New Beginnings

Last night during Honors Convocation T. S. Eliot was quoted. "In my end is my beginning." I really liked that and it's spoken to me a lot since then. I have all kinds of new beginnings happening in my life now.

A new beginnging:
Because I am graduating and moving onto the next phase of school
Because I had a wake up call and have to change my life
Because I am no longer a smoker
Because I am eating healthier than I ever have
Because I can hear the birds chirping now (where I might have ignored them before)

There are also endings:
The end of my time at Ivy Tech as a student
The end of just coasting along life thinking I was doing ok
The end of dirty ashtrays and spending money I could better use elsewhere
The end of high fat high sodium diets
The end of ignoring the simple things in life.

So in these endings are my new beginnings. The new beginnings that will lead to a happier,healthier, more creative life. Some people fear change, I did to for awhile, I've come to see change is just a new beginning and something to be treasured not feared.

Wake up Call

It's been a rather interesting few days to say the least. I woke up monday morning with chest pain and left arm pain. All the tv shows say if you have that combination, go tot he E.R. so we did. Turns out...and this was a huge shock to me...that I'd had a heart attack. Cardiologist called in, does heart catherization and finds blockage. Puts two stents in and I'm on the way to recovery. Sounds pretty simple right? I'm told to go home, rest and heal up. Healing I can do...resting is going to be another matter entirely.

I got up this morning thinking, 'oh crud, I'm running late for work,' then realized. I'm not allowed to go to work. The resulting emotional meltdown scared the cats, baffled my husband and left me with a rotten headach. I guess I have to just suck it up and deal. But I have to say this. IT'S NOT FAIR!!!! I want to go to work, I want to go to class. I want to do my homework. and I'm told I can't do any of those things yet.

According to the nurses at Memorial, this is pretty normal. Jody and Henry were excellent in their care of me, so I guess they must know what they are talking about. It's hard to change the way you've done things your whole life. I'm guessing nobody expects this to be a 100% overnight change, that would be pretty ridiculous to expect, right?

I guess I'll have plenty of time on my hands to rest (grrrrrrr) and read. Thank goodness I love to read, but I'll probably have everything I own read before the summer is over. Ok...time to stop this whine fest and get on with things. I'm alive and I have a bright future ahead of me, the rest will work itself out.

New layout

This blog will be always changing and evolving and growing and to that end, you are likely to see new layouts every so often. Today's is this. The parchment look just spoke to me that screamed for a picture. I found this cute little guy on google images. I collect dragons (along with frogs) and I have a love for books so this picture is just a perfect fit.

Spent the morning talking with my older sister Linda about childhood memories. Linda is the one that introduced me to Pern and Anne McCaffrey's writing (thank you Lin!) which brings today's post full circle back to literature.

Make the day yours, go out and learn something...a thought...a word...an idea.

Flying the friendly skies of Pern

This week's readings were, to be prefectly blunt, horrid. Dealing with the Holocaust in one and the lynch mob murder in another is just depressing. But they are done, the discussion questions/journal postings are done and the final paper for World Lit is done (at least the first draft of it anyway). Now it's time to kick back and relax.

I really want to go shopping. What else is a girl to do when depressed but shop...right? Only this girl is a little different then most, what I want to shop for is....wait for it....BOOKS! I feel the need to 'feed my addiction' as my husband calls it. The only problem is, i'm a little light on money. So I have two options, the library (ok not an option since my son has the card) or the net. DING DING DING....we have a winner Johnny, the net it is!

While searching the net for books, Anne McCaffrey's name popped up. That's just what I need right now...a good dose of Pern!

Now as luck would have it, I own just about everything Anne McCaffrey has ever written, she's by far, my favorite author and I've gone to Pern to visit so many times I've had to replace books because I read the pages right out of them. So that's my way to escape tonight. I'm going to go to Pern and I'm going to 'become' Lessa. When she rides her golden queen dragon Ramoth, I'll be right there with her, flying the skies of Pern. That should perk me right up! :-)

So off I go, good reading to you all. As another of my fav authors would write "Wind to thy wings." (Mercedes Lackey)

Daffodils and Wordsworth

I saw daffodils today, which made me think of William Wordsworth, one of my favorite poets. This caused me to do a Google search for his poetry and I stumbled across my favorite poems by this favorite of poets.

I first heard this poem in the TV show Beauty and the Beast. I’m a hopeless romantic so this show was right up my alley. Because of this show, I started writing stories based on the characters (this is known as fan fic) and have had several published. Also because of this show I have looked up more poetry than I can name on my own just because I wanted to read more by poets that were quoted in the show. Without Beauty and the Beast, I would never have found this:

COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, SEPT. 3, 1802
William Wordsworth
EARTH has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill; 10
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

I would never have read it aloud in Oral Interpretation of Literature class, I would never have spoken it to my grandbabies a I held them in my arms and I would have missed out on one of the loveliest poems in all of recorded human history.

So the next time someone tells you that nothing good can come from watching television, think about this. Without television and one little television show that affected my life in so many ways, I’d have missed this poem. You never know where you will find inspiration, don’t throw it away just because it comes from what some call the ‘boob tube.’

To blog or not to Blog

Since on Tuesday’s I don’t have to be on campus until noonish, I generally give myself an extra hour of sleep. That didn’t work so well this morning because I forgot to reset the alarm to Tuesday time. So I got up at my normal 7:30 ish…or whenever I stop shutting off the snooze on the 3 alarms I have set. You see, I sleep like the dead and need those 3 alarms just to have a hope of getting up on time.

So the plan was to get up and do the discussion questions for “Going To Meet The Man.”  I say was because it didn’t happen. I think this is a not so subconscious attempt to avoid the questions because I disliked the story content so much.

