I think I mentioned that this was the strangest Christmas ever here in the land of Robin. What with the move at the end November, there just was NO time for Christmas shopping, decorating, gifting, etc. We let everyone know that we simply were not gifting this year. We LOVED everyone just as much as ever, but we were stretched and stressed out.
With this in mind, I knew it would make for a bizarre-o Christmas for H-Girl and C-Man. I used to be The Gifter like that insane woman in the commercial who buys buys buys. Yes, I was a Dream Come True for a kid. I loved Christmas as a kid and I wanted them to love it, too. I wanted them to have all of my traditions and feel.the.love. As it turns out, my ex had tons of traditions of his own, and his family had lots of love to give, too. So, they were WELL LOVED on Christmas. By Christmas afternoon they went into Christmas shell-shock. And still the gifts kept coming. So much family dysfunction. So many divorces. So many relatives. So much LOVE.
After my ex and I divorced, I decided that it was a good thing when I moved to FL, and I actually did Christmas with them in January. They had a few weeks to come off the Christmas high. I also decided, at long last, to tone it down somewhat. A serious lack of finances will do that to you. Add to that the realization that all of that STUFF wasn't actually making them better people. Go figure. Did you know that more stuff in the hands of children does not equate to a better child? Seriously. I have seen the results. It is fact.
However, I knew that "no gifts this year" would not make me the best non-mom ever. So, I decided, as I was packing up my stuff, to go through it and give them the gift of me. Stuff I would like them to have maybe a little sooner than I intended. Or stuff that I thought they would like that was currently mine. It turned out that this was easier for H-Girl than C-Man since we are both... girls. I did luck up and find the comforter that I bought for C-Man back when I was planning on redecorating his room WAY back in the day. As in back when he lived with me. Yeah, that was in storage a long time. Fortunately, I chose something that was suitable for a boy of any age. Lucky me. The rest of the boy stuff looked a lot like this:
In addition to the novels, I did find a book on Astronomy to mix it up. And I also found some "really old" books that I thought were interesting, simply because they were the first books I bought with my own money from Scholastic Book Services. Ergo, they were important to me. I also found a Neil Simon play because the kid showed some interest in drama at school last year. However, I should have realized that he had totally lost all interest in reading and this was NOT going to be a hit when he was not happy about his birthday present (another book) that I had shipped to him earlier in December. He was less than thrilled to get it.
When I saw him he still had not read it. So, I should have known that this bounty of books was going to go over like... well, a bad smell. What did he say about my precious books, that I had so valiantly saved because they were my first ever book purchases? "Oooh, they are old. Look at the pages. They are yellowing. What is the copyright date on this? 1981. Mommy, you are REALLY OLD."
He had been quoting from the Neil Simon play as he was flipping through it earlier. I hadn't really looked at it as thoroughly as I should have, and Mr. Simon used the sh*t word quite frequently. C-Man found this to be rather amusing. He substituted poop and kept quoting from the play. One of the lines was about shoving something up someone's something. I then told C-Man if he didn't lay off my book I was going to shove it up his ::something:: Merry Freaking Christmas.
Ironically, this story usually plays the other way. Usually C-Man is a darling and H-Girl has me pulling my hair. H-Girl was a delight. She loved all of her hair things, fingernail polish, pedicure kit, the tiara I gave her from when I married her dad (let's face it, I won't be using that again), some purses, a tye-dye kit, some pictures in frames from when she and her brother were younger, and bracelets like these that I made when I was a camp counselor:
Those she really loved. None of mine had the cool peace sign, but she REALLY liked them, and she thought it was pretty awesome that I knew how to make them. I think I went up a notch.
I also gave C-Man all of my favorite cartoons that I had cut out from the newspaper and saved from the 80s. I don't think it even registered. He is hording that along with my treasured Calvin and Hobbes Book that was a collector's item. I gave that to him last year. He probably lost it. I would ask, but I just don't want to hear him tell me that he has "no idea" where it is. I'd hate to lose control of my arm and accidentally clock him in the jaw.
