Medium Dawn Felagund of the Fountain

Here are about two-weeks worth of pictures that I've been meaning to post. Sadly, more often than not, I fail to download pictures off of our camera because--now that we have wireless Internet--I'm too lazy to set up on the desk and plug into the USB hub. Yikes.

The first set is the much-anticipated fish pictures. Our camera is not very good, so I will take more if I get the SeaLife camera for Christmas. (I say "if" because--since the SeaLife officially arrived a week-and-a-half ago--it has been hidden at my inlaws' house until the holidays. So it is offically a gift, and I am therefore not supposed to know about it!)

( Fish Pictures! )

Next are the pictures of our rink that I took on what might be the last time I skated there. This is only a selection of the best; I will post them all if the rink does in fact close, most likely.

( Putty Hill Skateland )

Finally, Bobby and I went hiking yesterday on the Ridge Trail at Patapsco Valley State Park. This is just a selection of the pictures that I took, those that I think will interest people the most. All of the pictures (and an account of the hike) can be found in the_nautilus here.

( Turtles, Toads, and Cicadas )

...the skating rink has been sold.

It has been sold to the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks to turn into a sports arena. And not the kind that will allow skating.

Poopy.

I had a lesson tonight, a special class focusing on stretching and holds. Next week, I have off for a week. The week after, I will skate on that gorgeous wooden floor for the last time.

How can I be sad over a stupid skating rink? I am, though. Cheesy as it sounds to say, freestyle rollerskating--and Ms. Jackie, my teacher--saved me in a lot of ways when I was younger and hopelessly geeky and hopelessly insecure. I am still hopelessly geeky, but I've grown a spine in the last fourteen years, and a lot of that had to do with Ms. Jackie slowly proving to me that I was not a worthless freak, after other teachers and peers had spent the prior five years convincing me that I was.

I was talking to Shannon tonight; she is one of my teammates, the best skater I know, and relatively close to me in age. As the two old married ladies, we tend to hang out and talk. We both remember a time before rollerblades when kids still skated and going to Skateland Putty Hill was such a treat. She admitted to having her first kiss right over in the corner. I remember being a Girl Scout for a year (just to go to horse camp, which ended up really sucking), and we would always have our parties at Skateland Putty Hill. I had secretly looked up to this eccentric girl in one of the other fifth grade classes, and she was in my troop, and we skated together during couples, holding a scrunchie between us instead of hands because she was afraid of looking gay. Silly? Yes. (And sadly homophobic too, though we were only ten at the time and certainly didn't know better.) And when I started freestyle skating, it was some distant dream to skate on the open wooden floor all by myself at Skateland Putty Hill. Well, I did that in June. If this was a novel, I'd say that was a fitting conclusion to my fourteen-year freestyle career.

I don't know what will become of us. I think that Ms. Jackie is trying to find us a new home, but skating rinks are closing and being torn down and replaced by sports arenas all the time now. There are very few places left to rollerskate. There are even fewer that offer freestyle programs. I could return to White Marsh...but no. That program soured me so much, and even though I know that the teacher is different and more motivated, it will never compare to Ms. Jackie's program. (And the floor is terrible. I've become spoiled.)

I'd intended to take off this autumn from skating because of dive training, but I'd hoped to go back eventually. Poopy.

I rather wish this was a movie. I could get all of the Freestyle Fanatics together, and though we are mostly mediocre skaters, we would have enough heart to put on a show so spectacular that people line up around the block to see it and raise enough money to buy back the skating rink from the county, and everything would end happily. Heck, while I'm living in Fantasyland, I might as well write myself doing a triple jump into the script.

Poopy.

On Thursday, Bobby and I drove up to Hershey to see Stars on Ice. It was awesome! I had lots of skating skill envy, to the tune of "Why can't my camel spins look like that?" and "Why can't my footwork be so awesomely cool?" But then I don't practice for hours everyday either. (Rats.)

It seems that spring has finally sprung in Maryland. (I say that now. Next week, we'll have a foot of snow! 'Tis Maryland....) Yesterday, Bobby and I both took off from work since we'd been out late the night before. We went hiking on the McKeldin trails again, basically the same hike as last week, but this time we knew where we were going and we chose trails that kept us alongside the water at all times. It was perfect hiking weather: in the low 80s F, with no humidity, and just a bit of a breeze. In a few weeks, we'll be getting into the 90s F with 100% humidity and "Code Red" air warnings...then hiking is out of the question; it's uncomfortable if not dangerous. So we eke what we can out of this time of perfect weather.

