Quote for the Week

"Meanings are not determined by situations, but we determine ourselves by the meanings we give."   Unknown

Books of August

Well, here is September, already over half gone, and I'm just getting around to posting my August reads.

A book club choice and a good one.  It's a sweet story about a man who owns a bookstore on an island.  Filled with literary allusions and charming characters, it's a delightful read.  Maya, the daughter A.J. adopts, was left one morning in his bookstore.  During her childhood she often muses about places where other children were left--a butcher shop, a shoe store, for instance--and how lucky she was to be left in a bookstore.  My favorite character after A.J. was the police chief.  When we first meet him, he insists he's never been a reader, but later he starts a detectives' book club that meets at A.J.'s store. 

Another book club selection.  If you ever want to read about a thoroughly unlikeable title character, this is the book for  you.  Serena will stop at nothing, not even murder, to achieve her ambition to become a great timber baron.  Is she supposed to be a modern day Lady Macbeth who leads her equally ambitious but slightly less heartless  husband into carrying out her diabolical plans?  If you like characters with no redeeming qualities, this is the book for you.

I was suckered into reading this by a review on Amazon, so I bought it.  Why did I finish it?  One of my father's sayings was, "Never be a quitter," so I feel obligated to finish books I start, even when I don't like them.  (The one exception was Ulysses--I could not get into James Joyce).  Anyway, this is the story of some college students who play a "game" which they make up and which sort of haunts them for the rest of their lives.  It sounded intriguing but it definitely wasn't.  And I never understood the game.  This one gets a D minus.

Quote for the Week

                 The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
                                                      William James

The Moth Story Slam

"Moth" is broadcast on NPR at noon on Saturdays.  It's a show on which people tell their stories. My friend Marie listens to the show every Saturday and recommends it highly.  I've always meant to listen, but I haven't; however, when Marie suggested going to a "story slam" at Houston's chapter of Moth (the only one in Texas), I readily agreed and joined Marie and Millie.

The program was held in a warehouse in a newly trendy area near downtown known as EADO (East of Downtown, sort of like New York's SOHO) and featured ten storytellers, each given five minutes to tell a personal story on the theme of Betrayal.  Three groups of judges scored the speakers from 1 to 10. Between speakers the master (rather, mistress) of ceremonies told some of her own stories and read one-liners from the audience.  What a hoot!  Most of the storytellers told of lovers or spouses who betrayed them, but one guy told a hilarious tale of working one summer for a traveling carnival and betraying his boss.  He was my favorite and I was disappointed that he didn't win.

The auditorium was packed.  Of course, there was a bar and a counter where you could buy Moth t-shirts.  We clapped and cheered for the storytellers and promised ourselves we'd come back next month. 

Recently "100 Places to See in Houston before You Die" came out.  I haven't found it in stores yet, but I hope Moth is one of the hundred.  If you have access to a Moth in your city, be sure and go.  If not, listen to the radio broadcast.  It's great fun.

Quote for the Week

 

It's the way you ride the trail that counts.

 

 

I saw this along with a picture eulogizing Dr. Red Duke, the legendary founder of Houston's Life Flight.  Actually it's a quote from "Happy Trails," the theme song of Roy Rogers.  It applies to everyone, cowboy or not.  It's not the difficulties you encounter, but the way you deal with them that matters.



I'm Sure It's Somewhere, but Where?

No, that's not me in the picture, but it could be.  Now that I've begun unpacking 10, 50, seems like 1,000,000 boxes, I realize I can't find things...and I thought I packed so carefully.  Among the missing:  my last books of blank checks, some of the picture books I use for speech therapy, my plates (all sizes), coffee mugs, my August attendance sheet, and probably some other things I haven't thought of yet.  Of course, they're here somewhere, either at the bottom of a box or in a box I mistakenly had put in storage.  Can I live without these things until the next move in December?  Probably, but it's still frustrating.  I know I put them in boxes I brought with me, but which ones?  Best thing to do is forget about it.

Other moving frustrations:  I needed to buy some speech therapy materials from a very large company that makes educational materials.  I found what I wanted, but I'd forgotten my password.  No big deal.  They provided a link to add a new password, but then when I checked out, they asked for both the old and new ones.  Did that make sense?  If I'd known the old password, I wouldn't have asked for a new one.  Were they crazy...or worse, was I?  No, it had to be their mistake.  But their website was inaccessible and no one answered their phone.  I finally just skipped putting in the old password, figuring if I made one up, it would be a bigger hassle, and it went right to payment and alas, their computer was reluctant to accept my new address.  And then it required proving I was a "qualified buyer," which meant providing all my professional association memberships and member numbers (which were packed away, probably with the dishes).  I finally typed it "I don't know," and that seemed to satisfy them, (whoever "they" are) and after 30 minutes, it actually let me buy the materials I wanted.

But was I finished dealing with people on the phone who are programmed to say things like, "Thank you for patiently waiting" when they put you on hold for 20 minutes (I wasn't feeling patient, but I didn't mention this, imagining if I did, it would ruin their entire afternoon).  I was at that time dealing with Amazon, trying to figure out how to connect to Wifi so I could buy a book for my Kindle.  The first person I spoke to eventually decided I needed "second level support"...I guess they triage customers.  The second level lady stayed on the phone with me for an hour and a half, trying to figure out what to do.  When we finally connected to WiFi and she asked if there was anything else she could help me with, I said, "No, and I bet you're glad to hear that."  I thanked her and told her she ought to buy herself a bottle of wine.  I hope she did.

More perils of moving to come in future posts.

Quote for the Week--about Moving, Of Course