Over-Larking- final draft

There are two stories I would like to tell about my little sister Lark. The first one occurred some unknown date during a lightning storm when my eleven old sister was at her friend Shana’s house across the street and apparently had jar of change with her. I imagine them both sitting by the window and looking out at the lighting. Then according to Lark she decided to run back to our house carrying the jar of metal coins, drops the jar, trips over it, and while doing so avoids a lightning bolt that struck, according to lark, about two to three feet in front of her. And, if she hadn’t of tripped over the jar she, would, have, been, struck, by, lightning.
This Lark's luck in a crispy black nutshell.
It was very unfortunate that no one but Lark herself was there to witness the event and to see vital details such as how far away the lightning was. This detail was only as viable as the faculties of Lark’s scared twelve year old mind could have grasped. When Lark told this story for the first time in front of me and my other younger siblings using her eleven year old voice there was a long pause. To older siblings who needed to keep control over the amount of cool stories your younger siblings had in comparison to you this was too cool for Lark and I could feel the ugliness of jealousy almost take away the chance of proving if this story really happened, to anyone. Lightning was like natures' Britney Spears and saying you tripped over something to avoid getting hit by it was like saying you punched Britney Spears in the face by accident. I was the oldest in the car at the time so I had to take the initiative. "Wait, what happened?" I asked coyly. She told it again. Then I asked again how far away the lightning was and she told the same thing every time. What reason do I have not to believe her? Lark is now sixteen and our family still asks about it like it just happened. This story is almost Lark cliché to me now and would be cliché if it wasn’t for the fact that it happened to her, if that makes any sense. It will though. It expresses so well how lucky Lark is for being so unlucky. The meaning of this paradox for Lark may not be as platonic and slap-sticky as tripping over something to avoid getting struck by lightning but more so to the fact that perhaps sometimes bad things do happen to her but it almost seems like she would want that to happen to her, anyway. So Lark goes out into this lightning storm filled world, trips over her jar of coins and strikes unlucky, gold.
The second story happened on Sunday July,4 of 2010 during a military band concert at Wolf Trap. Our family was peacefully enjoying a bombastic and patriotic performance when Lark was bitten by a tick. Then Lark asked my mom what the chances are of getting Lyme disease were when my older brother replied, “Like 1 in 100,000.” Then my mom said, “You’ll be fine Lark.” I remembered this scene exactly and specifically remember chuckling inside and then feeling some sort of consternation, a brightly curious like concern when my brother said that specific chance for Lark to actually overcome and my mom denying that chance altogether. I remembered this moment just in case it actually did happened, and it did. In remembrance of the one in 100,000 chance my brother blurted out after Lark’s bite I looked up what the chances really were of Lark getting Lyme disease last summer and according to the American Lyme Disease Association there was about a 1 in 10,000 chance in Northern Virginia of getting Lyme disease in July of 2008 which was probably around the same chance in 2010. When one compares the sheer numbers of one in 10,000 to one in 100,000 it just looks like an extra zero. And as the summer turned to Fall the dominoes of Lark’s disease fell into place as she got a rash, started feeling aches in her joints, felt tired and found it difficult to concentrate in school. She asked to be homeschooled for the rest of the year in order to keep from falling further behind and to study in a more comfortable environment.
For me and my family it’s still kind of hard to believe ourselves just how bad Lark's luck is in not only considering these two stories but her whole life. Even more unbelievable is how little it seemed to affect her. Lark came into this world with a heart murmur and for weeks when she was an infant my parents worried about her chances of survival. Today, her heart not only works but she has at least twenty something swimming and soccer trophies in her room. Before her grades started to slip in Larks bout with Lyme disease she was the first person in our family to get straight A's in high-school. Even now during her homeschooling she continues to get good grades, mostly A’s and some B’s and even though she’s been somewhat secluded from the social environment of high school she’s continued to keep close with her friends.
