MY SPRING SNOW

When I grow up?

2012-01-25T05:51:00.000-08:00

When I was nine or ten, my grandmother and uncle bought me a typewriter for my birthday. I loved it. I typed on it constantly. I was always a writer. I started in the second grade when I wrote an essay about our class zoo trip and it was so well-written that my teacher had me pose in front of the school for a picture. The details are hazy, but I remember it was printed in the newspaper. The picture not the essay.

When I was 11, I went to junior high school. I was in the 7th grade,and I wrote my first "novel," Footprints in the Sand, a love story. My friend Barbara Gross, the first Jewish person I ever met and became friends with, would read excerpts from it to me in our French class. She used her Harvey the Bald Eagle voice, and clamored every day for the next few pages. She wanted to know how Francesca and her boyfriend ended up. I don't remember his name, but I do remember Francesca.

I think people always told me that when I grew up I would be a teacher. "You are so good with children," they would say, but when I went to college, I didn't major in Education (not at first). I majored in English. I took writing classes and literature courses. I was exposed to Dante's Divine Comedy and Hemingway's writing, but I didn't know I could become a writer.

I think people told me when you grow up you will be a teacher because in my small world in South Philadelphia, women grew up to be mothers and housewives, and even the thought of going to college was unusual. We only knew women who had professional careers as nurses and teachers. We didn't know architects (I wanted to be one of them too) or executives or congresswomen.

This morning, I had an ephiphany, I always wanted to be a writer. Always.
The only problem is I thought you could only be a writer because you were talented. I thought you went to bed, and one morning, woke up and were James Joyce, but it really doesn't work that way. You have to write. You have to study writing. You have to read good writing, excellent writing, and copy it and inhale it and become it. Being talented helps, but you can cultivate your talent. You have to develop your writing.

I never grew up to be a teacher. I have my teaching certificate in Language Arts, but I never taught (not formally). I do work in a school. I have written about education.

Instead of feeling like I didn't become a teacher, I think I will focus on becoming a writer, a good writer, maybe even a great writer. I still have time.

What is your dream?
How are you going to pursue it?

Date Night with Hubby!

2012-01-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't seen a movie I really loved in a long time, but on Saturday we rented on demand, Woody Allen's latest flick, Midnight in Paris. Have you ever wanted to time travel? Be a part of another era? Meet interesting writers, composers, painters, models? The main character in this last film does just that. In the most romantic city in the world, he likes to take long walks in the rain at midnight. My kind of romance. His wife and her family, jaded, self-righteous Americans, do not understand why he would give up screen play writing to want to write a novel while living in Paris. Move over, I will go to the 8th arrondisement anytime, live, write and walk in the rain. To add a layer of wonderfulness, he also gets to meet Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Cole Porter, Salvadore Dali, Gertrude Stein, and a beautiful French model he falls in love with. It is a romantic comedy that sends the Americans home packing, sets Gil up with a potential French romance, and gives us all a glimpse into the Golden Age, no matter which one you think it is. I would give it a five-star for creativity without overkill on unwanted sex scenes, and who knows maybe you will even learn something.

First Read of the New Year!

2012-01-15T11:39:00.001-08:00

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

925 pages, two main characters, two moons, two parallel universes, eight minor characters, and five or six more even more minor characters, countless literary allusions, and more than enough sexual references this book rambled on and on and on. If you are a student of writing fiction and want to know how to write descriptions and details and prose that draws the reader, take out this book and just study. Mr. Murakami repeats and re-expresses many of the same themes over and over but in a way that just drags the reader along in a timeless fashion.

It is a love story, a detective story, a murder-mystery, a social satire and commentary set in 1984 Japan that resembles modern day USA so closely that if the Japanese named characters weren't eating udu noodles and miso, you would think they lived in New York City. If Murakami wasn't a novelist, he certainly could get a job as a soap opera writer. Just as you thought the story line was reaching a climactic turning point, he threw another detail into the story told from the alternating perspective of the lovers, Aomame and Tengo, that just kept you reading.

Two complaints. One, it was just too long! 925 pages. Really! I think it was originally published in three separate books in Japan, so I can see the need for some repetition, but once it was combined into the large tome published in the USA, the translators should have edited it better because the rambling and the details dragged the less than substantial story down.

Secondly, I still don't know what really was intended by the author. It was a good story, but somehow I think there is suppose to be more, and I am afraid that somehow I am overlooking it. What was the message? What was the connection to Orwell's 1984? These are the questions, I am still asking.

The length stopped me from giving it 5 stars. It was an enjoyably well written book.

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Hats off to One Life to Live

2012-01-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

Suspense, Unbelivable story lines, Drama. Love. Romance. Happily Ever After. I confess I am a closet soap opera fan. I miss my mother the most when I watch soap operas. That woman loved her stories. I want to run to the phone and say what did you think? Were you surprised? Who knew that was coming? Mom, you would not have been disappointed in the final episode of One Life to Live. I am sad to see it go off the air, but the ending was a-a-ah-mazing! Hats off the writers for making it worth watching this last month. My daughter, Rachel and I were hooked. My mom would have loved that!

January 8th 2012: Sunday Reflections

2012-01-08T04:45:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to my Blogger Friends.
New Year's Resolutions. Bah Humbug.

The good news is despite gaining back some of the weight I lost, I am still down by 8 pounds, so this is the first new year in a long time that I started it weighing less than I did the previous.
The bad news is that it doesn't take long at all to gain weight. I don't even think I overindulged, but I definitely need to eat more healthy foods. I am trying STILL and ALWAYS.

The weather has been glorious. I am happy. No snow. I don't care if it gets cold, but I don't want snow unless it is on a Thursday night and school is closed on Friday. I do not drive in the snow. I hate it. I am a city girl, and should have never moved to the suburbs where you have no choice but to depend on cars.

In our area, 44 elementary schools and 4 high schools among the Catholic schools are slated for closing. I am shocked and appalled that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia allowed the crisis to get to the point where they closed so many schools and create havoc for so many children, their parents, and the dedicated employees who work there. While I understand some of the reasoning behind the decision, it just seems like poor management and poor decision making and once again not caring about the individuals it creates serious issues for. What will become of the Catholic faith?

Someday, I am afraid that his will happen to our school district. The lack of planning and long term vision is frightening.to me.

I wanted to participate in the Novel Writing in the month of November, but never did, but I have been working on my novel. I just can't seem to get it to move anywhere. I have gone over and over it but it doesn't fit together. I keep trying.

So, my New Year's goals:
1. Eat healthy (hopefully lose weight)
2. Walk
3. Work on my Novel
4. Manage my Frustration Level Better

What are yours?

Thanks for reading my blog, and have a healthy, wonderful and special New Year!

End of the Year Christmas Re-Cap

2011-12-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

As long as I am working, I can keep up with the holidays, make the gift lists, check it twice, make the dinner list and the Christmas Eve appetizer list, buy the wine and beer, send out the greeting cards, make the cookies. I wonder as I go along, why do I do all this stuff? I answer questions at work about what are you going to do for the holidays. I am not a religious person, so I don't go to church. I celebrate Christmas more as the festival of lights, the end of the year, the winter solistice, a time to re-examine your bounty or lack thereof.

Then I have my first day off! I am usually alone because everyone else is working, and the melancholy sets. I remember the Christmases of my childhood, not pleasant memories, but not unpleasant ones either. I think about my mother who is not gone, and lately, I think about how some day I shall not be here either. It is kind of depressing, but I am unfortunately a thinker, a planner, a projector in the future. I try to shake the negative feelings, and eventually I succeed. I realize that people who have problems or no family must have an extremely difficult time at this time of year, and that saddens me too!

Somehow, I shake it all off, work it all out, and come out enjoying the holiday, a time to share with family. I do it for them. I do it because they are best children in the world, and the greatest husband.

Every year, my husband and I exchange a Christmas ornament. I always have a hard time thinking of one, but this year not at all. My best friend, Lorraine, dubbed him the Humming Bard, because he likes to write poems and he hums when he exercises. A steady, unidentifiable hum. It is kind of annoying, but kind of funny too. Here's the poem that when with the ornament.

The Humming Bard
Not a sound in the house
Except from the wife
As she yaks and she screams
He escapes to his dreams.

All around she does look, but she cannot see
Oh where did he go? Oh where can he be?
As she listens and she wonders
He escapes all his blunders.

But soon she will find him
In a corner that’s dim.
As she hears and she sighs
At the humming he tries.

The meter he paces,
The words he erases,
He tries to keep tune,
And, he hums until noon.

She smiles cause she love him.
Her poet at heart,
And she listens to his humming
Until death, they may part.

Countdown to 50!

2011-12-17T18:00:00.001-08:00

A Small Hotel by Robert Olen Butler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was reading two books at once, which is a rare thing for me. At the urgings of my friends on Goodreads, I finished the other one first, but I actually preferred this one. The writing was engaging. A story about a marriage that is falling apart is told from the perspective of the husband and wife in the present and in flashbacks. Memories are tied into Room 303 in A Small Hotel in New Orleans where the couple first stayed together and later re-visited many times throughout their marriage.

I am a person of action. While I love to write, I believe that you should be judged by your actions and not your words, because words are easy to spout, actions are so much more difficult to back up your life with, but this book had me re-thinking this philosophy and re-examining the power of words. This book is about the need to hear a loved one say I love you. Is it enough for your husband, father, wife, daughter, friend to love you, or do we need to hear it? Not all the time, but once in awhile. What is it about this phrase that is so meaningful, so precious?

A Small Hotel demonstrates how saying I love you has an enormous impact on a father-son, a father-daughter, and spouses, and it comes full circle. I can definitely see why Mr. Butler won a Pulitzer Prize for his writing.

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Not Sure

2011-12-15T04:29:00.000-08:00

I am not sure, I will ever get use to Facebook being a place for people to post their condolences or information about a deceased loved one. I guess it makes sense, but I can't imagine being the mother of a fifteen year old boy, who loses his life tragically, and then goes on facebook to acknowledge that people have sympathy for my situation.
For that matter, I cannot imagine eating, sleeping, talking, or functioning if I lost my fifteen year old child. This is not a criticism. I am just incredulous over the whole social media thing.

What we have in Common!

2011-11-27T02:50:00.000-08:00

1. TERI: I start listening to Christmas music in October ME: It drives me crazy when Christmas music comes on so early, but I listen to it b/c my co-worker controls the radio.
2- ME: I love Brussels sprout, TOO!
3- I hate liver TOO!
4-I believe in miracles TOO!
5- ME: I don’t believe in magic, but I believe in the possibility of it. On some level, I think it did exist, but I don't know if does anymore.
6- ME: I enjoy reading historical fiction TOO!
7- I seldom read science fiction. Don't think I ever have.
8- TERI: When I was a little girl, I used to imagine the Beatles were secretly watching me and were in love with me.
ME:OMG! My girlfriends and I would argue over which Beatle was going to marry us. Ringo was rarely in the running. Guess that comes with our generation.
9-TERI: I am completely inspired by music: to sing, to dance, to cry, to create. ME: I like music and surprisingly I like alot of the contemporary stuff. Pink is one of my favorites. She is so gutsy!
10-TERI: I have a scar on my leg from hot plastic that dripped on it when my brother and I were burning army men-age 7 ME: I have a scar on two of my fingers. One I cut when I was about nine and was going to a free movie at the Broadway theater. I cried through the pain, but I don't remember the movie just the sensation of sitting in the theater.
11-TERI: I regularly see a close friend whom I’ve known for 45 years. ME: My best friend and I have known each other for thirty years!
12- TERI: I am double jointed ME: WOW! My joints hurt!
13- TERI: I love to sew and learned how from my home ec teacher in junior high ME: My junior high teacher made me the announcer in the fashion show because my sewing skills were so bad, but she thought I was a nice kid.
14- TERI: I first watched Star Wars in 2004. A late adapter. ME: I have never seen any of the Star War movies, but I use to watch Lost in Space.
15-TERI: I love romance movies. Even the sappiest ME: Me too! I especially love the old ones from the 1940s. and 1950s.
16- TERI: I don’t trust people who don’t like animals. ME:I agree!
17- TERI: I remember people by how they take their coffee or tea ME: I don't have coffee with people that often. I limit my coffee drinking because coffee doesn't really like me.
18- TERI: I put splenda and coffeemate in mine ME: Milk and sugar for me, and no sugar when I am dieting.
19- TERI: I love to copy quotes and save them. ME: I love great quotes.
20- TERI: I used to copy song lyrics and save them ME: I am always singing the wrong lyrics to everything.
21- TERI: My secret vice is watching the Housewives of Beverly Hills ME: I started with the Housewives of Atlanta, and got hooked.
22-TERI: I cannot ski, snowboard, or ice skate. But I made sure my kids learned to do all of that. (I’m a good swimmer, though, and so are they.) ME: I cannot either. Not a very good swimmer, but my children all learned at three and are great swimmers. My mother had an intense fear of water, and I vowed that my children would not.

