First, animals are not good holiday gifts unless there has been extensive discussion with all members of the family first. I was taking to Jeannie, the lady who runs Heartland Rabbit Rescue, and she says that the holidays are some of the worst days for rabbits. People are constantly calling the rescue.
There are people who want to travel and would prefer to board their rabbits at Heartland, instead of at a vet where they'll be subjected to the constant barking of dogs. And she's learned over the years that many of these people don't come back for their rabbits.
Second, those critter starter kits are TOO SMALL. Imagine being locked up in a bathroom stall for hours on end. Not a fun thought, is it?
Rabbits need room to run and play. Especially when they’re still young, they
need a lot of time outside of their cages.
We use large dog crates for our rabbits – they’re easy to clean and
provide the rabbits enough room to stand up on their hind legs.
On the subject of cages: rabbits should never be outside! This fosters a disconnect between the rabbit
and you (or your family). They are
extremely social animals who, while not necessarily fond of being picked up, do
love being around you. Rabbits will sit
with you – maybe not on your lap (all the time) – but by your feet or on the
couch.
This is a habit called “gazing” – and it’s actually a way
rabbits bond with each other (and you!).
The point is – this ad is a Horrible Ad. Don't do this. Don't let other people do
this. Give your kid/friend’s
kid/niece/nephew/whatever a picture of a bunny instead. Or a Star Wars toy – I hear those are popular
this year.
I found a lot of similarities between the first half of this
unit and some of the others. I’m kinda
mad at myself because I can’t remember the exact names of the folktales I’m
thinking of.
I know that The Three Roses is similar to the original telling of the The Beauty and the Beast – a merchant seeks shelter during the
night in a seemingly abandoned castle.
He then wanders into the garden and finds a rose bush and picks a rose
for his youngest daughter.
That’s when the beast comes out and tells him that since he picked
the rose, the merchant was going to die.
The merchant successfully begged for his life and the beast told him
that whoever greeted him first upon the merchant’s return home had to be
brought back to the castle to live with the beast.
Granted, the merchant’s daughter never had to cut the beast’s
head off. Twice.
Also, the last line of this story is just pure awesome. I like it because it invokes a sense that the
narrator isn’t of this realm. It makes
this all seem like something that has happened on different plane of existence –
say in a world where magic exists and it’s totally plausible to cut someone’s
head off twice, after nursing them for three hours for three days, before they
turn into a prince you get married to.
And now I wonder what this narrator sees in our world and if
he wants to go back? Maybe he's playing some hockey:
Another week, another storytelling with hockey players! This story takes Väinämöinen from the Kalevala unit and will feature Olli Määttä, #3 for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as Väinämöinen hanging out in the modern day. I wrote a mini-primer on Olli which will probably be helpful in order to understand some of the things he does and the voice I give him. Pictures of the cast will be at the end.
I was writing this during last night's game, when this happened... it's just insane how many bad things have happened to this kid.
Anyway, here's a picture of him when things were still good :'(
Väinämöinen’s not saying that he’s bored with being alive –
he’s just saying that he’s running out of things to do.
Then he stumbles on a new game from across the ocean – a
game called hockey.
-
He shortens his name to Väin
and plays in Finland for years and years, learning the game and figuring out
which position suited him best.
And when he finally settles on one, he changes his name to Olli and sings a song about youth –
watching in the mirror as the lines of age smooth away. Then he plays his way back up the leagues,
and pretends to be surprised when he’s taken in the first round of the NHL draft
by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
-
“I think I like it here,” Olli tells his manager, a young
African American with just the barest touches of magic around her eyes in
sparks of red; she probably didn’t even know she had it.
Her name is Katrina and her eyes flick up to him from her
phone for just the barest moment, a quirk to her lips letting him know she
didn’t quite believe him. “I’m glad,”
she says, returning to her phone, her thumb flicking and swiping the screen
quickly. “The Penguins have a good
contract ready for you to sign – just let them know when you’re ready.”
Olli looks over to her, smile wide on his face, when he
says, “I am ready.”
-
He loves his teammates and he's accepted almost immediately.
And when Jussi – a fellow Finn – joins the team, Olli can
barely contain his excitement. That
excitement doubles when he finally gets to meet him and Jussi says, “Oh, you
have magic!”
