The Moosey Christmas

Hello! It's Christmas Eve, which means it's time for "The Moosey Christmas", a story that I wrote on Christmas Eve (or Christmas Eve Eve--I'm not 100% sure) when I was nine. So, with no further ado, here it is, in all its unedited glory:

    Once apon a time there lived a moose with green and red striped socks on his antlers. He wanted to be a reindeer, and those socks were the best he could do to be Chrismasy. He really wished he could just ask Santa to be a reindeer.   

    Finally, he got his courage and asked Santa for him to hire him as a reindeer. Santa was delighted because he needed a reindeer hired. So, that Chrismas each child got a moose stuffed animal and an illaminated sign that said "Moosey Reindeer was here". Merry Chrismas, Santa.

This was written while we had guests at our house, in a few intense moments of thought. On Christmas day, my uncle typed up my story and helped me to pick out clip art images to make it into a book. I was very surprised to discover that there were clip art images of a moose wearing red and green striped socks. 

Merry Christmas! (I was going to include all the holidays, but I ran out of room. So, happy whatever-holiday-you-celebrate!)
<3 Lydia

Coming Soon...

I have been working on blog stuff a lot today. In case you haven't noticed, I will point out to you that this blog happens to have a new header (with a Lydia jellyfish, Priscilla the jellyfish, and a George Fox jellyfish) and a new background. The header was made using a template from Shabby Blogs, an awesome website with lots of blog-decorating goodies, and the background comes directly from Shabby Blogs.

I have also started typing up things I wrote when I was younger. Those blog posts are on a timer so that they will be automatically posted at 12:30 PM on the dates they were originally written in late 2014 or 2015. This is an ongoing project that I hope will: 
1. showcase some funny and/or interesting things I wrote when I was younger
2. give my blog enough pre-written material that I don't have to worry when life gets crazy and I don't have the time to write new blog posts. 

Since I haven't finished this project yet, I can't give you all the blog post dates, but here are the ones I have so far:

• January 31, 2015: Frogs (a journal entry I wrote in 2005, when I was in 1st grade)
• May 16, 2015: The Very Funny Bear (another 1st grade journal entry)
• November 24, 2015: Thakfle (yet another first grade journal entry)
• December 3, 2015: I Love My Famaly (Can you guess?)
• December 15, 2015: Biting Mshen (ditto)

I'll try to inform you of these when they roll around, but in case I don't, you can always check back here and see if they've been posted yet.

Best wishes!
Lydia

Quaker Stuff!

I've been meaning to post some Quaker stuff on here for a while, but I've avoided it until now because:
1. I don't want to alienate people who aren't Quaker, and thus won't understand this post.
2. For some reason, I made up my mind that it was necessary to answer the all-important question of whether or not to tag all my Quaker(ish) friends when I put the blog post on Facebook before making the post in the first place. (My brain is sort of obsessive and weird sometimes.) 

Anyway, I finally decided to just go ahead and make the post. This was largely because I started to get worried that if I waited too long, all the friends I wanted to share this stuff with would have forgotten about me. Here's how I imagine the internet conversation going down:

Me: Hey, Friend! I thought you might like to look at some of this cool Quaker stuff I found!
My friend: Who are you?
Me: Don't you remember me? We...were friends? I was in your small group/cabin/meeting/other gathering place? I think I was your secret friend once?
My friend: And where was this exactly?
Me: Quaker camp/Quaker meeting
My friend: Wait, how do you know what religion I am/was?
Me: BECAUSE WE WERE FRIENDS!!!! DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT FRIENDS ARE??
My friend: Okay, maybe we were friends. Is your real name ___?
Me: No, it's Lydia.
My friend: Are you sure you aren't ___?
Me: Nope, pretty sure I know my own name, and it's Lydia.
My friend: Okay, whatever. If we were friends, what did we do together.
Me (getting excited): Oh, we sung songs and played games and talked about our lives and did worship sharing together and wrote affirmations of each other. All sorts of things!
My friend: Um...okay. Anything specific?
Me: [insert super specific example of a thing my friend did here]
My friend: How do you know that?
Me: BECAUSE I WAS THERE!!!
My friend: Listen, if you don't stop messaging me, I'm going to the police.
Me: Okay, fine. I give up. Bye.

