Poetry

First, a quick word about Kindle for PC: I just finished a book on the software I downloaded for free. (I got about six books for free, and there are several more I can download, as well.) The book itself was okay. I guess I didn't have any huge complaints about reading an e-book. I liked being able to bookmark several places at once. (The book I was reading had recipes thrown in from time to time, and I wanted to copy them down, but not until I was done with the book. So I would bookmark the recipes, and I'd also bookmark wherever I left off reading.) I liked that I could change the size of the font and how many words appeared on the screen. However, reading an e-book on a computer was probably not the best way to assess something like that--SO less portable than a Nook or Kindle! Aside from that, the only thing I really didn't like about an e-book was the fact that I didn't know how far along I was in the story. There's a bar at the bottom at the screen that tells what percentage of the book I've read through, but it's not like looking at a real book and saying, "Oh, I've got about sixty pages left." I had no idea where I was in the book, and it's not like it mattered, but I realized that's one thing I enjoy about reading a real book.

Okay, now the real idea behind my post tonight.
Lindsay apparently had some assignment for school that involved finding various forms of writing. Jim went to help her find some things, and in the course of looking for different formats, they found some of Grandma Hirons' (Jim's maternal grandmother) poetry books. The woman had some serious writing skills. I went downstairs to get something and heard Jim reading one of her poems to Lindsay. I knew as soon as I heard it what he was reading. When he was done helping Lindsay find what he needed, he brought some books up and read some of the poems to me.

Edna Hirons, my mother-in-law's mother, passed away nearly eight years ago. I only had the pleasure of knowing her for five or six years. She was an inspiration to me, being a writer and a mother. She was a Faith-driven woman, which was also something that tied me to her, though I couldn't say, at the time, that I was living a Faith-driven life. I was still reckless and irresponsible when I met her, but I can honestly say that she set an example for me (along with a handful of other incredible women) that I continue to try to follow.

I don't even know, for sure, how many little books of poetry Edna wrote and published. She always published them on her own, so they're not the types of books you would see in a library or bookstore. However, we have copies of several of them here at our house, and they're nicely bound and printed. She never made any money from them, but that wasn't the driving force anyway. I believe she wrote poetry that she felt God gave her, and her reason for publishing that poetry was to share her gift with others. She admitted to Jim and me that she was second or third cousins with Robert Waller (The Bridges of Madison County) and yes, he made money writing his books, he acquired fame from them. But Edna would not compromise her morals and beliefs just to write the kind of books that sell. I always respected and admired her for that.

Edna decided, at one point, to publish a book of patriotic poems. Interestingly, this book was not to be HER poetry, but poems she'd collected from friends and other writers, along with a few poems written by family members. She enlisted my help in editing this book. I was so excited to have such an important role! How ironic it was that we were finally ready to take the collection of poems to the publisher in October of 2001--one month after the attacks of 9/11. We had been working on this book for a number of months, but it seemed even more important than ever that we get that book out as soon as possible. Publishing that book with Edna was one of the proudest accomplishments of my life!

When Jim and I were preparing to get married, Jim bet me that I would cry at our wedding. I'm an extremely emotional person (I cry at commercials!), so he thought it was a sure thing. I didn't cry at our wedding, so I won the bet! But I did cry the night before, at our prenuptial dinner. Edna stood up and read a poem she'd written just for us, just for that night, and it was the most beautiful thing ever! I cry now, because she didn't make any copies of that poem, and I can't find the original!!! Ugh!

Anyway, losing Edna was painful for me, and I'd only gotten to know her for a short time. But she is not now, nor will she ever be, forgotten. She still plays a huge role in our lives and I'm so very grateful for the gift of having known her at all. She was loving, kind, warm-hearted, outspoken, joyful, and a terrific cook!

Grandma Hirons, I miss you! Although I hope to live many, many more years here on Earth, I anxiously look forward to seeing you again, in Heaven. I love you!!!

To Kindle or not to Kindle...

I'm hearing a lot about friends and family who have recently starting using Kindle (or Nook or iPod touch with iBook or iPad with iBook, or some other e-reader system), and I'm starting to really consider the pros and cons of getting such a device.

Cons:
They're kind of pricey
You have to buy books to read on them
Borrowing books to read on them can be tricky (not all libraries lend in all formats)
It's not like holding a book (the feel of turning pages, the smell of the paper, being able to find something you just read or pop ahead briefly are challenging)
Compared to how many books are available in print (millions? billions?), there is a rather limited amount of books available for these devices (I believe it might go to hundreds of thousands)

Pros:
They're cool (any kind of new technology is exciting and attractive to me)
They're portable
You can download several books for free
You have access to several books at a time, whereas with a physical book, you'd typically only bring one or just a few with you anywhere at one time.

I recently found out that Amazon.com has a large number of books available for download for the Kindle system for free. Further, I found that Kindle offers programs not only for that specific device, but also for the iPad, for PC computers, and for other devices as well. So I downloaded Kindle for PC the other day. I've obtained about six free books from Amazon so far, and I've been reading one of those books for the past couple of days. It's kind of a pain to have to have my computer to read from, but it's a great way, I think, to at least get a feel for that method of reading. I don't think I'll ever completely give up physical books--my love for them is simply too great. But I think this is something I'll consider more and more over the next few months. It might be something I want to consider getting at some point. (And from there, of course, I'd have to really think about which device to go with: Kindle, Nook, iPad or iPod Touch, etc.)

