AG Spotlight: Amanda Faraday

The Moon Girl's not had me a year yet!  But then that's true of several of us.

FULL NAME:  Amanda Nicole Faraday

NICKNAME:  Sometimes folks call me "'Mandy."  I'm not a huge fan of that, but it's not a mean nickname so I tolerate it.

WHERE I GOT MY NAME:  Moon Girl's high school best friend, and Michael Faraday.

JUST LIKE YOU NUMBER:  #16 with a hair cut

HOMETOWN:  Windsor, California

HEAD MOLD:  Classic

HAIR COLOR:  Medium brown

EYE COLOR:  Dark brown; my right eye has both silver eye and bubble eye and hence has blinded me in that eye.  Moon knows she could have that repaired, but she and I both kind of like my short hair.  Getting my head replaced would mean long hair again.

FAVORITE COLORS:  Orange, purple, red, yellow, and earth tones

THINGS I LIKE:  Books, peace and quiet to read books, cuddling on winter nights (doesn't matter who with), cats, being a child at heart, clothes that are loose and comfortable, The Wizard of Oz (both the books and the movie), fireworks, gawking at flowers and wildlife 

THINGS I DISLIKE:  Nonsensical, nonstop blather, having scoliosis, being blind in one eye, being mistaken for Molly (sometimes that does happen), and I hate-hate-HATE heights!!!

MY CHOICE OF MUSIC:  Anything that Yo-Yo Ma plays.  

PET:  Jeeves, a tuxedo cat.

BEST FRIENDS:  Courtney and Samantha, because they're good listeners, and Julie and Joss, because they know sign language.  I'm not deaf, but it's nice to know sign language anyway.  You never know when you'll need it.  I'm also a member of the Four-Eyed Freaks.

SOMEONE I'D RATHER AVOID:  I don't dislike Lindsey and Molly, but they're both too chatty for me at times.  I'd also prefer to avoid Chatty Cathy for this reason.  

HOW I CAME HERE:  Another eBay find!  I'm a fixer-upper, so I was easy to get.

ABOUT ME:  I'm the quietest one of the bunch, except maybe for Samantha.  Unlike Samantha, my silence comes from thoughtfulness rather than depression.  I love to read, and I love to daydream about what she's read.  My favorite books are mostly juvenile fantasy, stuff like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.  I also like House of the Scorpion and the Oz books, and The Chronicles of Narnia.  Sometimes Samantha and I discuss the Oz books since the first two were fairly popular in her day.  Samantha tells me she's surprised that the series came as far as it did over the years

*Side note from Silver Bird:  Y'all do know that Dorothy Gale was a real little girl, right?  Only she didn't survive the tornado that hit her home.

*Side note from the Moon Girl:  True story.  Or I think it's true...people did make things up for news stories back then, but it's possible that Dorothy Gale was real.  Irving, Kansas WAS real, but the folks there couldn't catch a break, before or after the 1879 tornado.

No, neither Samantha nor I have heard that story before.  Poor Dorothy, so she didn't make it?  That's sad!  No wonder L. Frank Baum wanted her to have a happy ending!  Anyway, I like the movie The Wizard of Oz as well, though not quite as much as I liked the books.  Dorothy is so darn whiny in the movie, though in her defense I'd probably be whiny too if I were in a strange land, being pursued by a witch, and in the company of a talking scarecrow, a sheet metal man with an axe, and an anthropomorphic lion.  Better to travel with a puddy tat than a bunch of sideshow escapees.  Like all cats, Jeeves is a big cat, almost as big as Kailey's dog Sandy.  That surprised both Kailey and me, but it's good for Jeeves since he loves to wrassle with dogs, and the size of the dog be danged.

If he had long hair I'd chalk his size up to him being a Maine coon (a breed known for being large), but he's got short hair so that's that.

*Side note from the Moon Girl:  LOL, I've known housecats that were big, but none of them were as big as the golden retriever Sandy is supposed to be!  My beloved Sampson (coincidentally also a tuxedo cat) weighed twenty-five pounds, and he was nowhere near as big as a goldie!

As established above, I have silver eye like Molly and Silver Bird, but I also have bubble eye, which is when the pupil of the eye separates from the plastic over it.  The end result looks like a soap bubble.