My doctor told me this last visit that my stress is way too high. She says that I need to do one hour of meditation daily. I think she's right.
This is going to be one of my last posts for a while that is me choosing the subject matter. Of course, I do have this knack of inserting my variation of what is on my mind into themed subject matter. Ah well. I suppose we all have our vices. Ironically, today I really don't have any one thing that is scratching around in my mind desperate to get out. I will admit that I have gotten lax about reading my Lucy March posts daily like I was. For those of you wondering about that one, I found Lucy March's website and was going to treat it like all new websites I find. Start where you are. Turns out that was impossible. So... I had to go back to the beginning of when she started blogging (turns out it was Jan. 2010) and began reading about four posts at a time. That was all my mind could take in at one sitting. It inspired me to do some internal cleansing of my own. Cleaning your emotional or mental house, I suppose. I am still not done. I have a feeling that this 30 day letter thing will unearth some more of that. It is why I took it on.
If you are scratching your head on the 30 day letter thing, I will post links on all of this stuff. I forget that I am constantly getting new people or old readers who have lives and don't read my blog daily. What? You don't find me fascinating and hang on my every word? Well, the world just stopped spinning. I can definitely see the need for those links.
Lucy (yes, Lucy March)... I hope that you are back for this Purple Cow... she isn't a big Lucy March fan. I think she's jealous. Anywhoozle. Nah, can't leave it there. Seriously, Purple Cow, if you would read her blog, I think you would like her. To be fair, I think all of my followers should read Purple Cow's blog, too. She is on vacation right now (or was), but she is a fairly regular blogger. She is very smart. That scares some people. I just tell her I don't know what in the crap she is talking about. But then she says that about my writing, too. But she keeps reading it. So, there you go. I'll post a link to both blogs. Problem solved.
Back to Lucy (my mind is so easily diverted that it is scary)... she made this list of 50 things that she liked. I can't remember why she did it. I know it was because someone that she admired did it. At the time, I was thinking "50 Things, Holy Crap, I could never think of 50 things. I have a hard time coming up with ten." And that is exactly why I need to think of 50 things. 50 things are really not that many things. I am a huge believer of positive thoughts building on positive thoughts, and negative thoughts building on negative thoughts.
In fact, one of the blogs that I just started following, Destination Unknown, written by Nicole, dedicated an entire post to visualization. That is something that I believe in with my whole heart and soul. Have I written a post on visualization? No. Why not? I don't know. But you believe in it with your whole heart and soul. I know, I just said that. Then why isn't there a post about it? I DON'T FREAKING KNOW. Have I ever mentioned that I talk to myself? The conversations go a lot like that. I will post a link to her blog, too, on visualization.
One of the ways to build on positive thoughts is to focus on the things that you like. The more you focus on the things that you like, the more that other things that you like will come to you, and it builds on top of itself. The same holds true for negative thoughts. However, before we start this list, I have to share this with you because it is so funny. Have you noticed the stats link on your dashboard? It is riveting with all of the information it provides. However, none of it is more hilarious than the keywords people have entered into a search engine to find your blog. Here are the funniest words people have entered into search engines to find mine:
beanie baby collecting freak
had sex in the car wash
here's to you, for grammar
blogspot your daily gay dose
dream meaning-i was on fire had to stop drop and roll
ill have a vodka, valium, saying
marshall mathers overdose
password for your southern belle
carlos ricardo manoso aka ranger
daily hot word
i am not afraid
breaking up love
catching cab in st. maarten
Doesn't that make you think and rethink what you put in your tag line at the bottom of your post? It makes me think I want to get really creative with it now. Who knows what might show up in my stats if I go for it with gusto? I haven't really been trying before now. Who knows what would happen if I gave it my full creative attention? I am feeling just a little bit wicked. That would be a great word for the tag. Wicked. I am writing it right now. It made me happy.
