What are your favourite final sentences from books? Is there a book that you liked specially because of its last sentence? Or a book, perhaps that you didn’t like but still remember simply because of the last line?

Here I am attempting to get back in the swing of BTT. I’ve discovered that when I participate, I read, and when I don’t, then I don’t. Said but true. Which is why I am participating this week even though I don’t have a real strong answer to this question.

My favorite final sentences are the last two verses in Revelation, because they point directly to a my future with the King. They say:

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! 21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

I don’t remember any other last lines. There have been books I didn’t like because of how they ended, but it was more the last few paragraphs, and I can’t remember any specific ones.

I know, I suck today, but I tried.

Really I do. I know that slavery was not a good thing, and that blacks negroes African-Americans were oppressed for a very long time at the merciless hands of rich white men. But I don’t know any slaves and I am not a rich white man, so I was a little aggravated when I read that the House wants to issue an a blanket apology for slavery and Jim Crow. But only to black people. No mention is made of those whites who can trace their ancestry back to slaves.

These parts particularly gripe me:

“African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow — long after both systems were formally abolished — through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity and liberty, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and opportunity,” the resolution states.

The resolution does not address the controversial issue of reparations. Some members of the African-American community have called on lawmakers to give cash payments or other financial benefits to descendents of slaves as compensation for the suffering caused by slavery.

The past is the past. Money can’t change it, the best we can do is learn from it and move on. White men have been punished enough for things they had no part of; every time a qualified white man is passed over so a marginally qualified woman or African-American can have the job, he’s being punished for what his great-grand-daddy might have done.

Also, where is my cash payment for being born to a working class white family? I really should have had more opportunities, don’t you think? Surely, someone somewhere owes me because my parents were working hard to put food on the table and pay taxes and couldn’t afford band and dance lessons.

Wow. You know, if you spend any time at all watching the news, it sounds like a dog eat dog world out there, where no one ever helps anyone else. personally, I don’t watch the news very often for that very reason. Well, that and the fact that what I hear about Iraq is completely the opposite of what I hear from those who have actually served over there. But I digress, and we’ll have to talk about that another day.

Fortunately, the world is in much better shape that the newscasters would have us believe, and here is an example. One of the members over at the Immortality Institute has been diagnosed with cancer. Now, that’s a bad thing, and it’s a pretty serious bad thing, as I am sure you know. But here’s the deal–his online friends are coming together to help him buy the supplememts that he thinks will save his life! You can read about it on the resveratrol forum.

Now, I don’t want to debate the ideology of these folks, or even alternative medicine. I just want to point out that some people some where are still doing the right thing just because it is the right thing to do. Brian, Charles and Katie ought to talk about stuff like this a little more and murder and mayhem a little less. Just sayin’

I mention my TBR pile often enough, but when I say that, i just mean the pile on my desk. In truth, I have a secondary pile, and it used to sit behind/beside me, looking like this:

Last week, I pulled out and organized my craft stuff and committed to working through them, and yesterday, I decided that that huge pile of secondary TBR’s could join that stack, and I would let them be part of that commitment. Accordingly, they are in a box over there on the craft bin, and I’ll be reading them over the next…however long it takes.

Now the shelf beside me holds my school manuals, and this pile of immediate reads/things to be reviewed.

That means my TBR pile no longer resides on my desk. That means I actually have room to work up here. Open a book. You know, desk type things. Yeah. Get on up out of the floor, now!

What’s your favorite thing to do on a rainy day? Are you a window person or an aisle person? Why?

There are three questions this week, but I am only planning to answer these two. I’m allowed to pick and choose, right? Right!

On rainy days, I love to lounge about and read. Followed by a nap. Followed by a grilled cheese sandwich with cream of mushroom soup. Followed by more lounging and reading. All without the tv or radio. This never happens anymore, but it’s still my favorite. Well, my second favorite. The first involves my husband and blushing a lot.

On the plane, I don’t much care. I generally read or craft or nap. If I am on te window, I get to look out, if I am on the aisle I get to nurture a vain hope of getting off the plane sooner. It’s a lie, but I believe it every time.

Not me. Actually, I am buzzing around this morning kicking butt and taking names. It’s a good day, LOL. But the other day, my sweet husband, who has been doing field service for many, many years looked at me and said “I’m tired. I never thought I would say it, but I am tired of driving around, tired of the road, and I am ready for a simple job that I can go to one place, put in my time and then come home.” Truly, I never thought he’d say that either. But he did, and he’s putting in applications to that end. Of course, that’s going to change our financial situation yet again. With the price of gas, which we are paying mostly out-of-pocket, I am not sure if it’s going to be better or worse, but in any case, it’s time to get our financial ducks in a row. His friends are beginning to retire, and I’m thinking he’s probably going to want to do the same sooner rather than later.

Anyway, I took a financial test online, and it wasn’t pretty. We aren’t needing Debt consolidation or Debt relief so much as we are needing to plan for the future. And the future just got a lot closer than I thought it was with his announcement last week. And because he is older than I am by quite a bit, we will not be retiring together, so I am also needing to look at finances over an even longer period to make sure that when I am ready to retire, I have what I need to avoid a financial crisis. The cold hard truth is that I will most likely spend the bulk of my retirement years without my husband. If I need Debt help, I’ll have to rely on my children, and I don’t want to have to do that. Nor do I particularly want to be thinking about this prospect at 41. It certainly seemed a lot further away at 25 than it does today. Today, it’s a little bit scary, and I am trying to squeeze all I can from every precious day.

Looking good so far

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me-ee-ee-ee-ee, Happy Birthday to me!
Yes, I made the sweater. Yes I made the necklace. Yes, I bring a whole new meaning to the term “Crafty B—”

If you came by Sunday, you saw that my self portrait was actually taken by someone else last week. That someone was Deb’s son, and the picture was made on the pedestrian bridge at Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach. I’d been excited to see Deb since she told me her vacation plans would bring her to the area, and we had great fun chatting and strolling through the shops. We went through the Mirror Maze and then we ate at Preston’s.

The third person in the picture is my mom, but I think most of you knew that. I blog about her pretty often, mostly in passing. We always have a good time together.

Deb and I also went in Black Market Minerals. This turned out to be a deliciously painful experience that will cost me a bunch of money because I am now a bead ho. That’s mostly all I will say about that on this blog, because beading is a hobby and I blog about hobbies on my craft blog. I will just take a moment to refer you to my crack dealer enabler.

Mama and I also stopped by a new-to-us yarn store, but it was closed. All of this wishful shopping led to a second trip on Friday. That trip needs about 48 posts of it’s own, but it won’t get that many, and I am not sure exactly where they will appear. I will say that it included yarn and beads and shoes. You were just waiting for me to say shoes weren’t you?