In the Wee Hours

There are so many stories out there about people seeing Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth and kind of freaking out. It’s actually become a cliché now. So even though I’m a fairly environmentally conscious person, it was with some skepticism that I sat down to watch this movie with my boyfriend the other night. Although I wasn’t disputing the accuracy of the information presented, I was simply doubtful that I would react strongly to it. Um, right…

The movie scared the sh*t out of me! I already knew a lot of these things, and had even heard about the glaciers breaking up in Antarctica, but the way the information was revealed in the movie, so clear and understandable (no science jargon here) brought everything home to me. What was also distressing about this movie, besides the overwhelming scientific evidence that supports the “theory” of global warming, is the revelations about our country’s role in not only causing it, but preventing any progress in the other direction. For one thing, I am permanently boycotting all American cars until the auto companies agree to raise their fuel efficiency standards to meet those of the rest of the world. So, yet another thing that makes me ashamed of my country!

I think that everyone should watch this movie, or should at least look into the data and find ways to reduce their carbon footprint. So, here are some helpful links:

http://www.climatecrisis.net/ - This is the official website for the movie. There are links that explain the science behind global warming, and there’s a downloadable educational companion for teachers. There’s also a convenient (no pun intended) carbon calculator to find out what your particular carbon footprint is, and how to reduce it.

http://www.globalwarming.net/ - This is the site for the Global Warming International Center. This site provides up-to-date information about global warming and environmental policy.

http://www.nrdc.org/ - The Natural Resources Defense Council’s website not only provides valuable information about global warming, but also about Green Living, water pollution, and alternative fuels.

Unless drastic and fundamental changes are made in environmental policy, this problem will reach crisis proportions very soon. But there are some small things that everyone can do to make a difference. For instance, last night, cities and people across the world participated in Earth Hour. From 8:00 to 9:00 pm, everyone was supposed to turn off their lights and electrical appliances. We did it. We even unplugged our clocks, our microwave, our televisions…everything. Did you do it? Did you even know about it? Not a lot of people in the U.S. knew about it…another symptom that the American government and even the American press don’t give a lot of attention to the environment.

I hope that all of you will take the time to watch An Inconvenient Truth. It may seem like old news, but it isn’t. The effects of global warming are seen every single day, all over the world. It’s all happening now.

I took a bead stringing class at Red Garnet Beads and Buttons in Mountlake Terrace (just to give them a little plug) and I absolutely fell in love with beading! I wanted to share some photos of my creations. So far I have made two necklaces and three bracelets, and I hope soon to be able to learn how to make earrings!

Here is the very first thing I made: a necklace with a toggle clasp:

Here is the first bracelet I made. I love the little butterfly beads:

This is the second bracelet I made during the class. I couldn’t put in an extra wooden bead, because then it would have been too big for my wrist, and taking out a clear bed could have made it too small, so instead there are two clear beads together. Oh well, I’m still an amateur:

I went out and bought a ton of beads and supplies at a local arts and crafts store, and last night I made this matching necklace and bracelet (by the way, I love green!):

This kind of jewelry making is almost meditative to me. I can let my mind wander as I’m stringing, and I have found it to be very calming. I also love having a new creative outlet. I plan on surprising my mom and sister-in-law with some new jewelry for Mother’s Day (hopefully they won’t read this). I’ll be sharing more of my creations as they are, well, created!

My boyfriend and I took a drive out to the Eastside yesterday; that is, the Eastside of Lake Washington: Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, and Issaquah. I wish I had thought to take pictures of Issaquah, because it’s one of the prettiest places I’ve seen! However, I did manage to take some pictures from a lovely park in Madrona in Seattle of Lake Washington and across to Bellevue. I wanted to share them with you all, so you can see what the Seattle area looks like in the early Spring!

Here is a picture of South Bellevue and Mercer Island (where I once used to live) across the Lake:

This next picture shows the skyline of Bellevue, such as it is:

This last one looks South along the park to the nearby Leschi marina. Leschi is a very ritzy neighborhood in Seattle:

As you can see, it was a very windy day, so the Lake was really choppy! Over the next few weeks, I’ll take some more pictures of different areas around Seattle and share them with you all. Spring is here!

I’ve decided to give myself a reading challenge this Spring. I was inspired by Karen over at Breathe In, Breathe Out, but I’m making this challenge my own. Here are the details:

Bohemian Reading Challenge (B.R.C.)

