Book Tag! (Way Better Post Than That Last One XD)

Yeah, I'm posting twice in the same day. But I figure that's okay for the following reasons:

1. I haven't been posting much lately, so this will compensate a little.
2. I have some awesome news (3 actually) to share.
3. I forgot to thank some new followers :O
4. I got tagged by Silver Angel!

First things first, thanks for following, duck_sister, Marissa, Silver Angel, and Jennoula2009! Wow! :D (Sorry I couldn't find links for duck_sister and Jenn!)

Now, awesome newses XD

I FOUND MY MOOD RING!!!!!! :O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O I had totally given up, but it turned up in a notebook case! I do not remember putting it in there. Am I the luckiest person in the world, or what? ;) Another Fortuna Kendrae.

Awesome news #2: I GOT A CALL BACK FOR DANCE IN "THE KING AND I"!!!!! YAY! :O :D I think Cavender is coming with me, so he'll get to see me either sink or swim, lol XD Hopefully I'll swim. And gracefully XD

News #3: I'm on Facebook. There's a little gadget on the right...scroll down. Keep scrolling. Keep--yeah, there. Add me :D

Okay, now for the awesome tag from Silver Angel (whose blog I like. Check it out.):

Rules: 8 books you'd like to live in (mine aren't in order) and why, then tag 8 people! Easy ;)

Book 1: "Eragon". Sorry, but Alagaesia is awesome. And because it's necessary to continue the story. You know the green dragon appearing in the fourth book? Yeah, I'm the Rider. Oh yes.

Book 2: "Lord of the Rings". Surely this doesn't need a Why?? *sigh* If you must know, it's because I think Tolkien was one of the greatest fantasy geniuses on the earth. His world is so complete, it's hard to believe it doesn't really exist. Every race has its own back story, its own legends, its own customs and ways of life. It's just so rich with detail, and I'd love to meet the Hobbits :) Elves, too, but I do love the Hobbits.

Book 3: "The Chronicles of Narnia". Tolkien was a genius, but Narnia holds an irreplaceable spot in my heart. My friends and I once thought we had actually found Narnia in the backyard of my school. I'm not so sure we were wrong...Talking trees, knights in shining armor and wolves have to mean something, right??

Book 4: "The Mirror". Is it egotistical and/or cheating to want to visit my own book? I want to know that I got my characters right, and I'm sure there's a lot I'd have to see to describe accurately. And I wanna meet Luken rlybad.

Book 5: "Peter Pan". Never land is right up there with Narnia. No lie. And Peter Pan is freaking awesome.

Book 6: "The Farsala Trilogy". Really cool books. Kinda hard to explain, but awesome.

Book 7: "Sophie's World". That is such an epic book. It is truly something. Like philosophy, mystery, suspense, fantasy and education wrapped up in one. It is so cool. You have to read it some time in your life. Really, it's so eye-opening and AWESOME.

Book 8: "Uglies series". It's set in the future. Scott Westerfield has an incredible mind for technology. It would be so cool to use some of the gadgets first-hand. And the problems introduced in their world are very interesting.

Thanks for the tag, Silver Angel! That was fun!

I tag...
Bleah
duck_sister
Marissa
Tay in Real Life
Kailyn
Breanne
Katie G.
Avalon

~Kendra

P.S. I know it's too late to do the blog parade Bekah was having, but the questions are so fun. Would it be okay if I did them in a tag sometime?

Mostly Boring

Thanks so much for following, Katie G! You made my day (well, yesterday, but whatever XD).

Today was the get-together-with-cousins day. Garrett the Tall and Kathleen the College-Freshman are lots of fun, but more and more I'm finding that I'm closer to my friends than I am my own family. Is that bad? I can't decide if I feel guilty about that. I do have lots of fun with my cousins, though.

Oh, Kathleen was interested in Alias, so we watched the first episode :D Watching the first one made me realize something: they just get better as they go on XD

For lack of a Christmas Countdown, I'm left with not much to say. Haha, did some of you actually just cheer?? How rude :P Just kidding. I don't have any big revelations to post, but maybe you'd be interested in a few little revelations? :)

1. I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. So much, in fact, that I wouldn't know where to start even if I were going to. I'm a confusing person, sometimes so much that I even confuse myself. And that's REALLY bad, right? XD Doesn't it suck when you don't know what you want?

2. VOTE ON THE POLL TO THE RIGHT. YES, THAT ONE. DO THAT FEW PEOPLE REALLY READ THIS THING? JEEZ. Can't blame you. This is boring :P

3. I have (once AGAIN) started the "fire fairy story". How far will it go this time? You guess. The winner will be given a lifetime supply of virtual cookies.