Thankful

2011-11-22T05:14:00.000-08:00

Lightly raining, a fine drizzle of cold wetness sprinkled down from the cloud-filled heavens making the roads slippery with autumn leaves and slick trolley tracks, when I spy her standing there under her umbrella. A navy-blue and red striped umbrella almost bigger than she was protecting her from the rain that added annoyance to the drivers' morning commute and a challenge to her. As I approached the stop sign that I spied between the swooshing wipers, I thought how much I love the rain, but hate driving in it. How I wish I was snuggled under my blanket on the sofa, great book in my hand, warm tea in my cup, and then I noticed the second long brown stick in her hand, a cane. As she listened to the drops bang against her umbrella, she concentrated on the sound of traffic, unable to see what was coming and depending on her acute sense of hearing now muffled by the additional sound of the earth-bound sprinkles, I thought that we all have challenges, big and small, and sometimes we take for grant the things that others hold precious.

Count your blessings. Embrace your challenges. Be thankful for each moment not each day, but each second. Remember the beauty of the season is about hope, joy, love, and being grateful for it is all too fleeting.

Happy thanksgiving to you all!

Tiramisu

2011-11-20T06:24:00.000-08:00

Oh my, I have heard people talk about it for years, but never tried it. Tiramisu!
Yummy, sounds elegant and difficult to make, but it really isn't. My friend, Lorraine, and I have been on a Tiramisu kick lately. She went to Venice, and came home with an Italian bag of something to make tiramisu. She has now made two, and so have I. My recipe follows:

1. Buy ladyfingers -- buy the hard ones shown here not the soft ones. The hard ones hold up much better in the recipe.
2. Brew coffee. Make about four cups. Make it strong and let it brew.
3. Buy marscapone cheese. About an 8-0z tub will do it. If you can't find it, double up on the heavy whipping cream.
4. Buy 16 oz whipping cream (buy two if you cannot find marscapone cheese).
5. Cocoa powder
6. Vanilla
7. Sugar
8. Semi-sweet chocolate shavings for garnish

1. Cool the coffee. Do NOT use it hot or warm. It must be cool. You can put in fridge to speed up the process.
2. Whip your heavy cream into whipping cream. Put a cold metal dish in the freezer and your beaters too.
3. Add sugar (about 3-4 tablespoons per 16 oz) and add vanilla. I eyeball it, but about 2 teaspoons
4. Whip it all together in the cold bowl with the cold beaters until you have whipped cream. Do not whip too long or you will have butter!
5. If you have marscapone cheese, take 1/3 of the whipping cream and mix it with the marscapone cheese.
6. Hold the other 2/3 whipping cream for the additional layer.

In front of you, you should have cooled coffee, ladyfingers, whipped cream, and whipped cream with marscapone cheese. If you want, you can give it all a kick with some coffee liquer or chocolate liquer or dark rum. I would mix it into the marscapone mixture if you choose these option.

In a 9x13 Pyrex glass dish or brownie pan, put a layer of ladyfingers. You need to dip them gently and quickly on both sides into the coffee mixture.

Take the marscapone cheese mixture and layer it on top of the coffee-dipped ladyfingers, and spread it out evenly.

Place another layer of coffee-dipped ladyfingers on top of the cheese mixture.

The final layer is the whipped cream. I made my whipped cream chocolate flavor, but plain is just as delicious. Smooth it out on top of the ladyfingers.

Dust lightly with cocoa powder. Refrigerate for about four hours or overnight.

We devoured mine before I had a chance to take a picture of it, but courtesy of someone on the web, this is what it should look like. Cut it into wedges, sprinkle some shaved chocolate on top and serve. Your guests will think you spent a week with an Italian chef. This is a very easy to make, no bake dessert. There are many variations on it, but they all taste heavenly. Close your eyes, contemplate the beauty of the world and enjoy this wonderful dessert.

Blog Hopping

2011-11-19T12:29:00.000-08:00

It is a lot like being a bunny and hopping from one place to the next. I like to go to the blogs I frequently follow and click on to some of the interesting names I find on their blog list and read what other people in other parts of the country/world are thinking, doing, singing, creating, posting.

It's fun! It's interesting. You should try. Post your favorite blog-hop on my blog and share it with my readers.

Sunday Morning Chats

2011-11-13T06:46:00.001-08:00

My favorite part about the weekend is my Sunday morning coffee chats with Don. He makes the coffee. I only drink coffee in the morning on the weekends with him! He brings it to me in my favorite green, oversized cup with just the right amount of milk and sugar, and serves it with a kiss. Sometimes, I "yell" at him because he puts his hand under my chin, and it makes me feel like he is about to administer Holy Communion. We laugh! After that he brings in his cup and we chat. Sometimes, we just discuss the children, what they are doing, what we think about what we are doing, what their friends are doing, how we try to behave as parents. Other times, we talk about God, the world, always about the economy, and if we are really lucky, our son, our oldest child, joins us and we contemplate the economy, the future collapse of this nation, and sometimes the world (definitely the world if the USA goes) if things do not change and people do not face the reality that we can no longer live as debtors and people who are overtaxed by the government. It is scary, but yet we remain hopeful that somehow the best in Americans will come forth, and the socialist ideas, the overtaxed population, the overtaxed corporation, and the incompetent politicians on all sides of the fence will somehow understand the issue is extremely complicated and that it will not be solved by taking sides and calling names.

This morning we talked about Nazi Germany, what led up to it, and if the American government was aware of what was happening or about to happen over there. I have never believed that they did not. I have never believed that Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack. I do believe that the average citizen may have been oblivious, much as they are now to the truth of what goes behind the scenes, partly because they choose to be and partly because they do not know any better.

We talk about the liberal press and freedom of speech, but I wonder how free or forthcoming our news media is. They have been parading the Republican candidates on television in what I call mock debates. I am pretty sure most of the newscasters do not know the meaning of the word, debate, because what goes on on that state is not a debate, but entertainment. It is a mockery of our intelligence.

I have digressed from my Sunday Morning Chat post, but not really because what I like about these chats whether they are just my husband and I, or my husband, my son, and I is that all day long, and even into the week, I think about them and things we discuss. My favorite one to date is about he time we debated economic terms and theories using candy bars as an example.

If only the world was as simple as choosing between Godiva and Hershey, or maybe it is!

Happy Birthday, Humming Bard!

2011-11-06T16:01:00.000-08:00

My husband celebrated his birthday yesterday. He is adored, and deservedly so. He is one of the kindest, sweetest, and most thoughtful people I know. I am not sure why I am so lucky to be with him, but I am grateful every day that I am. Right now, he is on a date with our oldest daughter. You know he is pretty special when a 22-year-old makes it a point to spend time with him. As my friend, Lorraine, has dubbed him, he is the Humming Bard! He hums unconsciously and he is a poet, and YES! he loves humming birds. Enjoy the slide show of my extraordinary husband.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

2011-11-01T05:26:00.000-07:00

November 1st to November 30th
National Novel Writing Month takes place.

I want to write something, but I am still working on the one I started two years ago.
I love the idea. I love the idea of writing a novel in thirty days and then refining it. My 8th grade English teacher, Ms. DiNubile, amazing teacher, quit the profession early in her career. She taught me that writing isn't writing, it is re-writing. I have lived my writing life by that one thing this fantastic teacher taught me. I still remember the first thing I ever wrote in her class. It was a short paragraph entitled the Kuddly Koala. I learned about alliteration and how to have a topic sentence and to make the end of the paragraph come in full circle.

Today, I celebrate her. Teachers may get negative publicity and there are many things wrong with the public education system, but great teachers never get the praises they should because so often their contribution is quietly appreciated and accepted. My love of writing came before I met her, but she definitely gave me the tools to make it better.

I hope I get to participate in NaNoWriMo this month. I am trying real hard today to come up with an idea!

Doing some changes to my blog

2011-10-31T15:32:00.001-07:00

Beware with me until I get the kinks worked out.

Frankenstein

2011-10-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Reading classics are not to be taken lightly. There is a reason that they have stood the test of time. They are to be analyzed and digested. Simple questions, like, "what did you think?" and "did you like it and why?" are not acceptable lead-off questions unless you want to dig further and probe deeper and really understand why it is a classic.

I recently picked up Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, who was married to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose poem "Prometheus Unbound" is considered one of the greatest poems in the English language. I have never read the poem, or if I did at some point in my English classes, I have forgotten, but it is rather curious that Mrs. Shelley subtitled her book, "Modern Prometheus."

As most people have learned over the years, Frankenstein is not the name of creature (monster) that was created, but the name of the scientist, Victor Frankenstein. The only thing the book and the movie have in common is that a monster was created, the monster killed, and the monster wanted a female companion that Victor Frankenstein originally agrees to, but later decides against after weighing the moral implications. I guess one could say that he learned from his mistakes.

In addition to the fact that Mary Shelley was only 19 years old when she wrote the book, the book itself is a masterpiece in multi-layers. It opens with letters from an explorer, Robert Walton, to his sister. Walton tells the story of how he meets/finds Victor Frankenstein and then Victor tells his story to Robert Walton. Within the story of Frankenstein, there is the story of the monster he creates, how he escaped, how he learned to speak, and how he yearned to have something most of us have, another person, like him to spend his days with, someone to love.

There are flaws in the book. How was the monster intelligent enough to learn to speak so eloquently, but he doesn't have the moral compass to stop himself from murdering several people in the story, as well as blackmail his creator. Of course, intelligence and criminal activity are not mutually exclusive, but in his first exposure to humans, he recognizes kindness and love in the family, but this does not stop him from inflicting pain and torment on Victor.

I think this book exemplifies the very concept that I personally live my life by, and that is for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. Sound familiar? It is one of Newtown's law of physics, and it does not just apply to the scientific world. You can apply it to love, the economy, life. Everything a human does, can and may have repercussions, consequences, or a positive reaction equal to the force of the original action. Be careful what you wish for, and be careful what you do with close examination.

Victor Frankenstein, like modern scientists, do not always think through their experiments, creations, ideas as throughly as they should. Sometimes, science is not an exact science. Sometimes, they makes mistakes, maybe many mistakes before they get it right. Was Mary Shelley ahead of her time in revealing the negative consequences that scientific experiments could have or was Mary Shelly ahead of her time in revealing that scientists have an inner calling that they must listen to in order to advance society?

Is Frankenstein a love story or a horror story? It depends on your perspective. It is definitely a classic worth enjoying for its rich language, interesting plot structure, and adventure seeking characters. Turn off the television, do not read it on the bus to work, and sit back and savor a book that may only be written once in lifetime.

On-line Book Clubs

2011-10-24T05:29:00.000-07:00

I have had my trouble with on-line book clubs. I am usually fine in the chit-chat rooms, but when it comes to the book club discussions I seem to get into something.

I just don't think the book club selection should start off with so "What did you think? or did you like it?" Especially when we are discussing classics. No one likes classics. They are meant to be hard. They are meant to be discussed and analyzed so that the reader can learn something. It is not like picking up Jen Lancaster or The Help or whatever happens to be popular at the time. Classics are meant to be meaty. Most of them are written in flowery or complicated language with multi-characters and convulted settings. When they were written, it is quite possible that the average person did not read them. Education was something that was a luxury not a right as it is our country today, but instead of feeling honored that we are capable of reading these books, I sometimes get the feeling that people are annoyed that they have to plow through them.

