Celebration of Nerd-dom

• My sister and I watch Crash Course videos (condensed video notes for various academic subjects) for fun. Even to celebrate a no homework Thanksgiving break.
• After studying for tests two weeks ahead of time and having no homework we find ourselves guilty studying for tests because good students study.
• We start studying for final exams a month ahead of time so that we may have scheduled procrastination. And . . . we still end up studying more than the general honors student.
• I turned in my final project four weeks early when other students didn’t even know there was a project assigned.
• I asked for my english assigned reading  early so that I could pre-read it over Thanksgiving break.
• My sister takes summer classes and test out of classes (because five AP classes during the school year isn’t enough!) 😉
• My history teacher threatens the class that if they didn’t stay focused he would give us another review packet to complete. With twenty minutes until the end of class I went up to his desk and asked if the extra review packet would help me study. He looked around at the other students and whispered to me that there was no “extra review packet” he had just made an empty threat. So what he used as punishment, I asked for.
• Last year my sister had four textbooks and she named them (Hugh, Otis, Kirk, and Fitz). This year she has no textbooks (okay, okay, maybe she took an AP Calculus textbook (with teacher permission). And bought an AP Psychology textbook just because we wanted it). Her  textbooks trained her well because she find herself walking down the hallway acting like she is carrying textbooks.
• This past summer my sister and I decided to stay up after our parents had went to bed. So while I read comicbooks into the wee hours of morning, she read her government textbook. A test out of government class textbook.
• In eighth grade, when it was time to hand in our Algebra I textbooks, my sister had me take pictures of her lovingly caressing her textbook. Wait, this isn’t a celebration of nerd-dom. This is just strange. This is just sad.

But what I do not know is if these “celebrations of nerd-dom” are signs of being a nerd or if they are what make me a nerd.

Note: We do have friends. No they are not imaginary or dead scientists or dead political figures.

Extra Note: Okay, okay. We have both. 🙂

 

Pixabay/user:ErikaWittlieb

Oak Tree Memories

As I sit here

in this chair

in my bedroom

(a place I rarely visit except for slumber)

I stare not only at my lap top screen

yet also at my dresser.

Full inside of it are T-shirts

and shorts

and carpi pants

But on top of it,

there lies memories.

When I was younger

I had a collection of Precious Moments figures

little angels and praying boys and dancing girls

I use to call my dresser and the collection my “breakable shelf”

for touch a ceramic figure and it might break.

Is the same true for memories?

Delicate little things

as fragile as a flower

yet as durable as an ancient oak tree

it all depends on the memory

Where are the keys?

When was his birthday?

Did I turn off the curling iron?

Fragile memories

These memories upon my dresser are not fragile memories

they are parts of what make me, me

and so they are oak trees, not fragile flowers.

***

The first oak tree memory

belongs to a sparkling flower necklace charm,

one that was found in playground wood chips

A treasure found where another had lost it

Another oak tree memory

a pair of music box clowns

given to my father

by a great-grandmother that I never met

yet because of her gift, I feel as though I have met her

for her memory lives on in these oak tree memories

More memories:

a shell found on a Lake Superior beach

a miniature elephant made from obsidian from Mexico

a rock from my yard

a key chain from my future college

some unworn superhero wrist bands

a framed picture of my first paycheck

some cutouts of superheroes from cereal boxes

a coffee cup of my grandma’s, who is currently living in Heaven

two angels given to me and my sister at my grandmother’s funeral

some Bible verses written in colorful pens

a Spider-man musical birthday card from last year

These eccentric oak tree memories

make up an eccentric me

and I hope to be

an oak tree

and not a fragile flower.

However, I must remember

that every an oak tree

starts from a teeny tiny, little acorn.

Maybe these oak tree memories

aren’t oak trees at all

maybe they are acorns

and I’m the oak tree.

 

Wonderment

My sister and I

were driving down the highway

and she pointed out the moon

and wow, what a moon

the rest of the way home

I couldn’t keep my eyes off of it

(don’t worry, Dad, I wasn’t driving)

Something so simple as the moon

then suddenly it grasps my attention

and holds it tight

captures it

until I don’t even think of leaving

The moon follows us,

night and day

seen and unseen

Always observing

sneaking a peak

from the dawn of man

until the last star winks out of the sky

The silent watcher in the heavens

Something that I see everyday

a commonplace in the daily grind

then somehow

it becomes the center of my attention

and I wish is the gaze upon its glory

It is in these few and fleeting moments

when wonderment is alive

and the rest of the world fades

Let us never take for granted

how wonderful our world

how wonderful God’s creation

truly is.

Go, wonder at the world.

 

Supermoon, September 28, 2015 (UTC), Osaka, Japan.

How Does Your Brain Work?

How does your brain work?

I ask, my dear friend.

What is tumbling around in that noggin of yours?

I laugh with my friend.

What makes you think that?

I wonder.

The random things you say,

the questions you ask.

But they aren’t random to you, are they?

This is how you understand the world.

It is your organization system

and you want all your facts and figures in order.

You want your people to line up with what is important to you.

Maybe this is why your memory is so good?

Maybe we shouldn’t be trying to ‘fix’ autism,

but understand you more.

There is nothing wrong with how you see things,

only different.

How does my brain work?

I ask myself.

What is tumbling around in that noggin of mine?

I laugh.

What makes me think that?

I wonder.

A Flag of Fire ~ A Rondeau

A flag of fire is flown in autumn

Last defiance before winter come

Yet they, too, fall; drifting in brevity

Sparks cascade around the match like tree

Visible music notes, the season’s anthem

 

Red, gold, orange worn in patriotism

For now, bare limbs are found seldom

Tunnels of fire, signs of autumn’s army

A flag of fire is flown in autumn

 

The foe in the sky, snowflakes not welcome

Fought not for power, but for freedom

A bloodless war, honored not for history

Flames dancing in the ever-chilling wind, carefree

Celebrating the antebellum

A flag of fire is flown in autumn

 

Yet Never Enough

My bookshelves are overflowing,

spilling over and novels stacked up upon themselves.

I just tore through a lovely lovely masterpiece When We Collided

Yesterday, I bought another comicbook to add to my collection

There are so many many words

and yet never enough.

No matter how beautifully strung together they cannot describe a person

or a memory to the fullest.

I can describe how I feel just a little happier when

I see all the spines of my beloved books

and knowing that parts of my soul are tucked in between their pages

kept safe for when I need to return to what shaped me.

I can describe how I almost cried on the second to last page

of being a hidden observer of Vivi and Jonah’s lives.

I can describe how I feel when my eyes flicker across the detail drawn page

and emotion driven speech bubbles that reflect concepts of

heroism, passion, sacrifice, humanity, responsibility.

And yet it will never be enough.

It is one of God’s greatest gifts to communicate,

some of us are better than others;

however

there are so many many words,

but there will never be enough.

Indulgy/TerrilnVA