TAP's Thoughts

Wouldn't you like to see something strange?

2010-05-23T16:28:00.007-05:00

In the beginning of May my church went from meeting the first and third Saturday of the month in another church building, to meeting every Sunday morning in a movie theater.

It is a little scary waking up so early on a Sunday morning!

But with a will of iron, I am up for the challenge.

Even if I'd prefer that no one see what I look like that early in the morning.

Mysterious as the dark side of the moon...

2010-04-30T16:40:00.002-05:00

I live in a town made up of middle to upper class Americans and their 2.5 children and dogs. A town where nothing much happens.

That all changed yesterday.

I was on my way home in the evening. There is a stretch of road where the sun is in my eyes and yesterday I did not have my sunglasses. I'm about a block away from a red light and while I'm slowing down in the right lane, I notice a passenger-side door swing open from a car in the left lane. I thought to myself, "That's odd. This is an extremely busy intersection. Did that person drop something or close their seat belt in the door?"

Then a young man steps out of the car. I think, "He must be about to do a Chinese Fire Drill. Kids these days. They are so wacky!" But this young man just stands by the car door and begins to do a sort of wiggling dance. I found that odd. And then my eyes fully adjusted to the sunlight.

He was doing a dance alright. A dance with his pants down.

April 29, 2010 - The day I was first mooned by a stranger. I can now scratch that off of my "I have never" list. Thanks young sir!

Tale as old as time...

2010-04-27T09:47:00.005-05:00

For Easter this year, Marissa and JP were kind enough to invite me to their house for dinner. We ate and ate and ate. And then we busted out the Popcorn Easter Eggs for a tale of epic proportions. You can view it here. You won't be disappointed.

(A sampling of the awesomeness to come.)

Color has its harmony...

2010-04-26T14:10:00.000-05:00

Friday was Johnso's birthday. I surprised her with a purple meal on Tuesday when she came over to watch Lost this tuesday. Purple is her favorite color. And I mean FAVORITE! Most people say, "Oooh ___ is my favorite color" but I doubt many of them are as committed to that color as Johnso is to purple. The majority of her wardrobe is purple, her bedroom is mostly purple, she wears purple eye shadow. It's refreshing to see a woman wearing mostly purple. I see a lot of women who are devoted to two colors in their wardrobe - black and khaki. Snore.

Anyway, you may be asking, "What did you have for dinner that was purple?" The answer to that is simple.
Beets. Bears. Battle Star Galatica.

Main Course
Beets = Beets

I have to admit that I don't think I've ever had beets before in my life. I certainly have never bought them. I stood for a good 5 minutes in the canned food aisle figuring perplexed by all of the different canned beet options. Pickled. Halved. Whole. Low Sodium. Spicy. Sweet. Juliene. For Beet Lovers. For Beet Haters. For Beet Haters Who Want to Be Beet Lovers. It was overwhelming.

Finally I grabbed a can that said nothing but "Whole." Johnso assured me later that I saved us from total disaster by not grabbing the pickled beets.

Purple Presto Pesto Pasta

16 oz. canned beets
1 tsp. dried basil
2 Tbsp. fresh grated Parmesan cheese (I doubled, possibly tripled this quantity)
1 tsp. olive oil
1 large clove garlic, sliced (I added 5)
1/4 tsp. lemon pepper
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1/2 box Angel Hair pasta (or pasta of choice)
1 1/2 cup chicken, cubed
1/2 cup green pepper, chopped

Cook beets only until boiling. Add the next 5 ingredients
and blend in blender. Add in lemon peel, do not blend. This is your "pesto; " set it aside.

Cook pasta according to manufacturer's directions.

In 1 teaspoon olive oil, saute chicken and green peppers and
add to pesto. Drain pasta and place on a pie plate and pour
pesto over. Presto! A quick high-fiber, low-fat entree!