Maybe, I am a book snob! I think it takes discipline to read a classic. I think it takes thoughtfulness and commitment. They are usually not light reads.
I think that book clubs sponsoring a classics club should take it more seriously, and the leading question should not be so, what did you feel about it?

2011-10-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At first, I thought it was slow moving and it was definitely not like the other Alice Hoffman's I have read, but I quickly changed my mind on both counts.

Told in the voices of four women, the book is richly inspired by historical events that take place in Masada in the year of 70 C.E. The women are interconnected and there is Hoffman's usual heavy sprinkling of women's power as it is tied into the secrets of the Earth passed on from one woman to another and connected in the minds of men and civilization to the practice of witchcraft.

My favorite quote surprisingly came in her acknowledgements: "Lastly, my greatest debt is to my mother, Sherry Hoffman, who I miss every day. I hope you forgave me, as I have long ago forgiven you."

It made me think as the book does as well, what we do to our mothers as daughters, and what our mothers do to their daughters, that requires to ask forgiveness. I have done this many times in the last four years and half since my mother has died. Women will continue to capture and attempt to explain this most complicated relationship on Earth. I for one as a woman, believe that this relationship is the most important and powerful one on Earth, and what a woman does with the gift that is given to her in the mother-daughter relationship can make or break her success and affect her happiness in this temporal world.

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The sky this morning

2011-10-20T06:02:00.000-07:00

I tried to capture the sky this morning with my camera because they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but since it was too dark for my camera to capture it, I guess I have to write in a thousand words or less what I saw and felt.

The clouds moved slowly, lazily across the sky. The moon peeked through the soft chunks of them, the blueness of the morning began to poke through in the east while the western sky still seemed darker, grayer, as the sun built upon its energy to illimunate the world.

I was filled with the wonder and curiousity I have always felt when looking at the clouds from both sides. I envy the people who attributed their beauty and their creation to a divine being. As much as I would like to do it, to believe it, there is still an aching doubt in me that one Being is responsible. If we attribute all this beauty, this unexplainable essence of our existence, then don't we also have to attribute all the devastation, the war, the economic collapse, the ill treatment of one human being to another as well. I don't buy this whole idea that it is free will, that it is man's (woman) fault. If a higher power gets credit for all the wonderful things, shouldn't He also take responsiblity for some of the negative ones?

One of my pet peeves is how people oversimplify

2011-10-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

One of my pet peeves is how people oversimplify problems, especially social ones.
With the economic situation as it is, everyone is looking to capitalism and blaming the greedy capitalist, and while they may certainly hold blame, I am not sure if they are to blame. What about the American government that runs inefficiently, has little or no accountablity to the American people, and has been supporting two wars that they will never win to a tune of billions and trillions. Have they learned anything from the Cold War, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, all wars that were not won and just ended in stalemate.

It is the same thing that happens when people complain about Public Education. They blame the teachers. Really? just the teachers? and the Teachers blame the parents, and meanwhile the accountablity and waste of money by Administration on all levels continues.

Problems in the 21st century are not simple. They are complicated issues, and no one group is responsible for causing them, and no one group will solve them.

We have to do that together.

I wonder

2011-10-17T06:11:00.001-07:00

I wonder why all the angels in the Bible are named Michael, Raphael, all men, but yet the icons we have in modern society are usually angels depicted as women.

I am reading The DoveKeepers by Alice Hoffman, and it is set in 72 CE (which is after Christ for those of us who mark the calendar by this event). It makes me wonder. Did women hold all (or most)the secrets to eternity and life and cures and because men were so intimidated, fright, they worked centuries to rid us of our power, our knowledge (to no avail) because somewhere in our women memories, we still know and we still use our knowledge.

I like when a book makes me think.

How about you? What are you thinking today?

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Mother

2011-10-10T04:28:00.001-07:00

Dear Mom,
I tried to dream about you last night because it is the only way I know to make you close to me, but you didn't come to me in my dreams, but you are in my memories and I will love you forever and miss you twice as long.
Love your daughter.

Does Sorrow Ever Leave When It is someone you Love?

2011-10-09T05:59:00.000-07:00

Chapter 3, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein:

"She died calmly; and her countenance expressed affection even in death. I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil; the void that presents itself to the soul; and the despair that is exhibited on the countenance. It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she, whom we saw every day and whose very existence appeared a part of our own, can have departed forever -- that the brightness of a beloved eye can have been extinguished, and the sound of a voice so familiar and dear to the ear can be hushed, never more to be heard. These are the reflections of the first days; but when the lapse of time proves the reality of the evil, when the actual bitterness of the grief commences. Yet from whom has not that rude hand rent away some dear connexion? and why should I describe a sorrow which all have felt and must feel? The time at length arrives when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity; and the smile that plays upon the lips, although, it may be deemed a sacrilege, is not banished. (page 32 Illustrated Classics edition)

I am reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It is not what I expected it to be. It is much better. Her language is rich and complex and complicated in a way that we don't seem to read anymore in works of fiction. The story is multi-layered. First there are the letters of Robert Walton, the explorer, who stumbles upon Victor Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein tells his story. It is less about the monster he creates and more about his life, his family, his feelings.

I am pausing at the end of Volume One to read another book I borrowed from the library, but I cannot wait to get to Volume Two. It is a story rich in words, feelings, ambience, and it is very entertaining in its complexity. Mary Shelley was only nineteen years old when she wrote it. Highly recommended.

Love is in the air!

2011-10-04T15:24:00.001-07:00

What did you look like on your wedding day? Holli inspired this one.
Here's what I looked like the day I eloped/got married. How about you?

Here's the two of us on the next day. We stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia.

Most Romantic: Elopements!

2011-10-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

I love people who elope. They are romantic and practical and I think it is awesome.
Congratulations to my blogging friend, Holli, and her husband, Brad!

Good job you two!

Check out the beautiful bride

P.S. I elope 27 1/2 years ago. Best thing I ever did.

Book 34 of 50

2011-10-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

A Corner of the Veil: A Novel by Laurence Cossé

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It is not a book for everyone, and I am sure most people will not enjoy it. The style of writing (or possibly the translation) is choppy. There is little or no character development, and there is a minor plot: Should the small group of people who have the proof that God exists share it with the rest of the world?

What happens if God's existence is proven? Not just faith, but proven.

The novel never reveals the proof, and it remains a secret but there are some philosophical moments touched upon that makes you think and wonder.

If God exists, then why is there evil. If God is good, how do you explain personal suffering, global suffering? What is God's role in evil?

If God is a Christian one, and since the novel is written by a French author, priests have to deal with this proof. What happens to the world of Islam, Buddism, Judaism, when the world of Christianity (specifically Catholicism) reveals the irrefutable proof that God exist?

Is keeping this secret necessary to preserve humanity?

These are the questions that this book made me think about, and for that reason I gave it a three. I have thought of these things in the past, but it is always interesting to re-visit them. A philosophical mystery: Faith vs. Reason. Would have one making existence any easier?
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#35 and #36 are on deck. I am going to read "The Dry Grass of August" by Anna Jean Mayhew followed by or in conjunction with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. My husband got a gorgeous edition of Frankenstein out of the library, and I can't wait to crack it open.

2011-09-29T04:33:00.000-07:00

I am not a diplomat. The United Nations has never set a representative to me asking me to serve on one of its Boards. I say what I think. I mean what I say, but I have a bad habit of just saying it and not caring about who hears.
I do not like this about myself. I want to be more discreet, less concerned with what I see as the inequities of things, the lack of accountability, the favoritism that is shown toward different people. I want to keep my thoughts to myself, and stop being so vocal. I have struggled with this problem my entire.

I am not a diplomat. I need to learn to express things in a more acceptable way to myself. No, I need to learn not to express myself so openly all the time Things never change especially in the world of public education.

My problem at work is that I am underemployed. I do a job that I am too well qualified for, and definitely overeducated for, but there are some perks to it that I do not want to give up. At my age, I am not sure if there are any career options for me. I pacify myself by saying I am writing a book, which I am, but it is taking me almost two years, and I do not work on it now with the same verve and excitement. I come home from work, and I am exhausted and all I want to do is passive stuff, like read or watch television. I don't want to write or create.

Is it possible to have a personality makeover? I do not want to wait until January 1, to make New Year's Resolutions. I want to make some changes now. How many people out there feel this way?

Welcome to My Garden

2011-09-26T03:38:00.000-07:00

2011-09-25T08:39:00.000-07:00

I love the autumn sky. You can see some beautiful sunsets starting at this time of year all the way into December. Just beautiful breathtaking colors that you make stand and say AH!

Although I hate the sun glare when you drive at this time of the year. The sun is right in your eyes.

Finished my 33rd book for 2011. Only 17 to go to my goal of 50. It was The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. After I suspended my disbelief that an indentured white servant girl from Ireland would live with the black slaves instead of somewhere in the main house and later becomes the mistress of the house, I was able to enjoy the story told in two voices. Lavinia, as a white red-haired scared white child who emerges into a sophiscated young woman and the author does a great job of developing and maturing her voice although she does remain quite naive throughout the book, and Belle, the half-white half-black daughter of the plantation owner, who gives us a second perspective on the unfolding of the events.

For all of you following the plight of having the third principal in nine years (I seem to get a new boss every three years), this one is a keeper. He is very inclusive, kind, and appreciative, and despite being bombarded with all facets of running a school, he has remained even-tempered. So far, so good!

Sunflower -- Happy Monday

2011-09-19T03:25:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to get sunflowers to grow for years and never have any success, and this one popped out of nowhere.

Busy Busy busy

2011-09-09T04:09:00.000-07:00

First of all, I am tired of smelling wet! Tired of it. I want to smell fresh and pretty and clean. Not wet! Not rain wet!

I love the rain, but too much of a good thing is too much.

We had a two-hour delayed opening yesterday because of the weather.

Rain, rain, go away.

My bannister is soggy. The doors to my bathroom cabinet won't close. There is a dampness everywhere, and I am not liking it one bit.

Secondly, I have been busy. So busy at work that when I come home all I do is cook dinner and watch mind-numbing things on television. I attempt to read, but then I don't like the books. There is nothing wrong with the books, I am just mindlessly getting through the night so I can go back to bed (which is usually around 9:30) and get up and do it all over again.

Work is always stressful the first week.
Trying to find rhythm after the relaxing
pace of the summer is a chore. Losing kids on buses.
Finding kids on street corners (with the crossing guards).
Dealing with parents who do not understand that the greatest gift they can give a child is consistency not love. Consistency.

We are breeding a bunch of children who do not know what happens day to day and manipulate their parents by guilt because of it. It cannot be healthy.

And, finally, the teachers. I can't say enough about the kind ones. The ones who know their place, who are humble when they ask for a favor, who are pleasant and treat you respectfully when they need information or a composition book.

And, then, and then, there are the ones with no social skills, the ones who are demanding, rude, and don't even say good morning before they are shoving their inconsequential request in your face.

Geez, let me sit down and my desk before you act rude!

Thirdly, to all my faithful blogger friends, Teri, Lori, Holli, Heidi, Nadia, Stephanie, Lizzie, Jo, I have re-arranged my blog list again to delete all those repetitive book blogs that I never read because I was missing you guys. I much rather read what's going on with you than another review of some insipid book that I don't have time to read during my veggie state of mind.

Did someone say it is fall soon? Maybe once the fireplace gets turns on, I will dry out!

Love you!

Book 30 of 50 and an update on the Hurricane

2011-08-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

The Love of My Youth: A Novel by Mary Gordon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It could be anyone's story, and that's what makes this book so enjoyable. Miranda and Adam were first loves and first lovers and thirty six years they meet again in Rome. Every day for a month they take a walk and talk. Every day they talk and walk, and their stories unravel. What happened to them as individuals and what happened to them as a couple is unfolded in some of the most beautiful places in Rome.

How do we change from the teenagers we were? How do our dreams and aspirations manifest themselves as we encounter different circumstances in our lives? How do we stay the same and yet turn out differently? All of these questions and more are addressed with a sophisticated style of writing that was completely enjoyed by me.

