Anica Lewis

Just got back from Prince Caspian.

WOW!

It's deft, heroic, gripping, gritty, moving, spiritual, nuanced, inspiring. Transportative and true to the spirit (and in many cases the word) of the book. It made me laugh and it made sit on the edge of my seat. It addressed metatextual questions! It was enjoyably told, but I never felt like I was being strung along by mere devices. Generally it rocked.

I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a movie this much in theaters. Probably Stardust.

Eddie Izzard is the voice of Reepicheep! Caspian is hot! There's a song at the end by Regina Spektor!

What else can I say to recommend this movie? I could jump and scream, but unfortunately not over the Internet. (Was, in fact, essentially jumping and screaming as I left the theater. Well, talking loudly and gesticulating and squeeing, at least.)

They totally have their fingers on the pulse of this series, and this movie was even better than the last, which can only mean good things for further sequels. (OMG DAWN TREADER! PLS BE MAKING?) If only other Hollywood adaptions were this good.... Oh well, here's hoping for The Hobbit.

(P.S.: If you have found the door into Narnia, please let me know. Have been keeping my eyes peeled for about sixteen years, still expecting to find it any day now!)

So, in an effort to 1) put off NCLEX questions another little while, and 2) not have to update after midnight after Prince Caspian, I am updating now. I'm going to the movie tonight with Alice and NIc tonight (covertly, Alice is actually going with her parents; Nic and Jon and I will simply be in the vicinity). I also don't have to do dinner tonight since my parents have the company meeting tonight. This is really why I need to do NCLEX questions first thing in the morning- otherwise I dither around doing nothing productive.
This morning was spent with Alice, noshing on some wonderful chocolate chip pancakes, as per tradition. We were talking about old times, like Young Life, and wondering where some of these people are now. Afterwards, I had to go through those eye exams that are uncomfortable and make me blink a lot. Plus, my eyes got dilated so I look like a heroin addict. Luckily, I brought my sunglasses, so I didn't have to wear the uber-fashionable floppy plastic free ones he has. After that, I fell asleep! Seriously, took a three hour nap right in the middle of the day. Probably good, since I'm going to see Prince Caspian at nine-thirty. Whose idea was that? Oh, wait, all of ours.

Hurray California for legalizing gay marriage! :)

Right, so, I am home! I am also probably overdue for those Thoughts on Graduation, so I shall go ahead and have them, I suppose.

Graduation was big. Becky and I were almost late to walk across campus; we fumbled with our hoods and ran over to the Wren courtyard. There, we discovered that absolutely no one knew more than we did about how to wear said hoods, and no two people seemed to have them on in exactly the same way. Still, we did look very graduational.

We plodded across campus. The line of students bottlenecked at the Crim Dell bridge, and we were at the very end, so it took forever. Also, Ashton called us twice; he hadn't wanted to get up early enough to walk across campus, so he had slept in a little and gone straight to William & Mary Hall, where the ceremony was to take place. They wouldn't let anyone inside yet, though, and he got quite bored.

Eventually, we reached the Hall. They checked us for stuff we shouldn't have (but didn't catch Ashton's Gameboy, as he had taken the ingenious step of putting it in his back pocket), then made us stand around awhile before we could go in. I sat with Ashton, David, Becky, and Graham on one side of me and some poor stranger, alone on the end of the row, on the other. Now he must have gotten bored.

Mike Tomlin wasn't a bad speaker. It had not occurred to me that football coaches basically give pep talks for a living. He pointed this out, then pep talked us. And of course, we had our Chancellor, Sandra Day O'Connor, who is cool, and Sam Sadler, who is also great. I almost cried when Sam Sadler told us he loved us. And the College is renaming the University Center after him! Awww!

After the ceremony, it was about 2:10, and we hadn't had a chance to eat anything since before we walked, so maybe 10:00 am-ish. Our departments' ceremonies - wherein we would get our individual names called for diplomas - were not until 3:00, so I was hopeful about getting food. Becky found her family and went to Wawa. I, however, could not find my family. I had seen them in the stands at graduation, but I couldn't find them now. I borrowed Becky's cell phone and called Mom's cell, for which I had the number memorized, but got no answer; after looking for half an hour or so in a huge, milling crowd, I walked back to the room and called Jon's cell from my phone there. Jon told me they were already at the departmental ceremony. And somehow, I was almost late! For the second time that day, I ran off in my cap, gown, and hood.

I managed to sneak onto the stage where the psych majors had the ceremony, and I got my diploma! It spells my name right and everything!

