Letters from back home, no.I

Our dear Beatrice,

How we miss you! Things are awfully confusing around here without you... for instance, remind us again how to turn on the record player? We've tried and tried as silly old Cecil wants to listen to Elgar (It's not silly, it's greater art than that hoo-hoo-hoo stuff you listen to!) I'm sorry, that was Cecil. He's mad at me because I said the only reason I don't like alpacas is that they aren't pretty.

How are things in Franklin? COME HOME SOON!!! Tell Dr. George (the owl) that we miss him!

Friendlily,
Percival Eugene "Percy" Worthington

(Post Scriptum: I do not approve of Percy's exuberent use of capital letters and exclaimation points, but did not want to neglect my communicative duties. Sincere regards, Cecil Alexander Beatley.)

I feel fancy. I'm blogging on an iPhone. I'd feel cooler If I could do more than type the subject line... On the road!

"The Hidden Language of the Soul", Pt. I

After attending a ballet a few weeks ago, I was feeling particularly inspired to dance, so when I visited home-of-sister-and-brother a few days later... this is what happened.
(note: these are also due in part to a viewing of "Silk Stockings"... we are convinced that this movie was made directly after some tragedy in the Cole Porter household, as that is the only explaination for the glittery disaster that is the music of this movie. yeep.)

First, we tried the art of the Grand Jete:






Dan's is our favorite. We believe he captures the essence of the jump.

A lesson from your friends, No. I

Lovelies,

We three here at the Heart of Flame Therein would like to impart some gnomely wisdom to you. With these chilly solstice months coming up, we feel one skill to be of immense importance. Sock Layering. It is an art, a talent, a skill honed by practice and careful mentoring.

What purpose does this "art" serve, you ask? We will pass over your obviously oxymoronical phrasing for now and merely point out that all of us have had to deal with such problems as socks slipping off midst slumber, certain socks being soft but not warm or long enough, or warm but too scratchy. All these problems we are about to solve.

When layering, take care not to mix like socks. For example, refrain from mixing two pairs of woolen socks, or two pairs of thin running socks. For a soft, warm, stays-on-your-foot effect, try putting wool socks over running socks.

Our current favorite combination? Long striped toe socks mixed with striped woolen leg-warmers:



We hope this has helped in some small, small, small way.

Love and sincerity,

Beatrice, Cecil A. Beatley, and Percival E. Worthington

It Must Be Stopped

Because of where I am sitting to study, every time I look up I see a mirror.

and because of some weird genetic trait that somehow nobody in the Pyles family has noticed yet, every time I do this, I make a face.

Not a cute, look at me making a cute little face kind of face. An "oh, I'm so sorry I just made your children cry" kind of face. The sort of face that makes me despair of ever making a pretty looking face again.

So... I tried to take a pretty picture. It didn't work. I dodged from myself.

And then the Pyles family face making genetic curse prevailed. I deleted those pictures.

This Must Be Stopped.

(i sent one of the genetic curse pictures to elliebird and it got tumbler'd. heed this warning!)

Etsy

I've been thinking of starting an Etsy shop, because I've become rather crafty of late. Unfortunately I haven't time to spare at the moment, but this is something I'm longing to do. Perhaps over Christmas break.

So many things are being pushed onto the "perhaps over Christmas break" list recently that I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps I'll be busier over Christmas break than I am during school.

If I did open an Etsy shop, I'd be selling things like headbands, curtains, throw pillow slipcovers, my monster dolls (they're really quite friendly and personable), and I've recently designed some rather delightful mobiles. I've got other ideas, but those are the ones I'm confident of right now.

Problems with this idea:
1. No time.
2. Whenever I create something I become so attached to it that I can't let it go. Because of this, things are looking frightful on the whole motherhood front.

"my credo is, don't tread on me"

(name that quote!)

I've recently come up with my new motto, inspired by "Still Life With Chickens". Here 'tis:

Feed your Mental Chickens today...

...Collect the Eggs of the Mind tomorrow.

"i see nothing in space as promising as the view from a ferris wheel." -E.B.White

when i said carnival before... perhaps i spoke too grandly.

yes, it was small, it only took up about 1/16th of the square.

but really, it is america's largest square, and the cotton candy was lovely.

i named him cal, short for calvin dwight peterson the third.

and him? he is mort, short for mortimer penn williams

america's largest downtown square? nice.

i mentioned Graham, Texas a few posts back... forgetting that y'all may have no mental image of it. so here are some pictures i took over the summer... there was a carnival there that weekend, and i'm trying to hunt down my pictures of that. patience, dears!

