No worries, love! Have a safe trip and pack in as much fun as you can!
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Great! A wonderful thing to do!
However, I will have withdrawal symptoms. Even now, I want to answer a non-existent question. 
OBTW: Loved the pics of your adopted doggo. Our oldest daughter has one and he is hilarious.
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I was not expecting one this Friday as you would having a long drive to see your niece and also taking your Mum. Have a wonderful time and a safe journey (stretch you legs when you can)
Blessings to all your family 
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Enjoy eating pasties! 
Acquired taste. Locals love 'em. They are basically turnip pirogies.
I only got up to the Soo Locks. Mom and I enjoyed the lighthouses and Traverse Cityās tall ship Malabar. We saw the outside of the hotel where they filmed Somewhere in Time. Excellent movie, btw.
Take pics?
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Thank you! Odin was quite the Pug, and I love to share his silly pics and wonderful little soul. 
Iāll try to make up for it this Friday!
Thank you, @Moonbeam ! 
We did make a few stops both going and returning, and she did great for such long drives.
Hee hee, theyāre all over Michigan and very popular everywhere. I like all of it!
Ah, you were on Mackinac Island, then, if you saw the Grand Hotel. Itās very beautful, isnāt it?
Mom and I went on the ferry trip for the Soo Locks, as well. Itās fascinating.
Why, yes. Yes, I did. Mostly on film, still in the camera - so old school. 
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@Feathertip thatās good I do think it is part of trip stopping off at service stations, getting a coffee or something chilled, it has a different feel. The, pasties sound good I like a pasty here it as you might know is the traditional Cornish Pasty. I have nit had one for a while but I might get one now 
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Old school was a good school. Nothing wrong with holding on. 
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You got that right, sister. A good school and we learned a lot! 
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Weāre back! 
After missing last week due to (a very fun) weekend road trip, Fun Friday has returned. 
Letās get to it!
Here in the USA, the month of August is considered āBack to School monthā!
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Did you look forward to going back to school when you were a kid? (Getting new clothes, notebooks, other supplies, seeing people you hadnāt seen all summer?) Or did you dread losing the summer?
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What is/was your favorite subject in school?
The Odyssey movie, by Christopher Nolan, has grossed over $1 billion so far worldwide. 
That makes it a solid hit - despite mixed reviews.
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Have you seen the move? Are you planning to, or do you have no interest in it?
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Part B: Have you ever read (or had to read) The Odyssey for a class? What did you think of it? Boring, or did the teacher make it interesting?
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Do you have a āluckyā item, charm, or piece thatās maybe outside your practice?
Here are my answers (getting ahead of the curve this week so I donāt end up forgetting about it till next Tuesday like I usually do).
~1 Iāve had both reactions. There were definitely some more distant friends that I didnāt see or even talk with over the summer - everyone busy with their own stuff, so it was nice to see certain people again. Sometimes it was the opposite, people I did NOT miss and rolled my eyes if I found I was stuck in a class with them. But - I usually did get some new clothes, shoes (and boots - I grew up here in Michigan!). I liked seeing a stack of spiral notebooks and maybe a special pen, though my mom would typically hold back on too much until I found out if I had to have anything special for a particular class. Overall - I didnāt mind much.
~ English - always. Thatās where we got to read the most, and have the most interesting discussions. āEnglishā was always such a catch-all term back then - it might actually be considered a literature class, but we had to make sure we could all read, write āreportsā on the subjects, and discuss - for the most part. For me, it was an easy A.
I also made sure to get a music/choir class in there somehow, and in high school I took drama classes. More easy Aās - certainly didnāt hurt my brain like algebra. 
~3 Iāve not seen it yet! Yes, I still would like to get out and see it on the big screen, but itās a drive to get to a good theater. I hope to make it in before it goes straight to a streaming service.
