Funny Little Place Called Home - Post #228

I'm home. And kind of brain-muddled. It was a long night, one of those ones where you think a lot and remember that the thinking-hangover is the reason you avoided it in the first place.

I guess I kind of feel sad about something, and I'm not sure what. It's like a combination of worry and loneliness and missing and hey, let's throw confusion in there just to make it flow. I'm not quite sure what's wrong. Like I said, a byproduct of thinking.

What an unsatisfactory post.

--Iona

As Far As These Things Go - Post #227

I’ve never been a huge fan of professional sports. Actually, I’ve never been much of a fan at all. Sure, I’ve been to a few baseball games, and I go to all the school football games (heh…not to watch the football), but follow it? Not my cup of tea.

This soccer shindig, though, was good fun. It was the Heart of Midlothian FC (Football Club) vs. FC Barcelona. There’s something about the clashing tones of obnoxious guys singing in a goal-induced high that's rather nice. In an out-of-key sort of way. And all the guys get excited when their team scores, jumping out of their seats or yelling at the referee, or just singing one of many songs about the team, the sport, the players...

I, needless to say, have a bit of a headache.

The game was good too. Hearts lost 3-1, but the goals were good and anyways, I've always found soccer a mildly interesting sport to follow, probably because I played it when I was little. I wasn't good, I never scored, mostly played defense and commented on the game in my head ("They were the last like of defense between the attackers and the castle walls..."). Hm. I never claimed to be a normal kid. But I did enjoy it, and you're always more interested in watching things you've tried yourself. So that's good.

Dinner was amazing tonight - broccoli and cauliflower in a cheese sauce and rhubarb crumble...I've never been a fan of rhubarb (except its spelling, which is amusing), it's quite tart, but the ice cream and crumble balanced it perfectly.

Packing tonight, home tomorrow. It'll be a 29-hour day. Exhausting. Out of the house at nine, flight around noon, home at maybe one or two local time, a good few hours to get through customs and baggage, then the agonizing last lap - two hours home from the airport. Home between six and eight.

Until then...iPod land and A Little Princess. Good book. I read it at Christmas too, the last time we visited. Hopefully I'll get to raid the airport bookstores before our flight. Most of my mini-library is from pre-flight shopping. Good stuff. =)

Erg. Travel. I'm going to read.

See you all SOON!!!

--Iona

And Eeyore was like, "Whateva." - Post #226

The title...you hear interesting things listening to your grandparents' radio stations.

Yesterday Nick and Yvette, my dad's older brother and his wife, came down to visit with their kids, Julia and Catherine. Caitlin, my dad's older sister's daughter, came too. this kids are adorable. We took them to the park and the farm, and they loved everything. Catherine tried her first ice cream (she's just a baby) and Julia (she's three) looked at a tortoise sleeping in its shell, turned to her mother and said sadly, "it's not working." I love kids. =)

Calum is definitely still just a big kid. We got out my grandparents' old toys for the girls to play with, and he was right there using the toy blocks with them. Then at the playground he could hardly resist joining in climbing on the climbing frame with the little kids. It's a tough spot to be stuck at, between a kid and a teenagerish sort of adulty thing.

Going to a Hearts game today...I like the shirt, it's nice. Calum is teaching Papa how to play a game on the computer (or trying to), so I must depart. At least it's sunny again today.

In other news, band camp Auguest 7th - August 10th. Excited? I am. it's going to be really really really weird with no seniors though. I'll miss Ryan and Bellemare. They were nice. no idea what it is we're supposed to be doing, but hey. It's band. I've missed it.

HOME TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Miss you all lots & lots.

--Iona

Translate into English - Post #225

I read everywhere. Buses are no exception.

Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific!
In vain do I ponder thy nature specific--
Precariously poised in the ether capacious,
Closely resembling a gem carbonaceous;
Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific,
In vain do I ponder thy nature specific!

It may help if you sing it to the tune of the alphabet song, which is also...

The answer lies here.

That comes from Papa, who is also accustomed to singing the version from Alice in Wonderland...something about bats and tea trays.