So, to avoid making future-Lydia very sad, I'm making this post now. Anyways, a while back I read Quaking by Kathryn Erskine. The book follows a goth girl who moves in with a Quaker family. The book itself was pretty good, with a plot that was nice but sort of cheesy. However, what really blew me away were Erskine's hilarious quotes about Quakerism. Here are the ones I found worth copying down (with occasional notes from me in italics):

• "Quakers? Excuse me? I thought Quakers were extinct...I am not even sure it's a religion. Maybe it's a commune. Or a disease." (p. 2-3)
• "Sam and Jessica look at each other again. They do this a lot. I believe it is Quaker-speak. Or they are aliens." (p.8) #totallyanalien should be a thing.
• "'First, I will need to learn Quaker-speak,' I point out. 'You people communicate telepathically. I believe you are an alien race.' They laugh as if I am joking." (p. 33)
• "Chuck smiles. 'I think we need 'Walk in the Light''.  Oh, barf! What a name! This is going to be one of those weepy, old lady hymns where voices will start warbling and tears will flow and I will get depressed by the melody alone." (p. 88) This is the song she is referring to (fast forward to 2:24):
• "Meeting has begun. And it is freezing in this place. Heat must not be a Quaker testimony." (p. 91) Seriously, though. Seeing as I live in the midst of the Sonoran desert, it isn't too much of a problem, but when someone goes to turn down the air conditioner, it's trouble.

One of my favorite things about talking to other people who are my age and are Quakers/affiliated in some way with Quakerism is how many similar experiences we have. This feeling is captured by the Quaker Probs Tumblr.  Basically, the site consists of a bunch of memes with a picture of George Fox rolling his eyes and a funny Quaker problem. (If you have any Quaker connections at all and you haven't seen these, what are you doing here? Go! Click on the link! I know you can do it! We can wait!) Also, this video about how Earlham students came up with the site is pretty cool too: http://quakerspeak.com/quaker-problems/. 

Okay, I guess that's about it. I hope you enjoyed this post and that you have a very happy holiday season! 

Best wishes, 

Lydia

6 Rules for Talking to Me About Books

I'm officially sick. I hate colds. With a fever, you get the pleasure of keeping track of how sick you are via thermometer and experiencing the weird daydream-y feeling that comes with a fever. Colds are just miserable. Currently, my nose refuses to shut up, and nothing seems to help.
   Cold or no cold, I really wanted to make a post this weekend but I never got around to it. So, here is my advice for talking to me about books:
 
1. If you don't like to read, just say so. (Although you should be prepared for me to ask why and recommend books that would be good for someone who didn't like to read.) There is nothing more annoying than having a conversations with someone who says they like to read, but doesn't seem to have read anything in their life. 

2. If you say you like a genre, you should actually be able to list a couple books you enjoyed from that genre. If someone understands why anyone would ever do this, please enlighten me. If you say you like horror, but you can't list a single horror book you have ever enjoyed, I'm going to doubt your integrity. It's even worse if the only book you can come up with is Twilight...   

3. If you like Twilight, that's fine. If the only book you have ever enjoyed is Twilight, that is not fine. Of all the books you could truly enjoy, I guess Twilight isn't the worst. I mean, if you took Lolita (a book about an oldish man being in love with a 15-year-old girl, which I've never actually read) or Mein Kampf (Hitler's autobiography, which I also haven't read) as a model for how to live your life, I would definitely prefer that you choose to idolize Twilight. HOWEVER, please, please make a point to read and enjoy at least one other book before talking to me about books.

4. If you happen to go to my school, don't say that you don't have time to read books because you have to study. You're welcome to say "I haven't been able to read much lately, because I've been really busy". However, please realize that when you say you don't read because you have to study, you are implying that I do not study. I do, in fact, study. I hope you realize that.

5. Please tell me what sort of books you like. Especially if you have been talking for a few minutes about how much you like to read. In the words of Davy from Anne of the Island, "I wanna know".

6. If I read you a passage from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) at least try to like it. It's my favorite book (not to be confused with my favorite series or my favorite author), and it would mean a lot to me if you appeared to enjoy it. 

 

Have a nice day!

❤ Lydia

(I apologize for the brutal honesty of this post.)

Questions My Future Decision-Making Team Will Have to Answer Lickety-Split

1. Is it okay/a good idea to show someone a jellyfish version I drew of them? Does it change if that person is a guy? Or if the jellyfish is an apology gift to someone I'm not close friends with? The possible variations on this question are endless...

2. Could you explain this joke to me? I pretended to get it a few years back, but I still don't. [...] What about this one?