Side Dish
Bears = Red Cabbage & Red Onion

Bears have an excellent sense of smell. Onions and cabbage are smelly. Most bears eat mostly plants. Cabbages and onions are plants. Bears are bulky and robust in frame. Ditto cabbages and red onions (in fact I dare you to find a small red onion and red cabbage like this recipe calls for). Also, all three of these items can make you cry.

Sauteed Purple Cabbage

1 small purple cabbage (ha!)
1 small purple onion (ha ha!)
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp. butter or olive oil

Shred cabbage and onion and mix together thoroughly. Heat
butter or olive oil in a large skillet or saute pan and
then add cabbage and onion mixture. Stir often and saute
until tender. Season to taste.

Dessert
Battlestar Galatica = Plums

... uh, I got nothing.

Purple Plum Pie

3 cups fresh purple plums
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. butter
Pastry for double crust pie

Wash, halve or quarter, and pit the plums. Combine sugar,
flour and spice and sprinkle over fruit. Place in pastry
lined pie plate. Sprinkle with lemon juice and dot with
butter. Adjust top crust. Seal edges and vent top. (I brushed the top crust with a little extra lemon juice). Bake at 425 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Up to the highest height...

2010-04-25T14:30:00.000-05:00

Two Sundays ago, Micah and I set out on a grand adventure - to look at used cars for me. I had done some online research and found a few cars in the area that I wanted to test drive.

So we piled into her yellow Mini Cooper and drove to the first dealership. Closed on Sundays. So we headed to the next dealership. Closed on Sundays. So we headed to Target. Open on Sundays. Then we headed to a park by my house. Open on Sundays. And we proceeded to have varying levels of success flying our newly purchased kites.

Micah's dragon kite broke right away.

Then we tried to fly my owl which didn't really rise with the wind.

Then Micah jerry-rigged her kite to fly. After spiraling like mad it did eventually take off and rise into the air.

I figured out how to fly my kite too. It was all a matter of finding the perfect length of string.

You ride around in a coach and four...

2010-04-19T14:43:00.005-05:00

Celia is in town for some librarian conferences, so this Saturday I jumped on the train and headed into the city for the day.

I am not as comfortable navigating public transportation if I am alone and without Rick Steves in my bag. (I really need to just right a whole post dedicated to Rick and why I love him.)

Anyway I decided just to take cabs around the city. The cab ride to the zoo was fine, but the cab ride back to the train station in the evening did not go as planned. First of all, I discovered that there are two Metra stations a few blocks apart. Since I only come in and out one station I was blissfully unaware of the second station until I was dropped off there.

And then as I was wandering around in a panic, a man comes up and asks where I'm headed. Not in a creepy way, but in a way that said, "I'll direct you, but then I expect a tip." I didn't care because there was no way I was calm enough to find my station in the dark, so he starts leading across a few blocks. While we are walking, I'm digging around in my purse for $2 to give him. He leads me to the station and I hand him a tip. It isn't until later I realize I handed him an $11 tip instead of a $2. Awesome.

And then on the train ride home, I sit facing a man who is listening to his iPod. Every once in awhile he would look at me and sing out loud and his lyrics went something like this:

"I have to go to church in the morning,
I need to go home and wash my hair
Girl you so sexy"

I was very grateful that I had a good book to read.

Are we dancing, say we really are...

2010-03-15T11:18:00.009-05:00

Last Sunday, this is what I was doing - English Country Dancing. No one was in costume (unfortunately). However, I was one of the few women who wore pants. I'm a rebel that way.

It all started with Johnso, as most random things in my life do. Someone at her church plays the recorder in a band that happens to play for English Country Dancing at the FermiLab in Illinois. What is the FermiLab you may ask? Well, according to their website, "Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory advances the understanding of the fundamental nature of matter and energy by providing leadership and resources for qualified researchers to conduct basic research at the frontiers of high energy physics and related disciplines. " Particle Physics for short. They have the 2nd largest particle collider on site. And a barn for folk dancing. Science is odd like that.

