Year's End Twilight

 

                January feels like yesterday, but it’s closer to being tomorrow.  This year has sped by in the blink of an icicle.  Sorry, I am veering from cliché.  Anyways, I feel spirited to write, seeing it is Year’s End Twilight – the days betwixt Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

                Since my last entry, I have busied myself with making harp videos, releasing a new short story on Amazon, and of course holiday shopping.  To avert another cliché, instead of brewing lemonade from life’s lemons, I say – When life browns your bananas, make banana bread.

                To my dismay, I did not win the short fiction contest I entered this year.  However, even if you lose, you still have created something.  It’s not like a baseball game, where winning gains you a shiny trophy and losing gains you immaterial experience.  I gained experience and retained a story to share with others.  My mom likes hearing me read my work to her, but I don’t always have time, so I had a Christmas gift idea.  I recorded myself reading, Shapes and Holes, and made an audiobook for my mother.

If you're curious to read the story, here it is: Shapes and Holes

In a way, it was like making banana bread out of over-browned bananas.  Besides, I kept having recurring incidents involving banana bread.  There was banana bread at home.  Then, banana bread came up randomly in a semi-heated argument in Lyra Hoop class, and when I saw Banana Bread flavored Pop Tarts at the grocery store, I felt this had to be an omen, hence the name of the first Lyra Hoop Harp video.  The Pop Tarts were good, by the way.

Hoop Harp Video 1

Hoop Harp Video 2 

Hoop Harp Video 3 

                Regarding harping, I still had numerous songs left over from my harp shoot back in October, and although the focus was off on the visuals, the audio was still good.  I salvaged some elegant improvised songs and used them as background for my Lyra Hoop clips.  Moreover, I had more time to tinker with the new video editing software, ClipChamp, that came with the automatic Windows update.  Using both ClipChamp and the legacy software of Windows Video Editor, I was able to experiment with new visual effects.  Thereafter, I made two more videos with the salvaged harp music, hoop content, and special effects.

Then I needed to make two holiday harp videos, one for Hanukkah and one for Christmas.  This year, my family bought a new artificial tree.  It has three different settings on the lights.  I wanted to make a harp video with the new tree in the background, but tragedy struck and creative plans came second to caring for my family.  I’m not going into detail – it’s not for the internet to know.  I couldn’t even complete my audiobook and wrapping presents had to wait.  After the chaos cleared, I made a Yuletide harp video, using photos of the new tree.  In utilizing three different editing softwares, I created visual effects that complimented the Hanukkah video I had made before.  The holiday videos were a good pair this year.

On Christmas Eve, I had to burn the audiobook onto disc and complete it with a CD cover.  All the blank CDs were at my parents’ house, so I had to complete this task without my mother finding out.  My dad and I worked together to insure the audio transferred properly.  Once I slipped the printed cover into the jewel case, I was relieved to know I was finished with gifting for the year.  I still needed to wrap, though.

                Christmas Eve and Day were wonderful.  During the evening prior, my mother and I baked blueberry scones for Christmas breakfast.  Before then, we carried out a recent tradition of driving around local neighborhoods to view Christmas lights, especially the houses that were really decked out.  One detoured turn led us to discovering a new house bedazzled with lights synchronized to radio music.

                As per the usual holiday traditions, we enjoyed scones, berries, and tea; opened presents of course, and watched movies.  My mom really thought my audiobook was cool.  My dad loved his 48 episodes of Rin Tin Tin that I gave him.  When I was a kid, I loved receiving presents, but as I grew into womanhood, I appreciate giving presents more.  I don’t usually ask for a lot, and my folks usually urge me to add more to my Christmas list.  A notable gift I received this year was a book of Japanese tales.