Silver eye is only an aesthetic problem for American Girls, but bubble eye blinds.  Neither the Moon Girl nor I are sure about sending me to the hospital, but maybe in the future it'll be for the best.  Having my eye repaired would certainly improve my ability to read.

Of course I do other things besides read, but since my mobility isn't great (even for an AG doll) I'm usually restricted to observing, like I did last Monday at the local fireworks show.

Yeah, the Moon Girl took a doll to the fireworks show.  Everyone knows she's a little nuts, LOL.  It was a very nice show, though the mosquitoes were something fierce...for Moon, not me, LOL again.  When twilight comes I like looking at fireflies and bats (just like Moon does), and I would like stargazing if lying on my back were more comfortable.  Wearing a back brace isn't the most fun in the world, kiddies.  Oh well, it is what it is, and I know I'm not the only one.

Good luck catching fireflies!  If that's your thing, that is.  If not...well, find some other way to make summer work for you.  Jeez, this heat is INSANE!!!

Love,
Amanda Faraday

Of dolls and bottle rockets

Behold!  Two species of bottle rocket have landed in my yard.

Kirsten is holding the smaller variety that my family always bought...I think the side of it said Moon Blasters or something like that.  Amanda has a larger variety called a Wild Goose, which I know nothing about.  I loathe bottle rockets, by the way; they're all noise and no show, and if something goes wrong then they're pretty dangerous...but then again, aren't all fireworks dangerous in the wrong hands?  Anyway, when I was sixteen Daddy loaded a bottle jam-packed with these damn things...and the bottle tipped over.  Pointing at us.  The resulting conversation went something like this:

<bottle falls over>
ME (casually):  Uh-oh...
SISTER (loudly):  RUN!!!!!!

And run we all did!  I ended up dodging behind a tree, but not before one of the rockets almost took my ear off.  No one was hurt, and no serious damage was done, but that killed any affection my family had for bottle rockets.  My mom didn't like any fireworks that flew anyway, because in her words, "They always come after me!!!"  Of course they didn't ALWAYS come after her, but we all know how unpredictable fireworks can be.  

I could fill a whole post full of Fourth of July memories, but then we'd be here all day and part of the night.  I'll just say that it was a special time of year for my family, and I really miss those days.  To the rest of y'all, be safe and have fun!  Drink beer, eat watermelon, shoot off bottle rockets, and keep your pets safe.

Happy Independence Day every day,
RagingMoon1987 

Another temperature flip-flop; or the purging of some sadness

Flip-flop...speaking of flip-flops, it was warm enuff here in the Bootheel last week that I considered wearing a pair to work.  I didn't, because wearing flip-flops too much has really done a number on my feet!  Anywho, it was in the low seventies last week, and then yesterday the temperature bottomed out with copious snowfall, to my chagrin and Rita Cheryl's apparent delight.

Today the snow had all but melted by getting off time (5:30 for me), and temperatures will be in the sixties again by about Tuesday.  Amanda and Rita Cheryl sum up the wild variation pretty well.

Won't be long until Rita Cheryl will be wearing her spring clothes again!  In honor of Turning Red I bought her a red panda dress, but it won't be here for awhile yet.  Odds are that it'll be here in time for the tried-and-true equinox.  And no, I haven't seen Turning Red yet, though I love the idea of someone shapeshifting as their emotions rise and fall.  Plus, I love red pandas.  So does Rita Cheryl, LOL.  Rita Cheryl loves pandas, period, as shown by her raincoat and boots.

Now...as is often the case with these posts, I have some spleen to vent...no, wait...one vents one's spleen when one is angry, don't they?  I'm certainly not angry, not today.  I've mentioned off and on that my mother had a cousin who was sick with some trippy type of cancer, and up until about a month ago she was stable and holding her own.  Unfortunately a wave of complications hit in the middle of last month, and in a span of about two weeks Kristi went from being ambulatory and alert to on hospice to deceased.  She passed away yesterday.  Here is a screenshot of her husband's tribute.

