Sick Day, Blessings, Literature, and Music!

Yeah, so my family is currently battling strep throat. Wahoo. For the past week, nothing has been wrong with me, but when I woke up today, I had a sore throat. The right side was sore, and when I looked at my throat in the mirror, the right side was bright red and very swollen.

As I have NO DESIRE WHATSOEVER to be sick, I have been tending to my throat since 7 AM. Homeopathic throat spray; gargling ginger oil, sage oil, and saltwater; drinking lots of hot Earl Grey tea (which has bergamot oil in it;) eating salted boiled peanuts; eating salty chicken broth; taking vitamins; taking collodial silver; avoiding singing; and drinking lots and lots of water. And guess what - it's working! I looked at my throat again a quarter-hour ago, and the swelling has gone down, and the redness is not quite so bad. (We have antibiotics, but I'm keeping them as an absolute last resort.) Hurray for natural healing and for paragraphs when I go into far too much detail, like this one.

Whether I get strep throat in the end or not...neither rain nor snow nor strep throat can stop me from writing! I have written a scene for the Homeland Trilogy when Helena, shortly after becoming a Senator, is blessed by a stranger and told she will be Queen within seven years. I'm actually quite proud of it, and though I probably won't use it in the books anywhere, I have it for reference. I was inspired by the scene in the Bible where Samuel anoints David as the future king of Israel. Here's a rough draft of the blessing I wrote:

May your words to Andor and to humanity never fall in vain.
May you always grow in dignity, integrity, wisdom, strength, and beauty.
May the earth reward your toil, the sky refresh your spirit, and the sea satisfy your wanderlust.
And when your earthly dance has ended
May Andor dance with you aloft in the stars.

Compared to "blessing poems" that I tried to write a long time ago, I don't think this one is too shabby. Maybe I'll mess with the word choice some, but I think I'm satisfied with the content.

Okay, enough bragging about my accomplishments today. I am currently reading Beowulf for my next English class (world literature) and I LOVE IT. It may end up replacing Odyssey as my favorite ancient work of literature.

I also had to read Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection, which is an ancient Sanskrit play. Can we say EMO? That play made me laugh when I shouldn't have. Did you know that Sanskrit plays were never tragedies? Because it didn't agree with their religion, they Did Not write tragedies. All Sanskrit plays have Happy Endings.

Another awesome classic read - Poetics by Aristotle, which is the earliest known literary criticism. I think all writers should get a chance to read it, for there was some very valuable advice in it.

I can't wait to read Hamlet - though I've read it before, so I can't wait to reread it. I prefer Shakespeare's poetry to his plays, but Hamlet is a pretty darn good read.

I found on the internet the original Elsie Dinsmore novels - my sister Hannah has some editions where the dialogue is updated to sound a bit more current, but I like the elevated, Austenian style of the originals. Now, don't get me wrong - I normally don't enjoy those books, simply because doe-eyed Elsie and her sadistic family irritate the living CRAP out of me. I usually end up on a soapbox when I read those books. But I read them for Horace, Elsie's father, who I think is one of the most fascinating characters ever made.

I now have all the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks! YAY! When I'm working on the Homeland Trilogy, I like to listen to them, combined with the Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, and National Treasure soundtracks. All mixed together, they have the perfect sound for my books. The next soundtracks I'd like to find are Titanic and Beauty and the Beast.

Off to gargle more saltwater, have a bowl of chicken broth, and work on a new scene for HT. Good day!

Quick Update

Because Sarah Jo will be moving out in a few days, and Hannah will be moving into my room...my room is a complete and utter mess. I should be cleaning it right now, but I just had to sit down for a minute. I have a rather grim announcement to make: The Purpose Crisis is over and it has taken Paramnesia with it. That project is now cancelled. Not only did the story have really no purpose, but I think I was also forcing the wrong characters into the wrong story. This is a little hard, because Gavin, Kelsey, and Mara are some of my favorite characters. So I'll just keep them in reserve until I have the right story for them. I'll be doing further character work on them, and I'll probably still use them in prompt responses. In the meantime, I am still on a roll with the Homeland Trilogy...

Gotta run.