Olli laughs, sees the way Jussi’s own magic dances around
his head and his hands – little teal ribbons sliding between his fingers. Jussi’s magic is diluted to Olli’s eyes, but he
know it’s still strong for the modern world. It gives him just a little more endurance during a game, just a little extra speed when he needs it.
“So do you,” Olli says.
-
Sometimes, Olli and Jussi sing the old ballads to the locker
room. Olli doesn’t even flinch when
Jussi starts the Väinämöinen ballads – a name he feels he hasn’t heard in
decades. (A part of him wonders if
young Joukahainen
was still around, he ever grew into his magic.)
And sometimes, when the team is tired and they’re deep into
the season, when all those little bumps and bruises have accumulated and
they’re all just sore and hurt down to their bones – Olli sings a healing song.
He closes his eyes against slumped shoulders and tight
faces, and sings – soft and slow, his voice deepening with his comfort in his native tongue. He wraps his magic
into each of the words, tying in the names of his teammates.
(No one talks once he starts singing, he’s been here long
enough that they’ve all just taken to just listening, even if they’re not sure
what he says or why they feel lighter after he’s stopped.)
And when he opens his eyes – the room always seems just a
little bit brighter.
I enjoyed hearing about Joukahainen attempting to get revenge on Väinämöinen. A quick google search has lead me to the discovery of the Finnhorse - the only native horsebreed to Finland. With the description of Väinämöinen's horse as "straw colored" - I came up with this guy:
Okay, switching gears. This is going to act as my primer-slash-author's note for this week's storytelling. So, let me tell y'all about a sweet little Finnish boy named Olli Määttä.
Normally it takes a lot to stir any sort of maternal instinct in me, but sometimes I look at this 6'2" blond puppy and I just want to wrap him in a blanket and make him some hot chocolate. Even as he's bowling people over... (Olli's #3, the guy with the puck)
At just 19 years old during 2013-14 season, Olli immediately broke into the NHL (something more typical of forwards; it's harder for young defensemen to break in early just because the game is so much faster than at the lower levels - so you need a much higher hockey IQ/more sophisticated hockey sense).
During the 2014 Winter Olympic break, Olli got a bronze medal playing with the likes of Teemu Selänne, a.k.a. The Finnish Flash - who was participating in his last Olympics. Selänne's career had lasted from 1989-2014 (longer than Olli's even been alive) and he still holds a number of records. The greatest part of the whole thing? Selanne gushing about Olli <3
The 2014-15 season - Olli is now 20 - was less kind. In October, a preseason medical checkup found a cancerous tumor in his thyroid. So remember that picture from Reading Diary A?
I love the singing bards-slash-wizards of Finland.
I've gone through a few of the Kalevala stories in my own time so this is a nice refresher course for me. I'm pretty sure I've read the first story of this unit before - that familiarity helped me to get through the flowery language (the audio helped, too).
I think I like it so much because of the sound of the Finnish language is just so beautiful - I wish I was able to learn it. But my mind can't quite work around languages, haha.
The power of words - that if you put enough faith and strength in them, you can make them become real - is fascinating to me. I wish that it was something that more people believed.
Because there are words that I have said, words that have been said to me, that still cut deep. Words that kinda sneak up on you when you're not paying much attention and you just cringe and try to shake them out of your head.
Another thing I love is the repeated "so-and-so did this once, then twice, and then again a third time." I know I've used this formula in my own writing, and I must have picked it up from reading these stories. I love the way it just flows!
When I write, I always try to pay attention to the cadence of the words in a sentence. It's probably why I overuse dashs in my sentences - much to the chagrin of a lot of my professors.
For this week's storytelling, I'm probably going to be using one of my favorite Finnish hockey players: Olli Maatta. (More about that scar at his neck in the next post - which may just serve as a Olli primer so I don't have to do an extended author's note...)
I clicked around and saw what my blog would look like without my name and Google + photo - and I didn't like it. Mostly because that's my favorite picture of Stella. She's got a spinach leaf on her head and she was kinda miffed about it (but she's kinda miffed about everything, so). I also like it because it shows off my gun tattoo.