~4 I had a Literature class in high school and a very enthusiastic teacher who made us spend the better part of a semester on The Odyssey. I liked it - probably because her enthusiasm was infectious. Not only were the monsters pretty wild and fun - especially for such an ancient tale (who thinks of this stuff?!?), but she made us pay attention to the style of Homerās writing, and that he was writing down what had been an oral tradition of collected stories. It was written in poetic form, meant to be still be sung thereby preserving the oral tradition before the stories became lost.
~5 Yes, I have my three little animal figurines that Iāve carried for over 30 years. This was long before I had any type of practice, or understood I was a natural Pagan. Iāll have to get a picture of them!*
*Here they are - I remember adding them to an early little ritual of some kind. My Bear, my Wolf and my Snake, all carved from some kind of soft stones with tiny bits of turquoise here and there. In the darkroom, when I would finish making a print, I would slip it into a large Tupperware-type bin holding lots of fresh water. I would make a good 5-10 prints before ending my session. These little stone friends were perfect to hold the papers down underwater. They were with me all the time and still are.
Thatās it from me - Iāll be back later with the picture, and to check in. Have fun!!
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- Did you look forward to going back to school when you were a kid? (Getting new clothes, notebooks, other supplies, seeing people you hadnāt seen all summer?) Or did you dread losing the summer?
My childhood family was not well off. We had plenty to eat but clothes were never considered for school start. If what I had fit, it was used. I loved getting paper from the teachers (they were always giving us the remains of class projects). In grade school, I always looked forward to going.
- What is/was your favorite subject in school?
I think typing or shop. I was OK at all the subjects but I was terrible at follow-through. I would wait until the last minute to do a project and then chuckle when I got away with it. I was in a terrible mindset.
The Odyssey movie, by Christopher Nolan, has grossed over $1 billion so far worldwide. That makes it a solid hit - despite mixed reviews.
- Have you seen the move? Are you planning to, or do you have no interest in it?
It is three hours long. I will wait until it comes out streaming. I love the story - pieces of it have been in movies for years. I have both the stories (Illyad and Odyssey) in book form so I might start it by reading them again. My Greek card decks got me going last year so I will continue to enjoy them.
I liked the movie āTroyā because it showed some of the concerns/thoughts of the characters in Homerās first book. Brad Pitt;'s angst was overblown but I liked The Hector and Paris characters. However, Helen in the movie could not have caused a thousand ships to launch.. 50 or 60 maybe.
- Part B: Have you ever read (or had to read) The Odyssey for a class? What did you think of it? Boring, or did the teacher make it interesting?
Never had it assigned but I read parts of it just for fun. It is a bit of a slog but better the second time.
- Do you have a āluckyā item, charm, or piece thatās maybe outside your practice?
My bracelet - sort of a Pagan Rosary - is with me all the time. I use it to meditate.
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I hear that - did you have any older siblings? I was the lucky recipient of plenty of my sisterās hand-me-downs. Even worse - my mom enjoyed sewing, and quick shirts were a specialty. I was thrilled whenever I got new clothes from a store. Shoes/boots were usually new because my sister would destroy her own before I could use them.
Procrastinator! You clearly grew out of that phase of your life. You were lucky to get away with it while you did.
Well - times do change, ya know.
Good on you! I donāt think I could have gotten through it like that. Too much needed defining and massaging to get the point across, in my opinion. Even now, with my adult enthusiasm, Iām not sure Iād pick it up unless it was a book club read, or something in a group form.
I love that little bracelet! All black and white/clear - nice. I think Pagan Rosary is a perfect name for this!
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Yay! Glad youāre back!
Oh, good gods no! NO! I still try to remember on the first day of school to wake up and say, āThank gods I donāt need to go to school.ā And then I go back to sleep. I hated school! The only reason I didnāt quit early and drop out was that I knew I needed a diploma.
Creative writing, and one year I had Mythology. It was mostly Greek mythology but that was fun.
Nope, and Iām not sure if I will or not. While I donāt mind people of different races turning up as Greek, Iām not sure I can handle some of the other kinds of rewrites theyāve done. I liked the original, and yes, Iāve read the translated version. Long ago.