Home in three days...I'm looking forward to it, but there's just so much to do. Summer work, reorganizing my room, I officially ruined all my good clothes between Cumbrae and Hope so I need some for school, stupid stupid wisdom teeth...I swear, I'd stay here forever if it weren't for the people I'd miss.

Tonight we're going to Anne's (my aunt). Yay? The summer school's play is tonight and I'm not there to see it. =/ Rachel is an "ancestor" (it's Mulan). So good luck to all you guys.

Going to the Heart's shop for new football jersey (in layman's term: going to a fan shop for my dad's favorite soccer team to get their new shirt thing), then to that internet cafe so my dad can use his laptop for work stuff, then to Anne's. I think. So I hope everyone's having fun wherever you are. If you're reading this, I beseech you, leave me a comment. Please? Just curious. I get "Oh, so-and-so read your blog and says..." from my mom every so often, so i know you're out there...

Miss you all.

--Iona

Hope - Post #224

So, all the way back to Monday... That night was pretty great. Anne (my aunt) came over with two of my cousins, Matthew (18 and almost as tall as my dad, when did this happen??) and Mollie (13 and the same friendly kid I’ve always gotten along with). Caitlin, the third in their family (16 and horse obsessed, a bit like if Rachel rode English) is still up in Wales where she works on a farm. Anyways, Mollie and I went on this here ancient computer so she could show me “bebo.com”, allegedly myspace but better, and we hung around until the guys (Dad, Matthew, and Papa) got back from their trip to the pub.

Then I took an amazingly long shower (essentially, no line of pilgrims yelling at you to hurry up and get out is brilliant), and went to bed at about ten. Crashed instantly. When you’ve been awake until two in the morning for an entire week, sleep is very much your friend.

I slept in, too, until quarter past eleven, when Calum and this trumpeter he’s been working with over here started their lesson. Love my brother, love trumpet, but I love sleep. I got up anyways. Calum is going to be good one day if he sticks with it, he’s already decent and getting towards out-passing the kids in concert band. Marching band needs more trumpets.

Argg I miss people.

Anyways, the man stayed for lunch. I love eating here; my grandmother’s food is so natural, you eat and feel good, not like going to a fast food place or even a high-scale restaurant where the portions are the size of your face. Soup and bread and cheese and salad and water and the feeling of health.

Hopefully after the lunch table discussion my dad will come around…honestly, it’s only an hour and a half once a week…half an hour oboe lesson, half an hour snare lesson, half an hour saxophone lesson.

Oboe - I love my oboe. I love the parts it gets, the mixture of melody and harmony, I love the feel of the instrument and of being my own section, I’ve been playing it for four years and I’m sure not going to give up now.

Snare - To help with drum line. I love snares, and I want more than anything to play one…just once…

Saxophone - I have this insane dream of playing in a college marching band. Crazy. But the section that is guaranteed to make cuts is percussion, and I’m definitely not good enough. Saxophone might help be get where I want to be…

Then we went up to Hope Bothy for Tuesday - Wednesday. Lots of memories from that place. I skimmed through the logbooks and found things I'd written back when I was five and ten. And now I'm fifteen. Random 5-year jumps? Cool.

Calum and I climbed Bucket Hill (what I'm standing on in the picture) for the...third time? Second time just the two of us. I kind of dragged him up, the lazy slug. Love that kid. =) He played in the river like he was still eight years old, and I sat in front of the fireplace and thought. It's amazingly relaxing, no electricity, no computer, no phone, just you and your thoughts. I love it to death. And maybe my shoes and soaking wet and covered in "essence of sheep" but hey, that's the price of peace. I'm not complaining. =)

When we got home last night, Dad and I went to see the newest Harry Potter movie. I cried. Much of it was skippy and bad and you wouldn't understand it if you hadn't read the books, but the patronuses scene was great, their fight in the Department of Mysteries was very well done, Luna and Umbridge were brilliantly cast, there was one scene with Fred and George comforting a little boy who'd been put through the punishment (basically torture) of having to writes lines that got carved into the back of his hand, and that was touching...and wow, a run on sentence but who's looking? The scene that made me cry was harry lying on the floor of the department of Mysteries in the last battle, fighting Voldemort inside his head, and having a flashback of all the good times he and his friends and family had had, through clips from the past movies. It made me really, really miss everybody back home, worse then ever before. So, I'm thinking of you guys. Miss you all. =)

We're off somewhere, a museum I think. Must go! As Christa says, hugs and hearts.

