finish. I love this book so much. I would love to be any character. I'd even be a guy if I could play Mr. Palmer. 

Admiring: I have realized that a violin is a beautiful instrument and it has taken the place of bagpipes as my second favorite instrument. (I'm biased and the piano is my favorite simply because I know it.) Did anybody else know that Bulgaria has their own type of bagpipes? I think I'd like America more if we had our own bagpipes.

Drinking: Excessive amounts of tea as always, and coconut eggnog. Also I need some ceramic travel mugs because stainless steel gives the tea a very metallic flavour. So yes you can buy these for me.

So! Drink lots of tea, read Charles Dickens, listen to the violin, and have a merry Christmas!