After that, Momdad and Jon went out to eat while I went into a frenzy of packing. When they returned, I said a sort of disbelieving goodbye to Becky and Ashton, and we left.

Since then, I've been fairly productive at home. Next week I start work at the library. Most of my stuff is unpacked and put away. I've been working out; I got a vaccination I needed; today, I will get a haircut. Also, I caught up with Alice and Laura! :D We made smoothies yesterday evening. We had strawberries, bananas, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, yogurt, coconut milk, vanilla soymilk, and regular milk; we just kept throwing in more fruit when the blender ran low, and shared our bounty with Momdad and Jon. It was tasty, and we got to hang out and talk. Great fun. And tonight, we're going to see Prince Caspian! (At the risk of being smote by Becky, I wonder if I can just go ahead and read Prince Caspian before the movie, then do The Horse and His Boy later . . . I'm not sure that's any order at all. :P)

Watch the new Skiffy movie trailer! http://youtube.com/watch?v=uNb958e8C7c

We really ARE working on the movie, we swear!

Once again, it's a late hour and I'm trying to summon enough energy to write this up. I'm slightly daunted by the task of writing today's events and recounting from where I left off- I'm not good at this. Luckily, I have no life, and I don't think anyone wants to hear that I got my teeth cleaned and a vaccine. However, Alice and Nic and I concocted smoothie deliciousness tonight, throwing fruit in at random, along with whatever dairy product was handy. The results were rather tasty- Nic's family consumed a lot of it too. We use her brother as a trash disposal. We caught up on old times- it was a variation of our cookie baking, except more healthy and shorter.
Okay, so I left off where Naomi and I were gripping the iron bar in the roller coaster for dear life, plunging down a hill. I didn't open my eyes at all in that ride or loosen my grip on the bar, but, hey, actually getting on the thing was a huge achievement. Naomi and I survived, and were pumped for the next one. This turned out to be the Mantis, which boxes your ears. Seriously, you get jerked around so much you are always slamming into your shoulder harness. We all came out clutching our heads. The picture (you know the ones I mean) of us was good though, and I should have bought it, but I deliberately brought no money with me in the park. Afterwards, we were merrily skipping from one to the other- after the Millennium Force (the one with a-so-not-80-degree hill), not much seemed scary. Not even the Raptor, where you hang underneath with nothing below you. So when you flip, and had to take off your flip-flops like me, you are seeing your bare feet against NOTHING BUT SKY. But it does not plunge straight down a height humans were not supposed to be clanked up.
Now, the Dragster was a different story. It starts out shooting you at 120 mph STRAIGHT IN THE AIR and then you go over the hill and come down at A NINETY DEGREE ANGLE. I did not open my eyes the entire time, and that is the only one I refused to go back on. Naomi actually rode in FRONT for that one. She is so brave- I like the illusion of solidness by having a seat in front of me. Nathan and Amber were very good at convincing me to be brave. However, that is how I have a nice cut near my left eye. I put my hands up for the Maverick, which ends up jerking you around so much, I hit myself with my nails and cut my face! The Maverick also boasted a ninety-five degree hill- we thought we had heard the announcer wrong. Then we found out- yes, this is possible! You can go down a hill and have to look UP to see the ground!
Nathan actually dragged me on the Millennium Force again (twice!) at the end, but he was actually very nice! I think he hadn't seen how much high hills scare me until we were going up the hill and I was turning white and practically melding with the bar. I, keeping with a promise I made, kept my eyes open for the whole thing. (Granted, part was staring at my knees, but letter of law obeyed) I even put my hands in the air after scary hill was over. He gave me lots of hugs and told me how proud of me he is- he is so much the brother I never had!
Well, enough for today. Brain shutting down...Chocolate chip pancakes with Alice tomorrow...The siren call of pancakes...

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Ok, the New York Times is evil. Just a few minutes ago, I could read the article I posted without registering for their site, but now I can't. Thus, I give you a better link, one that is not evil.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080515/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage

I repeat: yay California!

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-CA-GayMarriage.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Victory in California!

(Thank you to Erin, whose Facebook status informed me of the news.)

