Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I miss in the states:

1. Clean, dogpoop-free sidewalks
2. Clouds. The clouds just seem 3D in the states.
3. Thunderstorms. I love a good, summer thunderstorm
4. Dunkin Doughnuts. I don't like them often, but I do miss them.
5. Family, of course.
6. Station surfing on the car radio.
7. Traffic in the US. Everyone keeping their safe distance.
8. Ordering fast food in English.
9. Water Parks.
10. Baseball games. Any kind.
11. Magazines.
12. Being able to eat any kind of ethnic food.
13. Shopping.

OK, Here it is, my first book review:

HOUSEWIVES STUMBLE INTO CRIME FROM 1960s
Friday Afternoon Club is hip deep in Crime & Clutter

(NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE) Friday Afternoon Club member Mary Alice keeps a perfect house, cooks perfect meals, and documents everything about her perfect world in her coordinated scrapbooks. Therefore, everyone is astounded to learn that she's hiding a decrepit 1963 Volkswagen mini-bus that she refuses to talk about. It doesn't take long before M-A's secret is out. She's a flower child, born on a commune to hippie parents. The van is all M-A has left of her father. But as the gang helps her sift through the junk, they stumble upon a deeper mystery. Set in both the present day and the turbulent 1960's, Cyndy Salzmann takes her readers along on a journey filled with as many twists and surprises as there are recipes and household tips. The novel is full of hints such as how to create a sweet-smelling house using vinegar, baking soda, and soaked cotton balls. It even has recipes ranging from Vegetarian Lentil Stew to Pesto Cheesecake. And, of course, the chocolate recipes enjoyed by the FAC girls.

Author Bio: Cyndy Salzmann is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and the author of three nonfiction books on home management, one of which focuses on getting rid of clutter. She speaks nationally on the topic of home management and has a weekly radio spot airing on Moody station WDLM. Her novels celebrate life while making her readers laugh at the dilemmas faced by millions of modern women.

Blog tour coming soon...

I've begun reviewing new books from a Christian publisher. Stay tuned for book reviews, author interviews, and possibly even book give aways! This is so exciting to be able to give my two cents on new Christian novels coming out. What a great way to encourage Christian writers and the industry that publishes them as well.

Stay tuned...

Stories

One of my favorite programs in the states was a little spot every Saturday morning called "Everybody Has a Story." It is still around, I think, but I've missed out on a lot of the stories from that show. The premise is this: the reporter was blindfolded and threw a dart at a map of the U.S. and went to that location, no matter where it landed. Then picked up a phone book when he went in that town, randomly picked a page, closed his eyes and picked a number. He called the number, and the first person who answered the phone would be who the story was about. And you know what? It was ALWAYS interesting. Sometimes the stories were uplifting and encouraging. Other times they were cautionary tales.

The fact of the matter is that we all have little tidbits and interesting things about ourselves, and as we become friends with people, we slowly share those stories, allowing our new friends to view new facets of ourselves. Sometimes friendships are shallow. Either there is no chemistry there, or there is no reciprocation. Those friendships only seem to share enough to present a certain view. They usually fizzle or don't go very far. But other times, there are those friends who are just as interested in sharing their life experiences, good and bad, and reciprocate by doing likewise. It's those friendships that last through the years. They are the friends that you can go for 5, 10 years without seeing, then all of the sudden meet and pick up where you left off. It's rare, but when it happens it is truly a Godsend.

The little tidbits can be so fun, and work to endear us to each other. Sheila, for instance, had a crazy cat that literally climbed walls. She also had a St. Bernard named Bear that was in a LoneStar Beer commercial. She could run three miles during track meets and not pass out, which is why she's a marathon runner now. She also got to tour Europe with Phil Collins. How cool is that?

Kim has some amazing TP'ing stories. She also is great at talking herself out of all kinds of tickets. It's her natural charm. I really envied that in her, because I couldn't talk myself out of a paper sack. She was also great at talking me into some of her escapades. (We'll just make it seem like it was all her...if she takes the fall, she can talk herself out of it. ha!)

Sandy is not only a great volleyball player now, but she was an awesome softball player as well. Pitcher at that. I hear I wouldn't want to be at the plate when she was throwing. She's also as obsessed with reality TV as I am.

Colleen makes an AWESOME spinach dip. And she's great at entertaining a lot of people for one night, or a niece and nephews for a bunch of nights. I used to tease her about making salads (we both hate doing it), but she's the Queen of Entertaining at this point.