3. Is it bad that this is the Pride and Prejudice quote that best describes my life?:

"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess," said Darcy, "of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done."

4. What song best describes me? Is that a good thing?

5. Would it be totally inappropriate to ask people to explain their actions? Like, "Why do you always talk to me as if you are a cat? It's...um...unnerving."

6. How do I know if I'm a horrible person or not? Am I a horrible person?

7. Which college should I go to? Can I get in? How do I choose?

8. Am I wasting my/your life? Sorry...

Best wishes!
Lydia

5 Goals for the Future That Have Very Little to Do with "What I Want to Do With My Life"

(I took great pains over the capitalization in the title. Sorry if it is incorrect...I tried...)

1. Own a mini-apothecary shop, preferably in the form of a little stand on a street corner or with the apothecary equivalent of a food truck. I don't want to sell drug-like herbs, or to claim that I can heal people; I just want to create a place where families can go to mix up something that smells nice and maybe cure their cold.

2. Ace a test that I had to study really, really hard for.

3. Cultivate an organized, intentionally-created collection of objects that fall out of my normal interest range (e.g. my books don't count).

4. Make a serious attempt to reach nirvana/spiritual enlightenment. (For maybe, like, a week?)

5. Draw jellyfishes professionally in some capacity for a little while. 

 Speaking of which, here is one of my latest jellyfishes:

Best wishes, 

Lydia

On My Reading Shelf...

Hello, y'all!
    This will be a pretty short long post, because I'm posting here while I procrastinate on studying for a standardized test I have coming up. (I'm sorry. I'm usually a decently dedicated student, it's just...)
     Anyways, my 'reading shelf'--the shelf that is embedded in my desk--has been overflowing lately. This is mostly because my anti-procrastination attempts go something like this: 

In an attempt to motivate myself to read these books when I actually have the time, I made a list of them. So...here they are, along with how I ended up wanting to read them in the first place: 

·   The Reasons for Seasons. Linda Allison.--A book from my dad's childhood home that he liked to read when he was my age. It has a bunch of science experiments in it, but I really haven't read it in-depth at all.

·   The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. David Wroblewski.--A book from my meeting's (see this blog post for an explanation) rummage sale about a year ago. I never got past the first page.

·   Like Water for Chocolate. Laura Esquirel.--Another book from the rummage sale. I have read some of this one; it's about a young Hispanic woman who is the youngest daughter in her family. In her family, the tradition is for the youngest to remain at home to take care of the mother in her old age. This makes things rather problematic when she falls in love. Also, her emotions while she is cooking have weird effects on the people who eat her food. 

·   Send in the Idiots. Kamran Nazeer.--A book by a man with autism, who finds all his classmates from a primary school class for kids with autism as adults. He talks about their lives and how their disorder has impacted them. I've sort of read this book, but the last time I tried to read it in public, I got so many questions I decided to stop.

·   Fair and Tender Ladies. Lee Smith.--My mom brought me this book while I was at camp. It's all the letters a girl named Ivy Rowe writes during her life. To quote the back cover, she goes from "childhood with teachers encouraging her gifts, through her rebellious teenage years when she swears off love, to becoming--as fate would have it--a gloriously proud mother". Um...so apparently swearing off love is 'rebellious'?

·   Quaking. Kathryn Erskine.--A book about a goth girl who finds Quakerism that I found at the library. My attempts to find Quaker literature have gone to all-time lows.

·   Hidden Girl. Shyma Hall.--A book about child slavery, by a former child slave. I haven't read it yet, but my mom has, and she says it is really good.

·   Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). Mindy Kaling.--I actually only knew Mindy Kaling from some of her writing I had read on the internet. I peeped into her book at the bookstore, and the first few pages were both funny and insightful-a rare combination. I hope the rest of the book is as good. 

·   Isla and the Happily Ever After. Stephanie Perkins.--A romance novel. A quality romance novel, that happens to take place at a high school in Paris, but still, a romance novel.

·   The Best American Nonrequired Reading—2007. Edited by Dave Eggers.--I think the title says it all.

·   Let It Snow. Maureen Johnson, John Green, Lauren Myracle.--The tagline is 'three holiday romances'. So far, I have read the first two, which are by Maureen Johnson and John Green. The central fuse appears to be a blizzard that causes a train to be stuck in a small town.

