Wedding time in Dallas

/ Juliana Lightle / 2 Comments

Today I drove down to Dallas with my daughter and grandson for the wedding of a dear friend’s son–well, actually he is a dear friend as well.  We have known him since he was a little  red headed kid and my daughter was a teenager.  We are at the Palomar Hotel across from Southern Methodist University.  We arrived around one and checked in early.  They brought my grandson a tall vase with multicolored crystal balls in the bottom and a pale coral goldfish swimming happily around.   Next, we headed across the street for lunch and a bit of shopping.  Lunch was lovely, sitting outside under the biggest group of wisteria vines I have ever seen. Although most of the shops were familiar ones from home, we found a West Elm and several other stores we had never seen before.

The rest of this post will have to wait until after the wedding.  At the moment I am disgusted with myself for not bringing a camera.  Maybe I can talk my grandson into taking his iPAD  mini to take photos but I rather doubt.  The wedding is at 7 maybe ten minutes down Mockingbird Lane in Highland Park, an older, elegant, exclusive area filled with big trees.

 

Five hours later:  Found the church but goofed and went in the back entrance.  A security guard escorted us through the maze to the chapel.  It was fun to see people I had not seen in years!!!  The service was simple and both funny and serious.  A few weeks ago, the pastor had asked the couple to write down the things they loved about each other.  To their surprise he read those things today.  When she heard them, my daughter both laughed and cried.  After the ceremony we drove to Aldridge House, an older mansion in an area of tree lined streets and mansions.  Instead of signing the usual guest registry, everyone was asked to sign one of the five bottles of unopened champagne.  On each of the next five anniversaries, the couple will open one of them.  Limitedless appetizers, wine, beer, infused water, roasted vegetables, beef and chicken–I lost tract of all the food options.  And, of course, finally wedding cake.

Now we are back at the hotel, relaxing, and settling in for the evening.  There is nothing quite like a happy wedding celebration.

The WT Swimming Pool, Stereotypes, and Africa

/ Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

This afternoon I took three children aged eight and ten to the WTAMU (a local university) swimming pool, found myself a comfortable chair, opened my book, and proceeded to read.  When I looked up I saw this:

“This isn’t a democracy anymore.

It’s a Ricktatorship.”

These words boldly stood out in white on a black T-shirt.  For those not from Texas, the Rick to whom the statement refers is the governor of Texas where I live.  Between the two sentences was a photo of a cop with a gun pointed directly at me, the reader of the quotation.  Looking at the woman, young, unkept, no makeup, pimpled, overweight, I never would have expected her to adorn herself with this particular shirt especially in this intensely Republican part of Texas.  Then it hit me; I was stereotyping. I felt a bit horrified with myself.  How can you tell by the appearance of a person whether they are liberal, moderate, or conservative.  You can’t.

 

I went back to reading which was perhaps a mistake.  When it first became a rather famous book, I purchased Say You’re One Of Them by Uwem Akpan, a Nigerian writer-he is originally from Nigeria.  It contains five stories some quite short and some of novella length.  Why has it taken me so very long to get through this book?  These are not stories one can sit down and casually read.  This volume of searing, well written stories tells of immense horrors. The settings of the stories include various countries in West Africa, including Nigeria, and Rwanda, Kenya, and Ethiopia.  Today, I finally got around to reading the story from which the book gets its title.  Now I wonder how I can sleep tonight.  All the stories describe the lives of individuals brutalized by war, modern slavery, and ethnic and religious hatred.  All the stories are from the viewpoint of a child, the oldest of whom is sixteen.  Today’s story, the longest in the book, takes place in modern times in Nigeria.  If you do not already have some inkling as to Nigerian politics, the whys and wherefores of Boka Haram, the violence in the oil fields in the south, and the intensity of the rivalries and hatreds among the various tribal factions and Muslims and Christians, this story will both enlighten and horrify you.  The sixteen year old young man in the story is fleeing the north with many other refugees.  Although he is Muslim, his Muslim friends turn against him even though he had his hand chopped off for stealing a goat.  They think he is too moderate and does not hate Christians sufficiently.  The Christians with whom he is a refugee turn against him because he is Muslim.  His story is not uncommon.  Look at Syria, Iraq, the Congo.  The rest of the world needs to know.  Hatred and violence can occur anywhere.  What happens in a distant corner of our planet affects each and every one of us.