Okay, now moving on to 50 things I like:
1. Apparently feeling wicked.
2. A soft mattress and clean sheets.
3. Really great sex. Hey, I am being honest. That means multiple O's for those of who don't know what really great sex is. Oh, and a guy who knows how to kiss. Man, there is nothing better than a great kisser. If he can't kiss, there are no great O's in my future.
4. Sandals.
5. A really good book, TV show, or movie. Something with a great story It can be happy, sad, or both. It just has to be written well.
6. A fantastic haircut.
7. Clothes that you know you look hot in.
8. Singing a song at the karaoke bar and nailing it.
9. Theatre: feeling the character in the audition, becoming the character during the rehearsal, being the character during the performances. In live theatre, you know when you have them and when you don't. There is nothing more gratifying then knowing subliminally they are yours. And you are the character. Robin is gone and Whoever has taken her place and you really are that person.
10. My dog. She is always honest. Dogs just love you. They don't have to think about it or put conditions on it. They just love you. So refreshing. (Note: this is not me or my dog.)
11. Paying your bills online.
12. Television on DVD.
13. Cell phones.
14. Youtube.
15. Facebook.
16. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.
17. The Breakfast Club (that would be a movie ::she shudders::).
18. Camp Cherith.
19. Robin, my next door neighbor growing up.
20. My current doctors.
21. C-Man and H-Girl.
22. Watching the ocean.
23. Pink and Purple. Together or Separately.
24. Music.
25. Painting. Not the arty kind, but painting rooms in a house. But I've only done it in MY house. So, I am not sure that it extends to general painting or just the satisfaction of painting my own home.
26. Writing. This blog and my novel. Though my novel is riding in the backseat right now.
27. Playing board and card games.
28. Fall and Winter in the south.
29. Leaves when they change colors (I know that sounds like 28, but leaves change color in the north, too.)
30. Christmas.
31. Corduroy. I have a jacket that I love in brown that I have almost lost too many times. And a pair of maroon pants that probably don't fit anymore since I have lost all this weight. (all this weight being like 10 lbs. That would be a pants size, folks)
32. Pictures. I love looking at pictures dating back to when my grandparents were kids.
33. Air conditioning. I hate being hot.
34. Hot tub. I would love to have one in my house. (I know this sounds off after the hating to be hot statement. But, it soothes my aching muscles and joints caused by the fibromyalgia pain. After I get out, I lie underneath a ceiling fan. It works for me.)
35. Fleecy blankets.
36. The smell of vanilla.
37. The smell of puppy breath.
38. The salmon salad at Longhorn Steakhouse. Yum.
39. TLC's show WHAT NOT TO WEAR. Man, that has been a learning experience.
40. People who are honest without being mean.
41. Moisturizer.
42. Illusions by Richard Bach.
43. Michael J. Fox for not allowing his disease to define him, but boldly stepping into the spotlight to show people how far we still have to go in order to really help people. You are inspirational.
44. All of the amazing comments I get from YOU each day. Sometimes those comments are the BEST part of my day. Other times they are just icing on the cake. Either way, you took time out of your day to read what I had to say and then more time to formulate a thoughtful comment. It means a lot. A lot isn't strong enough. If no one has told you today that you are amazing, I am telling you now. You are amazing.
45. I like shoes. I have lots of shoes. I need to get rid of some shoes. I am surrounded by shoes. Nuff said.
46. In the same vein, I have clothes. I need to get rid of some clothes. The problem with this is that I don't know what size I will be wearing next month. Or the month after that. So, I guess that means I need to box clothes into crates by size and season. And just get rid of the stuff I just don't wear. I have this Halloween shirt that I like that says "Spooky" on it. I like it. I know it really isn't "my color." It's in an olive green. My mother took one look at me in that shirt the other day and said, "That color looks terrible on you." Hmmmm. I suppose that it should be put in the To Go pile. I knew it wasn't my best color. But I already ditched my favorite Halloween shirt because I thought I would never be a small again. Guess who will be at Target looking for new Halloween shirts? We pronounce that Tarshay around here to class it up a bit.
