Before I ring in the New Year, I thought I'd muse on what makes things all worthwhile: family.
However, as I have learned in the course of things, family is not just those people that are blood related to you, but those who you yourself take into your heart. Your family is a created thing, fired in your own heart, and held with love. Love makes it, keeps it, and cherishes it, and once that exists, a little matter of blood relations is completely incidental.
At the moment part of my blood related family are in the middle of a bitter fight, which is being carried out with frosty intensity much in the same way that the Cold War mustered along, without weapons fire, but filled with years of bitterness on all sides. In the midst of this, I have come to cherish more and more my created family, who have often stepped in, in the stead of my related family.
Aunt T was part of this created family, and she could not have been more loved if she had been related by blood to all of us. In fact, in some cases, she was more family than family was. She was always ready to step in and help if any of us needed anything, and offered nothing but kindness to all who knew her. I still half pick up the phone to call her, because there are things I think of to share with her. I don't know that everyone would understand what would bring together a diverse group of people unrelated to each other, to all come and stand around a hospital bed in the middle of the night, and to fill up a hospital ICU to cry together, and to take care of each other. That there is love alone, often unexpressed, but beating quickly and quietly beneath the surface, ready to spring to action for crisis, need or joy, ready to act for one another. That there, is what family is in my mind. Whether these family are related or not is irrelevant, so long as there is love between them.
Perhaps it is a little long winded of me to go on like this, but it has forcibly been brought home to me, as I have thought about who would come for me if I needed it, and also, who I would think to ask. I've certainly got my own cavalcade of friends who are family, who have been there in the rotten times as well as the good ones. These are the people who you feel comfortable with no matter how goofy you may be (and believe me, I can do goofy). And the people who just spending time with them in an empty room, and it will be fun to do.
So, as the new year emerges, I'd like to say, Cheers to Family in all forms, and to those of you reading, most of whom are family, Thank-you for all that you are.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Ringing in the New Year
Greetings, and Happy 2007 to all,
Tonight it's New Year's Eve in the Villages in Sunny Florida, and 2007 is finally upon us. I must admit to being heartily relieved to be seeing the back of 2006 with all its many horrors. My family has had a rough fall and winter this year, with the illness and death of our beloved Aunt T. The whole family is still adjusting, and trying to figure out how to keep going. Especially hard will be the Christmas gathering, our first offical post-Aunt-T event, in which there will be much double taking as people forget and then remember that she's not there.
More recently, over Christmas, Cookmeister, our family dog, after eighteen wonderful years, disappeared on the day after Christmas, and passed away before we could find her. Since she's been my dog since I was seven, it was a low blow at Christmas, and it's still hard to imagine waking up and not being greeted by her furry golden face. I'm sure that all of you with pets will understand, that they are truly family members, so their loss is keenly felt. Big Brother is devastated, as he spent two days walking all over Bermuda searching, and eventually had to break the news to the rest of the family, and especially to Miss D, my niece, who adores Cookmeister.
So, between that, and the myriad fun adventures of six months of mono (or the best bikini diet EVER - you decide), it has been a rough year. So, now 2007 is continuing to be a time of reinvention. For instance, StitcherAngel heartily hopes that I'll reinvent my wardrobe, especially some of the shoes. The Mummy hopes that StitcherAngel's good influence will rub off and I will be able to make use of spanking sewing machine we found in Targ'ey in the post Christmas sales.
There are quite a few changes coming down the pike at the moment, including my current bookstore minion position, which is great fun. I already find myself in bookstores sizing up their stock, layout, and other customer service and having a think about proper Bermy application. Also up in the air is my continuing education degree, the joys of tutoring, bookstore minioning, and the possibilities of teaching positons, moving overseas, the book Rindeseyu and I are collaborating on, and hopefully the return of my writing muse (blogified, poetry-ready, and book-thoughtful).