(p.s. the last one is my favorite.)

(p.s.s. see? come on... you know you want a 7up mural of your own.

i do. i want one just like this. cause it's cool.)

um... blogger deary?

i'm not comfortable with the fact that blogger just complimented me.

"fetching profile picture" says it.

"don't be so fresh" says i.

someday will be me

Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won't suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when the person looks back--she will hear her heart.
Paulo Coelho

--

i have a list.

a list of things i will do... someday. and they are brave things, wild things, things to happen when the wind blows. i know these things are in me... just not here yet.

i want to jump into the ocean with all my clothes and shoes on, and lie in the waves until i feel the rhythm of the tide is part of me. i want to ride a train to someplace with cobblestone streets and mist... i want to ride a bicycle with no hands, and do somersaults by a lake.

this is not the whole list. it goes on and on. and these things will happen.

-photo via sabino

the fun theory

a sad fact, but a true fact

the thing that has been most exciting today is the fact that i didn't have to pin back my bangs today because they've grown out significantly and no longer fall in such a way that i look like a mcdonalds sign. yay!

also exciting: it's so awfully chilly today, in the low 50s... my toes are cold and my nose is cold because i'm not used to being cold yet. tomorrow i may wear a coat!

Currently Reading

"Still Life with Chickens:

starting over in a house by the sea."

-

Catherine Goldhammer

Recently I've been reading this book, it's a memoir about a woman whose husband leaves her, and she and her daughter move to a little house by the atlantic and begin to raise chickens. At first she is not terribly pro-chicken, but they begin to pull her, to draw her through her life, and she sees that if they weren't there, needing her, a constant reminder of the passing of time, she would not move forward in her life, so the chickens are a strange sort of blessing.

a quote:

"Someday we'll look back on this, laugh nervously, and move on."

Go buy some golden socks, weyah famous!

So... I looked up the movie "Sons of Katie Elder" because it was on TCM and I recorded it, and it turns out it's about these brothers from Graham, Tx, which is pretty cool. BUT even more amazing, Graham has a Wikipedia page! I read the page, and there was a section on famous people from Graham... Here's what I found:

"Big Ed" Wilkes - Popular radio personality and recipient of the Lubbock Outstanding Agriculturist Award.

Bob Lilly - Author of photography book, "Bob Lilly Reflections", and Dallas Cowboy's defensive tackle, first inductee of the cowboy's ring of honour.

William McFarlane - Texas Representative and National Security Advisor for Reagan!

Rex Brown - Heavy metal bassist.

and my favorite...

Dean Smith - Won a gold medal in the 52 Olympics, played for the Steelers, he was a stuntman in many western movies and tv shows, and he was a pro rodeo cowboy. He actually recieved a "golden boot award", was named an "all-american cowboy", and he was inducted into the texas rodeo cowboy hall of fame.

I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson.

chim chim cheree!

Last night I went to the amazing Emily's birthday party, with Isaac and Erika. We had cupcakes and girly food (which Isaac was very obliging about) and watched 17 Again, which I honestly enjoyed lots! It was rather silly though, I admit. After Erika left, the three of us sailed paper boats in the freezing pool and climbed onto the roof to see the stars and the city in the distance. We pretended ... ok, so I pretended to be on a barn outside of Lyons.

And felt awfully, terribly brave. Heights, roofs... are kind of high up on the scaredy list. So this was a part of my new experiment. Next on the list?

Overcoming my fear of YMCA Lifeguards. Yes, I'm serious.

They're kinda creepy, and oh so very judgy judgerson. Their faces just scream "oh eh heh heh, I can swim so very much faster than that." But someday soon I'm going to just do it.

I'm going to go to the Y and swim laps,

because right now I'm running, and I Really Hate Running, but I love swimming. I love the water running over my shoulders, and the feeling when you've stretched every muscle you can. It's fun, which is refreshing compared to running, which hurts my brain, it's all bouncy and painful, and therefore I have come to the conclusion that this fear is stupid, and silly.

things you should know

target employees don't have a sense of humour.

they don't take kindly to people taking roller skates out of the box and "testing" them.

they especially dislike it when this person is out of balance due to wearing the wrong size of skates.

and they really don't like it when that person makes even the quietest indian war cries.

i really really hope this information comes in handy someday.

time to dress up as giant cats!

dadaw and i "polishing our boots"

hehe... i think this picture explains itself. its funny, caitlin and i still make all the exact same expressions we made when we were little.

elliebird and brother and my cousin and i playing in the mud.

don't look at me that way E, we both were. yes all those adjectives you are applying to how you look in this picture... we both were.

