Haili73
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Ugh I need to get on here more often...
6 min read
I'm sorry! I feel terrible about my lack of presence on this website because I've met some of the most wonderful people on this website. (CarlynnRose and Whytegriffin I'm thinking of you).
Anyway, I'm here to tell you about a really awesome thing.
Last year, I took a class called Literary Afterlives which was all about adaptation and how literally EVERYTHING is ADAPTATION!!!! Anyway...I wanted to write this paper about the process of adaptation and intentionality focusing on Beauty and the Beast and my own retelling, Beauty is Blind. Long story short, I had a hard time doing that since 1) my novel wasn't done yet and 2) I couldn't separate me the author of the novel from me the author of the paper and I got really confused and had a minor identity crisis and ended up just talking about Shannon Hale's Goose Girl instead, which was all fine and dandy.
But I needed to write that Beauty and the Beast paper. It sat and nagged at me all summer, and all of fall semester. I did my Lit 220 paper on a book called Cruel Beauty which was a sort of retelling of Beauty and the Beast (along with Paradise Lost, of all things) thinking that would satisfy me but it didn't. It wasn't enough.
Fast forward to this semester. I'm taking a class on the writing of women and the writing of women's stories, feminist criticism and whatnot. A thing I found super fascinating about BATB (I'm lazy and I'm not typing it out anymore) was the fact that the first three tellers of the tale were female (Villeneuve, Beaumont, and de Genlis). Not only that, but Villeneuve's version was the first literary fairy tale. All the others were oral tales, but Villeneuve's is a thing of complicated beauty. Beaumont's simplified version was the first children's book. And Stephenie de Genlis' 2 act play features Beauty (Sabina) the Beast (Phanor) and their best friend, Phedima, third wheeling it like a boss. Listen to me as the sassy Phedima in this Librivox recording:
Anyway, not only that, but Villeneuve's female characters kick butt. So it fits the assignment. Furthermore, for this project, we need to incorporate a creative element. *cough cough* Beauty is Blind: The Beginning *cough cough*
Okay, so here's Villeneuve's plot:
There's a whole lot more backstory about how Beauty's fairy mom pissed off an older fairy who then cursed little Beauty to have to marry a monster one day and then another fairy got pissed at the Prince because he wouldn't marry her (never mind the fact that this fairy was basically his nanny growing up and he was still a boy and there were hundreds of years of age difference between them). Also the prince's mom is a badass warrior who goes around conquering kingdoms and Beauty's biological parents show up (she was basically a changeling hidden in the merchant's family when the real daughter of the merchant died as a baby and Beauty was the replacement because people wanted to kill her.)
Basically, everyone shows up and the castle and they're all somehow related and everyone's happy the end.
Beautiful, right? It's so amazing. Okay. Going to bed now.
Anyway, I'm here to tell you about a really awesome thing.
Last year, I took a class called Literary Afterlives which was all about adaptation and how literally EVERYTHING is ADAPTATION!!!! Anyway...I wanted to write this paper about the process of adaptation and intentionality focusing on Beauty and the Beast and my own retelling, Beauty is Blind. Long story short, I had a hard time doing that since 1) my novel wasn't done yet and 2) I couldn't separate me the author of the novel from me the author of the paper and I got really confused and had a minor identity crisis and ended up just talking about Shannon Hale's Goose Girl instead, which was all fine and dandy.
But I needed to write that Beauty and the Beast paper. It sat and nagged at me all summer, and all of fall semester. I did my Lit 220 paper on a book called Cruel Beauty which was a sort of retelling of Beauty and the Beast (along with Paradise Lost, of all things) thinking that would satisfy me but it didn't. It wasn't enough.
