[Caelum's Scrapbook] Use Your Words.

[Eoin]

HP Lovecraft 2
Rudyard Kipling 2
Vladimir Nabokov 2
Arthur Clarke 3

I seem to get the same author for posts from the same thread, interesting. I've noticed that I tend to change my writing style depending on the partner(s) and this just adds some support to that. Nice find, my friends who write will love this

[Caelum]

Actual telephone conversation had today. Editor: “Christ, what is that?” Me: “That’s a storm breaking outside my window.” Editor: “Sounds more like a train wreck.” Me: “Well, it’s a big one.” Editor: “You get a lot of rain this time of year?” Me: “We do when we have big ass hurricanes hanging out on our beaches.” Editor: “Wait, what?” Me: “Hurricane Irene? It’s hanging out off shore right now en route for the Carolinas.” Editor: “There’s a hurricane heading for the Carolinas?” Me: “Where the hell have you been?” Editor: “In a book!” Me: “….” Editor: “Seriously, Katie. Where is it?” Me: “Nowhere near you. Go back to the books, George.” Oh, artists.

[Caelum]

I may or may not find time to respond to threads between now and next Tuesday. If I don't by Saturday, then you can consider it a wash because a certain moderator is coming to visit me and steal my food (and throw an awesome party for my mother). Don't fret. I will return and resume posting happily for all of you awesome people.

[Caelum]

A strange sorrow woke with me this morning. My husband and I have lived in the same apartment since we were married over three years ago. We cannot stand this apartment. It is tiny, dark, overpriced and lacking good neighbors. The association is horrible and only through our efforts and the fact of its convenient location have we managed to not completely hate living there. Further, our lives have changed vastly since we were newlyweds. Our extended family situation has altered in dramatic and highly impacting ways. We have received some unfortunate news that has changed our entire perspective for the next five years. We are different people than we were when first saying vows to each other, and we are better people. That is something in which we can take pride – the stress that has tried to consume our lives this past year has made us more than we were before it. This week we received at last some desperately needed good news. It was two fold and we learned of both on the same day. It does not solve everything, but it means incredibly much. The cancer of a very close family member was declared to be officially in remission and my husband and I were finally approved for our house. I’ve been on an insanely busy cloud nine ever since. We’re moving! We’re having a party! And, oh, wait, right, got to get everything in order and turn things on like power and clean things out like closets and order around my baby sister in law so she stops trying to sit in the middle of everything. Meanwhile, I’m working and work is very, very busy as well and then there’s a trip to plan for next weekend and a story to finish and a deadline to meet and.. and.. I hadn’t stopped to think until this morning. When I did, I got sad. I hate that apartment, but it’s where my husband carried me over the threshold and where we made our first home together. It’s where we’ve thrown parties and welcomed old friends. Where we’ve found out the worst things and celebrated the best. He brought me a pair of kittens in that apartment and retiled the bathroom himself. I cooked dinner for our friends there the night they told us they were expecting their first child and when it caught on fire, hell, I put it out. A part of me is going to miss that place. The rest of me can’t wait for the house.

[Kovac]

Katie....I remember that very feeling. We started in an apartment. It was not quite our first abode (we lived in her bedroom at her parents for the first two weeks of our marriage ) It was where we learned to live together, what it meant to be married. Its where we found out we were going to have our first child, unexpectedly. That is what expedited our escape from apartment living. many fond memories there.

Again, I am so very excited for the good news you received. I know things are crazy, but I hope you are making wonderful memories in the meantime! I wish the best for you and your husband.