Ugly Sweater Day

You are festively invited to attend

Ugly Sweater Day,

a day celebrating the cheesier side of the Christmas Spirit!

On Thursday, December 17th, no matter what you are doing, don ye now the ugliest Christmas Sweater you can find!

(no rsvp necessary, but please email me a picture of yourself in your ugly sweater!)

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes
it is the quiet voice at the end of the day,
saying "I will try again tomorrow".

- mary anne radmacher

haha, oh my

stop this train

No, I'm not colorblind

I know the world is black and white

Try to keep an open mind

But I just can't sleep on this tonight

Stop this train

I wanna get off

And go home again

I can't take the speed it's moving in

I know I can't

But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

Don't know how else to say it

Don't want to see my parents go

One generation's length away

From fighting life out on my own

Stop this train

I wanna get off

And go home again

I can't take the speed it's moving in

I know I can't

But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

So scared of getting older

I'm only good at being young

So I play the numbers game

To find a way to say that life has just begun

Had a talk with my old man

Said "help me understand"

He said "turn sixty-eight

You renegotiate"

"Don't stop this train

Don't for a minute change the place you're in

And don't think I couldn't ever understand

I tried my hand

John, honestly we'll never stop this train"

Once in awhile, when it's good

It'll feel like it should

And they're all still around

And you're still safe and sound

And you don't miss a thing

Till you cry when you're driving away in the dark

Singing

Stop this train

I wanna get off

And go home again

I can't take the speed it's moving in

I know I can

Cause now I see I'll never stop this train

- John Mayer

mathematical optimism

doesn't the whole concept of

x - 4 = x + -4

seem rather like seeing the silver lining?

oh darn it. i'm turning into one of them.

"so, you liked tron, huh?"

Tonight I went to see my friend Alessandra in the TuzerBallet production
"Window to Dance"
It was awesome! They had two guest performers from the Metropolitan Ballet, and an amazing 13 year old pianist, and at the end there was a great modern dance number. I'm so amazed at people who can dance like that, so fluid that you forget they don't dance all the time. As I was getting ready to go I thought "huh, i could do ballet..." and tried some moves.

It did not work. I literally fell flat on my face.

After the ballet Julianna and I went to Cafe Brazil. Love that girl! She's so awesome and sweet. While we were sitting there talking, these 2 guys came over and sat at our table and tried flirting. I'm thinkin they've never tried that before.

-AAAAACCCKKKK-

We had a little inner panic, and when I panic I get a funny accent.

Apparently this has never happened to Julianna, so her eyes got all huge and she froze, so I was trying to be ... nice ... so awkward. Awkward like the moment after they stop singing in musicals, before the dialogue starts.

So... that was funny. They were not suave.

It got me to thinkin about my ballet years... here are some highlights...

Happy birthday!

This little blog turned 3 today!

Happy Birthday!

In honour of the original inspiration,

here's the quote that its name came from:

"Our monks go robed in rain and snow
but the heart of flame therein;
you go clothed in flame and fire
when all is ice within."

- G.K.Chesterton
"The Ballad of the White Horse"

Hope you've enjoyed so far, I certainly have!

Keep reading, my punctuation can only get better from here! =)

much love,

beatrice

wonder of wonders

the co-op i teach at was cancelled last minute because of flash flooding this morning...

...yay!

last night all i could think was "ohhh why can't i get sick overnight, i don't want to teach in the morning i need to get caught up in my own school"

one person will tell you that i was considering breaking my left arm (need the right one, plus if the left is out you don't have to do the harder hand in piano) ... but that's just a... rumor.

King Wes

I sometimes babysit these two kids, Wes and Brooklyn... and tonight while I was over there, Wes decided that he didn't want to be read to, he wanted me to make up a story for him.

Hmm. Ok then. I should be able to do this.

And then the imagination went SWOOOSH. Gone. So as I've been listening to the Narnia books on the way to class, my mind went there immediately.

So I proceeded to tell him the story of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. He was particularly enthralled with the part where Edmund betrays them for unlimited candy... he said

"Man, Edmund was a dum-dum! All the candy in the world would just make him sick. And throw up!!! and DIE!!!

(pause)

Hey, why didn't they just feed the witch all the candy in the world?"

.

Later on in the story he said that the White witch was like this girl in his class who liked to destroy all the nature and all the sandwiches.

.

