So I've been reading...

I've been reading this winter; it's a fine thing to do when the weather has been as snowy and rainy as it has here. I read Dan Brown's mega-hit "The Davinci Code." Pretty quick read, and very provocative. Our Baptist neighbors refused to read it since they didn't want to be troubled by its blasphemous undertones.

The next book I read was Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet in Heaven." If I say here that I pretty much bawled my way through the second half, would I be saying too much? Probably. But then again, who the hell is reading this, anyway?

I just finished Caleb Carr's "The Alienist." Wow. That was an excellent book. And just on the heels of the national news story regarding the "BTK Killer." It's hard to believe that finding a serial killer would have been so darn hard to do, until I heard that the BTK Killer had been wanted for over twenty or thirty years.

I am now considering picking up "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. We bought it last summer, but I haven't felt like reading it for several reasons, which is funny, because I prefer non-fiction over fiction. And lord knows, I am no fiction writer. I've tried, but it comes out so, so bad. Apparently, Dr. Thompson had this writing problem, too. After living where I live, I have come to believe that truth is so much more interesting than fiction, and a heck of a lot weirder. I'll relate a story, which is true:

An old cowboy that lives here was out rounding up cattle down on the desert one fall when he came across one of several line shacks that had been built for cowboys during roundup. He thought he heard something coming from the shack, so he decided to go over and have a look. When he went inside, there was a little boy, a toddler, and a baby girl in the shack. There were no signs of the parents anywhere. When the cowboy went over to check on the baby, whoever had left her there had thoughtfully super-glued her head to the bed's headboard, so she wouldn't roll off the bed. The cowboy took the kids back into town with him and ended up adopting them. To this day, the girl has a bald spot on her head from when she was finally separated from the headboard.

This is just one of many weird and true stories I've heard and have experienced since moving here. Maybe I'll write more about this place once we move away. There is plenty of fear and loathing in this town, and I would hate to be the object of that anymore than I already am.

Fear & Loathing in Woody Creek

Dr. Thompson has left the planet.

Creeping Jesus. The bats must have been attacking.

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" changed my life. I have never laughed out loud as much as I did reading that book. I read that in mid-stream of college, somewhere around the time I changed majors from music to English. I'm not sure I was consciously aware of the book converting me from a choir geek into a journalist, but looking back now I think that F & L may have had something to do with that decision.

I'm grateful Thompson did what he did. He stomped new terra for a whole generation of journalists and writers, and every once in awhile I glimpse Thompson in somebody's writing style. And I chuckle.

I wonder if he left a suicide note...if he did, it is probably the funniest/saddest damn thing he ever wrote.

Blogging Can Get You in Trouble at Work

ABC News: Blogging Can Get You in Trouble at Work

I'm so glad I own my own business. I am truly free to write what I want, and not live in fear of losing my job. To be honest, I think that reporting this story is to scare people from writing in their blog. I was stunned when I heard it on a radio news break, so I had to go find it out on the web. As a business owner, I can understand why these companies would not want people to read about their business dealings, but as a citizen, I would be opposed to controlling what people did or talked about in their spare time. I suppose that if they actually talked about my business by name, then it would become my business. That I could sort of understand. But the woman getting fired, and not ever mentioning the company's name? I would be calling a lawyer. Quick.

I wonder when one of these stories will end up in court as a violation of First Amendment rights.

My husband just asked what I was doing; I told him, and he fired me. Ha ha.

Scrabble.

Lately I've been sucked into an addiction that I simply cannot overcome. About a month ago, we had our next-door neighbors over for dinner. After dining, I pulled out Scrabble. Everyone wanted to play, and we had so much fun we played another round.

Now, Scrabble has turned into an almost nightly contest. The four of us huddle over the board, shift the letters in the rack, and try to come up with amazing lay-downs or that elusive seven-letter, 50 point word. We'll eat, then out comes Scrabble. Usually, we play three games in a row. My husband is now going to order an official Scrabble Dictionary.

I corrupted us all when I brought out the Scrabble game on that innocent night of dining. We simply cannot stop playing, or looking in the dictionary or thesaurus for that Q word without a U (qat, qaid). My first time to lay down all seven letter tiles occurred last week; the word was "moreover." Great word. Last night, I got to lay down "matrix;" it scored 33 points and it wasn't even on a "triple word score" square. That was a rush.

Well now that I've written about Scrabble, I feel the need to look through the thesaurus to learn some new, obscure words. Scrabble is the healthiest addiction I've ever had, and frankly I'd rather not be cured.