Day 27 - Catastrophies and fruitcakes

August 27 - In anticipation of catastrophe

     Two things sprang to mind immediately, from two different phases/parts/ages of my life.

     The first is a scene from Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott is which Rose, the main character, her seven male cousins*, along with an assortment of friends and aunts are putting on a series of short skits, the theme of which is a part of a word.  The answer is catastrophe which they break into "Cat" (one of them makes a fetching little kitty), "ass" (as in Baalam's donkey), and "trophy" (the early bird gets the worm).  At the end they reenact a train wreck (it's before the time of motorcars).
     The second thing that sprang to mind is a wonderful fanfiction: Apocalypse Week by Eternal Contradiction.  EC writes excellent Shenny fanfics.  Shenny, for the Big Bang Theory fanfiction uninitiated stands for a Sheldon and Penny relationship, usually as a couple but sometimes as friends.  In Apocalypse Week Penny is introduced to a yearly tradition Sheldon drags the boys into, a week spent trying to train the boys to survive the end of the world through paintball (need to know how to shoot), sessions spent reviewing different forms of world ending events (zombies, aliens, natural disasters, etc), bomb-making, -throwing and -aiming practice, running (gotta keep ahead of whomever is out to get you), proper survival clothing (no leather but denim is good).

*  I remembered after I wrote this that it is only Rose, her cousin Mac, cousin Jamie, and the young people they are staying with that perform this.  They have gone into the mountains after Mac has had his terrible fever and nearly ruined his eyes.  Cautionary tale for anyone who reads with only a little light!  I know it certainly scared me as a child!
     I love Eight Cousins and it's sequel Rose in Bloom and have reread them many, many, many times.  It was a long time before I realized they were written by the same author as Little Women, which I adore because of Jo, a tomboyish writer with younger siblings.  Rose is such a sweet, kind and lively child who grows into a beautiful, benevolent, and wise woman under the tutelage of her many aunts and two dear uncles.  I have always wanted to be her or be like her, ever since I discovered her when I was very young.
     I had forgotten how much Apocalypse Week focuses on Penny's feelings!  Most of what I remember from it is how well Penny and Sheldon work together and the fact that, together, they could take over the world.



Day 27 - Fruitcakes and Discipline

     OK, what is everyone's problem with fruitcake?  Admittedly I've never had the traditional fruitcake soaked in rum w. gummy fruit (yay no Christmas?) but our family makes what could be classified as a fruitcake with canned fruit cocktail and an evaporated milk and sugar glaze that is not only heavenly but you can get away with eating it for breakfast because it has fruit!  </rant>
     Now that that is out of my system.  The point Ms. Abercrombie was making regarded her mother's self discipline, yearly making fruitcake as gifts and daily practicing piano.  This is a quality I greatly envy.  Follow-through is something I have struggled with my entire life (and is something I was discussing with my father just yesterday).  In school struggled to complete homework, not because the work was difficult usually, but because it was boring, repetitive, and/or I allowed myself to get distracted (A/N- this started in first grade).  Long term projects are/were deeply loathed and always completed two days (or less) before they were due (unless the teacher required some sort of proof of progress, which was rare).  And I usually got A's so I feel completely justified.  Neyah.
     Obviously I also struggle with goal follow-through/self discipline, such as in writing (sorry), exercise, tooth brushing (honestly, yes, I am 23 and I struggle with it), responding to important emails (the pressure!), talk writing (last minute anyone?), and service time (which makes the goal of pioneering really scary and seem completely unattainable without a Red-Sea-parting amount of holy spirit).
     Unless I am answerable to someone else I have a hard time completing a task, no matter how much I want to!  It is so very frustrating!

Eight Cousins image from GoodReads.com
Fruitcake image from Neopets.com