More About Valentine's Day...

...from a writer with passion.

One of my new favorite authors, Catherynne Valente, has a great blog about the holiday today. You can find it here: On Valentine's Day.

To the people who complain about Valentine's Day, she says:
"Life slips by so very fast. Spend it in the practice of joy, not the destruction of it."

I found this writer through my Kindle. I downloaded her book, Palimpsest, mostly out of curiosity about the name. What a treat, at least for a word junkie like me. ("word" meaning "vocabulary" NOT "Word" as in the evil spread by Microsoft).

Happy VD, Everyone

Next to Broderick Crawford Day, my favorite thing to wish everyone is Happy Valentine's Day.

So far, I’ve received no cards, no flowers, no hugs. There have only been 6 guys here this morning, though, and the day isn’t over yet.

Once they’re past kindergarten and their teacher isn’t forcing them to make valentines, the only time guys give them is when they have a guilty conscience. Or because they’re one of the 10 percent that is truly a peach.

Where I work, we spend a lot of time worrying about how to make sure ALL students can read by the end of third grade. I personally think it would help guys succeed more if we could make sure they ALL understood the importance of Valentine’s Day.

What a Party!

The internet has changed our lives, sometimes in the weirdest ways.

Have you been to a social gathering yet where everyone already knows what everyone else has been up to? What their grandkids look like, who has graduated from school, who went where on a vacation?

Through blogs and Facebook, these things are easier to follow. It certainly changes the conversation patterns. No one asks, “So what have you been doing?” No one is surprised that you’ve gained or lost weight or that your hair is a different color. People you’ve never met already know your opinion. And people who have never met each other in person know each other through their comments on your blog or Facebook page.

Friday night I went to the opening night of Katherine’s art show in Lodi. Among all the people, there were a dozen friends we have in common, a very motley bunch of people. Some I hadn’t seen for several years. It was like a patchwork quilt, made up of different pieces but all held together by the common thread of the internet.

I’m accustomed to more specialized groups: work people, community groups, hobby groups. The conversation topics in those groups are usually limited to everyone's shared concerns. But Friday night there was such a variety. Chicken shows, trail riding, dog training, 4-H, bellydancing, art appreciation, just to name a few.

I like this!

Call Them English!

My adopted uncle Bernard answered my question about what to call residents of his country very well. Read his blog. You can click on it in the column to the right of this one.

I guess I can understand the economic reasons why the EU was formed in this global age (though I wonder if those goals have been met), but it boggles my mind that anyone would try to create a homogeneous "European" society out of countries that have had their own identity for centuries.

Yes, the United States is made up of separate states, but even the original few were never really separate nations, they were colonies. Sure, Alabama is like a foreign country, but the rest are not so different and share more common history than separate.

The EU seems more like the old Soviet Union to me, even though the EU was formed more democratically. The USSR was a collection of smaller nations, each with racial and social differences that had existed for centuries. And being "Soviet" didn't change that, those countries regained their own identities quickly when the union disintegrated. Some with a vengeance that had simmered for years.

I doubt England can be changed just by calling it something else.

Margaret and Helen

I really appreciate good writing. Maybe that comes from being a typographer for over 30 years; or maybe I became a typographer because I love words. Whatever.

I read blogs for a number of reasons. Some are written by friends or relatives and that's how I keep in touch with those people. Some are professional, for example a blog about Photoshop that tells me how to improve my digital photography. There are a few blogs I read every day that satisfy my taste for good writing. Most of those, interestingly, are from Great Britain. Part of the attraction with the British blogs is the little differences in the language we share. Part is that the writers and their topics are enjoyable. I especially appreciate the photos of the English countryside. They show that you CAN be civilized and still maintain nature's beauty. In the U.S. we have such a slash-and-burn way of doing things, it's really not much different than the things we criticize Brazilians and Sumatrans for doing.

I only follow one political blog. While I have very strong opinions about some topics, my positions don't consistently align with any political party. I really, really do not like the political atmosphere in the United States right now, though. This blog's commentary today says what I'm thinking, only in words I could never write. Check out Margaret and Helen.

I don't for a minute think that Margaret and Helen are really old ladies. Do you?

.....
By the way, could someone from across the ocean tell me when I'm supposed to use these terms? Great Britain, England, British, English. In my mind Great Britain is everything on your island and England excludes Scotland and maybe other areas? Mostly I just avoid the terms, though, because I'm not sure how to use them properly.

Hi there, Lexi!

Newest family member, Lexi Ray, waves “hello” to everyone.

Welcome to the family Lexi Ray. My youngest cousin, Libby, and her husband Paul, shown here in the hospital with a friend, are proud parents of a new baby girl, born January 29. She was 7 lbs 1 oz, 19-1/2 inches long.


“OK” she says to Grandma Sharon, “enough pictures already.”


Not much chance of that, you probably won’t see Sharon without a camera in her hand for at least a year.

Congratulations everyone!

More Fond Farewells

Two more of my work compatriots left in January. This is Elizabeth and Terri.

Elizabeth left to be home with her two young children. One of the many nice things about working with teachers is that they truly appreciate children, and most especially their own. The folks I work with are great parents and grandparents.

Thinking back to how much fun we had when Bob was in preschool days, I know Elizabeth is going to have some enjoyable years ahead.

Terri’s youngest is a senior in college and she’s retiring. She said her years working for our reading program were the pinnacle of her career. Many of us feel the same way about those last 10 years and hope the gains we made aren’t lost in the financial confusion that is affecting education in California right now..

Elizabeth was the writer I worked with for two years, throughout our project from hell.


I already miss her.