Intrusion!

Shoulder Angels

CAST
Good Shoulder Angel (A1)
Bad Shoulder Angel (A2)
Aaron (Me)

Scene: Aaron's bedroom

-----------------------

Me: What should I do now?

A2: The blog calls!

A1: School calls louder!

A2: That may be, but the blog has been more neglected.

Me: He's right! (Starts post about shoulder angels)

A1: Don't you want to graduate next year?

Me: Gulp. (Pauses)

A2: Think of your audience! Your fans! The huddled masses yearning to be edified!

Me: You're right! Send these, the tempest-tossed to me. Just five more minutes, Good Shoulder Angel, that's all I ask.

A1: But think of your mother!

Me: (Addressing Bad Shoulder Angel) You know, he's got a point.

A2: The masses!

A1: The mother!

A2: The masses!

A1: The mother!

Me: Guys, guys. Just quit it. I'm trying to write, and you're making it hard.

A1: What! You're writing on your blog?!?! You're giving in to that low-down good-for-nothing creep who dares to label himself an angel?!?!?

Me: Well, I kind of labeled him that myself...

A1: For shame!

Me: (Sighs) You're right. After all, you are the good shoulder angel. I guess I'd better get to work.

A2: But....

Me: (With head high and noble tones and expression) No buts, coward! I am going to do what I know is right! No longer will I fritter away my time pursuing popularity when I could be expanding my mind! Education must triumph! I will do the right thing, with malice toward none, with charity toward all! Once again good will prevail!

The End

Extreme Thrift

I just had the best idea for inexpensive Christmas gifts. You know how you can have a star officially named after someone? It's such a special thing to think that someone appreciates you so much that they'd name a nearly invisible light in the sky after you so that when they're lonely they can look through a telescope and thing about your name. But naming a star is not my idea; someone else already had that, and I can't stand to be unoriginal. No, as a token of love and appreciation, this year I am naming clouds after my family members! Think about it! No cost, no purchase process, no hassle for the giver, and the givee's heavenly namesake is so much closer to earth, where it can be admired on a much more intimate level. There's a really nice billowy purple cloud out my window right now that I might name after Bria...

On a more serious note, I am excited for Christmas, but it's SO weird having December 24 be warm and cloudy. This is New Hampshire, for Pete's sake! Still, it'll be Christmas no matter what the weather.

Now that Christmas is so close, I can't decide whether I want it to be here ASAP or to delay in coming JUST a wee bit. You see, I have SOOOO much to do (which explains why I'm taking fifteen minutes to write on my blog)! More time would be nice, but I can't wait to have it all done with. And I can't wait for Christmas. But the list IS pretty long. Sigh. Fortunately, I don't have to make a decision. If I were in charge of time instead of God, time would be so disorderly that everyone would always be confused. ("Wait, it's 2! No, it's 1:30! Oh, hold on, we just skipped Friday so Aaron wouldn't have to take his big exam...") Christmas will be here in 11 hours no matter what, so I guess I'll just grab some headphones and the Messiah while I work, and "Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice greatly... for unto us a Child is born!"

Merry Christmas, everyone!

An Early Christmas Present!!!

You should have seen my jaw drop when Daddy handed me the gold-plated keys to this baby. I'm sure he would have waited until Christmas, but we have no place to hide it here. I'm happy to have it now anyway! It's so powerful, so fast, so downright gorgeous .... it's too good to be true!

Aaron S: Diary of a Young Boy

Due to lack of time and space, I've been forced to share only about half of the volume of my first diary with you. Nevertheless, I have managed to include, word for word, what I think are probably the most enjoyable nuggets from the little (and I mean LITTLE) volume.

Sat., 1996, Mar. 2:
On the 27th in February, was my birthday! I am 7 years old! ....

You will soon find that the subject of this last little entry - birthdays - once predominated nearly the entirety of my thoughts, or at least those I deigned worth sharing with the future. I shall now skip two entries to bring you to one of the next notable days in my calendar:

Friday, November 1, 1996:
...It is Bria's birthday, and she is (9) 9 years old...

...My Jack-knife is missing. It has my diary keys on it. My diary was locked, but Bria let me use her keys. Her key's are just like mine.

At Breakfast we had egg's and bacon. For lunch bologna Sadwiches.

Bria chose Savory Chicken, rice, lima beans, String beans, cornbread, and water for supper. For desert, of course, it was cake.

...My birthday is on February 27th. Next year I am turning eight.

Cara turned 6 last Friday.

That's all I have to say today!

Saterday, November 2, 1996:
...Next year on my birthday I want to get playmobil, train tracks, Some books, and some little lego's.

Next year my birthday is goint to be on a thursday. I hope I'm going to have a nice birthday.

Like random? You'll love this:

Sunday, November 24, 1996:
In four days is thanksgiving. Lisa A***** has e-mail in Bible school. I need new pajama's. Today mama is going out. Tomorrow We have school. I'm going to rest now!

