Thankful For Speed Round + Character Embodiment

Yes, I know it's Friday and I missed, like, a week's worth of "Thankful For"s, but since my blog does not revolve around memes, I'm gonna do a "Thankful Fir" Speed Round, where I list something I'm grateful for to stand for each day I missed. Ready? Here we go.
Monday: Sleep. Good Lord, was I ever thankful for sleep.
Tuesday: Lebanese food. I had a leftover spicy salmon wrap from a Lebanese restaurant and it was sooooooooooo good!
Wednesday: Honestly I was feeling kind of depressed on Wednesday because Thanksgiving vacation was half over, but I was happy to get some reading in.
Thursday: Pie. Turkey. The crunchy part of the stuffing. Ice cream. Ice cream on pie. Oh yeah. :-)
Friday: Well I'm glad I'm finally getting some writing done. Let me tell you, writer's block sucks ROCKS. But I'm better now. And what's even more exciting is that I found an actor who could play one of my characters to flawless perfection.
Ladies and gents, may I present to you William Moseley as Shenninias "Stag" O'Ruadhain (pronounced O'Rowan).

For those of you who have been living under a rock, William Moseley played Peter Pevensie in "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and its sequel, "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian."



A little background on this "Stag" person... Stag is obviously a nickname. I tried to change it, but nothing else fit. Anyway, Stag and his twin sister Regina were separated from the rest of their family at the age of six, and placed into the care of an innkeeper and his wife. Fifteen years later, Regina is kidnapped, and Stag must team up with a less-than-trustworthy ally in order to get her back. I believe William is a great pick for this character because, as is evident in "The Chronicles of Narnia," he portrays such a wonderfully protective older brother. You can see it in his posture, his eyes. (In real life, he actually is the eldest of three children. As much as I hate to type-cast him, I'm just saying that he would make a great Stag.)
Well, with that all out in the open, I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. Keep warm and, you know, carry on and all that.

-Grace

Photos courtesy of imdb.com and gameofkings.wikidot.com

Thankful for Sunday

Tonight at my church, we had a wonderful Worship Night service. It's a fairly new development, about once every other month, where everyone just engages in a great time of worship. You can just feel the presence of God in those walls as you sing your heart out, everyone else completely forgotten. For an hour, it is just you and Him. What a wonderful blessing!
So today I am thankful for being blessed with a voice. I can't imagine not being able to glorify him in this way. I love singing. For me, it is a way to express what I cannot say directly. And it helps me uncover certain emotions when I sing the words, as if I couldn't understand their true meaning and context until I sang it myself.
I hope you all have a wonderful week.
Goodnight.

-Grace

Thankful for Saturday

Have you seen people today? Geez! They run in twos, threes, and small packs of one hundred, drifting from one store to the next like a swarm of bees.
Christmas shopping the Saturday before Thanksgiving... what was I thinking?
By the time my mom and I actually started home, the parking lot was beginning to look glassy and the snow began to lay. Do you want to know what I'm thankful for today? I'm thankful for my mom. If it were me driving, I most certainly would have crashed the car, but Mom has this unshakeable calm that I envy constantly. Maybe it's that she knows how to maneuver snowy roads better than I do, but in everything else she remains a serene presence, a rock for my family. With words of wisdom she guides me, and with a kind and supportive hand she teaches me. I'm so glad to have my mom.

-Grace

Thankful for Friday

Belated post for Friday. For all you students out there, Happy Thanksgiving vacation!
I am thankful for the very concept of a vacation. Until I got out of class, I hadn't realized how much running around I do until I caught myself checking the time... again. Always pressed for time, that's what we are. Usually it's for a good purpose, and unavoidable, but when we do get some down-time, MAAAAAANNNN does it feel GOOOD!
I'm glad I have the opportunity to put my mind at rest. I don't even want to look at my backpack for the next week.
Cheers to a nice vacation.