Just so you don't decide that without Christmas, I am boring, let me tell you some things I plan to post about in the final days of 2009 :)

- Cultural Honor (I like this one. Some of you may have already read it on Carpe Noctem.)
- More Fortuna Kendrae
- Top Ten Blogger Pet Peeves
- "Sex" is Not a Bad Word (This was originally entitled, "Sex is Not a Dirty Word", but I decided that came across a bit differently than I intended XD)

Stick around and maybe you'll learn something, or at least get in a few laughs at my attempts to be philosophical ;)

Hey, if you have an preference to which of those topics I do first, let me know!

~Kendra

Episode II of Fortuna Kendrae (Kendra's Luck)

So, my mom got home a couple of weeks ago from her trip to Florida. She travels sometimes because of her position in Classical Conversations. Well, she had a lot of work that had accumulated over her week-long trip. The next day, she wanted to get right down to business.

That would have been much easier if her computer would turn on.

She pressed the "on" button of her laptop, and the cheerful Windows screen appeared along with the spinning mouse-arrow that's computer code for "Please-Hold-Oh-Impatient-One-Or-I-Will-Freeze-Up-For-Twenty-Minutes". Her computer's fairly new and fast, so that screen usually lasts all of seven seconds anyway. Not the case this time.

That cheerful Windows screen and Hold-On arrow continued to stare at her for minutes on end. Needless to say, ten minutes later, the screen was no longer cheerful, and neither was my mother.

She called in my dad, the family's Computer Superman (although he's not *especially* tech-savvy). I'm not really sure what they thought was wrong, but they tried all morning to get it to fix itself.

That afternoon, they moved on to looking for the computer's programming disk or something. I honestly have no idea. I think my dad explained to me why they were looking for it, but I can't remember. Maybe you geeks--I mean, computer lovers (XD just kidding) will know what the heck I'm talking about.

My dad looked ALL OVER THE HOUSE for that disk. We're a really organized family, so whenever we can't find something, it's a big deal. Major tension. My dad looked all in his and my mom's office, all upstairs, in the cabinets behind my Mom's Chair, in the unfinished part of the basement (a VERY large area), these drawers under this thing ('cause you totally know what I'm talking about there), EVERYWHERE. That stupid disk couldn't be found.

So they moved on to another solution. Don't remember what it was, but it was some kind of installment thing or something that took forEVER. It took about another whole day (so we're been trying to fix this stupid machine for two days), and the stupid thing still didn't work after that.

This lady from our church who's apparently computer-talented looked over the problem and didn't know what to do. So we called in our last resort:

COMPUTER GUY EXTRAORDINAIRE! From church. Very nice guy, very good with computers. He agreed to come the next day. So, it's now been THREE days of Tech Hell.

I wandered into my mom's office that night. She was leaning on her desk, just looking so depressed. I felt so bad for her. I went over and massaged her back a little. I sat down at her desk and glared at the stupid machine who was wreaking havoc on our family dynamic. The Windows screen was up and the arrow was spinning obliviously. Evil little creature.

Then I got this Feeling.

I sometimes get this Feeling. It's really hard to describe. It's like this happy, curious, confident, contented feeling. Like everything's all good, let me just try one thing...I usually get this feeling right before I do something weird. Good weird. Really unexpectedly-good-weird.

I cocked my head at my mom's computer, arrow still spinning. I got the Feeling and poked Ctrl + Alt + Delete.

Nothing happened. I honestly didn't expect it to. My subconscious seemed to only have tried that for kicks. All the sudden I pressed F5 (refresh).

The Windows screened cleared immediately, revealing Momma's account.

I looked up at her innocently: "I think I fixed your computer, Momma."

She looked. Eyes bugged. Jaw dropped. Whoa.

F5. Who woulda thought? Not Momma. Not Daddy. Not Computer Lady. Not Techie Man.

Not even me. I just did it. Didn't mean to; didn't think about it.

The computer is still running smoothly. Ta-da. Thank you, thank you very much.

And this has been another episode of...

FORTUNA KENDRAE!


P.S. Going to see "A Christmas Carol" in 3D tonight! I'll let you know if it sucks or not XD

Fortuna Kendrae: My Rings

Some of you may know that I am a ring person. I have about 12 of them. Rings (with the exception of anklets) are the only jewelry I actually wear. Bracelets annoy me, my necklaces always break, and I don't even bother with earrings.

