photo by E
Originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.
E and her skill w/the camera never cease to amaze me. Just loaded some of her latest garden pix up to flickr. Click on this photo to see them all. :)
(Those of you who live in the north, eat your heart out–this was last weekend in the Secret Garden on a super-lovely Sunday afternoon!!)
Note to self: next time John gets you your favorite super-sour gummies for Valentine’s Day Eve, squeal when he presents them to you. :)
However, do not proceed to eat said gummies while wearing a low-cut top and reading scholarly journal articles because sour gummy powder will then accumulate in your, um, cleavage while you are concentrating on the arguments of the very stimulating writings of 19th-century historians.
And then you’ll wake up in the middle of the night w/ cleavage sore and burning from said powder and you’ll have to teach the next day while trying to ignore that you want very much to scratch that particularly irritated area….
City of Beasts
Kingdom of the Golden Dragon
by Isabel Allende
These novels are adventure stories, with a few fantastical elements thrown in. Mostly the magical elements are the result of mystical experiences that the main characters (Alexander–a teen boy from California, and Nadia–a teen girl raised in the jungles of South America by her scientist father) have with nature. For example, each teen connects with a totemic creature to draw strength during difficult times. Each of them also connects with indigenous peoples and learns ancient lore that gives them healing skills, or the power to accomplish almost super-human tasks.
What I liked best about these books is that they have inspiring protagonists, particularly Nadia who is as savvy as ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ but also retains a tender love for family and animals. In addition, the exotic locations of these adventures teach readers about the geography, flora & fauna, and religious beliefs of other cultures.
These novels are probably too short and too simplistic to satisfy most adult tastes. But they are great for young people–I’d recommend them for grade 4+.
1) The bowling tournament that is showing on the TV above my exercycle.
2) The girl with the bandana and the braids who is at the nautilis machine next to me and is listening to her ipod and singing along as if she were in the shower by herself. Her eyes are closed so she can’t see that we’re all staring at her.
3) MTV on the bigscreen. Some girls have just taken the blacklight to a guy’s bedsheets (Euuwwww….)
4) Bryan Adams’ “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman” being played over the ARC’s soundsystem.
5) The way the three firemen (wearing their cute matching OC firefighter tees and shorts)on the last row of the treadmills are all looking at the butts of the girls on the stairsteppers in front of them.
while jana is giving john a haircut…
Jana: “Oops.”
Jana: (holding razor clippers and approaching John’s neck): “Hold still. Don’t sneeze.” [Note: I haven’t told the story yet of John’s famous sneeze–the one where he gouged his head and had to skip a morning of work until the bleeding abated]
John: “I like it when you use the scissors on the sides instead of the razor. That way you don’t hurt my skin flaps.”
Jana: “Skin flaps?”
John: “You know, those folds of skin on my head above my ears.”
Jana: “Did you want sideburns?”
Jana: “Stand up and look at me so I can see if the sides of your head match.”
Jana: “I’m glad you like the tousled look.”
John: “Have you noticed how many fruit flies live on our back porch?”
Got a surprise package in the mail yesterday. It was a bundle of old letters that I’d written to a former beau (D). This particular guy I dated, off-and-on, for about 7 years.
At first I was delighted. The silly little cards, odd stationary, the doodles drawn in the margins and the photos (yah, this was all back in the stone ages when long-distance romances had to be carried out in paper and not via email or voice messenging). Fun.
But then I was horrified–for awhile I had, um…ditched D in favor of a mutual friend. The ditch was mean and purposeful. And I gloated about in my letters to D afterwards. (Ok…I have to say here that the ditch was short-lived and D and I were soon back together, but I was, nevertheless, quite cruel in my letters.)
So, hoping to feel some sense of redemption, I mentioned to John that I thought I had changed a lot since I was 16. I made the comment hoping for a bit of validation. Something along the lines, of “Yah, you’re nothing like that nowadays.”
Instead, John said something more like: “Jana, you can be completely self-centered. You think the world revolves around you.” [Note to readers: John’s comment sounds tough here, perhaps given the context–he’s actually a super-supportive husband. But he’s also good at guiding me through moments of self-introspection].