So Johnso asks if I'd like to go to the dance with her. Now, how can you turn down an offer like that? Antiquated dancing with complete strangers on a base that looks like it came right out of the Dharma Initiative? Sign me up!

"Hello, I am Dr. Mark Wickmund and this is the orientation film for Station 10 of The DHARMA Initiative. Station 10 or "the Disco Ball" is a monitoring station where the participants in DHARMA Initiative projects can cut loose."

English Country Dancing, I learned, is a slower type of folk dancing, most notably portrayed at the Netherfield Ball in any Pride and Prejudice movie. You typically dance in a set of four.

And now a sampling of my partners:

Jim - He was the first person I danced with. He was very helpful in telling me about some of the more common steps. He has been coming with his wife for a few years. He was telling me that people really get into dressing in period clothing, especially at the balls that are held around the state. When I asked if he dressed up at all he exclaimed, "Never! It's my one hold-out. I refuse to wear those frilly shirts."

Roger - He had to be in his early 70's. The poor man had a pin in his ankle, so he tottered around the dance floor. There were a couple of times where we had to spin together and I was terrified that I would somehow trip him or cause him to fall.

Various Ladies - As in Pride and Prejudice "gentlemen were scarce," however this didn't stop us ladies from dancing. A few times I danced as the man and I know I got the hand holding stuff wrong, since I'm so used to having my hand be held in dances, not initiating the hold, if that makes sense. And there were some complicated arm twisting/hand holding that I could not pick up which just let to awkward moments where I unintentionally rammed my hands into other ladies chests. Pure dignity and grace!

Following the leader...

2009-10-12T20:48:00.032-05:00

Yesterday we celebrated the birthdays of South, Micah, and I in a little thing I like to call "Spectacular Fall Birthday Pumpkin Apple Time." It truly was a celebration of all things Fall.

We started off at a corn maze, of course. A Safari corn maze:

Melanie, South and I were a team and we were pretty cocky. We were second into the maze. We had it in the bag. And then the problems started.

(Do these girls look like they are carefully reading the map to you?)

But all was not lost as we had an excellent strategy - following one of the other groups of our friends at a discreet distance, and then pushing them aside in a foot race to the finish line.

Suckers.

Jauntin' along in me jauntin' car....

2009-09-08T19:00:00.009-05:00

Last month I attended my friend Celia's wedding in Wilmore. Celia didn't live on my hall (the Beast) in college, but we considered her an honorary member, a WannaBeast if you will. Well most of the Beasts were there to party and get up to some hijinks.

While we were at the reception, we learned that the groomsmen were not planning to decorate the get-away car. We simply couldn't let that stand. Chrissy, Kathryn and Steph made a quick trip to the Dollar Store to get the necessary equipment.

And of course I needed to go help them. My crepe paper rolling skills are legendary.

Doesn't it look amazing? Wouldn't you be happy to take a ride in that tricked out SUV?

Megan was in charge of signs. She did an excellent job.

We decided we should stagger our entrances back into the reception, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the groom who didn't want the car decorated. I was the first to leave, confident that the girls would be wrapping up in the next few minutes.

Ten minutes later they came rushing in with red faces, trying to contain their laughter. Chrissy came over and without any preamble blurted out, "We had the wrong car!"

....

See, what had happened is that Emily had told Chrissy that the car was red and had Michigan license plates. And Chrissy found such a car that we proceeded to decorate. Apparently, about two minutes after I had returned inside, an elderly couple came out of the reception hall and stopped dead staring at the car. Chrissy, Steph and Kathryn were busy cleaning up and getting ready to head back inside when they saw this. They assumed the older couple stopped to read the signs on the car, but suddenly the man took out his key fob and pressed the Unlock button. The locks on the SUV popped up and the headlights flashed. So then it was mad dash to take all the decorations off the wrong car, find the right car and quickly decorate it. And they were pressed for time, so they didn't have a good chance to recreate the awesome decorating that was done before.

