Awards

I got an award last week from the sweet Pen Pen. I feel so honored. Yea me! I'm just feeling so London Tipton. I'm a superior scribler. 

Whew! Who knew? I'm also a rule breaker so as per my rebellious nature, I will not be following the rules for the award. Mwa haha!

I will however pick out the 5 blogs I follow that have helped me most lately. So in no particular order:

1. The Literary Lab

There's always a great discussion going on over there.

2. Tess Hilmo

Tess gives up to the minute advice about working with her agent and submissions, plus she does contests.

3. The Innocent Flower

Michelle is one of the most supportive people on the net encouraging us all to do our best writing and giving us some great tools to do it with.

4. Between Fact and Fiction

I love Natalie's amazing insights. Seeing her writing life helps keep me going.

5. Writing it out

Beth's book reviews and interviews are very helpful and the classroom antics keep me laughing.

If you haven't checked them out yet you should. 

Celebrating!

Happy Birthday to me! I'm taking the day off. Have a great weekend and a happy Mother's Day! I'm looking forward to being really spoiled. Heehee! 

Reminiscing for MLKJ day

This is really going to date me (probably not as much as it should), but I've been thinking about this with a new President being sworn in tomorrow--a black and white mixed President--an integrated President.

When I was little my dad was in the army, so we moved around a bit. I was born in Virginia, then we lived in South Carolina for about a year and then about 2 years in Germany before moving back to SC, where my parents had both grown up, to settle down. Daddy retired from the military, and we were going to stay put. At that point I was 5 and in Kindergarten. I LOVED school. I had 2 years of pre-school under my belt and part of a year of Kindergarten. I was good at it and loved the friends I made there. 

When we moved back to SC my mother registered me for school so I could complete my Kindergarten year and meet some new friends. I was excited. The world was my oyster.

Well, that year was the first year of full integration. (I'm seriously not that old. According to my kids I grew up in the stone age, but really I'm only 43. When I think about it in relation to the civil rights movement, I still can't believe it happened so recently.) It was a tough year, and I was always a sensitive kid. It tore me up. There was so much tension in the classrooms, I would come home from school crying just about every day. The adult anger permeated the seesaws and scissors and paste (yes, we used paste!). I felt strung out at the end of each day. 

It had nothing to do with school. I had never cried being dropped off or picked up at school before. It had nothing to do with the color of anyone's skin. The classes in Germany had been fully integrated schools for the american families, and I had friends of many races. It was all about the fear, the hatred, the rage and discontent of injustice. The parents' attitudes were all over the children.

I had no idea at the time, but I was living through history. 

Mama was beside herself trying to figure out what to do. She wanted to support the integration, but as she watched her confident little girl falling apart everyday, she couldn't stand it. She was a teacher by trade and decided it would be better to teach me at home until things calmed down, so she took me out.  

The next year things were better, and I started first grade in a fully integrated school that had mellowed. My mother taught Kindergarten down the hall, and my confidence with school began to come back. Integration was working. There were still moments of trouble, but we were on our way.

I could never imagine not having my black friends sitting right there learning along with me. I can't imagine not having the black teachers that I adored. I can't even begin to know what they went through, but I'm glad they did. My world is richer because of them. Thanks, Tracy and Cynthia and Althea and Anthony. Thanks, Stephanie and Renne and Greg and Elijah and Calvin. Thanks, Mrs. Burroughs! Thanks, Melissa! I love you, girl! The fact that I could keep on going here for much longer (but I won't to keep this already long post from getting completely out of hand) is a marvelous sign for our country. I can't imagine my life without having these friends along for the ride growing up.  Thank you, Martin Luther King, Jr. 

And now a black President. Our country has come a long way. I'm still living through history. I guess we all are all the time.

10 things about me

I've been tagged several times to do this and my rebellious nature planned to just do my 10 driving pet peeves, but, as I sit here to do it, that seems so negative, and I'm really in a positive state of mind, so... Ten truths it is. 

I'm a study of contrasts with myself.

1) I'm not a morning person, but I love seeing the sun rise.

2) I was more "grown-up" as a teenager than I am as an adult. Then I felt like I was about 30 inside; now I feel like I'm about 15.

3) I love taking pictures, but I can't seem to bring myself to like doing videos.

4) As a kid I always ate all my vegetables. I actually like vegetables, but I don't really care for fixing them, and so I eat fewer vegetables as an adult.

5) I love movies and will watch the ones I love over and over again, except the ones I love that I can't stand to watch over and over. The same with TV shows.

6) I'm pretty conservative and getting a bit up there in age now, but I like to rock, especially with the alternative groups. Give me some Muse, some Paramore, some Hoobastank, some Keane or The Bravery or any of a bunch of others and I'm there. Of course, I like a lot of other stuff that old people like--classical, opera, broadway, country, bluegrass, etc. Actually, my love for music knows few bounds.

7) Ask me to speak if front of a crowd, and I'm cowering in the corner. Ask me to sing, and I start warming up--hardly a nerve on edge anywhere.

8) I would love to read fast so I could read more books, but I can't let myself for fear of missing some incredible turn of phrase or the smallest little event. I get too much joy in the details of the story to pass them by quickly.

9) I'm a bit of a jack of all trades but master of none--a good photographer, singer, painter, writer, teacher, translator, pianist, french speaker, cook, trumpet player, knitter, decorator, etc., but not great.

10) I adore writing, but some days I do everything I can to avoid it. Go figure!

There you have them--just a few of the many contradictions that make up me. Care to share any of yours? I'd love to hear them!