reconnecting June 9, 2009

My dad died when I was 11.  After his death I lost touch with my aunt and uncle (my only close family on his side), even though before that we had been pretty close.  At the time we lived near my aunt and her husband and we would see them all the time.  And my dad and I would take a vacation to see my uncle every summer.  Those were some of the best times of my childhood.
Now, looking back, I think the lack of contact was mostly my mother’s choice.  I think she sees them are “bad influences” (at least to her strict narrow road kind of mind) so she didn’t really encourage a relationship.
Most of the years since then I have spent a lot of time thinking about them.  Wishing things were different between us.  But I didn’t really know if they wanted a relationship with me.  And it didn’t help that I now live almost 2 hours from my aunt and almost 4 hours from my uncle.

About two years ago my aunt called me out of the blue.  She tracked me down because she just couldn’t stop wondering how my life was.  We kept in sporadic touch by email, but I’m terrible about starting contact, so it was mostly only when she emailed that I would write her back.

Then two months ago I got an invitation to my uncle’s wedding.  I decided I would go.  I’ve been wanting to take a vacation up there anyway, so this seemed like the perfect chance.

So I packed the car and my dog Lola and off we went.  Even though I was really excited to see them I was also petrified.  I don’t often step out of my comfort zone.  I tend to stay in my own little bubble, but I wanted to do this.  More then that I think I had to do it.  I decided I wanted my arrival to be a surprise.  But in some ways that made it all the harder for my introverted nature.  I was so nervous that I could barely think.  But by a stroke of luck I saw my uncle almost as soon as I arrived.  He was so happy to see me that I felt all, or at least a big chunk, of my nervousness melt away.  My aunt was even more excited.  She was so happy she actually teared up.  I’m normally tongue tied in unfamiliar situations, but everything just kind of flowed naturally.  I don’t know that I tripped over my words once.

I didn’t really plan to stay all that long.  The wedding was at 2pm and the dinner wasn’t until 6, so I figured I would hang around for a little bit and then head out.  But I had so much fun that I stayed until 8.  Now there were some times where I felt out of place, my aunt, her husband and my uncle were the only ones I really knew there, but over all I had a really good time.

But the best thing was actually what hit me on the drive back to the hotel.  I realized that I had really, really missed them.  I missed my aunt’s laugh and her outgoing nature and her husband’s soft and unassuming demeanor.  I missed the complete and total ease I always felt around my uncle.  They are my family, and I missed them.  I missed them so much.

Both my aunt and my uncle made me promise to keep in touch.  My uncle even offered to let me stay with him if I wanted to come up.  And my aunt said I should let her know when I’m in town next so that we can get together.

I really hope I get to see more of them sometime soon.  I never, ever, want to lose them again.

long time, no see! May 26, 2009

I just realized how long it’s been since my last post!  I so need to update more often.

First some site related stuff:  I updated the Dragon Cave Breeds with the latest images and descriptions.  And I also updated the Links section.  There was quite a bit of new links that I wanted to add and several I deleted.

The reason I haven’t been updating lately is because I’ve been busy working on a project.  It started quite simply with reading the Twilight series and watching the movie.  One of the extras on the dvd was an interview with the author Stephenie Meyer.  In it she said that one day she had a dream and just started writing.  She didn’t plan it, but it just happened.

For some reason that simple statement really inspired me, and it gave me this huge epiphany.

I’ve always considered myself a dreamer.  As a child I was always dreaming up something or another.  Some of it was normal childhood stuff, playing with toys and making them do and say things.  But sometimes I would also dream up things like song lyrics and detailed stores with imaginary characters.  As I grew up I started reading a lot and I sort of channeled those dreams into the stories I found there.  But that’s as far as I would take it.  It was something I would do in my spare time.  It was a hobby.  I never thought of it as anything else.

Until I saw that interview with Stephenie Meyer.  Then I got inspired.  What if I didn’t view myself as a dreamer but as a creative person.  Someone who takes what they dream and actually does something with it.  It may seem like a subtle distinction, but it was a big deal for me.  In that moment of realization I got this burst of inspiration and came up with an idea for a book.  A book series actually.

But I’ve never tried to write something before.  Not something like this.  But I just had to try.  I haven’t gotten very far, only about 10 pages, but it seems like the first pages were the hardest.  I had to think of names for people and places.  What job would my main character have?  How would I start the story?  How would I introduce the main characters?
But now I’ve gotten that nailed down (I think) so the writing is going much easier.  I don’t know how long it will take me, but I’ve found I really like it.  Creating a story that only comes to life through me.

