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The summer of 2001 I was vacationing in Myrtle Beach and I picked up a `beach book` to read from the local Wal-Mart. It was by a sci-fi author I'd heard of, but I'd never read anything of his. The book was called `Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus'.
Well, the book was great, and my obsessive self wanted more. I looked up the author's list of books and the most recommended by far was a book called 'Ender's Game'. I ran to the bookstore, bought it, read it in one sitting, and the rest is history.
It immediately shot up to the top of my list of favorite books. Not only was it my new Favorite Book Ever, but I became insufferable about it. I made my mom, my brother and my daughter read it. My brother agreed with me. Mom and daughter thought it was very good. I made Dwayne read it too, and my friend Mark from work. Both of these guys are of the 'haven't read a book since high school' variety, and they both loved it!
I started giving the book away as Christmas presents...and then I started buying extra copies, so that I could say, "Have you read Ender's Game? No? Oh, well then here's a copy."...
And it has umpteen sequels, those are all wonderful, too.
So finally, the movie they've been talking about making for YEARS is coming out, and I'm soooo excited. But wait...there's a controversy...what's that...
It turns out that the author of all my favorite books ever is a raging homophobe. Not only that, but the kind of raging homophobe who says things like, he'll destroy and bring down any government that supports gay marriage.
(sigh) His name is Orson Scott Card. He has every right to think this way...it doesn't affect the books. It will, however, cause certain people not to read his books, and that makes me sad.
The saddest thing is that the first sequel to 'Ender's Game', 'Speaker for the Dead', is a book I've talked about before in this journal. It's a beautifully written book, and is the start of its own trilogy, about acceptance and peace between all the living things in the universe.
It's hard to believe that the author could write something so beautiful about the concept of acceptance between all living things, yet he couldn't include gays in with them.
I can't believe I flaked out and left my poor journal alone all this time...
But in my defense, I did THINK about writing here for the past two months...I just never made it that far...
I've been trying to keep up reading journals, but couldn't get up the gumption to write there, either.
What have I been doing?
(song change: Tell Laura I Love Her - Sha Na Na)
1. Dr.Will just got voted out of the Big Brother house and I'm devastated, even though I knew it was coming...(because I'm one of those internet losers who watch the live feeds)...I've been singing his praises for five years since BB2 and I can't believe boring whiny Erika took THE MAN down! (Janelle traded one puppet master for another...)
(song change: Hero - Nickelback)
2. D and I went to Nashville for the weekend and stayed at the magical hotel down there, and we went to the Opry... I've waited my whole life to go to the Grand Ole Opry, right? But we went to our seats in the balcony and it was really dark and I fell right asleep... ASLEEP!... D had to nudge me awake, like, fifteen times, I was so out of it.
I did wake up for VINCE GILL, though... He's such a cool guy...
(song change: My Name Is - Eminem)
3. I went back to work, finally, after two months on disability ... (sigh) ... Don't you love when you're not at work for two months and no one does your job and when you get back you can't even see your desk, because, NO JOKE, there are piles of work covering it three-feet deep?!
4. I took C to see the American Idols concert at the fair a couple weeks ago...it was only a tiny bit cheesy...okay, maybe moderately cheesy...but Chris Daughtry ROCKED the house, so I was happy. :)
(song change: He's Alive - Dolly Parton)
5. I got C's schooling figured out and all I can do now is wait and hope that things go well this year. I took her out of the private school she was going to and enrolled her in a HUGE public school down the road, and so far her freshman year of high school is working out very well. The size of the school is a plus...for the first time in her life she is blending into the crowd and not being singled out and made fun of all the time.
I wanted to homeschool her... I REALLY wanted to... but ultimately I didn't think I could do it because I'm a single mom who works 40 hours a week. I mean, I could have done it, but I don't know if I could have done it WELL.
I'm just trying not to second-guess myself... and I'm praying very hard that she'll be happier and healthier this year.
(song change: When It Don't Come Easy - Patty Griffin)
6. Like everyone else who watches Animal Planet, I can't believe Steve Irwin is gone. My heart goes out to Terri and their two children. It's just so sad.
(song change: While My Guitar Gently Weeps - The Beatles)
7. I think I've just summed up the last two months of my life...
8. My present state of mind is...dependent on whether I've taken my medicine or not. I'm trying to do better.
and...
9. D is wonderful... C is, um, teenager-ish (mean/nice/mean/nice...), but still wonderful... and Josie the Cat still rules the house.
Seriously, the kitty really does rule the house...she's very spoiled but soooo affectionate (to me, anyway...she has some issues with D...), and she's so soft and cuddly...I love my kitty.
(song change: Hero of the Day - Metallica)
10. grasping at straws now...what's one last thing so I can make ten?... oh yeah... I'm reading Ender's Game again...for the twentieth time or so. What did I ever do before I discovered this book? (circa the summer of 2000)?
For the last six years, I've tried to have everyone I know read this book at least once...
:)
I'm kind of annoying like that, sometimes...
(song change: Kentucky Rain - Elvis Presley)
I just looked at my song list and realized what a redneck I really am...closet redneck with a degree in Philosophy maybe...but a redneck nonetheless.