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My hurricane update is that we made it through the night without a loss of power, a small leak in the dining room, and some minor flooding in the basement. My tension level is going as the water recedes, and my children are all accounted for and safe. I am worried about the school I work in. I am sure it has suffered some water damage, how extensive is the thing that worries me.

Hard to believe this is the after picture although my little tree is still blowing in the breeze!

Thanks to everyone for their good wishes, silent and spoken!

What a Week?

2011-08-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

First the week started with an earthquake! Really, an earthquake on the East Coast.
Unbelievable! and now, Hurricane Irene, the worse storm to hit this area is sweeping down upon us. Please it is enough already.

I am so prepared. Trash is down the basement. Recycling is down the basement. Lawn furniture is down basement. Air conditioners are out of the windows (thanks, Andrew). I have several good books. I have sausage and bok choi to make a delicious soup. I have the air conditioner on so it will get cool in case the storm knocks the power out. I know it won't last, but it is psychological. There is brownie mix in the pantry in case my sweet tooth needs attention. I am finishing all my laundry just in case there is no power and we need clean clothes to wear. My bathrooms are all clean. I don't want the paramedics coming in and finding a mess toilet in case of an emergency (oh thank you, my Italian grandmother for giving the gift of cleanliness).

Talked to most of my families and friends. I am all set, but I still hope it is more hype than reality. I love when the weatherman are wrong. I rather be over prepared than caught off guard.

Be careful all my blogging friends. I am sending out cyber hugs to keep you safe!

Week in the Life

2011-08-25T05:27:00.000-07:00

What has been going on? Well, I have something to check off my bucket list (not that I have one), but I felt the earth quake shake, rattle and roll while sitting at my desk at work. At first, I thought could this be an earthquake, and then I thought something was happening to me physically because my co-worker said that she did not feel anything even though she sits five feet away from me. I also thought it had something to do with Omar Kadafi. I guess 9-11 will never be far from my thoughts.

It was kind of awesome. The Earth shook! Wow! Makes you feel small and unimportant in the scheme of things, or it makes you feel very important that you are a part of this massive infra-structure. It is sort of like the glass half-empty or half-full idea. Which one are you? How does it make you feel?

Personally, I am thrilled to be part of the bigger picture. It is incredible.

"The Love of My Youth," by Mary Gordon. I am in the process of reading it. When my husband brought it home from the library, I thought it was going to be a romantic read and I only started it because he thought I would like it. Surprisingly, it is fantastic and not romantic at all. Two people, who were high school sweethearts and first loves, meet again in Roma forty years later. Each day they take a walk in a special place in Italy and discuss things. It is interesting to see how they have changed from the teenagers they were to the adults they have become. I am really enjoying it.

Has anyone noticed but me that the only thing worth watching on television is the Philadelphia Phillies (or other baseball teams if you live elsewhere). What happened to all the great programming that use to be on? I know it is summer, but there aren't even any good re-runs on it. Or don't they call them something fancy now, like encore performances?

Getting geared up for the start of school. I am dreading the traffic. I am looking forward to the children. I am anticipating the arrival of a new principal, another personality to deal with, and the end of the long days and longer nights. I am loving the idea of cuddling up with a cup of tea and some cookies in the fall. I am excited about eating some different things for dinner, like chili, stew, and more comfort foods when the weather gets colder, but I am bemoaning the loss of all the fresh peaches, watermelon, that is locally grown. Guess I will have to start liking apples!

Book 26, 27, and 28 of 50!

2011-08-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

Love Begins in Winter: Stories by Simon Van Booy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I finished this book I had a delightful quote that I made up to describe how much I loved this book, but my youngest daughter texted, my husband started to tell me what we needed to put on the grocery list, and my middle daughter told me about the events of her evening, so the fantastic quote I made up fluttered from my mind on the hardwood floors where we walked over it forgetting that it described deliciously the exquisiteness of this book, a collection of five short stories about love and life.

This author, Simon Van Booy, speaks to my soul. I love his poetry-prose. I started to write down all the great quotes from book, and I realized there were just to many beautiful sentiments.

Shades of Milk and Honey is a Jane Austen like wanna-be that incorporates a concept of made-up magic called glamour, which the main character and a few others know how to create to give an optical illusion. It was trite, predictable, and a nice change between the heavier books I have been reading, plus my husband picked it out because it said it was based on Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, and had a magical flair. I like when he brings me books to read. My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A Book of Lies had so many things wrong with it. First the font it was typeset in drove my eyes crazy. I found it extremely hard to read. It is set on the Island of Guersney, and I think the author is the first person who actually seems to feel some disdain for it. It has to do with World War II sort of, and it alternates between the 15-year-old main character and her father's journal, which is a family history of an event that occurred during World War II, but it is told badly and you don't feel any emotion for the characters. By page two hundred, I was moaning about starting it, and I was hoping it would redeem itself, but it never did.
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

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From City Girl to Pioneer Woman

2011-08-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

Five years ago, my mother came to visit one afternoon and brought me two big delicious peaches. When I asked where she got them, she said from the tree in the alleyway. My mother lived in a row home in South Philadelphia and their homes have a whole set of alleys in run behind their backyards. It is very cool and kind of weird. Not sure if any other city has such a set-up. Well in South Philadelphia with its concrete backyards, many of the old time Italians and their descents grow things, tomatoes, basil, fig trees, and yes, in my mother's alley way, a peach tree with succulent peaches. There were so many hanging over the fence, my brother would walk up and pick them for her (it was a neighbor's tree!)

When she died four years ago, I decided to plant a peach tree in my yard. I like to garden and grow things all the time. It takes 2-3 years for a tree to get established. Last year, I had an abundance of little green peaches until on June 28th, a tornado like storm swept through my little town knocking down the peaches, 100-year old trees, and left as a memento holes in every screen in my house the exact size of the golf-ball hail that accompanied the rain. With two days of no electricity, I was able to repair all the screens on my own!

This year is the fourth year for the tree. My husband read that you should pluck some of the small peaches off the trees to allow the ones remaining to grow bigger, but I would not listen. No one and no storm was touching my peaches this year.

Despite Mother Nature, squirrels, birds, wasps, ants, and the unseasonably warm days, my peaches grew and even though more landed in the compost pile than in my kitchen, we were still able to harvest a bunch. I am very proud of them. They are organic and they are lovely. The wasps and my family have been enjoying them!

I made the Peach Cobbler from scratch!

Book 25! I am halfway to my goal.

2011-07-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the way this book was written. It was almost poetical.
There was one section where the main characters traveled around and wrote letters, and this section annoyed me a little, but it was essential to the story.

Three people, three lives, Rebecca, Henry, and George, meet in Athens. It is a story of how they met, how they loved, and how their lives were intertwined with one another. The backdrop of Athens was interesting. The characters were smart, and the story was poignant.
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Yes! My Darling Daughter, Rachel

2011-07-24T03:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Rachel's 19th birthday. Her last year as a teenager, although sometimes when we sit and talk and she makes witty comments, I think she is wise beyond her 19 years.

When I was a girl/teenager/young woman, I would stand in a Hallmark card store and agonize over a card to buy my mother. I never liked the overly sentimental ones. I could never find the right card. They either said way too much or not enough. I never wanted to say all the "schmaltzy" things they said to her.

When shopping for a card for Rachel, I found the perfect card. It was just perfect. It captured her essence and our relationship to the "T" but I still had to write more in it. I am so proud of her and so honored to be her mom.

My biggest thing with my children is I am constantly talking about being SAFE. Making good choices. Keep your eyes and ears open. Being alert. I think our children are have to be more on guard than we were. The world has gotten crueler. A mass shooting in Norway of all places?

19 years with an awesome girl! A mother's job is a hard one, but some kids make it easier.

Happy Birthday to Rachel, you have blossomed into a magnificent young woman.

Book 24 of 50: Yes, My Darling Daughter

2011-07-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

Yes, My Darling Daughter by Margaret Leroy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second book I read by this author. She has a great way of telling a tale. I was riveted.
The story told in first person is about a woman, Grace, and her daughter, Sylvie, a three year old about to be four. Sylvie has issues. She is deathly afraid of water, and she behaves cool and grown-up toward her mother, Grace, who she always refers to by her first name. Sylvie has nightmares, and screams, and is eventually expelled from her nursery school because she is too difficult for the staff to handle. A beautiful child, she seems possessed, and possessed/reincarnated she is, but this book is not a thriller. It is not a psychological thriller. It is a book about a mother who is struggling to understand why her child is troubled, and she finds help from a psychology professor who studies the paranormal. Again, this is not a ghost story. It is not a thriller. It is very believable and makes you wonder what does happen after you die.

Their journey to help Sylvie takes them to Ireland to a coastal town where there exists a house that Sylvie draws over and over. Once there, Grace, Adam, and Sylvie uncover the answer to a murder and to Sylvie's deep rooted problems.

Margaret Leroy is a consummate story teller. I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end.

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FOLLOW FRIDAY

2011-07-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee. It's a great way to meet new blogger friends! and I found it on a blog that I have been following recently The Reader Bee

This weeks question is:

Q. What do I do when I am not reading?

I have three children. In this economy, two of my children who have graduated from college are living with us. Not a problem, I love them and enjoy them. My son has a job and is saving money. My daughter is finishing her internship. Which one will move out first?

So, I have wash, meals, staying up late worrying when they come home....the usual stuff that you never stop doing when you are a mom no matter how old the kids are.

I am currently writing a novel. I like to write. I don't know if I am any good, but I do enjoy it. I work at a school, so summers are more relaxed.

I scrapbook. I love to scrapbook, and now that my children are so grown-up I have started on my nephews. LOL!

I like to garden. Things are pretty well established now, but in a month or two, cleaning up will start.

What do you like to do?

Summer Clean-Up

2011-07-13T04:28:00.000-07:00

I just spent the last hour cleaning up my Blog lists. I have deleted friends who have not posted in over six months to make room for people who do. Some of those people have moved off my radar, and a few have become Facebook friends, so the blog was redundant.

Blogging is not for everyone.

I like cleaning up. It makes me feel like I have accomplished something.

I also added blogs that were lurking in my background, so now I may make new friends.

Do you enjoy cleaning up? Organizing? What kind of things?

Book 22: Unofficial Entry for July in Paris

2011-07-11T05:47:00.001-07:00

The Girl in the Blue Beret by Bobbie Ann Mason

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Based on the real-life experiences of the author's father-in-law, a widowed pilot forced to retire from his job as an airline pilot back before the Reagan Administration, finds himself only sixty years old with time on his hands. He needs and wants to go back to France to find the French resistance members who helped him and other aviators escape from the Germans.

When he gets back there, he finds the Girl in the Blue Beret, they share not only memories, but experiences that they have never shared with anyone and find closure and maybe even love.

I liked the book. I didn't love the book! After fifty pages, I stopped reading it, and started another book, but found myself wanting to finish it. After giving it a second chance, I zipped right through it.

I learned that I was not aware of the role Spain played in World War II. I never paid any attention to them, but now I am going to do a little research about what was happening in that country.

I realized that it must have been difficult for the French to hide the Americans for many reasons, but because they were so tall, it made it even more difficult for them to blend in. These are the little things we do not realize when we read, but Ms. Mason managed to weave these details in the story.

What I loved about the book is that while the aviator thanked the girl in the blue beret for all she endured to save him, she said, as only the French can, we did not do it just for you. We did it for ourselves. We did it to save our humanity. We did it to save our culture. We did it so that the Germans couldn't bring beer and sausage to our country and destroy all that we loved about France. (paraphrased by me, not a direct quote, but she did mention the beer and sausage).

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Connected through Cyber Space

2011-07-10T14:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was reading my blogging friend, Heidi's blog, and she posted a picture of a rabbit she met while taking a walk. This morning my husband called me to look out the back yard, and there sitting, no lounging in the back yard as if posing for a picture was this little Cottontail.

Enjoy!

Book 21

2011-07-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

It must be summer because I just keep finishing them one after the other.

The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved the book. I loved the writing, especially the descriptions of the seasons and the landscape.
I loved the characters. I liked that the interaction between Vivienne and her daughters, Blanche and Millie.

