Logophilia

I love words. They fascinate me. The etymology, the layers of meaning, the often ridiculous spellings of our crazy English language. Yes, I'll admit to being one of those people who reads the dictionary for fun. And to having the complete 20-volume OED (that's the Oxford English Dictionary for those of you less nerdy than me) on my wish list of books to someday own.



Until that floor-to-ceiling library of mine (a la Beauty and the Beast) makes its appearance, I'll have to content myself with other sources of word entertainment besides the OED. For example, this delightful list of some of English's funniest words:
100 Funniest Words in the English Language

I think I need to work "collywobbles" and "snollygoster" into my presentation tomorrow night.

What are your favorite words?

Freshman Memories

In a moment of reminiscence, I pulled out the old stories I wrote about college life. Wow. We had quite the times. One story in particular made me laugh out loud, centering around my freshman roommate Sara, a smuggled toaster, a hapless bagel, and a protesting fire alarm. Maybe this is only funny to me, but I thought I'd share anyway. =)

_____________________________________

It was a peaceful evening of procrastination, with all of us doing our best to forget about the homework we had to do. Sara decided to do something to calm the hunger pains she was experiencing and proceeded to draw her forbidden toaster out of its hiding place. Soon she had a bagel snugly lodged in the appliance and it was happily being seared.

Unbeknownst to the luckless bagel, however, it was not destined for a mere moment of warmth, for it soon began to feel the effects of overexposure to extreme heat and discovered its delicate white flesh turning not tan, but charcoal. An acute sense of pain also accompanied this event, until the bagel was finally rescued from its torment and soothed with an excess of butter spread over its burning wounds.

The fire alarm, however, was next to be injured, with the smoke caused by the bagel’s overexposure offending the alarm’s delicate sensitivity to the acrid odor. In decided protestation of this invasion of the fresh air, the fire alarm felt called upon to let out its loud warning cry of “Beeeeep, beeeeep…” This in turn caused all of us to start in wonder and worry and a scramble ensued as we tried to determine the problem.

Sara was soon able to get the alarm calmed and quiet again, and all was well. The ironic thing however, was that we had been without a smoke alarm for the entire first semester. My mom had taken a picture of me on my bed the first day we moved in, and said bed happened to be positioned directly in front of the smoke alarm’s residence, though it was empty at the time. This disturbed Mom every time she looked at it, and she finally called our R.D. to inform her of the delinquent alarm. While we were on Christmas break, a replacement was found to fill the space, and my mom’s anxieties were relieved. However, it also made this entire scenario with the burnt bagel possible.

As Jennifer so eloquently stated it, “We never had this problem before they put the smoke alarm in!” At least the fire department wasn’t called, and we escaped having to pay the $500 fine that a visit from them would have been!

Friends

Last night I drove up to Salem for a mini-reunion with five of my friends from college. It had been years since I'd seen any of them, but we picked up right where we left off. I can't remember the last time I've laughed so much or so hard!

We started with dinner at the BEST Mexican restaurant in Salem--La Hacienda Real. We used to go there frequently during college--and Jimmy always finagled as many free tortillas out of the waitresses as he could. Last night Crystal actually assisted (it was more of a bribe to get him to come bowling with us) in obtaining an entire extra container of tortillas for Jimmy to take home with his leftovers.





After dinner, we headed to the bowling alley for a couple games of cosmic bowling. There were a few serious bowlers in the group, but I think most of us were more into catching up than focusing on our game. Needless to say, there were many gutter balls and not-so-great scores, but we had fun. :)





That's the whole gang, plus the addition of two boyfriends: Jason, Jimmy, me, Amy, Dan (Amy's boyfriend), Kari, Stephen (Kari's boyfriend), and Crystal.

We used to have such fun with game nights and such during college, and they're the kind of friends that will always be there, no matter how many years between visits. I love that! It would be so fun to get together more often, and I hope we do, but the reality is that we all have different lives now. We'll have a blast anytime we get together, but we still need friends who are part of our regular lives, part of the places we go and things we do every day.