The spirit of inspiration has also come upon me in the form of a lovely gentleman in the Villages' Barnes & Noble. He told me the story of his daughter, an Asian history PhD, who, after evacuating New Orleans during Katrina, fell into a writing career and a five book contract. So, it IS possible, if fate and your own abilities are with you.
In any case, for New Year's I've decided to make two resolutions only:
- To write more (lots more - journals galore, and hopefully lots of clackety typing on this blog)
- To do my own little bit of good in the world, by being kind to everyone that I meet, and to try to add small acts of kindness into my day-to-day routines.
So, to those of you out there with a full glass (of anything really, from Kool Aid to Champagne), I propose a toast:
To 2007, may it be full of fun and laughter for all; may the world become a better place, and may we all do what kindnesses we can to make it that way; may we pursue our dreams with fearless intensity, and may we cherish and value our families, in whatever forms they may take.
Tonight it's New Year's Eve in the Villages in Sunny Florida, and 2007 is finally upon us. I must admit to being heartily relieved to be seeing the back of 2006 with all its many horrors. My family has had a rough fall and winter this year, with the illness and death of our beloved Aunt T. The whole family is still adjusting, and trying to figure out how to keep going. Especially hard will be the Christmas gathering, our first offical post-Aunt-T event, in which there will be much double taking as people forget and then remember that she's not there.
More recently, over Christmas, Cookmeister, our family dog, after eighteen wonderful years, disappeared on the day after Christmas, and passed away before we could find her. Since she's been my dog since I was seven, it was a low blow at Christmas, and it's still hard to imagine waking up and not being greeted by her furry golden face. I'm sure that all of you with pets will understand, that they are truly family members, so their loss is keenly felt. Big Brother is devastated, as he spent two days walking all over Bermuda searching, and eventually had to break the news to the rest of the family, and especially to Miss D, my niece, who adores Cookmeister.
So, between that, and the myriad fun adventures of six months of mono (or the best bikini diet EVER - you decide), it has been a rough year. So, now 2007 is continuing to be a time of reinvention. For instance, StitcherAngel heartily hopes that I'll reinvent my wardrobe, especially some of the shoes. The Mummy hopes that StitcherAngel's good influence will rub off and I will be able to make use of spanking sewing machine we found in Targ'ey in the post Christmas sales.
There are quite a few changes coming down the pike at the moment, including my current bookstore minion position, which is great fun. I already find myself in bookstores sizing up their stock, layout, and other customer service and having a think about proper Bermy application. Also up in the air is my continuing education degree, the joys of tutoring, bookstore minioning, and the possibilities of teaching positons, moving overseas, the book Rindeseyu and I are collaborating on, and hopefully the return of my writing muse (blogified, poetry-ready, and book-thoughtful).
The spirit of inspiration has also come upon me in the form of a lovely gentleman in the Villages' Barnes & Noble. He told me the story of his daughter, an Asian history PhD, who, after evacuating New Orleans during Katrina, fell into a writing career and a five book contract. So, it IS possible, if fate and your own abilities are with you.
In any case, for New Year's I've decided to make two resolutions only:
- To write more (lots more - journals galore, and hopefully lots of clackety typing on this blog)
- To do my own little bit of good in the world, by being kind to everyone that I meet, and to try to add small acts of kindness into my day-to-day routines.
So, to those of you out there with a full glass (of anything really, from Kool Aid to Champagne), I propose a toast:
To 2007, may it be full of fun and laughter for all; may the world become a better place, and may we all do what kindnesses we can to make it that way; may we pursue our dreams with fearless intensity, and may we cherish and value our families, in whatever forms they may take.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
A few words on Eragon before packing commences
Ok, this is, ostensibly, a blog about books, and so, to kick things off let me begin with a nice one: "Eregon", a lovely adventure novel with heroes, princesses, dragons, evil wizards, shades, elves, battles, and everything else you could want for a smashing good time, with the possible exception of a bowl of popcorn, which is optional.
Now, here's a short one for you, as we're taking a poll, and because, what I am supposed to be doing (i.e., not this blog) is packing for a trip to the wonderful Sunshine state to bask in the warm glow of family, and the shocking contrast of Xmas trees and palm trees side by side.
