That Meme Thing
So I stole this from in_the_blue:
Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you, They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back to me). Other people (including me) can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.
She gave me:
Harp: Oh, I haven't practiced or played in ever so long. I need to change that. Somehow, I always knew that people played small harp, but I never really realized it was accessible before about 1998. I fell in love with it during a Harp Festival in Bar Harbor, Maine, where I got to actually participate in a class, borrowing a harp for a workshop. It was love at first sight. The best thing about playing the harp is that it is very, very difficult to make an awful sound on the harp. No matter what you play, especially on a nylon-strung harp, it sounds lovely. There might be some dissonance, but it never sounds bad. It's very good for a person like me, who is deathly afraid of making something sound bad. Another thing about the harp, is that for me it is a very healing instrument. You hold the harp close to your body and the soundholes/board is against your chest. The sounds vibrate through your body. There is something about that which is very healing and creates peace.
Actually, I hadn't thought about that as a real Thing till just now. I'm going to get the harp out when I get home from work.
Maine: Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park (oh, let's just go with Mt. Desert Island as a whole, actually) are my favorite places in the world. It's where my mother and father are from, and there's a lot of family history there. It's the place besides home where I feel most at home, and the place that I go once a year and feel more grounded. My mother's ashes are scattered in Frenchman's Bay. It's where I became acquainted with the ocean, where I became acquainted with mountains, where I went blueberry picking as a child. It's my place the way nothing else is. If I could move there, live year round, I would.
Homestuck Fanfiction: I read Homestuck over the summer, and now I am obsessed. :D I never thought I'd write fanfiction for it till an absolutely ridiculous idea for an AU came to my mind, combining Homestuck characters with the basic premise for "Clerks". I wrote the bare bones for that fic in about five days, and had the entire thing up inside of two months, I believe. I'd never finished anything that fast before. I still intend to finish up my Hunger Games fanfics, but right now especially, that universe is far too depressing for me to spend a lot of time in. Homestuck fanfiction, reading and writing it, has been something to really pull me out of a lot of anxiety and unhappiness lately. The universe inspires my imagination like nothing else really has, and I'm ridiculously happy doing it.
Autism: For those few that do not know, I have an autistic 12 year old son. We have been living with the diagnosis for 6 years now. Some days are more difficult than others. I am grateful to his teachers, though we always have to make sure that they are not "going easy" on him because of his autism. Right now, though, he is working on grade level, and doing very well. Sometimes, I wish I understood more, and wish I could figure out a better way to communicate with him the things I want him to understand. Sometimes, I really feel like a lousy parent.
I try to remind myself always that I am lucky. My son makes eye contact with me, he hugs me and tells me he loves me. He's funny and sweet, even if he is sometimes horribly negative and complains a lot. Sometimes he will surprise me. I wouldn't change him if I could. The people who are always pushing for a "cure" are, I believe, missing out on a lot by refusing to understand how the autistic mind works. However, I also acknowledge that my son is very high functioning, and that I am working from that place, and if my son had more serious troubles, I may not feel the same way.
The Sign of Leo: For the longest time, I thought that I was the most atypical Leo ever. I wanted to be in the background, I told myself. I didn't want to have people pay attention to me. For many years, I was involved in a religion that rewarded women who "didn't want to make waves", and thought that was me.
~bulllllshiiiiit!~
Yeah, as I get older and realize that I may have less years ahead of me than I have behind me, I'm scrambling to retract that statement. Nope, I want to be on the stage, and I want that damn spotlight. I want to sing and make people laugh and get that applause. I want praise and adulation, dammit! And that's why I'm pushing myself to do things that will get me that, and also why I write fanfiction. I might not be the biggest fish in the fandom sea, but I have people who like my stuff...that's a good start... ;)
Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you, They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back to me). Other people (including me) can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.
She gave me:
Harp: Oh, I haven't practiced or played in ever so long. I need to change that. Somehow, I always knew that people played small harp, but I never really realized it was accessible before about 1998. I fell in love with it during a Harp Festival in Bar Harbor, Maine, where I got to actually participate in a class, borrowing a harp for a workshop. It was love at first sight. The best thing about playing the harp is that it is very, very difficult to make an awful sound on the harp. No matter what you play, especially on a nylon-strung harp, it sounds lovely. There might be some dissonance, but it never sounds bad. It's very good for a person like me, who is deathly afraid of making something sound bad. Another thing about the harp, is that for me it is a very healing instrument. You hold the harp close to your body and the soundholes/board is against your chest. The sounds vibrate through your body. There is something about that which is very healing and creates peace.
Actually, I hadn't thought about that as a real Thing till just now. I'm going to get the harp out when I get home from work.
Maine: Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park (oh, let's just go with Mt. Desert Island as a whole, actually) are my favorite places in the world. It's where my mother and father are from, and there's a lot of family history there. It's the place besides home where I feel most at home, and the place that I go once a year and feel more grounded. My mother's ashes are scattered in Frenchman's Bay. It's where I became acquainted with the ocean, where I became acquainted with mountains, where I went blueberry picking as a child. It's my place the way nothing else is. If I could move there, live year round, I would.
Homestuck Fanfiction: I read Homestuck over the summer, and now I am obsessed. :D I never thought I'd write fanfiction for it till an absolutely ridiculous idea for an AU came to my mind, combining Homestuck characters with the basic premise for "Clerks". I wrote the bare bones for that fic in about five days, and had the entire thing up inside of two months, I believe. I'd never finished anything that fast before. I still intend to finish up my Hunger Games fanfics, but right now especially, that universe is far too depressing for me to spend a lot of time in. Homestuck fanfiction, reading and writing it, has been something to really pull me out of a lot of anxiety and unhappiness lately. The universe inspires my imagination like nothing else really has, and I'm ridiculously happy doing it.
Autism: For those few that do not know, I have an autistic 12 year old son. We have been living with the diagnosis for 6 years now. Some days are more difficult than others. I am grateful to his teachers, though we always have to make sure that they are not "going easy" on him because of his autism. Right now, though, he is working on grade level, and doing very well. Sometimes, I wish I understood more, and wish I could figure out a better way to communicate with him the things I want him to understand. Sometimes, I really feel like a lousy parent.
I try to remind myself always that I am lucky. My son makes eye contact with me, he hugs me and tells me he loves me. He's funny and sweet, even if he is sometimes horribly negative and complains a lot. Sometimes he will surprise me. I wouldn't change him if I could. The people who are always pushing for a "cure" are, I believe, missing out on a lot by refusing to understand how the autistic mind works. However, I also acknowledge that my son is very high functioning, and that I am working from that place, and if my son had more serious troubles, I may not feel the same way.
The Sign of Leo: For the longest time, I thought that I was the most atypical Leo ever. I wanted to be in the background, I told myself. I didn't want to have people pay attention to me. For many years, I was involved in a religion that rewarded women who "didn't want to make waves", and thought that was me.
~bulllllshiiiiit!~
Yeah, as I get older and realize that I may have less years ahead of me than I have behind me, I'm scrambling to retract that statement. Nope, I want to be on the stage, and I want that damn spotlight. I want to sing and make people laugh and get that applause. I want praise and adulation, dammit! And that's why I'm pushing myself to do things that will get me that, and also why I write fanfiction. I might not be the biggest fish in the fandom sea, but I have people who like my stuff...that's a good start... ;)