Pumpkins, Hemingway and Questions

What can all these things have in common, you ask?

Nothing much. They just happen to be the things which have consumed my brain over the last few days.
First up: pumpkins. I love pumpkins. They're round and huge and orange and such fun to paint. We don't celebrate Halloween (in fact, we take great cares to be out of the house and enjoying a meal at the nearest Cracker Barrel when the Trick-or-Treaters start coming around). But we buy pumpkins every year for our front steps, and this year my siblings and I decided to have a pumpkin-carving party. In the dark. With sharp knives. And an eerie pumpkin-candle glow.
I had so much fun.
First, I tried to pose as the headless horsewoman, but my pumpkin was pretty heavy, and I could only hold it up for so long (thus the fuzzy picture up top there). Gutting the pumpkin was the hardest part--it was sticky and slippery and gross inside, but the seeds made excellent missiles. In total, I carved three pumpkins--mine, my youngest brother Jude's, and my brother Issac's, who succeeded in slicing his finger before he'd carved out his pumpkin's leering mouth (don't worry, he's fine. But he did convince my dad that he needed bedrest and extra ice cream that evening).

When we were finished, we took a little candle and lit up our pumpkins. The result was pretty cool. That's my pumpkin--with the huge, hollow eyes and only one tooth. Our back porch is covered with seeds that stick to your feet, but it was a fun night. Maybe we can do it again next year.

I recently started reading For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. My mom's book club read it, and she gave it to me. I have seen the old Gary Cooper movie, and the story intruiged me, so I started to read it. It's funny how different literature was written sixty years ago. The writing is immaculate, but very hard to read. I don't know exactly why. Hemingway is brilliant in his use of dialogue--he has the characters speaking Spanish, but their lines are written in English. The result is a strange word order, a lot of thees and thys, and a very respectful feel to the conversations. I'm enjoying the book so far, and I plan to finish it (even though I already know how it ends).
The hard part is finding time to read. I'm basically on my own school-wise this year--all of my homework is from classes and it's on me to get it done in time. I actually have a lot more time, and I've started setting aside an hour (or however much time I can find) a day to read. Some days, it will be impossible to find an hour, but on other days, I might be able to read for two or three. I really want to read more--there are so many books I want to get through. Hopefully this new pattern will help me do it.

Questions have been consuming me for the last few days. Unfortunately, they're not the deep, life-changing questions that I should be pondering. They're all from memes. That's right. I'm in meme mode and I can't get out (I need a Life Alert button).
Memes are great. But after a little while, they all sound the same. And then you're sitting there asking your poor characters the same questions over and over and over again. And they don't like that, no sir. Several have committed mutiny and refused to appear in any more memes X3 So I'm going to write--I'm going to write scenes in my book until my fingers fall off or until my laptop dies. A meme or two will find its way in, as will some poems. But I want to write stories again. I want to write my characters, not just interrogate them. So that's my resolution for the next however-many-days-I-can-keep-this-up. I'm thinking two. But two days of nonstop writing will be better than twenty of nothing at all.

By the way, how did you like that meme I left you last time? It's my favorite so far :3

Signing off,

Elisabeth