Fast forward to this semester. I'm taking a class on the writing of women and the writing of women's stories, feminist criticism and whatnot. A thing I found super fascinating about BATB (I'm lazy and I'm not typing it out anymore) was the fact that the first three tellers of the tale were female (Villeneuve, Beaumont, and de Genlis). Not only that, but Villeneuve's version was the first literary fairy tale. All the others were oral tales, but Villeneuve's is a thing of complicated beauty. Beaumont's simplified version was the first children's book. And Stephenie de Genlis' 2 act play features Beauty (Sabina) the Beast (Phanor) and their best friend, Phedima, third wheeling it like a boss. Listen to me as the sassy Phedima in this Librivox recording:
Anyway, not only that, but Villeneuve's female characters kick butt. So it fits the assignment. Furthermore, for this project, we need to incorporate a creative element. *cough cough* Beauty is Blind: The Beginning *cough cough*
Okay, so here's Villeneuve's plot:
- So a merchant has 6 sons and 6 daughters, the youngest of which is Beauty
- He loses all his fortune and they move to the country, where the other five daughters spend most of their time whining, but Beauty and the boys help out
- He gets word that his ship has come in, goes off, Beauty asks for a rose when her sisters ask for fine dresses and jewels
- Ship doesn't have any money really, on his way home, the merchant is welcomed at the castle of the beast and steals a rose, Beast goes ballistic and says he will die if one of his daughters will not come willingly to take his place
- he decides not to tell his kids but does anyway. His sons are all like "dad I will save you!" and's like "no." and they're like, "okay, dad." The girls are like "we didn't ask for a rose; it's not our fault..." and Beauty's like, "I will take the rose to the castle!" and her dad's like "no." and she's like "Yes." and he's like "okay." (Who has the power in this scene? The males? No. Little 16 year old Beauty.)
- They go, blah blah blah, Beauty is well taken care of, Beast is nice if not a bit stupid and dull, every night they have dinner together, he asks her to marry him, she says no, she goes to bed and dreams about a beautiful fairy and a young man she calls her Unknown and falls in love with
- soon she gets homesick and begs to go home, she's allowed to for a time limit and warned if she doesn't come back on time, the Beast will die.
- She ends up coming back late (you had one job, Beauty, one job...) She finds the Beast on the brink of death and revives him with water, realizes she loves him and accepts his proposal at dinner that night. They go to bed (and just sleep...nothing happens, you guys. 1740...). Beauty dreams about a very happy Unknown and wakes up to find her Unknown in the bed with her instead of the Beast.
- But Sleeping Beauty won't wake so Beauty goes downstairs and meets his mom and the fairy from the dream.
So...betcha didn't know Belle was a fairy princess, huh?
- Queen: Thank you for saving my son! You're amazing! Now who are your royal parents that gave birth to so perfect a princess?
Beauty: Um, actually I'm not a princess
Queen: What?!!?! You can't marry my son!
Unknown: (who finally wakes up because he hears mommy dearest) No mom! I love her! I'd rather be a beast all my life if it meant marrying her.
Beauty: I love you, Beast, but I don't want to make any trouble...really we don't have to be married.
Unknown: Please mom don't make me marry someone else! I love Beauty!
Fairy: (FINALLY speaks up) Actually, Beauty is your equal. She's my niece. And your niece, too, Queen. She's my sister and your brother's daughter, the fairy princess of the Happy Isles.
There's a whole lot more backstory about how Beauty's fairy mom pissed off an older fairy who then cursed little Beauty to have to marry a monster one day and then another fairy got pissed at the Prince because he wouldn't marry her (never mind the fact that this fairy was basically his nanny growing up and he was still a boy and there were hundreds of years of age difference between them). Also the prince's mom is a badass warrior who goes around conquering kingdoms and Beauty's biological parents show up (she was basically a changeling hidden in the merchant's family when the real daughter of the merchant died as a baby and Beauty was the replacement because people wanted to kill her.)
Basically, everyone shows up and the castle and they're all somehow related and everyone's happy the end.
Beautiful, right? It's so amazing. Okay. Going to bed now.
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Last night, when I should have been working on my NaNoWriMo story Tales Untold, I sat down and wrote this little poem.
This morning I had an appointment with a hand surgeon because for the past four years I have had some pretty bad hand pain.
It all started on a mission trip the summer of 2010. I was getting out of a pool by pushing myself up instead of using a ladder like a normal human being. I felt something collapse in my right wrist. It hurt a little, but not too badly. Not until later, anyway. I took some ibuprofen, wrapped an ace bandage around it, and went on with my life, carrying little kids on my hips, crawling around on my hands and knees doing stuff...basically, making it worse.
When I finally went to my pediatrician, she told me to go to physical therapy and wear braces.