Oh, didnāt see it. Yeah, I have! It was good, I think, but the teacher made it interesting. I always felt sorry for Cassandra and Penelope. But mostly Cassandra. Then again I read The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley first. Itās a book by the same author who wrote The Mists of Avalon but about the Fall of Troy. Very good, very tragic. I cried lots.
Not really, but for reasons. See, I had this Blue Moon Shooter marble. Nice. But Iāve never done much with it since I donāt do marbles. So I ended up giving it to Sally for her grandson, with the thought that it should go to a little boy who would enjoy it. I also gave him a few pretty crystals. Boys need marbles and rocks.
I didnāt mind the reading, but ask me to do anything beyond singing along with School House Rock or diagram a sentence, and Iām lost with the grammar stuff. And spelling? Pfft. Iām awful.
Iām proud! I almost flunked chorus! I did well in drama class but yeah, chorus was awful.
So pretty! Very nice! I wonder what kind of stone they are?
Iām weird; I liked The Illiad too!
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Iām going to try an audible version next. I agree it can be a bit daunting.
I was the youngest of six. 'cept I think I was a mistake. My nearest sibling was my sister and she was 10 years older than me. She was big with the High School Drama group and would drag me to be the little kid in plays. She was more like a second mother. I did get some hand-me-downs but most were not wearable.
The first book had a lot of coverage when I was young. The Trojan Horse was mentioned a LOT. Achilles and Helen were often mentioned.
Many Sword and Sandal movies stole from either Book 1 or Book 2 - a LOT.
You may have seen the logo for Odyssey Entertainment that has a fleeting picture of Odysseus shooting an arrow through axe handles (small spoiler for the Odyssey).
I feel like Iām just reviewing what I already know/saw when I read either one.
I get that and I think your friends are cute! I use weights made from round metal tins that are filled with lead shot and epoxy. I use them to hold a myriad of things. They never wear out and they are decorated with over spray and dents. Pretty blah compared to yours.
I hated High School. Cliques and jerks. Even at reunions they still hung together. I went to two or three reunions and hung out with my brotherās classmates. It was much more interesting.
I started night courses after I was out to get language training. I started liking it and picked up a couple of degrees. Then got sent to grad school. Then computer classes. It snowballed from there. I would have bet anything I wouldnāt do that when I was in High School.
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Watching the original Clash of the Titans for a grade in high school was wonderful!
I didnāt even go to my graduation. I was out of there! You couldnāt get me back into high school for anything less than a million dollars!
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I loved school. It meant getting away from an abusive mother for a few hours a day. Yet my peers were just as abusive, so it was silent class time which I enjoyed. Iād rush to my next class and sit in the nearly empty room until the bell rang, reading or doing my homework so Mom wouldnāt disturb my concentration on the hard stuff. She didnāt like it when I disrupted her while she was doing her finances, but she insisted I go to the basement to fetch a jar of jam when I needed to finish super hard math homework, so I learned to get it done before I left school. Teachers and librarians liked me. When the kids found out I was intelligent, theyād attack me, so I tried my best to stay away from anyone else as long as possible.
I disliked shopping for clothes. It meant I had to try things on. Mom was always pulling on seams hard enough to lift me off the ground and pulling my hair. So glad Iām female: it didnāt hurt as much as it could have. Wedgies were temporary, but felt the worst. Still, the finger in the shoe to ensure a proper fit and room for growth was just as uncomfortable as the metal foot measuring torture device when the salesmen werenāt careful. I was never strong at standing still for long periods of time while Mom made up her mind or chatted with business people.
The smell of fresh paper was addictive. I enjoyed the feel of graphite on paper and the rainbow sparkling ribbon coming from my hand in the sunshine. My favorites were workbooks, puzzle books, anything interactive.
