Tuesday, August 02, 2005

A Study in "Adventuring"

If we’re going to be technical about things, we can say that I’m the older of two children. My brother is 13. Of course, for all practical intents and purposes, it works out that I’m the oldest of four children. I was also raised with two cousins, who are 26 and 18, and who may as well be my sisters. So there are four of us who share what we might call a sibling bond.

That being established, I have a question for the universe. WHY, of the four of us, am I the one who has all the misadventures? I’m the one who falls out of trees, slips on rocks, sprains knees while rollerblading. I’m the one who got chased out of the park by a demonic rabbit, got chased out of a camp by an evil badger, and had to jump off a footpath to avoid stampeding geese. I have bumps, bruises, and scratches from tearing around outdoors and fingernails stained just slightly pinkish from the juice of the wild blackberries I found on Sunday. I have more freckles this summer than I’ve had in any summer in years.

But shouldn’t these things be spread at least somewhat evenly amongst all four of us? I mean, demographically, the 13-year-old boy should have more of these misadventures than the 28-year-old woman, wouldn’t you think? But no, I have all of them. Apparently Fate finds me to be an amusing plaything.

But you know what? I am having a blast.

Bring on the bumps, the bruises, the scratches from the blackberry thorns. Bring on the dirty feet and the grass stains. I will take all of it! Bring on the stampeding geese flopping their feet at breakneck speed, bring on the growly badger, even! I can run away! Bring it all, bring the sun that gives me freckles and the wind that turns my hair into a mess. I want all of it.

It’s summertime and I’m going out to play.

17 comments:

Tirithien said...

They may stay cleaner, but you get to have more fun. :-)

clew said...

I live on 2 acres and the entire back edge is crammed with brambly wild blackberry bushes. My arms are scratched perpertually for the last 2 months of summer.

Feel free to come over any time, I have plenty!

Enjoy yourself ~

Anonymous said...

"It's summer and I'm going out to play."

It's about time...:o)

Anonymous said...

Bainwen, have you checked your new friend Clew's blog?
We have so much in common it's beyond belief.
Almost scary, really, but in a very cool way. She is a more eloquent writer than I am.
Her list of 100 things about herself blew me away; we're almost the same person.
I realize this blog is just for you, but I had to tell you! I am amazed! If you did read part of it, I bet you thought it was me.

clew said...

You mean there are more people out there like me? SCARY! LOL! Come back any time - I've got your blog bookmarked as well Bainwen. Naneth, where's your blog? ;)

Bainwen Gilrana said...

I was noticing that. "Hmm, Clew is much like Naneth, but they can't be the same person!" Though I've never seen them together in the same room.... Hmmm.

Clew, if you see this, how did you find my blog in the first place? Did you see the link in my signature line on the Snopes message board? Tirithien and I were both trying to figure out where you came from!

clew said...

Sometimes I get bored and hit the little "Next Blog" button in the corner and see what comes up, and I leave comments here and there since I always seem to have something to say ;). Just ran across your blog by luck of the draw one time and bookmarked you because I like your writing style. :) Happy accidents!

clew said...

p.s. HOLY CRAP I just noticed you are a Narnia fan. YOU ROCK! My favoritest books when I was a kid. Can't wait to see how they do the movie...

Bainwen Gilrana said...

I am so looking forward to the Narnia movie! I saw the trailer online, and it looks great! :-)

Tirithien said...

*raises hand*

Another Chronicles fan here. :-)

I admit I was surprised to see you're not a Snopester, Clew. You'd fit right in. :-)

clew said...

Snopester? Is this something to do with snopes.com, that urban legend buster site? I LOVE that site ...

Fill me in guys ... (places hand on her chin and listens intently)

Bainwen Gilrana said...

Well!

There's a wonderful message board attached to snopes.com. Some of it has to do with discussion of urban legends, but there's really discussion of pretty much anything you can imagine. Anything! And I will wager that it's the most intelligent message board on the entire web. The people who post with the style of 12-year-old AOL users are usually run out pretty quickly. It's very much a community; people wind up becoming actual friends, on- and offline. Very cool! It's at www.snopes.com/message if you would like to poke around. I post there as Minstrel. (Currently it shows as Minstrel of the starry sea, but the last part is just for the board's current summery beach theme.)

Bougie Black Boy said...

you're getting a lot of traffic! i'm overly jealous.

clew said...

HUH! Interesting! I never even noticed that on there before, but sure enough there it is on the home page. Guess I'm always in too big a hurry to bust a myth!

Thanks for the scoop!

Tirithien said...

I'm Casey on there. :-)

Bainwen Gilrana said...

Stephen Earley Jordan, II said...

you're getting a lot of traffic! i'm overly jealous.


Stevie, you haven't posted anything on your blog since July 22! Maybe if you did, you'd get some traffic!

Note to other readers: One must have permission to refer to Stephen as Stevie. I wouldn't recommend doing so without express permission. Some freshmen at our college tried it once, and, well, no one knows what happened to them, though it's said that their tortured ghosts haunt the woods behind College Hill to this very day.... ;-)

Anonymous said...

I cannot post on your blog, Stephen, as I have no blog of my own...but I do love you dearly.