So, last night, FearlessLeader, Stitchergirl, SfS, and two dear friends, ( who have alter egos to begin with, Rindeseyu and Nitjanirasu, brother and sister, and respectively an artist illustrator who after much investigation was discovered to have been the person who recieved all of the ponies Santa was ever asked for (but that's a different story), and a history studying computer genius), all went to see Eragon, the film. Having been warned ahead by FearlessLeader, I forewent the reading of the book beforehand, as did she. However, the other members of our erstwhile band had read the book, and their reaction to the film was deep abiding wrath, and horror.
Meanwhile, FearlessLeader and I were amused, enjoyed it, and decided that it was a nice pastiche to the work of Joseph Campbell, ergo, being an extremely cliched hero journey (and like a soap opera, it hit every Epic Adventure Ingredient branch on the way down). FearlessLeader being further versed in Campbell than I, illustrated all the salient points to me (tres spiffy).
Later FearlessLeader went on home and read half of the book (and I, making a sad showing of it, fell asleep and read barelyl fifty pages- oh, the shame!) and noted that while the movie begins in the same way as the book, somehow, owing to vast mechanical error (or perhaps a very drunk crew of editors), the entire middle of the book fell right off of the movie, and the movie kept moving on without it, having a sense of great rapidity in its events, so that if you blinked, you suddenly found yourself in an epic battle without much clue as to how you arrived there. This fastforward effect is one of the chief evils pointed out to me by the Eragon book readers in the post-movie trauma.
Other big misses they noted were: Eragon's amazing telepathic abilities in the movie- suddenly doing things without trying, which took weeks of study in the book -
- the sudden appearance of a totally random swamp village, which served no purpose to the plot
- the scanty appearance of urgels to fight Eragon as he journeyed to join the Vargan, giving more the appearance of a nice romp in the country rather than the book's arduous multi-week journey fraught with danger.
- the fact that the urgels jumped from their bookish identities, to insectoid biker dudes in the film
- Saphira's amazing two second evolution from baby dragon to adult
- the annoying absence of any development of Brom and Eragon's relationship so that when Brom dies, you're confused why Eragon should care
- the speedy way the end battle began in a matter of hours vs. long months in the book
- Arya's leap from being much older (like 100 plus years) woman annoyed with Eragon in the book to slinky potential love interest in the movie
- Eragon's general and annoying blondness
and other features too numerous to mention.
So, can there be a verdict on this movie? The Eragon-reading contingent so far are composing apology letters to C.Paolini for having gone to see such a maligning of his book, and the non-readers saw it as a nice fluffy holiday view, a quick cotton candy sweet, but not so filling as to trouble you much later. Any more votes for the poll? In the meantime I'm going to keep reading the book, and before that, I'm going to get packing for the Sunshine state, because it's 2:00 here and I'm looking at an empty suitcase with only vague ideas that maybe I should put some clothes in it..... hmmm.....
Now, here's a short one for you, as we're taking a poll, and because, what I am supposed to be doing (i.e., not this blog) is packing for a trip to the wonderful Sunshine state to bask in the warm glow of family, and the shocking contrast of Xmas trees and palm trees side by side.
So, last night, FearlessLeader, Stitchergirl, SfS, and two dear friends, ( who have alter egos to begin with, Rindeseyu and Nitjanirasu, brother and sister, and respectively an artist illustrator who after much investigation was discovered to have been the person who recieved all of the ponies Santa was ever asked for (but that's a different story), and a history studying computer genius), all went to see Eragon, the film. Having been warned ahead by FearlessLeader, I forewent the reading of the book beforehand, as did she. However, the other members of our erstwhile band had read the book, and their reaction to the film was deep abiding wrath, and horror.
