A Beautiful Day with a Beautiful Lady!

Wanted to blog a bit about my lovely day with Raven that we are having!

6:00: Woke up to take a shower and get ready for school. Enjoyed the early morning with John.
7:00-8:00: Was driving to MC, but then got my MC Alert that classes were delayed. So basically drove around for an hour on Georgia to get back to John and Raven's place. 
8:00-9:00: Chilled with Raven in bed while we did our finances and I looked up classes on Quilting.
9:00-11:00: Cleaned the Apartment with my girl!
11:00-11:30: Raven's in the shower and getting ready, so I'm blogging and chilling on the computer looking up sushi recipes and new crochet patterns.


To be continued...

Lost Love, Lovely Eyes

English 102 Journal Entry #5

February 15^th, 2011

Lost Love, Lovely Eyes

Dear Lost Love,

                There are reminders of you everywhere. The caramel splotch on my lamb’s wool slippers… In every song, every lyric sung that drifts by my ears… as if you were the one whispering it there. One song stood out to me today. Made me realize this is how you feel. Here it is:

So long lovely eyes

Somehow we have found ourselves tonight with

No more happy sighs

Hold your breath & hope for something better

We got so far away

From the fire that we started

How did we get so fucking cold

So fucking cold

So now ease your mind

All good things must have an ending, how we

Live, love, laughed & cried

But matters they seem like just a fantasy

We got so far away

From the fire that we started

How did we get so fucking cold

So fucking cold

How did we get so

How did we get so fucking

How did we get so fucking cold

So fucking cold

                That was “So Long Lovely Eyes” by the Toadies… Is that what you said to yourself when you let me go? You always said how green my eyes were, how they glowed and made you smile. You always said how much you loved me and you would never let me down. Never leave me… But you did... because I drove you away... I turned cold. I’m sorry.

Love Always and Forever.

Anna

In Praise of Jane Austen for EN102, MC Spring 2011

In Praise of Jane Austen

 by Anna Krichbaum Geller, February 10th, 2011

Can you imagine a life of rural gentility? Quiet summer evenings, sipping tea on your terrace with your close and intimate friends. Making a subtle and yet intentional glance to the handsome nobleman playing croquet on the green, perfectly manicured lawn. Every detail so carefully cultivated every nuance, sigh, remark, made with care and in some cases deviously. This is how Jane Austen set the feel and tone of her novels, pulling us into a world of formal, country elegance. Here is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Jane’s most popular novel Pride and Prejudice;

“Occupied in observing Mr. Bingley's attentions to her sister, Elizabeth was far from suspecting that she was herself becoming an object of some interest in the eyes of his friend. Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticize. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness. Of this she was perfectly unaware; to her he was only the man who made himself agreeable nowhere, and who had not thought her handsome enough to dance with.” (Austen, 1993)

In this excerpt Jane’s Hero is finally recognizing his original prejudice against the Heroine. See how she elegantly follows his thoughts and paints a picture of her Heroine from his perspective? This is an example of Austen’s literary genius.

Her novels may have been filled with melodrama and romance but Jane led a fairly ordinary and honestly boring life. Jane Austen was born December 16, 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire, England and died July 18, 1817 in Winchester, Hampshire, England. Ms. Austen was the daughter of a clergyman and one of seven children. (The Penguin Biographical Dictionary of Women, 1998) She was never married and was a longtime companion to her sister Cassandra. This woman of country English nobility made her mark through her writing. She wrote 6 novels, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey. She published them anonymously but is recognized now as one of the most influential female English novelists of the 19th century.

Jane Austen should be praised not only for contributing such brilliant literary works to the world. But she must be acknowledged for more! She set the tone for novels in the 19th century, mixing comedy and drama with the beauty of her easy voice and graceful prose. She lived through her romantic and comic tales when her life was anything but. She should be respected for a young woman writing her heart out to other women in a male dominated world. Finally, Jane Austen should be most praised for her devotion to her sister Cassandra which I feel was the truest and good of all her romantic tales.

Jane and Cassandra were engaged but the marriages never came to fruition. So she led a simple life with her sister and wrote about her aspirations for them through her novels; to become married to a rich man, and have many children, to find happiness in love. This never came to be. Maybe that is why she could describe ordinary life with such ability and ease of words. Because ordinary life had to be what consumed her hours of the day. She was praising that existence of the subtle, quiet lives of the country gentry.

She had great admirers who felt as much, such as Sir Walter Scott, the greatest novelist in her day. He said in 1826 in his Journal,

"That young lady has a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful thing I ever met with. “ (The Penguin Biographical Dictionary of Women, 1998)

He couldn’t have said it better. That is one area that I can find not one fault against her! She contributed much to the literary world and this is the dearest of her offerings.

But Jane Austen must be acknowledged for her offerings to the women’s movement as well! Austen was active as a feminist by writing novels during a time when she had to remain anonymous to avoid being snubbed by the 19th century upper classes because she was a woman. In fact she wasn’t even recognized for her work until several decades after her death in 1817. Furthermore, her female characters would only marry for love instead of financial security and social rank. By writing her main characters as strong women with spotlessly clean reputations she was standing firm in her faith to women kind as independent, having their own minds and hearts! She changed how novels were written since, even by male authors!

So many novels were modeled after Jane’s books. The author James Cooper’s wrote Precaution less than a decade after Jane’s Persuasion. (Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century, 2000) These novels are known under the genre of “Novels of Manners” and goes on in popularity into the 20^th century. (The Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature, 1997) But not everyone agrees that Jane influences literature positively.

