Reading is Addictive

My first favorite author was Carolyn Keene.  I was in the school library in second grade trying to figure out what to check out.  My teacher, Mrs. Sargent, pulled a Nancy Drew mystery off the shelves and suggested I read it.  I was instantly hooked.  Nancy was cool; she was smooth and smart, and she had a cool car and a boyfriend!  The challenge became amongst several of my second grade buddies was who would finish reading all fifty-five books of Keene's that were in our library!  I didn't win the challenge, but I didn't care.  I was in heaven reading about Nancy's escapades.
I did dabble with the First Love from Silhouette club, a romance novel club for young readers.  My mom then got me hooked on Victoria Holt novels which were historical romance novels.  Through the years, she had collected each hardback book written by Holt, so I had a vast library through which to make my way.  I was so engrossed in them that I would even read them during class.  Not just any class.  Geometry class.  I would cunningly -- or so I thought -- hide my book with my geometry textbook.  Mr. Davis, my teacher, decided he would call me on it and called on me to answer a problem from the textbook.  I simply flipped my Victoria Holt novel so that I could see my textbook, looked down at the problem, and answered him -- correctly.  After that, Mr. Davis let me multi-task during class. :) By the way, I am telling a story, not advocating that you do this in class. :)
Once in college, the classics became my passion.  I would spend my breaks reading novels like Tess of the D'Urbervilles and The Last of the Mohicans.  When I made the statement during an education class on teaching literature that I loved reading the classics in my spare time, everyone, even my professor Dr. Burke, regarded me with horror.  How could a twenty-year old find those old books interesting?  Jane Austen is probably my favorite writer.  She wrote novels such as Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey back in the early 1800s.  I enjoy her work because she portrays her female heroines as being strong of character and integrity, yet possessing all the weaknesses of heart with which we women struggle.
Finally, in my later adulthood, I made it to Mary Higgins Clark.  She intrigued me with her numerous plot lines which would eventually meld into one.  Now, though, even her novels don't excite in me that literary passion they used to.  I am floundering, looking for a new author, but even worse, struggling to find time to read.  I used to start a book and not go to sleep till it was finished.  Over the Fall Break, I began Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but I didn't get very far at all.  I haven't picked it up in a while.  Oh, to feel the excitement of a good book in hand once again!

I don't do horror any more

Tonight, I get to preview Atrox with my husband.  From what he's told me, Atrox is a fright filled experience designed to scare in Leeds.  Since he is with the media, he received an invite to the media preview night.  One of the perks of being married to Chris is getting to do some really cool things.  To me, this evening will be time for me to spend with my husband as a date night.  They will have food, and then the terror tours start around 7:00. 

I used to love going to the Jaycees' Haunted House in Gadsden when I was a teenager, and I recall wandering through the old Bryce Cemetary off of River Road in Tuscaloosa when I was in college.  I almost got thrown out of Nightmare on Elm Street 4 or 5 when I was in high school.  I loved a good scare.

That has all changed.  I will never, ever watch another horror movie.  The last one I watched was The Blair Witch Project and that was during the day.  I would love to go camping if not for that movie.  Even the newer Scooby Doo movies give me the creeps.  I can do horror houses some, but I don't beg my husband to go to them.  I'm a scaredy-cat these days, but that's okay with me.

Our first date was to Sloss Fright Furnaces, and I haven't been back.  Tonight, I will bravely enter Atrox which I hear is "better" than Sloss.  Hopefully, I will be at school tomorrow. :)

Touchdowns and Penalties or IKEA?

I do enjoy watching football, in person and on television, if there is a good game on.  Generally speaking the first game of the season is usually painful to watch.  Not only is it filled with silly mistakes and commentators who are rarely passionate about the game at hand, but it's also very dull.  No or little action.  No Hail Mary's thrown.  No physical feats such as Tyrone Prothro's catch against Southern Miss. The best thing about game day that first weekend is the food -- buffalo chicken dip at my house.

Oh, the talk radio is what really kills me!  I know more about football than most of the lunatics that call Paul Finebaum.  The on-air name calling and put-downs are endless! 

I prefer to begin really watching when the end of September gets here. By then, all the players have loosened up and found their momentum.  The teams are more challenging.  Confidence abounds on the field. 

No, rather than watch football all day long, flipping between channels like my husband and son, I choose to jaunt on over to Atlanta to do some shopping.  Hey, the store is next to Georgia Tech and they have a home game that day, so that counts, doesn't it?

Don't get me wrong; I wouldn't miss the Alabama opening game on their way for a repeat of last season's outcome.  I will be back in time from my excursion in order to watch the game at Heroes in Jacksonville, one of the few places where the game will be broadcast.  They have a great Ahi tuna.  However, I will probably leave at  halftime.  We are playing San Jose State afterall.  By halftime, I will probably need to distance myself from my Alabama football psycho husband anyway.

Raise Your Hands!

Slippery When Wet was hands down the best album of 1986.  Hair bands were at the top of their game and MTV really rocked. The good ol' days.  When New Jersey, Bon Jovi's follow-up album to Slippery When Wet, was released in 1988, I burned rubber out of the parking lot of my school in my Ford Escort on my way to the Record Bar at the Gadsden Mall to snatch up the next piece of Bon Jovi history.  Totally surprised that all of the cassettes had not been already carried away by other Bon Jovi groupies like myself, I quickly grabbed one of the many and handed the cashier my money.  As I headed back for cheer practice (I had told Mrs. Davis I had to run a quick errand and would be a little late), I popped the cassette into my portable cassette player, turned the volume up to 10, and rocked out.  My sister still laughs at me to this day.  And I still have the New Jersey cassette.

Does my story remind you of anything you've done or someone else has done?

School's Back

It was my first day of classes as a freshman at the University of Alabama.  I found my way across campus to my freshman composition class.  The teacher came in and immediately began calling roll.  I did not hear my name, so I raised my hand and informed her that she had forgotten me.  She in turn told me that I wasn't on her roll, that I was in the wrong classroom.  The class I was supposed to be in was actually the next room down the hall.  Quietly and quickly, I slipped from my seat and exited the room.  I then found the correct classroom and walked in, interrupting the teacher's lesson.  I was ten minutes late to my first class as a college freshman at Bama.  Just a little embarrassing.

Did you mess up any this week?  Go to the wrong class?  Get in the wrong line?  Forget all about school?