Stiltsville by Susanna Daniel
This novel, about a couple’s everyday life from the 60’s through the 90’s, is beautiful, real, and profound. A few times I was moved to tears just by how perfectly the author captured the evolving atmosphere of South Florida – only a true Miami native could have written this. It made me feel like I was home again.
The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
The first two books in the trilogy-within-a-series that will wrap up the Wheel of Time. Brandon Sanderson is second only to Joss Whedon in his ability to write strong, feminine, multi-layered women, and all the characters (not just the women) are really fleshing out under his authorship. I want to sit at Egwene al’Vere’s feet and learn the weaves for awesomeness. I hate to say it, but I liked these books better than any of Jordan’s!
Oh and please note that both of these clock in around 800 pages, severely lowering my book count for the month. It’s a miracle that I even finished the last one last night, in time to make the book list. I also got a lot of Looks while reading them in public, which is odd – I mean, some Harry Potter books are about the same length and no one gives weird looks about those.
Books for November: 3
2010 year to date: 61
3 Comments + Posted in: book reviews, reading
I spent this Thanksgiving weekend in Miami with my mom, grandparents, uncle, and assorted cousins. My mom and sister had gone there for the past four or five Thanksgivings while I stayed in Memphis with my dad, brother, and then-husband and siblings-in-law. This year, my dad and brother left on Thanksgiving Day for a hunting trip, and my sister was with her in-laws, so Miami was the only option if I didn’t want to be alone.
It was my first Thanksgiving in Miami since I lived there, and a difficult one not only for my obvious reasons, but also because it was the first one without my great-Aunt Betsy, who died suddenly in June. I’m told she used to rule the roost and prepare everything on Thanksgiving. So it was a subdued holiday for all the relatives, but we were glad to see each other. My grandfather ordered a turkey from an (awesome) Italian grocery, and other relatives brought all the side dishes, so I didn’t have to prepare anything. I tried to see it as a nice break, but it felt so wrong not to be cooking on Thanksgiving!
I was able to spend some time on a boat, thanks to my cousin Kim and her family!
(my distinguished-looking grandfather)
I got to have lunch with Kristi, who’s been my friend since kindergarten. We’ve kept in touch all these years and she might visit me soon!
One night we were invited to the apartment of one of my uncle’s business associates. She lives on the 29th floor of a building near Hollywood Beach, with a full view of the city on one side and the ocean on the other! It was amazing, but I had to stay back from the railing – heights are making me more nervous as I get older.
On Sunday, my mom, uncle, and I went to Hollywood Beach (my favorite beach as a kid) to ride bikes! I felt Severely Irritated at not seeing the ocean after several days in Miami, so finally getting to the beach was a huge relief. We rode several miles up to Dania Pier and then back to Hollywood. It was a satisfying ocean communion time.
1 Comment + Posted in: celebrate, fall, family, florida, ocean
This is what I’ve come to believe about change: it’s good, in the way that childbirth is good, and heartbreak is good, and failure is good. By that I mean that it’s incredibly painful, exponentially more so if you fight it, and also that it has the potential to open you up, to open life up, to deliver you right into the palm of God’s hand, which is where you wanted to be all along, except that you were too busy pushing and pulling your life into exactly what you thought it should be. So this is the work I’m doing now, and the work I invite you into: when life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow.…If you dig in and fight the changes, they will smash you to bits. They’ll hold you under, drag you across the rough sand, scare and confuse you. But if you can find it within yourself, in the wildest of seasons, just for a moment, to trust in the goodness of God, who made it all and holds it all together, you’ll find yourself drawn along to a whole new place, and there’s truly nothing sweeter.
– Shauna Niequist
3 Comments + Posted in: quotes
This is my 100th blog post! I thought about doing a 100 Things About Me, as many bloggers do, to celebrate. But since it’s Thanksgiving (and I’d like to maintain some mystery), here are 100 random things I’m thankful for:
