So Ellie (shirerain) was asking me to tell her about Jess. She had no idea what she was getting into… I thin kI reigned myself in pretty well, all considering!

Of course, I, being the generous friend that I am, had to do a search around the internet looking for the most yummiest pictures that I could find of him and I found this one. Now normally, I would link it and download it and make it my baby, but the site is down and I can’t find it anywhere else! And I have to have it!! Which picture is it? It appears to be one of him at an awards function of some kind, and he’s wearing glasses… Glasses… I have a weakness for guys in glasses… Seriously, I’m drooling so much that my keyboard is going to short circuit. You may be able to find a thumbprint by going to http://www.dogpile.com, typing in Milo Ventimiglia and hitting the IMAGES button…. Top right-hand corner… That’s where I found it.

I need it. I want it.

I was browsing through my copy of A Room With A View looking for quotes for my story. I love the book. And the movie. But the book is so under-appreciated and just filled with little gems. Like these:

George had turned at the sound of her arrival. For a moment, he contemplated her, as one who had fallen out of heaven. He saw radiant joy in her face, he saw the flowers beat against her dress in blue waves. The bushes above them closed. He stepped quickly forward and kissed her.

George’s father, Mr. Emerson to Lucy: “But you do,” he went on, not waiting for contradiction. “You love the boy body and soul, plainly, directly, as he loves you, and no other word expresses it. You won’t marry the other man for his sake.”

And: “You must marry, or your life will be wasted. You have gone too far to retreat. I have no time for the tenderness, and the comradeship, and the poetry, and the things that really matter, and for which you marry. I know that, with George, you will find them, and that you love him. Then be his wife. He is already a part of you. Though you fly to Greece, and never see him again, or forget his very name, George will work in your thought till you die. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets were right: love is eternal.”

He carried her to the window, so that she, too, saw all the view. They sank upon their knees, invisible to the road, they hoped, and began to whisper one another’s names. Ah! it was worth while; it was the great joy they had expected, and countless little joys of which they had never dreamt. They were silent.

I can’t believe that I just did that!

I’ve been in a writing funk for weeks. Haven’t been able to write anything. I’ve been attempting working on LNB and, as usual, it’s been picky and stubborn. Paris didn’t like the way I was taking things, too much peace and teenage novel happiness, so I’ve had to brainstorm for new ideas… I’m starting to get a little worried about it. I have only about four months to get it all done. Once rotations start, I doubt I’ll ever get a chance to work on it again. I’m actually getting “update now!” reviews… new experience that one!

So, after reading bjorks_defender‘s lovely story, Stupid Reasons, I was inspired. One-parters! I love fluffy one-parters, and I haven’t written any since my first, What A Wonderful World. That was over a year ago.

I dug out my sketch that I had done after A Family Matter aired. Too angsty. Couldn’t think of how I could make it happy. And I needed happy.

And last night, an idea came to me, so I went for it…

Never mind that it hints at things that I should never ever write about. Oh, it’s clean as a whistle, no swearing, no nudity (described at least) but this is me, folks, the girl who blushes at everything…

I actually wrote a bedroom scene! You can read it here: One of the Moments

AHHHH!!! I really wish I could find a little rock to hide under right now.

Marissa, this story was for you. A couple of years ago, my best friend and I did this story-writing thing, where we put ourselves as the main character with the “loves of our lives.” I tried writing one with you and Jess, and him comforting you about all the stupid college application stuff, silly and pointless fic to make you laugh, but it didn’t go anywhere… So, instead you get this. I hope you at least enjoy it. 🙂

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Oh, and yes, in case, you were wondering, I am back from Guatemala. I’ve been back a week and a half now (sheepish grin). Beautiful place, I loved it so much. Still can’t speak a lick of Spanish, but other than that, it was great. I’m uploading some of my pictures, so I can gush about it all soon!

But I’m horribly behind on commenting to my friends… Sorry if I’ve neglected you!

Well, I’m on day three of my adventures already. I can’t say that time has flown, because it’s been interesting and difficult figuring my way around a town that speaks very little English. Time seems to creep by when you are just staring blankly at a person, wondering what they were saying. And I speak extremely little Spanish so far… Really, I thought I had picked up a little bit more from listening to Liz and stuff, but no. Oh no. It truly is a foreign language. More on my “pronunication problems” later.

Yesterday, Tina and I tracked down the church, which was just a couple of blocks from our house. The buildings here are very low–it’s rare to have a building besides a cathedral that’s more than a story high–and all interconnected. The only way to tell that one building has ended is by the different color of paint, and the LDS chapel was no different–we almost walked right past it. Church was interesting. Tina was able to pick out enough to have an idea about what the lessons were about, but I was pretty clueless. I understood “familia” and “Cristo” and not much else. But the people were warm and friendly and gave us some tips on how to survive and where to go for things, which was desperately needed.

