1 + 1 + 1 = 3

We've decided to add a new little member to our family. For those of you who don't know, she walks on four legs, not two....and she'll walk on four legs her entire life. No, folks. It's not a baby; it's a KITTEN!!

Her name is Guinevere, and she is adorable. Here's a picture, and the story of how this furball came into our lives.

(I told you she's adorable). So Friday morning I get a text from my sister-in-law; she says they've found five kittens on their porch, do I want them? Like she had to ask, of course I wanted them! Then, I remembered our pet-to-family-member ratio rule, and said I'd take one--I don't know that Jake would have appreciated two kittens all at once. Well, one kitten worked out because one was all they were able to catch.

Jake and I went over to their house a little after one--right after I got picked up from school--and we saw her. I had told Jake on the way over to their house that we might want to take it (we didn't know the gender of the kitten at the time) to a shelter, and Jake wisely said, "You'll want to keep it as soon as you touch it."

Yes. Yes I did. But how could I not? Look at her!

So, let me tell you a little bit about Guinevere. She's roughly three months old (but maybe younger). She loves to have her belly rubbed, and will only allow you to take a good picture of her if she's out cold (as you may have noticed); otherwise, she's sit sweetly posed for the camera and just as you push the button she moves and becomes a blur. I have many blurring pictures as evidence. She's mostly grey, but has white on her paws, and belly. Her chin is also white except her goatee-patch, which is grey. Her arch-nemesis is any curtain hanging in our house. She will spontaneously attack the bottom of the curtain--the only part she can reach--and bite. Her little claws will flail in the air, and then she'll fall down. Although we've provided, if I do say so myself, a nice and clean place for her to drink water, she seems to prefer getting her paws wet and drinking water out of our bathtub--to each her own, I guess. She also likes to knead. She kneads everything, but her specialty is the general crotch area.

Jake is guarding himself from her overwhelming desire to knead.

 Guinevere also loves to get her belly rubbed (she's a cat, I promise). She purrs like a madwoman, and meows like a mouse. Seriously, it's really sad and really funny at the same time. She doesn't really meow; it's more like a squeak. Sometimes she meows and no sound comes out at all! Her favorite sleeping places are anywhere we are, and under the bed--usually near or on my yoga mat, as shown in the next picture.

All in all, she's a dear, and we're happy to have her. She seems pretty happy to have us, too. :)

Plan C

Plan A: Teach English in Korea

Plan B: Go to Graduate School

Plan C: keep reading to find out!

Jake always says that if you want to give God a good laugh, just tell him your plans. I bet He’s busted a gut by now. For my few faithful readers out there, you know why our plans didn’t work out. If you’re new to our lives, see here for the death of Plan A, and here for the temporary setback in Plan B.

Moving On…because that’s what we’re doing. We’re moving on to Plan C—just for the record, we’re not worried, we still have 23 letters of the alphabet to work with if Plan C fails too—and Plan C involves moving. We’re moving to Pocatello, Idaho. I know it might seem like an obvious move for us for some of you, but it actually took us a while to whittle away—we originally had some 20-odd places listed as possible moving locations. Anyway, I have enrolled at Idaho State University as a Non-degree seeking student, and I will be taking a French 1101 (equivalent to a 101) class. The idea is that I’ll take enough French to feel confident in moving on to getting my MA in Medieval Literature (St. Andrews, we’re not done with you yet!). Jake will be attending classes at the CES building at ISU, so he can become a seminary teacher (did you know the church will pay for you to get your Masters?! I didn’t).

So…that’s the plan.

and the verdict is…

NO WHERE! That’s right ladies, and gentlemen, you heard it here first: Jake and Danica are going no where for graduate school! Let’s get a big round of applause…

To be totally honest, I was not this calm when I first found out, but I wasn’t as freaked out as I thought I would be, either. The week before our dreams of grad school for Fall 2013 died, a brother in our ward gave a talk about backup plans. He told two stories: one about a man who had a “set” job, and didn’t worry about having a Plan B because Plan A was working out so well (sound familiar?), and another story about a man who was constantly working on Plan B despite Plan A working well. In both stories, the men get laid off, and their Plan A’s crash and burn, but for the second man, it’s not such a big deal. Sure, he’s bummed, but he’s got Plan B, so rather than being ‘laid off,’ it’s more like a mini-vacation and then back to work at a new place. The first man was super stressed and had to scramble around to make up a Plan B. Long story short: we got the hint. What are we going to do if neither of us get into school anywhere?

