no mourners, no funerals

I almost forgot about this blog for a little while. Hello to the faithful few who still read it 🙂

I’m on spring break for a brief couple more days, and then it’s back to the crazy busy wonderful thing that is college daily life. I’m honestly quite stressed and worried about the remainder of the semester — I guess that’s what happens when you are taking copious credits, running/involved in several clubs, and acting in a play. (And you picked the research paper option for one class, because you didn’t want to write the short papers at the beginning of the semester.) I’ll be all right, and I don’t regret choosing to be busy, but — it’s been nice to be home and decidedly not busy for a week.

I’m only 6.25% Irish, but for St. Patrick’s Day I have been enjoying the song “Go On Home British Soldiers,” which is really quite fun to sing. (I’m pretty sure I’m 0% British for anyone curious.) I also recommend “Henry Joy,” “The Wild Rover,” “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” & “May the Road Rise” if you want a hearty dose of Irish spirit, whatever your nationality or origin.

Over break I reread The Blue Sword, and remembered how truly good of a book it is. Compelling characters, immersive worldbuilding, the perfect word choices, and a really fun and meaningful plot — what more could one want? (Well. One could want a sequel. But that is just because I really love the characters and want to spend more time with them — the book is quite a good standalone, actually.)

I’m also rereading Northanger Abbey. As a thirteen-year-old I found it intolerably boring and pointless. As a twenty-year-old I find it simply hilarious, an incredibly astute look at human nature and naivety and relationships. I highly recommend it — but not to thirteen-year-olds.

(Side note: the 2007 movie version is good! Content warning for a couple of steamy scenes but otherwise I loved it.)

On the school front, I’ve finished Six Memos for the Next Millennium (Calvino; I didn’t like it), Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (I mostly liked it. according to Reuben women are totally evil), and several Federalist Papers. I’m also reading a lot of Augustine’s Confessions (in Latin!), the Gospel of Mark (in Greek!), and a lot of Catullus’ poems (in English). AND for a research paper I’m reading Gamble’s In Search of the City on a Hill which is super interesting. AND for the other research paper —

Okay, enough about school.

I like March. I like the grey and the wind and the snow mixed with spring, and I like the cloudy skies and the sunny clear days alike. And I love my family and my friends, and there is so much good in the world: fun music and delicious food and wondrous books and messages that make me smile. So I will give thanks for all of this. May it strengthen me & remind me of Christ’s goodness as I plunge back into the depths of homework.

Oh, and one more thing — one of the small things giving me ridiculous amounts of joy lately is Netflix’s Shadow and Bone. I haven’t even watched a single episode of the second season yet, but even a picture of the cast together is enough to set me smiling. (Yes, I am a teenage fangirl at heart.) I can’t recommend the show wholeheartedly on a content level, and on a storytelling level I am sure I will disagree with many of the writers’ choices in this season. But there is something deeply compelling about the way Leigh Bardugo & the screenwriters write characters. I fiercely love Kaz, Inej, Nikolai, Zoya, Nina, Matthias, and many other Grishaverse inhabitants, and I am very excited to see them all on the screen (tomorrow night!). And this is one of the very few modern TV shows that has actually managed to enthrall me enough to want to watch more of it (the others being Sherlock, The Mandalorian, & All Creatures Great and Small). So. I am very grateful for people who write good stories, and platforms that make them into awesome cinema, and I am going to smile and squeal at the crows on my screen tomorrow, and thanks be to God for joys like this.

(& the desire to rant about S&B is the only reason I remembered I have a blog right now, so I came and I smiled and I wrote, and now I am going to write an essay.

Gelobet sei der Herr mein Gott.)

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