I AM from Kentucky, you know...
Yesterday was ENT day! My daughter wasn’t miraculously healed that day, unfortunately, but the doctor we saw was still wonderful and I left there feeling better about things. She put my daughter on a different medicine and we have to go back in two weeks. It sounds a lot like what we have been doing the last couple months! But this time, it’s not the same old doctor going, "I think this and I think that"…at least this doctor KNOWS what’s going on and what to do next. THANK GOODNESS!
I’ve seriously slacked in my journal lately, and so, I thought I’d write this:
This is what I do:
- I’m a single mom, to a beautiful 12-year old daughter. I don’t usually talk much, unless someone asks about her, and then it’s like a fountain (you know, PLEASE shut me up!)…so that everyone who knows me knows everything about her…
- I work full-time…Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (or 9:15 to 5:45, really just when I happen to manage to make it in)…in the international brokerage accounting department of a really big package delivery service.
- I’m a perpetual student…I’m taking one class this semester, ‘Radical Fiction’, with a bunch of really young, good-looking kids…I don’t know when I started getting older than my classmates...It’s a little depressing…
- I’m an Awana leader Sunday nights…I love it…
- Okay, now I’m bored, I was going to go on about the nights I work out at the Y, and being D’s girlfriend, and a ‘Cats fan, and a reader…I also apparently have a short attention span because I just can’t stick with this list anymore!
So, what to do, when you’re inspired to write an entry, and then get bored with it? It reminds me of when I saw Metallica in concert a few years ago…they started singing "Shortest Straw" and were at least a third of the way through the song when James Hetfield just stopped and said…"I’m bored."
Did I have a point? I think we’re back to that attention span thing again…
And so now, because I really miss writing here but I can’t get my mind to focus on a proper entry, here is the list of paperbacks I have in the little bookcase by my bed (how many bookshelves and bookcases do I have? I can’t count them all…this little one is the smallest and cutest…):
Okay, there a few videotapes in the shelf, too, because they are conveniently almost the same size as paperbacks, yay! We’ve got:
- 11 recorded videotapes worth of ‘Angel’, season 5…(I’ve got to hang on to them until it comes out on DVD J …)
- UK v. U of L December 2004 (college basketball for those not in the know…I record most games, and keep them forever and ever if they turn out as wonderful as this one did…)
- Movies: For Love of the Game, Reality Bites, Dazed and Confused…
Books:
(Not all, but certainly a lot of my favorite books are on this bookshelf, which is why it’s close to my bed…)
- Ender’s Game
by Orson Scott Card (The BEST BOOK EVER always goes to the top of the list…)
Ender’s Shadow
by Orson Scott Card
Shadow of the Hegemon
by Orson Scott Card
Shadow Puppets
by Orson Scott Card
Speaker for the Dead
by Orson Scott Card
Xenocide
by Orson Scott Card
Children of the Mind
by Orson Scott Card
Seventh Son
, Red Prophet, Prentice Alvin, Alvin Journeyman, Heartfire, and Crystal City by Orson Scott Card
The Memory of Earth
, The Call of Earth, The Ships of Earth, Earthfall, and Earthborn, by Orson Scott Card
The Abyss
by Orson Scott Card
The Worthing Saga
by Orson Scott Card
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Chistopher Columbus
by Orson Scott Card (OKAY, the advertisement for OSC is over now, back to regularly scheduled programming…)
God Game
by Andrew M. Greeley
For the Roses
by Julie Garwood (I'm pretty sure this is the best historical romance novel I've ever read. And trust me, I've read...um...most of them!)
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
by Rebecca Wells
Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married
by Marian Keyes
Watermelon
, Rachel’s Holiday, and Angels by Marian Keyes
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, and The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis
Good Omens
by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Neverwhere
by Neil Gaiman
Stardust
by Neil Gaiman (Okay, another commercial, this one for Neil Gaiman…all of his other books, as well as the Sandman graphic novels, are in hardback on another bookshelf…)
The Prophet
by Kahlil Gibran
Persuasion
by Jane Austen
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook
by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht
Ultimate Pocket World Factfile
The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution of the United States of America
The Hobbit
, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien
Webster’s New World Dictionary
Cassell’s New Compact German Dictionary
Harper Collins Spanish Dictionary
The Natural Remedy Bible
by John Lust, N.D. and Michael Tierra, C.A., O.M.D.
Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder
by Donald Zochert (Laura’s actual books are on a different bookshelf…but this is a great biography of her life from an outsider’s view. I’m going to write sometime of my visit in June 2000 to De Smet, SD, and Walnut Grove, MN, where she grew up…it was a dream come true for me!)
Leap of Faith: An Astronaut’s Journey Into the Unknown
by Gordon Cooper
Apollo 13
by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger
Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8
by Robert Zimmerman
The Steel Albatross
by Scott Carpenter
Jupiter
by Ben Bova
Moonwar
by Ben Bova
All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Earthlight
by Arthur C. Clarke
Dolphin Island
by Arthur C. Clarke
Our Town
by Thornton Wilder
The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton
Okay! Now that I've had my fun, I have to go put some eardrops in my daughter's ear now. Story of my life...
Good night.
