2013

12-31-13

I know many people do New Year's Resolutions, and I know I have things I want to improve or maintain in my life, but that's not really what I'm thinking about. I've been thinking about where I've been on past New Year's and where I've been this year.

When I was little, we'd each get to pick out a movie to watch and cuddle in our sleeping bags on the living room floor. We'd watch in the order of youngest to adult, and I remember being excited when I finally made it to midnight without falling asleep now. (Now it's no big thing, but then it was.)

When 2006 turned into 2007, I was in India. I think it was a Thursday night. I had preached a sermon on the 2300-day prophecy earlier that evening, ate New Year's cake in the lobby of the hotel, and fell asleep listening to the very loud fireworks going off up and down the street.

When 2008 turned into 2009, I was on Ebeye. I think it was a Saturday night. I was in the principal's apartment with Ryan and Emily, playing Starcraft and then stuffing couch cushions back into their covers. The covers had just come out of our dryer.

When 2010 turned into 2011, I was at Timber Ridge Camp for staff retreat. It was a Friday night, and so we welcomed the Sabbath and the new year with a footwashing and a communion service. It was also the evening that Charlie and Trish told me about Greg wanting me to go work at Wakonda.

Tonight, I'm in my solitary apartment in Michigan. Yeah, my landlord lives downstairs, but I think he's out with his brother and sister-in-law. I had Chism family pizza and some ice cream, I watched some classic Doctor Who (I finished the 1st Doctor story, The Aztecs) and I read and I'm now writing this blog before doing more watching and reading and etc. I came back early because of the grown-up things I'm doing later this week and because of the weather, and so I'm glad I don't have to drive through the snow, but I'm also a little melancholy because I'm not with my family. If I had been, I still would have been sleeping on the floor. :)

Anyway, I do pray that I grow and change for the better in 2014. Here's to the past and here's to the future.

You May Have Seen This Already...

but I don't care because it is beautiful. Also, now I'm going to talk more about it.

This is the 1886 copy of Tennyson's poems that I purchased last Thursday at Dawn Treader Book Shop, which is basically a book nerd's dream come true for finding secondhand (or thirdhand or whatever) books. Seriously, the first time I stepped in there I was afraid I was going to get lost. The shop is actually a bit bigger on the inside. Well, longer than it looks, and so it's deceptively smaller on the outside. Books everywhere, filling the shelves, lining the floor, that sort of thing. Sort of how I imagine Flourish and Blotts to look like.

Anyway, it was my second time in the shop, and this book spoke to me. Almost literally. It said, "Ashlee, if you do not buy me, I will disappear forever. I only cost $9.50 and I am gorgeous." And it is. The cover's a bit dirty and the edges a bit worn, but it was probably fantastic when it was first published. Inside there's pictures of Tennyson and the characters from his poems, and it has everything except what was published in the last six years of Tennyson's life because this was published six years before he died.

This book used to be in a library somewhere (specifically, the "Mt. Hope Library"), because it's still got its pocket and card attached to the backflap. Also, the title of the library neatly written in impeccable cursive above said pocket. Doesn't look like anyone ever checked the book out, though. (Boy, I know how that feels.)

Still, now it's got a new home with me, where, since my shelves aren't the best at present, I'm storing it on its spine because that's better than storing it on its fore-edge. My books deserve the best, especially now that I feel all guilty due to the preservation classes I've been taking.

P.S. I also purchased a copy of the Faerie Queene, which is exciting, but it's a more recently published paperback copy, which isn't as exciting as an 1886 copy of Tennyson. It just isn't.