It wasn’t like we hadn’t had the conversation before; we had just not taken it seriously. I mean, we’re both smart people. One of us was bound to get into a school somewhere, right? Wrong. We spent time talking about what we wanted to do if we didn’t get in anywhere. We made a list of places we’d like to move, and decided to do some research. That was Sunday night. Monday morning, the university of Oregon “regretfully” sent their e-mails. Vanderbilt followed suit on Wednesday (Although, Vanderbilt made it sound really nice. I mean listen to this: “We received a significant number of graduate applications this year; thus, we are faced with the unpleasant task of turning down a number of well-qualified applicants.” Nice, right? It makes it sound like I would have made it in if they just had more places available.) We spent Friday doing research, and narrowing our choices.

So here are the lucky applicants. I wonder who will get the regretful letters!
-Nashville, TN
-Pocatello, ID
-Reading, PA
-Portland, ME
-Colorado Springs, CO
-Logan, UT
-Lewiston, ID

Like I said, no grad school for 2013, but here’s the thing: it’s not like the grad schools are going anywhere, right? And I bet some of them even take January applicants. So, Plan B? Narrow our list further. Apply to schools with January application dates—if there are none, we’ve got a plan for that, too. Line up jobs in which ever place we choose to move. Move. Write. Publish our books. Make big bucks, and then rub it in the faces of the Creative Writing programs that wouldn’t take us! reapply for grad school, because we both like school and would like to further our education.

Who has two thumbs and hasn’t blogged in ages?

If you guessed me, you’d be right. I guess I’ve been waiting to write until I knew where (and whether) we’re going to Grad. school. Little did I realize that I could be waiting until late April to finally get around to blogging again. Well, let me catch you up on a few things:

1. Jake has officially finished a book. He sent out for the copyright, and we’re just waiting to get it. If he tells you, act surprised, because I’m not sure this is internet-worthy information yet, but sometimes he just doesn’t tell people cool things that are going on.

2. We have heard from two out of the total five schools to which we applied (mini refresher course: I applied to Vanderbilt, Oregon University—or which ever school is the ducks…I never remember, and St. Andrews. Jake applied to those same schools in addition to University of Utah—or whichever Utah school is in Logan..again, I never remember—and BYU-Provo). St. Andrews “regretfully” replied…and you know what “regretfully” means. I sort of wish they’d just say “you didn’t get in,” but I guess writing “regretfully” makes them sound nicer and more polite. As far as I’m concerned, I read “regretfully,” and think “well, if you wanted to save yourself some regret, you should have just sent me an acceptance letter,” but alas… BYU-Provo (which neither of us were really looking forward to) also said no “regretfully.”

So, the record stands at Vanderbilt: unknown, Oregon: unknown, St. Andrews: No, Utah: unknown, and BYU-Provo: No.

See why I haven’t written in a while? I only had two things on my “catch-up” list. I can’t believe it’s March already. Well, until the next time I decide to get around to blogging…

2013? Already? Are you sure? Well, let’s get to it then!

Doesn’t it seem like 2012 has come and gone in a blink? I can no longer say “This time last year, I was in Hawaii,” because this time last year I was exactly where I am now. Well, not exactly. This time this year I have a job that I enjoy, and a whole plan for novels verses my jobless and half-an-idea novel I had last year. I think we’re off to a better start.

I’ve seen a lot of posts lately that reflect on the past year or talk about the expectations and/or goals for this brand spanking new year. This post is going to do both.

I’ll start with a little reflection:
For starters, we didn’t spend 2012 in Korea like we had originally planned; however, a lot of things happened in 2012 that showed me and Jake that our Heavenly Father had us in mind when the connecting company went on their year-long hiatus.

2012 brought new levels of appreciation for simple things…like being able to feel your toes. It brought a rekindled love for the sun (I’ve always loved the sun, but being further away from it has made me realize how much).

2012 gave us something Hawaii, with all its glory and wonder, never could: roadtrips!! We got to see family, friends, and all sorts of wonderful and important people. Plus, I’ve become an epic co-pilot.

2012 gave me sledding. I had never been sledding in my life (this is the part where you all look at me and say “what?!” like I just admitted my deep, nasty secret about loving to kill puppies—which for the record is untrue and that desire does not exist—and then I remind you all that I grew up in Hawaii where there is a significant shortage of snow). It was fun…and kind of completely terrifying.

2012 presented me with the magical land of the United Kingdom (2013, don’t let me down!)

