Tag: random

Random

I have this file for my e-mail called “Pending–Needs Attention.” I just checked it, something I obviously rarely do. I have mail I haven’t responded to dating back to December 2006. So if you think I’ve been ignoring you, I have. I suck. I’ll try to answer some of those, along with a bunch of TJB mail, in the next few days. Don’t be surprised if you suddenly get mail from me referencing some request you don’t even remember.

Rex and Maverick are tearing through the house like crazy beasts. They’ve knocked the fan over, tossed pillows off the bed, pulled quilts from atop the windowseat, and jostled a book from the coffee table. See why I can’t answer mail? I’m too busy laughing at dogs. (Guinness and Margot are not laughing. They’re so prim.)

Lynne answered my summons plea to come to dinner Tuesday night. I hadn’t seen her for a while, and I missed her. And then, Nikon People, those of you who implanted a chip in my brain, luring me to the Dark Side and making me do your bidding, I went with her to Houston Camera Co-op and she ended up with this purchase:


Lynne and her D-60.
I hope you’re all satisfied.

Hump Day Happy

I usually pass parade beads to my great-nieces and -nephews, but not this throw. This one came from Greg last year when I made my February trip to New Orleans.

I’m using it here because even though I’m deliriously happy to be back at The Compound with my dogs and husband and Houston friends nearby, I’m still in that Crescent City state of mind, thinking of everything that happened at Saints and Sinners and how good my writer friends and long-distance friends are for my soul.

I’ll be sharing photos and stories in a lot of posts over the next couple of weeks as memories bubble to the surface. One of the VERY BEST parts of the long weekend was how I could see how vastly improved my mood and health were from last year. I laughed more, walked more, participated more, and relaxed more. I just felt lighter. Happier.

If you’re looking for something to be happy about, comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, and these Krewe of Muses shoes are made for walking through the pages of this book to get your answer.

Greg, if you ever again think I’m snubbing you, just remember that I brought your paperclip sculpture you gave me all the way home from New Orleans and shot a photo of it because it looks like a heart. I will be always grateful for the many kindnesses you’ve shown me, both professionally and personally. This event you and Paul have created, Saints and Sinners, has brought some amazing people into my life, given me more confidence as a writer, and provided the opportunity to meet in person other writers and friends I’d have otherwise known and admired only from a distance. You say the festival is your chance to get all your creative friends together and how happy that makes you. But we’re happy that YOU make it possible for all of us to converge. What a gift to writers, friends, and colleagues. You and Paul, and all the people who help you, including the one pictured below, should be SO PROUD of your work, your passion, and your amazing host city. Thank you.

 


Evil Mark, who’s not even remotely evil and whose enthusiasm and energy never flags as he does all his Saints and Sinners magic, including keeping us on schedule. Thank you, Mark! 

Hump Day Happy

You got fins to the left, fins to the right, and you’re the only bait in town…

I have NO idea why I can’t get this Jimmy Buffett song out of my head, so I just decided to run with it. For one, I think sharks are cool. Also deadly, which is why I never swim in anything that doesn’t have a blue cement bottom. Yes, that means no oceans as well as gulfs, lakes, rivers, and ponds. Is there a rule that says Becky Must Be Rational? Didn’t think so.

I was never a Parrothead, though Lynne was a HUGE Jimmy Buffett fan, and I dated a guy who was, as well. I’ve never blamed Jimmy for the guy. And thanks to the guy, I did go to a Jimmy Buffett concert one time in Tuscaloosa (Roll Tide), and IT WAS GREAT! Kick-back, sing-along, smile-at-everybody-around-you, smoke-’em-if-you-got-’em, feel-good-about-it-all great.

A person could do worse than emulating Jimmy Buffett, and not just because he pulls in a cool hundred million a year with all his business ventures and music and writing careers. He does a lot of good in the world with grants and fundraising. Check out the SFC section of Jimmy Buffett on his official website.

Then dig your toes into the sand, put on your sun screen, and comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, so these sharks can find you something to be happy about.

 

 

Hump Day Happy

 


Ayuh, it’s a moose, all right. Because a moose reminds me of Maine.
Today, Maine has struck a blow for equal rights and made me a happy person. 

If you want to be happy but can’t move to Maine right now, just comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, and Mr. Moose will find you something from this book to be happy about.

Hump Day Happy

Sometimes I forget what I’ve posted about on here before, but it’s not like you all remember every word, right? RIGHT? (Other than you, Mark G. Harris.)

I don’t have many favorite memories of ninth grade Home Ec, but one of them involves Lynne’s mother, Elnora. I was finishing my sew-something-at-home project, and my mother agreed to let me spend the night with Lynne for the only time ever on a school night so Elnora could teach me buttonholes. Now I know my mother, who sewed all the time, certainly knew how to do buttonholes. Either she was tired of me and my fabric (Why did I choose brown?), or Elnora’s machine had a buttonhole function and Mother’s didn’t. In any case, Elnora taught me how to stitch buttonholes by hand, and I remember finishing up late at night when everyone was asleep, my eyes blurry and my fingers stinging from numerous needle sticks.

I thought about that incident last Friday when I was sewing–badly–deep into the night and getting frustrated. More than anything in the world, I wanted to call Lynne, wake her out of a sound sleep, and shriek, “I CAN’T MAKE THIS YOKE WORK!” She’d have deserved it, too, because of that time she threw The World According to Garp at my sleeping body in the middle of the night, but that’s a different story.

When Timothy, Mark, and I were sewing for Runway Monday, we made our own patterns. In my infinite quest to frustrate myself, I bid on and won some Barbie fashion patterns on eBay. Here, my model Faizah is wearing the result of my Friday night dementia. It doesn’t look exactly like the dress on the front of the pattern, but at least I overcame my Aries nature and FINISHED it. That makes me somewhat happy. Comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, and Faizah will find YOU something in this book to be happy about.

It’d better not involve sewing.

 

 

Hump Day Happy

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

Happy Earth Day. The beauty and balance of our planet never stops amazing and inspiring me. Earth makes me happy. Leave a comment about your happiest place on the planet, and I’ll find something in this book to add to your happiness.