Who: Me and anyone else who wants to join me!

When: Technically, March 20 until August 20. That’s five months!

What: I will be reading books with a bohemian slant, or what my ex-hippie Research Writing teacher called “outlaw literature”. Some of these will be well-known books, and some of them will be more obscure. It will include poetry as well as fiction, and possibly even some non-fiction. I will of course post my reviews to BCF - The Reviews, but I will also post them here, as well as updates on my progress and any other random thoughts that come to me as I go on this journey into intellectual bohemia.

My Bohemian Reading List: Here is the preliminary list, which is of course subject to change:

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
La Vagabonde by Colette
Selected Poems by Charles Baudelaire
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Howl by Allen Ginsberg
Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau

I will most likely add some more books to this list (you can check my Books to be Read page for updates), and I will sprinkle in some more poetry by Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Charles Lamb, among others. I hope that others will join me in this challenge, and that some of you will favor me with some suggestions! Wish me luck!

I’ve been tagged by Rosie at Corners of my Mind (thanks Rosie!), so here you all go!

4 films I’d watch again: I re-watch movies all the time, and I always have, so this question is kind of silly. Just off the top of my head, if I had to pick 4 to watch today, I would pick The Jane Austen Book Club, Amelie, Center Stage, and Gosford Park.

4 places I’ve lived: Bainbridge Island, Seattle, Bellingham, and Lynnwood….all in Washington State.

4 TV shows I watch: With regularity? Midsomer Murders, Family Guy, America’s Next Top Model, and Scrubs. Obviously, not the most intelligent shows out there…

4 things to eat: Considering how hungry I am right now, this will be easy. Pizza, chocolate cake, garlic cottage cheese (Grandpa’s recipe), and a baked potato.

4 places I’d rather be: Well, honestly, I’m happy to be home right now. So, I’ll pick my 4 dream destinations: Ireland, Paris, Italy, and Scotland.

4 people to tag: HAH! Matt, Michelle, Iiris, and Kell.

Daily life, whether it be school, work, children, or the numerous other things we feel an obligation to, often involves an unhealthy amount of stress. As I am currently in school, looking for a part-time job, and hopefully getting ready to move (which will most likely conflict with the part-time job) my life is as stressful as anyone’s. Since I really don’t have any friends living anywhere near me, and my boyfriend is just as stressed (since he lives the same life), when we need to get away, we come here, to my parents’ house on Bainbridge Island. As this is technically the last day of Spring Break, we wanted to get away from our books, and even our apartment and come to a place where we always feel comfortable and safe. My parents are very easy-going people, and they always make us see the lighter side of whatever is bothering us. They’re unendingly supportive, too, which makes being around them not only relaxing, but inspirational.

Everyone needs a place like this, a sanctuary, where they can come and just feel at peace. For the luckiest people, their sanctuary is their home, but for many, home is where many of the stresses come from. It doesn’t need to be a relative’s house; it can just be a quiet place where you feel safe and secure, a place that calms you. In a pinch, my boyfriend and I jump in the car and park down at the water in Edmonds. Just seeing the water and hearing it puts everything back into perspective. In relation to the concerns of the world, our problems are insignificant. Getting away from them will always help us see that.

After a long day of studying, deadlines, and stupid teachers who don’t know how to administer an online class, by the time my bedtime comes around, I have a specific routine I like to follow that allows me to de-stress and relax enough so that I’m able to get a good night’s sleep. These are also tips that anyone can follow, and most of them are common sense anyway.

1. Take a hot shower or a bath. This is the first thing I do. I have a tiny bathtub, so I usually opt for a shower. I wash my hair, use a body scrub all over to revitalize and exfoliate my skin, shave my legs, wash my face, and use the creamiest body wash I have. Sometimes I’ll use a perfumed bath gel, like my Chanel No. 5 bath gel, but since I have dry skin, it’s usually not the best thing for me. After I’m done, I wrap my hair in a big, fluffy towel and slip into my robe.

2. I give myself a facial. I’m back to using Proactiv, so on these nights when I want to pamper myself, I use the sulfur mask to soothe any irritated skin. Then I very carefully follow the rest of the system, making sure I put on a larger-than-usual amount of my Neutrogena Oil-Free Moisturizer to recover the moisture loss from the mask and the hot shower.