About five minutes after they came inside and told us how we'd decorated the wrong car, it started pouring outside.

When you mail a letter, you can send it anywhere...

2009-07-31T16:15:00.002-05:00

I don't remember this play (or this letter). Mom found it in her archived email. I'm sure the letter was for a class assignment, but I like to think that I was a pretentious teenager who constantly wrote to playwrights telling them how they could improve their plays. And I still agree with my 16-year-old self. Poe is creepy.

85 Farragut Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45218

October 20, 1999

Professor George Branigan, Ed.D.
c/o Chamber Theatre Productions, Inc.
2 Park Plaza
Boston, Massachusetts 02116

Dear Dr. Branigan:

I had the opportunity to attend a production of “Encore” on October 18, 1999 and found it very enjoyable. It has inspired me to pursue writing my own stories. I especially liked the different types of writing, from comedy to horror.

The stories were told almost word for word. This was very helpful because I could watch stories I wouldn’t necessarily read. For example, I’ve never read “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” but I might now because the play piqued my interest.

Having a plethora of stories, each by different authors, helped me in deciding on future books to read. I will be inclined to read more by Mark Twain because I like his style. I don’t think I will ever enjoy Edgar Allen Poe’s creepy style.

I think you could improve the show by gearing it toward a different age group. I am in high school, and I felt some of the acting was for younger children. It would be great if you had two versions, one for younger children and one for older children.

I think the range of the types of stories could be broadened. There were five short stories and three of them were horror. I don’t know if it was because it was around Halloween or if you just like those stories. However, different styles could be used. For instance, you could have one comedy, on historical fiction, one mythical story, one science fiction story and one horror story. You could even have two horror stories since so many people seem to enjoy that style, but not one right after the other.

As I mentioned previously, I really enjoyed this production and hope you will consider my suggestions. I look forward to being able to attend some of your other productions.

Sincerely,

Beth ------

And we'll make a lovely dress for Cinderelly...

2009-07-17T12:48:00.005-05:00

As a little girl, one of my ultimate goals in life was to be a flower girl. I even wrote an entire book about it, which Mom was kind enough to save. But alas, that was a dream that was never realized, and I will go to my grave bemoaning that fact. Unless someone out there is looking for a flower girl who happens to be in her mid-20's.

But I have stood up as bridesmaid in two weddings, and this fall it will be 3, since my college roommate, Sharyn, was crazy enough to ask me to stand up in her wedding.

I've learned a few things from the previous weddings I've bridesmaid-ed at:

1) I always have a look of terror on my face as I begin to walk down the aisle.

2) About halfway down the aisle I realize have a look of terror on my face and try to hastily paste on a crazed smile. Unfortunately by the time this happens, only the first two aisles are privy to my manic grin.

3) I cry at all weddings.

4) It's hard to conceal Kleenex on yourself when all you have is a bouquet in your hands.

5) People don't like it when one of the bridesmaids pulls Kleenex out of her cleavage in front of the entire audience.

Okay, so I've never stuffed Kleenex down the front of my dress (for a wedding), but I imagine that it's a bad idea.

For Sharyn's wedding I have found a solution to the Kleenex dilemma - my dress has pockets.

I still need to work on that look of terror thing though.

Strolling along down a...what's that word again?

2009-07-02T18:19:00.004-05:00

I'm going to Paris in August for 10 days. Ten days of sightseeing. Ten days of adventure.

Ten days of walking.

All day.

For 10 days.

That's a lot of walking, and I really don't exercise much. I've decided it would be a good idea to do some walking here, so I don't die on foreign soil later this summer.

So on Sunday I eased myself into walking by going on a 7.2 mile jaunt.

D-:

Why, do you ask, did I think 7.2 miles was a good starting distance when I normally walk less than a mile each day? I'll tell you why. Or rather, I'll show you why:

We moved back into a city with an awesome library! And Sunday was the day Mom and I decided to get our new library cards. And the library happens to be 3.6 miles away from our new house.