That stung. But deservedly so. I realized that I hurt people every day through my self-absorption. I have a huge ego. I am cocky and smug. My little jabs at D about the other guy might be old news now, but I do similar things all the time. Like answering emails while my kids are begging for my attention, continuing painful threads of conversation w/John even after he asks me to stop, not giving extended family members attention until I need something from them, dominating conversations with my opinons, taking over meetings where I’m not in charge, asking others to do errands for me that I can do myself, etc.
So, for all those people out there that I hurt with my selfishness, I’m sorry. I can’t erase awful things like the foolish letters I wrote 20 years ago, or undo the biting comments, or take back my moments of inflated self-importance.
For those whom I have hurt, please accept my apology…I’m sorry. I’m sorry to have caused you pain. I promise to do better. To be less self-focused. Less of a drama queen/ heartbreaker/ selfish person.
And to D: thanks for the letters and the CDs (such memories!). Thanks for not holding it against me. :)
From Shelly’s Bookshelf:
Name your 3 favorite children’s series.
Trixie Belden
by Kathryn Kenney
These were my favorites when I was a kid. Though a close runner-up would be the Boxcar Children. Oddly, I don’t think my kids have read any Trixie Belden books. They don’t carry them in any of the bookstores that we frequent.
Emily of New Moon
by L.M. Montgomery
IMO, much better than Anne of Green Gables. Besides that, Emily is an aspiring writer and has cats. ‘Nuff said :)
It seems to me that there were far fewer “series” of books when I was a kid. There weren’t Babysitters Club, or Goosebumps, or Animal Ark like there are today. Not to mention no Harry Potter or Eragon, etc. Nowadays it’s almost a given that books are serialized. Must be a good sales tactic…
Name your 3 favorite non-series children’s books.
Bargain Bride
by Evelyn Sibley Lampman
Strawberry Girl
by Lois Lenski
Roller Skates
by Ruth Sawyer
Name 3 favorite children’s book characters.
Jo (Little Women
Like Jo, I was so sure I would grow up and marry an eccentric German professor and write novels..
Harriet (Harriet the Spy
Harriet is so sneaky cool! I wanted to go up and down the neighbors dumbwaiters just like her!
Meg Murry (A Wrinkle in Time
Meg and her family were my heroes. I wanted to be a scientist like her mother–cooking dinner on a bunsen burner in my “lab,” and have eccentric kids and adventures, etc. I was pretty sure that I would grow up and have a big dog named Fortinbras.
I’m not going to tag anyone with this meme (I don’t want to annoy people with continual tags), but I’d love to hear any of your responses to these questions–put a response or a link in the comments. :)
Wow, this is a amazing. Books are cool not only for what’s on the inside, but also for themselves :)
I found these pictures at booklust. A new favorite book blog. Enjoy!
As a few of you may have heard, I’ve had a nasty 24 hour stomach flu for the past 24 hours. I’m just now starting to eat w/o nausea and I’m craving the oddest things: sunchips, chocolate frozen yogurt and sour candy straws. Weird, eh?
Thanks go to John and the kids for nursing me through the awfulness of this flu…
My cousin Robyn got married today.
Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to the actual event. But fortunately it was all carried via webcam. Right down to the pink cadillac that Robyn rode down the aisle in.
There’s something special about having Elvis croon “Love Me Tender” to you and your beloved instead of reciting the typical Biblical vows. There’s something magical to the tune of “Thus Spake Zarathustra” playing as your bubble-gum colored convertible bursts into the chapel. There’s a certain appeal to having your wedding ceremony performed by a seasoned actor who can sing three songs and have the exchange over and done with in less than 10 minutes–so you can be getting on to the more festive events (the dinner and reception!) that follow.
My wedding was a bit more, um, subdued, but perhaps no less stylized–tho in the traditional Mormon way rather than in Las Vegas glitz. But it was also just the way we wanted it then. John and I were wed in a small room in LA, by a stranger. On a Wednesday morning. With no fanfare and just a few family members attending. Our clothes were purposefully simple–I had sewn my dress. We had a fancier reception with some beautiful flowers and some food later. But that morning it was really just ours. It was nice that way.