So what I did was cruise youtube. I love…adore…geek out…over youtube. You can find everything from music videos (YAY Queen!) to the structural details of DNA to…and this is where I proove my geekdom…videos from past science fiction cons. Yes I am a sci/fi geek. I love all things science fiction, I can do the Vulcan hand greeting (with both hands!) and I love every incarnation of Star Trek (except Nemesis!) What I wound up finding were videos of a talk Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher Trek Next Gen) gave at a con (short for convention).

You’re probably wondering at this point why I’m blogging about this. Well the simple fact is, Wil Wheaton blogs and I’ve read his blogs for about a year now. I find them to be slices of his daily life that give me an insight into the mind of a ‘celebrity.’ They are also very clearly and well crafted in the writing and I’ve decided when my blog grows up, I want it to be like Wil Wheaton’s.

I’m now on campus, waiting for the students I’m to tutor to show up today. Naturally, the first one cancelled and I didn’t think to call in and check, so I have a little extra time on my hands. Did I do the smart thing and bring my American Lit text so I could work on the discussion questions? Of course not…there’s that subconscious at work again.  So instead I decided to do today’s blog and as usual it wanders all over the place. 

So there you have it, I didn’t get the discussion questions done yet, I will, but probably not today. I’ll be on campus from now (noonish) till 9 pm tonight and by the time I get home I’ll probably just stare blindly at whatever my husband has on the tv till he looks at me and says, “go to bed, you’re fried.”  At least I can say I did something for American Lit today, I blogged.  

Weekend Reading

This weekend's reading selections for World Lit II and American Lit II were really hard to handle. I went from reading about concentration camp life in "Ladies and Gentlemen, To The Gas Chamber" (World Lit) to a lynch mob in "Going To Meet The Man" (American Lit). Both were incredibly hard to read and both churned emotions in me I'd really rather not feel.

Literature for me isn't just about reading the words, I go into the story, no matter what story it is. I identify with the characters usually and can feel the emotions they feel. This is a double edged blade, it gives me great insight into what I'm reading, but at the same time, when reading material like this, it hurts.

Both stories were powerfully written with clearly defined characters that grabbed the readers attention, sometimes almost literally by the throat. This might be why if given a choice, I prefer Science Fiction/Fantasy to read in my spare time. I may still ideentify with the characters and feel their pain, but the settings are usually so distant and remote that I can separate myself from the hurt.  I can see why Prof. D. chose to leave this till the end of the semester, if I'd read this at the beginning, I don't think I'd have had the heart to go on with the rest of the semester.

Off to write up the journal postings...won't that be fun? LOL Good reading to you all.

spoken poetry

A friend of mine sent me a youtube link tonight to a poet she wanted me to hear. I'd never heard of Taylor Mali but I'm really glad she sent me the link. He's wonderful! Here is a link to his personal web page:

 http://www.taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=2

and here is a link to one of his poems performed live: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbnQfFaxkno&feature=related

For those sensitive, Mali can be a bit off color at times, but it is always done in a very funny vein. His performance of "The Impotance of Proofreading" is hysterically funny. You can find that on youtube as well here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OonDPGwAyfQ&feature=related

I hope you enjoy. That's all for tonight....dream deeply...ladifrog

Random Thoughts

I was going through my books today and came across my copy of The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. This was such a favorite book when I was a kid that a few years ago I paid $40.00 to get another copy of it. I'd read the pages right out of the one I had as a kid. When I re-read it as an adult, I was overjoyed to find out that the book had lost none of it's charm. I spent a few delightful hours reliving childhood memories  of Robin's adventures. 


This got me thinking about my classmates and what might be your favorite book from childhood. I've always thought our tastes in what we read are influenced by what we read as children. I read practically anything I could get my hands on, so my tastes are very varied. What are your tastes like? What do you like to read best and why? Do you think that has helped you or hindered you in this class?

Rainy days and good books

It's kind of gloomy today, rain coming down in sheets. The perfect time to curl up with a good book. In my case, today is the day I read Kafka's "Metamorphosis" for World Lit II. I go into it thinking I've heard of this but having no idea what the story will be about.

One of my favorite things to do on a day like this is to curl up with a book...any book, and a cup of hot chocolate. The world falls away and I enter the world of whatever I'm reading. It's a magical transportation to another land. I discovered reading in second grade. My teacher Mrs. Kurtz showed me the joy of the written word. She told us with books we could go anywhere, do anything, and be anyone. I've remembered the lessons she taught us all these years. She opened up a new world of posibilities for me. Thank you Mrs. Kurtz wherever you are.

My husband calls my desire for books 'feeding my addiction'...lol...thats what I do when I go to the library or to Barnes and Nobles (which in my opinion is the closest thing to heaven on earth).  I think thats why I want to teach Literature so badly. I want to share the joy I feel about books with others and open up that world of possibilities for them.  Some of my favorite modern authors are Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinline, and Jeffrey Deaver. I've discovered I really like Tolstoy, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner. I can't wait to find out what Kafka is like, so I guess I'd better close this out for now and go read. I'll post more later after I'm done reading. TTFN Ladifrog 

Welcome

Welcome to Ladifrog's Blog. Here I'll blog my journey into literature and the path I'm on to become an English Literature professor.

I graduate from Ivy Tech Community College in 31 days and then I have the summer off. I start at Indiana University South Bend in August and I can't wait. On the way I hope to read some truely wonderful pieces of literature and find the ways they impact me and how I think and feel about things.

Drop me a line and let me know what you think? Have you read anything you'd like to recommend? Are you on the same career path I'm on?