Nikon, Sweet Nikon

I purchased a Nikon D60 SLR just a few weeks ago, and I love it. I would take it everywhere with me if I thought I could get away with it. I'm so not very good at taking pictures with it yet, but I know that practice makes perfect. I have taken tons of pictures in the last few days, and it has been so much fun. I even like formatting them on my computer. My books are growing dusty, and I can hear murmuring from their pages. "Where did she go? I miss her. Will she ever pick us up again?" Fear not, book babies, I do love you. Mama will return soon. She's taking a break from print and paper for a little while, but she can't stay gone long. Maybe I will take pictures of my books and then we will all be happy. Hmmm... I will have to think on that some more. Now, a few of my favorite shots.

My friend Bonnie, lover of ice cream, wanted me to take pictures of her dog, Cotton. I also took pictures of her flowers, and her sister's dog, Mylie.

The angel food cake and beautiful aunt/niece combo are from my Thursday night family fest. Good times, good times. I also got to visit their neighbors who are flipping the house next door. I thought these pictures on their wall were so cool. This picture doesn't do it justice.

I can tell that I'm going to have a long and glorious relationship with my Nikon. Just reading the manual gives me chills.

Family

Yesterday I got the chance to catch up with some members of my family. It was great seeing everyone, and I realized how much I miss them. We ate well, told funny stories, and laughed a lot. Then we had breakfast at Cracker Barrell this morning, and the world was perfect. :) Gotta love french toast in the morning!

We ate supper at Gary and Cindy's house, and then we all sat around and talked forever. I took a lot of pictures, and they turned out pretty good. Gary and Cindy's grandkids were there, and they are precious. We had so much fun, it was hard to go home.

Kindness

I love the movie "Steel Magnolias." Laughter, tears, Southern woman, Louisiana...what's not to like. I watched it for the 84,000th time a few days ago, and I was struck by all the words of wisdom shared by the characters. To be entertained and learn something at the same time is truly the mark of a great movie. I would like to share a few of my favorite tidbits of wisdom, and please, pardon the language. Some of the characters don't have much of a filter.

Frustration

Shelby: What does Sammy say about all this? (Annelle's constant praying.)
Truvy: Oh, he's so confused. He doesn't know whether to scratch his watch or wind his butt.

More truer words of frustration I have yet to find. Poor Sammy.


The Importance of Sharing

Weezer: Are those magnolias from my tree?
Drum: The judge has not decided precisely who's tree that is.
Weezer: It is mine!

Even adults have a hard time sharing.


Kindess

Weezer: I'm nice! Dammit, I am nice! I saw Drum Edenton at the Piggly Wiggly the other day, and I smiled at the son of a bitch before I could help myself!

Kindness runs deep in some people. So deep, they might not even be aware of it.


Sacrifice

Claree: Hit her! Hit her, M'Lynn! We'll sell t-shirts that say "I took a whack at Weezer Beaudreau!
Weezer: Claree, are you crazy!
Claree: Hit her! Half of Chiquipin Parish would give their eye teeth to take a whack at Weezer!
Weezer: Have you lost your mind, Claree?

In times of great stress, sacrifices must be made. You just don't expect your friends to sacrifice you!


"Steel Magnolias" will go down as one of my top ten favorite movies of all time. I love it more than my luggage, as the saying goes.

Gum

On a lighter note, I have to clean out my office. That's my condition to buying a new desktop computer. You might think that saving enough money or earning a computer through acts of kindness are more appropriate, but I have to disagree. My office is a huge mess, and it's been on my to-do list for about four months. To get it clean is a huge accomplishment for me. Also, my desktop is nine years old and currently contaminated with viruses and trojans that my mom let in through a website that was NOT the Christian morning show she was looking for. (I'll tell more on that story after I get her permission. She wasn't happy about it.)

So, I need to clean out my office. I tried a little the other day. Only succeeded in finding old photo albums, which, of course, I had to spend the rest of my "cleaning time" looking at. One album had pictures of me as a little girl with my grandmother. I've always been close to her, and I remembered she had given me the album many years ago. As I got to the end, after laughing hysterically, I noticed blond hair sticking out the back of the album. Yes, I said hair.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. She had saved my cut hair from when I got about five pounds of strawberry bubbalicious gum stuck in my hair at her house one night. Not only did about eight inches of hair have to be cut away from my head, I woke up stuck to the pillow. It wasn't just a little "stuck" either. The pillow would not come away from my head. My nana had to take the pillow case off, and I walked around looking like a lost middle eastern child with their turban askew. (I have always wanted to use the word "askew.") It was finally decided that cutting my hair was the only way to free me from the gum and the pillow case, which was stuck so closely to my head that ice or peanut butter could not penetrate enough to unstick the gum.

