So it's effectively been a semester since I've blogged.  I got a Facebook (after a very long time of being told by practically everyone I needed to do so), so feel free to friend me if you want...  I'm on Facebook considerably more than xanga these days, although I still love xanga more. 

The school year has been...a very interesting one... I think this semester has been the most stressful of my life (and that's saying something), because of the whole "first year of teaching" stress added to the whole "senior year of college" stress, then the fact that I'm still working at the public library...I know, I'm crazy.  The hardest part has been grading and dealing with parents (okay, that's two things), but those are things I'm just going to have to get used to.  I've gotten a lot of positive feedback, as well as some pointed criticisms (some of which I agreed with).  All in all, I still love teaching and really like my students (although I don't think they like me... I'm still a strict and challenging teacher).  There have been talks about next year, once I've graduated, my teaching full time (eek!) 

So that's been good.  I have been reading all of the Subscription Digests, so I'm keeping up with all of you and have been praying for you.  I hope you're all doing well!

Recently I have been pretty interested in Japanese literature, culture, and history.  So I thought I'd post some of my newly discovered Japanese poetry.  I think I prefer the prose and plays of Japan, but the poetry is remarkable at times.

From the Man'yoshu:

referring to snow:

Having met you as in a dream, 

I feel I would dissolve, body and soul, 

Like the snow that falls, 

Darkening the heavens.

A dialogue poem:

If the thunder rolls for a while 

And the sky is clouded, bringing rain, 

Then you will stay beside me.

Even when no thunder sounds   

And no rain falls, if you but ask me, 

Then I will stay beside you.

From Sinkokinsho:

The hanging raindrops   

Have not dried from the needles  

Of the fir forest 

 Before the eveing mist 

Of autumn rises.

From Masukagami,  "The Exile of Godaigo": 

A fictional exchange between the Empress and the Emperor-

Turn your thoughts to me,

And behold these, my tears,

Too thick to brush away;

They fell on the strings of the lute 

When I saw how thick the dust lay.

When I plucked the notes 

After many months of silence, 

I yearned for you, 

And the notes became cords 

On which to thread my tears.

Finally for my last request (in the post, not my life).  If you recall, I have been very interested in the issue of Modern-Day slavery (including forced child soldiering, human trafficking, and other tragedies).  Lately I've felt the urge to do more than post things and sign petitions, so I've decided to start an email newsletter about it.  Basically, once every two months starting (God willing) in January, I (and friends) would email those interested a short (3-4 page) newsletter which would include articles about the problem, articles about those who are working to stop slavery, and a profile on a specific person involved in the campaign against slavery.  The purpose would simply be to 1) raise awareness of the issue and 2) provide information on how others can help.  So, essentially, I'm asking if any of you or people you know might like to receive the "introductory issue".  I so, just email  savingtheslaves@yahoo.com  and tell us the email address you want us to send it to.   Just fyi, this isn't like a major commitment or anything.  If at any time you want us to stop emailing the newsletter, just email us and we'll stop.  And of course, your privacy will be protected.  Thanks!  (We still haven't thought of a name, or really much of anything yet, but that will come...)

Till next time,  God bless!

I think I owe you all an apology for being absent from xanga without explanation for so long.  At first it was due to our phone lines being down, (blasted internet service provider/phone companies) then due to general business, then to my trip to Houston to visit dear friends , now to general anxiety due to the begining of college classes.  At any rate, I have tried to keep up with you all, and greatly appreciate your comments about my last post. 

Lately I have reading a very good biography of Queen Victoria, who was really quite different than my conception of her.  I found this amusing anecdote about her coronation in the book Crown, Orb, and Sceptre: The True Stories of English Coronations by David Hilliam. Apparently, her coronation ceremony, highly ritualized and infused with symbolism, was only rehearsed once, the day before, for only a few minutes.  Since her accident-ridden ceremony, all the coronations have been extensively rehearsed. 

"In many respects, however, Victoria's coronation was oddly marred by a series of mishaps.  She arrived half an hour late, having driven from Buckingham Palace dressed in a robe of crimson velvet.  Her attendant ladies were quite at sixes and sevens trying to cope with her train, twelve yards long, as well as their own.  Then, after she had been conducted to King Edward's chair, one of her attendants, the octogenarian Lord Rolle, having to walk backwards, stumbled over and rolled down the steps to the throne.  A contemporary writer described how 'the large infirm old man was held up by two peers, and had nearly reached the royal footstool when he slipped throughthe hands of his supporters, and rolled over and over down the steps, lying at the bottom coiled up in his robes.'  Everyone nearby rushed forward to help, including the queen herself, and the sight of the queen's sudden and natural concern was spontaneously applauded by the lords and ladies surrounding her, who had witnessed the affair.

Then there were problems over the presentation of the orb [apparently Victoria already had it in her hands when the time came to present it to her], and after that the bishops of Bath and Wells clumsily turned two pages of the service order together.  Victoria told him to go back and start that section again.  However, the worst incident of all happened when the Archbishop of Canterbury tried to put the ruby coronation ring on her finger.  Victoria's fingers were so tiny that a new and special coronation ring had been made for her.  Now, fingers can be counted in two ways: either starting with the thumb or else starting witht he index finger, and unfortunately the jeweller wrongly assumed that he should start with the index finger, thus making a ring to fit Victoria's little finger, whereas he should have been making one to fit the third finger.  The good archbishop insisted on ramming this tiny ring on to Victoria's middle finger, thus causing the poor girl agony.  In fact she spent two hours later that day trying to get it off."

I need to be off, but I hope to return your comments soon..  Toodles!