Kristi was just a little slip of a woman, and since she was constantly smiling and friendly one would think that she was a complete wuss.  Not so!  Kristi endured her disease and the pain and frustrations that come with it with great courage and strength.  She had her moments of fear and despair, of course, but only her closest family saw that.  The rest of us, myself included, usually saw her smile and her optimism, and her unquestioning faith in the Almighty, a far greater faith than I've ever had.  So while I'll miss Kristi dearly, I'll also remember her with a smile on my own face, and in the future I'll strive to be more positive and more brave like her.  I'll also be keeping Kristi's husband Dan in my prayers, as his health isn't much better than Kristi's was.  He's got heart failure and is on dialysis, and last I heard he was trying to get on the waiting list for a kidney, though I don't know if he'll bother now that his wife is gone.  Y'all know how sometimes someone gives up on life after their spouse dies?  I hope and pray that won't happen to Dan; he's got lots of people who love him.  But then again, so did Kristi.  So I need to just shut face and let God do His thing.  He knows what He's doing.

Give your loved ones an extra hug tonight!  You never know when they'll be called home.

Love,
RagingMoon1987

Baby, it's warm outside

Amanda is dressed for the weather we usually have here in the Bootheel this time of year, while Kailey is dressed for the weather we're having right now.  Yes, it really is warm enuff to go barefoot...or it would be if the wind would pipe down.

Seriously, I saw a cricket while I was setting this picture up.  A cricket.  In December.  He was shiny and healthy too, not dull-colored and sluggish like crickets usually are in December.  Christmas of 2010 was like this, and it set the stage for a violent spring.  So...we'll see what happens.

Y'all be safe out there!  Enjoy your family or whoever you're with, and don't get food poisoning.  LOL, that happened to my parents one Christmas!  We had fun anyway.

Merry Christmas,
RagingMoon1987 

Amanda and Rita Cheryl and Marina

Okay, I was absolutely NOT planning on buying this young lady.  She's the most beat-up American Girl I own now, and also the cheapest.  She ekes out both Julie and Doremi, who were my cheapest and second-cheapest until now.  Julie cost fifty bucks and fifty cents, Doremi cost just under seventy, and Amanda here cost a little under forty-eight.  She was actually around twenty-five, but shipping and handling for a large package is understandably high.

I've chosen the name Amanda Nicole Faraday for this doll, because she looks a little like my best friend from high school.  For the record, my best friend's surname was NOT Faraday, LOL.  I had another doll named Amanda once, but I gave her away to a little girl who needed her more than I did.  Anyway, the new Amanda is a Pleasant Company-era JLY #2, or so the seller said, and she is the poster child for fixer-uppers.  She has a chop to her wig and a nasty case of silver eye/bubble eye...

...and the poor little thing is "filthy, filthy, filthy," as one of my favorite patrons once said when describing a book she didn't like.

I don't usually mind silver eye.  Indeed, both Molly and Silver Bird have it (Molly's is more extensive than Silver Bird's), and I've chosen to leave them be.  I probably would leave Amanda as-is too, but she also has bubble eye and I don't like that much.  So this may be the first doll I send to the American Girl Hospital.  Her wig is cut but otherwise in good shape, and I'd leave it alone too if it weren't for her paint being mostly gone.  Or I could give her cheeks and lips a little dab of color myself.  How hard could it be?

Now...the eBay seller says this young lady was #2, but #2 has medium skin.  Amanda is pretty pale, especially compared to Zoe and Luciana, whom I know for a fact are medium-skinned.

I know that AG dolls fade as they age, but do they fade this much?  When I first opened Amanda she looked like plain-Jane #13, but my friends on Failbook say she looks more like #16, who has slightly darker hair but is still something of a plain Jane.  Since Amanda is likely a #16 and NOT a #2 I likely won't send her to the AG hospital, since the shorter hair and the silvered eye helps distinguish her from other 16s.  To help make her even more distinguishable I gave her a pair of glasses and fitted her with a Boston brace.

Amanda's shoulders are uneven, a hallmark symptom of scoliosis, so I pretend that that's what she has.  I thought I'd have to jerry-rig a brace for her, but this awesome Etsy store called ScoliBuddies makes back braces for dolls and teddy bears of various sizes.  It really is an awesome brace, too.  It looks just like the real thing.  Amanda's thick Pleasant Company frame is a bit too thick for both brace and dress, so a stuffing removal may be in her future. 