·   Anne of Windy Poplars (Anne Series, Book 4). Lucy Maud Montgomery.--I'm re-reading this book to calm my jangled nerves. Anne is working as the principal of a school in an unfamiliar town, replete with snobby Pringles. The book is interspersed with her letters to Gilbert, who she is engaged to at this time.

·   Emily of New Moon. Lucy Maud Montgomery. (CD)--The first book in one of two series from Lucy Maud Montgomery that I have never even tried to read. So far, Emily has lost her father and been sent to live with her maternal relatives.

·   Ever. Gail Carson Levine. (CD)--I was a pretty big Gail Carson Levine fan when I was younger, so I'm giving this book a try. Right now, it is steeped heavily in Mesopotamian religion and culture. 

·   The Dolphin Way: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Happy, Healthy, and Motivated Kids—Without Becoming a Tiger. Shimik Kang, M.D.--My mom convinced me to check this book out from the library after I read (and enjoyed) The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Tan. 

·   The Perfect Score Project. Debbie Stier.--This mom takes the SAT three times within a year to come up with techniques to help her son. I haven't read too much of it.

Now that I have terrorized you with my massive reading list, enjoy this jellyfish version of George Fox (the founder of Quakerism) I drew:

 

Quakerism, where we draw our religious leaders as jellyfish...

Anyways, happy Friday!

~Lydia 

Affirmations in My Locker

I keep a piece of paper with a hand-drawn picture of myself with affirmations from camp surrounding it in my locker at school. That being said, I feel really weird about it. Every time someone seems to be looking at my locker for an abnormal amount of time, I tilt myself and my locker door to try and hide it. I try to send the message of, "Nope, no...I totally don't keep nice things people said about me in my locker. I most definitely do not need that encouragement...". 

Here's what I imagine people think when they look at the inside of my locker:
1. "That's so weird."
2. "Why do you even do that? It's not like you need other people to validate you or something."
3. "Isn't that bragging?"

Here's why I keep it anyway:
1. I'm sorry, but school is hard. Don't get me wrong, my school is amazing. Still, WORK comes with prestige and a wonderful liberal arts curriculum.. With work, there comes with the potential for failure. With imperfection, that potential changes to a you-will-feel-like-a-failure-sometimes guarantee. Reading nice things about myself helps sometimes.

2. The people who wrote the affirmations know me completely outside of the context of the stress/failure mentioned in #1. Yes, GPAs and standardized tests were mentioned more than once. However, rather than a "I have a _._, you have a _._. Can we still be friends?" or "How much have you been studying for the [insert name of standardized test here]?" type discussion, the conversation tended to veer towards "Stop freaking out, Lydia. Studying only helps so much, and you can always retake it next year.". Still, we mostly acted as members of a community in which we all felt loved. I don't know how my camp friends are doing in school, and they don't really know how I'm doing in school either. Sometimes it's hard to remember that I am a person, with a personality that has nothing to do with being a "diligent student who tries really hard and goes to tutoring, but still fails sometimes". Reading affirmations from camp reminds me that I am, and that that girl, based upon what people say about her, is actually pretty cool.

3. We can't let this break us.* Mental health is important. If reading affirmations reminds myself that I am worthy, even when my grades aren't perfect and I'm spending more time stressing than sleeping, then that's what I'm going to do. 

In conclusion, sleep when possible, read affirmations when necessary, and never miss out on the opportunity to affirm/be present with other people. It's a tall order, but I hope to meet it someday. 

Stay amazing!
<3 Lydia

*VERY IMPORTANT: Mental stability isn't anyone's 'fault'. By "we can't let this break us", I mean that we, as a species, should try to do everything within our power do what we can to keep ourselves from exploding under the pressures of life.

FLOODING IN ARIZONA? *not clickbait

     Before I begin this post, I should explain something: I live in the middle of the Sonoran desert. It almost never rains. Even when it does rain, it's monsoon rain--warm rain that settles down after a little while.
      Keeping this in mind, imagine our surprise when it rained ALL NIGHT LONG. Not only that, it was so flooded that my school (in addition to many other school districts) decided to close for the day. According to classmates on Facebook, parts of our school are 2 ft. underwater. Also, I saw TV coverage of the freeway that showed cars (and trucks!) with water up to the windows. Basically, it feels like the flood in the story of Noah's ark to the people of a state that only gets a few inches of rain every year. Apparently, we're getting the leftover rain from Hurricane Norbert.
      Despite the rain, I am keeping productive (unfortunately). Here is my to-do list:

This is SO weird, you guys. This has to be the least likely place for something like this to happen.