Fun experiment!

Happy New Year!

I don't think I'm quite over the holidays just yet--last night I stayed up 'til about midnight, watching "Holiday Inn", and I hope to stay up late soon to watch "White Christmas" and "Meet Me In St. Louis!" I borrowed all three movies from my friend, Eileen, after we took our girls and a few other Girl Scout friends to see one of the local high schools' production of "White Christmas". It was super cool--they even had snow falling IN THE THEATER at the end of the play! Plus, Josie saw Santa Claus--for real--watching the play. During Intermission, we went to walk around in the lobby, and I saw my friend, Sheila, who used to be my boss at Super Saver. She said her son, Dillon, was in the play. She was talking to me about it, and Josie was kind of walking along with us, when Sheila (who was ushering that night) stopped and said, "Look, here's Santa Claus!" and she grabbed this guy by the arm. Sure enough, it was him! He turned around, looked at Josie and smiled (his blue eyes twinkled) and asked her, "Have you been a good girl this year?" He might have said a couple more things, but Josie was trying to melt into me, she was so star-struck! (I'll admit, I was, too.) After that, we raced over to our friends and told them about the encounter. Once the play started up again, we saw that Santa was sitting in the front row. I saw my friend, Sheila, again, and she kind of whisper-shouted up to me, "Notice when he leaves, what kind of hat he's wearing." Well what do you think it was? Yup! A red elf hat with white fur trim. Josie wanted to go back and talk to him some more, since her friends had seen him too, and she'd regained her confidence. But I told her that, since it was only about two weeks before Christmas, it was probably his last night off for a while, and he'd probably appreciate a bit of space. He was just wanting to relax and be a "regular guy" for one night. She was a little perturbed, but Lindsay reinforced my comments when we got home.

A few days later, we had Eileen and her daughter, Eleanor, over to decorate cookies for Christmas. Turns out Eleanor had spotted Santa as they were leaving the play, and HE came up to HER and said, "I LOVE those chocolate chip cookies you leave me!" (Which, of course, is exactly the kind of cookies they leave for him--we leave frosted sugar cookies.) Eleanor and Josie had a great day swapping details of their encounters with Santa.

I told Eileen I'd love to see the movie version of "White Christmas," because I never had (I saw "Holiday Inn" years ago, but had forgotten most of it, and I only got 1/2 way through "St. Louis" this summer). She offered to bring over all three movies. But, of course, Christmas brought us a slew of new movies, so it's taken a while to get around to watching these. I was pleased with "Holiday Inn" and can't wait to watch the other two!

Gratitude and Gifts

Today, Sheila Walsh blogged about journaling our gratitude. I saw Sheila Walsh this summer at the Women of Faith conference, and of all the women there, she's the one I most identified with. She really touched me. Now, reading her little entry on starting a gratitude journal kind of struck me. I mean, the reason I started blogging again was because I wanted to shine light on the good things in my life. I feel like I've been really bogged down, lately, by little things (and a few big ones, I suppose) mostly, and I haven't taken the time to express how truly blessed I am. I know I'm blessed, and I thank God in prayer from time to time. But I don't ever express it to anyone else. I wonder if, perhaps, another way to glorify God would be to verbalize (or write for others to see) my appreciation for all the wonderful gifts I'm blessed with, rather than to complain so loudly about my problems?

I've got a friend (she's my age, we hung out during college) who is going through treatments for breast cancer. I happen to know that she is still single, she has no children (other than the one she gave up for adoption when she was, oh, about 19), she lost her mother when she was very young, and her father's health is not so great. I also happen to know that her cancer treatments have taken her hair as well as most of her strength--they've been very painful for her. And yet, this woman is posting on Facebook, on an almost daily basis, things she is grateful for. I, for one, am grateful for her positive attitude, her humility, and her Faith in God (which is what sparked our friendship in the first place).

I mentioned gifts in the title of today's entry. I was very impressed with the homily at this past Sunday's Mass. The priest spoke about a man (St. Jerome?) who had devoted his life to translating Biblical documents into Latin so the majority of the world could read them. (This was, obviously, many, many, many years ago.) The man finished his translation very close to or on Christmas Eve. He heard Jesus asking what he would give Jesus for His birthday--the man, pleased with himself, offered his translation of The Word. Jesus told him that's not what He wanted. After listing a bunch of other sacrifices the man was willing to make, Jesus kept saying, "No, that is not what I want for my birthday." The man finally said, "Well, what DO you want? Whatever it is, I'll gladly give it!" Jesus said, "Give me your sins." It makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, if Jesus gave His life for all of us, for all of our sins, then of course we should offer them up to Him, right? I took that to mean (and the priest elaborated on this a bit, as well) that we should not only Confess our sins and ask for forgiveness, not only should we promise to try not to repeat those sins, but we should also LET GO of those sins. The priest said we, as humans, have a hard time letting go of our sins. I think he meant that we still have lingering guilt over them, even after Absolution; but we also, in the deepest, darkest part of ourselves, know that we will likely go back and commit those same sins again.