Along with her Lyme disease Lark has scoliosis as well as what doctors say to be eighty-one allergies. She has a changing diet regimen that she needs to keep track of (but constantly asks my mom about) in order to confuse her body into accepting those allergies. Her allergies include: gluten, eggs, dairy, soy, all vegetables in the nightshade family such as potatoes and tomatoes, anything that's artificially flavored, and water. Yes, water. She gets rashes after staying in water for over thirty minutes to include mist and her own sweat. It was torture for her to wear a back brace for her scoliosis during field hockey practice in the summer of 09’. It captured all the sweat and smeared it against her skin and would feel a constant itching during practice on top of the physical exertion. When she took off the brace her skin was raw and red. But when you think of someone who would have allergies and scoliosis and a heart murmur she does not look like the ungainly type to tell her story in front people, raising awareness for such and such allergy foundation. To me Lark’s un-luck almost seems like a point of interest, a claim sake to set her apart from her friends something I could even imagine her being jealous of if someone with more allergies than her nonchalantly came along and took her title.
From my experience Lark has shown little outward signs of complaining or denial to her conditions. On the surface of things it seems like my family has had a harder time accepting Lark’s conditions than she has. There have been discussions about whether Lark was merely overreacting to certain sensations and only thought she had those allergies. This to our family was not out of the range for consideration in that Lark does at times overreact. My sister once got the idea to play dead in front of Lark and scream "gotcha!" while she was looking over her body. When Lark got home she started hyperventilating. Everyone thought she was faking until about half an hour had passed. Again being the oldest I took the initiative to call the ambulance. My parents ran home from their walk to find Lark lying calmly underneath three firemen.
Lark’s helplessness can be overwhelming even in less serious situations. Along with her overreacting Lark also tends to over-laugh. She is over-laughing because no one is laughing as hard as she is at the thing she is laughing about. The reasons vary from her friend saying butter-knife in a funny way to…most of the times I have no idea what she’s laughing about. So at least I sit there wondering if this is some sort of a ploy to receive attention in a family of six children at the dinner table or if she really is this helpless.
In our family we’re all proud in our own ways. I believe in every family there is a certain social real estate were every sibling must stake and develop their own personality and talents. A family with six children can be difficult in a way because you don’t want to be just an extension of your brother or sister.
In the best of times it might seem Lark would want these misfortunes to stand out but I know from personal experience that she is far from wanting them. I came home one evening last fall when while Lark was in the midst of her new homeschooling experience. Her major allergies were present, and her Lyme disease medication was in full swing. I was in the living room and saw on her computer a few lines in what must have been a journal entry for someone who doesn’t normally keep a journal. Only glancing over a few lines, it was clear that even she didn’t know what was going on or if she was overreacting. This was something that hit me hard. As I looked further it was not only us as a family but her own friends that didn’t understand either, not even the doctors fully understood, no one understood. For a sixteen year not being around your friends, not being able to eat what they eat, not knowing what was going, and feeling alienated.
As the spring came things changed. It was then the doctors declared that she had eighty-one allergies and put an impossible number on something I already couldn’t comprehend. It was also then that she was placed on a on rotary diet to try and confuse her body into accepting some of her old allergies. The things I for sure thought she could eat on a day to day basis like apples were something she could only eat next Tuesday. At this time after a lot of medicine and drowsy after affects Lark’s Lyme disease was loosing its grip. She was more energetic now and started inviting more friends over. And during the spring something surprising happened, Lark was able to eat her first and worst allergic food, eggs without reacting. It was an oddly spring like allergy to lose.
I feel as Lark's adjusted to her new situation that I've gone through the same process too. Among other things it was a process of learning that Lark's habits of overreacting had nothing to do with her misfortunes. It was almost a blessing in that I didn't even have to consider if Lark was faking for attention after a certain point albeit that was when Lark was in really bad shape. In our family we each have our own personality our own talents our own bad habits but Lark is undeniably unlucky to me. It's like she has proven through her added trials the truth of her own legend of the lightning. Lark still over-laughs and still overreacts but it has been a pleasure to see things get better for her and for us to at-least know that she could never over-smile.

