Sunday, November 23, 2014

Souvenirs from world travels

I was looking through my photos and saw a potential post. I've traveled all over the world and bought souvenirs from every stop. They're everywhere around my house. I thought I would add a new one every week, thus sharing a bit of my travels. This first one is a photo of my two girls from Ireland. Why did I buy two? Look at their hair--I could not decide between the wee lassie (is that Scottish?) with straight, red hair or the one with the wild, curly hair? So, I bought both!!
Correction: Now I see I cannot see clearly. The so-called straight hair is tiny twists of hair to form tight ringlets. My bad.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Irony

I was a shy thing in high school, especially with guys I was attracted to. Others, no prob. Talk, talk, talk. I'm sure that's true of many. In high school I crushed on one particular boy from 8th grade through senior year when I did finally land a good catch. I was not shy with him.

Anyway, the subject is Johnny. It is 50 years later and I'm in the gym before school, doing duty, when the football coach walks by. I stop him and let him know something wild is about to come out of my mouth. Couldn't help myself. I told him: "You are one good-looking dude." He laughed, hugged me, and said he needed that. Then I told him I went to high school with a guy with the same last name. Oh, ha, ha, he said, he's my dad!

So, see the irony? High school attraction, now attraction--no, I'm not attracted, just have good eyes which see really well. But, isn't it funny?

Wanna know how shy that guy is? He sent off for a mail-order bride from the Philippines. The son told me they had been married for 25 years. Just goes to show that love is not a requirement, although I'm sure they fell in love. I hope so.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

My 50th class reunion

A couple of weeks ago my senior class, Woodlawn 1964, held its 50th reunion. I didn't go. I simply could not get up the energy to even want to go. At one point I did fill out the form of intent but could not mail it.

So why? I know a couple of reasons, or at least what I think are reasons, but I was never sure. That's why I'm writing this blog--to see if I can discover why I could not go.

Here's what I think:
1. I would have to go alone. In nearly every picture taken during the event each person had a "date" with him/her. I would have felt out of place.
2. This one comes on the heels of the one above. Sometimes I have panic attacks when in large crowds where I don't have a home base. As a loner, would a group of pairs have tolerated my joining them? At the first sign of rejection, I would have fled, as I have done many a time.
3. So many of my classmates have one spouse and claim happiness. I've had two disastrous marriages. I have no children or grandchildren on whom I dote. I totally feel the burden of my aloneness. I am happy not being married --actually, I'm happily divorced.
4. I have not enjoyed seeing what has happened to us. We are nearly all overweight. We're boomers! We should have kept up physically. What happened? Why did we let that dream die (of staying fit and trim).
5. I was not friends with most of the people on the planning committee. In fact, nothing was ever mentioned by or about my friends in high school. It would be those folks whom I would want to see. Otherwise, panic over the aloneness.

So, I think that's it. In these reasons is probably the truth or something imitating it.

A favorite souvenir

A favorite souvenir
These are my two girls from Ireland!

Judy's shared items

Books on my very ambitious TBR list (*denotes read)

  • *Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox
  • The Odd Women by George Gissing
  • The Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson
  • How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esme Raji Codell
  • The Cod Tale by Mark Kurlansky
  • In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
  • *Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
  • Dag Hammarskjold by Elizabeth Rider Montgomery
  • The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet by Rabbi Michael L. Munk
  • Children of Strangers by Lyle Saxon
  • Spiritual Writings by Flannery O'Connor
  • Nightmares and Visions: Flannery O'Connor and the Catholic Grotesque by Gilbert H. Muller
  • The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor
  • Flannery O'Connor's South by Robert Coles
  • Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
  • Sylvanus Now by Donna Morrissey
  • *Vincent de Paul by Margaret Ann Hubbard
  • Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
  • A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  • The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
  • Readicide by Kelly Gallagher
  • *Ruined by Paula Morris
  • Say You're Not One of Them by Uwem Akpan
  • Wandering Star by J.M.G. Le Clezio
  • Silence by Shusaku Endo
  • *The Assault by Harry Mulisch
  • Kari's Saga by Robert Jansson
  • *The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal
  • Western Skies by Joseph Conrad
  • *The Giver by Lois Lowery
  • *Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski

School Library Journal - NeverEndingSearch

Imperium

Imperium
A semester course in one book about the Soviet Union. Click on image for my review.