-Grace

Thankful for Thursday

Howdy! Today I am thankful for imagination. I know that sounds very new-agey, but seriously, where would we be without it? I love the fact that I can retreat into the recesses of my mind late at night, and tell myself stories until I fall asleep. Sometimes there are narrations that go along with these stories, but most of the time they are spin-offs of books, movies, or television shows. I imagine different scenarios, different characters, characters I would love to portray. It's interesting to imagine the reactions, the dialogue, and the emotions.
I had a dream the other night. I was in the backseat of a small car with my family, and it was 1945, although how I knew this latter fact I could not explain. I suppose it is just one of those instances in a dream where you simply know something, like you know the sky is red for a reason, or that gravity does not affect you when you jump. In my dream, the sky was pale grey but mostly hidden by mocha-colored clouds. We were driving on a bridge very high up, supported by cement beams. And... I knew something... something was going to happen in a moment. From my window I could see over the railing to the dark grey waters below, the crests of the waves turning white and frothy. Someone, my father or my brother, was speaking, when suddenly the car swerved, as if we were trying to avoid hitting something in the middle of the road. I remember this next part quite vaguely, but one thing that stands out is that I was not afraid when the car went over the ledge, plummeting toward the ocean below. The impact did not hurt, surprisingly, and no one was injured, although my mom was a bit rattled. Since the windows had been down, the four of us were able to shimmy out. Now, the next part is cloudy; I don't really recall how it happened, but suffice to say we somehow ended up in this tunnel that descended deep into the water. It led to a kind of submarine, and when we were at the door, someone opened it from the inside and we all went spilling in, water rushing behind us. We were in this large, metal room, and I seriously thought of a submarine, or maybe Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, only less pretty, more industrial looking. It was made of dark metal, that was the most prominent detail. There were some people around, up above on a ramp that led to the "dumping area," where we were, or on higher levels with railings. I realized then that people must have been allowed in here all the time, because the ones milling about paid us no mind, although the ones on the ramp showed a little interest. No one came to greet us, but I instantly felt that we were welcome, like this was our home as much as anyone else's. Pulling myself out of the dumping area, I was fascinated with all the portholes and staircases that led to places unknown. Choosing one at random, I ducked in, temporarily forgetting my family but knowing in my heart they would be safe. Inside the door I had chosen, the entire room was pink, and it wasn't an ordinary room. It reminded me of the play areas you see in McDonald's and Chick-fil-a, where you climb one platform after the other in a kind of spiral pattern. But even though the platforms were halfway up the wall, the ceilings were quite low, so I almost had to crawl on my stomach to reach the next one. Everything was carpeted... pink carpet. But it was nice a soft. As I climbed I noticed certain things, like how each platform was almost its own room; some had dressers, others had mirrors and toy chests and closets. I kept climbing. Eventually I stumbled into a much larger room, still decked out in pink walls, but the décor deviated from the color. There was a small bathroom (only a shower occupied the space) and a queen-size bed took up the rest of it. A boy was asleep there, his blankets tangled up in his legs as if he'd been running in his dreams. He woke up when I drew near, and for a moment his eyes widened in panic. They were blue and familiar, golden brown hair tousled carelessly atop an angular face. But when I quickly darted for the next platform, he didn't try and stop me, or cry for help, but merely laid back down, watching until I was out of sight. Suddenly an alarm went off, exactly like what you would hear during WWII if an airstrike were spotted. We had been discovered. That could be the only meaning of the alarm. All around I could hear the panic rising, feet stumbling over each other like an uneven drumroll. As I climbed, I came to another bedroom, this one harboring two sleeping girls. I hated to wake them, but we had been discovered. There was nothing else to do. They awoke pleasantly enough, and regarded the alarm as if it were their mother calling that breakfast was ready. There was a large metal door on the one wall. I opened it and found myself on the ramp overlooking the dumping area. People were scrambling, but for what I could not decipher. The hatch keeping the water out swung open and a flood of water rushed in, carrying on its waves a few bewildered people. I didn't know where my family was, but I knew the Nazis were coming for us; they had somehow discovered our Nautilus.
What would become of the ship and its passengers can only be theorized. My dream ended in the dumping area. But what a dream it was!

Thankful For Wednesday

Today I'm thankful for my beautiful nieces. I love babysitting them, even if they do wake me up at six-thirty sometimes. It gives me a sense of joy and pride whenever I see them reading books or listening to music. Even if we do it a thousand times (a day) I still love acting out parts of movies with my oldest niece. I love that she follows me around because it reminds me I have to be a role model for her, so it's a small sacrifice to get off my butt, put down a book, and play Barbies or whatever strikes her fancy that day. I'm so thankful I get to be a part of raising them, because they have changed me in ways I can't even describe. I would do anything for them. And I'm glad I can say that about someone.
What are you thankful for today?

-Grace

"Thankful For..." Memes

I'm back! Sorry for the long absence. I'm sure after reading my last post most of you were expecting the next part of "Ursula's Tale." I'm working on it, I promise. I would rather post something of good quality than be rushed by a time constraint. It is this very preference which makes me one of the more peculiar writers, I think. At any rate, I've been thinking about Thanksgiving and last night wondered why I hadn't done something on my blog to kind of commemorate the occasion. Not that this will be my last Thanksgiving or anything, but why not? So everyday leading up to Thanksgiving, I'm going to post something I'm thankful for, and hopefully a little story to go with it.
Hope you all enjoy. :-)

-Grace