Thanksgiving, The Ocean, Going home.

Yesterday was uneventful, although we did our "Thanksgiving Dinner" then, mainly because we're traveling tomorrow (Friday), and we didn't want to have to drive the day after cooking all day or something. I don't know, it was my parent's logic. Elizabeth and I are just rolling with it. I am pretty pumped about Thanksgiving leftovers today... my favorite part. 

We went to the beach again today which was just glorious. It's weird, because the beach used to sketch me out. I don't know why, but I never wanted to go in the water, even when Elizabeth was trying to drag me in. It was the other way around today, although I only went in up to my ankles or so (and yet again got my jeans wet...) and the water was frigid. Maybe we should go somewhere warm for spring break... hint hint...

Mom and I went for a walk around Granddad's neighborhood, there are lots of cute little houses, although as I learned today, you have to be 55 to live here. Something to look forward to I guess...

We're in theory going to see the new James Bond movie tonight which should be fun. Mom, Elizabeth and I are definitely going, and hopefully we can convince Dad and Granddad to come. I think Granddad really likes having us here... It seems like he gets lonely without Grandma Gigi, and he doesn't get around very well anymore, so getting out of the house at all is nice for him.

Alright, dinner time. We're leaving at some point tomorrow, staying in a hotel at a vague halfway point tomorrow, then driving the rest of the way Saturday. Saturday night we're off to Kerik and Rosemary's house (mine and Elizabeth's boss from work this summer) for Hallothanksgiving (we're dressing up, eating halloween food, and playing rock band. ohhh yes). Should be amusing. Plus they have a 4 month old baby named Kalin... babyyyyy (so cute).

I thought I'd continue the ocean/sea theme with my poem:

"On The Beach At Night Alone"

On the beach at night alone

As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,

As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future.

A vast similitude interlocks all,

All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,

All distances of place however wide,

All distances of time, all inanimate forms,

All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,

All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes,

All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,

All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any globe,

All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future

This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann'd,

And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.

--Walt Whitman

Quick thought...

I love the beach. It used to freak me out, and I'd get bored, but we went today and it was just beautiful. I was thinking I might like to live by the beach when I settle down, but then I remembered the whole hurricane thing... yeahh, not so good. So we'll see what happens. I'm still pretty gung-ho about moving to the city and getting an apartment after we all graduate. Alright, I think Mom is taking Elizabeth and me shopping (whoo!!), so I'll do the boring day update later. 

G'bye!

Oh drat, poem. Ummm... This is part of Randall Thompson's "Frostiana" Series. We sang it in high school, and I loved it, but we pretty much butchered it. Then Choir did it, and it was lovely.

"Choose Something Like a Star"

O star (the fairest one in sight),

We grant your loftiness the right

To some obscurity of cloud --

It will not do to say of night,

Since dark is what brings out your light.

Some mystery becomes the proud,

But to bee wholly taciturn

In your reserve is not allowed.

Say something to us we can learn 

By heart and when alone repeat.

Say something! And it says "I burn."

But say with what degree of heat.

Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.

Use language we can comprehend.

Tell us what elements you blend.

It gives us strangely little aid,

But does tell something in the end.

And steadfast as Keat's Eremite,

Not even stooping from its sphere,

It asks a little of us here.

It asks of us a certain height,

So when at times the mob is swayed,

To carry praise or blame too far,

We may choose something like a star

To stay our minds on and be staid.

--Robert Frost

Nothing too important...

Today consisted of: 

Going to Lowes (it's like Wegmans, but not quite as awesome and filled with southern accents)

Playing tennis with Elizabeth and Dad

Coming back to Granddad's and helping Dad make chili

Making cranberry/orange relish with Mom for Thanksgiving (mmm)

Watching Dancing With the Stars with Granddad (quite the experience, let me tell you. Also, there was a timpani that played sol-do after each score was announced. Fail.)

And now I'm watching CSI (I think?) with Elizabeth, and contemplating reading. meh.

So yeah, kinda boring? Hopefully tomorrow we'll go to the beach (!!!) and maybe Mom and Elizabeth and I can go shopping for a bit? We'll see.

Ok, this was sufficiently boring. Poem time! I love Robert Frost, and although "The Road Not Taken" is my favorite poem of his, everyone knows that. So here's another one I like.

"A Late Walk"

When I got up through the moving field,

The headless aftermath,

Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,

Half closes the garden path.

And when I come to the garden ground,

The whir of sober birds

Up from the tangle of withered weeds

Is sadder than any words.

A tree beside the wall stands bare,

But a leaf that lingered brown,

Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thoughts,

Comes softly rattling down.

I end not far from my going forth,

By picking the faded blue

Of the last remaining aster flower

To carry again to you.

--Robert Frost

And we're off...

Well, I can't promise I'll update this on a regular basis, but here goes nothing. I don't know too many people on here, but a few of us are making them, so we'll see how it goes! Currently enjoying Thanksgiving break, I'm probably going to declare a French Major and with an Anthropology Minor in the near future, and things are going well. Finally.

So, I think I'll close things off with a poem. Seems like a nice ending. This is one that I discovered earlier in the semester, and now we're singing it in WoCho. It's quite lovely.

"i carry your heart with me"

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

--ee cummings