I give it a 4 star rating because of some of the things that bothered me.

Set on the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, the book opens with us learning that the Germans are taking over the house next door to Vivienne de la Mare, the heroine of the story. She seems a normal, somewhat typical housewife who is caring for her two daughters, a teenage girl and a four year old, as well as her mother-in-law, who appears to be suffering from the early stages of Alzhemier's Disease. Her husband, like most of the men in the book, are off fighting the war, which is something we learn does not really bother Vivienne much since they have stopped living as man and wife since the youngest child was born.

The writing is poetic. The scenery descriptions make you feel as if you are smelling the apples growing in the orchard, and feeling the sea breeze as it blows through the meadows.

Although she feels that it is wrong, Vivienne strikes up a friendship with a German officer. She tries to remain stand-offish and not fraternize with them, but soon finds it is impossible since the Germans behave so graciously, and before you know it Vivienne and Captain Gunther are having an affair and fall in love. The book reminds me of Corelli's Mandolin, where the occupation by the enemy is not as bad as we have previously read in other books about World War II.

But, and the big but here is that in Corelli's Mandolin, it was the Italians who occupied the land, and in this book, it is the Germans, and the Germans are not the Italians, and I do not think you can get away from the tone of the war by making the Germans seem almost civil. This does not excuse any of the atrocities that the Italians committed, but it just more believable that they would not have been as intense as the Germans.

The brutality of the war is missing. The love affair between Gunther and Vivienne takes place too casually as he comes to her home every evening. Her children never run into him. Her mother-in-law never hears him. The German officers and enlisted men never make crude or suggestive remarks. He treats her too well. The two German officers are written in a very sympathetic manner, and for me, it doesn't sit well. Germans during World War II are suppose to mean, brutal, demanding. We are not suppose to understand their humanity, their difficulty in dealing with the War and what is expected of them. We are not suppose to believe their denial that they did not know what is going on.

I think the author attempts a stab at writing a sympathetic German officer, but because of all the brutality of the War, I feel she is afraid that it would be to unbelievable and so Gunther is not a complete character. You only see the tender side of him with Vivienne, and as a reader, I know there was a part the author did not show us. Maybe she was afraid too. Maybe she chose not to because we should believe that there were participants on the German side that did not want to be in a war and did not approve of the war.

The book ends with the tragic killing of a run-away laborer that the Germans have brought over to the island. His death is a pivotal moment in the story, and sets decisions in place that influence the outcome of the book.

While I think the book was good, I think the author fell short of pushing the story, of giving us the rawness that is so present in books about World War II, but it is definitely a book worth reading.

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Book 19 and Book 20 of 50

2011-07-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I like Alice Hoffman. She writes interesting stories without too much detail, but still keeps you connected to the characters until the very end.

The Red Garden begins in the 1700s and ends in modern times.

It begins with the birth of a town and takes you through the centuries with snippets of interconnecting characters and their lives.

It is about life. Just the snippets of life and how these moments, some big, some small change us, mold us, make us the characters we become.

I give it 3-1/2 stars.

I also finished, Hannah's Dream. I enjoyed it. 3 stars.
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The Two Men in My Life - Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

There is a song my father use to sing, "I want a girl just like the girl that married dear old Dad." When I was a girl listening to him sing it I use to think I definitely don't want to marry anyone like my Dad. While he had his finer points and I loved him dearly, he was definitely not the man of my dreams. He had a drinking problem, was unkind to my mother, but he loved me fiercely. I was the first person to make him a Father, and he adored me. Despite growing up in a difficult childhood, I think I learned things from him, and one of them was how I wanted to be treated by my husband and what kind of father I wanted for my children. He fell short on many of the criteria, but the father of my children is perfection

When I finally found the man of dreams, I found someone who is kind, soft-spoken, well-read, brings me flowers, and one of the things he has in common with my dad, is he loves me fiercely.

What else could a girl want!

He is the best father a man could be. His children love him. I always say he is the preferred parent. The funny one! The sweet one! The easy-going one. He is definitely the best.

I loved my own father despite his fatal flaws, and I love my children's father for all the wonderfulness he embodies on a daily basis. He is my perfect companion, and I think I will keep him forever!

Book 18 of 50

2011-06-19T06:36:00.001-07:00

Becoming George Sand by Rosalind Brackenbury

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One day, I picked up a book called Consuelo by author named George Sand. I knew from literature class either in high school or college that there were two women writers who used the names of men, George Eliot and George Sand, but I had never read a book by her and thought why not.

For some reason I was hooked, and have loved her ever since. I have tried to obtain every book translated into English. What I like about her is not that she used this name to write under, but the woman was truly a feminist, and she did it all. She was free, she had many lovers, she wrote extensively, had correspondence with Flaubert, knew many famous French writers, painters, poets, and other geniuses, including Frederic Chopin. What many people do not know is she had two children, was a single parent, supported them, sometimes her lovers, and herself by writing.

I went back and forth giving this book a 4-star or 5-star rating. The author tells two stories, one of George Sand, and one of the writer who is in the midst of research for a book on George Sand. She throws in social commentary and reflections of life.

For some reason, I prefer the writings of contemporary non-Americans to American writers. I just find their books more interesting and insightful. This is definitely one of my favorite ones of the year.

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Book #17 of 50

2011-06-11T13:08:00.001-07:00

Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once upon there was a beautiful mermaid, who saved the life of a handsome prince with the help of a beautiful princess, and they all lived happily ever after. Well sort of. It is a love triangle. Both the princess and the mermaid fall head over heels in love with the prince. The mermaid gives up her voice and her tail for his love, and the princess puts her life in danger to marry him so that their kingdoms can be united and war averted. The love that saves them all in the end is the love that the princess has for the mermaid, and it is through this twist of girl-love and the love of the otherworld and the beauty of things unknown that makes this story magical.

I have always loved the tale of the Little Mermaid as told by Hans Christian Anderson, so I throughly enjoyed this book as well.

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Sisters Suck?

2011-06-09T04:17:00.000-07:00

Did you ever wonder how the same people who grew up in the same family turned out so differently or have such a different perspective on things or remember family events differently?

Do you have a love-hate relationship with your sister or a hate-love relationship?

Is it harder or easier to be close to a sister? The best sister relationship, in my humble opinion, is when your sister is a friend. Someone you can let your hair down with. Someone who understands when you are cranky, sad, uncomfortable, and is there to support and help you in times of need and to laugh at you,

Sisters throw a totally different dynamic on a relationship.

How many people really have sisters for friends? Do you think it is harder if you have more than one sister? I have one sister that I really feel is my friend, as well as my sister. We are not the same, and we certainly do not always share the same opinions on things, but I think we are close. You have to accept someone for their differences. It is easy to deal with the things you share in common, but the true test of sisterhood is accepting the differences and still loving one other.

Ah! If we all could just be Meg, Jo, Amy, and dear sweet Beth.

What's Blooming in My Garden 2011

2011-06-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

Weight Watchers Progress

2011-06-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

Since Mother's Day I was having a hard time counting my points every day, but I was making an effort to keep portion control and cutting down on my sweets. I haven't lost anymore and in fact I gained a pound back, but I have lost 20 pounds from January 28th to June 3, 2011. It is five pounds a month, which I am very happy about.

My next goal is do 20 pounds in three months. I know it sounds ambitious, but I am hoping to lose another 20 by the end of summer. I think I can do it because of all the fresh fruit that becomes available and the smaller meals and the lack of holidays with all of the tempting food.

Wish me luck! It's a long journey and it's one step at a time.

Heck, I might even start exercising.

Book 16 of 50

2011-06-04T11:25:00.001-07:00

The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two children, Mattia and Alice, become two teenagers and two adults with baggage, who perform dysfunctional in the world. Mattia's twin sister is lost due to his neglience and selfishness as a child, and he punishes himself for it by hurting himself and never making close human connections. Alice had a skiing accident where she thought she would die and not be rescued. They find each other, but are too inept and too wrapped up in their own solitude to make a life together.

The books is sparse in details. It is written by an Italian author but these two people could be anywhere in the world. They do not behave in any manner that would suggest they are Italian. The descriptions are not of Italy. It was an interesting book, well written, but not one I would recommend to anyone. I am not sure why it did so well in Italy or in other countries. Nothing really stood out for me that made it stellar, and the ending left you confused. Did it end tragically or hopefully? You would have to read it and decide.

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Book 15 of 50

2011-05-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What I thought was who wouldn't have wanted to live in this era? It was populated by some of the greatest creators of mankind. Degas, Renoir, Sand, Maupassant, Monet, Manet, Sarah Bernardht to name a few. This book is about a creation of painting. Renoir took friends and models and lovers and asked them to pose for him over a two month period. They were having lunch on a verandah as party of a Boating Party. The author took us through the beginning of Renoir's painting, introduced us to the characters, made them come alive for us. By the end of the book, you felt like you were enjoying a sip of champagne and an excellent meal prepared by the mother of Alphonsine, one of the love interes, model, and dear life-long friend of Renoir. As you sipped your champagne and tasted the crepes with tapiaco, you learned about their lives, their expectations, their desires. Renoir may have immortalized them in his painting, but Ms. Veerland's book brings them to life.

I am never so happy, as I am reading a book about Paris, about Parisians, and about genius!

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May 22

2011-05-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

It has been an uneventful two weeks, and that is kind of nice. We are just getting things done around the house before the hot, sticky days of summer come around. We are getting things done at school before the last few weeks fly by and send the children off to frolic in the summer sunshine, getting enough Vitamin D to last the year, and expending enough energy to help them grow a foot or two. It will be a fast three weeks. It seems like life is speeding past me at warp speed, and I want to slow it down but I don't know how.

These mourning doves seem to be enjoying the mulch I laid down this weekend. I hope they are careful and don't spend the night unexposed to the elements and any predators that may be lurking. I can't help but feel that if my cat was lurking about, they won't be so brave. Are they mocking him or just mourning his loss with us?

May 7, 2011, My girl graduates from College

2011-05-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

It has been one of those busy weekends and I had an extra day off, but before Monday morning begins I want to capture Saturday in my blog. We woke up at 6:00 which is a normal time for us, but not on the weekend, and started out by 7:30, which was a half-hour later than I intended. While putting on my mascara, Lancome, an expensive one, I had a problem with my right eye. It was completely red and I had to remove all the makeup and start over!

The day was long. Very long. We had to take a shuttle bus to the stadium, sit in the bleachers for hours. It was suppose to start at 9:30, but the graduates did not begin the procession until 10:00 and there were so many of them that someone on the grounds crew miscounted chairs and had to bring them in.

Thankfully, the speeches were short. They did a great job in this area, but there were so many students graduating, and in the college of education, everyone was a summa cum laude or a magna cum laude, and they read it out loud each time. I seriously think they need to re-evaluate the program and beef up their standards if that many people get serious honors.

There were several colleges represented in the procession. My daughter, Lillian, was in one of the first ones, so her name was called early on, and unlike, my son's graduation, they actually pronounced her name correctly. The students in her college were respectful at first and returned to their seats, but as the graduation went on for another few hours, more than half of the graduates just got up and left. It was rude, but understandable. It was hot, and long, and tiresome, but I am not sure what else they could do.

The guest speaker was Dr. Oz, and he was funny, articulate, and interesting, which of course, he should be as a television host. It was enjoyable, and he told the kids the ten steps to living a happy and successful life, which is the same thing we all know, but most of don't ever practice. Hopefully, this generation will.

Finally, the graduation is over. Yes, we stayed until the end. My husband is a stickler of protocol and I thought it was just rude and disrespectful to leave, but when they called out Luigi Zaccari's name, even I cheered despite the fact that I had no idea who the hell he was.

It took us two hours to get home because we stopped for pictures, had to board the shuttle bus, and then drive through traffic, which my amazing husband artfully dodged.

We always give out awards when we attend events. Usually an MVP, but this time we gave out the dorkiest moment award. My husband and I received it together when we got excited by spotting a blackbird with red wings while driving home. OMG! You would have thought we saw an alien rise from the cornfield the way we squawked in unison.