In the fall of 2011, I finally went to physical therapy. Sometimes they did stuff that made it worse, sometimes they made it better with lotions and massages and stuff. I went for a few weeks, and then they told me that my last appointment was coming up. I still didn't have a diagnosis and was frustrated. Was it arthritis? Carpal tunnel? A sprained wrist? What?
I went to another doctor. He diagnosed me with bilateral hand pain - which is doctor talk for what I told him when I came in: "Both my hands hurt." By this point, my left hand had joined the pain debacle. I noticed that my hands were starting to bother me when I couldn't play my guitar for more than five minutes without my left hand crying out in protest. Oh, and this one minute song I had to play for piano? Nearly impossible to perfect because I couldn't play it more than two times through.
October 2012 I got into a car accident. My car didn't stop, so I had to slam my car into park, aggravating my right wrist. My mom and I went to urgent care where I saw a doctor who barely spoke English. He gave me a very strong dosage of muscle relaxers (not a fun story, let me tell you) and a brace that hurt more than it helped. Braces don't help me. I have tiny baby hands and normal sized arms. So I get two options for braces:
OBVIOUS!?!? THREE DOCTORS HAVE NO CLUE AND IT'S OBVIOUS!?!?!?!!?!?!
I mean, the signs were there. I occasionally experienced numbness and tingling in my fingers. On nights when it was bad it would shoot up through my elbow and to my shoulder - right through the median nerve. (Short explanation of carpal tunnel - there's a nerve that runs from the tip of your fingers to the top of your shoulder called the median nerve. If your muscles get big or imbalanced or something, they can put pressure on that nerve causing constant and usually debilitating pain. Which sucks if you're someone who likes to do stuff with your hands. Or you know, want to function like a person)
But according to the EMG I had last week, I do not have carpal tunnel. (EMG: Electromyography, basically medieval torture authorized for medical use. They send electrical impulses through your already-hurting hands, which is unpleasant, but not awful, but then they take this wire/needle thing and stab you in places like the fleshy part under your thumb and all up and down your arms and jiggle it around to see if your nerves send signals the right way. It was not fun.
So today I had some x rays done. And they showed that my hands, while small, were fine. My bones were maybe a little loose, a little far apart, but completely normal. In short, there is nothing wrong with my hands.
How can that be? I've been battling this for what feels like forever. I can hardly remember a time when my hands didn't hurt. And you're telling me, hand surgeon, that there is NOTHING wrong with me? Then how do you explain this pain?
All this guy could go on about was how small my hands are. Like it was a bad thing. Look mister, my hands are small because my mother's hands are small and my sister's hands are small. Do you understand how genetics work?
:bademoticon: Exhibit A: My hand in comparison with the average to tall 11th grade boy's face.
Exhibit B: Me and my sister demonstrating a hand game :bademoticon:
My hands vs. guitar board:bademoticon:
He kept going on about how my bones were short.
Do you not understand that there has never been
(I'm even in heels here - this is me, my mom and my sister)
So he's ordering me a pair of custom braces. And he diagnosed me with hypoplastic hands. Go on, google it. My hands may be weird and tiny, but they do NOT look like this:
Looks like I'll be living on Tramadol for the rest of my life. Because there's no cure if nothing's wrong.
But something's clearly wrong if the pain has persisted in both hands for four years. Keep in mind, I did nothing to my left hand. It just started hurting.
This morning I had an appointment with a hand surgeon because for the past four years I have had some pretty bad hand pain.
It all started on a mission trip the summer of 2010. I was getting out of a pool by pushing myself up instead of using a ladder like a normal human being. I felt something collapse in my right wrist. It hurt a little, but not too badly. Not until later, anyway. I took some ibuprofen, wrapped an ace bandage around it, and went on with my life, carrying little kids on my hips, crawling around on my hands and knees doing stuff...basically, making it worse.
When I finally went to my pediatrician, she told me to go to physical therapy and wear braces.
In the fall of 2011, I finally went to physical therapy. Sometimes they did stuff that made it worse, sometimes they made it better with lotions and massages and stuff. I went for a few weeks, and then they told me that my last appointment was coming up. I still didn't have a diagnosis and was frustrated. Was it arthritis? Carpal tunnel? A sprained wrist? What?