Back in April, I did some fundraising for MS research and treatment by participating in a pledgewalk of about 7 miles through Concord.
I met my goal of $1000! I feel fortunate to contribute toward helping my many friends and acquaintances whose lives are affected.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/MAMWalkEvents?px=1935272&pg=personal&fr_id=8866

Wow, I have about 4 days to catch up on, and it's 4 crazy days! In them, I have graduated from college, said goodbye to multiple friends, packed up a dorm room, been launched 400 feet straight in the air at 120 mph and then back down, got jarred around so much I gashed myself near my eye with my fingernail, traveled across 5 state lines while listening to musicals, had about 8 visitors, helped herd chickens, mowed a lawn, and made a dinner.
Graduation was...well, the best part was us nursing majors, who managed to sneak a BATTLE HORN into the ceremony. When they announced our class, our president stood up and played the thing Braveheart-style, while we all counted to three and then stood up, letting loose the confetti we smuggled in (stuffing our dresses, I tied a bag around my waist, the NUN snuck in the horn in her habit...we were so not subtle). The marshals saw us, but they were nice and didn't stop us. Especially when one girl thought she lost something, so we had to shift all the confetti in her lap to find it. We were pretty inept at subterfuge, but we were the most entertaining part of the graduation. And may I also say, the plan I had at the beginning of the year worked out. My feet looked absolutely fanTAStic in my red heels. I even gave myself a pedicure that morning. My face and my feet were the only part that weren't going to be encased in baggy, goofy looking (but apparently traditional) graduation garb, so they were going to look darn good.
The rest of graduation was sort of a blur, because I was saying bye to people, and then realizing I was really saying bye to them. I kept choking back "See you later" because, well, I'm not seeing them later. Most of them. Even now, it hasn't really sunk in. Actually, writing about it is making me realize it. Wow, I'm going to, um, do something....
Okay, well, um, the next day was spent seeing people and saying goodbye and eating with my family- including the most interrupted Mother's Day because of Mass and room check out. And me forgetting Nathan's time translation. For Nathan, "we'll leave by two" means "at two, I'll actually move and think about loading the car". Nathan continually has this problem. We eventually left for Nathan's house- me driving Naomi, Bus in his Mustang, Nathan's mom in her car, Nathan and Amber in his car. And Nathan and Bus terrorizing me on the Ohio Turnpike. Nathan is officially the worst person in the world to follow- his speed varies about 15 mph. And he and Bus like to zoom in front of me and slow down. The way they behave would so have gotten them arrested if a cop had been there.
So Nathan, despite being about 20 minutes from Detroit, lives essentially on a farm. Seriously, they own a field they rent to a farmer. They have chickens and turkeys and several dogs and his mom wants to get goats. Goats! However, we got to herd the chickens into the safe warm henhouse, and do other things to not feel totally useless.
The next day, I had a similar problem with forgetting how Nathan's time worked. Park opened at 10, and we wanted to be there. So leave at nine was what we agreed on. APPARENTLY, to SOME PEOPLE, "leave at nine" means "I will wake up at nine, and the directions we still have to get and getting ready and everything will take care of itself and we will teleport there!" So, after getting the tickets (did you know AAA gives discounts to multiple stuff like Cedar point?), getting lunch from a supermarket, getting lost (Nathan refuses to use my Tomtom. He got the male thing of never ask for directions, but his apparently only applies to machines), we arrived at almost 1. A mere three hours off the mark.
Despite my complaining, Cedar Point was wonderful! It was a little cold and drizzly, but that meant no lines! And no sunburn! And I went promptly on a small roller-coaster, but a flippy one. And then to this big SCARY one. It's a huge hill at the beginning with a 80 degree drop. Someone needs to remeasure that! I swear it is straight down! Your face is rushing DIRECTLY AT THE GROUND. Naomi and I were luckily sitting with each other and freaked out together. And we were in front of some tough-looking ghetto boys who were ALSO freaking out. That just made me feel so much better.
Well...I meant to have this all typed out, but I've got a busy day ahead (90 NCLEX questions every morning for me, doctor's appointments, I'm making dinner) and now I have to work updating this in too. And at some point I do have to work on my feelings about graduating!

THIS is the headline which recently popped up when I opened yahoo: "Bush’s Dr. Evil impression." If you click their link, it opens up a video. I didn't have the patience to watch it with no sound, but really... is this seriously more important than the cyclone devastation in Myanmar, the earthquakes in China, or the presidential race here in our own country? Where are yahoo's priorities?

*giggle*

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080513/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_aliens

I'm guessing this was a slow news day?...

HOLY CRAP SHOEBOX PROJECT UPDATE!!!!!!

Anything else I could possibly say to any of you is rendered meaningless.

(If you don't know what I'm talking about, shoebox_project is here to help.)