I don't think we ever decided on an MVP (most valuable player for you non-sports people), but I think it goes to Lillian Cecelia Fry. It is an award we usually give out in mockery, but this year it goes out in sincerity. It is for all the tears she shed over Advanced Chemistry, the long hours she put in working, going to class, partying, studying, crying, bitching, and achieving. She is an amazing young woman, and in those fifteen seconds when her name was announced, the six hours we spent there was worth every second.

Hats off to my Lillian! Job very well done.

Goal 1: Accomplished

2011-05-06T05:17:00.000-07:00

TWENTY POUNDS
I reached my first goal. It took 13 weeks of being on Weight Watchers to lose 20 pounds,which is a little more than a pound a week. I told someone at school that if you lost a pound a week for a year that would be 52 pounds. In that context it is not bad at all.

My next goal is to lose 20 pounds by July 31, 2011, or sooner. I will check back and let you know how I do. It might be a little easier in the summer to do this with more activity and fresh fruit. I am determined!

2011-04-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

This morning our cat did not make a sound. His familiar sound of always being at the basement door waiting for us to let him up to start his day and have breakfast. He always annoyed us because he wanted to go out and roam the neighborhood, but I didn't like him to do that because the neighbors did not appreciate it and it was dangerous despite the fact that he was a fearless animal, who thought he was more a cougar than a house cat. He would run up the driveway to "attack" a dog. Guard his little corner of the world. Protect his family from whatever he perceived the danger to be. He was not good at meowing. We don't know why. When we found him outside, or should I say when he found us, that was one of the first things I noticed. He was not good at meowing. Maybe something happened to his vocal cords. He was a young cat, maybe 1-year-old, when my son, Andrew, found him. It was the only pet I ever had in my entire life if you don't count the brief two days, our puppy, King lived with us.

Most of the time, I found the cat annoying. He was not a lap cat. He was a gentle cat but a cat who knew he was the king of the world, and that us, mere mortals, had no insight into the things he knew. Most of the time, I found him annoying but I cried my eyes out when I knew the inevitable had happened. Although he wasn't sick to the naked eye, I have been observing different behaviors from him, so I did not feel completely surprised by it, but I am surprise that I am going to miss him so much.

He was just a cat, who stayed to himself, chased dogs, wanted to be feed wet food, and was happy that the humans he lived with were compatible with him.

We are going to miss you, Petey the cat!

A Poem from Rachel to you

Petey
Eat.
Sleep.
Wake up.
Cry.
Invited upstairs.
Escape outside.
Piss the neighbors off.
Who cares?
We never liked them anyways.
Come back in.
Eat.
Eat.
Beg For Food.
Sleep.
Love.
I don’t know.
Maybe.
Receiving Love,
Now that’s another story.
Kisses.
Hugs.
Intense Head Rubs.
You loved it.
I know you did.
Doing things that pissed mom off.
You might have loved that too.
You understood.
Didn’t you?
All that time.
Remember?
Back when you were a baby.
I think you loved our tuna cans then.
We loved you.
Then you were ours.
You always came back.
Except when you didn’t
A Gay Love affair
That’s what dad says.
I know you just wanted the breeze
In your fur.
Adventure.
You sought it,
Even if it was with a piece of string.

You made me happy.
You were happy,
Especially at the sight of our dinner.
When you sat at the table
Poking your head at the plate.
That made me laugh,
And while I am here.
Sorry.
For the Dress and the shoes.
You would understand.
I know you didn’t forget.
I won’t forget.
You're gone, but your
Presence is in my mind,
In this house,
In the complaint letter from
An anonymous grouch.
Fuck them. Live on.
Eat
Sleep
Eat
Eat some more.
Cat Nap
Forever.

Book 14 of 50

2011-04-30T06:23:00.000-07:00

Annabel by Kathleen Winter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Annabel/Wayne are one in the same person. Born a hermaphrodite at birth in a rural part of Canada, where the men go away from their families for six months at a time during the 60's, when not much is known about his condition and medicine is on the brink of learning more and more everyday, Wayne is given a male persona by his father rather than a female one. How could one decide with an infant in their arms what gender to make them when they have the sexual organs to be either male or female? How could one make that decision with limited medical information and experience? It is a difficult position to be in for any parent.

This book is more than such about Wayne being born a hermaphrodite. It is about relationship. The one between a father and a son, the one between a father and a daughter, the one with a special family friend, the one between a mother and her child and the unconditional love she has for him/her, no matter what the decision, and the one between best friends.
It is also about how we look at ourselves from the inside out, and how our society perceives female/male participation in the society. It briefly touches on the genetics involved in being a woman, and how being softer in body mass makes females different.

I gave it 4 stars and not 5 because while it was very interesting and entertaining in the beginning, it lost momentum as it progressed. It is well written, and I recommend it for its interesting and unusual subject matter, being a hermaphrodite, and I recommend it for its mundane or maybe not so mundane subject matter, how we interact as humans through gender and perception.

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Thoughts on the Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T03:27:00.001-07:00

What perplexes me is that while we say we are reaching for the ultimate equality in the belief that all men and women are created equal, we still seem to be mesmerized by the showy, opulent, and totally extravagant display of a wedding by an elitist group of people who deign to accept a commoner into their folds.

What is it about us that makes us accept these two opposing views? or do we?

Why do we still continue to pretend that being a Princess is a fairy tale, and that being a part of a fairy tale is not a difficult and sometimes unpleasant situation, and that the royals probably have less personal freedom than your average person despite all their connections and fortune.

For me, if you have seen one wedding gown, you have seen them all, and while Kate's is quite beautiful, the real beauty is the Westminster Abbey. It is mind boggling to think that human beings designed and created that masterpiece of architecture. Breathtaking!

Finally, I am thankful that I am not British because if I had to wear some (no any of) those hideous hats, I would just fall apart!

Let them eat cake!

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T05:17:00.000-07:00

A little blast from Easter past. I miss these days and I don't miss these days.
Less work for me, and they have grown up so nicely, and as Chris Rock or Oprah
said the other day, "Parenthood is a journey."

Thankfully, I have enjoyed the results of mine so far!

Andrew (6) Rachel on my lap (about 8 months) Lillian (4) Easter: April 11, 1993

Book 13 of 50: FANTASTIC and IMAGINATIVE

2011-04-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

13, rue Thérèse by Elena Mauli Shapiro

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorite books of 2011!

I loved it!

"As I have carried this strange box through life and across the worlds, I have always intended to make a book out of it. This book now exists; you hold it in your hands. The Louise Brunet depicted within it is fiction; the real Louise Brunet is irretrievable. Still, she gave me the stars. I merely drew the constellations."

(afterword by the author, Elena Mauli Shapiro)

Louise Brunet and Trevor Stratton -- their lives are intertwined through time. Through keepsakes found in a box, Trevor Stratton unravels the life of Louise Brunet and takes the reader through an interesting period of time between "the Great War and the Greater War."

It is an extremely creative book with pictures of the mementos placed throughout the novel.

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How I am spending my Spring Break

2011-04-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

I have been intrigued with the idea that the famous botanist, John Bartram, owned property that is now a part of southwest Philadelphia on 54th and Lindbergh and borders on the Schuylkill River. That he owned it almost 300 years ago is significant. It is 3 miles west of center city Philadelphia, and as you can see through the trees, you can see the Philadelphia skyline, the refineries across the rivers, and the Bartram projects across from his original homesite.

It is one of the things I can cross off my bucket list. I think I captured some beautiful shots of the beach, the gulls, and the geese too. If you are planning to go to see something similar to Longwood Gardens, you are not. It is only 45 acres and mostly wild vegetation and wildflowers (commonly known as weeds to many of us), but nonetheless beautiful.

My honey and I enjoyed our date immensely.

Earlier in the week, I spent the day with Justin and Joey. As you can see they enjoy their Aunt Brenda's love of cupcakes. Watching my calorie intake is proving a little bit of a challenge, but I am still down 18 pounds and ready to tackle the next 18.

Enjoy the slideshow.

Spring Cleaning

2011-04-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

I have been Spring Cleaning and I stumbled upon some pictures that needed to be organized and I found these precious ones among them.

1st picture: Don holding Andrew, Jennifer, Grandmom, Mom, Carol with Meghan
Andrew's first Easter
2nd picture: Lillian, Rachel, and cousin, Meghan
3rd picture: Me holding Rachel, Andrew, Don with Lillian (1992)
4th picture: Rachel with Lillian
5th picture: Don holding Rachel
6th picture: My three munchkins

Excited

2011-04-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

This week, I decided to print out my blog from the beginning. I thought it would be a good record of what has been going on in my life for the last few years. I am having it printed and bound. I think this is really cool and I am excited about it. I deleted all my archived posts and now there are posts from January 3, 2011 and on.

To My Mom and Grandmom

2011-04-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

You are the first person to love us.

Your eyes gaze into ours,
Our baby fingers and little toes tingle with the feeling of belonging to someone.
It is a feeling that you never outgrow.

Your support and nurturing helps us to
surmount any obstacle the world puts in our path.

You are the person who thinks we are beautiful, smart,
and funny even on the days when we are not.

You are always on our side and you have the uncanny ability to make
everyone feel unique.

You know the secret that love is timeless.

It existed before we entered the world and it will comfort us
after you are gone.

You know the secret that love is infinite, and that a mother’s love passes
from one generation to the next.

For love is the strength and the cure for all things earthly.

For a mother’s love is a heavenly gift to be cherished throughout eternity.

We will always love you and keep close to our hearts all
We mean to one another in this live and the next.

April 13, 2011

2011-04-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

At 7:43, on April 13, 1989, Lillian Cecelia Fry, my beautiful and wonderful daughter was born. Happy 22nd Birthday, Sugarplum! and four years ago, on Lillian's 18th birthday, my mom, Cecelia Rita McPherson, passed away. Two significant days forever interwined in my heart. I miss you Mom. I love you Lilly!

2011-04-11T06:08:00.000-07:00

The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A sweet young woman living in the 1400s, has her family struck down by the plague leaving only her mother alive to protect her from getting the dreaded disease. A natural born healer and midwife, her mother finds herself powerless against the evil disease and she turns to the town warlock, a purveyor of dark magic, for a solution.

Her dear mother trades her daughter's return to health for her daughter's soul. Sounds like a version of Goethe's Faust story, a recurring theme in literature. Not many days pass when a Witchfinder enters the village, and Bess' mother along with the town midwife are pegged as witches and carted off to be hung. When Bess find herself the next target of the witchfinder, she decides that trading immortal life in exchange Gideon's affection and possession may not be such a terrible fate.

After making the decision to accept immortal, she decides that she will not use her powers, especially for evil purposes. The book opens up in modern day England where the witch's daughter has now made her home and a new teenage friend, Tegan. She revels her powers and her story to the young girl in three separate stories that span a 600 year period, where throughout this time she has been escaping from Gideon, who was left behind angry and determined to get Bess back. The story ends with the two enemies meeting, and a conclusion to their love/hate relationship is finally reached.

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Crisis in Public Education

2011-04-02T08:13:00.001-07:00

I am not a public servant! I am an employee of a public school. I pay my taxes: local, state and Federal, and support the district I work in.

Rhetoric and cliches do not solve a problem that has existed for more than thirty years in this country. Until both sides are willing to examine the failures, the solutions, and the needs and stop talking about how more money or less money will solve the problems of public education we are doomed to continue to repeat the same mistakes and continue to do irreparable damage to all the youth of this country, not just the ones living in poverty.

We are not a democracy. We are a republic. We elect people to represent us, but that does not mean they always make decisions that benefit all of us. We are not a democracy. Many people in this country do not vote, so it is only the will of some of the people.

We are not a democracy. We flip-flop between Republican and Democratic candidates and elect people who really do not think to much too the left or the right of moderate opinion, and then we sit around for eight years and blame the previous administration for the mess that we are currently in. Messes are not made overnight, but they certainly can flared up in a hurry.

We are not a democracy. We elect individuals who are so far removed from the reality of what goes in the trenches that they cannot make accurate decisions for improvement and for accountability.

We cannot say that if we lose public education we lose our democracy. Very little about how the country works or the economics of our society and the global one are taught in schools. Students come out barely understanding what this country was built on, and how to preserve our ideals. Students are not trained to be productive citizens once they graduate from high school, and in many cases, when they graduate from college.

