The blanket.

There's this blanket. It a very nice blanket, very soft and comfortable. It's the type of blanket that you could just wrap yourself up into and just feel safe. It's also well-worn, well-aged, showing distinct signs of history and use. There's also an aura of love, from the love the went into making it and the love from it's use.

The blanket is tattered. The blanket is coming apart. The blanket's fabric is fading and thinning. The blanket is irreplaceable.

For as long as I've know Annita, I've also known this blanket. Her grandmother, who has been passed for years, sewed it by hand. The quilt work is lovingly crafted, the squares not perfectly square so that you can tell an actual person chose the colors and layout instead of a machine; blues, purples, reds, greens, and brown, a nice earthy and cool pallette. The underside is covered with little zebras running through a field of blue flowers sprouting from black stems on a white background. You can see the stitching from the squares of the other side subtley adding texture to what could have been a monotonous design.

Annita loves this blanket, probably the most treasured of any possession. Of course, who wouldn't treasure this gift. As it gradually falls apart, so does it tug at her heart leaving her dreading the day that she might have to give up cuddling with it on her couch over a cup of hot chocolate. It tugs at mine, as well.

Well, we're not gonna let that blanket be lost, if we can help it, and we can always help it. If it ends up on a wall in one of those special "quilt frames," so be it. Until then, I'll continue to smile whenever I see Annita huddled up with that tattered old thing, for as long as she still can.

: )

Fair thee well, mine couch and desk...

'Tis indeed a sad day as I bid farewell to my couch and computer desk. With the impending move ahead, I came to the realization that there simply would not be enough room for all of our furniture. So, I volunteered my larger pieces for sacrifice. At first, I thought there was a possibility that my parents would take them for me, but they decided they either didn't have room in their house or didn't like the idea of used furniture. Not used by me, but by whoever used them before I found them in that Goodwill store long ago.

I won't go into the boring details of their eventual departure, but it was certainly bittersweet to see the first real furniture I've ever owned go away. There so many memories of naps, TV, movies and video games associated with the couch, especially, a lot of cups of chocolate tea. While I will miss it, there will be other couches. The desk didn't leave as much of a mark with me, but I hope it finds a good loving home. All desks deserve that.

On another note, I had breakfast with my family this morning. My nephew, son of my younger sister, was adorable. However, he was very energetic. I kind of feel sorry for my sister; she seems so tired, but she just loves him so much that it doesn't bother her. He can walk now, and that guy will take off if you don't watch him. He had his first birthday a couple of months ago. It's going to be really weird to not get to see him get bigger in the next year. I don't even know exactly when I'll get to see my family once we're over in North Carolina, let alone any of my friends from college. That's life, they say.

In closing, I like Gundam Seed. I like Macross. I can't wait for the movie "Serenity" based on the short lived tv series "Firefly" to hit theaters. What I want to see more than anything this summer is "Howl's Moving Castle," the newest animated film from Studio Ghibli and the awesome Hayao Miyazaki. If you enjoyed Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, then you know what "Moving Castle" will be like. It's very much what Disney studios should be striving and really let their imaginations go completely wild, taking the rest of us for a great ride.

Come on, ow can someone deny the humor of a six foot tall baby getting turned into a gerbil that is carried around by a fly. Yes, I'm a nerd. : )

Yoda...

How do you think Yoda looked when he was younger? Was he smooth-skinned, do you think? Perhaps he was already wrinkly and he was a lighter or darker shade of green. Or better yet, maybe he was taller. Consider how humans tend to get shorter as their skeletons compress over time. People over a hundred years old are practically a whole foot or more shorter than they were at their tallest. At least standing, assuming that they weren't able to maintain their best posture. Not everyone can. Or is that more of a matter of genetics, people born a long time ago just being shorter than people born now. Does that mean that Yoda may be 800 years old and three feet tall while those of his species just breaking One hundred are six feet tall, seven? Or would they only be toddlers then, preteens, not quite teenaged? Then would they be taller later? Or is it Mork and Mindy wherein Mork started off full grown and grew physically younger with age? Maybe Yoda was ten feet tall and has matured into his modest stature.

Of course, I'm certain there is some sort of reference available that goes into great detail regarding the nature of Yoda's species, though I'm reluctant to go looking for it. I don't mind not knowing. Guessing is much more fun. : )