I'm taking Lindsay to Confession tonight (I meant to go alone, but she asked if she could join me--why would I turn that down?), and I hope we can both not only make good, true Confessions, but that we can also completely let go of our sins.

Happy Birthday, Jesus! I love you!!!

Finished with Fall Semester '10

Last Saturday, Dec. 11, I was supposed to go to Omaha for my final session of my YA (Young Adult) Lit. class--a class I have LOVED all semester long. However, it was blizzard-y all day here in Lincoln, and when Jim and I woke up around 7:30 and turned on the TV, we saw it was already worse in Omaha. I waited and watched the weather and tuned in to UNO's website, but there were no cancellations of class. Finally, it was time for me to head out. I left our street, went down the next street a ways, and turned around and came home. I had 1/2 a block of visibility, and it was slick. Something I need to point out: after an incident* a few years ago, I HATE driving to and from Omaha. I don't mind (so much) if I have to get on the Interstate to drive to, say, Kearney. But there's something about the drive to and from Omaha that makes me a white-knuckled driver, even in the best conditions. I've gotten a little better since I started taking classes last spring, but it's still not great. Seeing the conditions I'd have to deal with on Saturday, I walked back into the house and burst into tears. Jim told me my degree would be of no use to me if I was dead--I agreed with him, but I still hated the idea of missing my final class.

Part of the problem there was that I was slated to be one of the last folks in class to do a book talk. Over the past few years, the middle schools have started making their students do book talks (where they stand up and present the basic idea, main characters, etc) of their book along with some visual aid, rather than always making them write out the same tired book reports we had to do when I was in school. (By the way, I LOVED doing book reports!) The class I was taking was geared towards middle school instructors, which is why we had to do book talks--I guess, so that was could understand what the assignment felt like. Anyway, if I didn't make it to class, not only would I miss points for attendance and participation (HUGE thing, especially in graduate level classes), but I'd also lose points for not doing the book talk. And the kicker: I was READY to give the book talk! I'd practiced all week!

I called and left a message for my instructor, then went ahead to Lindsay and Josie's hip-hop dance recital, which I was supposed to have missed. (Glad I didn't have to miss that after all--they were awesome!) My instructor called while I was waiting for the recital to start and told me not to worry about the attendance & participation (she didn't want anyone to risk their safety over weather, which made me feel so much better)--she said I'd done an excellent job in class all semester, and I'd more than made up for missing that day. She also said we'd talk during the week about the book talk. Of course, I cried while she was telling me this. (I'd been crying off and on for the past hour!) She felt really bad and told me not to be upset. Eventually, I came around. I was also able to go to Lindsay's "Sing & Swing Choir" concert in the mall, which I was supposed to miss as well. So it ended up being a (COLD) lucky day for me. I was so glad I'd stayed home, too, 'cuz it was treacherous out!

On Monday, my instructor e-mailed and said I could send a video of me doing the book talk. That's what I'd hoped she'd say. She said if I wanted to opt out, I could, and I'd end up with an A- in the class, and she wouldn't think any less of me for that. I did consider it. But what if there's some time down the road when my GPA needs a few extra points to boost it a bit higher? I recorded my book talk, got it to a DVD and mailed it off. (No easy feat: I did it all by myself, and it took me all day Monday and a good part of Tuesday--guess I'm not as tech-savvy as I thought I was!)

Today, the instructor e-mails and says I'd forgotten to mention the author (I know--I saw that and noticed, but after all the work I went through, didn't want to redo it) and I went over on time (it was supposed to be 3-5 minutes long and mine was over 9 minutes long--YIKES!), but I still ended up with 28 out of 30 points, bringing my overall grade up to an A. Yay!!! I'm so pumped! I totally ACED my other class this semester (Leadership & Management), so I'm really excited with my grades so far. This is going great! Hope I continue doing so well!!!


*The incident I mentioned: one year, when we had gone to California to see Jim's brother and his family, we flew out and then flew back. Trust me, I hate the mountains so much, flying is the best way to go, for me. Well, we got back late at night, and although it was summer, the weather was crappy. It was raining hard and terribly windy. There was construction on the Interstate between Omaha and Lincoln. (Not as much as there is now--it's horrible now--but enough to make it challenging in parts.) Jim was driving, thank God, because his reflexes were fantastic. The wind blew this road sign (one of those diamond-shaped caution signs) right across the road at us! We swerved out of the way, and the wind blew it back our way! We swerved again, and at this point, it blew right into us! It hit the passenger side of the car, where I was sitting. It took the mirror clean off the car, but that was about the only damage we had. There may have been some minor scrapes along the side but it wasn't bad. However, I was completely freaked out. We joked, later, that it was like we were dancing with the road sign. Before that, I never minded the drive too much. Now, though, after that incident, especially because about 2/3 to 3/4 of the drive to and from Omaha is ongoing construction, I HATE that drive!