I went to another doctor. He diagnosed me with bilateral hand pain - which is doctor talk for what I told him when I came in: "Both my hands hurt." By this point, my left hand had joined the pain debacle. I noticed that my hands were starting to bother me when I couldn't play my guitar for more than five minutes without my left hand crying out in protest. Oh, and this one minute song I had to play for piano? Nearly impossible to perfect because I couldn't play it more than two times through.
October 2012 I got into a car accident. My car didn't stop, so I had to slam my car into park, aggravating my right wrist. My mom and I went to urgent care where I saw a doctor who barely spoke English. He gave me a very strong dosage of muscle relaxers (not a fun story, let me tell you) and a brace that hurt more than it helped. Braces don't help me. I have tiny baby hands and normal sized arms. So I get two options for braces:
- Small enough around my hands but cutting off the circulation in my arms
- Big enough for my arms but slips right off and over my hands
I usually go with the second because that's...you know, less painful. But not very helpful.
OBVIOUS!?!? THREE DOCTORS HAVE NO CLUE AND IT'S OBVIOUS!?!?!?!!?!?!I mean, the signs were there. I occasionally experienced numbness and tingling in my fingers. On nights when it was bad it would shoot up through my elbow and to my shoulder - right through the median nerve. (Short explanation of carpal tunnel - there's a nerve that runs from the tip of your fingers to the top of your shoulder called the median nerve. If your muscles get big or imbalanced or something, they can put pressure on that nerve causing constant and usually debilitating pain. Which sucks if you're someone who likes to do stuff with your hands. Or you know, want to function like a person)
But according to the EMG I had last week, I do not have carpal tunnel. (EMG: Electromyography, basically medieval torture authorized for medical use. They send electrical impulses through your already-hurting hands, which is unpleasant, but not awful, but then they take this wire/needle thing and stab you in places like the fleshy part under your thumb and all up and down your arms and jiggle it around to see if your nerves send signals the right way. It was not fun.
So today I had some x rays done. And they showed that my hands, while small, were fine. My bones were maybe a little loose, a little far apart, but completely normal. In short, there is nothing wrong with my hands.
How can that be? I've been battling this for what feels like forever. I can hardly remember a time when my hands didn't hurt. And you're telling me, hand surgeon, that there is NOTHING wrong with me? Then how do you explain this pain?
All this guy could go on about was how small my hands are. Like it was a bad thing. Look mister, my hands are small because my mother's hands are small and my sister's hands are small. Do you understand how genetics work?
:bademoticon: Exhibit A: My hand in comparison with the average to tall 11th grade boy's face.Exhibit B: Me and my sister demonstrating a hand game :bademoticon:
My hands vs. guitar board:bademoticon:
He kept going on about how my bones were short.
Do you not understand that there has never been
ANYTHING
TALL
ABOUT ME?!?!?!
(I'm even in heels here - this is me, my mom and my sister)So he's ordering me a pair of custom braces. And he diagnosed me with hypoplastic hands. Go on, google it. My hands may be weird and tiny, but they do NOT look like this:
Looks like I'll be living on Tramadol for the rest of my life. Because there's no cure if nothing's wrong.
But something's clearly wrong if the pain has persisted in both hands for four years. Keep in mind, I did nothing to my left hand. It just started hurting.
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Announcing...TALES UNTOLD
3 min read
So...lots has been going on in my life and at the same time not much has been happening at all.
School is good. Love my lit classes, my intercultural communication class is interesting, and my class about stress is actually the most stressful of them all...ironic, huh?
Work is wonderful. I spent all summer at the library working and now I work in three departments during the school year. Mornings Monday Wednesday getting the mail and doing serials, mornings Tuesday Thursday up in Curriculum with the children's books, and an odd afternoon hour on Tuesday, and closing shift Tuesday Thursday at the main circulation desk. So yeah. Doctor Who has done wonders for my view of going around our four-story library and turning off the lights.
Yeah. Thanks, Vashta Nerada.
Also, little children having been coming to the curriculum section during my shift Tuesday morning. We read picture books to them. It's adorable. And since this is my Halloween costume...