Book Review: This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl (with Lori and Wayne Earl)

If you have heard about this book to the slightest degree, you may be familiar with the following details:
1. It is about the life of Esther Grace Earl, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2007 (at the age of 12). 
2. Esther maintained a (mostly online) friendship with John Green, who dedicated his book, The Fault in Our Stars, to her.
3. She died.  

 Seeing as this book is of such a serious and personal nature, I chose to detail my various emotions while reading it via lists (rather than casting unfair judgement upon the book). 

Things That Made Me Feel Guilty

1. When someone wrote something funny, and I laughed. Who laughs while reading a book about cancer? Especially at something like this:

Esther very much resisted the idea of having a tube placed in her stomach to help with nutrition and medication delivery, but after an extensive discussion about fashion forward ways to hide the G-tube, we finally agreed to have it surgically placed. (Dr. Jessica Smith)

2. Occasionally, I was a little critical of Esther or her parents. This was/is clearly wrong. I apologize sincerely to the Earl family for any harm I may have inadvertently caused them. (Yes, I am one of those weird people who think you can cause people harm by thinking negative thoughts about them.)

Things That Made Me Feel Sad

1. When Esther had to pick out her own gravestone (at 15 years old!!). 

2. Despite the general atmosphere of sadness that permeated the book, I didn't cry until I reached a short poem, written by her brother Graham three years after her death. Here is a brief excerpt:  

Your heart reminds me of you because you are so sweet and thoughtful to me. You were always there for me when I needed you the most and you never gave up on me. (Graham Kenneth Earl; September, 2013)

 3. I never got to meet her, or even know of her existence when she was alive. I know it's a little selfish, but I would have liked to discuss nerdfighteria and whatnot with her. 

4. She died, and even though I was expecting it, it was still depressing.

 Things That Surprised Me

1. Her father is a minister who also succeeds at being a normal human being. His tale of her death began rather ministerially--it is titled "Love is Stronger Than Death" (a title straight from the Song of Songs) and began by quoting Daniel 12:3. However, it gradually became clear that he has an equal balance of ministerial and normal-human-being qualities. For example, the eulogy he delivered at her funeral was full of funny stories from her life and absolutely no proselytizing. (When you grow up in a religious setting where there aren't any ministers, you get weird ideas about things.)

2. One continual surprise was how sick she actually was. I would periodically forget that she was so sick; being on oxygen was so routinely mentioned that I forgot that it was a major sign of how sick she was. Then, I would see a picture of her with very little hair and a very visible oxygen tube. I would think "Man, when did she get so sick?", and then realize she had been sick all this time. 

Things That Made Me Feel Okay

1. Esther believed that there was a heaven, which made me feel better about her death. I can't quite explain why; it just...made me feel better.

2. Esther clearly felt that God was in control, which I also found comforting. 

3. She lived a full and complete life, and her memory survives.

Overall, this was a GREAT book! I highly recommend it. 

<3 Lydia

(P.S.: Check out this video Esther made a few weeks before her death.)

 

The Necessary Introductions

Hello!
I see you have made your way over to my blog. In the future, it will probably involve a lot of moral dilemmas, books, lists, and jellyfish. However, before we get started, I had better let you know a few things about me that will likely shape what I choose to write about:
1. I believe that all people deserve equal rights.
2.  I have attended an unprogrammed Quaker meeting (Meeting is an unprogrammed Quaker worship service.) since I was four. Basically this means that:

• I haven't grown up with a handy creed I can whip out to tell you what I believe.*
• If I choose to go into meeting instead of First Day School (Quaker youth's version of Sunday school/Jewish school/whatever else), I will end up sitting silently in a room emptying my mind and waiting for the Spirit to speak to me.
• I have to grapple with religious truth without too much of a guidebook.

3. In case you haven't noticed from #2, I think religion is pretty interesting.
4. I love to read...probably a little too much.
5. I spend an excess of time drawing jellyfish. Recently, I started using Paint.net to draw jellyfish. Therefore, you might be subjected to an awful lot of my creations, which will likely make you roll your eyes.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist the temptation.)

Let me know in the comments if there is anything you would particularly like to see on this blog in the future. Have an excellent day! 

~Lydia

(P.S.: The awesome header was made using a template from Shabby Blogs.)

*NOTE: By this statement, I do not mean to say that religion comes easily to those with a religious creed. I simply mean to point out that I don't have one.