For any of you bloggers who need a chuckle, follow me to "Tales from a Cafe Chick"........
You'll find a laugh or two, I'm sure!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Of college and mountains
Oh, can you see my distress at having neglected this blog for OVER 2 WEEKS!
I just returned from a retreat at Colorado Springs, and I feel SO MUCH BETTER now!
The beauty of the mountains, and especially the "Garden of the Gods", just took my breath away! (The altitude took my breath away a little, too).
So........ let's see what's happened since I last posted! The clock is ticking towards August 16, when my daughter Cindy moves into the college dorm. I'm SO excited for her! We've been to orientation, bought a laptop computer and a "twin XL" sheet and comforter set. She's broken off with her boyfriend, and seems to be just having a great time right now!
As for me, I'm just thrilled to have taken the leap and headed off across the country all on my own! I even did some hiking at the Garden of the Gods. I kind young man took a picture of me on the trail.............. and I have proof that I really did it!
Now, if I could just learn how to post pictures on the blog...................... sigh.
I just returned from a retreat at Colorado Springs, and I feel SO MUCH BETTER now!
The beauty of the mountains, and especially the "Garden of the Gods", just took my breath away! (The altitude took my breath away a little, too).
So........ let's see what's happened since I last posted! The clock is ticking towards August 16, when my daughter Cindy moves into the college dorm. I'm SO excited for her! We've been to orientation, bought a laptop computer and a "twin XL" sheet and comforter set. She's broken off with her boyfriend, and seems to be just having a great time right now!
As for me, I'm just thrilled to have taken the leap and headed off across the country all on my own! I even did some hiking at the Garden of the Gods. I kind young man took a picture of me on the trail.............. and I have proof that I really did it!
Now, if I could just learn how to post pictures on the blog...................... sigh.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The Reading List
I found this on The Crimson Rambler : Thank you, Rambler!
My instructions were to post the list on my blog, and enbolden the titles that I have read. So, here they are......... comments welcome. Tell me, my internet friends, is there an absolute favorite of yours here that I need to read?
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Ah, apparently I've not even read 1/3 of the books on this list!
I do hope you'll let me know any of YOUR favorites that I've missed, and I say "thank you" in advance!
By the way, my 3 favorites are:
1. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens ( I had an EXCELLENT literature teacher when I read this one in school! What a difference a good teacher makes!)
2. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
3. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
My instructions were to post the list on my blog, and enbolden the titles that I have read. So, here they are......... comments welcome. Tell me, my internet friends, is there an absolute favorite of yours here that I need to read?
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Ah, apparently I've not even read 1/3 of the books on this list!
I do hope you'll let me know any of YOUR favorites that I've missed, and I say "thank you" in advance!
By the way, my 3 favorites are:
1. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens ( I had an EXCELLENT literature teacher when I read this one in school! What a difference a good teacher makes!)
2. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
3. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Saturday, July 5, 2008
The leap of faith
"The leap of faith is not so much a leap of thought as of action. One must. . .dare to act wholeheartedly without absolute certainty." -- William Sloane Coffin
I read this quote in a book today, and then I did some searching on the internet to find out who William Sloane Coffin was. WOW! He was quite the example of an individual lighting one small candle, rather than just cursing the darkness! He was active with the freedom riders in the 60's, and has since then been a voice for social justice in many ways. Some other inspiring quotes from William Sloane Coffin:
"The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love."
"To be avoided at all costs is the solace of opinion without the pain of thought."
"Clearly the trick in life is to die young as late as possible."
Coffin's word-play on "responsible" truly defines how I yearn to live my life:
"to be responsible -- response-able -- able to respond to God's visionary and creative love".
As soon as I finish posting, I'll be heading to my public library's website, to see if any of his books are available!
By the way, I've made a leap of faith in the past few days.............. I've decided, wholeheartedly, to embrace a friendship that has been on the rocks. Can I be absolutely certain that I won't be hurt deeply again? Well, no. The risk, however, is WELL WORTH IT, to be able to enjoy the riches of friendship. :~)
I read this quote in a book today, and then I did some searching on the internet to find out who William Sloane Coffin was. WOW! He was quite the example of an individual lighting one small candle, rather than just cursing the darkness! He was active with the freedom riders in the 60's, and has since then been a voice for social justice in many ways. Some other inspiring quotes from William Sloane Coffin:
"The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love."
"To be avoided at all costs is the solace of opinion without the pain of thought."
"Clearly the trick in life is to die young as late as possible."
Coffin's word-play on "responsible" truly defines how I yearn to live my life:
"to be responsible -- response-able -- able to respond to God's visionary and creative love".
As soon as I finish posting, I'll be heading to my public library's website, to see if any of his books are available!
By the way, I've made a leap of faith in the past few days.............. I've decided, wholeheartedly, to embrace a friendship that has been on the rocks. Can I be absolutely certain that I won't be hurt deeply again? Well, no. The risk, however, is WELL WORTH IT, to be able to enjoy the riches of friendship. :~)
Friday, July 4, 2008
Celebrating Freedom
Well, I have neglected this blog, haven't I?
Sometimes, I just need a "time-out" from computer time.
Today, being Independence Day in the U.S.A, I am celebrating freedom!
For me, the freedoms I celebrate today are:
freedom from letting fear rule my life
freedom to be open and real in my relationships
freedom to enjoy the beauty in today.
Each day is a gift............ untie the ribbons!
Sometimes, I just need a "time-out" from computer time.
Today, being Independence Day in the U.S.A, I am celebrating freedom!
For me, the freedoms I celebrate today are:
freedom from letting fear rule my life
freedom to be open and real in my relationships
freedom to enjoy the beauty in today.
Each day is a gift............ untie the ribbons!
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