Alyssa and I were talking yesterday about the difficulty of developing close friendships these days. In college, it's relatively easy since you're surrounded by hundreds of like-minded, similarly-aged people with whom you spend the majority of your time. After college, it becomes more difficult. Our circles narrow, and it takes more effort to get to know others and develop those friendships. I've started getting to know some people at church, but we see each other once a week, and everyone is in a different situation--most are married, have children, etc. Then there's the work circle. I have great friends at work, but they don't necessarily share the same beliefs and perspectives on life as I do.

So where does one find those close friends who will be there for life, with whom you can share your heart and thoughts and find encouragement and support? I think it comes down to priorities--making time to get to know others. Go out for coffee or dessert, read and discuss a book by a shared favorite author, invite them over for games. The whole single-person-trying-to-befriend-a-married-person problem does complicate things. We singles don't want to impose on their family life. But we need friends with a different perspective. And don't you married people remember what it was like to be single?

I don't know what the exact answer is to developing friendships in life-after-college, but I have a few wonderful ladies in mind that I'm going to ask for a coffee date and make it a priority to get to know them better. I have a feeling they could be kindred spirits...

What's your strategy for developing friendships?

2008 in Review

I know this is completely late. I started this post weeks ago and finally decided maybe I should finish it. =) My friend Christine gave me a great idea for a blog post about my favorite things of 2008. And since she herself stole the idea from one of her friends, I'm hoping she won't mind if I follow suit as well! =) So, in no particular order...these are a few of my favorite 2008 things:

1. Facebook
It's been so much fun to reconnect with old friends and stay in touch with new ones on Facebook. It's an interesting concept, this whole friends-in-the-computer thing, but when it helps me stay in touch with friends I might otherwise never see, just due to geography and the busyness of life, I've got to love it. I even got my mom on Facebook this year, so there must be something to it. =)

2. Twitter
I resisted the pressure to Twitter for quite awhile, but finally succumbed, much to Alyssa's delight. It's been a great way to connect with people in the literary world. I even acquired an exciting new author thanks to the power of Twitter!

3. Girl's Nights Out at the Movies
In the midst of crazy busy life, sometimes a girl just needs a night out with friends. MiA, Savannah, Allie, and I decided such nights called for a visit to the movie theater, and we had many fun evenings watching chick flicks, clinging to each other in sheer terror at the one scary movie Savannah persuaded us to attend, and shamelessly joining the tween audience to see High School Musical 3.

4. A New Church
Last January I finally settled in at a new home church, Grace Community Fellowship. For whatever reason, being single makes it even harder to find a church that fits, where I can get to know people and get plugged in and find ways to serve. Grace is full of warm, friendly, authentic people and it's been so encouraging to start connecting with a small group, with our single women's group, playing with the worship team on occasion, and helping out in nursery.

5. The Blogosphere
Where do I begin? My Google reader currently keeps me up to date on 74 blogs--the adventures of friends, news of the literary world, thoughts on faith, and other topics of interest. I've (obviously) rejoined the blogging world myself with my sporadic posts here. Someday I'll have time to blog more frequently and actually explore the thoughts that run around in my head instead of just shoving them into the "think about that later" corner.

6. Local Vineyard Tour
In August my cousin Tiffany and her now-fiance Billy came to visit from Florida, and it was the perfect opportunity to tour the local wineries here in the valley. Even though I've lived in Eugene for 3 years now, it was something I had never done! King Estates was definitely our favorite, and the restaurant they have there is incredible. The scenery, the wine, the cheese--it was the perfect thing to do on a lovely summer day.

7. Sisters Weekend in McCall, Idaho
For 4th of July, I flew out to Idaho to spend the weekend with my little sis and our "adopted" sister/friend Julie. We watched fireworks over Payette Lake, stayed up entirely too late watching movies and gabbing, did plenty of giggling, and went canoeing. Julie and Carissa volunteered to paddle the whole time--they just didn’t want me to capsize the boat by trying to switch places with them--so I sat like a princess in my royal barge and enjoy the peaceful water, blue sky, and sunshine. One of these days, we're all going to live close enough together to do sister weekends whenever the mood strikes, but until then, I'll keep racking up those frequent flier miles.