Meanwhile, FearlessLeader and I were amused, enjoyed it, and decided that it was a nice pastiche to the work of Joseph Campbell, ergo, being an extremely cliched hero journey (and like a soap opera, it hit every Epic Adventure Ingredient branch on the way down). FearlessLeader being further versed in Campbell than I, illustrated all the salient points to me (tres spiffy).
Later FearlessLeader went on home and read half of the book (and I, making a sad showing of it, fell asleep and read barelyl fifty pages- oh, the shame!) and noted that while the movie begins in the same way as the book, somehow, owing to vast mechanical error (or perhaps a very drunk crew of editors), the entire middle of the book fell right off of the movie, and the movie kept moving on without it, having a sense of great rapidity in its events, so that if you blinked, you suddenly found yourself in an epic battle without much clue as to how you arrived there. This fastforward effect is one of the chief evils pointed out to me by the Eragon book readers in the post-movie trauma.
Other big misses they noted were: Eragon's amazing telepathic abilities in the movie- suddenly doing things without trying, which took weeks of study in the book -
- the sudden appearance of a totally random swamp village, which served no purpose to the plot
- the scanty appearance of urgels to fight Eragon as he journeyed to join the Vargan, giving more the appearance of a nice romp in the country rather than the book's arduous multi-week journey fraught with danger.
- the fact that the urgels jumped from their bookish identities, to insectoid biker dudes in the film
- Saphira's amazing two second evolution from baby dragon to adult
- the annoying absence of any development of Brom and Eragon's relationship so that when Brom dies, you're confused why Eragon should care
- the speedy way the end battle began in a matter of hours vs. long months in the book
- Arya's leap from being much older (like 100 plus years) woman annoyed with Eragon in the book to slinky potential love interest in the movie
- Eragon's general and annoying blondness
and other features too numerous to mention.
So, can there be a verdict on this movie? The Eragon-reading contingent so far are composing apology letters to C.Paolini for having gone to see such a maligning of his book, and the non-readers saw it as a nice fluffy holiday view, a quick cotton candy sweet, but not so filling as to trouble you much later. Any more votes for the poll? In the meantime I'm going to keep reading the book, and before that, I'm going to get packing for the Sunshine state, because it's 2:00 here and I'm looking at an empty suitcase with only vague ideas that maybe I should put some clothes in it..... hmmm.....
Conversation Parte the First
Ah, a blog. I suppose all of you knew that it would happen one day. Working in a bookstore, it seemed like I finally had such rich material that a blog would be fun to do. Not to mention that our store, Bookworm Central* (the names have been changed to protect the innocent, but really if you live anywhere in Bermyville, you can find us easily enough), is staffed with folks who really should be characters in books themselves. Hence, on here they shall be known by their alter egos, much like superhero identities, except that we don't have any special powers (but we're secretly funding scientific research so that one day we might acquire some).
Our cast includes:
FearlessLeader, owner of the store, and Lady of the Thousand Hair Colors (and a wardrobe to match any book she might be reading, including many marvelous hats).
Steffie, married to FearlessLeader, a computery scotsman, and fixer of broken things, who could be, like this whole crew, described in much greater detail.
Overlord, supreme commander of the webcam, who often calls and makes requests, much as other people might TiVo their favorite shows. It's good to be lord of all you survey.
Batboy, the Tallest (in homage to Invader Zim which we watch too much of, and also because he really is, in fact, the tallest person in the store, in addition to being eternally youthful and the only one willing to come in at 8:00 a.m. to open the store)
Retroguy, who comes in after school to assist, and continues to believe that Greenday is a new fangled band.
StitcherAngel, day to day store sargent-at-arms, doer of things that baffle the rest of us, lover of cats and cross stitch, and of course, reader of books.
Stands for Something (SfS) Husband of StitcherAngel, often roped into Bookworm Central schenanigans, lover of books, jokes, and Indian food among other things, and best left to be further described later.
And, me, of course; I have several nicknames, but the most pervasive is the Bookstore Fairy, whom Batboy has dubbed, "Whoozie" or SPF, the Sugar Plum Fairy, spreader of sweetness and light, because of my general personality, which emmanates from the consumption of too much sugar. (And here I truly hope that the vision tends more to Glinda rather than Munchkinland, but you decide).