--Iona

<3, The End - Post #223

I have two posts saved on my grandparents' computer about what we've been doing the last couple days, but I'll put them up later. Their internet is so uselessly slow that my dad and I have retreated to a mildly shady internet cafe for some attempt at seeing the rest of the world. I was just going to comment back...but my comment was so long, it ran out of room and I'm just going to turn it into a post instead.

You guys are amazing. Like, amazingly amazing. That probably just made my day. I miss every single one of you bunches. Big bunches.

Bill - Yay adventure! And sure, the very nature of life is ironic. The math packet is nowhere near big, so stop complaining...I haven't done that. Oops. Blah, if things fall as they're supposed to I'll be in band period three. =/ I'll miss youuu. Come haunt Danica sometime and say hi. And tell your sister hi from me too. =)

Danica - Pshh, I've missed your rambling. And it's raining here too. And I have to walk...ew. As for Tom, he does now, and that's the real one. =) I miss Vinnie's front porch!! Gahh, what are we going to do without him next year...weird thought. Great Expectations is one gigantic book...even my granfather said it's useless...which really makes me want to go read it, right? Gahh. Will you be at your mom's on the 29th, 30th-ish sort of area? That's when I get back.

Tom - =) Of course I'll bring you back something. That's just a given. However much you miss me, I'm pretty sure I miss you more. Aw, I'm sure Montana is fun...not much to do here (I mean honestly, I've snuck out to an internet cafe...that should say something). Except it's managing to rain and be sunny at the same time...weird. If I was permanently purple...that would be strange. And ironic. And I think I'd probably look in the mirror and scare myself. That purple kid was a little creepy, let me tell you... Ahhhh, I have a story for you when I get a chance to talk to you...it made me laugh... haha. See? I haven't lost your ring. =) I miss you...you're right. Words don't do it justice. <3

Mommy! - I know, I kept having flashbacks of the paintings on the walls and Bucket Hill and all. Calum and I climbed it again - I swear it gets taller every year. I read all my old entries and took pictures - I'll put them up some other time. And I heard more little-Iona stories than I'll ever need, including one from Papa where I said something at 4 in the morning along the lines of, "Papa and Granny and Caitlin and Mollie all sleeping together, let's get up and play!" I, of course, have no memory of the incident. Miss you & Siraya a lot... Can't wait to come home. =) Hope you're keeping busy. Love you, love you, love you...

Thanks guys. You make me smile. =) I'll be home the 29th.

--Iona

J2A Pilgrimage 2007 (everything my dad forgot) - Post #222

That’s a pretty fun number. Anyways, long time no type…

I’ve been on a week-long pilgrimage with my church, as most of you know. I won’t bother you with all the details of the trip - I’ve been journaling the whole time and have no desire to rewrite all the facts, but if you’d like them they’re up at my dad’s blog (I wrote one of the posts, you’ll see) so check it out if you’re bored. The address is therapservices.net/blog/Justin. I think, anyways. If not, play with Google and you’ll find it.

The trip…wow. So different from what I expected. No big God-related revelations, but more little things in ways I never would have expected.

Like getting to know these kids. I don’t go to school in Southington like they do, so I only know their sleep-deprived, irritated, Sunday morning church school selves. This trip I randomly got to know them, especially Amanda, Michele, and Jason.

