EDIT (1/12/14): I have decided to go through my old posts to remove personal images. I will continue to share photos in current posts, but it makes sense to take them down after after everyone has seen them. I do not want my pictures still floating around the internet, but if you are someone I actually know who would like to see the images, message me on facebook.
Monday, July 9th:
Melissa, a local friend of mine, came that morning to meet Emily and Elizabeth. The previous winter, I invited a bunch of my friends to play mafia with me via email, and enjoyed watching my local and internet friends interact. When Melissa and I were hanging out at a party the following spring, she remarked that she would love to meet some of my internet friends in person. "Elizabeth is coming to visit me in July!" I said. "Maybe you can meet her then."
Since the visit wound up being a surprise (and included Emily as well!), I did not have the chance to plan anything with Melissa in advance. I called her Sunday afternoon and asked if she could come over at some point the following day. Despite the spontaneity, it worked in her schedule, and the four of us hung out for a while.
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Elizabeth, Emily, and I told Melissa about the kinds of things we had done so far during the visit, and she was suitably intrigued by the concept of role-play Apples to Apples. For a while, we talked about other things, such as Doctor Who and a goofy board game Elizabeth and Melissa liked. Then, when my sister joined us, we talked about how hilarious she had been the night before when portraying my ditzy teenage character.
Naturally, Melissa wanted to see that, so the five of us went up to my room and played Apples to Apples for a few minutes. Melissa's mom arrived to pick her up before we had played for long, but Melissa still got to see my sister's impersonation, and that was all that mattered.
Before they left, Melissa's mom took a group picture of the five of us sitting in a row on the steps to our house. It turned out very nicely, and I wish I could post it, but my sister wants neither her name nor her picture on my blog. I can't blame her, but it was a nice snapshot. *sighs*
When Melissa was gone, we went back upstairs and did more role-play Apples to Apples. Although the characters varied from time to time, we mostly role-played some from "Sherlock". Elizabeth and Emily have a running joke that Elizabeth is Sherlock and Emily is the arch nemesis, Moriarty. I am John Watson, the one who writes everything down. Throughout the game, I remained in character by occasionally pausing to journal funny quotes. At least, that was my excuse.
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"Llamas," said my sister in a solemn and pompous voice, putting her hands together thoughtfully. We giggled, and asked her to do it again. She repeated the performance numerous times, until she was laughing too hard to continue.
At the end of each game, we thought up sentences which included all the nouns we had between us. Here are two favorites:
On Halloween, llamas with warts got head lice and took a leaky boat over Niagara Falls to get to a barbershop.
The panda bears with chicken pox ate chicken nuggets at dance class while the teenage aliens sprayed them with water guns.
After hours of Apples to Apples, Elizabeth drove me and Emily to the local library. Since I am a geeky homeschooler, I had told them lots about the library five minutes away from my house, and wanted them to see it.
The library was in the throes of its summer reading program, so the windows in the children's area were covered in paper stars. Whenever a kid came to the library, they got to put a sticker on the star with their name on it. After Elizabeth and Emily explored the library with me, we stood in front of those windows, reading names and remarking on some of the stranger ones. Really, the things some parents name their children these days... o_o
We went outside and crossed the street, heading over to the playground. We climbed up into the equipment and each went down the slide, much to the bewilderment of the one child playing there. After that, we headed home. "Well!" Elizabeth said as we walked back through the door. "That was a successful trip to the library... We played on the playground!"
Once we were home, we watched more of that Sherlock episode we started Sunday afternoon. Thankfully, we had no more buffering issues, and were able to finish. With that done, we completed the therapy session which had been interrupted that morning when Melissa arrived.
After that, we sat around and talked about books, and then it was dinnertime. While we ate, we started telling stories about goofy things people have said or done during group games each of us had played in the past. One of the stories I told related to Balderdash, and I suggested that we play it after dinner.
For those of you who are not familiar with the game, here is an explanation of how you play: The dealer draws a card, and reads the unusual, little-known word to everyone. The other players make up a definition, and write it down on a slip of paper. The dealer writes down what the word really means, mixes up the papers, and reads each definition. The players guess which one is real. If you guess correctly, or if someone else guesses your definition, you earn points.
