Lucie has died and gone to heaven.

yes, my friends, I am afraid that my blog life here has ended, and so I must bid you all a fond farewell. Of course, I didn't really die, or I wouldn't be writing this, now would I? That was just my only idea as to how to get y'all to click on my blog post and read it. Maybe you did, and maybe you didn't. If you're reading this, you did; if not, you didn't. Moving on. I hope that I haven't completely lost everyone's attention because...

I saw my blog life HERE has ended...I am still blogging, but I decided that Lucie Land, the blog of my 12 and 13-year-old self is too unorganized and has lost its luster for me, at least. However, I appreciate all my followers and I would love more than anything to see you at my new blog, Begin the Beguine.  

Again, I would love to see you again, hear from you and and reconnect!!! So come on over to my new home(page) and say 'hey!' :)

Ronald Reagan Centennial Youth Close Up Conference 2011

Close-Up Ronald Reagan Youth Conference

(Capitol Hill)

(a fraction of awesome people)

Last week was one of the best weeks of my life. You may remember that I mentioned in an earlier post that I had won a trip to Washington D.C. with Close-Up for the Ronald Reagan Youth Leadership Conference?

Well, that trip came and went last week and it was one of the best experiences of my life.



I just want to highlight the trip on a brief(ish) blog post because otherwise, I won't remember...what happened, and it will fade into a blurry daze.

In the post above, there's a video put together by one of the people participating. It perfectly sums up the week, so if you don't want to take the time to read the post, scroll up and at least watch the video. :)

After a three-hour flight on Sunday, I arrived at the Baltimore/Washington Airport and went to the beautiful Renaissance Capitol View hotel. This was specially funded, so we really got the best of the best. I settled into my room, met my roommate, met the staff and also some of the other people....and my week began full force

A typical day involved waking up at any time from 6-7:30 am. Got ready as fast as possible in order to avoid starvation and made it down to breakfast an hour or so later. after breakfast, we all loaded onto the buses for an incredible ride to the first stop on our itinerary, usually a seminar or monument. After a couple of these, we were handed vouchers or lunch money and all dispersed in the interest of satisfying our hunger.

After lunch, more monuments and seminars and then on to dinner. After dinner, the 102 of us split up into groups of 25 or so and did "workshops." Then the day was over and we had some time to play around...or wander around in an exhausted daze...

Oh the Places We Went and the Things We Did

-The White House (outside)
-The Jefferson Memorial
-Capitol Hill
-The Lincoln Memorial
-The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
-The Iwo Jima Memorial
-Teddy Roosevelt Island
-St. John's Church
-The British Embassy
-The Renwick Gallery
-Chinatown (or Chinablock, more like it)
-The National Archives
-The National Museum of Natural History
-Georgetown University

-Saw Dana Perino (former White House Press Secretary) at the Smithsonian portrait gallery
-Listened to to a panel of speakers at the National Archives, one of whom was Anita McBride. This -was filmed live on C-Span...complete with shots of us kids!
-Saw the Original Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
-Heard Susan Paige (she is sometimes on NPR) in a panel discussion at the Carnegie Institute.
-Crossed the Potomac multiple times (on a bridge, in a bus)
-Went to the Heritage Foundation and listened to Ed Meese, former Attorney General.
-At Capitol Hill, Illinois Representative Aaron Schock spoke to us. The youngest senator, 27 or 28. He was on June's edition of Men's Health. Moving on.
-Ate a finale breakfast at the National Press Club.




I met so many amazing people, saw so many things and learned so much. It was something I'll never, ever forget.

If you made it thus far, go and buy yourself a candy bar! ;

NookColor

Guess what? Your resident cheapskate has bought herself a NookColor. That was $250 that I am most certainly glad that I spent.

I had originally wanted to get an iTouch 4th generation off of ebay, but honestly, it's not the greatest fit for me. There was never any gadget as perfect for me as this "reader's tablet." It wasn't as expensive as an iPad, there is a limited marketplace of Android apps. In fact, the general construction is much like a droid. But then, it has digital access to Barnes and Noble books. Which is wonderful. ;)

So, now that I have this Kindle/small iPad, I need to know of some things to read. I didn't have much time for free reading over the school year, and didn't even look into much of a summer reading list.

Any ideas? Please comment and tell me!

I'm using a highlighter on my life

It's been over four months since my last post. Do you know why? I have been incredibly busy for this, the last semester of my sophomore year. I've wanted to post, but everytime I got enough time to, I didn't have the energy. But now, I've finished exactly one half of my highschool career and have an oppressive amount of free time. (Just kidding. My mother is very, very excited to have me back in the laundry room, and I'll find fun things to do.)

I saw the movie Tangled. I loved it. Review coming soon.

School: As I said before, I have officially finished my sophomore year of highschool. It was hectic, and I had so much more work than last year, but this break is all the more precious. I had my first real taste of finals, lab practicals, difficult assignments, weekly books and essays, Latin, speech and debate, and Philosophy. It was a valuable experience, and I loved it. But a brain can only take so much. Summer, hot at dry as it is in south Texas, is a welcome experience.