I had one friend at a time. Mom ensured I didnāt get socially acclimated, probably out of paranoia of what I might talk about. She always thought I was telling everyone family secrets or personal business, so I was closely monitored to the point of having to lie about getting exercise to have the freedom of talking to someone. Even in high school until long after I was working, Mom refused to pass me messages left on the phone while I was away- had to tell her it was against the law to keep my messages from me. I didnāt learn how to have friends until I was in my 40ās- once I moved to New Mexico to escape her thumb.
Anything was acceptable except math, typing, gym, the names and dates of history not made to live, and the days we had to dissect critters in biologyā¦ until I hit Senior English: we had tough teachers who refused to actually teach. Being forced to write in Iambic Pentameter was a nightmare without instruction, since I never had a sense of rhythm. Many of the students would say the two Senior English teachers had done too many drugs in their early years.
Yet my faves in middle and high school were probably foreign languages- I took French from fifth grade up and Spanish in high school and college. High school summers were spent in college prep classes, where I took Japanese, Latin, and Italian. Didnāt have anyone with whom to speak, so I lost all but one: French. Living in the Desert Southwest has not brought back the Spanish Iād learned, so I probably never will return to languages. I still collect accents, though.
In college, I majored in foreign languages. Mom wanted me to be a translator, but as an only child, I couldnāt hear and speak at the same time. Too much stress.
I did a lot of science classes until the sciences relied on math. Enjoyed the hands-on.
Creative writing showed up during summer prep school- still back when taking summer school meant a person was stupid enough to fail regular school- and continued through college. It was fun. I had more of an imagination back then- before the business side was enforced into a formula everyone had to follow.
One winter, the air got so cold that there were flakes falling out of a clear blue sky. I got part way to class and turned back, not going out again until I knew I could get to class without freezing to death. That year, I had a Greek Philosophy class. Never cracked one of the books. Come Spring, I had to take the final exam- written from questions. I simply answered from experience, knowing Iād read a lot of Greek Mythology and Philosophy in my youth. When the teacher handed back our graded tests, he was super friendly to me. I hadnāt been to many classes, nor had I done the reading or homework, but I aced the finals! Iād really missed my calling until that moment.
I havenāt been to a movie theater in a looooong time. It is unlikely I will see this one. For a while, I was buying DVDS of movies I wanted to see. Even that has faded. I donāt watch streaming or even television anymore. Itās not a matter of disinterest in most cases: I simply have too much to do.
No. I read both the Illiad and the Odyssey on my own, probably somewhere between 4th and 6th grade, as an escape from the abusiveness around me. I deeply enjoyed Greek and Roman mythology, but thought them odd to have in a Catholic school library when they preached that alternate belief systems were so evil. These were, after all, gods and goddesses with alternate ideas.
Sorry: the question itself seems confusing to me. I bring all of myself to my practice. That includes daily life, escapes, and my deepest practices.
Dangerous! I was actually given my cousinās hand me downs. It was ok, until I ended up with white shorts for gym and ruffled hot pink hand-me-down underwear!
If you think that was tricky, try Endymion by Keats! Itās about a young man who falls hopelessly in lust with the moon! Oof! Talk about wordy! No Greek play was ever that bad. Iām not looking forward to reading his Hyperion, next. At least Homer described action.
Seriously? What a terrible teacher!
I was in choir in the Catholic school. They kept me on in the church choir until high school because my voice carried to the back of any room I was in. I learned a song in French for Christmas and was encouraged to sing it alone, in front of everyone in our church during the busiest time of year. It came out fine, but I quit all stage work after that! I passed out easily from stress.
Most Native style carvings like these are made of soapstone. It is easy to carve and looks nice as a finished product.
Iāve never been to a school reunion. The first one I heard about, I was in New Mexico already- Iād have to travel to Indiana. They charged $100 to walk in the door! My next one is coming up next year- 40 years! I wouldnāt go: not much point when I didnāt have friends and the price is so prohibitive. Everyone knew me, but I knew no one. My one friend in high school wasnāt in my grade, so I wouldnāt see her anyway.
All hail Harryhausen! 