It is always fun to see what different people come up with, and to learn about the meanings of incredibly obscure and strange words. Who knew that 'miniate' meant 'to paint the town red', or 'griffonage' was illegible handwriting? This game is a wonderful way to expand your vocabulary.
Partway through the game of Balderdash, we saw how late it was getting and decided to walk the dog. It was dark and raining, so my sister thought she would go alone, but the three of us still wanted to go along. We had all sorts of amusing conversations on that walk, and it was a great deal of fun.
As we walked down the one gravel road in our neighborhood, a pine cone happened to fall at Elizabeth's feet. She picked him up and named him Greg. He was her companion for the rest of the walk, and she would occasionally update us on his thoughts.
Once, Elizabeth chided Emily for being rude to Greg. I don't even remember what Emily did, but Elizabeth insisted that she take the offense seriously. "Apologize to Greg the Pine Cone!"
Emily heaved a sigh. "I'm sorry, Greg. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
"Okay," Elizabeth said. "Now kiss and make up!"
"No!" cried Emily. "I'm not going to kiss a pine cone!"
Elizabeth huffed. "Now you've gone and hurt his feelings again!"
When we got back to the house, Elizabeth put her wet shoes in the car. She also put Greg in there, both to get him out of the way and ensure that she went home with him. Emily said that he would be lonely in there all by himself, but I pointed out that he had those shoes to keep him company.
Back inside, we finished our game of Balderdash. My sister went back to her room, and Emily, Elizabeth, and I got ready for bed. We did not, however, go to sleep. This was our last night together, so of course we had to stay awake and talk into the wee hours of the morning. Emily and I got Elizabeth to tell us about something she had vaguely alluded to earlier in the visit, and then Elizabeth and I wanted to get some kind of secret out of Emily. We did not know of any secrets to get, so we resorted to asking probing questions to get at least something out of her.
"...Are you really this straightforward?" Elizabeth sighed after much questioning, "or do you have any secrets?"
"I don't have any secrets," Emily said, "but I'm not as straight-forward as some people think I am. There! I've never confessed that before. That can be your secret."
We gave up, and Elizabeth started trying to get something out of me. Her goal was to get me to talk about boys. She is not boy crazy, but I am the polar opposite. It amuses Elizabeth to no end to know that I do not talk about guys, have not had a crush since the seventh grade, and am glad to be that way. Thus, she tried to get me to say girly things and act like a normal teenager.
When she saw that I had nothing to say about boys in general, she asked me multiple choice questions about what I find physically attractive in a guy. I literally had no opinion, and could not answer the questions. I felt somewhat guilty for giving such unsatisfactory answers, and tried to come up with something to say. Even then, my analytic, matter-of-fact statements were hardly what she wanted.
"I feel like we are the press," Elizabeth said of herself and Emily, who also contributed some questions. "We are interviewing you, the politician, about your stand on various issues."
That perfectly sums up the experience when you get me to talk about boys.
Tuesday, July 10th:
This was departure day. Despite how late we had stayed up the previous night, we still had to drag ourselves out of bed in the morning. They packed and got ready to go. We ate breakfast together, and then hung out in my room for just a little longer. Elizabeth and I had a staring contest, and I held out for a long time. Then, while trying to remember the name of a certain Doctor Who episode, I titled my head back and shut my eyes. The thought of that defeat still frustrates me.
Then, when it was really time to go, we used the self-timer on my camera to take a group picture. Then they left. It was hard to see them go, but we had a wonderful visit, and I was so thankful they came!
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In case any of you were wondering, Elizabeth did keep Greg the pine cone. In fact, she still has him, and even found a pine cone lady for him to marry.
To conclude this post (as if it were not already long enough), here are a few humorous quotes from the week:
“I feel even more devious as the day goes on!” -Elizabeth
“...And then we told him that if there was actually a walrus on the side of the road,
we would pull over and take pictures of it!” -Elizabeth
“I was going to say that swordfighting results in death,
but so can mushrooms.” -Emily
“My mom threatened to make successful use of plastic wrap
a requirement for high school graduation.” -Emily
“At least, if nothing else, we have contributed to her quote collection.” -Emily
Click here to read a blog post from Emily's perspective.
Click here to read a blog post from Elizabeth's perspective.
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