...I think some Ludwig Bemelmans is in order this week, don't you?
But with Halloween approaching, October coming to an end, this means November is coming.
And with November comes...
NaNoWriMo!
And this brings me to the aforementioned announcement, Tales Untold.
Because college and NaNo don't mix well, I'm writing something fun and low-key this year, just to keep myself writing. Plus I've had this idea floating around my head for a while.
So the idea is to connect as many Disney movies as possible in one timeline. It started out with the idea that maybe Snow White's stepmother found a magic flower...a magic flower that saved the life of Belle's daughter and consequently her granddaughter.
Won't reveal more now, but I'll be posting this to both DeviantArt and FanFiction, so keep an eye out this November.
I'd also love to hear your fan theories about the origin stories of Eugene, Kristoff, and Adam (the Beast). They don't have histories, so that leaves it wide open for me.
Anyway, that's what I have to say. Thank you for all the lovely comments you all have been leaving! I need to stop neglecting DeviantArt...I forget how lovely you people are and how many beautiful friends I've made through this website. I appreciate you all so much!
School is good. Love my lit classes, my intercultural communication class is interesting, and my class about stress is actually the most stressful of them all...ironic, huh?
Work is wonderful. I spent all summer at the library working and now I work in three departments during the school year. Mornings Monday Wednesday getting the mail and doing serials, mornings Tuesday Thursday up in Curriculum with the children's books, and an odd afternoon hour on Tuesday, and closing shift Tuesday Thursday at the main circulation desk. So yeah. Doctor Who has done wonders for my view of going around our four-story library and turning off the lights.
Yeah. Thanks, Vashta Nerada.
Also, little children having been coming to the curriculum section during my shift Tuesday morning. We read picture books to them. It's adorable. And since this is my Halloween costume...
...I think some Ludwig Bemelmans is in order this week, don't you?But with Halloween approaching, October coming to an end, this means November is coming.
And with November comes...
NaNoWriMo!And this brings me to the aforementioned announcement, Tales Untold.
Because college and NaNo don't mix well, I'm writing something fun and low-key this year, just to keep myself writing. Plus I've had this idea floating around my head for a while.
So the idea is to connect as many Disney movies as possible in one timeline. It started out with the idea that maybe Snow White's stepmother found a magic flower...a magic flower that saved the life of Belle's daughter and consequently her granddaughter.
Won't reveal more now, but I'll be posting this to both DeviantArt and FanFiction, so keep an eye out this November.
I'd also love to hear your fan theories about the origin stories of Eugene, Kristoff, and Adam (the Beast). They don't have histories, so that leaves it wide open for me.
Anyway, that's what I have to say. Thank you for all the lovely comments you all have been leaving! I need to stop neglecting DeviantArt...I forget how lovely you people are and how many beautiful friends I've made through this website. I appreciate you all so much!
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I'M BAAACK!!!
8 min read
Wooo... so this is what happens when you leave DeviantArt for an extended period of time: 
Yeah...
So things have been a bit crazy. Seems the last time I was on was at the beginning of the semester. And my last journal was from before college...so much has changed since then!
Yay! Now I just wait for the final verdict of the changes (which I'm really happy about...it's such a better story now than it used to be) from the wonderful CarlynnRose here on dA, finish my new cover (how to make things pretty in GIMP? I don't know...)
Hopefully by the end of the summer I'll have it up and for sale!
My major has changed twice. I started as a Music Theory Composition major with a communication minor, I switched to CSTA (Communication Studies Theatre Arts) with a English minor right after midsem of my first semester. The music program is crazy here. Right before registration for fall semester, I changed my major again to English literature with a minor in communication. I love it. I'm not changing it anymore. I'm going to go to grad school after I graduate and get my MLS - Library Science degree - and become a librarian, hopefully one who works with kids.
(also side note, my neighbors are listening to what sounds like thunder from over here...)
I'm still at school actually. I'm living in one of the campus townhouses for the summer and working full time at the library. It's pretty great. I work in Curriculum, up in the k-12 section of our library (for the ed majors). Basically, where all the fun books are. I'm helping put together a retold fairy tale display for one of our display cases. It's exciting. I also work in periodicals and do a LOT of inventory (scanning every. single. book on the shelf and making sure it's in its right place...tedious work). For some reason, we're also measuring how many linear inches of books we own, and I'm in charge of that project. We've got a mile of books on the first floor so far, not including reference or indexes.
