2012 and 2013

I am willing to go out on a limb and say that this has been the best year of my life so far.

So much has happened, I've grown so much, seen so much, and learned so much, its just incredible. 

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Last year on this day I was in Rome, Italy. This time around, my younger sister will be going in January!


So I started off this year in another country. My trip to Rome was the scariest, bravest, hardest, and most exciting thing I've ever done. I went because God asked me to, and I don't know exactly how it changed me, but it did. I got to see the body of St. Clare of Assisi, whom I am named after, I got to see Pope Benedict XVI from about five feet away, and I discovered the most magical substance on the face of the earth...Strawberry Gelato!

A lot of other amazing things happened this year, and terrible, hard things, too.

I moved twice in the past two years, met someone mildly famous who I admire, cut my hair too short three times in a row, went to the funeral of a wonderful friend, saw my first friend for an afternoon, spent a week with my best friend and his family, continued to work at a grocery store, applied for Catholic ministry work, procrastinated and slacked off in my studies, said goodbye to a lot of friends going to college, bought a laptop named Quincy, thought I had my wallet stolen, attended an amazing art class, made Pascal from the movie Tangled out of wire, wrote a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, went to a Britt Nicole concert, saw no movies in the theater, ate my weight in egg roles, rediscovered my favorite musical, caught up with my extended family, read a bunch of stunning books....and basically fell more in love with God.

I am looking forward to 2013. I have an interview in January with a United States based missionary organization, and if I get excepted, I'll spend nine months serving the Church by sharing my faith with young people. I will probably find a new job since mine is starting to cost me due to gas money, and I might actually get a driver's license. Maybe.
I will graduate sometime in the spring, and while I have no plans for going to college yet, I recently took my ACT and will find out my scores soon. My options are open.

I have no idea what God has in store for me, but I'm excited. He has a perfect plan, and He has never, ever let me down. I am secure in Christ, and I will continue to try and serve Him above all things, and become a saint.

As I usually do at the end of each year, I like to pick a favorite song or a song that really sums up how I feel about this year and next year. This is extremely difficult for me as I run on music and its been a whole 365 days of awesome songs. But, like I said, I went to a Britt Nicole concert this past fall, and it was really inspiring for me. Britt Nicole is an amazing young woman who has given God her all, and at her concert she said something kind of awesome. She said that no matter how big our dreams are, God's dreams for us are bigger. That is definitely true for my life; I have no idea where I'm going, I'm dreaming too small. But I will follow God wherever His dreams for me will go.

Basically, Britt Nicole is awesome, and I hope I can see her perform live again someday.

So, my song this year is from her. Enjoy, God Bless you, and Happy New Year 2013!

Emily Appreciation Post

So, the lovely Emily of findingaquietcorner.tumblr.com gave me a most wondrous Christmas present. She drew little illustrations of my NaNoWriMo book characters, and here they are!!

I can't actually express how much I love these drawings. Barbara and Padraig are absolutely perfect. This is actually one of my favorite things...when people draw my book characters? Yeah. Best thing in the world. 

So yes, Emily is awesome.

Happy Feast of St. Stephen!

O Great St. Stephen, the scriptures tell us that your face was like an angel’s as you witnessed to the truth of Christ.

Please ask the Most Holy Trinity to fill my soul and the souls of all my brothers and sisters throughout the world with a deep hunger for the truth that comes from the Heart of Jesus, and also with the loving courage to embrace and profess the truth even amid difficulties, confusion, and persecution. 

May the serenity and peace which were yours at the hour of your stoning be ours as well as we wait in hope for the coming of the Lord Jesus who lives and reigns forever and ever.

Amen.

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St. Stephen, the first martyr in witness of Jesus Christ, please strengthen us to defend the faith even in the face of persecution. Intercede for us that we may be courageous. In the Holy Name of Jesus, I pray, Amen. 

NaNoWriMo 2012: Character Reveal

First December character reveal anyone?

Introducing the closest thing to a legitimate villain in my very weird, unconventional novel...Professor David Bunk!

David was made at elouai.com

Age: 37 

(this is a rough estimate, I haven't exactly calculated how old he is)

Story Role: Mysterious Stranger/Intellectual/Antagonist      

Archetype: 10. The Sage

Motto: The truth will set you free

Core desire: to find the truth.

