something new!

yes, that's a "donate" button over there. yes, it's new. yes, it's to help fund my trip to Scotland for grad school, and finally yes, you will get something (a token of my appreciation) for donating. To see what it is you'll get you'll have to donate (a minimum of $2.00 for the gift). Any other amount is welcome! :D

Ok, I know this is a little weird, and I feel a little silly having it (the button) on here...but I figure: it can't hurt!

after I added the donate button, I started doing some number crunching and realized that if all of my friends on facebook were able to donate $85, I'd be able to pay for all of the expenses involved with going to grad school in Scotland (aka: tuition, food, place to live, getting there, coming back...). Isn't that crazy! I can't even imagine it! It sounds so simple! Anyway, I just thought I'd share. Thanks for listening.

isn't it funny?

In doctor who this would be ascribed to the latent psychic ability within humans, but I'm not sure to what to ascribe it. However, the very day I posted the last blog was the day upon which I was accepted to study in the M.Lit programme in the Novel at the University of Aberdeen! Of course the letter saying as much didn't reach me until Saturday night, and since I was out of town, I didn't open it until Sunday night, but it just struck me as funny that the day I posted on this blog that I still hadn't heard was the day I was officially accepted and offered a place for the 2010/2011 Academic year! I'm so excited, and relieved to have heard, but feeling rather daunted by what needs to happen between now and 21 Sept. 2010 for me to be able to go. I just want to thank you all for your prayers thus far and ask that you continue to pray for me as I try to figure out how to raise funds and that I continue to trust and lean on God for His peace, wisdom, and guidance in all of this! Thanks again!

Allons-y!!!!!! (apparently to Scotland!)

oops....

Just because the application was out of my hands, I didn't mean to stop blogging for a month...I guess that happens when you're expectantly waiting. Well, in case you're wondering, I haven't heard back from Aberdeen yet. Well, that's not entirely true. I got the initial "we've received your application" automatic-reply email and about two weeks ago I received a more personal email from the International Student Liaison for North America, and today I got the "applicant Ezine" from Aberdeen. So I at least know that they have my information. What I would love is either an email or a letter just letting me know whether or not they like me. Whether or not I can move on with my life, either towards Scotland or towards something else. Ok, well that's enough anxious rambling for now. I'll come back later, but hopefully not a month later, and tell you all about something else going on in my life. :)

Allons-y!

and it's off!

my application has been sent and it'll probably take about a month or so for me to hear back from them...so now I wait!

Winds in the east, mist comin' in....

like something is brewing, about to begin, can't put me finger on what lies in store, but I feel what's to happen all happened before.
- Bert (Mary Poppins)

Those words spoken by Bert (whether played by Dick Van Dyke or by Gavin Lee - on stage) always give me the goosebumps! They're so exciting and welcoming. A great start to a story, especially one as magical as Mary Poppins!

Amazingly enough, well I guess I shouldn't be too amazed as it was Disney producing it, Mary Poppins the stage play was just as full of magic and wonder and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as the original movie. And, if possible it even brought P.L. Travers' character of Mary back to the story, at least I think it struck a great balance between the book and the film Marys.

The play was a dream! It was phenomenal, it was amazing, for lack of any better words it was indeed completely Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!! Or perhaps it was Practically perfect in every way which made going to see it quite the Jolly Holiday! :-D

The staging and set design made me and my fellow theatre-minded flattie drool. From a flat-looking Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane that opened into a doll-house-esque set which by a snap of his fingers and a flick of his wrist, Bert, the real one in control of the story, could send across the stage. That's something else, the way in which they broke the 4th wall with Bert's knowing looks or "hey, see what I can do" nods to the audience made for a truly fun/interactive sort of atmosphere.

I'd keep going and tell you all about all of it, but I'll wait until next week to add the special parts as I don't want to give any of the most amazing parts away to those of you who may be going to see it before it leaves LA! I highly suggest going to see it! It's sooo worth it!

new location!

Hi everyone, yep, I've moved. Sorry about the lack of fore-warning. It was a sudden decision. The move is in part due to the fact that I want to start working on branding "words words words" as something other than my blog. It will, hopefully, be the name of the bookstore I want to open, so I figure I'd eliminate one thing out on the web that is title as such but has little to nothing to do with my bookstore. So, find me here, now! :D Thanks!

so...apparently I haven't updated this in a while!

Sorry, no new pictures of fun baked goods to share today, although I did reprise the Chocolate-Earl Grey Cake for my lovely flattie's birthday. This time it was a 3-tiered, star-shaped cake instead of being bundt and was frosted with cream cheese frosting and dusted with purple "sanding sugar". It was a hit, of course! Personally I think a lighter flavored frosting is best to compliment the Chocolate-Earl Grey tones, just because cream cheese, or even the brown-butter frosting nearly, over-shadow the other flavors. Oh, and I made a non-baked recipe: a veggie-chili! So yummy! Oh, but I wasn't going to talk about my latest culinary escapades, I was going to share the story of what's going on right now in my life.

Oh, happy new year, by the way! I just realized that I haven't posted on here since then. Well, I guess I'll start there, at the beginning of the new year.