Big Ben Awesome picture
In the reconstructed Globe Theatre. Awesome reminder of how much I love Shakespeare.
Westminster
Trying to stay warm in a borrowed hat on a typical rainy London morning...glasses + rain = not fun. The changing of the guard got cancelled but it was still cool.
Proof that people used to be shorter (the fact that I am almost able to reach the top of this door...
:bademoticon: You have no idea the trouble I went to to get to this. Finding tickets that weren't a small fortune and then getting lost on the way..."Fricken Earlham Street!"
Me "Disneybounding" as Matilda...at Matilda. Yeah.
On my way to Hogwarts! In my Beauty and the Beast shirt....
I'm not a Whovian...yet...(I can't watch it till my book's done, completely done) but this face says "I don't understand the significance of this blue box yet, but I will later and will want a picture with it."
Me in an antique bookshop in London in my Belle hairbow and shirt...So wonderful
Me as Madeline at the Eiffel tower.
Feed the birds at St. Paul's Cathedral....I also was wearing this Hogwarts shirt crossing the bridge that the Death Eaters destroy in one of the Harry Potter movies. I started singing "London Bridge is Falling Down" And then realized how bad of an idea that was.
The tea bar at Twinnings, aka Heaven on earth for yet another rainy London afternoon. I'll be putting up my piece I wrote about Twinnings soon...
I liked London better than Paris because I can't speak French. But the food was better in France.
Bonus: Me and my little sister over Thanksgiving going to see Frozen for the first time. I'm Anna, she's Elsa...so wonderful.
This summer and next year I have a kitchen. I will be making my own food and controlling my portions better. I'm keeping a food diary on MyFitnessPal (I'm Haili73 over there too, add me if you use it) and it's been helping. Since the summer started, I've lost almost 15 pounds just by watching my calories and trying to be a little bit active. I started ballet class last week and that's kinda fun. I'm a bit of a klutz, but it's helping me be more graceful.
Yeah, so that's what's been going on with me.
Yeah...
So things have been a bit crazy. Seems the last time I was on was at the beginning of the semester. And my last journal was from before college...so much has changed since then!
Writing
Okay, novel news first: Today I finished the final rounds of edits on When the Stars Fall. Yay! Now I just wait for the final verdict of the changes (which I'm really happy about...it's such a better story now than it used to be) from the wonderful CarlynnRose here on dA, finish my new cover (how to make things pretty in GIMP? I don't know...)Hopefully by the end of the summer I'll have it up and for sale!
School
So I took some pretty cool classes including stage combat, Literary Afterlives (all about adaptation) Satan in Literature (I read Paradise Lost!) and Audio Production and Broadcast Performance. Next semester I'm taking Shakespeare...so exciting, so much Shakespeare!!! I'll also be learning how to play the cello...because why not?My major has changed twice. I started as a Music Theory Composition major with a communication minor, I switched to CSTA (Communication Studies Theatre Arts) with a English minor right after midsem of my first semester. The music program is crazy here. Right before registration for fall semester, I changed my major again to English literature with a minor in communication. I love it. I'm not changing it anymore. I'm going to go to grad school after I graduate and get my MLS - Library Science degree - and become a librarian, hopefully one who works with kids.
(also side note, my neighbors are listening to what sounds like thunder from over here...)
I'm still at school actually. I'm living in one of the campus townhouses for the summer and working full time at the library. It's pretty great. I work in Curriculum, up in the k-12 section of our library (for the ed majors). Basically, where all the fun books are. I'm helping put together a retold fairy tale display for one of our display cases. It's exciting. I also work in periodicals and do a LOT of inventory (scanning every. single. book on the shelf and making sure it's in its right place...tedious work). For some reason, we're also measuring how many linear inches of books we own, and I'm in charge of that project. We've got a mile of books on the first floor so far, not including reference or indexes.