*Edit* (I was leading up to Kay, then forgot to add her! Such is life in my house...)

Then there's Kay. She was an awesome athlete when she was younger (and probably still!). Softball and basketball were the sports she was especially good at, and she took some of her skill and coaxed me along for a year. (Remember my ONE basket in basketball? We won by two points that game. Of course you guys let me think it was my points that won the game. ha!) She used to get nosebleeds, and once when I went to her house for two weeks straight, she got one every night. What does that say? Oh, and it's a lot of fun riding by bus to Oklahoma with her. Oh yeah, and beware when she dreams of snakes.

As we all get to know each other, we share a bit more of ourselves, learn each other's stories. It's what makes friendship fun, interesting and sustains our friendships over time. Makes you wonder about the stories these guys have probably shared, doesn't it?

Taiwan

Ever wonder what Santa looks like in Taiwan? Here he is via the Taichung Science Museum:



I just thought this might be a good desktop picture or background for something in the future. We'll see.

Bound Feet

I watched a program on TV years ago that documented an artist. She knew that a generation of women who were enslaved in the South were dying away, and she wanted to document their lives. She did so in an unusual way. She made clay replicas of their hands and feet. She didn't need to tell their story. The years of toil and struggle had left their mark, and their wordless stories were told in the viewing of her art. Beside each piece she had a picture of the women, their age, and where they had lived.

I always remember that program when I think of the bound feet women in China. They are a dying breed of woman. Small feet were desired those many years ago, and the best foot binders could achieve a size of a two inch shoe. Their shoes were beautiful. The women would hand-make their shoes, and they were elaborately decorated with gorgeous stitchery and delicate designs. But underneath that beauty was a twisted, distorted and disfigured foot that effectively left these women crippled. It was all done in the name of beauty, and was forced on girls at a very young age. But it made them observers, and as a result, these women are a wonderful resource of information about life in China in the early 1900's.

I wish I could be an artist for just a few months, and shape the feet of these ladies out of clay. With their hand-made shoes sitting alongside. Of course there should be a picture, and a small amount of information about where they lived. But just like the feet of those slaves years ago, these feet tell a story. One that is passing into the history books as I write. I hope someone is writing them down.

Country Road

I saw this picture on the blog of a new blogger friend: Carmi. He’s a person of many talents, as you should see for yourself when you visit him at www.writteninc.blogspot.com. I like to go there just to see what else he’s been up to. He’s given me permission to use this picture for this story. Thanks Carmi!

This picture brought back so many memories for me. One memory is of music. I can just hear my brother’s 8 track playing John Denver’s “Country road, take me home.” It played over and over again, so that song is permanently etched in my memory. I’ll probably be in an old folk’s home some day, staring blankly at the tv set in front of me, telling invisible people to shut up so I can sing along with that song.

The best memory, though, is of the road leading to Mamaw’s house. We lived in Southern California and Mamaw and Papa lived in East Texas. Needless to say, it was a long two day’s drive away. We would go to church on Sunday night with the car already packed, then leave as soon as the services were over. Dad would drive all night and into the next day, stopping to get coffee along the way which was strange in itself because he called it “liquid sin” any other time. This was before seatbelt laws, and during those hot evenings driving through the desert, I would sleep underneath the back window in order to feel the cool glass against my arms and face.

We would stop at a hotel in El Paso, swim in the pool until we were exhausted, wake up and eat breakfast at Denny’s or Howard Johnson’s, then head out again. CB’s were big in those days, and dad’s “Handle” was “Country Parson.” We would join a convoy with other truckers, always on the lookout for “Smokies” because we were not going the speed limit any longer. Occasionally we would be graced with a beautiful lightening storm, and I again would take advantage of lying under the back window. I watched nature’s fireworks create a brilliant light show, with electricity shooting through the night sky, creating tree branches of light.

At the end of the second day, though, we were exhausted. We bombarded my dad with “Are we there yet’s” and “how much longer’s.” Finally, though, we hit the country road: tree lined with bright yellow stripes leading the way. We forgot about being tired. We knew what was at the end of that road: hugs (lot’s of them), family, crawdad fishing, lawn-mower and go-cart rides, dominoes, catfish and hush puppies, swimming in the lake…

Funny the memories that can come from a picture.