Time Wasters!

Today, on my day off, I cleaned a little! I changed the litter boxes and threw out all the trash and I swept up my kitchen floor. Mostly, though, I did my best to organize my books. They are everywhere in my house! Stacked atop and below my bedside table, piled up in the bathroom, crammed into my over-stuffed bookshelves, covering counter tops, mountains practically blocking the view to my television, heaped into a pyramid on my piano, amassed on couches and chairs, and basically encroaching on my personal space. Considering that I both read constantly and aspire to be a writer, you could say that I am both surrounded by them and consumed by them.... and I couldn't care less! In fact, I love it. I once got a fortune cookie that said "Book lovers never go to bed alone", a quote I find quite accurate.

Anyway, in today's skirmish with literature, I came across a fat, worn, paperback Spanish/English (Español-Inglés!) dictionary, and I recognized it immediately. In our senior year of high school, my friend gave it to me, and I made great use of it! My friend and I were both in the same 7th hour class, and we did almost nothing the whole year.. lots of free time! And sure enough, opening the front cover, there are two names-- my friend's, and under hers (strangely in my handwriting)...

JOAQUIN TRAVESURAS!

¡Ai, Jaoquin! Hadn't thought of him in years. Joaquin was my friend's "pen-pal"... me! Over the school year, I wrote my friend probably a dozen letters from Joaquin in Spanish, which I would then translate back into English for her. Defeating the purpose of writing them in Spanish, I know, but I had a blast using the dictionary. I actually learned a fair bit of Spanish that way! But most fun of all was Joaquin. Morally ambiguous at best, he had a very shady and vague history that he occasionally alluded to in his letters... in fact, when choosing his name, I decided on "Travesuras" because in Spanish, it means something like "mischief" or "antics", which I thought fit him pretty well. Joaquin had a brother in prison, and oh, Joaquin missed him! He was pretty family-oriented anyway.. I believe he was 30-something and still lived with his parents. But he was quite interesting and fascinated about life here in the U.S.

Yeah, I know I'm weird. But it was a lot of fun, and I actually still have some of the letters my friend wrote back to Joaquin!


Anyway, that got me started thinking about other somewhat foolish, impractical things I do/have done that people might think are pretty stupid... there's a lot! So many, in fact, that it would take more than one blog. But!

Top of the list would probably be learning fictional languages-- Elvish especially. True, I'm nowhere near as fluent as I used to be, I still remember some... and my love for Elvish is apparent, just by looking around my home:

And, like any obsessed pet owner, I have things I always say to Otis and my cats, and even songs that I sing! Like what, you ask? Well! To this tune:

I wrote a song for Sheldon! My vocal, whiny cat.

Sheldon, Sheldon, you are a handsome cat!
Yes, I said it. What do you think about that?
You are a good-looking kitty-
You are cool and nice and witty!
But by my word, you sound absurd
When you cry like a little brat!


So, maybe writing Joaquin Travesuras letters was a complete and utter waste of time, or maybe it was good fictional writing experience for me. Learning Elvish may have been stupid and pointless, but I love it enough that I will enjoy it for the rest of my life. And singing to my cats? Well, okay, that's kind of embarrassing. But don't tell me you've never sung to your pet!

Aren't the dumb, pointless things you do also some of the funnest?


Happy Labor Day Weekend, guys! Woohoo!

Sarah