The critics would say that Jane Austen tainted Britain and created a romantic epidemic of novels by authors such as Bulwer, and Dickens, and Charlotte Bronte. Interestingly Charlotte Bronte who wrote the famous Jane Eyre was actually one of Austen’s worst critics! She said in a letter to a relative regarding Jane’s novel Emma,

“I have likewise read one of Miss Austen's works "Emma" - read it with interest and with just the degree of admiration which Miss Austen herself would have thought sensible and suitable - anything like warmth or enthusiasm; anything energetic, poignant, heartfelt, is utterly out of place in commending these works: all demonstration the authoress would have met with a well-bred sneer, would have calmly scorned as outré and extravagant... she ruffles her reader by nothing vehement, disturbs him by nothing profound: the Passions are perfectly unknown to her; she rejects even a speaking acquaintance with that stormy Sisterhood…” (Bronte, 1850)

A bit harsh to say Jane was anything by heartfelt. Look at her last and most mature book Persuasion; in this great work she aptly describes the pain the heroine feels longing for her lost beau. I could feel it, I having lost many beaus, as I turned each page and understood how my heroine pined and sorrowed in silence. I believe it is the most down-to-earth romance that Jane Austen ever wrote and the peak of beauty. I believe Miss. Bronte and Miss. Austen were two very different people, one reserved and one passionate, so it makes sense the headstrong Bronte would lash out at someone with some manners and sense.

            In conclusion, Jane Austen should be celebrated for gifting the literary world with her great novels. She should be recognized for how she set the tone for how novels were written since and into the 20^th century, with charming romances in simple settings and complex characters. She may have lived through her novels a romantic life even as hers was dull in comparison but she reveled in making a small living off her novels. Jane Austen a single, poor, pastor’s daughter undertook the role of a writer. In that she should be most praised for the world in which she lived she would have been shunned. Ms. Austen, I hope you and Cassandra are smiling secret smiles to each other in heaven, you deserve them.

Bibliography

Austen, J. (1993). Pride and Prejudice. Barnes Noble Classics.

Bronte, C. (1850, April 12). Letter from Charlotte Bronte to W.S. Williams. The Brontes: Their Friendships, Lives, and Correspondence, 3, 99. (T. Wise, Ed.) Oxford, England.

Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. (2000). LITERATURE. Retrieved February 8, 2011, from Credo Reference: http://mchoudini.montgomerycollege.edu:2211/entry/galeus/literature

The Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature. (1997). Novel of manners. Retrieved February 8, 2011, from Credo Reference: http://www.credoreference.com/entry/blit/novel_of_manners

The Penguin Biographical Dictionary of Women. (1998). Austen, Jane (1775 - 1817). Retrieved February 8, 2011, from Credo Reference: http://mchoudini.montgomerycollege.edu:2211/entry/penbdw/austen_jane_1775_1817

Journal Entry #3, EN102

English 102 Journal Entry #3

February 8^th, 2011

High for Today is 102, Low is Hot Coffee

                Yesterday was a frustrating day that turned into a frustrating today that is going to turn into a frustrating week… Bear had a temperature of 102 degrees at the Doctors office yesterday. They said he has a virus that is going around and guess what… it’s going to last 3 to 5 days. Thank god I have made arrangements with my mother before school started. We arranged our schedules so if he was sick on Monday, Wednesday or Friday she could stay home from school. (She works at Gallaudet University) And if he was sick Tuesday or Thursday then I would stay home with him, I don’t have school anyway. This has put a dent in my pet sitting job… but my employer is very understanding and is flexible when I can let his dogs out to pee.

                So let me explain frustrating... Barely drank a drop of my coffee and Mr. Bear decides to purposely spill it EVERYWHERE, all over my bedside table, my crochet basket where I was working on a scarf for my friend’s birthday, my new bed linens that are white as snow annnndddd he laughed his little ass off… Yea… I think I was most annoyed because I didn’t get to drink my yummy coffee at 630am versus being upset about coffee all over my stuff... Oh Tikeitis! This is what I call the disease of the young and their poor immune deficient parents… Nothing can protect you from Tikeitis... It is a grim diagnosis.

                Cheers… Hopefully not hot coffee though…

Anna Krichbaum Geller

English 102 Journal Entry Two

February 2nd, 2011

Dreamers, Midnights, Buttons and Tabby Cats.

I was having a fitful night of sleep and more livid than usual dreams. I dreamt of black and white sheep that rolled into ninjas who were trying to kill me, unsuccessfully I might add. I dreamt of floating under a bridge and gazing up at a colorful mosaic. It was so peaceful. The water reflected as water does on the night blue, azure and teal tiles. Then I dreamt of her. My poor lost kitty. She had been missing for almost a month; I assumed she had been eaten by our neighborhood fox. I dreamt of her little head, spread in half, in a large yowl at the window, pleading to come in. Then I woke up. I felt very strange and looked at the clock, it was 2am. I fell right back to sleep and dreamt no more….

                In the morning when I was woken up by my son I was already 7! I was running really late, my alarm didn’t wake me up as it always does. It was like I slept in a trance… I got ready as fast as I could snap snaps and button buttons! I gave my son a kiss and ran down the steps two at a time! Almost down I looked up and there just as in my dream I saw my beautiful lost kitty’s face, wide in a great big yowl. I screamed, “TOKER! TOKER! OH MY GOD! TOKER!” I was sure she was dead and gone, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, what was happening as I flew the door open and scooped her into my arms. I cried with grins and "thank yous" to whoever could hear! My parent’s stood at the top of the stairs with my son Bear. They couldn’t believe it either. I carried her upstairs and we all petted her and gave her kisses. Bear kept saying, “Toker’s home, she got eaten by a fox!” I agreed with him that this couldn’t be happening….

                What does it mean that my dreams come true? This has happened before. It always catches me off guard... I don’t know… I do know though, that Midnight Toker is home and a piece of my heart has returned to its place.

                Oh did I mention we had already gotten another cat…!!

Anna Krichbaum Geller