Amanda and I had always been “Hi, it’s Sunday morning, I’m tired,” and all that in church school, but I’d never really gotten to know her. I guess she always seemed different from the people I normally talk to, so I assumed we’d have nothing in common. Well, you know what happens when you assume. Turns out she is one of the sweetest, funniest. most genuine people I know, is amazing when it comes to giving you insanely purple-mascara, pink-eyeliner, white-eyeshadow eyes, has a knack for dying hair, makes amazing faces, and can pull off the fuzzy-blue-tiara look in the middle of a city. Nice to know. =)

Michele I’ve always talked to, but it was usually about church stuff like serving on the alter or playing music for a service. We got to talk a lot more this week and I learned more about who she was as a person, and I think vice versa as well. It was pretty interesting…we’ll pin it as a “God sighting” and let it go. She, too, can pull of the fuzzy blue tiara look, as well as playing a very nice Londonderry Air. Stop being so talented. =/

Jason and I pretty much never spoke before, so the fact that we talked at all was something in itself, but turns out he’s pretty entertaining, and is there to help you if you need him. I was trying to find Tom something, and he was definitely helpful, even though he still didn’t give me an idea of what to get… So yes. And he found a dragon.

What else about the trip? I realized how insanely much I depend on my friends and my family. I miss everybody loads…my mom, Siraya (believe it or not), Rachel and Bri, Danica and Vinnie and Vinnie’s front porch, Tom… Next time I think I’ll just drag them all along.

Bill, if you’re reading this, you better be in our chemistry class next year, okay? Actually, you better be in it even if you’re not reading this.

What else…Bailey!! Massive 3 year old St. Bernard and a huge softie. I miss that puppy. I got to brush him…he’s like a horse…but he was always there to hug if you needed him. He belonged to the warden, Helen, of the cathedral we stayed at on the Isle on Cumbrae. She was very nice, we liked her a lot. She was out pretty much every night with her weedwhacker or her pruning shears, keep the cathedral looking it’s best.

Macaroni pies = amazing. It’s macaroni and cheese. In a pie.

If I think of anything else later, I’ll just post again. Ah, the amazingness of blogs. So what else is new? What am I missing at home? I read the last Harry Potter, and apparently some people hate it? I loved it to pieces. Someone can tell…I think it was Sarah Sherman, that hah, I win because I was right and she was wrong. I finished it sitting on the floor of the airport as the kids we sent back home were waiting in a line I wasn’t allowed to be in. And I cried. On the floor of the airport. Bahaha, what a dork, no? Ah, well. What can you do? I liked that she explained the other point of view in that…part. And the section at the end. And one of the parts I cried at was stupid, it was happy crying, the part right after that Slytherin Padma speaks. She only speaks once, so you should know what I’m talking about. I’m trying not to spoil anything here. =)

Rawr, this computer is driving me crazy. Now that the pilgrimage is over and all the church kids are on the plane home, I’m at my grandparents’ house. I’ll be here for the next week. Upside? I love my grandparents to pieces and now I can use a computer. Downside? I miss the constant entertainment of my friends and this computer is driving me nuts. The internet’s about as good as the food on the plane ride over. Not very. Right now it won’t let me on at all, so I’m typing this post in a Word document. Ew.

I want to play Spit with someone. The card game? Emily creamed me at it when we played. Calum’s no fun in comparison. I wonder if Tom knows how to play…I’ll have to ask him when he gets back. It’s 5:33 pm here, 12:33 pm in Wolcott/Southington, and I think 10:33 in Montana, but I could be wrong. I’m going to play pinball for a little while. If I can get the internet up for a minute, I’m definitely grabbing a few of those stupid surveys to fill out. They usually kill time.

Haha, wow, first game score is 3,267,250. Not bad, not bad. It made me want to listen to The Who, but my iPod is lacking in that department. Arg. I want to write my story, but I’m still stuck. I wrote one paragraph of a prologue that I liked, and that’s it. What?? That’s it?? Gahh. Too much to worry about. Postcards, presents for people, plane ride home, Rachel’s birthday, Tom coming home (!!!), Block Island with church, wisdom teeth (that one gets some stars ***), Brianne and Katie’s birthdays, then school starts…aaaaah. And that means I have three books to read somewhere in there, none of which look any good.

Gah, stupid internet won’t load.

OMGDANICA!! I got free hugs. From free hugs people! I got umm…six. Yeah. Soo we’re definitely doing that some day.

I’m off to…do whatever it is Ionas do. I already reading (another) book today…so that’s out…I wonder if my iPod has any battery? Must check.

Much love, miss you all terribly. You know who you are.