Piece from another perspective- untitled

What does he do all day down there. I know he has school but I don't know any schoolwork that takes all day to do, every day. He usually has nothing to say except when he has a question about what was already said like ten seconds ago at the dinner table. Mike what's taking you so long. Don't want to get out of bed, got thirty seconds left. I bet I can beat them before Mike gets here.
Chantilly is going to be awesome. Being an assistant coach and subbing. Subbing the same year Lark and Mary Alice are at Chantilly. I'll be able to keep track of their friends. Hopefully Lark won't have another Omar. It was fun telling him off for her though. Oh my gosh, I'll be teaching Mary Alice's Sunday school too. This is crazy. It'll be better than the last six months though. What is that sound? Is Ben jumping in his room? I think he needs to start running again. "Uuhh, come, on!" This is the last playoff game too. Mike would have probably been able to see that play coming. I've gotten better though. ten seconds, time out. Score, I did do it. Ramen sounds good right now. "Mary Alice, can you make me some Ramen?"
"Sure."
"Yes, you will make me some"
"I said okay!"
"Well then do it."
"Okay."
Subbing her will be soo crazy. Too lazy. I wonder when Ben is actually skipping or if he actually doesn't have class. It was last....year when he talked to me before today. Where is Mike? My clothes don't smell. Don't need a shower. It's weird the stronger I get the less sweaty I get. But I bet I'll be disguising after today. 100 push ups, 100 pull ups, 100 sit ups, 100 body squats in fifteen minutes. Running will be a pain too. I can't run. Let's see Alex is the only person I know who could out-lift me and outrun me in every way this year. Hopefully I get myself way past him before the 2 a-days start. Then I'll own everyone. I'll be in the middle as far as speed goes. I hate running. I might be the strongest coach this year or even the strongest on the team though.
It's weird seeing James again. It's not weird weird but weird feeling like 2 years is nothing. I knew James would pretty much be the same. James got the Mormon Missionary drawl though. He has the Utah R. He had that before his mission though. I think Ben would've made a good missionary. I would be afraid to be his companion though. I bet he would've opened up though after you knew him. He probably would've gone through multiple companions. People just leaving afraid of the silence. I wouldn't want to be his companion. He would've been a good missionary though. I don't feel ready enough. I don't think you can ever be fully prepared for a mission. Just hang out with James, be a good Mormon. I'll have something to do now too, Sub high school, coach football. This is going to be a good rest of the year. It just feels a little too quiet though
"What's up Isaac"
"Hey, Mike"
"What's up Mary Alice"
"Oww don't hit me Mary Alice"
"Here's your ramen Isaac"
"Thank you."

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

While reading Joan Didions The Year of Magical Thinking I got the impression that a lot of this was part of something Didion would have written anyway regardless of it being put into a cohesive book form. The narrative follows Didion in her struggling with the grief with the sudden loss of her husband John Gregory Dunne and the near fatal accident that caused her daughter Quintana brain damage and constant hospitalization throughout the narrative. In the beginning of the narrative Didion explains on page 7 "I developed a sense that meaning itself was resident in the rhythms of words, of sentences, of paragraphs, a technique for withholding whatever it was I thought or believed behind an increasingly impenetrable polish. The way I write is who I am or have become...This is a case which I need more than the words to find the meaning. This is the case in which I need whatever it is I think or believe to be penetrable if only for myself." This narrative seemed so personal for Didion that the book seemed like it was writing herself at times. Where writing the book literally allowed her to get past her own beliefs as she was writing it in order to see objectively what she was thinking for the first time. An example of this occurred on page 56 when Didion was talking about a passage from a book written by a Doctor who studied the affects of grief had on his patients. The first part of the passage she included from this doctor's studies goes "we help the patient to review the circumstances of death- how it occurred, the patients reaction to the news, and to viewing the body etc." The passage from this doctor went on to describe how he let's the patient free their inner emotions to discover the actual relationship this person had with the deceased. Then Didion goes on and becomes upset and asks questions to this unknown doctor in her writing "where you with me 'and the one who died' at Punchbowl in Honolulu four months before it happened?..." She goes on further in quoting what the doctor said in the passage "I don't need to 'Review the circumstances of the death' I was there. I didn't 'get the news' I didn't 'view' the body. I was there." Then she turns on herself "I catch myself, I stop. I realize that I am directing irrational anger toward the entirely unknown Dr. Volkan in Charlottesville" This was a moment when Didion was actually in the process of writing this book when she caught herself directing 'irrational' anger toward an unknown doctor. All writers go through a process where you need to start off writing something to get the book started somewhere whether they include it or not but Didion actually had to write the book itself in order to find out what she herself was going to say next. This moment came after how many months of writing before she could include what she actually had to say about it within the book. It's also important to realize that this Doctor she was reading had to sit down and write what she was reading just like Didion sat down to write this book so it was almost like she was arguing with him directly about her husband or at least with what this doctor had written.
It was obvious from this that even when writing the book that she was still not over John's death. But there were many times when Didion in a more removed tone talked about her denial of John's death in that even during the autopsy to try and find out how he died she had the idea that they were trying to find out somehow if he was even dead at all. An interesting part of the book was that she was so caught up in denial of the present that she treated the past like it was still happening. She talked about ways of trying to go over her memories with John as if she had the power to change the past in order to prevent the future. She treated the past like it was still alive like she treated the written passage from the unknown doctor as if he was talking about her directly. Didion used the term 'vortex' to describe these boughts of grief in her struggles to disassociate her memories with John from the present. Didion's writing was very intrinsic like a vortex in the way she weaved the present with the past together. I could get a clear picture of how Didion was thinking through the rhythms of her writing and how she allowed me to see her 'irrationality' even while she was writing it to get at what she really wanted to say about her experience through the experience of writing.

