This weekend involved:

• Spending way too long shopping for scrapbooking supplies
• A quiet night at home scrapbooking and knitting after a five hour work week because of all of the ice and snow
• Enjoying a fabulous dinner out at Dunaway's eating amazing food, drinking good wine, and laughing nonstop with good friends
• Going to church
• Lunch with friends to prepare for Andrew's interview
• Watching the Puppy Bowl on Animal Plant
• Watching the Superbowl with friends and family
• Watching the new Glee episode

Book review: Beneath a Marble Sky

I've had the book Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors on my shelf for a while.  I'm pretty sure that I got it in the mail from Barb a while ago because it's about building the Taj Mahal.  I had started reading it once before, but gave up a few chapters in.  This time I started it again and eventually got into it.  It tells the story of Princess Jahanara, whose father eventually ends up building the Taj Mahal in honor of her mother.  Jahanara grows up in the royal court and has to learn how to live in a society where women are given little power and little choice over what happens to them.

My favorite line from the story is, "...women are taught that there's no strength in our tears.  But why are tears powerless, if those tears lead to insight, or a sense of peace?"  Mostly because it shows the power that women are given in the story and because it speaks to the power of showing your emotion, which I usually end up doing.

While it wasn't my favorite story I've ever read, it was interesting because of the history behind it.  The other thing I found really interesting about it was that at the end of the book the author includes a letter to the reader.  While it's not completely unusual to address the reader, I like how honest and sincere he was.  It made me like the book that much more.

Kurt Vonnegut or Why I Now Like Some Science Fiction

I love Kurt Vonnegut.  I haven't always.  I read Cat's Cradle in high school and totally didn't get it.  I thought it was the weirdest book ever and that it didn't have a point, though why I felt like books had to have a point is another thing entirely.  When I started teaching, I knew that I wanted to teach some science fiction, specifically the stories of Ray Bradbury, but knew that I'd need a book to center the class around.  Enter Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.

I first heard of Slaughterhouse Five from this conversation in the movie Footloose.

Mr. Gurntz:    "He was trying to teach that book."

Mrs. Allyson: "Slaughterhouse Five, isn't that an awful name?"

Ren:                "Yeah it's a classic...Slaughterhouse Five, it's a classic."

Mr. Guntz:      "Tom Sawyer is a classic!  Do you read much?"

Mrs. Allyson:  "Maybe in another town it's a classic."

Ren:                "In any town."

Image from http://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/about/

I decided that it was time to read it and see if I could use it for my class.  I read it, and while I found it almost as weird as I had found Cat's Cradle, I liked it!  I couldn't wait to teach it to my students, one in particular who I thought would really like it.  I've been teaching Kurt Vonnegut for several years now and was completely surprised when I had a student this year who had not only read everything that Vonnegut had ever written; he had also read everything that Vonnegut had read under the pseudonym Kilgore Trout, who is one of his one of his characters.

Another reason I like Vonnegut is that he's from Indianapolis!  He said in a 1986 speech, "All my jokes are Indianapolis.  All my attitudes are Indianapolis.  My adenoids are Indianapolis.  If I ever severed myself from Indianapolis, I would be out of business.  What people like about me is Indianapolis."  The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library recently opened in downtown Indianapolis.  There are all kinds of things on display there, including his typewriter and many of his drawings.  I'm hoping that Andrew and I will be able to go see it soon!

I have a favor to ask

If you read my blog can you follow me?

As much as I'd like to say that I don't need people to read my blog for me to blog, it is nice to feel like people are reading the posts I'm writing.  To me, following and commenting on a blog is the best way of showing support for a blog.  I've been making an effort to follow and comment on the blogs that I read to show the people writing them that I truly appreciate their writing.

I have a few wonderful friends who follow me at the moment, but I thought I'd put the invitation to follow me out there.

Important questions

"Do you know someone fighting on the front lines in Iraq or Afghanistan? How about a family in your town that has a loved one serving? Legendary newsman Tom Brokaw says if you can't say yes to one of these questions, then you don't really care about the war or the men and women who are fighting in it. Tom says what concerns him most is that people don't think about the sacrifices that these brave soldiers and their families are making for our freedom. "

This is an excerpt from an article that was written about a show that Oprah did with Tom Brokaw about the bravest families in America.  You can read the rest of the article here.  I was completely touched by this show and this article because it made me think about the fact that this war that's been going on for years does not affect the day to day happenings of me or most Americans.  As it was put on the show, "There is an epidemic of disconnection."


While watching the show, my heart broke for the mother who visits her son's grave in Arlington National Cemetery and reads the book Corduroy to him She said that "It makes me feel like I'm still doing something for him."


I don't know what else to say except that I'm grateful for the men and women serving our country and for their families that are enduring just as much as their loved ones that are serving.  I'm specifically thinking of roommate from college Barb's brother, my co-worker Nick's brother, and my brother's friend John.  I'll be praying for them all today.

A must read interview

Do you read the blog Persisting Stars?  Madelyn did an amazing interview with an artist named Amanda Ford.  Seriously, it is so beautifully written that it reads like a poem.  I have been reading it a bit at a time so that I can savor the way it's written.  You definitely have to check it out here!

Freezing rain

We had the day off from school because of the freezing rain that has been falling for about a day.  It's so thick that when Schmoo goes outside, he ends up sliding around on the ice that's on top of the snow.  While I was spending time trying to get over the cold I got over the weekend, which kept me home from school yesterday, I came across Odd Girl Out's post on the storm that included this quote.  I think it sums it up perfectly!

"There is something joyful about storms that interrupt routine.  Snow or freezing rain suddenly releases you from expectations, performance demands, and the tyranny of appointments and schedules.  ...All those affected this way are united by a mutual excuse and the heart is suddenly and unexpectedly a little giddy."  -The Shack 

Image from here