Goal: to use intelligence and analysis to understand the world.

Biggest fear: being duped, misled—or ignorance.

Strategy: seeking out information and knowledge; self-reflection and understanding thought processes.

Weakness: can study details forever and never act.

Talent: wisdom, intelligence.

The Sage is also known as: The expert, scholar, detective, advisor, thinker, philosopher, academic, researcher, thinker, planner, professional, mentor, teacher, contemplative.

Physical

Eyes: Brown    Hair:  Light brown

Height: 5”8   Build: Average

Professor David Bunk is a strange and mysterious fellow, who, for the first half of the book is believed to be a psychotic stalker who is following Padraig around Europe. As it turns out, this is pretty much true. Prof. Bunk has been trying to prove for the past 25 years that leprechauns exist, and Padraig Offaly is all the proof he needs. 

~Merry Christmas 2012~

I haven't been posting much, but I've been a little busy and a lot blessed. 

Yesterday I had to work, but I was able to go home early enough to go to Christmas Eve Mass with my family. It was so beautiful and I was so overflowing with joy. My sister told me, "You were absolutely giddy in Mass yesterday!" Father gave an awesome homily about the humility of St. Joseph. 

This morning, I was saying, "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" And my little sister asked, "So, how old is Jesus now?"

I actually tried to give her an answer, being the crazy woman that I am...

"Um...let me see...roughly 2,036 years? I think?"

I don't think I'm right, I was only making a rough guesstimate of how many years it had been since God was born as a baby. No big deal.

It's been a good Christmas. I received a lot of wonderful gifts (including mini peanut butter cups!), and everyone liked their presents from me. My older sister even liked the neon pink hippo Pillow Pet I got her! Success!

Here is my favorite Christmas song of this year; Come and Worship, performed by Bebo Norman. I love this song because it captures all the power that came with God humbling Himself and becoming man. 

More than anything this Christmas, I am blown away by love. This has probably been the best year of my life. I wanted to share that with you by saying Merry Christmas and God bless you all!

Please check this site out!

pubheartconn,blogspot.com

This blog is running quite a few auctions to raise money for the victims of the shooting in Connecticut this past Friday!

If you can, please consider supporting them!

NaNoWriMo 2012: The Nineteenth Chapter

This is the entire nineteenth chapter of my NaNo Novel, Leprechaun Holiday. It is one of my favorite scenes in my novel, because its a really heartfelt piece, for both me and Padraig Offaly.
At a certain point a few days before NaNoWriMo story started, I got this idea in my head called 'The Superman Complex'.
Superman has a lot of amazing powers, but whenever he uses them, he vanishes. No one ever gets to thank the hero, and they never truly understand him.
One of the biggest plot points in my novel is that my Leprechaun grants wishes, and every time he does, he runs away. He has a Superman Complex. So this is the scene that I wrote embodying that whole idea. It is set at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. It is early December.
Enjoy!

The Nineteenth Chapter

The Leprechaun and the ‘Superman Complex’

Padraig needed some fresh air. He left the apartment late during the evening, around 9:30 p.m., and walked to the Eiffel Tower. It was not something he had planned on doing, but everything had gone so completely and unexpectedly wrong, he figured it might be worth trying something completely unexpected. On his way there, he bought a tall bottle of beer.

The tower looked just like it did in all those romantic pictures of Paris at night. There was hardly a soul around for once, and Padraig went up to the left front support of the tower and sat down on the steps tiredly. A small line of people was going in at the ticket counter, but Padraig didn’t feel like going up just yet. So he just sat in the glow of the Eiffel Tower, drinking his beer, and thinking, for a long time.

He thought about what his life had been like five years ago, and before that fateful day. The day Edwin died.

As he followed his gloomy, nostalgic train of thought, for some reason he started to think about Superman.  He remembered being seven years old and thinking Superman was the greatest thing in the world. He would watch the old cartoons with his dad on Saturday mornings. But what he was really thinking about was this; I’m just like Superman. I have an incredible gift, but I’m the only one. And whenever I use it to help anyone, I have to leave. I just run away. I never let anyone thank me. I never let anyone really know me. Because I’m the only one. No one can help me. No one can show me who I am. I’m the only one with super strength and heat vision. No one will ever understand how it feels.

