#51 - Earn a score of 100+ in a game of bowling.

This one wasn't as easy as it may sound. No laughing! Everyone has their own struggles.

So...I'm kind of bad at bowling. Not throw-up-the-bumpers bad, but just normal-bad. I think it's because I'm not strong in my arms or my wrists. Which is funny, because I'm supposed to be a good softball player (or whatever), and arms and wrists are just about everything. A coach once lovingly told me: "Chloé, you're just one of those wiry people who aren't built for the game, but are so determined, that you end up being good." Or something along those lines. Ha ha, it's so true, though. I'm pretty gangly.

Me and Tommy!

So, to challenge myself, and to give Tommy and I an excuse to go on a date, I decided that I was going to punch wiry-ness in the nose and score 100+ in one game of bowling.

On Thanksgiving evening in Houston, Texas, Tommy and I decided that we were going to settle it once and for all. We went to Main Event, some funky day-glo/fog lamp bowling place, and bought an hour worth of bowling time. First game - we both scored 53. 53!!!!! That's terrible. First we blamed it on the lanes, that they're slanted or something. Then I tried to blame it on the ball being too heavy - but it was only 10 lbs. But then we decided that we just sucked.

I didn't start out so good....ha ha!

Untrammeled (hee hee) by that terrible score, we decided to play again. And this time we found sweet, sweet success. Although, as you can see in the picture, it was a close call for me - it was all down to my last round...I bowled a strike and so I got another shot, and I knocked enough of 'em down that I got a 106. YAY!!!

In the next round, Tommy totally owned me and got well over 100. Aaaand, I discovered that there was an 8 lb ball (the little orange guy) that I could have used before, but I guess that would've been counter-productive. This post is about my triumphs over wiry-ness...and I have finally conquered!

#9: View a big theatrical production - A Christmas Carol

Okay, so I just added this one because I didn't like the one I put before it. It's my list, I do what I want!! This one is much more fun anyways: View a big theatrical production.

Tommy and me at the theatre!

So in Houston over Thanksgiving, Tommy's mom and sister Katherine took us to see a production of my homeboy Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story of Christmas at the Alley Theatre, directed by James Black. And I'm not just saying this because I love Dickens and I love love love this story, but this was genuinely one of the best - if not the best - play or anything like it I've seen to date. This was better than most movies! Especially the special effects.

Anyone in the Houston area, or the Texas area, or the United States that has access to an airplane and Texas, needs to go see it before it ends. It was phenomenal. The actor who played Scrooge, Jeffrey Bean, gave him a heart - buried real deep down - and a sense of humor and spirit that a lot of adaptations exclude. Scrooge was mean and grinchy, but would entertain the audience with puns and engagement as he interacted with the apparitions he saw...especially the Christmas Present scene when he joins in on the parlor games his nephew plays with his dinner party where he finds out what he's missing out on by being resentful and cold. I loved his character...that's why I love going to plays - the characters are much more accessible and lively than in movies, and you can actually interact with them.

Tim Burton meets Charles Dickens

Another thing that was awesome - THE GHOSTS!! I had forgotten how much of a ghost story A Christmas Carol really is. This production of it opened with 6 really scary, "Haunted Mansion" ghosts in really thick fog and day-glo that follow Scrooge like the sound of Marley's chains throughout the play. It was really, really fantastic. The three ghosts and Marley were fantastic, and each of those four actors played other characters that Scrooge dealt with daily - Marley was his chambermaid, in Victorian drag, and it was hilarious. Makes me really appreciate Dickens' craft and knack for entertainment while telling people how to be kind to each other.

I wish there was Youtube feed so that you could see it. Anyways, it was fantastic, and I wish I could see it over again. You can find out more about the play here.

#1 - Read one book for each month of the project OUTSIDE of school books - November 2010

For this month, I chose another novella because I knew my time and willpower for leisurely reading would be short - but this time, I wish the reading was longer. I read Anthem by Ayn Rand, one of the great literary and social thinkers of the last century. (I borrowed it from Tommy's house in Texas...I'll send it back!)

The sleeping halls there were white and clean
and bare of all things save one hundred beds.