A major reason we moved back into the city we did is because of the library system. Trufax.

Now, the trip there wasn't too bad. The trip back is what nearly killed us. But we limped home victorious. Not only had we proven to ourselves that we could survive a 7 mile walk, we were the proud renters of some library books.

(Who wouldn't want to go to a library with the Cat in the Hat outside?)

A new fantastic point of view…

2009-06-23T19:17:00.005-05:00

We moved Memorial day weekend. A bunch of my friends from church and Mom’s friends from work helped us out. Mom and I love the new place, but the cats weren’t so sure at first. Thunder refused to leave the basement for almost an entire day.

Creeper soon warmed up to the new place and started racing up and down the stairs. I think she forgot she’s no longer a kitten. But I’m glad she’s staying active. She’s got a belly that could stand to be reduced a bit. It flops round between her legs in the most unflattering, albeit hysterical way.

But Thunder has finally come round and relaxed. He’s even found his favorite new spot in the house.

I can go the distance...

2009-06-19T10:03:00.002-05:00

On my way to work this morning traffic stopped as 70+ high school kids jogged through every single crosswalk in downtown Naperville. I remember them being out last summer. Perhaps they're some co-ed track and field club. Or a running day camp. Or the newest dating wave sweeping "kids today". What better way to meet that special someone than by running beside them, limbs akimbo, sweating profusely, and sucking wind?

All I know is that if they had any sense, they would have still been in bed, enjoying their summer freedom while it lasts!

We’re family, me and you Part 3…

2009-06-18T10:08:00.002-05:00

…Which is the only way I can explain how one of the skirts I used to wear in high school ended up in Gigi’s closet. I don’t remember getting rid of it. Usually we just filled up Hefty bags and dropped them off at her house, so she could take them to the Sonshine Closet. Apparently she riffled through the bags before taking them.

So when I saw the skirt in her closet this Saturday I started to laugh. And I actually started to walk out of the room so I could find Gigi and tease her about wearing one of her granddaughter’s cast off clothing. And then I remembered, I couldn’t tease her because she was no longer there. And then I realized how much I was going to miss her.

It sounds cliché, but I really didn’t realize how much she helped shape me into who I am. I actually had a hard time spending time with her as I got older. Our personalities clashed and I started to distance myself. I preferred spending time with Gramps who would sit in silence and let me talk (proving that Gigi and I are more alike then I sometimes care to admit.) But she loved me, and I loved her. And here’s how the conversation would have played out if I’d had the chance to ask her about my skirt:

Beth: Gigi, what are you doing with one of my old skirts?
Gigi: You didn’t want it anymore. It’s a perfectly good skirt.
Beth: It’s a little too hip and stylish for you, don’t you think?
Gigi: You’re such a sassy mouth. I don’t know where you get it from. Your mother I suppose.
Beth: Yeah and where did she get it from?
Gigi: Her father.

Then she’d try and offer me a Halls lozenge, but I’d swipe some Big Red gum instead and we’d sit down to a game of Uno. Where we’d keep score. We score Uno in the Gasper family because Uno is serious business.

P.S. Sally asked me if I wanted the skirt back, but I said no. I’d given it away once for a reason, there was no point to take it back again. But I did take one of Gigi’s sweet vests with lace flowers and a pocket watch chain on it. And I think she’d be tickled pink to think that one her granddaughters thought something in her wardrobe was cool enough to wear.

(Three generations of Gasper women.)

We’re family, me and you Part 2…

2009-06-17T09:52:00.005-05:00

I should give some back story. My grandmother was the queen of volunteering. You name the Christian organization, and she probably volunteered there at some time. One of the programs she ran at church was called the Sonshine Closet. It was basically a closet behind Fellowship Hall where church members could drop off their used clothes and household goods – sort of like Goodwill. Then, one Thursday a month, Gigi and her team would sort through the clothes, box them up, and send them to different local and even international ministries. But if something caught their eye, they would pull it for themselves and move on.