2012 also granted me the unique experience of being a Young Women’s counselor (an experience I’m still currently enjoying, and hope to enjoy for the rest of our time here.)

2012 gave me the great opportunity of being 22, which if you listen to Taylor’s latest hit, being 22 is where it’s at! (lucky me, I turn 23 this very weekend!)

2012 also brought on a successful NaNoWriMo!

Oh, 2012, The Hobbit? Les Mis? Thank you!!

Jake finished his book!! :)

2012 was full of weddings!

Unlike many of my friends, 2012 did not bring us an additions to our family—but maybe 2013 will…who knows?! ;)

So, now onto the hopes and dreams for 2013. While I, like many, totally suck at the whole “new year’s resolution” thing (seriously? we should call them “resolutions we plan to keep up until March…if we’re super lucky”), I like the idea of setting goals, and having hopes.
Here we go. I hope (see how I did that? “hopes” and then “I hope,” oh yeah, I got this!) I can cut the snark—okay, just kidding. I like my snark. It’s fun and clever (sometimes…let’s be honest, most of the time).

Okay for reals: I hope to be able to get into at least one grad school. (I know that’s kind of a lame goal since the whole thing is out of my hands anyway, but that’s why it’s a hope. I mean, I have a 87.5% of getting into at least ONE school…yes, I’m well aware that those chances are based on the probability that each school has a 50/50 shot of letting me in, and I totally get that getting into a grad school is not 50/50, but the way I see it is they either say yes or they say no. That’s two different answers, thus 50/50. And based on those odds, I only have a 12.5% of not getting into any schools at all—dude, I teach probabilities.)

I want to finish my novel. I hope. :)

I want new [at least mostly pleasant] experiences.

Two words: new. place. Don’t get me wrong, Pendleton is great in all its own ways, but I am ready to move on to the next stage of our educations, of our married life, of our lives. No matter where we get into grad school (fingers crossed we get in SOMEWHERE) we will be in a new place: could be as close as other side of Oregon, could be as far as St. Andrews, Scotland (bet you can’t guess which one I’m rooting for…p.s. if you said Oregon…you’re wrong. Like really times one hundred wrong).

I hope to feel good in my skin again (dude, the winter makes you fat. Okay, well, I’m sure it’s not ALL the winter’s fault, but it’s my story…).

I sincerely fully with all my heart hope that 2013 gives me an ocean. We used to fall asleep listening to it. The last ocean I saw was in May, and it wasn’t good swimming conditions, being freezing, but I’ll take it.

2013 needs to bring more rocking out. I didn’t play my guitar enough during 2012, and I need to rekindle that love.

Reading. I’m not going to be completely unrealistic and say something crazy like I want to read every single book on my kindle because that’s completely unrealistic and crazy, but I want to read a good portion of the books on my kindle and leave 2014 to finish off the list. That’s not too nuts. I don’t think.

Provided I’m not drowning in schoolwork (which, let’s hope I am) come November 2013, I would like to successfully complete a second year of NaNoWriMo.

2013 should bring an addition to the family…I mean 2012 totally slacked on that. Personally, I’m voting for a kitten. ;)

I’m also hoping I go to bed with an aching abs every night. :)

and Jake’s everlasting wish moves to 2013: LEGOS! (and new pj pants)

A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature

I’ve been putting off this blog for a super long time (mostly because I was so overwhelmed with everything I had learned!), and I decided I’m finally going to blog it, so I can start blogging other things, too. :)

The most important thing I must tell you, BEST. CONFERENCE. EVER.

Okay, now to the actual conference. If you’re curious as to the public response to our brilliant conference, you can check out John Granger’s post on it here. What I’m going to give you is my experience of the conference. The first thing you have to understand is that there were lots of awesome things I didn’t get to hear, I only got to go to a few of the sessions. I’ll give you bits and pieces of the little I can read of my notes (what I would give to go back in time and take that tape recorder!!).

Notes from Dr. Maria Nilson’s “From Nerdy Boy to Empathetic Male: Harry Potter’s Development Through the Series” from Linné University.