The Royal Wedding: I went over to a friend's house on the spur of the moment, and thouroughly enjoyed waking up at 4:15 am. The whole thing was definitely worth it. I love the whole British penchant for hats, and Kate's dress was the most stunning thing I'll ever see. I hope that the style comes into vogue...it was all about the feminine silouette, not the nakedness, you know? And I know from personal experience...wearing a strapless dress for a special occasion is really not a lot of fun. ;)

Earlier in the semester, I won a contest...the prize was an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C. for a conference over the summer. I can hardly wait, as I've never been to the north-eastern U.S. I'm pretty sure that it will a highlight of the summer. It will also be the first time I fly alone, but I think I can handle it. Please pray, though, that going through the security checkpoint will be un-eventful. :/

There are a couple of other events that happened just after Christmas break that I'll post about later on...I need a chance to steal pictures off of my mom's memory card!

Voyage of the Dawn Treader: a review, bullet-point style

I am on Christmas break...so I'm not even going to try to forming paragraph-type thoughts. You get what you get and you don't get upset.

I'm basically tagging anyone who I have perceived has some interest in Narnia, however remote. So that status you liked or that comment you made or that conversation you heard me have or had with me on the subject is getting you a tag on this note. ;)

Anyway, here is a review (bullet-point style) of VoDT:

- The 1940's sequences were wonderful. Of course, I love all things 40's. There were some pretty funny moments involving Edmund and Eustace here, too. Georgie Henley's acting wasn't at its peak (she was definitely better later on), but the other two were great. And there's the first of two appearances by Susan in this sequence, so I am happy. :) <--that's a happy face.

-I loved the sequence when they actually go to Narnia through the portrait...very inventive.

-The Dawn Treader--the actual ship--was GORGEOUS. I would like to sail on it, please.

-I was sort of disappointed that Lucy didn't get any other costume than the pants and shirt she borrowed from Caspian...but Isis Mussenden (costume designer, obviously) did a great job making it look good on her.

-About the music: all I can say is that I miss Harry Gregson-Williams. David Arnold was a great composer, don't get me wrong--but I missed the original feeling the Gregson-Williams gave to the film. There were parts of the VoDT soundtrack that reminded me a little too much of Charlotte's Web. However, I was glad to hear that Arnold recycled the original Narnia theme (duuum, dum dum duuuum, dum dum dum dum dum duuum!) quite a bit. :)

-The new actors were stellar; they picked the perfect person for Eustace and Drinian was pretty awesome...in a Yul Brynner, kill-joy sort of way.

-Narnia-movie-haters-yet-fans will be relieved to know that, true to the book, Peter and Susan don't actually go back to Narnia.

-They did add a couple of themes to the plot, nothing too huge though. A green mist was the biggest one, laying seven swords was the other. If you think about the latter, though, it's not too far-fetched from the book, since it also involves seven things. They also 'added' on the theme of temptation, if you can call it an addition. There's plenty of temptation in the book.

-The special effects were good...for the most part. I think they changed the shape of Aslan's face and the color of Reepicheep's eyes, so I wasn't happy about that, but otherwise, they did a great job animating Coriakin's garden and house and all the various interesting creatures. All the creatures except....

-The Sea Serpent. They overdid it, IMHO. The battle with it was very intense, and the creature itself was gruesome and uuuuugly. If you see it in 3D, that is going to be a VERY frightening part (what a magnificent understatement that was....)

-Ramandu makes no appearance, but his daughter does. She is blue, and I thought she was a little dizzy. But then that might just be because all girls hate her anyway...

-Caspian was good...of course. Improved: hair, accent (especially accent...British now) and overall acting (according to some. I personally didn't have much of a problem with him in the first movie but that's just me. I guess ;).

-I'm not going to commit the grave offense of giving away a spoiler (in writing, anyway. I have told a couple people..) but a very important scene from the end of the book was left in...a scene you'd never have thought the secular world would cut in. One of the perks of having Michael Apted direct, maybe?

-I had to stick the word "epic" in here somewhere. Might as well be at the end as a summary. ;) Here: EPIC!

I have talked to a number of people and read some reviews ..if you didn't like the other two (I understand how a purist wouldn't like PC, I can't process how anyone could find sonething wrong with LWW), don't rule out Voyage of the Dawn Treader. People who hated the other two (especially PC) are saying that this one is a vast improvement. Go see it. It's so different from the other two that chances are, you'll surprise yourself and love it.

K, shutting up now.

It's always a good idea to finish

I finally finished my 1940's suit!!!! I finished it just in time for our annual Nutcracker outing downtown. Of course, my mother brought along the camera. So here is a picture.
The suit is from Simplicity 3688. I didn't really touch it over the summer, and when I started to work on it again...I found that I had lost the directions, as well as the pattern for the lining.
But winging it wasn't so bad...