Monday, March 10, 2008

I'm Accepting the Challenge!!!

Kari didn't tag me. She's too tired to flippin tag anyone!!! I know how she feels, but this just appeals to me, so I tagged myself. Yep, I invited myself to my Sr Prom, I ask myself out to lunch, I ask me to go shopping. So, I tagged myself. What a dork!!

Anyway--the tag goes like this: grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 123, read the first 5 lines, and post the next 3. Well, durnit, wouldn't you know, the first and closest book didn't have page numbers!!! Who doesn't number the pages!!! And, of course, I would choose this one. So I grabbed the one next to it. That whole page made absolutely NO SENSE. I don't even remember why I bought that book. Must have been on sale somewhere.

So, I grabbed the NEXT book and two--only me of course--two books fell into my lap. So now you have to endure me posting two different writings.

Ok, so the first book is "All Over But The Shoutin" by Rick Bragg. I really do intend to read this book someday--in the retirement center. In the meantime, here are the next 3 lines after the first 5 on page 123:
The newsroom and subway always seemed a lot alike to me.
Both of them seemed barely under control, both rumbling,
clattering, powerful things that people depended on to take
them someplace. I sat at my desk in that crowded, busy
place and willed the words to come.


The other book that fell off the shelf into my lap, landing simultaneously with the above book ( I swear, that's what happened! That always happens to me. Nothing ordinary happens in my house!!) is "When Character Was King" A Story of Ronald Reagan. And the 3 lines after the first 5 on page 123 read as such:
The federal government used money. They gave it to the states
and localities and with the money came "strings that reached all
the way back to the Potomac." The government in Washington
didn't so much give money as create a bureaucracy that wound
up telling states and localities how to spend and what to do. And
the states and localities took the money--who wouldn't--and
became dependent on it, and now they needed it, which only
encouraged the federal government to up the ante--more
bureaucrats, more control, more strings.

Ok, that last one had 4 lines, but I thought they were worth including!!! Again, I really, really want to read this book one day!!! I love books. I keep buying them and buying them. They become like little friends all lined up on my shelf, just waiting to play with me, and take me to lands unknown. I remember one of the first books I read in 2nd grade--The Water Babies. Have any of you read this? As I read it, I could actually "see" in my mind's eye, the child going down, down, and learning to live among the depths of the sea. How exciting! I could always "see" what the words were telling me in script. Oh the places I have visited in this written world. I used to average 2 books a week---then I went back to work! But I still can't get enough of the written word. Magazines, newspapers, books, doesn't matter. I love em all!!!

And some books I can read a couple of chapters, lay down, pick up in a few weeks, and go right back to that ethereal place without skipping a beat!!!


And one of these days, I'm going to sit in the back yard and read all afternoon. Wow, nothing could be better. And when I go to Colorado this summer, I'm going to take the two books aforementioned and read them!!!

Know what else I love? People's handwriting---special in my heart people. I have a slip of paper that my grandmother signed her name on, and to me, it's a treasure. She's been gone for 28 years now, but I look at that signature and hear her all over again! I keep a card my dad sent me only because he wrote a cute message and his handwriting is so cute too! Have some letters my daughter wrote from Camp Fire Girls camp---the elementary handwriting is so unique! One of these days I'll share one of her letters from that time. She HATED the camp, and her five letters (she was only 1 hour from home for 5 days, but she managed to write a letter bemoaning her plight each day), scream of the torture she is enduring!!! Have a letter written to me by my son when he was just out of high school--it's soo sweet, maybe he was "medicated" when he wrote it!!! ha ha ha Anyway, handwriting is really special to me. Isn't that dorky?????


Well, my frozen chicken pot pie gourment dinner is just about ready. You know the old antage "the cobbler's children never have shoes"???? Well, the caterer's husband---well, you see where this has gone. But doggonit I'm T.I.R.E.D.!!!!!
So, Swanson's here we come. That's another one of my secret loves---junk food. Now don't get me wrong, I love good cooking, but every now and again, I really like a frozen chicken pot pie, or canned tamales!!! Dorky!!!


Well, blogbuds, I must go. Talk to you soon!!!!

2 comments:

tommie said...

Do you ever freeze any of your leftovers? When we lived near KC I used to go to a place called Social Suppers. It was a prep place that you could go to make up to 12 meals that were freezeable. LOVED IT!

Kari (GrannySkywalker) said...

I'm a handwriting saver, too. When we cleaned out my grandma's house after she passed away, I found some old cancelled checks she'd written. I saved one just to have her signature. She had the most beautiful handwriting ever. I also have a letter my oldest son wrote to me right before he flew out on his first combat mission. The letter slays me...I choke up just thinking about it and of course, I saved it for it's content more than the handwriting itself. But just seeing his handwriting on the envelope brings up all kinds of memories....
And...one more thing and then I'll stop about the handwriting...we just got a letter from our 8 yr old granddaughter the other day. It's so sweet. She wrote "I hope you are having a nice year" in it and signed her name in English AND in Japanese (where she's living with her dad - my aforementioned oldest son- for this school year). That one's a keeper, too! :)

Loved your book excerpts, particularly the 2nd one. I probably shouldnt read it, though. I'd get all patriotic and fired up and God knows what I'd blog about when it comes to the condition of the whining American public (or my perception of such). I'll say it here...I'm as proud as ever to be an American but sometimes...I'd surely like to slap some of my countrymen around just a little bit to make them see reason. Okay. I'd better stop on that one, too. My blood is starting to boil. Good grief! I'm such an opinionated wench these days! LOL
Later,
Kari