3. Lotion up! With my skin still slightly damp, I put on some nicely scented body lotion, paying special attention to my legs. When they get dry (which is every day) they get especially itchy. I want to make sure that my skin is super-moisturized so that it heals itself better as I sleep.

4. I get my surroundings ready. Once I’ve gotten my pj’s on, I get my bedroom ready for pure relaxation. I make sure the bed is made (it probably won’t be) and that the pillows are nicely fluffed. If I’m feeling extra motivated, I’ll even pick up all my clothes off the floor (right now it looks like my closet has vomited onto our floor) to make sure my surroundings are uncluttered. Then, with the bed made and my immediate area cleared, I’m ready to get into bed.

5. I take care of my hands and feet. After all that washing and bed making, my hands will inevitably be dry, and my feet will be too hot. I spray my feet with this wonderful peppermint cooling spray that I got at The Body Shop, and for my hands, I use the Avocado Hand Cream from Crabtree & Evelyn. It smells wonderfully fruity, and if my boyfriend is in the room, he’ll ask for some, which I usually have to put on for him. Some wonderful scents for relaxation are lavender, lemon verbena, and vanilla.

6. Finally…I lay my head back and read. Some people don’t like reading before bed, because it gets their minds moving so fast, so that they can’t relax. I’m the opposite. I find that I can’t truly relax unless I read. On my nightstand, there are always a selection of books, some fiction, some non-fiction, so that there is always something for me to read. I know I’m not alone in this…after talking to my brother Matt today, I found that he too needs to have a variety of books to read at any given time. I think we get it from our dad. Anyway, on my nightstand now are three books: Atonement by Ian McEwan (something I’ve never read), Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (a favorite from one of my favorite authors), and Bohemian Manifesto by Laren Stover (a non-fiction that I’ve read at least 3 times now…it never gets boring!).

Everyone has their own nighttime routine, and to really pamper ourselves, most people just need to slow down and enjoy what they already do. Wash your face with care, put some extra lotion on your feet, or even just retire a little early to enjoy a good book. You can make any normal, everyday night, into a relaxing escape.

Many people ask me how they should go about reading Tolkien. With so many books containing such a complex and vast mythology, it can definitely be confusing. There are many ways to go about it, but I’d like to share with you my own guide to reading Tolkien. Here is the order which I recommend any reader new to Tolkien should try, with some tips to getting the most out of the experience:

1. The Hobbit: This is by far the easiest book to read, and it’s the book that introduces hobbits, and one in particular, Bilbo Baggins. It was written more specifically for children, but as an adult, I still get great pleasure out of reading it. It also introduces readers to Tolkien’s somewhat antiquated style of writing.

2. The Lord of the Rings: This is obviously the most famous of all of Tolkien’s books, and my personal favorite. It took him over a decade to write it, and it was first intended to be a sequel to The Hobbit. It can seem overwhelming because of its length, but that is why I recommend that first-time readers purchase a trilogy version of the book (which was never intended to be a trilogy). But reading it this way breaks it down into easier parts. One warning - this book contains long passages of descriptions of landscape, and even of action. Some readers find this boring, but when you realize how important the entire landscape of Middle-earth is to the story, and how much Tolkien was concerned with the fate of our own world’s natural beauty, then it’s easily appreciated.

3. The Silmarillion: If you enjoyed the first two on the list, then you’re ready to move on to The Silmarillion, which can easily be described as the work of Tolkien’s heart. He begged his publishers for its publication, but they were hesitant. The Silmarillion is less a cohesive narrative, as it is a selection of tales from the First Age of Middle-earth. It tells the story of the creation of Middle-earth, the coming of the Elves and Men, and the battles against Morgoth, the Great Enemy. The stories it contains (including the famous tale of Beren and Lúthien) paint a very vivid picture of the First Age, and the inclusion of such characters as Galadriel, the elf queen who also appears in The Lord of the Rings really demonstrates the overwhelming immortality suffered by the elves. It also contains the Akallabêth, which is the story of the creation and downfall of Númenor, a story important to the character of Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings.

4. The Children of Húrin: The compelling story of Húrin and Turin is finally told in its complete form in this book, which was finally published last year. It is much more of a cohesive narrative, which makes it easy to read, and it’s a great compliment to The Silmarillion.

5. Unfinished Tales: Having read all 4 books on the list, readers will undoubtedly have many questions. This book answers some of them, as it contains many unfinished stories that give more details of the origins of certain characters, like wizards, for instance. You finally get to find out exactly who Gandalf and Saruman are! There are comments from Christopher Tolkien, which shed light on his father’s writing process and the direction which he wanted this stories to take.