47. I like cutesy underwear. I still prefer cotton because it breathes. But the plain colors bore me. Give me something with a pattern, if you please. Oh, and those Hanes no ride-up underwear really don't ride up, if you wanted to know. Was that TMI? I am down to the nitty gritty here....
48. I like my soaps. I always have. I am an addict. I think the appeal is in the longevity of the show. Well, that is the appeal now. When you have been watching something for 20 years you are invested. You may find this hard to believe, but I learned a lot of valuable lessons from soaps. Don't lie. (It always comes back around to bite you in the end.) Don't cheat. (It always comes back around to bite you in the end.) He who lives by the sword will die by the sword. (If you live dangerously, chances are good your life will end bloody.) Time is too short to waste on being angry with someone you truly love. (Things happen and people die and you might not get to tell them how you actually feel. That is a hard pill to swallow.) See what I mean? In between everything else, there are some good lessons.
49. I like people who have nice teeth and who don't touch their face all of the time. I know that is odd. I don't know what to say about the whole thing with the teeth. I just know it is true. In truth, when someone is touching the face all of the time, it is likely a nervous habit, but it makes me crazy. I just want to grab their hand or hands and hold them in place.
50. I like people who go against the grain. What does that mean? I am so glad you asked. Turn off your music player at the bottom of the page. This little recording takes two minutes to explain it better than I ever could.
51. This isn't a like, but more of a wish. I wish that Marshall Mathers smiled more. I am one of the recently converted and I am really impressed with all that he went through in his life. He has this strong inner core. Most people wouldn't have made it; he did. I know that a lot of crap has blown his way in his personal life. A lot of crap has blown his way professionally, too. But, he still is shining. Despite all of it, he is still shining, so I wished that all of that inner sunshine came through just a little bit more on the outside. I know that you're a rapper. You have an image. You're also a human being and smiling makes a person feel better. Try it out. You just might like it. I mean all rough and tough is sexy. I grant you that much. But smiling is sexy, too. You just gotta trust me on that one.
See, we got the message and it has stuck. Now, you can smile to show that you came out on the other side. Unless your teeth are nasty. Then, it would be best to keep your mouth closed until you spent that hard earned money on a good orthodontist. Then you could smile. That would be so hot.
This business of finding the lost car key has caused us to sort through everything in storage. It is a daunting task. When the idea came up, straightaway it took me back to the packing up of my house and what a HUGE endeavor that turned out to be. I pitched so much stuff, gave tons to Goodwill, and still had too much when it was all said and done.
I remember that when I first started the packing process in 2006, there was more deliberation about what to keep and what to trash. As the moving deadline got closer, it became more frenzied. I also asked for help from friends. Those people didn't know what to keep and what to pitch, so they packed everything. Naturally. I had two bookcases full of books. There were doubledecked on the shelves with paperbacks. And I has a smaller bookcase that was only two-tiered, but also overflowing. I had books! Now, I have many boxes of books. My mother warned me about this before my step-dad began carting boxes back to the house. It went something like this:
Her: You do realize that books don't fare well in storage.
Me: Um. Yeah.
Her: You are very allergic to mildew and the chances are going to be high that they will be mildewy.
Me: Right. Mildew.
Her: We can try to save the ones you really want to keep by airing them out on the back porch, but you will likely have to get rid of most of them.
Me: Right.
These are the words that a pack rat most dreads. She knew this about me, so we had this conversation several days ago so that it could sink in today. We went through two boxes today. The books weren't as bad off as I expected. However, the space problem remained the same: it is very limited. For the most part, I just sent them to the library. They weren't that mildewy after all. I did catch up with one of my missing Richard Bach books. I will get them all before this is done!