YOTR- continued

Sometimes Hollywood and the music industry can be crazy and superstitious too. Look at these pop culture events that occurred in the years of the rabbit:

Who Framed Roger Rabbit- 1987 fire rabbit

Hop- 2011: The Easter like movie with the CGI rabbit that came out this year made by the same people who did last year's Despicable Me.

Harvey- almost 1951: The movie featuring everyone's favorite man-sized imaginary rabbit came out just several months before the year of the rabbit in October 1950. It's not a bad strategy to release a movie that's ahead of the curve.
Also notice the ones at the end of 1951 and 2011 they are exactly sixty years apart. Both 2011 and 1951 are metal rabbit years. A year with the same element and same animal only occur every sixty years. The thirty year pop culture cycle is only a part of a cycle twice its size. I don't think that it's a coincidence that this decade seems more like the 50s so far than the 80s.

The Matrix- 1999 Earth rabbit: Morpheous says before offering Neo the red and blue pills "I imagine that right now, you're feeling a bit like Alice. Hmm? Tumbling down the rabbit hole?"

Transformers 3- 2011 metal rabbit: Sam's girlfriend gives him a random gift in the beginning of the movie, a stuffed rabbit. This rabbit appeared for no other reason than for Michael Bay to give himself a little luck in that hopefully this movie will have done better than his last Transformer abomination. It was number one in theaters for several weeks so the charm probably didn't hurt. The actor who plays Sam's new girlfriend in this movie was also born in 1987, the year of the rabbit as opposed to Megan Fox who was born in 1986, the year of the tiger.

Lady Gaga's Born This Way- 2011: The concept of birth and new beginnings is intrinsically associated with a rabbit's constant urge for baby making.

