Monday, April 2, 2007 - Most of the time, the events in Yuoo's world match the events in my own world. However, every April Fool's Day (April 1st), strange things have been known to happen in Loblolly...
Yesterday morning, Yuoo woke up to find himself upside down. I don't know exactly how it happened, but it seems that gravity had reversed itself-- but only for Yuoo. Well, he found himself on the ceiling, staring up (or down, depending on one's perspective) at his bed. Yuoo knew that he still needed to get ready for his day, and he wouldn't let a silly excuse reversed gravity get in his way. First, he took a shower, which wasn't as difficult as it might seem, since all the water still falls upward into the bathtub. He only had to remember to keep his ears pointed up instead of down.
Breakfast was a bit more difficult, and after a couple spilled bowls of cereal, Yuoo ended up making toast.
Next, it was time to go to Mortar Abbey. He had to go outside, but he didn't want to fall upward into the sky. So, Yuoo got out his backpack and filled it with the heaviest textbooks he could find. The weight of the textbooks (pulling downward) cancelled out Yuoo's own weight (pulling upward), achieving a state of neutral bouyancy. Well, Yuoo went outside, and before going to Mortar Abbey, he decided to check the mail. He floated and bobbed himself to the mailbox, and someone had mailed him a box of doughnuts. How thoughtful! Without thinking, Yuoo took a doughnut out and ate it.
Unfortunately, this caused Yuoo to gain just enough weight to cause him to start floating upward into the sky, despite his backpack full of books. He started to float up and up, above the trees and into the sky. Yuoo tried flapping his ears like wings and spinning his tail like an airplane propeller, but nothing worked. Finally, an idea came to him. Still floating upward into the sky, he started doing aerobic exercises, and after a few minutes he lost just enough weight to start floating back down. But then, before he could make it safely back to his house, his backpack ripped, causing all of the books to fall out and causing him to fall upward into the sky. Fortunately, a flock of migrating Canadian geese caught him in mid-aid. They were in a hurry to get to Canada, so they didn't have time to return Yuoo to his house. So, Yuoo hitched a ride with them all the way to the Canadian border, where the Mounty Air Patrol stopped them. Yuoo didn't have his passport with him, so Mounties were nice enough to take him to the nearest embassy, where they offered to register him as a Refugee of Gravity. He thanked them for the offer, but he just wanted to get home.
But then, just as mysteriously as it had started, gravity corrected itself, and Yuoo fell from the embassy ceiling onto the floor. (A passing grizzly bear broke his fall.) Yuoo appologized to the bear, and after getting his travel papers in order, he made his way back to Loblolly.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 - Today, Yuoo went to Wal-Mart to pick up his medicine and some supplies for his burrow. (I'm referring to his house; he doesn't have a donkey.) Well, Yuoo was quite pleased with the price of his medicine. It was only three-fifths of what he paid at the other pharmacy!
At the checkout line, Yuoo noticed that the family of hedgehogs behind him spoke Spanish. They seemed to be in a good, friendly mood, so he tried speaking to them in Spanish. Yuoo had a nice, interesting conversation with the three, which is fortunate because the checkout line took forever.
Monday, April 16, 2007 - This morning, Yuoo was feeling rather down because of some sad things he heard about on the news. Over the weekend, a lot of innocent creatures were murdered by a cuckoo bird. This happened at a college in Virginia. So many terrible things happen in the world!
After work, Yuoo went over to Mortar Abbey. Yuoo went up to the belltower, and spent some time meditating in the seclusion. He thought about a lot of things, and he asked himself whether or not he believed in miracles.
About that time, some of his friends came and joined him. They spent some time meditating there, and then they invited Yuoo to come with them to Fun Station. Yuoo decided that this was just what he needed. There, they played laser-tag and video games.
Afterward, they returned to Mortar Abbey to attend a special meeting. First, I have to explain something. Mortar Abbey is under the authority of something called the Ministry of Gnosisilos (or Higher Learning). This is where Mortar Abbey gets its appointed leaders, spiritual guidance, and money. :) Abbot Rains meets with them regularly, but tonight some respresentatives from the Ministry came to talk to the creatures of Mortar Abbey themselves, just to make sure that Abbot Rains isn't a badger con-artist/dictator. (Well actually, he is a badger, but he is neither totalitarian nor a con-artist!) The meeting went well, and Yuoo got to share some of his experiences with the group. As you've probably already guessed, the gray concrete walls of Mortar Abbey mean a lot to Yuoo.
Let's see, anything else? Oh, yes. Last week, Yuoo bought a music player for himself, so he can listen to music at work. Yuoo doesn't trust himself with a new, expensive music player, since he has the tendency to lose things. Instead, he bought an old-fashioned music player, the kind that uses a beam of light to read music stored on shiny plastic discs. (Except that this one can read mp3 discs, which is convenient.)
Sunday, April 22, 2007 - Recently, Yuoo has been reading the Xanth book series. The stories are very silly, fill with lots of horrible puns, but they keep Yuoo entertained. His favorite book in the series so far is Night Mare.
Yuoo has a friend at Mortar Abbey named Dig. Dig is a very intelligent and muscular mole who is making plans to start up his own not-for-profit business. It will be a cafe that serves bevereges from around the world, and all of the profits will go to charity. Yuoo likes the idea, and he hopes it works.
Yuoo has decided that he wants to take some art classes at Loblolly Community College. He isn't sure how far he wants to go, degree-wise.
Yuoo has another friend at Mortar Abbey, a lion named Trevor. Trevor's personality is one of both fierceness and gentleness, mixed together in just the right proportions. On Wednesday, he launched a program called "Aslan Doesn't Hate You." This might take a bit of explaining. Most of the Followers of Aslan are nice people. However, there are a few smelly skunks who are not very nice at all. Occasionally, these skunks visit Yuoo's school, specifically to the Free Speech zones in the Student Union, where they skunk-spray any creature that passes by. Well, this is the reason why Trevor started the "Aslan Doesn't Hate You" program. Here is the human-world version of Trevor's website, if you're interested.
Today was the last gathering at Mortar Abbey for the Spring of 2007. Several students are graduating, so several people came forward and gave their goodbyes.
Sunday, April 29, 2007 - Flowers are in bloom in Loblolly, specifically magnolia blossoms and honeysuckles. (Magnolias are Yuoo's favorite kind of flower, and Yuoo used to climb the trees when he was a few seasons younger.) Yesterday, Yuoo went to a picnic with his friends at Laffy-ette Park. There were a few honeysuckle bushes there, and the whole park smelled sweet.
This past week was Exam Week for students. Mortar Abbey held a free breakfast and studyhall all week. Even though Yuoo isn't in school right now, he couldn't pass up a free breakfast, now could he? There were some creatures who seemed to be studing there around the clock. One morning, it was time for breakfast to start, and a few students were asleep in the main hall. One of the cooks, Eric Otter, decided to wake them all up using an empty pot and a metal ladle! Everyone loves Eric. ;-)