Those who know me well know of my rather morbid preoccupation with death. Perhaps because of my own brush with cancer, I think about dying a lot and I’m quite paranoid about my own death, and the possibility of that of my loved ones. I often have dreams about death.
So, I’m spending most of my time these days thinking about mortality and morbidity as a result of 19th century railroads (sorry to those whose eyes are already glossing over or are already clicking away from this blog). I know that few people care about this odd topic.
But there’s something about the human drama of it all–the thrill of speed (of trains) combined with the fear of derailment (or some other type of accident) that drove people to try this technology, and to eventually depend on it for so much of their lives. Even when it was so unpredictable and unsafe. When the possibility of crashes or robberies or some awe-some adventure lay at the end of those maddeningly predictable parallel lines stretching off into the horizon.
To me, RRs are a lot like life. We check the schedule and try to get on the right train going in the right direction. We expect that we’ll get there somewhere near to what the timetable predicted (unless, of course, we’re riding Amtrak–so let’s pretend we’re on a train in Europe instead). But we also know that there are so many variables that will affect our path: detours, weather conditions, broken couplings, possible injury or illness, etc. But it’s the possibility of reaching that depot at the end of one’s journey that motivates us to hop up onto the train in the first place. And the view is so amazing along the way. There are some great friends to ride along with, and some yummy snacks in the club car. Sometimes the rhythmic swaying of the train lulls us to sleep. We awake and see it’s only dark outside w/a few random streetlights passing by to mark our progression. And when the sun rises and the train bends around a curve we can see the track that forever lies ahead…
(a meme from Holly)
Select five people to tag:
1) madwoman
2) brookewill
3) laughtear
4) dora
5) chudacek
What were you doing 20 years ago?
I was a freshman in high school. I had a buzz cut (my hair was just growing out from chemo), that I spiked up sort of punk-like. Was dating Brady S. and writing for the school paper.
What were you doing 10 years ago?
Conceiving Baby #2. Enduring another awful Utah winter (do these somehow go hand-in-hand?)….
What were you doing 1 year ago?
Sweating through my first year year of full-time PhD coursework. Writing an article about Civil War amputees. Reading Marxist theory.
Five snacks you enjoy:
1. cookies (esp sugar cookies sans frosting)
2. ohagi
3. tea & scones
4. green olives stuffed w/pimento. straight out of the jar.
5. whatever john is eating (as long as it doesn’t reek of meat)
(more than) Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:
1. “The Queen and the Soldier,” “Calypso” and “Ironbound/Fancy Poultry,” Suzanne Vega
2. “Wuthering Heights,” Kate Bush
3. “Roxanne” and “Russians,” Sting
4. “Annie’s Song” and “Rocky Mountain High,” John Denver
5. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Sounds of Silence,” Simon & Garfunkel
Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. travel to the Isle of Man
2. hire a personal masseuse
3. build a straw house (eco-friendly)
4. buy some beautiful bookshelves
5. master the French language
Five bad habits:
1. gnawing on the sides of my tongue when I’m nervous
2. piling books and papers (and shoes) on the table and in the corner of the LR
3. not giving my full attention to my kids when they’re talking to me
4. driving to school when I should take the shuttle
5. not answering the phone, even though I am often home (I hate talking on the phone)
Five things you like doing:
1. talking w/my outhouse friends
2. sitting in my garden and watching the bees in the lavender
3. eating fruit
4. being with John and my kids
5. exercising: lifting weights and swimming
Five things you would never wear again:
1. a cast (I hope)
2. 80’s glasses (like the clear round-ish ones I wore my soph year)
3. earrings w/dangling fruits (my 1st year of college–ACK!)
4. can’t think of anything else….
Five things that scare you:
1. Something awful happening to the kids or to John
2. rodents
3. gophers
4. ROUSS’s
5. my computer dying…
Five favorite toys:
1. ellycat and tobyjoy
2. junebug
3. retro turntable
4. dig camera
5. ingenuitea