And I found a book called SIMPLE ABUNDANCE: A DAYBOOK OF COMFORT AND JOY by Sarah Ban Breathnach. There is a short read for each day of the year. Today's post hit me right where I lived. I love it when that happens. She was talking about visiting a friend who had made small changes to her living room that spruced it up and made it a real living space. The changes were minor, but they made major changes in their lives. She noticed it immediately when she walked in, but couldn't put her finger on the specifics.
Then she applied what she learned from that to her life. She started talking about her own metaphorical "living room/house" and this is what she said: "The biggest stumbling block for me when I began to bring more order into the daily fabric of our lives - and I began in the living room - was acceptance, even though I knew this was the crucial first step. I'm embarrassed to admit how much time, energy, and emotion (precious natural resources) I squandered hating the fact that our house wasn't more spacious. But hating my house only bound me psychologically and blinded me creatively to its many positive qualities. An ancient metaphysical law says that we can never leave any situation that causes us discomfort until we learn to love it or at least to see love at work in it."
As I said, she nailed that right on the head. That book was published in 1991. How did she know that on this day in 2010 I would be struggling with this very thing? One thing is certain: my space situation isn't changing. In fact, it is going to get worse because there are a lot more boxes coming and the shelves are full. So, Houston, we have a problem.
It is a funny thing. I can clearly see how negative people suck our energy. How long would I have let this book thing string me along with anxiety before I hit my Meltdown switch? Don't know. But I can totally envision it happening. I am not quite sure how I am going to get that place of loving the lack of space. Loving the things it gives and not just seeing what it takes. There is a lesson here. I can feel it, so I know it's important. I refuse to waste my precious natural resources, so that means I can learn to love it, or at least see love at work in it. Those are the only acceptable choices.
So, are you a pack rat or extremely organized? Or an organized pack rat? Do those exist? Are you are reformed pack rat who has shed all of that old stuff? If so, what did that feel like? Would you do it again or do you wish you had your old stuff back?
Ah.... my blogging friends, I am still on vacation. It is a mixture of intense fun and intense migraine. Go figure. I had two days of intense fun followed by a day of intense migraine (that was yesterday). Today is a day of mild migraine. The first round of family is now in the air and headed back for Ohio. The next wave arrives tomorrow. Today is a day of mild migraine. And here I sit. The upside is that it is not at McDonalds. The internet has been restored at the resort. Woohoo. I have been checking your blogs (catch as catch can over the past few days and commenting as time has allowed). I do fear that there will not be a HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY this week. The pissabilities are just not looking good. If you are still not familiar with this word. It is my contribution to the English language. I wrote a blog on it and explain its meaning in detail. I will come back and link it for you. You can read that blog (or not) for a vivid understanding of a word that I hope one day is recorded in Merriam Webster's Dictionary. Ideally, it would have my name beside it as the creator of said word, but I find that dubious at best.
During my blog reading today, I happened upon Carol's blog over at Carol's Prints. Carol is a wonderful writer, one of those writers that I feel really lucky to have found in this blogsphere. She has taught me a lot about the process of writing if you want to be published. She is trying to get published to the YA market. The way I see it, if you are that good, if all I have learned is the process, that means I have merely scratched the tip of a very large iceberg. Therefore, I always enjoy reading Carol's blogs because they are enjoyable, and I know that I will learn something as a writer. It is a two for one deal with Carol. Well... all that said, it is now a three for one deal with Carol, because she is doing a book give-away. She isn't giving away just one book. Nosireee. She is giving away LOTS of books. Carol tends to take an idea and say, "How big can we make this thing? And then takes it up a notch."
So, I have in my sidebar right now a little bit of information on Carol's book giveaway. I also have a link that you can click that will take you directly to the post of Carol's book giveaway. When you read her rules you will see all of the ways that you can get points for her giveaway. Well, one of those ways is this: when you post information about Carol's giveaway on your blog, and then they check it out and enter THEY NEED TO TELL YOU WHICH ONE OF HER FRIENDS REFERRED THEM TO HER BLOG, BECAUSE DESPITE HER IMPRESSIVE SKILLS SHE ISN'T A MIND READER. SO PLEASE TELL HER THAT ROBIN FROM YOUR DAILY DOSE SENT YOU WHEN YOU ENTER. Thanks guys, you are so awesome. Now, let's win some books!