Travel
I went to London and Paris over spring break! It was amazing...I'll be posting pictures and some of the writing I did there soon. I went with my school for an Urban Travel Writing Exploration Seminar- basically, we got to be tourists and write about it. It was cool. Big Ben Awesome picture In the reconstructed Globe Theatre. Awesome reminder of how much I love Shakespeare. Westminster Trying to stay warm in a borrowed hat on a typical rainy London morning...glasses + rain = not fun. The changing of the guard got cancelled but it was still cool. Proof that people used to be shorter (the fact that I am almost able to reach the top of this door... :bademoticon: You have no idea the trouble I went to to get to this. Finding tickets that weren't a small fortune and then getting lost on the way..."Fricken Earlham Street!" Me "Disneybounding" as Matilda...at Matilda. Yeah. On my way to Hogwarts! In my Beauty and the Beast shirt.... I'm not a Whovian...yet...(I can't watch it till my book's done, completely done) but this face says "I don't understand the significance of this blue box yet, but I will later and will want a picture with it." Me in an antique bookshop in London in my Belle hairbow and shirt...So wonderfulMe as Madeline at the Eiffel tower.Feed the birds at St. Paul's Cathedral....I also was wearing this Hogwarts shirt crossing the bridge that the Death Eaters destroy in one of the Harry Potter movies. I started singing "London Bridge is Falling Down" And then realized how bad of an idea that was. The tea bar at Twinnings, aka Heaven on earth for yet another rainy London afternoon. I'll be putting up my piece I wrote about Twinnings soon...I liked London better than Paris because I can't speak French. But the food was better in France.
Bonus: Me and my little sister over Thanksgiving going to see Frozen for the first time. I'm Anna, she's Elsa...so wonderful. Health
You probably can tell by some of these pictures that I'm a bit heavy. According to my BMI, I'm obese. The freshman fifteen happened to me times two and I needed to lose weight coming into college. Stupid all you can eat dining services.This summer and next year I have a kitchen. I will be making my own food and controlling my portions better. I'm keeping a food diary on MyFitnessPal (I'm Haili73 over there too, add me if you use it) and it's been helping. Since the summer started, I've lost almost 15 pounds just by watching my calories and trying to be a little bit active. I started ballet class last week and that's kinda fun. I'm a bit of a klutz, but it's helping me be more graceful.
Yeah, so that's what's been going on with me.
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Tagged and Tired
6 min read
I got tagged by: 
RULES
1. You must post these rules.
2. Each person must post 10 things about themselves on their journal.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create ten new questions for the people you tag to answer.
4. You have to choose 10 people to tag and post their icons on your journal.
5. Go to their pages and tell them you have tagged her/him.
6. No tag backs.
7. No crap in the tagging section about "you are tagged if you're reading this." You legitimately have to tag 10 people.
10 Things about Me!
1: My name's Michaila, but I answer to just about anything. Some notable nicknames include: Matilda (after the Dahl character) Little Nun (the nicknamer played the character who was the victim of my character's [Little Nun's] fangirling) Mickey (because of Disney and other obviousness) Minnie (because I gave my friend Liz the nickname of Zibby when she wanted a new nickname and she thought Minnie would bother me because I'm short. Yeah. I'm like...:iconthoughtsplz: I answer to Little Nun...
2: My eyes are kind of two different colors. They're hazel, but my left one occasionally appears greener than the right. On those days I like to pretend I'm a Graceling. 
3: I realized recently that I didn't know the difference between Madonna and Rihanna. So I started watching Glee to verse myself in modern and not-so-modern music. Yep.
4: I'm moving out for college in 2 weeks. 
I'm excited to be going, but scared out of my mind. Overwhelmed. I'm majoring in Music Theory and Composition. So don't be surprised if I'm not on much.
I'm excited to be going, but scared out of my mind. Overwhelmed. I'm majoring in Music Theory and Composition. So don't be surprised if I'm not on much.5: I'm currently battling an awful cold...it sucks.
6: I am always Haili73. Here, Noteflight, Fanfiction, Nameberry, Bittersweet and Strange, Librivox-any site that I'm on I use this handle. Except for Tumblr, where it was taken 
In which case, I settled for Haili-73. I had such an identity crisis over it. Kept me from joining Tumblr for quite a while, actually.