But every time Superman saved Lois Lane, even though he flew away and she never got to thank him, he always saw her again. Once upon a time, that had been Padraig, too. He’d grant a wish, need to run away, but he could return. All the times he’d granted Edwin one more little wish, just to help his best friend one more time. All the mornings he stuck a coin in Mrs. Walsh’s mailbox for her to find, just so she could pay the rent one more time. All the Sundays he dropped a little gold coin in the offering plate, knowing Mr. Doherty, the parish treasurer, would put it to good use.

All that had stopped after Edwin died. The Superman Complex had changed dramatically. He still ran away; but these days, he never came back.

Now, his ‘super powers’ were more like his personal kryptonite than anything else.

“Superman was really lucky,” Padraig murmured softly to himself. “I think that’s the big difference between him and me,”

But, there was one thing about Superman no one could ever deny. No matter what, he did the right thing. He kept his promises, he paid for his mistakes, and he always managed to save the day.

Padraig finished his beer, and got up to throw the bottle in a waste bin. Then he went into the ticket office, and bought a ticket to the top of the tower. He took the elevator up and just stood up there for a long time, staring out at all the glittering, golden lights of Paris. If he leaned forward and held out his arms, it was like he was flying.

At 10:45, someone came up to him and explained that the tower was closing in fifteen minutes, and he needed to head down. Padraig did, and then just sat down on the steps again. He thought about everything and everyone. He thought about poor missing Deirdre. He thought about Leal and Sandrine. He thought about Stian and his amazing magical powers. He thought about his parents; his mother who understood him too well and his father who didn’t understand him at all. He thought about Barbara Peplum, especially her huge head of curly hair and the way it bounced when she moved. He thought about Edwin. My goodness, he hadn’t thought about Edwin so long and hard in many, many years.

And he thought about Superman.

By morning, Padraig had made up his mind. It was time to be Superman. It was time to do the right thing, even if it hurt, and especially because it would mean making a sacrifice. 

And just when I thought my birthday was complete...

I got roses from my best friend in the whole wide world. 

He got me roses. 

So beautiful!

18th Birthday Cake

Made by my wonderful, adorable, talented younger sister Margaret. It's a chocolate-mint cake with crushed candy canes in the filling!!

GORGEOUS!

It is Friday, December 14th, 2012

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Today I am eighteen years old! 

I opened most of my presents yesterday because my dad had to leave this morning to get my older sister from college, but that was okay because I miss my sister AND two more presents came for me in the mail today!

So far I have received  1 Moose Pillow Pet, 2 bead-sorting containers, 7 beading charms, 1 roll of drawing paper, 20 dollars to either Kmart or Sears, 20 dollars in cash, 1 Milky Way chocolate bar, 1 extremely sparkly gray scarf, 1 mind-bending puzzle which I can't even figure out what I'm supposed to DO with, 1 little bottle of Blackberry Vanilla body spray, 1 little container of Blackberry Vanilla body rub, 1 very sweet best friend saying YOU'RE SO OLD!!!, and 3 whole younger siblings taken away from the house for the entire day! 

Awesome. 

If anyone is curious if I am going to seize this opportunity to A) buy cigarettes B) buy lottery tickets or C) get a tattoo, the answer is no to all three. I don't even get to vote anytime soon. Eighteen-year-old privilege means very little to me. 

My mother is aghast, for her third child is now 18 and. I find it interesting that the oldest child being 21 and the second oldest child having started dating someone for the first time doesn't bother her at all, but I turn 18 and suddenly she's sitting in the kitchen staring off into space in amazement. 

I am very loved and very blessed, and my dear sweet wonderful friend Sophia is coming over when she gets out of school to watch Tangled with me, as everyone else is sick of it. 

The only sad thing is now I am getting sick--I have a sore throat, and all the sugary goodness is not going to make me feel any better, but I WILL EAT IT ANYWAY. 

Happy birthday to me! I will be spending this day writing, sorting beads, watching movies, eating delicious food, and talking to my best friends on the phone :)

Love and hugs,

Clare Marie

Piano Guys

A little something that I absolutely had to share with you...

This is legitimately the coolest group of musicians ever. My family just discovered them on Youtube this week. The Piano Guys take popular songs and cover them, mostly using just the cello and piano. That right there is enough to get ME excited.