Last of all, would you believe that NO ONE thought to remember to bring a camera to record this auspicious event???? However, my dad packed silverware. I was hatched from crazy people.
The more work I've done on my book, the more thinking I've done about the very real characters in my actual life. My next thought was: what if in my next book I take all of my larger than life family members and friends and make them into characters in a book? Woah. They wouldn't necessarily interact in the same way with the people that they do now... just take their essence and use it as a basis for a character.
Since you don't know the main players here, this isn't scrambling your brains. My grandpa on my mother's side was a big man who liked to boss people around and really wasn't all that likable. However, he really did love his family. He just had no clue about how to show it. He was a complex person. And there wasn't a surgery that he didn't love or a pill he didn't think he needed to take. His philosophy was: the more, the better. My grandma, his sweet wife, was the nicest person in the world and received most of the bossing. She was also very smart and witty and it's a real shame that her husband never knew it. However, the rest of the world recognized what a wonderful person she was. Her fatal flaw was her inability to leave the person determined to crush her spirit. Like I said, it was a complex dynamic. My other grandma would have crushed him like a bug. She didn't take crap from anybody and she had five divorces to prove it. She also worked lots of jobs, including tending bar, and liked to ride horses. She says that the only man she ever loved was my father's dad, but they got divorced when one or both of them cheated on the other. Yeah. It's complicated.
Moving down the family tree, my Aunt She was a lot like my grandma, the bug crusher. Stands to reason because it was her mother. She was divorced I don't know how many times, worked in the coal mines,had black hair, and an olive complexion. She reminded me a little bit of Cher, except her hair wasn't as long, and she wasn't as skinny. She'd tell stories about working in the coal mines and kicking butt. Aunt She was larger than life. She walked into a room and you felt all of the oxygen disappear. My mom's sister was a lot like my Aunt She, but less kick butt, and more funny. When we went to her house to visit, it was all hilarious stories of the wild and crazy things that she did as a teenager. Things like running through the house because she'd turned the hose on the boy who lived behind them, and he chased after her, and she couldn't stop and ran right through the front door screen. Stuff like that. She had some impulse control issues as a teenager. Again, another great book character!
My mother's brother is mellow. I don't know what I would do with that. But his wife is a totally different story. It is the women in our family who keep things interesting. The men just try to keep up. Well, there are some exceptions... but I haven't gotten there yet. My aunt has been a firecracker since birth, although I wasn't around then. But I grew up on tales like this one: she bought a case of Pepsi (when it was in bottles) and someone had put a cigarette butt in the full bottle and capped it. She called Pepsi and pitched a fit. She had free Pepsi for a year. She has had free products of all kinds of things for a year because if it isn't right, she calls and she lets them know. There are no free passes at her house!
I guess I have to include my dad on this family tree. He is a man of few interests. However, whatever these interests are, they are solid. And he is absorbed. He is knowledgeable on his subject matter. Every now and then he may discover something new, but he pretty much sticks with the same things, learning all he can. He is not high drama. So, all of these personalities are not easy for him to take. These are all high maintenance people. I guess that just makes it more interesting (in terms of my book) probably not so much for dad:-(.
My mom is tougher to pigeonhole. She is pretty level. She's not high drama. She's smart. She's funny. Most of the time she would be one of the people who looks normal next to these wacky other characters, but then she has her moments, so...