First she challenged the concept of Harry as a Cinderella figure. She said that he is more of a “changeling.” According to Swedish mythology a changeling is a child that is stolen by goblins (or trolls…I don’t remember). The child then grows up as the servant to the goblin/trolls until one day the child escapes and is reunited with his own family (Dursely=troll, Okay, I dig it). She also nixed the Cinderella theory because Cinderella comes into power; in the beginning of the story, she is powerless, then we cue the magic tree, and bippity-boppity-boo, she’s got some mojo. Unlike Cinderella, Harry always had power, and he never looses it; some argue that he looses his power in Phoenix, but she argues that it isn’t a loss of power he’s experiencing, it’s despair. She spoke a lot about Harry’s growth (obviously); the things that my notes mention the most are the concepts of power, love, and fatherhood. She talked about different levels of masculinity.  She hits on the different father figures for Harry and what they represented to him: James was a bully, Sirius was reckless, Lupin was truthful, and Albus was responsible. She also talked about Harry as a hero because of a collective group effort (Let’s face it, without Hermione, those boys would have been toast pretty early on).

I’d give you more, but that’s all I have. I put my name on a list to get her paper sent to me, but it hasn’t come. Oh well. I have a few notes from Carol Esheleman’s paper. You can facebook her if you want more information. She had a really brilliant thesis; you know, one of those ones that you hear and say “Duh! It’s so obvious! Why did I never see that before?!” …Well I had that experience anyway. Her paper was called “Twin Core: An Exploration of Twins in the Wizarding World”

She talked about the obvious twins (Fred/George, Padma/Pavarti, Harry’s wand core/Voldemort’s wand core), but she also discussed the relationship between wizard/witch and wand (How Harry and his wand have similar personalities, etc…), as well as some of the twins of the books themselves: in the generation before Harry, there was James and Sirius (Patronus: Stag and Dog, respectively), and in Harry’s generation, there was Harry and Ron (Patronus: Stag and Dog, respectively. She even talked about how Harry and Neville were each other’s twin.

I know I left out a ton, but I’m telling you what my notes said. Now, a little of what the conference was like. St. Andrews is a brilliant little town on the coast of Scotland. It’s right next to the ocean, and it was pretty rainy, cold, and windy the whole time we were there (but we weren’t bummed, we were getting the true Scottish experience). The University of St. Andrews was founded in 1413, and—unlike any other university I’ve ever been to—it is the town. The WHOLE town is the University. The English department is on one side of the town, and the Business department is on the other side of town. The best part about this university you ask? Castles. The whole darn thing is a castle! They call St. Andrews the school for the kids that didn’t get into Hogwarts.

I can’t remember if this is the building we were in for the conference, or if it was the one next door, but this gives you an idea of what the building looked like. It was beyond amazing. All these buildings looked like (and were!!) medieval castles, but you walk inside, and it looks just like any other university building. :) I would LOVE to go to school here.

 

 

 

 

Now there were tons of other wonderful papers, some I got to hear, and some I didn’t. There are a lot of notes I didn’t take, and a lot of revelations I wrote down. I will tell you that if you want to know more about the complexity of Rowling’s work, or (if you’re a skeptic) you doubt that there are complexities in Rowling’s work, I suggest you read John Grangers Harry Potter as Ring Composition, and Ring Cycle. I bought it shortly after attending this conference. He gave us the condensed version of his theory in the conference. It’s another one of these brilliant ideas that make you say “Duh! Why didn’t I see it before?”

So the last thing I’m going to give you are a few revelations I had and scratched into the margins of my program:

“Harry’s faith in Dumbledore waivers. He thought Dumbledore was a symbol of goodness, but to become a symbol of goodness, you must know the value of goodness, thus you must go through the bad to understand the good.”

“Harry comes out of ‘the cave’ (referring to Plato’s Allegory) of the Muggle world into the Wizarding world.”

“Was Harry a more complete character because he got to fulfill his role as a father whereas his own father (James), his godfather (Sirius), his temporary father-figure (Remus) and his long-lasting father-figure (Albus) all bit the dust early on in their mentoring positions?”

My last revelation that was so true that it could remain unwritten until this moment: There is so much work to still do on Rowling’s work, and her work and meticulous writing and planning have inspired me in my own writing.

Short story? Harry Potter changed my life. Period.

