Dandilion Boy

First of all, this was a much bigger event in my mind than it will be to you. But you're the one choosing to read this at all, so it's your own fault if you aren't so impressed you can't bring yourself to even blink for a whole minute. Second of all, I'm going to go into too many details so you get the full impact. There's nothing you can do about this. Just in case you were wondering.

On my last shopping trip before leaving school for the summer, I wandered on down the toy aisle. There I found some rather nifty little kites for a reasonable-poor-college-student price. I purchased two, one for each of my little brothers.

Upon returning home, one night I surprised aforementioned brothers with said kites. The elder brother was excited. The younger less so. And if we're putting things in order, I probably qualified as ecstatic in comparison. Luckily, I don't make a habit of letting other dark clouds cast shadows in my personal sunshine. Translation: I didn't care if they weren't bouncing off the walls and yammering to try the kites immediately despite the dark and cold and lack of wind. I still thought they were cool.

Days passed.

Yesterday morning, elder and younger brother awoke before school as they usually do. Soon, a squabble ensued over a few legos. From what I heard, someone had stolen some legos. The other someone retaliated by destroying whatever was constructed by the first someone using the stolen goods. Well, you can imagine what happens when a couple of young gents have an issue involving such precious and sacred items. The squabble quickly escalated. The mother was brought in. Tempers skyrocketed. Fists were thrown! Tears were shed! Kids were grounded to their rooms for the rest of the day save school and dinner and family home evening!

Alas. Yesterday also happened to be the first blustery day since the life-altering Giving of the Kite Gifts. I mentally noted this fact throughout the day as I quietly went about my business.

Evening came. I suggested to my mother that, perhaps, it could be fully AWEsome to take the kites to a nearby park and fly them as our family activity that night (a weekly tradition, treasured at the Lazy U Ranch where I currently reside). My mother didn't appear to grasp the utter brilliance of the plan, so I suggested the plan to all my siblings. They (especially perhaps the brothers who'd been in their rooms all day) understood my intentions and saw the potential of such an event. We politely put it to a vote (mother was in favor of a trip to the local library) and the flying of the kites came out on top.

Soon we were on our way. The suburban was full, we were singing our songs, we were burnin' rubber. Our journey took us over a small bridge in town where we chanced upon a car. Stopped. Pulled over in the middle of the bridge. It didn't look good.

Dad parked just off the bridge in a local daycare parking lot as did another car just behind us. Dad, a sister of mine, and the other driver hopped out to help the stopped car on the bridge. Later dad informed me that the other driver at this time said, "you must be Christians too." Warm fuzzies all around.

The three rescuers pushed the car off the bridge an into the parking lot. Here the identities of the persons within the car were revealed at last. A father an his son (I'm guessing the kid was about 6 or so) in their taekwondo outfits. They'd run into some trouble on the road, but it had happened before and the father proceded to call for some help. While doing so, the boy swung himself out and demonstrated his sweet moves to my sister by doing them on her. I believe he actually kicked her in the leg. Fits of giggles broke out amongst the onlooking siblings and mother in the suburban. The father distractedly told his boy to be nice, so the kid immediately dropped the impressive attack mode and hugged my sister. And as she and my father turned to get back in the suburban and continue on our way, the taekwondo tyke picked a dandilion and presented it to my sister as a token of his affection. More fits of giggles.

Well after that we made it to the park, flew some kites, ran around a lot, and went back home again. I must admit however, the dandilion boy was my favorite part about the evening.

Good Timber by Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light,

But stood out in the open plain

And always got its share of rain,

Never became a forest king

But lived and died a scrubby thing.

~

The man who never had to toil

To gain and farm his patch of soil,

Who never had to win his share

Of sun and sky and light and air,

Never became a manly man

But lived and died as he began.

~

Good timber does not grow with ease:

The stronger wind, the stronger trees;

The further sky, the greater length;

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.

~

Where thickest lies the forest growth,

We find the patriarchs of both.

And they hold counsel with the stars

Whose broken branches show the scars

Of many winds and much of strife.

This is the common law of life.

HAPPY BIRTH-shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Today is my roommate's birthday. And according to a time-honored tradition, guess what happened last night at about 12:00? Allow me to explain.

It is perfectly natural to celebrate birthdays with much excitement. Imagine how this is compounded when you are in college and living with 5 other crazy single girls who're also in college. Also (perhaps you may have picked up on this trend), loopiness tends to increase exponentially as people become more sleepy. Thus, as the minutes tick on, the level of hilarity rises. Combine this with college girls celebrating enthusiastically. What do you get?

After apartment prayer last night, Birthday Girl was tired and feeling ever so slightly under the weather so she headed on in to bed. I quietly plotted with another roommate to jump on her as soon as it was her birthday (12:00) provided she was still awake. At 5 minutes 'til, my accomplice came into my bedroom to wait and at the penultimate minute we sneaked down the hall on tip-toes trying to stifle our giggles. At the doorway into Birthday Girl's bedroom we dashed inside - only to see her kneeling on her bed saying prayers. Oops. My accomplice tripped over me in her haste to retreat and we regrouped in the hall in silent fits of laughter as we heard Birthday Girl trying not to laugh as well. A minute later she was done and we ran in and amidst much guffawing yelled our birthday wishes.

The element of surprise may have been lost somewhere in there, but let's face it. That could not have been any better. At least we didn't jump on her and yell before we realized what was going on!