8. Mother-Daughter Trip to Vegas
That same being-spread-out-across-the-country problem has prompted Mom to institute an annual mother-daughter trip, which is something we all need to refresh and rejuvenate. Our first annual trip took us to Vegas, where we walked miles and miles checking out all the hotels and their various attractions, each successfully lost a dollar in the slot machines, and visited M&M World--four floors full of all things M&M, a 3-D movie about the M&Ms, and an opportunity to pose with your favorite M&M character—how much more fun does it get?

9. Spring Break in Victoria
In March my friend/roommate Alyssa and I drove up to Victoria, British Columbia, taking the ferry across from Port Angeles. Now, I love Canada, but driving there is always quite the adventure, what with the flashing yellow lights, the road construction flaggers with a death wish, and the random traffic signs. Thankfully, we didn’t have to drive much since we rented an apartment right in downtown Victoria for the week. We had high tea at a quaint little tea room, did some shopping in downtown Victoria, and explored Craigdarroch Castle, a Victorian-era mansion. Sydney-by-the-Sea, 45-minutes from Victoria and heralded as one of the world’s book towns (thus a major motivating factor in our decision to go to Victoria), completely disappointed us, though, and we didn’t come home with a trunk full of books as intended. Such a tragedy!

10. Holy Fools
I work with nearly 60 authors who published 19 new books last year, all of them with their own great qualities. But the one that impacted me the most was Holy Fools (Tyndale) by Matt Woodley. It's a call to live outright for Christ, even to the point of "folly," and is at once inspiring and challenging. I know I'm guilty of censoring my actions and words based on what is "acceptable" to those I'm around, but really, as Christians, our only concern should be to follow Christ wherever He leads.

11. Christmas Gift from My Sister
I just have to say that my sister is the most creative, thoughtful gift-giver. Knowing all too well how ridiculously busy I am and how cooking for myself is the last thing I want to do after a long day, she put together all sorts of individual-portion, ready-to-eat meals for my freezer. I'm trying to figure out a way for the food-fairy to visit my freezer on a regular basis now, so she may not have realized what she was getting herself into with this great gift idea.

12. Give Me Your Eyes
More than any song this year, "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath has kind of become "my" song. Alyssa and I have been talking about the possibility of opening orphan homes in India and just taking the time to care about the suffering and hopeless in the world. While I have a long way to go in the journey to get out of myself and focus more on others, this song is a reminder to make seeing things through God's eyes my prayer and my purpose.

13. Ivy
After the child my sister and I had been sponsoring for the last few years withdrew from the program, I decided to sponsor a child of my own through Compassion International this year. Ivy lives in the Philippines with her mother (a housewife), her father (a farmer), and two younger siblings. I've just started getting to know her and her family through correspondence with Ivy's mother, but I can already tell it's going to be one of those relationships of mutual blessing. Just the other day I received a letter from Ivy's mother telling me how Ivy prays all the time and loves to sing and listen to Bible stories, thanks to the Compassion program. I hope one day I can meet this wonderful family!

And on that note, I'm going to end my 2008 in review and force myself back into 2009 where I have a paper waiting to be written before I gallivant off to Salem tonight for a reunion with old college friends.

Leave me a comment with your favorite experience of 2008!

What's Going to Happen to Books?

With the increasingly tough times book publishers are facing, there's been much speculation about the future of the book industry. Will it survive? Will we go completely electronic? Do authors who aren't celebrities stand any chance of getting great writing published?

It's hard to say exactly what will happen with book publishing in 2009, but Anne Jackson had an intriguing post about it the other day. Check it out! http://www.flowerdust.net/2009/01/05/the-death-of-publishing-as-we-know-it-who-holds-the-smoking-gun/

As a literary agent, one of my biggest frustrations comes from those authors who are absolutely convinced that their not-so-unique, not-so-well-written, limited-audience idea simply MUST be published because it will change the lives of the five people who actually buy the book. I understand that your life story is incredibly meaningful to you and I admire your passion--but that doesn't mean it's worth an entire book.

Take Anne Jackson's advice. Think about your readers. Before you decide that your book needs to be added to the 821 books published daily, be open to honest feedback about your idea. Often, an article or blog post really is sufficient.