Lessons I learned from the UK

I LOVED the UK. So here we go. :)

1. Under no circumstances should you ever run to catch the tube if you are traveling in groups of two or more: Why you may ask? Because one of you will make it on, and the other one will have the doors slam in their face (and if it happens to be the first trip for one of you, then that person will definitely be the one to get left behind.) Yes, this happened. It was terrifying and funny all at the same time. Jake made it on, and the doors closed. I looked at him with my wide terrified eyes, and he looked at me, and shrugged. The people sitting behind him, all made that “oooh, so close!” face. Then the train went away. I wasn’t sure what to do. Luckily this couple was standing right next to me, and the man looked at me. I felt compelled to say something…something like “I think I just lost my husband.” He replied, “I’ve never lost mine before.” :) The lady was more helpful, haha. She said it had happened to her before. (Good to know it’s not just me that these things happen to). She said Jake had actually jumped on the wrong train, and that it was better for me to just stay put—which was brilliant, because my original plan had been to hop on the next train. So I waited, and then a few trains later, Jake popped up. He had gotten off at the next stop, waited to see if I was on the train after him, and when I wasn’t, he hopped on the next train back, and found me. The first thing I said to him was “Good thing this only lasted long enough so it’s still funny.” :) So my tip? Always hold on—literally, after this I always had a handful of Jake’s jacket when we got on—to your travel buddy, and have a plan so you both know what to do if you get separated…needless to say, we came up with one as soon as Jake came back.
2. Be willing to try new things: You’re in a different country with brand new opportunities presented to you. My biggest regret about Scotland was not trying Haggis—the one day I had a shot at it, my stomach was already in knots, and I felt awful. (plus the only places we could find that served it were all bars and the added smell of beer and alcohol was the furthest thing from helping my stomach we could get). But, you can bet your butt we’re going back and I’m getting that order of Haggis :) So here are the things I did try for the first time:
1. going on a 9 hour flight (twice!)
2. getting a decent sleep on a plane ride
3. riding the tube/underground/subway :)
4. using a shower cap
5. using “opera glasses” during a show
6. riding in a cab
7. getting separated from Jake & temporarily lost in the underground
8. (my personal favorite) participating in the first ever Harry Potter conference in the UK
9. wearing a coat at the beach
10. eating mousse (which has neither moose or mice in it…very misleading)
11. eating a kumquat
12. eating fish and chips (fries).
3. Food doesn’t have to make any kind of sense: For example, McDonalds (I know, I know) doesn’t have vanilla milkshakes, but they do have banana? Really? Banana shakes are more popular than vanilla? Ok. How about pepperoni….on a nacho sandwich? Yeah, Jake was surprised by that bite :)
4. Become a impulse-buyer!: Now don’t be unreasonable, paying 300 pounds for a bag is completely crazy whether you’re on holiday or not. What I mean is if you see something you love (it’s a decent/reasonable price), get it right then and there. Don’t say “Oh, I’ll think about it.” Because you won’t be able to find the shop again, or the shop will be closed. You’re supposed to get awesome stuff. Like this kind of stuff:

  An awesome old school milk bottle, a tin of fudge, a cd of Scottish bagpipe music (a wee bit pricey, but I have a weak place for bagpipes, and bagpipe music bought in Scotland? Like i could turn that down!), rosary beads from St. Paul’s, 2 bracelets, some earrings from Scotland, a little gargoyle from Westminster, and a pin from Scotland.

Three patches from Scotland (Scotland flag, Scotland crest, and Scotty Dog) and a brilliant little pin that says “Up Yer Kilt”

 

And lots of postcards (postcards are great for those types of places—museums especially—where you’re not allowed to take pictures).

5. Take an extra battery, extra memory cards, and TONS of pictures: You’re not guaranteed to get to see this place again. Take as many pictures as you can. If it seems fuzzy, take the time to take the picture again. It’s like shopping: do it now, because you won’t necessarily get the opportunity to do it again!

6. Take note of all the cool, different things: For example, there were some things that the UK just does better than the US like the traffic lights. In the US the lights go Green, Yellow, Red, Green. In the UK the lights go Green, Yellow, Red, Red & Yellow, Green. It just makes more sense. The interstates are all 3 lanes; this allows the trucks to pass each other while still maintaining a free lane for cars to pass the trucks. The money system is clever. There are coins for two pounds, one pound, fifty pence, twenty pence, ten pence, five pence, and one pence. It makes getting change so much easier. (plus the one pound coins remind me of the communication coins Hermione makes in Order of the Phoenix).

7. Don’t be an Idiot: Under no circumstances should you wear a London hat in Edinburgh…there will be a nasty little old man who makes you feel the fool, and makes you cry…or at least want to cry. Don’t let one mean person ruin your feelings for the country. Other than that one man, I had a wonderful experience with Scotland.

I’m sure there was more stuff I thought of, and wanted to tell you, but I don’t remember right now. Basically we had a brilliant time, and loved St. Andrews so much that we want to go to school there. :) I loved it—even the parts when I was tired, hungry, sore, and wet.