--Iona

P.S. Woah, my dad fixed it. Temporarily, I’m sure, and it’s still slow. But it’s fixed. I miss Wifi…and Jason’s laptop…

A Life Like a Fairytale - Post #221

Or better. There wasn't a single Disney princess with a guy better than mine. =) So, yeah, last night was basically the best ever. As in, I'm still smiling/about to cry. It's going to be a long 21 days.

In other news, I'm leaving for Scotland tomorrow!! Excited. =) I'm going to miss everybody bunches, but hanging with my church groupies will be amazing, then seeing the family afterwards. Here's the schedule:

~Saturday July 14th - Leave, 10:50 pm flight from Newark.
~Sunday July 15th to Thursday July 20th - the Isle of Cumbrae with the pilgrimage kids
~Friday July 21st to Sunday July 23rd - Edinburgh with the pilgrimage kids
~Monday July 24th to Friday July 28th - Edinburgh, etc. with the family
~Saturday July 29th - Fly home

So, yeah, I'm excited. Kind of nervous too, of course. Planes and all. Dangerous stuff. But I love Scotland! I'm going to go now, because I'm happy and don't want to write anything stupid as a result (too late). Have a great rest of July!

--Iona

I Always Wanted a Nickname... - Post #220

There's Ari and Vinnie displaying a very far away Danica sitting on the front steps of The Mystery House, this huge expensive-looking house that looks completely abandoned, and thus is probably Area 51 version 2.0. =)

I've decided that a picture at the top of a post makes for a happier looking blog. So pictures are headed your way, folks. =P

I, as you may not have noticed, am now Joyce Bernadette Cosgrove-Brockie, Danica is Margaret Philipa Beckerman-Ackett, Vinnie is Donatello "Donnie with an ie" Jeeves Ferguson-Pesce. Because if I'm getting stuck with a dorky name, so is everyone else.

Danica's last name was supposed to me Beckett-Ackerman, for William Beckett of The Academy Is, but I can't talk and Vinnie liked the mistake better. The end.

Then Tom came over and we hung out and watched MythBusters and it was pretty nifty if I do say so myself.

Now I'm ridiculously bored. And this is really short but I'm posting it anyways!

--Iona / Joyce / whoever I am these days

The Bandos in Hershey Park - Post #219

Hershey trip, written rather quickly because I'm lazy and watching YouTube videos and because Vinnie was complaining.

We got to the school at 6:30, and I found Rachel, Jackie, and Tom outside the coach bus. Tom and I sat behind Rachel and Jackie and in front of Jess and Nick. On the ride there, we played BS with Rachel and Jackie, stopped for ice cream (or breakfast) at a McDonald’s, slept, and generally made idiots of ourselves.

When we got to the park it was super hot. I lost Rachel, Jackie, and Chelsea when I waited for Tom to be done meeting with his chaperon, Rachel’s dad. Unfortunately, Nick lost Jess and Erin and we couldn’t travel in groups of less than two (and he was looking depressed and besides, it was his birthday), so for about to hours we wandered around with him looking for them. That was boring, but Tom was there so that made it fun. =)

We finally found them, and it was weird. They went off on their own little way and Tom and I went to get lunch. We sat in the back of an air conditioned room eating chicken and fries and talking about random stuff. Some time later we turned to go, but realized it had started pouring and we didn’t even notice.

When the rain died off we went on the Scrambler and the Carousel, then it was time to meet up for check-in. Rachel was rather irritated that we hadn’t been with them, so we stayed with them afterwards, going on the Wildcat, a wooden roller coaster, and the Sky Coasters, a slow hanging seat that carried you around the park.

Then we rode to the hotel and got our rooms. We went swimming in the hotel pool for about fifteen minutes, then had to get out because of another storm. I went with Tom to hang out in his room with Jess, Nick, Erin, and Bellemare and to help Jess straighten Bellemare’s hair. Curfew was at eleven, so I hung with Jackie, Rachel, and Ari and watched TV until we all fell asleep.

The next day we got up, Ari took a shower, and Rachel and I played cards until we realized we were late for breakfast. We hurried down there and were the second to last room there. I ate quickly with the three of them and then sat with Tom for a little while because he had saved me a seat. Then he went to pack the drums on the bus and I went back to the room to hang out and take insane pictures with Rachel, Jackie, Ari, and Chelsea. He came up afterwards and we talked about how the girl on MTV’s Made was an idiot for leaving her old friends when she got a makeover.