1. My salvation
2. Colors
3. The ocean
4. Dolphins, whales, and other sea life
5. My parents’ love, support, and 34-year marriage
6. My siblings
7. My wonderful friends
8. Lilies
9. My lovely home (which I just refinanced – woo hoo!)
10. My backyard hammock, between two trees
11. My cats
12. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
13. The fact that being a nerd has a certain panache right now
14. My high school band years, which helped to make me who I am today
15. My college RUF years – see above
16. My free college education (thank you Cecil C. Humphries Scholarship)
17. Cute shoes
18. My fantastic new church
19. Coffee
20. Bed Bath & Beyond 20% off coupons
21. Getting to sleep in most Saturday mornings
22. The ability to visit Florida at least once a year so I don’t waste away with longing
23. Birthdays
24. Avocados
25. McAlister’s sweet tea
26. The Peanuts gang
27. Art supplies and office supplies
28. Hugs
29. Dancing
30. Fresh herbs
31. Aveeno Stress Relief Moisturizing Lotion
32. Philippians 1:6, I Peter 1:6-7, and Psalm 34
33. Realizing that I don’t have to have everything figured out all the time
34. Watching friends achieve goals and get married and have babies
35. Having a stable job for the past nine years
36. The Palladia channel
37. iPods, for giving me an outlet for my lifelong music-shuffling tendencies
38. Easy-Way Produce stores
39. Trees
40. Running water
41. Contact lenses
42. OPI nail polish – it really is the best
43. Sonic Happy Hour
44. Gardening (it lets me participate in the circle of life)
45. Birds
46. Meteor showers
47. “Walk On” by U2
48. Cake of any kind
49. Seasons
50. Friends and its ability to make me laugh no matter what’s going on
51. Snow days
52. Using my experience to help and advise others
53. Libraries
54. Not having to use much math in everyday life (since I’m horrible at it)
55. Pens that write well
56. Auto-complete – it makes texting and working much faster, and when it’s incorrect, it’s funny
57. My camera
58. Prayer
59. Pancakes
60. Sunshine
61. Having a lot of storage space
62. The general good health of my loved ones
63. Holiday weekends
64. Tiger basketball and Coach Pastner
65. The fact that my car is paid in full and still functioning
66. Hope
67. Family and friends who share my sense of humor
68. My red peacoat
69. Flip-flops
70. Living within walking distance of several parks
71. Google Maps
72. My bed
73. Having access to exercise equipment at work so I can exercise on my lunch break
74. The ability to play an instrument (if poorly :\)
75. Feeling really free to be myself for possibly the first time ever
76. My set of beautiful tri-clad cookware with glass lids
77. The quote-ability of Mr. Deeds
78. Entertainment Weekly in my mailbox every Friday
79. Bougainvillea (pretty and fun to say)
80. Greek food
81. Freedom
82. Possibilities
83. Fall foliage
84. Crock-Pots
85. The fact that my company provides me with tissues at work (I go through a lot of them)
86. The happiness that comes over me when I’m on a boat
87. My automatic thermostat (they do save money!)
88. Getting back in touch with childhood friends after many years
89. The Olympics
90. Air Wick Harvest Spice plug-ins
91. Saying the creed at church every week and knowing that I’m part of something much bigger than myself
92. Terra cotta pots that weather nicely
93. Coke Zero
94. Having a recycling center near my house
95. Candles
96. The many people who have been so nonjudgmental and caring toward me this year
97. Chocolate
98. Ergonomic keyboards
99. Hymns that have stood the test of time
100. The fact that tomorrow is always new day with no mistakes in it yet.
2 Comments + Posted in: celebrate, fall, milestone
About three years ago, my company upgraded our exercise room with new exercise machines, each with its own built-in TV. Before this, there was only one TV for the whole room, and passive-aggressive channel-changing was common. I happened to exercise on the same schedule as a group of women who were addicted to The Bold and the Beautiful. But that’s a story for another day.
For a few weeks, I flipped channels on the elliptical, never really interested in anything I saw (but glad to have options). Then a show on SoapNet caught my attention. It was about a pair of feuding, basketball-playing teenage guys, who were somehow brothers even though they were the same age and not twins. I had to have a friend explain it all to me. And that’s how I discovered my now all-time favorite guilty pleasure show, One Tree Hill.
OTH is a teen soap. But it has better overall character development than any other teen soap I’ve seen. The main characters are all passionate about something – art, basketball, writing, fashion, music, whatever. They care about doing something important with their lives. They make a lot of mistakes, but they (mostly) face their personal demons and overcome them. They’re devoted to each other. Some of them sleep around, but that choice usually results in real consequences. On top of all this, there’s an older generation of characters (a coach, a hero, a villain, two women caught in the middle) and the sins of the father frequently catch up to the sons.
I have to admit that I haven’t seen most of the later/current seasons. I’ve seen season 5 (which jumped forward four years) on SoapNet, and while it’s pretty good, some of the plotlines are 100% absurd (one climactic moment even made it onto The Soup). Since then, most of the original actors have left the show. But I’ve watched seasons 1-4 multiple times. And the season 6 wedding always makes me cry because it’s a fulfillment of everything that came before. I am a total sucker for relationships with long-term history and layers of meaning, real or fictional, friendly or romantic. In the end, that’s probably why I love this show.
I’ve also fallen in love with Wilmington, North Carolina (the fictional Tree Hill of the title, where the show is filmed). I know it’s a strange tourist destination, but I want to go there and see it for myself. It seems like an ideal place for me – a small, cute city that has seasons, trees, and a river, but is also like 15 minutes from the ocean.
4 Comments + Posted in: travel, tv