andave's place

I'm sick. Again. I have gotten sick way too many times more than usual this year. This time it's a bad cough and an ear infection. This morning the cough was really harsh - I got breathless pretty easily.

Anyways, you might know that I've gotten three jobs this school year babysitting -- two groups and a little girl from one of the groups. The little girl, whom I'll call K, is an absolute doll. She turned three years old a few days before Christmas and is amazingly alert for her age. So...she says the darndest things...

Her mom told me these:
After the first time I babysat for her, she said "Mary Sue is the best babysitter I ever had!"

Her mom asked her if she wanted to go to preschool on Fridays, the day I babysit her. She said. "Oh no, no, that's the day Mary Sue comes over! I can't go to preschool then!"

The day of her birthday her mom asked her, "what do you want to do today?"
"Well," she said "I want to see Mary Sue today."

The last couple of times I've babysat her, she's taken to spontaneously breaking out with "Mawy Soo (she can't quite get her mouth around "Mary Sue" yet), I LOVE you!!"

Then once, we were playing and she asked me if I met her Opa, her big brother. When I answered that I hadn't, she said. "Oh. Well...I don't remember his name. But when he comes with mommy you can ask him what his name is."

The best one yet? - For Christmas I gave her the movie Madeline. We were sitting together watching it when the narrator got to the part where Madeline goes "pooh-pooh!" to the tiger all the other orphans ran away from.
K turned to me and asked me "Why does she say pooh-pooh?"

"It's because she wanted to show the tiger she wasn't afraid of him." I answered.

"Oh," she said, and cuddled up to me so we could finish watching the movie. A few minutes later, she asked it again and got the same answer. After a short while, she pulled away and looked at me with the funniest expression on her face. "Pooh-pooh," she said in all seriousness, "is a bathroom word."

. My thoughts? "British..."

Yesterday when I babysat her and her brother I brought them some Costco cupcakes left over from a Bible Study we had at our house the night before. These cupcakes are obscenely huge - I've no idea how anyone can eat a whole one in one go. I showed them to her mom (they're all a petite Asian family) and her eyes popped. "Look, K," she told the girl. "Mary Sue brought you some cupcakes to share with Opa after lunch, okay? You can share one with Opa, Mary Sue will cut it for you.

When Opa came they both wanted a whole one . They even chose separate flavors thinking I'd have to give them a whole one.
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I have been utilizing the time between semesters at the junior college to apply to all the scholarships I can. I spend quite a few hours every day working on scholarships and so far, I've applied to probably twenty scholarships. They'll haunt my sleep forever . One I'm especially proud of is a creative writing one that asked for a children's or young adult story. I wrote a children's story from the point of view of a teapot who is bought by a girl who can't walk because of an accident. One night they left the teapot outside. Fairies came and asked him for the pretty flowers on him, since it was winter and there were no more flowers, in exchange for anything he liked. He asked for the girl to get better.
Another one I'm proud of is a scholarship that asked me to write about a song or poem that inspires me. Now, I'm not exactly...lacking for inspiration. Life's good. So all the songs and poems that inspire me inspire me for weird reasons that make sense probably only to a very few. So my mom suggested a psalm. I chose Psalm 19 and worked on it all today. It turned out very nicely, imo, and I'm glad I wrote it, although I really doubt I'll win anything for it. Too strongly religious . I'll post it on my other blog.

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I've really been enjoying Yeat's poem "To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time." Here it is, with my favorite part in blue.

ED Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days!
Come near me, while I sing the ancient ways:
Cuchulain battling with the bitter tide;
The Druid, grey, wood-nurtured, quiet eyed,
Who cast round Fergus dreams, and ruin untold;
And thine own sadness, whereof stars, grown old
In dancing silver-sandalled on the sea,
Sing in their high and lonely melody.
Come near, that no more blinded by man's fate,
I find under the boughs of love and hate,
In all poor foolish things that live a day,
Eternal beauty wandering on her way.

Come near, come near, come near -- Ah, leave me still
A little space for the rose-breath to fill!
Lest I no more hear common things that crave;
The weak worm hiding down in its small cave,
The field-mouse running by me in the grass,
And heavy mortal hopes that toil and pass;
But seek alone to hear the strange things said
By God to the bright hearts of those long dead,
And learn to chaunt a tongue men do not know
Come near; I would, before my time to go,
Sing of old Eire and the ancient ways:
Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days.