Our society is hurting. We have many poor people in our society who have been generational poor, and those children are the ones who suffer the most, and they suffer in our public schools. I see it on a daily basis. I see children who have hopeless family situations, and an educational system that takes years to address their behavioral, social, and learning problems.

We cannot say that there are good employees and bad employees in every job situation. It is unacceptable to believe that this okay when you are dealing with a child's life and future.

Many public schools are failing their students. Not because they can't pass the standardized tests, but because they do little or nothing to help them overcome their generational poverty and we will not be an educated citizenry if our public schools continue to neglect this issue.

We have people in Pennsylvania who call our system educational apartheid, and when they refuse to allow reform or entertain the thought of vouchers or charter schools or alternatives they are in turn suppressing the very group of people they are claiming to be suppressed by the others.

We are not a democracy. We have two groups of people who stand a little to the left and a little to the right of the issue, but we have no one who thinks out of the box and improves the entire system so that we can help more.

We are failing as a nation as long as our students in generational poverty never see a way out, never have a way to take their own destiny in their hands, to be accountable for their own future, and we will continue to listen to the rhetoric of not enough money, too much money while both sides let these children fail.

Book 11 of 50

2011-03-28T16:49:00.001-07:00

A Vintage Affair: A Novel by Isabel Wolff

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Too much was going on in the book at once, so nothing really was developed to my satisfaction and was all neatly tied up for the reader at the very end. Phoebe Swift, a thirty something ex-employee of Sotheby's Auction House, has opened her own vintage clothing store, where allegedly every garment has a story. Phoebe has lost her best friend, Emma, and was engaged to a man that Emma really liked, but he obviously preferred Phoebe. When the friend dies, Phoebe cannot forgive herself, so she breaks off the engagement and blames her fiance for her friend's death.
After opening the shop, Phoebe meets a woman, Mrs. Bell, who has a similar story to Phoebe's. The only difference is that Mrs. Bell's friend was a Jewish girl during WW II, and you guessed she was carted off by the Nazis, sent to Auschwitz, where she was never heard from again, so Mrs. Bell blames herself for the death of her friend. Of course, living in the modern world with Facebook and databases opens a new world of information, and Phoebe discovers things about Mrs. Bell's friend that brings closure to the dying old woman.
>While running her shop, Phoebe becomes involved with two men, Miles and Dan. She and Miles become involved while Dan remains in the background, but Miles has a recalcitrant, sixteen-year-old spoiled daughter who creates problems for the relationship, but that's okay because the reader is secretly hoping that Phoebe and Dan find their way to each other because Roxy, the annoying daughter, is too much to deal with.

Everything neatly wraps up at the end, her friend, Annie writes her play, the young teenager gets her cupcake dress, Phoebe finds closure regarding Emma's dress, Mrs. Bell's dying wish is granted, and even Guy, the first boyfriend that came between Emma and Phoebe, has an opportunity to set the record straight with her. I didn't even mention the small snippets about Phoebe's mother and father, and his new baby, Louis with his second wife because I found myself glossing over their problems.

Too many coincidences, too many attempts to wrapping it up with a neat little bow, and too many characters made this book lacking in depth and just another one of those chick lit books that people are so fond of reading.

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My Spring Snow

2011-03-24T03:44:00.000-07:00

My husband and I eloped on March 23, 1984. Just the two of us. Me in my white dress and he was wearing his best suit. Utterly romantic. We walked from my apartment to the flower store on Broad Street, to Ten Pennies, where he had bought me a wedding bouquet, daffodils and irises, white mums and baby breath. We hopped in a cab and drove over to Philadelphia's City Hall where we had an appointment with Judge DiNubile, my eighth grade teacher's uncle. He married us in his chambers. I don't remember anything but standing there, putting the rings on our fingers, and saying "for better or worse."

The heavens smiled down upon us that day. Knowing everyone would think we were crazy. What girl doesn't want a big wedding with bridesmaids and people watching her stumble, I mean walk down the aisle on the arm of her father, who gives her away to another man, her husband. Not me! My father was deceased, and I thought I am not being given away, I am choosing this man and he is choosing me. It was the ultimate romantic adventure.

God approved. In lieu of rice or rose petals or butterflies, as soon as we stepped out of Philadelphia's City Hall, it began to snow, a light flurry of the first spring snow. It snowed lightly, just enough flurries to sprinkle on our heads as all the witnesses in heaven approved and wished us well and sent snowflakes down to christen our lives other.

For better or worse, For richer or poorer, In sickness and in health... That's true love. That's the test. If you can last through these conditions, your love will endure. Ours has for 27 years, and every time, I see Spring Snow, like I did this morning, I re-live that wonderful, that best day in my whole life all over again.

Book 10 of 50

2011-03-23T04:14:00.001-07:00

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read this along with The Paris Wife , it makes a great companion book because Hemingway does not spell out the characters and the situations as well as the fiction writer did. It seemed to be more a journal than anything else, but it really didn't capture the heart of what it was like to live in Paris during this time, but it did give us immeasurable insight into the writer's mind about people he met. During this time, Hemingway was a very young man, and in several false attempts to an introduction he tries to say what he wrote in The Moveable Feast was fiction, but I think he was trying to protect himself from being sue from the famous people he discusses in it.

Hemingway committed a despicable act at the end of the book, which ended his marriage. He cheated on his wife, Hadley, who claimed to adore, and did it right under her nose. She,however, got sweet revenge because she found someone else and lived a wonderful life with her second husband.

Why were they called the Lost Generation? I always thought it was because they were drinking their lives away, but according to Hemingway, Gertrude Stein accused his generation of being the lost generation because after they served in World War I, they drank and had no respect for anything. It was in reference to a car mechanic in Paris who did not give her Model T Ford the proper attention, and his boss referred to them as a "generation perdue." Hemingway felt that all generations were lost in some way. I tend to agree with him. I think they have to find themselves and their sense of purpose. Not all are successful.

If you are a fan of Scott Fitzgerald, this book includes first hand information from Ernest Hemingway's point of view and experience with him. It is a rare glimpse at two great writers and their personal interactions.

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The Vernal Equinox, The First Day of Spring, The Last Day of Winter, My birthday

2011-03-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I have always felt special, almost blessed because I was born on the first day of Spring. I am not sure. New beginnings. Flowers after a cold weather. Warm weather. Good moods. I love that the moon is the biggest moon we have seen in 18 years. How cool is that! I love that I have to wait another 18 years to see it again. It makes me feel like I have something to look forward to.

This year I turned 54. I can't believe it has already been 4 years since my 50th birthday and only 6 more until. Well, I won't even go there.

My biggest achievement this year is that I have lost 15 pounds, and I need to lose even more, so I am putting my nose to the grindstone and making sure that happens.

I enjoyed my birthday as I do every year because of my amazing children, husband, and dear friend, Lorraine, who made the best chocolate cake. Ina Garten look out!

Book 9 of 50

2011-03-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Street: A novel based on true events by Laurie Fabiano

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On page 377, the narrator says to her eighty year old Italian-American grandmother,
"I made shrimp scampi."
"How did you know to do that? You don't cook,"
"I used a recipe.
"They have recipes for that?"

Loved this quote. It sums up my Italian background. My husband always wants to know how to make different things. I never know how to tell what to do, especially the Italian dishes. I learned from my grandmother and my neighbor. Their recipe for escarole soup. Make chicken broth with a whole chicken. Cut onions, celery and put them in water with chicken. When it is done, remove the chicken. Throw it in the escarole. Buy ground meat. Note not ground beef because meat for meatballs can be a variation of numerous meats depending on how you make a meatball. Make meatballs, tiny ones. The ingredients include garlic, locatelli, cheese, egg, breadcrumbs, meat. Take the chicken and cut it into bite size pieces and put it back in the soup. If you want pasta in it, cook it separately and add to the soup. Never, never put your pasta directly in the broth.

I digress, but this is how the art of Italian cooking has been passed on, and thank goodness that someone decided to make recipes.

Elizabeth Street is a novel based on factual events. It is the story of Giovanna, her daughter, Angelina, and the narrator, who is the author or the book and the granddaughter of Angela. It takes place in the early 1900s before women had the right to vote, and where "eye-talians" were paid less than black men because they were the ones discriminated against by the people who considered themselves Americans.

It is a story of Giovanna's life from Scilla, Italy to Little Italy, NY. Her sorrow, her pain, her friendship, her strength, her courage, her intelligence and her family, her intense love for her family. She marries Rocco after losing the love of her life in a tragic accident, and she has the gumption to sue the company and wins. But winning creates even more problems for her and her family, because the Italian mobsters cause them problems by destroying their store, extorting them for money, and eventually kidnapping Angelina.

The story sounded all too familiar to me. I grew-up in South Philadelphia. My maternal family came from Sicily. I am intensely familiar with the mentality and the traditions and the love of their heritage.

Sometimes, I wanted more details. I don't know if the reader could understand the struggles of their daily lives. It was written almost too light for me.

I loved the end because it touched me personally. It made me reflect on a friendship I have lost. Giovanna had a mentor, a doctor, who delivered babies, and they loved each other as deeply, but when Angelina was kidnapped, Giovanna was too frightened to confide in her friend, and when her daughter was eventually returned, they drifted apart because she felt as if she had betrayed her friend, the way she would have a lover. It made me think about friendships and family. Sometime a friend will have something happen that she cannot share. Either because of fear or shame or guilt, and it does cause a rift. I felt that happened to me with someone I was friends with for seventeen years. Her silence or lack of sharing made me feel that she didn't trust me with the difficulty she was experiencing and so over time, we stopped talking. I know what I did, but I never quite understood why she did. Maybe she felt I knew too much and was too judgmental.

The morale of the story in Giovanna's words, "You see Angelina, people who love one another always find each other somehow."

I will let you read the book to find out how she comes to believe in this life lesson.

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How did it happen?

2011-03-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

Three great things happened to me in the month of March.
I was born on March 20th. Pretty awesome. Well, it was after I took control of my own life and wasn't a kid anymore.

I was married on March 23rd. Another pretty awesome happening. I was just thinking on Monday how lucky I am. I had to take the trolley to work because my son needed our car and when I was walking up the hill huffing and puffing. It is a steep hill, and I thought how my husband does this on a regular basis and never complains. I mean the man never complains, and being married to me he should complain, at least part of the time. I feel like I am always complaining about too much laundry, what to cook for dinner, the stupidity of the world, work, life in general! We compliment each other. He doesn't complain, and I always complain. Maybe he doesn't have to because I do enough for both of us.

The third thing that was amazing, terrific, and fantastic was on March 16th, I became a mother. It changed my life. It granted me some kind of peace. I understood some of things my mother felt because now I had a little person of my own and it is a responsiblity beyond measure and scope. When I looked at that lovely face, so trusting, I didn't just love him, I fell in love with him, and always tell his sisters that he made me want even more children.

So, the month of March is good to me. Happy Birthday to you, Andrew, you made my life have something special, something meaningful, and that was you!

Weight Loss

2011-03-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

I didn't jump on the bandwagon on January 1st. I waited. Actually, I received a video from sister from her new flip camera and I felt that I looked hideous, so I decided to join Weight Watchers On-line. I love it. It enhances my weight loss efforts because it is all automated, and I love anything technical.

Week 0: January 24th
Week 1: January 31st
Week 2: February 7th
Week 3: February 14th stand still -- Hey it was Valentine's Day. At least, I didn't gain.
Week 4: February 21st
Week 5: February 28th
Week 6: March 7th
Week 7: March 14th Total Weight loss as of week 7 is 13 pounds.

I am so excited

My future plans:
Week 8: March 21
Week 9: March 28
Week 10: April 04
Week 11: April 11
Week 12: April 18
Week 13: April 25
Week 14: May 02 My goal is 10 more pounds.

I will keep you posted.

Unofficial First Day of Spring

2011-03-13T05:16:00.001-07:00

Today is the unofficial first day of Spring. SPRING FORWARD one hour!
Spring Forward one hour! As my daughter said, "Losing an Hour of Sleep for one day is totally worth gain an hour of sunlight everyday."

