Best friends...

It's the first day of kindergarten. There are a ton of other people in the classroom. For some reason, I wander over to the plastic animals where one other girl is. We start playing together and at circle time we sit next to each other. She's tall and I'm short. That's just how it's always been since the day we met. We both have dirty blondish hair. She's had braces twice, and lucky me(I haven't). Another thing to contrast us, she has two brothers and I'm an only child. She was born in Maryland, and I was born in ordinary Olympia. She and I both used to do Irish dance, although she kept with dance and I with soccer. We seemed to form a special bond that we still have today. Every Wednesday, every Friday, and any other day that would do we would spend time together.

I never really thought about her as a pet/animal person until she and her two brothers took their two gerbils taking turns all the way cross country to Vermont to their new home on their laps in the car (In a cage just in case you were wondering). They had, and have a cat who is about 19 years old and have a 3 year old black lab. She is definitely not an egoist since she always puts others before her making her a true altruist. After she moved, we've tried to see her every year. But you know how that goes. She's still super tall. We're long distance buddies. That still hasn't changed.

Early memories

It was 95 stinking hot degrees out. The sun was pounding hot down onto my back as my cousins and I rode down the hill on my grandmas garden cart. A surprise. That was all they had told us. You'll just have to wait and see. Now if you have any common sense, you will understand that when your parents tell a four, a six and eight year old that their uncle has a surprise for them, they won't be able to concentrate on anything for very long. We tumbled down the hill, rolling down in the green grass. The whole backyard to ourselves, our parents playing cards on the deck. As we grew bored with that, we just lied there and stared at the clouds. A bunny, an elephant, a kangaroo or a dinosaur. Twenty-eight yellow balloons. Wait a second. As our minds clicked into gear we followed the string attached to the balloons we saw our uncle navigating this strange mass of balloons. Before you start making assumptions, let me tell you a little about me. Like most people who have at least one crazy member in my family, I have my uncle. The above time happened in 2001 when I was at my grandmas, my uncle decided to see if it was possible to tie balloons to a video camera to film and photograph the neighborhood from a birds eye view. Any sane person wouldn't think of this idea on a regular summer day. When the balloons started running out of air, he pulled the machine back down to add some new balloons. But of course, nothing works perfectly twice. It was really really AWESOME. Especially the multiple failed times when the balloons got a few feet off the ground and then came back down until he added new balloons. That time has always reminded me of the book The Big Red Balloon, and now more recently the movie Up.

After waiting eagerly until the next day to watch the movie, everyone gathered around the TV to watch. When we got the results, we had to watch a movie of like 20 minutes long to actually get a good glimpse of her neighborhood. It was really wobbly and went around in circles. But considering the circumstances, it actually went pretty well. As you probably expect, it took him a while to get a hang of controlling it. Whenever I look up at the clouds I always hope to see 28 yellow balloons floating above my head... I will always remember that time, until he comes up with a crazier idea to beat it!!!

Rebecca; Imagery

From the first page of the book Rebecca, the author uses an overwhelming amount of imagery to "enhance" the plot line. But at many points it seemed to drone on and on. The author uses about the first 30 pages to create an image of Manderley in the readers mind. The reader gets the picture, understanding the "hauntingness" of Manderley. The "echoing" and dark hallways lead you to think that "oh, something bad is going to happen". And, what a surprise. IT does. The way that the author uses imagery makes the plot somewhat predictable.
Nature reflects onto the characters moods. For example, if the author says "thunder rumbled through the valley and gray clouds covered the sky", the characters would be in a time of peril or argument. Mainly the author uses imagery to convey the influence of Manderley(the house where Rebecca lived). This helps the reader understand what it would be like to be a stranger going to this new place.