Gigi may have pulled for her whole family, but I can only speak for what she pulled for me. She pulled normal clothes for me, but she also pulled clothes for my dress-up collection. She was a firm believer that kids should use their imaginations, but also that they didn’t need to spend lots of money to do so. She was always sending me items for my dress-ups that she bought from Goodwill or pulled from the Sonshine Closet. I don’t think there was any brand-new store bought article of clothing in my dress-up chest.

(The elusive bag-lady fairy.)

After we moved to Cincinnati, I would spend my summer days with Gramps and Gigi. And one Thursday a month I helped her with the Sonshine closet. If I found anything I liked I asked permission to keep it. Sometimes she said no. But sometimes she said yes. Mostly I pulled things that I wanted to keep in my costume collection. I was older, so it was no longer considered a dress-up collection. Costume collection had a more mature ring to it. Once I was allowed to keep a powder blue tuxedo I found. Completely intact with jacket, pants, reversible vest, and clip-on bow tie. The only thing missing was the ruffled shirt, but I’m pretty sure that got sorted in with the women’s clothing.

And sometimes Mom and I would make our own donations….

We’re family, me and you Part 1…

2009-06-16T09:52:00.001-05:00

(Gigi and I at Burger King, back when Burger King was cool.)

This weekend I went to Cincinnati for my grandmother’s memorial service. Even though I got a chance to say goodbye, it’s hard to believe she’s actually gone. She was such a vibrant woman who made no apologies for how wonderfully insane she could be. I hope I can earn the right to be like that when I’m a grandmother.

My family had the overwhelming task of cleaning out Gramps and Gigi’s condo. Gramps has moved into a nice little apartment, but he could not take everything with him. My grandparents have successfully been squirreling away things since the 1800’s. No joke. I now own a photo of some great-great-great-great relatives who lived in England. I also now own some of their clothes.

It was during the middle of cleaning on Saturday that it finally hit home that I wouldn’t see her again on this earth. I was cleaning out her closet with my cousins, Sally and Lynn. Gramps had asked that as we look through her clothes that we take anything we wanted. Well, there isn’t much in the wardrobe of an 80-year-old woman that appeals to her 20-year-old granddaughters, but we dutifully looked through each piece.

Halfway through the closet, Sally said, “Hey Beth, there’s a skirt in here that you may want. It’s kind of pretty and it’s long” (I’m the tallest female cousin.) I turned and looked at the skirt. It was a long, black skirt. Nothing special, and not really my style. I was about to turn and move on, when something caught my eye. At the bottom of the skirt there were little grey swirl designs. I started laughing, which earned a quizzical look from Sally….

Let's go fly a kite...

2009-06-06T16:12:00.001-05:00

Today, my wonderful friend Johnso took me on an adventure to a kite festival. I love kites. So colorful, so much fun to fly, so deadly when you lose control and they come crashing down to earth on unsuspecting bystanders. I was expecting a few people out flying some standard kites, and perhaps some box kites included in the mix. Oh Beth, how naive you were.

These were launched by a self-professed kite lunatic. Crazy or not, these things were awesome! I could have watched them for hours. I was perfectly ready to plop on the ground and start constructing stories about how the squid was trying hard to make friends, but the other characters were freaked out by the fact the squid had no mouth. But the ground was wet, so we moved on.

They had 4-string kites which are apparently the new wave of kite design (Johnso's dad owns one). I watched synchronized kite flying, something I had no idea existed. This whole thing is a documentary waiting to be filmed. There was even some animosity between the 4-string kite fliers and the animal kite fliers. Clearly, they each thought the other had no idea what true kite flying was. And stuck in the middle was a girl who just wished someone would launch the flying cow kite she saw for sale.

Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah…

2009-06-02T18:44:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I spent a glorious time up in Greenlake, WI for my church’s 3rd Annual Girls’ Getaway. It was nice to see so many of my friends. I haven’t been to small group or the EDGE in over a month because of various trips, illnesses, and the big move. I was feeling very disconnected.