The year of the rabbit- 20^^

This last entry I want to get some other coincidences off my chest that've occurred to me this year and the past two years or so. I'll start with the middle of 2009 in setting up a sort of trend I've experienced in the time before I even started to pay attention to the zodiac. I like to draw and write poetry in my spare time. I try to let my subconscious go and just see how much I can free it up when drawing or writing. I rarely draw animals and the only animal I think I drew in mid 2009 was an ox, 09' was the year of the ox. This occurred to me when looking back through my stack when I saw that I had drawn a rabbit picture in mid 2010, the year of the tiger, the year before the rabbit. In my poetry workshop in the fall of 09 I had written a poem that sort of referenced Hobbes the tiger from Calvin and Hobbes and again it was the only poem I remember writing that year with any sort of animal in it. My interest in the zodiac surfaced around late summer of 2010 and all of these things occurred before I started to follow it. So now that I know about the zodiac It's kind of weird continuing my poetry and drawing. It's almost like I've caught up with my subconscious mind.
But as life goes on in the year of the rabbit this has been the first full year I've had an opportunity to be aware of the zodiac in. This year lots of events have occurred to me to coincide in a really bazaar and ominous way with the year of the rabbit. The motto of the rabbit is "I retreat" it's tendencies are to be in close circles with it's friends and this tendency of the person is also the tendency of the year. I had started a very crazy job with AB Couriers at the end of the tiger year. I was trapped in having to deliver medical supplies during thunder-snow and had gotten in 2 accidents during the 3 week span of this job. Ultimately and oddly I decided to returned to my job as a manager at the custard store as the year of the tiger turned to the rabbit. Another thing occurred at the turn of the year as well as I was signing up for classes last winter for the spring. While signing up I was not at all thinking about the year of the rabbit. My class on British Romantic era literature and Shakespeare started out in the year of the Tiger. My Shakespeare class began with Titus Andronicus and Coriolanus. These plays are both bloodthirsty. Tigers are associated with protective mothering as well and both plays featured bloodthirsty mothers. They just bled ferocious Greek tigerdom to me, unmistakable and totally unforeseeable. The year of the Rabbit didn't kick in until February I believe when in my Shakespeare class we started reading very pastoral plays like King Cymbeline and Winter's Tale while reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Adam Bede in my British lit class. The pastoralness was almost overwhelming and there were so many connections between the characters and situations of what we were reading in both classes the point where I wondered if my professors planned their classes in tandem. It was strange the theme of milk maids in both of these stories as I was working at a Frozen custard store while reading them, custard also includes eggs a very eastery pastoral type thing. As the Shakespeare class moved further into spring the plays moved from more tragedy to tragicomedies and my final two works to read in both the English Lit class and Shakespeare were Lord Jim and the Tempest. Both of these plays were out of place with the previous pastoral themes. The theme of the sea and constructing order in the chaos of the wilderness was prevalent in both pieces.
The theme of loss of innocence and judgment and justice was prevalent in the plays and literature we were reading too. Trials of more or less innocent or naive people had occurred in Adam Bede, Lord Jim, A winter's tale, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Strange enough this year I was for the first time called to do jury duty. The trial was a woman who was renting rooms to about 25 illegal aliens at one point to include their children in a sort of McMansion. This large house was amongst a neighborhood of small single story homes that she couldn't have paid the mortgage for without the rent money from the illegal residents. Lots of people and children in a big house, sounds kind of rabbity. Earlier last year when I caught on to this zodiac cycle I had written something that tried to capture what I thought would be the spirit of the rabbit year. It was about a young man in his late twenties who moved into a very nice somewhat large house alone. He had no children and his sisters came over with their children after they had a spat with their husbands yet this man was so lonely that it was impossible for him to see beyond himself and the future he lost with potentially his own family. I couldn't help but think of that story during and after the trial. The trail of the illegal aliens was almost like the antithesis to my story.
I could go on with more coincidences from last year but I just feel that there is a definite cycle that's occurring and wanted to publicize it somehow. Trust me I'm not consciously striving to be a psychopath and bend my life to the zodiac, all of these things I've noticed after the fact they've happened to me. What's next always interests me and 2012 the year of the water dragon and all the sort of dragon references and associations intrigue me. This and last year's elements were metal and next starts a two year water cycle and the water dragon sounds ominous to me and not unlike an animal and element that perhaps the Chinese and the Mayans would choose to usher in the end of the world.

