• 2014
  • (Page 4)

Yearly Archives: 2014

Refreshed Perspective

I was doing a lot of running around in town the other day, for my boy. We took him to see The LEGO Movie & he fell in love with the little blind packs of minifigures you can get from the movie.

He very rarely asks for anything specific, the last time was Christmas 2008, when he asked for discontinued Teen Titan toys, so I was going full Super (Crazy) Mom, looking for these dang things & everyone was sold out. We live 20 miles out of town & there’s no “Just hop to the store for one thing”.

As I crossed to the opposite corner of the town, I thought “Man, I’m hungry, my husband’s almost off work, but I have 2 more stops. I wish I lived in town, so I could finish this up later.” But I can’t because of how far out of town we live. I was tired & grumbling & cranky at the world.

I checked the last 2 stores & decided there was no way I was going to cook dinner when I finally got home, so I stopped at the grocery store that’s next to the exit to the highway, grabbed a chicken meal & got in line.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a guy looking at me, it gave me a weird vibe, but not a dangerous one, so I didn’t think much of it. Until he said “HEY! I haven’t seen you since high school!”

I have no freaking clue who this guy is, but he gets in line behind me, so I’m stuck. He’s got an adorable little boy with him & I make small talk with the kid & ignore the guy while the checker rings me up. As I’m trying to swipe my card, the dude says “Man, you sure new how to party.”

Yeah. I knew how to party 17 years ago. Yep. That’s why I have a kid that’s about to turn 16!

I paid, grabbed my bags & headed for the door, hurrying through the parking lot because I didn’t want to get stuck chatting in the parking lot with this guy that remembered me as I was at 17.

That’s when I thought, “Thank fucking God I don’t live in town.”

Sometimes life gives you reminders that you live the way you do for a reason. For me, my desire not to hear “You sure knew how to party!” like I’m still defined by my teen years in a small town, is much stronger than my desire for speedy shopping.

Ick! I was really struck by how the thoughts juxtaposed each other. I enjoyed every long mile of the drive back home to my podunk town on the edge of nothing, even if the trip was a total Lego-man failure.

Best (& Fluffiest!) Grocery Trip Ever.

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I sent this picture to my husband, to strike fear into his heart that I was going to buy the whole cart.

I didn’t buy the WHOLE cart, but I did put a good dent into it. The kids were over-joyed.

Summer Bible Camp

Being sent to summer Bible camp was one of the things that shaped my core & made me who I am today. But not the way the church probably wanted.

I got yelled at for not capitalizing “he” when talking about Jesus.

My big brother, seeing I was pretty miserable, (& probably also not wanting to get up in the morning to walk me over there any more than I wanted to go) decided I could just stay home with him instead during the summer.

That was the year he made me watch The Fly & The Blob & every other horror movie our gas station had for rental.

So thanks, old biddy that yelled at me for not knowing to capitalize pronouns related to your deity.

You led me down a totally different path & I’m happy for it.

Three other clear memories from Summer Bible Camp:
Meeting a lanky, dark-skinned boy that would NOT BE QUIET while we drank tiny paper cups of orange McDonald’s drink & much preferring his quiet frilly-dress-wearing sister. Being bothered by that loud & constantly-moving boy would turn out to be my first interaction with my husband.

Learning about ammonia from a teen girl that was helping out at the church. She let me smell it (ew), explained to me about the vapors produced when mixed with bleach & held a tiny little chemistry experiment (ammonia volcano) for me, while we were supposed to be memorizing Psalms 23.

We made a sheep magnet out of cotton balls & our sheep dog puppy ate it. I was distraught for a second, but then thought “Well, that only makes sense, since he’s a sheep dog.”

January Book Wrap Up

I’ve made a goal to do more reading in 2014. I don’t have a set goal, like 50 books in a year, or anything, but over the years I’ve noticed I was reading complete books less & less often. Pretty shameful, for a librarian…

I also have enough social media sites to manage as it is, so instead of keeping Goodreads updated, I’m keeping a running spreadsheet of the books I read in 2014.

I’m off to a running start! 9 books in 3 weeks (I didn’t start until the 7th). I’m counting audiobooks, because I’m the boss.

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In January 2014, I read:

  • On a Pale Horse (Incarnations of Immortality series #1) by Piers Anthony
    Genre: Fantasy Recommend? Yes.
  • Bearing An Hourglass (Incarnations of Immortality series #2) by Piers Anthony
    Genre: Fantasy Recommend? Yes.
  • With a Tangled Skein (Incarnations of Immortality series #3) by Piers Anthony
    Genre: Fantasy Recommend? Maybe not.
  • Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Audio book)
    Genre: SciFi/Humor Recommend? Yes!
  • Wielding a Red Sword (Incarnations of Immortality series #4) by Piers Anthony
    Genre: Fantasy Recommend? Nah, unless you’ve read the others.
  • Being a Green Mother (Incarnations of Immortality series #5) by Piers Anthony
    Genre: Fantasy Recommend? Nah, unless you’ve read the others.
  • For Love of Evil (Incarnations of Immortality series #6) by Piers Anthony
    Genre: Fantasy Recommend? Yes, this one is enjoyable again.
  • A Girl’s Gotta Do What a Girl’s Gotta Do by Kathleen Baty
    Genre: Self-Improvement Recommend? Yes.

The Piers Anthony Incarnations of Immortality series is one I read many years ago & enjoyed. I had tried to put together a collection of the books over the last 15 years, but some are out of print. Huzzah for ebooks!

I have mixed feelings about the Incarnations of Immortality series. The concept is really intriguing, Death, Time, War, Fate, Nature, God & Satan are offices held by mortals, temporary made immortal while they carry out the tasks required of their office.

On a Pale Horse is a solid fantasy, enjoyable, as is Bearing an Hourglass. Then they become deeply flawed books. Anthony’s writing of the female characters is so painfully sexist that I was actively rolling my eyes while I read. Intelligent, capable women exist only to be partnered with men, but then in later books, the gross sexism balances out when we learn that men are only big balls of rapey lust, who exist to sexually conquer beautiful women.

Book 6 is enjoyable again, but really only if you’ve read the first 5. I’m on the last book in the series right now (with an additional extra book which was written later).

Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy audiobook is pure win. It is read by Stephen Fry, delightful in his own right, who was friends with Douglas Adams. I couldn’t dream up a better executed project. We listened to this as a family on a road trip & everyone was giggling.

A Girl’s Gotta Do What a Girl’s Gotta Do by Kathleen Baty is another book I sincerely recommend. If you’ve read Gavin de Becker’s Gift of Fear (which I also recommend) Kathleen Baty’s book is based on similar ideas (in fact, the forward is written by de Becker), but it’s geared towards young women. A Girl’s Gotta Do What a Girl’s Gotta Do teaches girls to listen their gut feelings about men, what to do if you find yourself in certain situations & provides a solid list of resources.

This is a fantastic conversation starter with the young women in your life.

That’s my book round-up for January!

The links in the post are Amazon Associate links & I receive a percentage of sales made after clicking those links. My opinions aren’t biased by this. All proceeds received from my Amazon Associate account go towards the kids’ homeschooling materials & supplies.