6. The Histories: This is a series of books, from the first, The Book of Lost Tales, which are very early poems and sketches of elves and the Undying Lands. The books, which were again compiled by Christopher Tolkien, number 12 in all, and cover almost every inch of history in Middle-earth. They are all alike in that they contain early versions of stories and comments from Christopher Tolkien, but each book concentrates on a single area of history. Here are the books, listed in order (note: I have not read them all):

The Book of Lost Tales, Part I
The Book of Lost Tales, Part II
The Lays of Beleriand
The Shaping of Middle-earth
The Lost Road and Other Writings
The Return of the Shadow
The Treason if Isengard
The War of the Ring
Sauron Defeated
Morgoth’s Ring
The War of the Jewels
The Peoples of Middle-earth

Good luck on your journey to discovering Middle-earth! Be warned, though - once you get a taste of what Tolkien has to offer, there’s no stopping!

I have come across many great books written about J.R.R. Tolkien’s life and work, and I’d like to share my “must-reads” with you! This could be a useful list for anyone wishing to know more about Tolkien the man, and the process by which he created his mythology.

J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter: This is the definitive biography on Tolkien, and it follows the major events of his life, from his birth to his death. Carpenter gives wonderful insights into Tolkien’s feelings about the world around him, and one can see the roots of Middle-earth in Sarehole Mill, his childhood home (seems a lot like the Shire!) and in the battlefields of World War I. This is the only biography I would recommend.

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien: This volume contains letters written by Tolkien to members of his family, from his years as a student at Oxford, to his time in the war, and up to the time of his death. This book is a revelation, because it reveals Tolkien in his own words: how he felt about his family, how he felt about the war, and how he felt about his work and his readers.

The Complete Guide to Middle-earth: Tolkien’s World from A to Z by Robert Foster: I happen to have a very old edition of this book, I think from the 1970’s, before many of the spellings of names and places were finalized. Therefore, Finarfin is Finarphin, and so on. It is still a useful guide to those who come across an unfamiliar place or name, and wish to know the significance of it. It has been very painstakingly compiled and updated by Robert Foster.

Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth by John Garth: I used this book for the paper I wrote about the war’s influence on Tolkien. John Garth explores Tolkien’s experiences in the war with his 3 best friends (the members of the TCBS, his club at King Edward’s School), and how they coincide with the themes of war in his books.

Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity by Patrick Curry: This was another useful book for my paper, due to the chapter on the environment and its importance to Tolkien. The broader scope of the book is to show how concerned Tolkien was with the lack of spirituality in the modern world, and how he expressed his feelings about the modern world in his books.

The Atlas of Middle-earth (Revised Edition) by Karen Fonstad: This is an entertaining book for Tolkien fans! Karen Fonstad, a cartography professor, actually reconstructs the maps from Middle-earth, and the journeys taken by various characters, from Frodo and Sam in The Lord of the Rings, to the Noldor in The Silmarillion. For fans of Tolkien’s work, this book is a relief because Fonstad includes maps never drawn by Tolkien himself, such as the locations of Thangorodrim and Valinor. She also illustrates the various stages of the construction of Middle-earth, from its earliest days, as described in The Silmarillion, to the severing of Valinor and the Undying Lands from Middle-earth after the fall of Númenor.

I hope you enjoyed my list! I believe that these books are a great addition to any Tolkien library, and necessary to gain a full understanding of the incredibly complex mythology that Tolkien created.

When I was choosing which Research Writing class I wanted back in my last year at Edmonds CC, I took a look at each class’s theme. I found one called “Outlaw Writers”, in which we would be researching and writing about authors who broke with literary conventions. I decided to take it because I wanted to take the opportunity to research Tolkien academically, and in my opinion, he was one of the most innovative writers of the 20th century.

I had to convince my teacher to let me write about Tolkien, as he did not consider him to be an appropriate subject…he was more into William S. Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson. I succeeded, though, and I wrote a paper examining the influence that Tolkien’s love of nature and his experiences in World War I had on the creation of his mythology. It remains one of the best papers I’ve ever written, all due to my passion for Tolkien and his incredible creation, Middle-earth. I wanted to share the paper I wrote with you all, so please visit the link below.

tolkien-paper.doc