some new & old Chine-Z. coincidences

Until a few days ago I thought I read everything I wanted to know about the zodiac from, well the Wikipedia page I've been coming back to over and over. When my interest in it started I kind of dipped in and out of the page learning little by little until I pretty much knew the whole page by heart so it surprised me to learn something so vital that was there the whole time. There are four pillars to the zodiac in placing a person’s personality type and destiny. One pillar is the day that person is born, another the year, another the time, and lastly the month. Something interesting I didn't know until now is that that the person's time of birth and the animal associated with that predicts things associated with this persons adulthood and children, the animal associated with the year tells about this persons ancestry and how the world will view this person, the month is associated with the persons childhood and parents, and I couldn't find out what the last pillar was. It was interesting to find out because I know my grandma was born in the year of the tiger and that is my birth year as well. I know my month is the rooster and that was my dad's birth year. It's come to a point where I think I want to buy a scholarly book on the origins of the zodiac. When comparing the outcomes of the zodiac including the day, time, month, and year a person was born and the five elements that cycle every two years it gives you a much wider range than the Greek zodiac. I don't necessarily care for the "accuracy" of zodiac outcomes, that's what initially drew me in, but it's the symmetry and balance of this system and why and how someone would want to make a system in the first place that could predict the outcomes of a year or someone's life or personality. The Zodiac also fits right in with other Taoist beliefs in Yin and Yang and Feng Shui as well.

I'd like to find out more about how it works but in the meantime it isn't to say that I haven't found my fare share of gratifyingly shallow coincidences. This year of the rabbit has seen some of the biggest zodiac coincidences that I was curious to find and mind that I made these connections myself: Osama Bin laden was born in the year of the rooster and his capturing occurred on his rival year this year of the rabbit. This year of the rabbit has been a strange one in that it has been more pastoral than previous years. My sister has been allergic to eggs since probably the sixth grade and has accrued over 81 food allergies since then and this year she was able to eat eggs her first and biggest allergy without having a reaction. Eggs! Very Eastery if you ask me. This year's element metal is supposed to be good for the dog's natural element metal and my sister is a dog. Prince William was also born in the year of the dog and married Catherine born in the year of the rooster. Both of these animal's the dog and the rooster's natural elements are metal and Catherine was born 30 years ago the rooster in the rival year to the rabbit.

When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

I've never read humorist type books before and I was a little surprise to laugh to myself at points in this book. I think "The Understudy" narrative in this book was the funniest and probably one of the only few bits of reading by a professional writer that I felt fully captivated by for the sake of humor. The narrative essay is an interesting form in that you think the piece is just going on and if it did just go on tangents it would be entertaining in itself but I was surprised to find pieces tie back in with the beginning again. The ending of the "The smoking Section" an extended narrative of sorts about quitting smoking did this trick in that you think it goes on a 2 page tangent about throwing trash away but winds up again for an instant in the very end on Sedaris talking about throwing away a cigarette and how he couldn't do it in that not he was afraid of the germs but afraid of the feeling he would get of holding one. I remember one of these tie backs felt a little forced and I always think if they are necessary to perhaps to provide a pithy punch line at the end like a cherry on top or to actually get his last final thought in.
The amount of detail Sedaris uses in his narratives is great. It was interesting to hear how he did it in his book in that he carried a note pad everywhere then transcribed it to his journal and mentioned basically that his narratives are like really cleaned up journal entries. His last journal was interesting in that he included short staccato notes like they were from a notepad and journal entries. It felt really personal and yet there was this playful type organization that was fun to think about in that the shorter more informal parts blended well with the longer more narrative like parts. The whole chapter revolved around his quitting smoking but he told it from a day to day basis and in two different countries. I was confused if the sole purpose of going to Japan was to quit smoking and for how long he stayed there but the whole chapter was great to get just how much of his life ran like a body around a spine of tangents, his daily actions, to replace smoking with something else. I'm also currently trying to kick a habit of my own and could relate to some of the pains.
It was also interesting to focus the title of this book about an instance in the last chapter. It makes me wonder if there was a theme running through the whole book. When I was done reading a chapter and there was a sort of reconnecting with the beginning it made me wonder if I could go back and reread it with the perspective brought on in the end. It also makes me wonder if he actually did try to tie the whole book around this theme of quitting and smoking and if the other stories he told would fall more into place with the perspective of his last narrative. Just being able to hold this book in my hands is kind of satisfying looking at the cover and title as symbols a large chunk of his lifetime that he was feeling could be worked through and looks nicely packaged and organized in a way, Knowing inside it contains a ginormous amount of note taking he did on a daily basis.