So forgive me if I’m not posting a lot.  I enjoy writing on this blog, and I’ll try to make a point to do it more often.  But if I’m gone for a while now at least you’ll know the reason. 

reading, reading, reading…. March 28, 2009

I have spent the last four days doing nothing but reading books.

It all started simply enough last saturday.  I have been wanting to watch the Twilight movie for a while.  I’ve never read the books, and once I know there is a movie version I prefer to see that first before I read the books.  I saw a commercial reminding me that it was released that day, so I checked my on-demand, and sure enough they had it! So I decided to rent it.

Well it turns out that I totally love it!  Which isn’t all that big of a surprise, I do like the genre after all.  Well after I watched it saturday night I became a little obsessed with it (I tend to do that when I fall in love with something new).  I dreamed about it during the night, and it was the first thing I thought about when I woke up in the morning.  So I watched it again sunday morning.  Then I spent most of the day doing other things, but all the time it wasn’t far from my thoughts, I kept thinking about this scene or that scene and imagining where the story went from there.  So at the end of the day, when it was still all I could think about, I decided to order the books, and as long as I was at it I ordered the movie and soundtrack as well.  Thanks to my membership to Amazon Prime, which includes free two day shipping, I got them by wednesday.

As soon as I got them late wednesday afternoon I started pouring through the first book (498  pages), which I finished by midnight taking almost no breaks.  Then the next morning (thursday) I started by watching the movie and after that I read the second book New Moon (563 pages), which I finished by early that evening.  I had planned to take a break at that point, catch up on the tv shows I had been tapping and not watching, do the dishes I hadn’t been washing, things like that.  But instead I started the third book, Eclipse (629 pages), right away.  I thought I would just read a little bit until the evening’s tv shows started.  Well it turns out, just like the last two books, I couldn’t put it down.  In fact I had such a hard time putting it down that kept reading and reading, and I ended up staying up all night (which I almost never do, I like my sleep to much!) to finish it about 9am friday morning.  At which point I gave up on the idea that I could distract myself and I started the fourth and final book, Breaking Dawn (the longest at 754 pages), right away.  I spent the rest of the day reading that until I couldn’t keep my eyes focused anymore at about 9pm, and I collapsed into bed.  I then finished the book after about 3 hours of reading this morning (saturday).

I can’t believe that it took me so long to find this series!  I am totally in love with these characters.  And it is so wonderfully written!  I am pretty similar to Bella in a lot of ways, so I could really relate to her.

The last book felt very familiar though.  Almost like I had read it before.  But how could I?  It was just released a few months ago.  Unless I found a sample of it online?  But I remembered big hunks of the book.  Like several chapters in the middle.  I don’t know if it was maybe just my tired brain remembering a similar story or what.  So that was kind of weird.

It was kind of nice that I was able to read all four books back to back.  The one thing I hate about reading book series is waiting for the next book to come out.  But this way I was able to read the whole story from start to finish.  I am so sad that there is no more to the Bella and Edward story.  But I feel like it came to a good end.  Everyone ends up happy.  Isn’t that the way all stories should end?

I also LOVE the soundtrack.  I played it on an endless loop while I read the first book.  It has such great songs, and I love Bella’s Lullaby and the song Never Think by the movie’s star Robert Pattinson.

So you can include me among the countless number of Twilight fans!

EbN Updates 3.21.09 March 21, 2009

I decided do do some updating to the Dragon Cave part of the site.

Dragon Cave:  I updated this to include all of my newest dragons.  I’m pretty close to getting 2 sets of each breed!

Dragon Cave Breeds:  I was asked to take the original version of this down because I didn’t have permission to post the images of the eggs and hatchlings.  Then BIRD left a comment asking if there was a way to put the descriptions back up without the images.  So I decided rather then include all of the images I would just create a link to my adult dragon of that breed as an example.  I don’t have all of the breeds, but I do have most of them, so it worked out rather well.

Dragon Cave Help Guide:  This is a new page!  I was going to create a post with this info, and then I realised that posts get lost and it would be a pain to try to keep a post updated with the newest info.  So instead I created it as it’s own page.
I have some more ideas to add to this page, but for now it is just a list of where I go to get views for my dragons and a little bit of explaining about those places.

So as you can see I’ve been pretty busy!  I know that most of the people that come here are viewing the DC pages, and I’ll try to keep them up to date and filled with new information.

Go check them out!