My official role on the HER ministry is The Face of HER. Basically I’m the one who makes all the announcements at church and I emcee the Girls’ Getaways. All the fun and none of the work. I kid, I kid. I do find emceeing a little stressful at times. Let’s face it, I’m weird. I worry that my weirdness will scare off women from participating in activities. But so far the response to my awkward pauses and random excitement about card stock paper hasn’t scared anyone away… that I’m aware of. They even take things like this in stride:

Over the course of the weekend I got to have some much needed quiet time with God, participate in some corporate worship, reconnect with my friends and get to know new ones, ride a boat, weed a garden, play some cornhole, and even ride a jet ski!

Don’t let this picture fool you. I did not drive. I rode on the back, hanging on for dear life and screaming the entire time as I was doused with ice cold lake water.

Her nose stuck in a book...

2009-05-20T16:43:00.000-05:00

Last night my amazing small group cancelled their regularly scheduled program to come over and help Mom and I pack for our big move on Saturday. And they also brought food! My small group pretty much rocks.

Anyway, we packed a bunch of boxes, and then I lead a team over to our new place to unload them. We have a limited number of boxes, so we have to empty boxes at the new place so we can reuse them. We have about 1,000 boxes of books, so those are the first to get emptied.

Last night I was in our new kitchen unpacking some boxes when I heard some giggling drifting up from the basement. And I immediately thought, "Oh no. They found Mom's books and think that they are mine!" Sure enough, when I reached the basement, I saw them flipping through books that look a little something like the one on the left. They were busy reading the back covers in sultry voices (something I do myself because, hey, it's funny.) I kind of wanted to die from embarrassment and they weren't even my books!

The books I've saved over the years are much better. Especially the ones from junior high and early high school. With strong plots and unique characters. Wait a minute... that's actually not true. I read a lot of cheap romance novels, with bad plots and one-dimensional characters. The only difference was instead of sex, they had a sermon or two thrown in.*** There actually are some good Christian novels, I just wasn't reading them at the time. And I worry that many woman are reading the poorly written Christian novels and patting themselves on the back for reading something good because it's a Christian book. Just because it is written by a Christian, it doesn't mean it is the end-all-be-all of good literature, people!

I will now get off my soapbox because I fear I've deviated from my blog goals of posting things that happen to me on a daily basis, and not media reviews. I will however end with a link I stumbled upon while looking for covers to romance novels. It's a parody site that pretty much is amazing. Check it out, you won't be disappointed. Here's one of my favorite covers:

***Lori Wick actually has written some pretty good book series. A Place Called Home Series is not one of them.

It's the start of something new...

2009-05-18T18:05:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I got together with family for a reunion. In attendance were my Aunt Sarah, my cousin Justin, and his wife Julie. Besides being related, these three have something in common. They all blog. It's a nice way to keep in touch with what is going on in their lives.

Now, I had a blog in college to keep in touch with my high school friends, but it soon became a place for me to discuss the latest movie I'd seen or show I'd watched, and who really want to hear me go on and on about a movie?

But being around all of these bloggers inspired me. Maybe I should start up another blog. And set parameters, like posting about my actual life instead of movies (although the occasional review may slip in. I watch movies. And I love to talk about them.)

I hope to keep up with it. I have a few concerns. The first will always be, "Now what do I post about?" Another concern is length. I like to talk. And I like to write almost more than I like to talk. And nobody needs to read 1000 words on what my cat did last week (he peed himself from fright. No joke.) This post is already getting too long.

My other major concern is pictures. I take pictures. But not everyday. And I don't always have time to upload them. So I can post without pictures, but nobody likes reading a blog without some images. So I may have to post stock image like this:

But my goal is going to post 200 words (at least) 2-3 times a week. And if that fails, my overarching goal is to be better at posting than my cousin Travis is.