Originally published in 1938, this book came before George Orwell's 1984  and on the tail of Brave New World, but tells of the same dystopia that the authors fear humankind would let themselves slip into when power gets into the hands of few and takes individuality (or, in this book, "ego") from them. It's written as a sort of diary, from the hands of 21 year old Equality 7-2521, who refers to himself as "we", who feels like he has sinned against his collective brotherhood by allowing himself to have individual thoughts and preferences. It's a really interesting perspective, though it's a really big dramatization, but what Rand brought up in all of her works, especially Anthem, is true today. I really recommend it...makes you value your rights as an individual to think for yourself, act for yourself, and choose who you want to become. Giving it up, to anyone is to relinquish the fundamental essence of being a human. Like Rand says, a collective body cannot reason - only the individual can.

I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers, but such as each of them shall deserve of me. And to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned.

#65 - Donate blood.

Tommy and I donated blood today at our school! I love donating blood, because I love the idea of being able to really help somebody by doing something so simple, and giving of something that I've got plenty of! And needles don't really scare me, so it's not a big deal. I had to convince Tommy to come with me, and gave him a supportive pep talk when we got to the building and the beds and nurses and needles were all out. He was really brave...haha, he just doesn't like needles if it's not a life-or-death situation, like most normal people. But he was a trooper, and went with me!

We're good citizens!

I usually get deferred because my iron level is too low...but not this time!!! I was a 12.6 on the iron scale. The cutoff is 12. So I barely made it! Tommy was 16 or something...so he made fun of me!! But I didn't care.

Then (like always) the needle missed my vein! Or, "the vein moved honey, sorry, let's try to find it again." It's a big ol' needle, people!! She was a really nice nurse lady though and didn't mean too, but MAN it hurt! They've gotta move the needle around to get it inside the vein again or the blood will drain in your arm or something...ouch!! I'll admit, I was about to be a baby and cry. It always happens to me, though, I've got small, transient veins, so it's not the nurses fault!! Afterward, Tommy and I went home and took 4 hour naps. Ha!

I was too busy getting poked to take a picture...but here's an after picture with our "I Made a Difference!" stickers! I look really bad...but this was the best take of 5. And p.s. I'm on my tiptoes, Tommy's really taller than me. I feel like I need to clarify that.

We survived!

Everyone go donate blood! You can save up to 3 lives with one donation, and it only takes 15 minutes and two pricks...unless you're like me, and then it'll take an extra 5 minutes of surgery. But it is very gratifying - for yourself and for the people you help.

Look for your nearest blood donation event at http://www.redcrossblood.org.

#1 - Read one book for each month of the project OUTSIDE of school books - October 2010

For last month (yeah, I know I'm behind), I read The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis - because it was a short novel and I only had like five days of October to finish it in. I also killed two birds in one stone by starting on #38 - Read all the Chronicles of Narnia books (in order of Narnian years!)

The Narnia books have a special place in my heart. My mom used to read the books to my sister Emma when we were growing up - I would listen every now and then, but I was much more interested in watching the BBC video versions after they completed the books. (The Silver Chair was the best one!) So now, as I've gotten older, I find it very sad that I haven't actually read any of them...especially being an English major. Shame on me. 

I finished this book in about a day and a half...I had some time in the library by myself while Tommy (my husband) was at work, so I picked it up and started reading. I must admit,  I found it hard to relate to the juvenility of his narrative style, and for a second I wondered, "What's so good about this series again?" A moment of weakness, I assure you. Because I remembered that, The Magician's Nephew was the sixth Narnia book he wrote and was written as a prequel to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (which was the first) - so, when these were published, it would have made more sense to his audience and critics to be kind of aloof...because they already would've known the whole story and all the characters. But it was neat to get to know Digory (the old professor in Lion, Witch & Wardrobe), The Evil Queen Jadis, and Aslan before knowing all the rest of the story. Also, The Magician's Nephew also explains how the lamppost got into Narnia!

As I started reading, I found passages that really shone to me, and it reminded me of C.S. Lewis' mastery of storytelling and understanding of Christ and the overall idea of goodness. My favorite is when the children and their London castaway witness Aslan creating Narnia:

 "Glory be,” said the Caddy. “I’d ha’ been a better man all my life if I’d known there were things like this."

Bottom line: if you haven't read it, read it. Educate yourself. For Aslan! (rawr)