There are of course, many more, but they will appear at will throughout the blog. Among these will be customers, and friends, and those folks involved in life outside the bookstore. There will be overlapping, and as you probably may have guessed already, bad grammar, spelling, and inappropriate uses of comas. If you're afraid, get out now before it's too late. Unlike StitcherAngel, I am not blessed with an inner grammatical radar that enables me to spot glaring mistakes in Advance Reader Copies. I am, however, blessed with a great sense of humor about the English language, and so confidently use words in ways they were never meant to be used, or so I'm told.
So, perhaps you're wondering what the point of this blog could be. Well, aside from a forum for the discussing of wonderful books, of which there are too many to list (there's a start of a list going on the main page, just for kicks), or a newsy chat about life in a bookstore, and general musings on the big questions (the meaning of life, why chocolate rocks, how CAN you find the perfect pair of jeans...) this is first and foremost a writing forum. I am, at the heart of it, a writer, and this, fair readers, is practice for putting into words all the stories that are currently inhabiting my skull. So maybe you'll find a few of them here, popping out for a spin. And of course, there'll also be the real story too, the one that I, Whoozie, bookstore fairy extrordinaire, am inhabiting myself. So, stay tuned...
Our cast includes:
FearlessLeader, owner of the store, and Lady of the Thousand Hair Colors (and a wardrobe to match any book she might be reading, including many marvelous hats).
Steffie, married to FearlessLeader, a computery scotsman, and fixer of broken things, who could be, like this whole crew, described in much greater detail.
Overlord, supreme commander of the webcam, who often calls and makes requests, much as other people might TiVo their favorite shows. It's good to be lord of all you survey.
Batboy, the Tallest (in homage to Invader Zim which we watch too much of, and also because he really is, in fact, the tallest person in the store, in addition to being eternally youthful and the only one willing to come in at 8:00 a.m. to open the store)
Retroguy, who comes in after school to assist, and continues to believe that Greenday is a new fangled band.
StitcherAngel, day to day store sargent-at-arms, doer of things that baffle the rest of us, lover of cats and cross stitch, and of course, reader of books.
Stands for Something (SfS) Husband of StitcherAngel, often roped into Bookworm Central schenanigans, lover of books, jokes, and Indian food among other things, and best left to be further described later.
And, me, of course; I have several nicknames, but the most pervasive is the Bookstore Fairy, whom Batboy has dubbed, "Whoozie" or SPF, the Sugar Plum Fairy, spreader of sweetness and light, because of my general personality, which emmanates from the consumption of too much sugar. (And here I truly hope that the vision tends more to Glinda rather than Munchkinland, but you decide).
There are of course, many more, but they will appear at will throughout the blog. Among these will be customers, and friends, and those folks involved in life outside the bookstore. There will be overlapping, and as you probably may have guessed already, bad grammar, spelling, and inappropriate uses of comas. If you're afraid, get out now before it's too late. Unlike StitcherAngel, I am not blessed with an inner grammatical radar that enables me to spot glaring mistakes in Advance Reader Copies. I am, however, blessed with a great sense of humor about the English language, and so confidently use words in ways they were never meant to be used, or so I'm told.
So, perhaps you're wondering what the point of this blog could be. Well, aside from a forum for the discussing of wonderful books, of which there are too many to list (there's a start of a list going on the main page, just for kicks), or a newsy chat about life in a bookstore, and general musings on the big questions (the meaning of life, why chocolate rocks, how CAN you find the perfect pair of jeans...) this is first and foremost a writing forum. I am, at the heart of it, a writer, and this, fair readers, is practice for putting into words all the stories that are currently inhabiting my skull. So maybe you'll find a few of them here, popping out for a spin. And of course, there'll also be the real story too, the one that I, Whoozie, bookstore fairy extrordinaire, am inhabiting myself. So, stay tuned...
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