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
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
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