Mike

[Gossamer]

Congrats on the house! You'll have to show us pics and brag a little once you get moved in! It's so amazingly wonderful to finally get your own place. There's nothing like standing on your own porch surveying your own kingdom and laughing because you can paint it flamingo pink if you want and no one will bat an eyelash. I love that feeling. I really do. I only say flamingo pink because my grandfather once had an epic fight with my grandmother one infamous 1976 morning. He wanted her to go to the paint store and pick out a color for the trim on their white house. She refused saying she'd like whatever he got. It made him so mad that he went to the paint store and asked the salesmen what he felt was the most obnoxious color for house trim ever. Flamingo pink was brought up and my grandfather hauled 15 gallons of it home. And people wonder where I get my unique personality from. Its in the blood. Never tell a Native their tastes will be good enough because the white house, the white detached two car garage, the white woodshed, the white chicken house which was the size of a barn... the white two story barn itself... all was trimmed in Flamingo pink for about ten years. It was the talk of the community. They are both dead and gone, but we still laugh about that story. My grandmother HATED pink, btw, and tended to punch my grandfather in the arm every time she got a good clear look at the house. The gaelic swearing was fun too. Just think of all the 'Flamingo Pink' stories your going to make at your new place. It will be such a joy to you... such an absolute joy.

[Caelum]

This weekend I mopped walls. Who does that? I do, apparently, and I am unashamed. The amount of filth I destroyed in my new house is remarkable. Everything smells pretty and is sanitary now, however, so totally worth it. The weekend coming, I am going to the frozen north to celebrate a cousin’s wedding. Between then and now I am still packing up my apartment and attempting to keep my husband from buying another grill. (He seriously bought about twenty tiki torches on Sunday. Twenty. What is this? He is an Azenth and I never noticed?) The following weekend I will be moving the last of my furniture. Then (drum roll) new house! Giant yard! Cute neighborhood! The light at the end of the tunnel is ignited. I plan to reply to all of my threads at least once before catching my flight Friday. I will do my very, very, very best. I swear I will. Yet I also have a copy due for work Thursday and everyone knows I’m useless. Oh, and here’s this. Because I felt like it. DoB: 27 January 1982 Sign: Aquarius (not that I actually understand zodiac signs) Sex: Girly girl. Status: Married. Nationality: Irish American Roman Catholic (What, that’s how my father says it.) Location: Savannah, Ga. (No, we don’t all talk like that. But we are all crazy.) Likes: Your mom, kindness, books, Charles Sandburg, libations, inspiration, Martin, kittens, singing while cooking/cleaning/showering/gardening, scifi, Tabernac’s dramatic readings, wit, wile, coffee, lack of deadlines. Dislikes: Hate, poor grammar, snobbery, lack of effort, training threads, ridiculous expectations, walls in need of mopping, people without humor, spiders, your mom.

[Caelum]

My toe is broken. It is damn near black it is so very broken. Dancing at my cousin’s wedding this weeked = out. Wrench thrown into moving plans next week = who knows. Now that I’m done complaining, this is to inform all of you awesome people that I will be out of town Friday through Monday. While I may answer any PMs sent my way via my super-state-of-the-art phone, I won’t be responding to any threads. I’ll see if I can’t get up a few more responses between now and midnight Thursday. If anyone wants to send me cute or comical pictures, awesome songs or just plain old pity, you will earn my undying affection. That won’t get you a pack of gum at the corner store, but it’s all I’ve got.

[Caelum]

“If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you.” ― Henry Rollins

[Caelum]

Hereinbelow is Constantine P. Cavafy's poem "The God Abandons Antony" as translated into English. It is a poem that aided in the inspiration of Caelum's character and it has always been among my favorites. When suddenly, at midnight, you hear an invisible procession going by with exquisite music, voices, don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now, your work that failed, your life's plans all proving deceptive—don’t mourn them uselessly. As one long prepared, and graced with courage, say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving. Above all, don’t fool yourself, don’t say it was a dream, your ears deceived you: don’t degrade yourself with empty hopes like these. As one long prepared, and graced with courage, as is right for you who proved worthy of this kind of city, go firmly to the window and listen with deep emotion, but not with the whining, the pleas of a coward; listen—your final delectation—to the voices, to the exquisite music of that strange procession, and say goodbye to her, to the Alexandria you are losing. Oh! And I'm back.