So how are all of you peoples doing today?  Excellent.  Me, I'm doing fine, although a bit tired at the moment.  The flood crisis is pretty much over,  (yay!) and now all there is to worry about is the awful stink that has permeated the town.  You never think about how badly it smells after a flood, but I'll bet Noah and his sons had major allergy attacks coming off the ark. Anyways.  The missing Miss Eppy about whom I was so worried has shown up- she was doing volunteer work for the Red Cross at a shelter in Dewey, and her house (miraculously, in my opinion) escaped the flood.  So as far as I can tell, everyone I know is fine.  (Except the Archambo's mansion-- it got flooded and apparently ruined the newly renovated kitchen.) 

The other day I woke up at about 6:30 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep.  I felt quite chipper, actually, so I just got up and tried to be productive (ha).  But the interesting thing was, since I woke up so early and was working so hard, I got hungry a lot more.  So I decided to follow the Hobbit diet.  I think it's a great diet that should be marketed...  You wake up early, have a nice breakfast (toast or something like that), then about 9ish you have second breakfast.  Then you have something light for Elevensies (I had yogurt), and around 1p.m. you have lunch.  I had tea around 4 p.m., with jello (no biscuts or cucumber sandwiches around, sorry), and had supper at about 7 p.m. Of course I didn't go to bed early, so I had a midnight snack (bread and butter) before finally retiring.  Mother pointed out that the diet doesn't always work, as many hobbits are known for their pudgyness, but it should work if you get up early and expend a lot of energy during the day.  I think it's a good diet, but I can't seem to wake up early enough to try it again.....

Time for some more Elizabeth Gaskell!!!  I went through my copy of Wives and Daughters and found a lot of underlined quotes (some of them I can't figure out why I underlined them), and here are a few of my favourites.

First sentence of the book:   "To begin with the old rigmarole of childhood."

~"Once a year she was condescending."~    

~"Well, but it seems people consider you as a young woman now, and so I suppose you must run up milliners' bills like the rest of your kind."~ 

  ~"But fate is a cunning hussy, and builds up her plans as imperceptibly as a bird builds her nest; and with much the same kind of unconsidered trifles."~   

 ~"It was quite true that the squire had become very fond of Molly.  The charm of having a young girl dancing and singing inarticulate ditties about the house and garden, was indescribable in its novelty to him."~  

  ~"It is odd enough to see how the entrance of a person of the opposite sex into an assemblage of either men or women calms down the litle discordances and the disturbance of mood."~    

~"I daresay it is foolish; perhaps all our earthly trials will appear foolish to us after a while; perhaps they seem so now to angels.  But we are ourselves, you know, and this is now, not some time to come, a long,long way off.  And we are not angels, to be comforted by seeing the ends for which everything is sent."~     

 ~"He felt as if high principle and noble precept ought to perform an immediate work.  But they do not, for there is always the unknown quantity of individual experience and feeling, which offer a tacit resistance, the amount incalculable by another, to all good counsel and high decree."~    

~"So apt are people to look forward to a different kind of life from that to which they have been accustomed, as being free from care and trial!"~   

~"When there's only two of us, we get along better if one of us thinks the other can do no wrong."~ 

~"But isn't she beautiful?" persevered Miss Phoebe.  "Well! and if she is, Providence made her, and not she herself."~    

 ~...the ingratitude of misery...~           ~...the underbred fop...~          ~...the graceful antics of language...~ 

  ~"Besides, I would rather he was weak than wicked.  Weak people may find themselves all at once strong in heaven, when they see things quite clearly; but I don't think the wicked will turn themselves into virtuous people all at once."~     

~"She had alwasy wished to come into direct copntact with a love-story: here she was, and she only found it very uncomfortable; there was a sense of concealment and uncertainty about it all; and her honest straightforward father, her quiet life at Hollingford, which, even with all its drawbacks, was above-board, and where everybody knew what everybody was doing, seemed secure and pleasant in comparison."~

~...one of the insults which, as it could not reasonably be resented, was not to be forgiven...~  

 ~...it was only that he was too indolent to keep an unassisted conscience...~  

  ~"Such various forms does man's vanity take!  Sometimes it stimulates philanthropy; sometimes a love of science!"~     

~"I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it was not me."~   

  ~"I sometimes think he's half a woman himself, he spend so much money and is so unreasonable."~    

~"Molly, you must never trifle with the love of an honest man.  You don't know what pain you may give."~ 

  ~... But she would try and walk in a straight path; and if she did wander out of it, it should only be to save pain to those whom she loved...~ 

  ~"My dear, don't repeat evil on any authority unless you can do some good by speaking about it."~   

  ~"I think the world would get on tolerably well, if there were no women in it.  They plague the life out of one."~ 

~"The future is hidden from us by infinite wisdom, Molly, or else I should like to know it; one would caculate one's behaviour at the present time so much better if one only knew what events were to come."~  

Sometimes I think this needs to be remembered more often:   ~"People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always  present to other people's minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues."~  

   ~...Mrs.Gibson was dozing, but believing herself to be reading...~ 

~"But sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom."~  

~"His was not the poor vanity that thinks more of the possible mortification of a refusal than of the precious jewel of a bride that may be won."~   

  ~"Give me a wise man of science in love!  No one beats him in folly."~ 

I realize I've been remiss in communicating with many of you (Esther especially), but I'm hoping to catch up on all that today or tomorrow or soon... Until next time,  adieu and goodbye!   

Random Question:  What do you think about marking, highlighting, or underlining in books?  Good idea, or bad?  I don't generally like to, but sometimes I feel like if I don't mark a quote I'll never find it again.  What do you think?