We spent much of the afternoon walking around the city, trying to figure out where things were and (in my case) trying to figure out how to use my VISA in the ATM. I looked online and learned that I need to call and get a PIN setup (which I can do collect, if I can ever find a phone), but luckily I did bring cash with me, so I am able to survive. Sometimes I do wish I was a little more sauvy on the ways of the money world. Most people would have known that you had to call in…

Right now, we are in the middle of Lent, which is a huge (grande… ooh, be impressed) thing down here. Antigua has some of the oldest churches in Guatemala, so every week, people make big processions down from Guatemala City to the cathedral La Mercier (which is about four blocks from my house). We passed them walking when we drove in Saturday night… pitch-black-dark and just a throng of people in the middle of the road, everybody just honks and puts on blinkers to warn the other drivers. The drivers here are quite terrifying, they don’t care who’s trying to cross the street, but I’m getting used to it.

Anyway, the procession arrived in Antigua and walked down the streets to the cathedral. They had massive figurines of Christ and the Virgin Mary that they carried. The men and many little boys, all dressed in purple, carried Christ and the women (I think they were in white) carried Mary. several priests walked in front waving incense, which instantly gave me a migraine, and they had a band too. A lot of noise, a lot of people, a lot of excitement, and every week is supposed to get bigger. We’ll be in Tikel next weekend and Lake Atilan the week after, so we might miss most of the excitement.

Started classes today in the afternoon. My school opens up into a garden where we have classes in the sunshine, which is very nice. In the shade with the breeze, it is very comfortable, although the streets can get very hot, they are very narrow and trap the heat and dust. But the nights are really cool. No bugs, really, besides the big moths that seem determined to haunt me wherever I go. No mosiquitos, so i shouldn’t get Malaria. Hope, hope.

I have two private teachers, one who focuses more on the conversational aspect and the other on the grammatical. Today I learned how to introduce myself (Me llamo Julia (pronounced who-le-a… I keep introducing myself as Julio, since that’s what all of my friends have called me), and tell where I’m from (Yo soy de Estados Unidos, vivo en Salt Lake City), how many siblings I have (tengo dos hermanas), that I’m a medical student (soy estudiente de medicina) etc. But I was able to follow dinner conversation a little easier tonight. Not much, but I feel like I know at least ten fold more than I did when I arrived. But my pronounciation… Yeah, I think I’m driving my teachers nuts. I keep adding in additional syllables and sounds and they give me the funniest looks. They’ll be begging for raises by the end of these three weeks.

I have about five pages of notes that I took and at least two hours of homework to do tonight. For the most part it’s good, although I feel pathetically slow at picking up on pronounciation. I feel pretty stupid right now when I can{t remember what they had said to me just minutes before. But I hope to make lots of progress. It’s going to be hard work, that’s for sure. Medical school I think will be a piece of cake, compared to this.

Tomorrow, we visit a hospital in a nearby town, San Jose in the mornings. We’ll be visiting a different clinic/hospital every day this week and by the three week, we’ll make a decision on where we want to be placed and work there. Hopefully we can be of some assistance, although our Spanish is so sparce.

My host family is great! Very nice and pleasant. The father knows English and eats dinner with us and teaches us new phrases. Tonight was the first time that I felt like I understood a couple of phrases. There are two other students staying there, a mother and daughter. They’ve been here a week and started out knowing more Spanish, so they seem really knowledgeable. I’m rather envious. I have my own room, a large room that looks like it was supposed to host two people who’d share a bed, because it is by far the biggest. Tina is rather jealous and visits frequently. Once we got here and the stress of flying and being constantly late was over (long story, tell you when I get home, suffice to say that she would fit in well down here when her concepts on time and lateness… her late arrivals to class for tests is just the way she is, I guess. And it drove me nuts), she’s been a fun companion.

Haven’t gotten cat-called yet, (darn) like we thought we would, but we did have a guy meow at us tonight. Still trying to figure out what he could have possibly meant by that. No boyfriends to bring home yet, although our tour guide Emilio was pretty cute. Hmmm.

The people are nice, but mostly just leave us alone. It really is a pleasant city. Tomorrow, I’m hopíng to track down some postcards and get them mailed off and I’m looking forward to going to the market and finding cool Guatemala stuff to bring back.

Funniest thing yet (besides the meowing guy, which still sends me into hysterics): Tina “The roosters here are broken!” after they started crowing at around 11 at night for no apparent reason.

Well, I’ve written a novel now, and I’d better go. I’ll post more soon.