I finally did what I've been talking about/wanting to do for quite a while: I spent New Year's Eve camping out along the Tournament of Roses Parade route in order to have a great viewing spot for said event the morning of the New Year! Of course, I was not alone in this endeavor, for most of the evening I was accompanied by my friends Rusty and Tori, as well as all of the families and youth groups and others who were also on the street with us. After she got off of work, after we'd all rung-in the new year at midnight, my flattie and her boyfriend (well, I guess when they got there he wasn't her boyfriend yet...but that changed that night/morning) showed up! And despite expecting to not be able to sleep, I fell asleep around 3-ish and then woke up just around sunrise. And despite the lack of sleep, and the sun in our faces, we thoroughly enjoyed the parade!

This next part requires a bit of a preface. A year ago I was working for ThinkinBig Communications, a PR Firm/event planners-coordinators/well, let's be honest ThinkinBig is awesome and does it all (mostly because we've got such an amazing Principal - Lorraine). Well, last year's Christmas present from ThinkinBig to all of our clients/associates/various connections was I am not a Paper Cup along with an explanation of a "resolution revolution". Here's the explanation:

"'The Experiment: What's the word? A resolution revolution'

New Year's resolutions have never worked for me, especially in a world of information overload. It's another list that gets lost before January ends. That's why in Y2K some friends and I committed to a WORD for the year. A single word or short phrase that would be the compass, true north, filter and driving force for the year ahead. One you want to own. One you remember. One that inspired you, makes you think, grow and learn.

For example, my JUMP year I ran a marathon, took bigger risks in business, and learned new ways of relating to the most important people in my life. Another year, PAUSE inspired me to take time to read, to build margin in my schedule, and to be quicker to listen and slower to speak.

In a year of DOWNTURN, UNCERTAINTY, CHANGE and BAILOUT, we need more GOOD, HOPE and PERSPECTIVE. The power of a single word can shift opinions, change events, reshape habits...

-Lorraine O'Keefe
principal, ThinkinBig Communications"

So, last year I tried to pick a word and it didn't work the way I'd hoped. Mostly because I picked a word that sounded better than really choosing something based on meaning. So this year I intended to really spend time thinking about the word I'd choose for the year. Based on a lot of things I'd been thinking about lately, about life and getting outside my comfort zone, and well, Beauty and the Beast...or at least a song from it...wanting adventure in the great wide somewhere...and just when I was deciding that my word should be adventure, I was reminded of a French phrase often used by the Doctor (as portrayed by David Tennant): allons-y. Below is my explanation of allons-y:

allons {a-like in apple+llons-like you're gonna say long but you don't get to the ng and you don't pronounce the s if there's not a vowel following the word} from the french verb aller meaning in the infinitive "to go", this is the nous {new} or "we" conjugation meaning: we go.

y {like you're saying the letter "e"} a french clitic (think like the English "an", "a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level." - thanks wikipedia) taking the place of a location-in other words, generally meaning "there".

allons-y {a-like in apple+llon-like you're gonna say long but you only sorta get to the ng+s-which is more like a sound between s and z+y-like you're saying the letter "e"} a two-word french phrase meaning let's go = my word/phrase for the year as it encapsulates carpe diem attitude that necessitates more than just me, alone "going"...in community and with God on this adventure.

So, this is all the preface to what I really meant to update you about.

Going back to before New Year's, again: for about a month or so I've had this ad show up on Facebook and as with most of the ads on Facebook, I ignored it. Well, I ignored it to the best of my ability. But it was advertising studying in Scotland! If you know me, you know I'd find that difficult to ignore. But I convinced myself that it wasn't really aimed at me. Instead it was supposed to be aimed at people who needed to do their undergrad studies...or so I assumed. A few weeks ago I was shown the error of my assumption as the wording of the ad changed to: Get your Masters in a year at a Scottish University. They knew how to get to me. I clicked on the link, however wary that it may be something strange or dangerous, or fake. I read, I opened new tabs of information from the different Universities where this scholarship would be accepted. I favored St. Andrews, but they had the usual sounding/looking programs that I'd seen other places that would be mildly fascinating, but weren't necessarily something I'd prefer to study. So, I moved on to the other schools, and in amongst the University of Aberdeen's taught programmes, I found it! A programme for me on The Novel! And I don't mean novel as in new and interesting things which may be called novel. No, it's that now-common form of literature that hasn't been around as long as we may like to think. That form that was belittled, along with its readers, as being silly and frivolous near its inception, but has since been associated with great works of literature, and the "intelligentsia". And so, I am working on an application to the University of Aberdeen to work on an MLitt in "The Novel". If I get in (and can raise the funds) I'll be leaving for Scotland in the Fall to commence my graduate studies. (!!!!!!!!!) If not, however, I'll be here still, happy to know that I have found an interesting programme of study and that I've applied for grad school, and working hard to get words words words (the bookstore) set-up!

Well, there you have it! There's my update. Please be praying for me in this new adventure of applying for grad school - primarily for God's will in all of this, but also for my sanity as I try to pull everything together for the application, and whatever may or may not come after. Thank you!