In which case, I settled for Haili-73. I had such an identity crisis over it. Kept me from joining Tumblr for quite a while, actually.7: I'm related to King Wenceslaus of the Christmas song fame and Queen Elizabeth II. I think. So bow, peasants! 
8: We currently have 10 cats at our house. Piper, DJ [Dude Jr.] and Mocha, mother of our seven kittens- Fudge, Cappuccino (Cappy), Weasley (who is a ginger 
) , Ping (who was named Mulan before we realized he was a boy...hehe), Mickey (yes, I named a cat after a mouse. I don't care. It fits him perfectly) and our two little all black girls- Aza, the big fluffball (called Beast before we knew she was a girl) and Ninja, who totally lives up to her name. If you want one, only Fudge and Mickey have homes. If you live in Minnesota, let me know. Whytegriffin, if you guys want one...*hint hint*
) , Ping (who was named Mulan before we realized he was a boy...hehe), Mickey (yes, I named a cat after a mouse. I don't care. It fits him perfectly) and our two little all black girls- Aza, the big fluffball (called Beast before we knew she was a girl) and Ninja, who totally lives up to her name. If you want one, only Fudge and Mickey have homes. If you live in Minnesota, let me know. Whytegriffin, if you guys want one...*hint hint*9: I legitimately learned the word "reprimand" from The Little Mermaid. No joke. Also, whenever my sister and I had singing contests growing up, we always sang "Part of Your World." My mom said that Ariel was greedy. I think she was just sick of the song. But The Little Mermaid was never my all-time favorite movie. That honor belonged to The Wizard of Oz.
10: I have recently discovered that my earliest memory was when I was about 2 years old. My mother was rocking me to sleep in a rocking chair in her room and singing this blessing song we sing at my church, "Spirit of the Living God" www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrwRS1… I remember falling asleep to that song, and it scaring me because it made me imagine myself in this dark brown rusty cave that was really damp and water dripping...yeah. Music's like that to me.
DisneyFreak010's Questions:
1: Why do crackers have holes in them?
Because they wish that they were being used as the host in Mass. They're trying to be holey. 
2: Who's your biggest role-model in life?
Um...I have no idea. I don't really have one. When I was little, I really looked up to my cousin Michelle though. I guess that counts.
3: If you could have any super-power, what would it be?!
Flying would be the most epic thing ever. Peter Pan, come teach me to fly!
4: What's the saddest movie/book you've ever seen/read?
The first movie that made me cry was Bridge to Terabithia, but I don't think that's the saddest thing I've ever read. But since I'm too tired and congested to think of anything else, we'll say that it's Terabithia.
5: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Seen answer to question 8. The same applies here. Except subtract i from the answer to number 8.
6: Have you ever read/written a fan fiction?
Yes. Both. I eagerly wait to devour everything TrudiRose of fanfiction.net writes and I'm slowly making my way through ravenwritingclaw's Ever After tales. I've also written a fanfiction of Graceling for a school project on ff.net along with a massive Disney crossover I've been slowly chipping away at. You can find me on fan fiction if you want- I'm Haili73 there, as well.
7: Are Zebras black with white stripes, or white with black stripes?
depends on the breed. Some zebras are black with white stripes, some are white with black stripes (they live in the northern part of the habitat) and still others confuse us by having some faint brown stripes mixed in. I did a report on zebras in third grade.
8: on a scale of 1-10, what's your sanity level?
the square root of pi times infinity divided by 0 plus i
yeah. does that answer that question?
9: Do you say: a possum, or an opossum?
a possum. Wait, there's another way to say that?
10: Do I suck at questions, or what?! 
eh. it was entertaining. I'm sick and silly.
My Questions:
1. How old are you? Do you feel as old as you are?
2. What's your favorite TV show?
3. What is the square root of pi?
4. Do you fangirl/boy over anything? If so, what?
5. What's your favorite Disney movie?
6. Who's your favorite character? (Doesn't have to be Disney)
7. Do you like musicals? If so, which one's your favorite?
8. Do you pronounce the word neither KNEE-ther or NYE-ther?
9. What was your favorite thing to do/watch as a child?
10. What is the meaning of life?
I'm too tired to tag anyone...
Whytegriffin for sure...everyone else...just do it.
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