Moving down the tree again (we're now into siblings and cousins)... On my dad's side, are my Aunt She's kids. Lynne has also made a pretty normal life for herself. She has some unusual talents and gifts and she is a bit arty, but I think that is cool. My cousin Mike never was normal and never will be. He didn't stand a chance. He got the wacko gene all the down the line and then on his daddy's side, too. But, he is a laugh riot. There is no one funnier, no one more loyal, and no one I'd rather spend a night in jail with if that was how that it all went down. In fact, he'd make an excellent main character. He's been there, done that, and seen everything TWICE. And he does excellent impersonations.
The screwy gene seems to have dried up on my mother's side of the family. I think I'm the only still running with it like Don Quixote tilting at the windmill. Everyone has jobs, kids, and normal lives. What is that all about? Not one of them in the bunch makes for a good book character. Well, I do have a cousin who does float from job to job, but she stays employed. I think that says more about the economy than her, so I don't think that counts.
Now, shake the box and mix these people up. Far out. Especially if I throw in some wacky friends.
Gee this was fun. I hope that I didn't offend my entire family and get uninvited from all holiday functions for the rest of the year. Easter is just around the corner. I maybe should have waited a couple of weeks before publishing this blog. The next big holiday is 4Th of July and we don't do much for that anyway.... Then, it's Thanksgiving. Surely, they won't still be mad in November...
I found my first Quote Book about a month ago in a box of old books. From there it, and the rest of the books, found a new home in the guest room closet. I have no inspiration today. My thoughts are not positive, happy ones and yet I promised to post something every day. And then I remembered my Quote book, aka my loophole. I found a way out; I don't have to post MY thoughts today. Today I can post thoughts that have inspired me or simply stopped me in my tracks to reevaluate.
"I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind." ~Emily Bronte
"Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you." ~Aldous Huxley
"To get the attention of a large animal, be it an elephant or a bureaucracy, it helps to know what part of it feels pain. Be very sure, though, that you want its full attention." ~Kelvin Throop, III
"In the long run you hit what you aim for. Therefore, though you should fail immediately you had better aim at something high." ~Henry David Thoreau
"People will sometimes forgive you the good you have done them, but seldom the harm they have done you." ~W. Somerset Maugham
"Don't oppose forces, use them. God is a verb, not a noun." ~R. Buckminister Fuller
"While the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes that right important." ~Walter Lippman
"Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy." ~F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Well, being divorced is like being hit by a Mack truck. If you live through it, you start looking very carefully to the right and the left. ~Jean Kerr
"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that it all happened to you, and afterwards it all belongs to you." ~Ernest Hemingway
I am 99.9% certain that I can credit Mary Hull with the assessment that a person can learn something from just about anything. For instance, she said that if she were reading a book that was terrible, she would just put it down. Not finish it. Stop. Her time was more valuable than that. When she said that my mind short circuited for at least fifteen seconds. I was suddenly thinking about books that I had struggled through, not for school, but on my own personal time because I had this need to get to the end just because. The end turned out to be just as disappointing as the beginning and the middle, so why did I do it? Because I am ever the optimist and couldn't help but hope that the author would have some sort of revelation. The publisher did spend money to publish it, after all.
This revolutionary statement was made after gym class and I dream walked to my next class with my brain now somersaulting from books to other "leisure" activities that I have endured from beginning to end all in the name of fun when I could have just said "No," and walked away. For years we had one TV in our house. Did I always get to watch I wanted? No. Did I watch it anyway? Yes. I felt another short circuit coming on. Ouch. Suddenly the image of all those horrible junior high school dances in the gym floated into my brain. Horrible, terrible times. Did anyone make me go? No. Did I go? Yes. In fact, I believe I paid good money for that torture. Another blast of electricity. Oh, the pain.
And then came the joy. Never again will I read a poorly written book unless I have to for class, or sit through miserable television programming, or watch a movie that is complete crap. Later in life, I would include on that list, listen to telemarketers on the phone or listen to beligerent husbands and/or ex-husbands on the phone. Did you know it is actually okay to hang up on people who are rude?
So, thank you Mary Hull. You are the only person who ever taught me anything worth learning in gym class.