This mashup of Love Story (Taylor Swift) and Viva La Vida (Coldplay) is one of my favorites...unfortunately, I can't buy it because the Piano Guys haven't gotten permission from Coldplay to sell a song with Viva la Vida in it. This is most depressing. But I can listen to it on Youtube all I want!

Its amazing how much more beautiful music becomes when you take the words out and just play it as magnificently as you possibly can. It doesn't hurt that I've been in love with the cello since I was six years old, either.

I don't even know what else to say to try and convince you how incredible this music is. It just is. It's awesome.

Enjoy :)

Peppermint Winter

Just look at that! JUST LOOK AT IT!

It finally feels like the Christmas season! It finally feels like Advent, even! I don't know how the genius worked out that we celebrate the coming of Jesus at a time when the world is so magically beautiful! 

Short Story Creator

I haven't had this good of a laugh in a while. I was bored, I was online, so I googled 'story creator' seeing what would come up, and I found this site, where you enter a bunch of random things and it creates a whole story out of them. After 30 days of madcap writing, it was really very entertaining to have a ridiculous story written FOR me. It's hilarious because I had no idea what it was going to do, so I put in my friend Steve's name, and it turned him into a blue fish (who apparently has a scruff you can pick him up by)! Enjoy!

"A SHORT STORY", by Clare Bear

Once upon a time there was a young girl named Clare. Clare was 17 years old and lived in Minnie, Minnesota. While walking home from school one day, a blue fish jumped out from behind a train car and tackled Clare to the ground. But just when she was about to let out a scream for help, Clare realized that the blue fish was only licking her face, not trying to bite it off. At that moment, Clare decided to keep the blue fish as a pet. And on the way home she decided to name her pet blue fish "Steve."

When Clare and her new pet finally got home, guess who was standing on the front porch? That's right, it was Clare's mother, Julie. And boy was she surprised to see a blue fish following Clare into the yard! "What in world is that?" shouted Julie. "It's a blue fish," answered Clare. "Dah, I can see that, Clare, but what on earth is it doing here?" said Julie. "It's my new pet!" answered Clare. "Oh you think so do you?" remarked Julie. "I wouldn't get your hopes up. You know how your father hates blue fishs. But, well, I suppose you can keep him until your father comes home." And with that Clare grabbed Steve by the scruff of the neck and led her new pet into the house -- even though she knew her father was probably going to dissaprove.

Once in the house, Clare and Steve played and played, that is until Clare's favorite television show, "Doctor Who," started. At that point Clare forgot all about Steve having an unsupervised run of the house. That is until half way through "Doctor Who," when Clare was brought back to reality when she heard her father shout, "rage!! Clare! Get your rump in the basement...NOW!!" With that Clare rushed into the basement to see what all the fuss was about.

When she entered the basement, there stood her father, Mike, pointing toward the ottomon. "Will someone please explain that?" asked her father. Then, as Clare followed her father's finger to where it was pointing, she instantly knew what her father was so upset about. There, smack dab in the middle of the ottomon, was the biggest pile of fish doo-doo she had ever seen! "I don't EVEN want to know how that got there," said Mike. "But you had better get it cleaned up now! And you had better get rid of whatever it is that could have done such a thing!"

Well, knowing her father as well as she did, Clare knew there was no sense even asking her father if she could keep Steve for a pet. So without hesitation, Clare set out to find where Steve was hiding.

After a few minutes of looking, Clare discovered Steve crouched beneath the table that Clare did her writing on. "Come on, Steve, it's time to find you a new home. And hey, don't look at me that way, I'm not the one who did the dirty deed on the ottomon!" scolded Clare. "Thanks to you I'll never get to have my own pet fish!! And with that Clare led Steve out of the house and down to the local Michael's. Michael's had a pet section and Clare knew the owner would find Steve a good home. So after saying good-bye to Steve, and thanking the owner of Michael's, Clare walked backed home and attempted to dround her sorrows by slamming down a half dozen Arnold Palmers. But Clare's pitty party came to an abrupt end when her father reminded her about the mess she had neglected to clean up. And low and behold, midway through the clean-up, Clare suddenly became thankful that someone else was going to have to do it from now on.

The End.