Tuesday, November 26, 1996:
Today is cleaning day. I cleaned one of the bathrooms, my room, and nothing else.

Monday, December 30, 1996:
Today I Accidentally broke a chip (about this big -> [little scrawl]) off my violin. Kimberly M***** is coming over. We alway's have a fun time together. I cleaned my room today. It looks much better than yesterday.

I'm not sure why I said Kimberly and I "alway's have a fun time together." Please don't misunderstand me: Kimberly is both very nice and very fun. However, as a general rule, she played with Bria whenever she came to our house (possibly because they were both girls and she is about 4.5 years older than I). In fact, the above-mentioned event may have been the very time I got so mad at Bria and Kimberly for excluding me that I threw a metal trash can at our poor guest. I believe I got in rather serious trouble.

This entry immediately follows the last one:

Tuesday, February 28, 1997:
Yesterday was my Birthday! I'm Eight now.

Ninety-seven was actually a good year for my journal-keeping. I posted a nearly record-breaking SEVEN POSTS before I got to this next one below:

Sunday, December 7, 1997:
Christmas is only 19 days away! I'm very excited....I've made a cardboard dollhouse out of a box.

Next post:

Monday, January 26, 1998:
Christmas was 32 days ago. I got [blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah]. Well, I have nothing else to say!

Saturday, January 16, 1999:
....In about a month I'll be 10. My first decade! My next one is 20.

And with those words of wisdom, I'll sign off, wishing all of you a very merry last-week-before-Christmas!!!!!

Ryan is the Nicest guy in the WHOLE world!

Ryan is handsome,strong,cool,nice etc.

This Day in History

Last year counts as history, right?

Duecento!

I now have officially published 200 POSTS! I'm sure you are all so thrilled.

In retrospect, it really is amazing how much blogs have become a part of my life. Was there really actually once a time when I didn't have one? Umm, yes. About two years ago. In fact, I had never even heard of blogs before about two and a half years ago, and what I did know then was rather vague.

Now, however, now I am a veteran! I have posted 200 times!!! I feel so cool and prolific.

P.s. If you have two hundred seventy posts, good for you. You can write your own post about it. Much as I LOOOOOVE getting comments, I'd rather have my bubble intact. Thanks. :)

Simply Amazingness

Did you know...you'd better not have known, or I'll be really disappointed. I feel like every time I tell someone something around here they've already heard it and say, with a disdainful flip of the hand, of course, "Oh, that! Aaron, that was news way back yesterday. You're so behind the times!"

Well, nobody's ever said quite that to me before, I must admit. But anyway, excuse my going off on a wild tangent...

By the way, a tangent has several definitions besides the one in which it was used above. For example, the tangent of an angle in a right triangle is the ratio of the opposite side to the adjacent side which is not the hypotenuse. It is also a line that touches a curve at only one point.

Am I being incoherent?

OK, here's what I've been trying very hard to say this ENTIRE time:

As a teen, Fanny Crosby memorized Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, many Psalms, and - here's the most amazing of all, at least as far as I'm concerned - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Numbers! Deuteronomy! Oh... my... WORD! Talk about amazingly amazing! She knew all that by heart! And I thought I was pretty good when I memorized all the Epistles of Paul...

Ahem.

Here you must whistle, hum, or sing any song you can come up with about a grain of salt (or two or three). And then, just because it fits so well with both the topic and the season, sing the following of Fanny Crosby's hymns:

Carol, sweetly carol,
A Savior born today;
Bear the joyful tidings,
O, bear them far away:
Carol, sweetly carol,
Till earth's remotest bound
Shall hear the mighty chorus,
And echo back the sound.

        Refrain:
        Carol, sweetly carol,
        Carol sweetly today;
        Bear the joyful tidings,
        O, bear them far away.

Carol, sweetly carol,
As when the angel throng
O'er the vales of Judah,
Awoke the heavenly song:
Carol, sweetly carol,
Goodwill and peace and love,
Glory in the highest
To God who reigns above. 

Carol, sweetly carol,
The happy Christmas time;
Hark! the bells are pealing
Their merry, merry chime:
Carol, sweetly carol,
Ye shining ones above,
Sing in loudest numbers,
O sing redeeming love. 

Memo to the Masses

Boston's Classical Station, WCRB, has moved to 99.5. They "bring [me] my favorite classical music and now it's up to [ME] to spread the word, to tell my friends, family, and EVEN THE MAILMAN!!!" I just figured I might as well tell my blog-readers, since then I can forget about it, except for telling the mailman. I guess I'll go wait for him at the end of the driveway. Sigh.

(Can't you just picture the mailman's amusement? "Hello, Mr. Mailman, I was wondering when you'd come! I've been waiting here for an hour so I could tell you that WCRB is now on 99.5 instead of 102.5! Aren't you GLAD!?!? Well, have a nice day...oh, and I'll take the mail.")