I am not so sure I liked losing my hour this weekend especially after the grueling week I had, but I will just think about at it as being the bank until Fall.

Happy Unofficial First Day of Spring, Bloggers.

Is there anything cuter than baby toes?

2011-03-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

Book #8 of 50

2011-03-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Not what I have come to expect from Alice Hoffman, but in some ways better. While her prose continues to be a fast read that lulls you in, grabs you, and propels you forward, I thought the format of this book was interesting and more believably magical than previous books I have read by her.

It is a story of home, the Blackbird House, and you learn about its inhabitants from the Revolutionary War to present time and it is all tied together through the house, the blackbird, and the people who have lived there. It is poetic in its narrative. Ultimately, it is about remembering and understanding that life is precious and should be always treasured.
I read it while my daughter was getting ear surgery, and I was a nervous wreck waiting for her to come out of the recovery room, so maybe my lesson learned is influenced from my ordeal or maybe Alice Hoffman's book was one I was meant to read when your own mind is preoccupied with the health and welfare of a precious loved one.

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#7 for 2011

2011-03-05T17:28:00.000-08:00

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Paris Wife is a fictionalized account based on the real life events of the first Mrs. Ernest Hemingway. Before I read this book, I knew very little about Ernest Hemingway. I knew that the only thing I like about his books are their titles, A Farewell to Arms, the Sun Also Rises, A Moveable Feast, and my person favorite, For Whom the Bell Tolls (a line borrowed from the famous John Donne poem).

I am not particularly fond of his writing style or this subject matter, but I found his early years to be very interesting. It is the tale of how he met Elizabeth Hadley Richardson, a woman eight years old than he, and he marries after knowing her for two years.

They run of to Paris where they are a part of a heavy drinking, bemoaning, rich crowd, who are privileged enough to be able to fulfill their dreams of becoming writers and living a very bohemian lifestyle. Throughout the book, the two of them, Ernest and Hadley, complain about struggling in Paris while they run off on ski vacations and trips to the beach, Madrid, Milan, and Spain for the running of the bulls, while maintaining their costly apartment in Paris. Neither one of them hold down a traditional job, and live this life of drinking and traveling and writing on their trust funds and advances. Ernest does all of this before reaching the age of 30.

We meet the Fitzgeralds, Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound to name a few. I think the Lost Generation went to Paris because Prohibition was going in the United States, and these people loved to imbibe.

Having said all of this, I do not admire these people, but I loved reading this book. It was like watching Entertainment tonight and finding out the dirty dish on the celebrities of the time.

Elizabeth leaves Ernest after five years of marriage when she realizes that being in a three-way relationship where she is the wife, and he is love with the other woman, who is strangely her friend throughout the affair, is just too worldly for her. She gives up the man she loves, and fortunately for her, she does because she meets someone, marries again, and stays that way happily for thirty five or more years while Ernest goes on to have three more wives and eventually commits suicide.

If you have ever been remotely curious about the live of a writer some deem the greatest American writer of the twentieth century, this book is a great place to start to get inside of his head. Ms. McLain does an excellent job of making you believe you are living the experience first hand through Hemingway's first wife's first person account.

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It's a Matter of Relationship

2011-03-04T03:39:00.000-08:00

My husband has a way with words. He writes amazing poetry and he is so witty, and that's why I forgive him when he is not good at putting things together or fixing things around the house.

That being said, here's my sharing and recording for the morning.

My son has been living with us since August. He moved back after four years of college and one year of living on his own down in his college town. Now, he has a job, and he goes off to work in a shirt and tie and dress pants and a nice coat. When he returns home, he has his sunglasses on, and he so reminds me of a secret service agent. He exudes confidence and he seems so comfortable in his own skin. Hats off to us for giving him the foundation to feel that way.

So, why is that when I look him, he is still my baby. I think to myself, I am proud of that boy, now wait, I am proud of that man. He is a man. On March 16th, he will be 24 years old. Twenty four years old!

I immediately get emotional at the thought. My eyes fill with tears and I feel choked up about it, and then, I wonder. Did my mother feel that way about me? I always wonder that now that she is gone. Was she worried about me? Did it amaze her as I got older and older and ventured out on my own?

My husband and I talked about this, and I told him that when she was sick in the hospital recovering from heart surgery and I came to visit on one of my many treks to the big bad city. As I was leaving, she said, "now be careful on the train home."

In that moment, I felt so loved. A grown woman! Fifty years old! and my mother lying there still fighting for her life, is worried about my safety on the train ride home.

My husband told me, "It's a matter of relationship not the age."

It's a matter of relationship! .... Boy, that man has a way with words.

Happy Countdown to SPRING

2011-03-01T04:28:00.000-08:00

I love this time of year. I love this time of year! I love this time of year. It's not Spring, but it is not Winter. It is the in-between time, where you feel hope and love and get giddy when you see a spot of yellow in a daffodil, or a shoot of green in your garden, or a purple crocus, or a robin red-breast.

I love this time of year. Colors come back to the world! I hate gray, but I love snow, and I love Spring Snow. I love a great big snow storm in March that blankets the world and then melts the next day because the temperature soar up over night.

I love this time of year.

19 more days until the First Day of Spring. Enjoy.

Lights and Shadows

2011-02-25T13:24:00.000-08:00

One thing I love about my house is the light and the shadow. My windows face the east, and I see some beautiful skies in the morning, and I love how the sun shines in the dining room and filters the golden sun rays through my red curtains.

What do you think?

Book 6 of 60: The Tattooed Girl

2011-02-25T05:47:00.000-08:00

The Tattooed Girl by Joyce Carol Oates

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have now read two books by this author, and started a third that I never read past the first thirty pages. She is a good writer, some may even say a great writer, and definitely a prolific one, over 115 books. The book was okay. It was well written. The characters were not likable, so I didn't care about them. When the end came, I did feel sorry for them because I had no emotional investment in them. The story is about a rich 39-year-old professor/author in the middle of translating a famous epic poem. After learning about a mysterious, unidentified neurological progressive illness, he decides to hire an assistant. For some reason, he doesn't like the literate types who apply for the job, so he hires the Tattooed Girl, a young working class girl who seems rather dull-witted and not particularly the type the professor would hire or want to be around. Their relationship grows not in a romantic way, but in the way, a relationship grows when two people live in the same house for over seven months, and as the book unfolds you learn more about him, about her, about the world they share and don't share until you reach the surprising conclusion.

I probably will not read any more books by Ms. Oates. She just doesn't write the type of books I want to read.

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Book 5 of 60

2011-02-19T05:46:00.000-08:00

The Bells by Richard Harvell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have read a book with a similar story to this one. It was an entertaining story, and I enjoyed it. A poor young boy with a beautiful voice is castrated by his choir director, so that his beautiful will be preserved and not mature and change once he is a man. Despite being castrated, he manages to fall in love, lose his love, reclaim his love all with the help of an unlikely cast of characters, including the two monks who rescued him when he was a baby. Filled with the love of music and books, the characters are endearing and you find yourself rooting for them to the very end of their adventure.

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Guest Post

2011-02-16T15:37:00.001-08:00

Here's a first for me. I have a guest post on LIFE: BESPRINKLED , Lizzi and Thauna's blog. Check it out. Thanks to my dear blogger friends for the invite. I am so excited.

I'm Back and here to STAY!

2011-02-16T05:45:00.000-08:00

It has been almost two weeks since I made my decision to close down the blog, and now I miss it. There have been several times during the last two weeks where I really wanted to share, and I realize that it is also something special for me. Valentine's Day was awesome. My valentine drove me to work, and when I was walking to the front door, I saw my favorite thing flying over, a flock of geese and how appropriate in the shape of a V for Valentine.

Later that morning, my sweetie drove all the way back to work to drop off a beautiful bouquet for me and while we were standing on the steps looking into the beautiful blue sky, there were two hawks flying low and together. I think it was love, or did I just see love everywhere I turned because for the first time in ten days, I didn't feel sick with a stuffy nose and all the other aches and pains that went with it.

Well, I am back. I hope you are glad to see me.

I am reading a great book recommending by one of my COL friends on Chicks on Lit. It is called The Bells, and I briefly stopped to read The Lover's Dictionary, a book my sweetie took out of the library for me for Valentine's Day. What a romantic he is despite his obsession with Elizabeth Taylor's health.

Hope you all had a great Love Day!

My blog

2011-02-04T06:24:00.000-08:00

I am going to shut my blog down. I have had it now for two years, and it has been fun, but I am going to turn it in a journal for myself, and I am not going to make any more entries in it.

I would like to say it has been a hard decision, but I realized that my slump isn't really a slump at all.

Thank you everyone who read it!

I am losing followers

2011-01-30T06:29:00.000-08:00

I am losing followers. I lost two people. I don't know who left my blog site, but when I see the number dwindle I take note. Who found me so boring that they didn't read about slump anymore?

What Would Jason Werth Do?

2011-01-25T16:14:00.000-08:00

I am in a slump. Don't know if it the dreary weather or just no inspiration, but I am in a slump... blogging, writing, and reading. I have only read two books the entire month of January. I have thrown aside Tess of the d'Ubervilles, Let the Great World Spin, and another one that I can't even remember.

I am trying to write, but I am in a slump. Writer's block? Lack of imagination? Too much Snow on the brain?

I am not sure, but I am hoping that once the first of February comes, and then the 2nd and the Groundhog informs me that there is only six more weeks of Winter, I will get out of my slump and into some serious reading and writing.

What do you do when you are in a slump?

Book #2 of 2011

2011-01-17T08:21:00.001-08:00

The Birth House by Ami McKay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Definitely a 4 -1/2 star for me

Young Dora, apprentice to the town's midwife, learns that being a woman entails a myriad of things, including learning the trade passed on to her by the midwife, fighting the new doctor who is bringing the world of modern medicine to women, her own sexuality, dealing with an abusive husband, and just growing into a competent woman at the turn of the century, an exciting and expanding time. How do you marry the old and the new? A timeless theme that never goes out of date even in our fast paced modern world.

Dora is an unforgettable character, and the style of the novel is innovative filled with prose, letters between characters, and period advertisements, that are both amusing and educational.

A must read for woman, who have forgotten how we got here and for those who want to remember how we did!

I hate that I dont work around the corner

2011-01-12T16:35:00.000-08:00

All the talk about snow bombs and days off did not happen. It snowed, but they did not close school. There was a two hour delay opening, which means the kids come in two hours late. We had 223 kids absent. There are 488 in our school.

My morning started off with the decision to walk to the trolley stop, which on a good day is less than 10 minutes away. It took me 20 minutes to walk there! Ugh! Up hill in the snow. Some sidewalks were shoveled and some were not. I could have driven to work, but I would have had to shovel the driveway. Both sides! My side and the neighbors. Before I jumped in the shore, I heard a snow blower. The man on the corner came to the driveway and did one half only. He did the side that belonged to my neighbors, but not ours. Neither one of us can pull our cars out without both sides being shoveled. To make matters worse, he went in the street with his snow blower, pass my sidewalk to the neighbor on the other side, and did their walk and driveway.

Okay...he sucks!

After trudging up the hill, I missed the trolley by 30 seconds. 30 seconds! Can you believe it? I had to wait twenty minutes.

BUT, at one point, I was on the trolley, which is already a timeless ride to begin with, and we were in a section with the Darby Creek flowing and the surrounding area was all covered in snow, and for one brief moment, I closed my eyes and opened them again to see all this beauty in the middle of a suburban area, and I thought if I were going to time travel it would be right in this very spot. Oh how, I wish the city planners could go back and save more of the green space.

Finally, the last thing I saw before I went in the house this evening was a line of geese. I heard them before I saw them. They were in a shaky V formation that seemed wobbly in the sky probably due to the high winds.

The Darby Creek and the geese were worth this day. How beautiful they both were. How foolish we are not to notice these things more often.

How was your day?

grounded

2011-01-03T16:58:00.000-08:00

I saw this is on Dawn's blog, and thought it was a wonderful idea. A word for the new year. What's your word for the new year?

GROUNDED
Grounded as in firmly established, practical or realistic, natural and sincere, stable and secure.