I really don't remember all of the exact details of the gum incident. I do know that it was not the only time I got gum stuck in my hair. It is the only time, though, that anyone saved the gum and hair. There it was, stuck in the back of the photo album. The gum still smells like strawberries after about, oh, 27 years later.

For the record, I sleep with my mouth closed now.

Vistin'

I went to Copperas Cove to visit my friends that I haven't seen in about three years this week. It was great. We got a chance to catch up on all that has been happening in our lives. We went out to eat, shopping, and to see the new Harry Potter movie. I knew that I missed them before I went to visit, but I was shocked to realize that when I got there, it felt as if I had never been gone. That's never happened to me before. I have three friends in my life that I could say that we could go a very long time without speaking and just pick up where we left off. I didn't think that would happen about an exact location. I love my friends there, and I loved my job.

I guess visits are funny that way. No time spent in any one place is totally perfect. There were lots of things that I didn't like about Cove, but my friends there made it such an enjoyable place. I miss it more now than I did when I left three years ago. I am still surprised by the strangeness of it all. I love living in Lubbock, but I know I will always have a home in Copperas Cove.

Cherry Pits

I swallowed a cherry pit. Most of the cherry was still with it, so I kind of gagged a little. I'm not sure what will happen now. When I was little my nana told me that if I swallowed watermelon seeds, watermelon vines would grown out of my ears. I'd hate to think what a cherry tree would do.

Firsts

I was thinking about the first time I had a vanilla coke the other day. It was from Lotaburger, a local dive in Snyder. I went there just about everyday after school with my bff and various others. Not only did they make the best vanilla cokes I've ever tasted, but getting a drink from the weird old man that ran Lotaburger was an adventure. After I pondered the vast memories of vanilla cokes, I then thought about driving around town with my bff.

She drove an Isuzu P'up. It was tan and brown with shiny rims. It also had purple tint on the windows and no a/c. It sat pretty low to the ground, but we didn't care. It was our ticket out into the wilds of Snyder. Not that Snyder had many wilds or that we were particularly adept in finding them. We would drive around for a long time, until one of us had to go home. It was great.

My bff lived outside of Snyder, about fifteen minutes away. So, she kept a lot of things in her truck. Make-up, clothes, feminine products, and even candy. Since the truck was a tad on the small side, the objects frequently ended up on the seat or in the glove compartment. She wasn't embarrassed about any of the "items" that happened to be in her truck at any given time, and I really didn't care either since it wasn't my truck. She saved me from having to drive a death trap '72 Bug, so I wasn't going to complain.

Since our high school had open campus, she would take her friends to lunch, and I usually went with her. So lots of people rode in her truck, and they knew that she liked pixie sticks. She would eat them after school, and there was always a bag in the glove compartment. One day after school, we were riding around with a male friend. He wanted a pixie stick, so he reached into the glove compartment. He rooted around and came up with a ...tampon. That's right. He grabbed the infamous feminine product that all men seem to be afraid of. She and I cracked up, and he just sat there with his mouth open. It seemed like forever until he threw it back into the glove compartment and started yelling. So much for getting a pixie stick. It makes me laugh to this day. His red face, gaping mouth, wide eyes, and obvious embarrassment tickled my funny bone. It took a while before he rode with my bff again, and our telling the story to most of our friends really didn't help. It did spread the laughter.

Bookaholic

I love books. If I couldn't read books, I don't know what I would do. I've tried to not read so much, but it is harder than I thought. Summertime tends to be the worst time. I am not working most of the day, so I have lots of free time. So, a quick list of the books I've read since school let out for summer.

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
2. Fearless Fourteen
3. Finger Lickin Fifteen
4. Devil Bones
5. The Help
6. The Forgotten Garden
7. Isle of Dogs
8. Scarpetta
9. September
10. Mrs. Polifax and the Whirling Dervish
11. Trial
12. Basket Case
13. Double Whammy
14. Native Tongue
15. Seven Up
16. Hot Six
17. Ten Big Ones
18. Barefoot
19. To the Nines
20. Fatal Voyage
21. Break No Bones
22. Grave Secrets

This is no lie. I read constantly. It's my way of escape. I know I need help. Do they have Bookaholics Anonymous? Would I go if they did? I bet they play video games instead of reading.