That day we performed in a tent. It was boiling hot under the stage lights, but still a lot of fun. We make jokes and laughed up on stage, and really enjoy playing the music. Then we sat through the chorus’s performance, which was pretty cool. There was some fuss on the bus about Jackie’s lost bag, but we found it and it was okay.

After all that drama we hung out with Rachel, her dad, Jackie, Ari, and Chelsea the whole day. Somehow I rode every ride they chose. The Great Bear did a loop and had no floor. You sat in a seat and hung your legs down. I cheated and closed my eyes the whole time. I figured out halfway through that it wasn’t bad, because it didn’t hurt. It was easier than swim practice. With your eyes closed, the only way you noticed loops was the shift in gravity. The Storm Runner was crazy. It shot you out like a gun, went almost vertically up then right back down, and did two corkscrew turns. All I could hear at the second before the drop was Tom saying, “Iona, don’t open your eyes!” The Lightning Racers had two coasters that raced and was probably my favorite. Tom and I went in one and Rachel, Jackie, and Chelsea in the other, and we waved to them whenever the coasters passed. We lost, and when we were pulling in, a little boy waiting in line said, “Aw, come on Thunder, you could’ve done better!” It was mildly found it hysterical. The Mighty Mouse made me think we were going to be thrown out on the tight, sharp turns, and I flew up on every bump because the lap bar didn't go down far enough. The Claw was fun because I made Rachel sit across from me and we made faces at each other the whole time, whenever our stomachs jumped. On the pirate ship, a little boy in front of us said the high parts made his “tummy tickle” which, again, made us crack up. We got lunch at a buffet set up for the group.

Then it started pouring, and we lost the girls in the rain. I dragged Tom out to run in it and, as a result, got him soaking wet. We went into a few stores, and he left to go to the bathroom. We met up with everyone and walked out to the bus. I was kind of sad that I didn’t get a chance to buy an oboe Christmas ornament we’d seen the day before and was saying so when he pulled one out of his pocket and handed it to me. Apparently he’d snuck out to the store when he said he’d gone to the bathroom and bought it for me. Amazing, right?

That night at the hotel Tom came up to hang with Rachel, Jackie, and I. We watched A Cinderella Story and he laughed so hard when one of the evil stepsisters said “fish” that he almost fell off the bed. Then Jackie thought the commercial that said ‘Boatloads of Fun’ said ‘Buttloads of Fun’ so we wound up with ‘Buttloads of Fish’.

After curfew when Tom went downstairs, the four of us rambled about nothing in the dark then finally fell asleep.

We woke up terrified because Jackie’s phone alarm was way louder than we expected. She and Rachel showered, then we watched a prom queen episode of Made until we realized we were late for breakfast. Rachel’s dad fooled us into thinking we were the first ones there when, in fact, we had been moved to another room. We went in and I sat down with Tom, who had saved me a seat again. We watched a dance-off between Dan Cameron, Dave Van Fleet, Geoff McCallum, and Matt Bellemare vs. Caitlin Caffery and three other girls. The guys did it to 25 or 6 to 4 and the girls to a Britney Spears compilation remix. The guys walked into the crowd to give autographs halfway through the song, which was mildly entertaining, and they ended up winning.

Then we left to go to chocolate world. That meant a 3D show where we got wet (Tom and I realized we should have listened to Douglas Adams and brought towels), then free chocolate, then a ride through the chocolate making process with giant singing cows, then free chocolate, then shopping. I bought chocolate for the people at home, including a giant box of Kissables, which I adore. Then we got pizza for lunch and left.

On the way home everyone was exhausted, especially Tom, who called a butterfly a butterfry and found it hilarious. It was a lot like that the whole ride home, being stupid with everybody and playing BS with Nick and Jess.

We stopped at a Wendy’s for dinner, then we were back at the school and the trip was over. It was so much fun, three amazing days with the bandos being free and having fun. I wish it had been a longer trip, but hey. There's always next year.

--Joyce