I just added some new facebook distractions -- I mean, applications. My first tarot card of the day is "The Empress," and my numerology life number is 8. The description for 8 says: "Having an 8 Life Path makes you a born leader and provides you with great opportunities. Success is common in your life and others flock to you. Having a good judge of character enables you to partner with the best people. You must avoid harming those around you as you strive to reach the top." So in one day, I am being called a "born leader" and am given a card entitled "Empress?" Methinks the makers of these Facebook applications are trying to appease me so I do not smite them with my mighty Erikaness.

...Ok, ok, so the Empress card doesn't seem to have anything to do with me being powerful and mighty.... But it certainly *sounds* like it should. The actual description, for anyone who is interested, is as follows: "The Empress is in tune with Nature and symbolizes the ability to connect with the planet. Nurturing and caring, she is often thought to represent birth itself. Not necessarily the birth of a child, but perhaps the birth of a new project or business venture. Although she appreciates the simple things in life, she is not afraid to let loose and enjoy abundance."

I find it interesting that I got a card dealing with "the birth of a new project" the day after I finish learning my first belly dance routine and the week before the opening of the Ren faire. It is as though my class "gave birth" to the dance by completing it (like a baby coming to term). And by the end of this week, our little group of actors will have "given birth" to the show we have been working on for so long. Very apt. Hopefully the card also symbolizes the birth of some new ideas for writing and some productivity on the stuff I've started recently. Or perhaps if I'm lucky, that whole "new business venture" bit will turn out to mean I'm getting a new job opportunity soon.

Anyway, hell yeah on the whole numerology 8 thing. If I'm not "a born leader," I don't know who is. :)

On the other hand, I can't trust the makers of these two applications *too* much; I think their horoscope application is calling me fat... "It is time to focus more of your time on improving your health. If you aren't currently on an exercise program, now is a great time to start." How insulting! I know what you *really* mean, you bastards!... They also tell me I'm sick and dying: "You may have to seek out medical advice."

So take everything with a grain of salt, I guess. ;)

Because I am tired from today's ten-hour drive, I am going to save my big long graduation post for later. Needless to say I am graduated (like a cylinder!) and this is a good thing. So are many of my friends (yay us!) Apparently we are supposed to be grownups now or something, but I beg to differ.

So I'm home for a week before I wander off for a Caribbean vacation with my mother, hoo-rah, and then eventually back to Virginia. We just ate steak and watched Enchanted, which was a good way to begin my stay in Connecticut. I generally really enjoyed the movie, although I did wonder, like George Eliot, why even in quasi-feminist retellings of Disney stories, the dark woman never triumphs. Not that I particularly wanted the ones in this movie to triumph, but that very fact is problematic in itself. Well, I guess I can forgive them since they gave me Belle, who is the ultimate triumpant dark woman. And if they didn't make feminist faux-pas I wouldn't have anything to do with my English degree!

Also, because the plot is kind of a happy version of my novel, it made me want to write. Which is exciting, because I've been too busy to work on anything recently! I guess tomorrow will find me rewriting the beginning of my novella for the fifth time....

A massive earthquake - 7.9 on the Richter scale - hit China today. I listened to part of a public radio broadcast. The station happened to have casters already in China, in the area hit by the quake. They felt the ground shaking and didn't know what was happening. So far, over nine thousand people are missing and presumed dead.

Tragedies like this make me think of how much the human race has to work against without fighting itself. I'm not a huge fan of the distinctions between different countries, really. We're all people. In movies that have aliens, the human world often seems united: we become all Earthlings. (Really, this could encompass more than just humans, too.) Of course, the last thing we would need in the case of real extra-terrestrial contact would be an immediate us-versus-them mentality, but I do feel we should take this approach against natural disasters and epidemics, largely just because it's way past time that humanity became one big "us."

Of course, I would also like the "us" to ideally include most life forms, but then I don't sympathize much with bacteria, so my idea here might need some work. Still, I think it's basically a good one.

Though it's graduation day here at W&M and I have a billion thoughts, etc. on the subject, I'm mostly posting to remind anyone who might have forgotten (because I know I'm capable of forgetting these things) that it's Mothers' Day. :) I'll post on the other stuff later, after I've turned the tassel.

So we had our practice for graduation today, which wasn't too bad, but that is because I am in deep denial and don't want to think about never coming back to this broke-down, junky old dorm room that I love, or eating too much caf food with friends, or going off-campus to horse around at Nathan's house while he eternally suggests we watch movies or play games, which never happen.  Oh, it's too late to go sentimental, I've been packing all day, I'll catch up tomorrow.