And then, my favorite part... I had just gotten to Aslan's return, and he told me he didn't want Aslan to be king and kill the witch, he wanted King Wes to do it. So with a slight cringe and a whispered apology to Lewis, I proceeded to tell him this alternate ending. Maybe it should be considered for the Narnia movie special features disk?

.

And it was then, just as Aslan came back to ... er... talk to Santa?... KING WES appeared, and rode fast all the way to his castle, where he fought back the evil army, and then he stabbed the witch with his fasterthanlightning magic sword! And then he went inside and turned all the statues back into people, and rescued a friendly giant from a big net. And then King Wes bowed to the 4 children and let them borrow Narnia for a while so he could go into space. Because apparently King Wes can jump into space without a ship or suit. THAT'S impressive.

.

I love this kid. He's the bomb.

.

.

(check this out... i got a little shout-out over at the beehive)

quothe she, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

and then she jumped up and down. like a little girl.

my parents just gave me my suprise senior trip.


wait for it, wait for it....

I'm going to Franklin to meet DR. GEORGE!!!!!!!!!

after 6 years of listening to him teach with all his brilliant teaching skills, I'm finally going to meet him!!!

we're going to the film conference, yeah yeah yeah (please hear this in a Bee Gees singing voice).

if this trip was a superhero... it would be

The Super-Spider-Wonder-Aqua Hulk Bat-Captain

with a little wolverine thrown in there for fun.

.

i have this really silly recurring dream, where i finally meet dr. george and i completely freak out like i'm at a rock concert, and then suddenly i am. and it's the 60's. and dr. george is on stage singing, wearing .... white pants, pink shirt, leather jacket, rhinestone bowtie and really funny 60's hair!!! so me and my awesome long flippy 60's hair become a roadie for dr. george (as if i'm not already) and travelled all kinds of places. he played a gig in Walter Scott's house, at Buckingham Palace, on a hill in Germany where people were making sausage...

.

it was the worlds best tour.

.

and now i get to experience the realistic equivalent of that. on october 30th.

scared of a colour?

i read an essay on aliveness (the author had much more poetic terms for it) recently, and the lady who wrote it said that one of her goals was to do one thing that scared her every day.

this does not mean go handle cobras, walk along the edge of a skyscraper rooftop, or play with knives.

it means to face those ridiculous fears that plague you. you know which ones. the fear of singing in public, of starting a project, of talking too loud or too much, of sharing your life, of a certain colour. these are not you.

so i have a mission.

today i am embracing the colour orange. up until now i have feared this colour. it is too bright, too bold, too reminiscent of traffic cones. but this morning i realised that the things i fear about it are things that i actually love. yet somehow that fear has remained.

why do we cling to these fears as though they are a part of us?

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear;

but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

.

we can't say that it is in our nature to fear - perhaps in our unredeemed nature, but we have been redeemed. It Is Finished. so when we fear, we are ignoring God's gift. remember here?when we fear, just like when we cease to rejoice, it is as though someone has given us a washing machine as a gift, because they want us to have a better life, and yet we continue to wash our clothes by hand. God first gave us life. and after we messed up, he gave us more life.

so now that we are saved, now that not only our souls but also our lives, the very world we live in is covered all over by His redemption -

do we have any reason to fear?

and closer to the point...

do we have any right to fear?

this embracing life, this casting off of fear - at first glance it does seem humanistic... or even hedonistic. but i believe it to be the opposite. think about it. humanism comes from the idea that man is central. that mankind stands in the center and the entire universe literally revolves around him. God is not in this equation. our lives are our own, and nobody else's.

but our lives are not our own. our lives are God's. they are a piece of his creation, and what is our purpose here but to praise him and to guard his creation against sin? allowing fear into your life is allowing the effects of sin to alter you.

so this is why i am embracing orange today. i may not be able to refute all unbiblical doctrines, i may never save a life, but i can do this. i can fight human nature in this small way.

beloved fool

I must learn to love the fool in me -- the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbour and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool.

--T.I.Rubin

in which caroline and i are unpredictable...

this weekend caroline came down for a visit, and we went to smoss park (known as harry s. moss by others) for a bit of exploring.

yeep, squeeep

tonight i had peas, peppers, and pie for dinner. it was tasty.

feeling a bit under the weather (absolutely ridiculous phrase by the way) ... in a really annoying way. my throat hurts, and though i feel like i've a rather high fever, every time i take my temperature (which is often, thanks to the delightfully amusing beep the thermometer makes when it's done. one can't help but try again.) it says i'm actually disturbingly below the normal temperature. as in... 96.8.

sceeeeeeeered!

the tape of love ... sticky stuff.