Today I went to the skating show of my old skating group, the group where I started skating fourteen years ago.

( Musings about Skating Show, Old Group, and My Surprising Lack of Nostalgia )

After talking with tarion_anarore about all the atrocious Olympic skating falls this year, I wasn't sure I wanted to go. You know, "Eeeew...he tore his Achilles! Oh my! She slammed right into the wall!"

I was feisty, though, so it's good that I did. And I had the practice of a lifetime. If I could practice like that every time I skate, I would be ten times better than I am.

( Skating Rambling...including how to do the proper arm position for jumps, if you've ever aspired to know this! )

In other skating news, the women's figure skating concludes tonight. Kimmie Meissner is in fifth! Fifth!! She goes to school ten minutes from where I grew up (if I lived a half-mile north, I would have gone to her high school) and so is a bit of a hometown hero. And she's sixteen years old. And does a triple axle. Eegads!

(It depresses me, though, to think that I've probably been skating longer than her...and I'm nowhere near as good. It really makes me wonder how things might be different if I'd picked ice skating.)

This is my second attempt at this post, after LJ ate the first. Really. I understand the need for maintenance, but can you not eat my long posts? Or even my sorta long ones?? I'm a paying customer, here!

Grrrr....

Anyway, the weekend was a busy one, as evidenced by the lack of posting as well as the time it took me to answer emails and comments. Besides making ice cream pies and watching the Stupor Bowl, I had lots to keep me busy.

( It's Gonna Snow! Dawn Got a New Shirt! )
( Comcast...ARGH! )
( Skating! )
( Today.... )

Before embarking upon the weekend recap, here's a meme that I gakked from juno_magic:

Describe me in one word - just one.

Comment to me, then post this entry to your Live Journal and see how many strange things people think about you.

What can I say? I find this one intriguing!

( And now for the weekend.... )

But as you can see, I am not.

( Randomness Involving Breakfast, Bees, and Ice Cream...A Day in the Life of the 'gund! )

Being as I have people on my flist much more knowledgeable about canon than I am, I wanted to pose a few Silmarillion questions.

The first came from a discussion aramel_calawen and I were having earlier, in Chapter 16 of AMC. (Although it has nothing to do with AMC.) I remember, a while back, being privy to a conversation about the nature of Eöl's and Aredhel's marriage.

According to someone in this conversation, Tolkien originally envisioned that Eöl forced Aredhel into marriage. Of course, this idea was eventually rejected.

Problem is, I don't know that I've ever seen this in HoMe, but I don't own but a few volumes and have precious little reading time to devote to studying old versions of The Silmarillion. Most of my HoMe reading occurs in bookstores, standing in the aisles, drooling over books I can't afford.

Has anyone ever heard of this idea? Or (even better!) have a source?

Second question: I have heard numerous people reference the fact that Finwë was not one of the original Elves from Cuivienen.

Intuitively, it has always seemed to me that he was, and I have never seen anything to dispute this. (Although, as most of you know, I am no canatic.) I asked this question over at the Henneth Annun Yahoo! list a few months ago, and I got a few responses from people who believed--as I did--that Finwë was Unbegotten.

Is there any evidence to the contrary? Because I have heard people speak quite definitively to their opinion that he was not, and they seemed certain of this canonically, not just as though it was a fanficcer's whim.

I realize that Olwë and Elwë were brothers, but so were Manwë and Melkor, and Irmo and Namo, but they were "brethren in the thought of Eru" (or something like that).

Any thoughts?

I started skating today!

( Skating )

Today is 9/11 and, while the people who lost their lives on this day four years ago and their families are in my thoughts today--as they are every day--it is a beautiful day, and I feel that I am finally moving on.

Not moving on to forget. Not moving on to ever grow less relentless in my support of those who work every day to see that 9/11 need never happen again. But the sun is shining, I started skating, the Ravens have their first game this evening, and it is my cousin's first marriage anniversary, and I will spend more time today smiling than crying.

Which, were I ever lost in an attack like 9/11, I would want for those who live on without me.