I have to admit that while I like Amanda, finding out that she wasn't a #2 was a moderate disappointment.  I like medium-toned American Girls, especially if they're one of the handful that has the classic mold.  Unfortunately an early doll like #2 goes for a premium on eBay, so I set my sights on #49 instead.  Enter Rita Cheryl, who loves Paw Patrol and my beat-up emoji pillow.

Of the seven Just Like You dolls with medium skin and the classic head, only #49 has blue eyes (#44 has hazel eyes, and the rest have brown).  Combine blue eyes with tan skin and black hair and you have a striking doll indeed.  The combination can also be achieved with Create Your Own dolls, but so far #49 is the only doll that AG deliberately made like this.  And yet Rita Cheryl's eBay auction only had one bidder:  me.  I had earlier bid on a two-doll lot that included #49 and hazel-eyed, black-haired #48, but the bids got too high for me so I dug a little more and found a hidden gem.  Her hair has a few broken ends but is still smooth for the most part, and when I parted her hair the part didn't start looking gross until I got to the hairline.  Even then it's not that gross.

Not bad at all!  Rita Cheryl does have shiny vinyl, but a once-over with a Clorox wipe will fix that, just like it did for Julie.  

Like Amanda, Marina Isabella Gutierrez was an impulse purchase, and like Amanda and Rita Cheryl, she didn't come in her meet outfit either.  She came in the Blue Sea Dress from the spring 2018 Mix and Match collection, plus lilac flip-flops that came from God knows where.  Since the dress has a little purple mixed in it works out fine, though I will be trying to find Marina's meet outfit.

Marina is a #89.  I had hoped that #91 would have popped up on eBay by now, but no dice yet.  Since Marina has her box, her book, and her hair is flawless I assume that someone only wanted her for her outfit.  Jeez, why not just wait and buy it on secondary market, like I do???  Oh well, I'm not gonna harp too much, since the meet outfit should be a breeze to find.  I've run into fans that don't care much for these exotic hair colors, but I think they're cute.  I'll admit that it makes finding the right outfit a little trickier, but I've managed with Lark and I can manage with Marina too.  Lark can look nice in things that match, or in things that artistically contrast, like her yellow blouse and crocs.

Marina will be easy too.  Marina has hazel eyes, a color that I don't yet have in my collection, but they have a lot of green in them so green clothes will make those pop.

For the record, AG's hazel eyes can vary a lot in color.  This lovely post by Lissie & Lilly discusses eye colors in general and shows the various shades of hazel in particular.  Maryellen's eyes are mostly brown, Mia St. Clair's eyes have a golden cast, and the brown and green tones vary widely.  In Marina's case the eyes look dominantly green with brown highlights.  I love them.

Marina has the Josefina head like Julie and Luciana do, and that's a teeny-weeny bit of a bummer.  The Street Chic line had two Josefina heads and a Sonali, and I personally would've liked a little more variety, but beggars can't be choosers.  I'd hate to have to do maintenance on this dye job, by the way.

Sure, it looks great, but the more colors there are, the more touch-ups one probably has to do.  I wouldn't know this for sure since I've never had unnaturally colored hair, but I figure this is the case.  Good thing Marina is a doll and thus doesn't need such maintenance.

Before I put the box in File 13, let's take a look at the front of it.

These Street Chic dolls even come in a special box!  Well...the artwork is special, at least.  I wonder if the Street Chic subdivision will be expanded upon, or if #89, #90, and #91 will be the only ones?  Time will tell.

There may be a fourth one on her way, but she's not here yet.  LOL, it's been a busy year for American Girls here at the Moon House!  No Santa Claus for me this year!

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987 

Happy National Relaxation Day

I had no idea that this was a thing.  Good thing the folks on Failbook clued me in.  Doremi and Amanda are already ahead of me, LOL.

Good thing National Relaxation Day occurred on my day off this year, so I can keep my holiday spirit.  And yes, Amanda is new.  I'll give her a proper intro soon.  Just not today; we're relaxing.

Happy relaxing,
RagingMoon1987