I've had this same plain little mood ring since I was 9 or 10 years old and have worn it faithfully since age 11. It's not big, it's once-silver edges are long turned brass, it makes my finger green, and it rarely gets my mood right, but it's been through a lot. It went through Mock Trial with me, survived my first trip to Disney World, stayed securely on my finger through practicum after practicum. (That is my exact mood ring...well, what it used to look like :D)Also as some of you might know, I'm huge on memories. I get attached to things faster than you can say "carpe diem", and sentimental value is a big deal to me. I "love" this little mood ring. I always make sure I know exactly where it is, which is saying a lot for absent-minded me. If I notice it's not on my finger, I stop whatever I'm doing and find it. My family and friends know that when I say, "WAIT! I've lost my mood ring", they'd better freeze right there.

Ellie B and I joke that when I get married, there will be a ceremonial Removing of the Mood Right (yes, I wear it on my left ring-finger).

I have another ring that's a wrap-around butterfly that I got at this awesome place called Great Wolf Lodge a little over a year ago. I wear it on my right middle finger, and it's also one of my "default rings". I love that ring, too because I built lots of cool memories at GWL, but my mood ring is still #1. (The ring below is pretty much exactly what the butterfly ring looks like, but the outer lines are gold on mine and the jewels that make up the body are smaller and "diamonds".)For Mulan, however, we were all told that we weren't allowed to wear any jewelry. (I didn't really realize that meant my rings at first; I just don't ever wear any other jewelry, and my rings just feel like part of my hands.) It finally recognized the problem just before the Stage Manager called "places" for the opening night show. Yikes! I took them off and stuck them with my stuff.

As the cast headed to the after party, I rummaged around in my stuff to grab my rings; my fingers feel completely awkward and naked without them. I was spending the night with someone, though, so my things were already packed in the trunk. I went to the cast party without them, and sort of forgot.

Every day after that, I would think, "Dang, I have to remember to put my rings back on!" That way of thinking went on for about a week; you know how I am, it takes me a while to ever actually get around to anything. I eventually did get around to it, and put my rings back on. That was short lived, though, because I was about to get in the shower. I took them off again.

Since I'd been out of the habit of wearing them for a week, I forgot to put my rings back on. As I was lying in bed that night, the lack of metal circles around my fingers was starting to bug me. Don't you hate it when you're lying in bed, cozy and half-asleep, and realize you've forgotten something? *sigh* I went to get my rings.

They...weren't on the bathroom counter.

Maybe they were in my hairbrush/makeup/etc. drawer? Nope.

Ohh, maybe I was crazy and never put them back on from Mulan. They were probably in my makeup bag...No, not there either...

Well, I had put on lotion, and I take them off to do that. Maybe they were with my lotion bottles?

No.

On my desk! That must be it.

Nothing.

On my pillows next to my bed?

Nada.

On the bathroom cabinet?

No there either.

WHERE WERE MY RINGS?????

By this time, if you can imagine this, I'm tearing through all of downstairs, frantically searching. I'm kind of OCD, so when I decide I'm going to be irritated until I find something, I am. Everything seems worse at midnight, too XD

Well, after searching every conceivable place forty times, I decided I would HAVE to wait until morning.

The frantic searching continued for days until I finally gave up :( I must have lost the rings at play practice after all. They weren't in my makeup bad, or any other possible place. I was really upset :'(

Saturday, you know, was the last performance of Mulan. That was depressing. On top of that, as we were all walking to the car, someone said something that reminded me of my missing rings. The day was quickly going downhill.

I grouchily yanked bobby pins out of my bun and stuffed them in my makeup pouch. O.O

Hey.

Was that...?

MY BUTTERFLY RING!! Hallelujah! And the mood ring must be right with it! I joyously ran my hand through the makeup pouch.

Are you kidding me.

No mood ring.

It must have fallen out.

Well, that joy was short lived. I was thrilled about having my butterfly ring back, but my real pride and joy was still AWOL. Whatever.

Dejected once again, I flung open the car door.

*draw drop*

Unbelievable.

There, on the floor of the car, sat my faithful mood ring.

How did it get there? How was my butterfly ring in my makeup pouch, for another thing? I *KNOW* I searched in there before. And why was my mood ring sitting on the floor? It shouldn't have been in the makeup pouch to get on the floor in the first place...

What can I say? I'm just lucky like that :)

This has been another episode of "FORTUNA KENDRAE!"

English translation: Kendra's Luck ;)

Until next time,