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Well, you were smart to force yourself to get through it. You did it and got that piece of paper, which only matters for the first few years - then no one really cares. Life is more about attitude, and how you act as a human. You done good!
Cool!! I was afraid of creative writing and being forced to come up with something interesting on the spot.
Itās getting mixed reviews for this reason, I think! Thereās apparently great action sequences (why not, who doesnāt like a good Cyclops visual?) and that may account in large part for the popularity.
Youāre lucky like I was, to have a good teacher make it interesting.
Thatās so kind of you! Iām sure he loves messing with them - crystals, pretty marbles, rocks - can be addictive to kids!
Most people are. Thatās why Spell Check was invented in word processors, to make it easy to find not just typos but our unique word mashups.
I felt like all I had to do was show up. I did have piano lessons for awhile as a kid, until I begged my mom to let me quit. I was guilted into learning to read music, which probably helped me in choir class, now that I think of it.
Thank you - I love them so much. Iām sure I knew this from the tags when I got them, but that was decades ago. Given the smooth feel of the carving, maybe soap stone? Isnāt that a good soft one for carving?
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Thatās really a great idea. I still resist audible and e-books, but there are plenty of instances where it makes better sense to go that route.
Never! An accident, maybe, but a mistake?? pshaw!
Maybe blah, but still functional!
I understand that! Itās cause you got away from teenage cliques! It was the jock types that I avoided (sporty guys, cheerleaders with perfect hair). The choir and drama people were much more laid back. Funny, I didnāt take a single Art class, Iād likely have found more of my types in there, too. 
I didnāt want to go to mine either, but was kind of nagged into it. I showed up as about the only girl with jeans under her gown. Jeans and Earth shoes, if anyone remembers that fad. Iām dating myself! I did not look glamorous that day, but I was obedient. 
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In High School, that was definitely me. Incongruously, a cheerleader and I hooked up for a few years after High School. It wasnāt a match made in heaven and we broke up after a crazy long time. She dumped me, which I probably deserved, but it didnāt take me long to realize it was a good thing. That was when I got serious about moving forward in my life.
Not too long after, I met the SO (we were on a double date - not with each other). A few months later we got together and we both decided we were a match. It would have made a good Hallmark movie. 
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We all need a break and I am happy you had a very fun time spent with your Mum, Niece and thank you for sharing your photographs and whereabouts you took them.
My answers are
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Iām sorry, love. It sounds like it was a terrible time. I hope you have good friends now to make up for that time!
WHAT? Thatās worse than the English teacher I had! Sheād make us watch Nostradamus videos over and over and test us on them.
Yes, but I had a chip on my shoulder and hated the music he was making us sing. I mean, Tie a Yellow Ribbon may have been a good choice in 1991 if it was down-tempo and serious, since it was sort of during or just before the Gulf War. But he had us singing like we were at a pep rally! Also, he tried to make Born to Be Wild a more school-friendly song by making it less of a rock song. Yeah.
I grew up in the Methodist Church and did solos often before I got older, and my voice changed some. I did have a part in a serious drama, and in one of our shows, the person before me flubbed up and started to laugh. So, of course, I wanted to laugh too. Thankfully, I was at a serious part, so I just put my face in my hands and ācriedā.
Thanks! Most of the stuff that got carved around here was coal, I think.
All hail Bubo! King of the Owls! 
Thank you!
That part didnāt bother me. It was stopping that was hard. I had to write a three-page horror story. I got to page sixty-eight and had to turn it in unfinished. If I remember it correctly, it was a police detective finding out vampires were real fic. Not bad for the time.
Sally said he loved them! He hid them under her couch, where all his treasures go! LOL!
Yeppers, thatās what @georgia said too!
Iām glad I didnāt go. One of my casual friendsā moms showed up drunk, and it was a thing. We went on a trip instead. But I bet you looked nice! That was one of the reasons I didnāt want to go. Girls had to wear a skirt, clothes, and heels under that robe. No way, not for me!
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