Mechanic Leigh Print Version on Amazon

/ Juliana Lightle / 1 Comment

Eric Alagan writes wonder blog posts and has this new book out. I encourage you to take a look at this one and his other books as well.

Eric Alagan's avatarWritten Words Never Die

I’m happy to announce that Mechanic Leigh, paperback, is now available from Amazon. Please click on image for Amazon USA:

Mechanic Leigh full cover_JPEG

Click here for Amazon UK

The back cover contains eight (8) comments, a small selection from the many supporters of Mechanic Leigh. I reproduce these comments below:

I enjoy your Mechanic Leigh stories. The info on Singapore, the language and the cultural info wrapped in a clever and enjoyable prose – Stephen Baum, California, USA

Loved it as it took me back to my evil teen years – Ian Grice, Queensland, Australia

This whole saga of Mechanic Leigh is so beautifully written – Soma Mukherjee, New Delhi, India

I really enjoyed these Mechanic Leigh stories – Melissa Perera, Maryland, USA

Eric is a living testimony to the belief that if we write from the heart, we will touch other hearts – Jane Thorne, Buckinghamshire, UK

The characters are funny and…

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I can’t believe it is almost 11

/ Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

Today I went to a workshop on how to incorporate special lessons into the regular curriculum to add enrichment for gifted and talented children.  The materials were good.  I will use them, but think most would be fine for everyone.  Years ago when I taught English I never told the students, but I taught them all more or less as if it were an Advanced Placement class.  This strategy resulted in high test scores on the state test.  Everyone complains about teaching to the test.  If you teach well, students will do well.

It’s late; this day went by way too fast and here I am blogging and still need to grind coffee for morning among a few other things.  Three kids,including my grandson, are spending the night.  They have the iMAC on, the TV on, and are drawing, all at the same time.  They are 8 and 10.

In the midst of all this activity, I came across the following information:

-The Sacramento River is so low salmon smolts cannot make it to the sea so the state is transporting them in trucks.

-Three-fourths of the US corn crop is bioengineered to include  genes from the natural toxin Bt to make it resistant to corn rootworms, which are now becoming resistant to Bt.

-Lake Mead–the water supply for Las Vegas–is so low they are going to have to move the intake pipes.

-One-third of the natural gas produced in North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation is burned off and lost.  The flares from this can be seen in space and produces greenhouse gases equivalent to one million cars.

-Atmospheric carbon dioxide is the highest it has been in at least 800,000 years. s

-Solar power in Italy and Germany is now as cheap as power from fossil fuels.

-At night rangers close the roads through northern California’s parks to prevent poachers from cutting the valuable burls out of the redwoods with chain saws.

-The use of public transportation in the US is at a 57 year high.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This and that

/ Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

This evening a good friend took my daughter, grandson, and me out for a totally lovely dinner.  We talked about light stuff and serious things too, e.g. discrimination against people who are not white, gays, people who are “different”.  We also laughed and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  My friend also showed my daughter around his older home which he has totally transformed.  My daughter lives in an older house as well, a house at least 90 years old.

It’s late, I’ve accomplished a lot of little clean up things today and tomorrow I must get up early and go to this “gifted and talented” class for work.  Yes, sometimes teachers have to work in the summer.  Today, I went to the pharmacy to check on their drug supply–in three weeks I will be in Ethiopia and I want to make sure I have the needed vaccinations and such.  I already have my yellow fever shot–required to get in the country, but my doctor and nurse daughter think I need a couple of other things for safety first.  I picked up my malaria pills as well.

When I came home, I opened the windows–the air conditioning was on when I left.  I always turn it off at night and open the windows because I love, absolutely love summer nights.  The soft wind flows over ones body while sleeping and just simply lulls and lulls and lulls.  Love it.

Earlier today I found a few quotes I wrote down on scraps of paper, quotes that spoke to me so here they are:

 

-“Meditate.  Live purely.  Be quiet.  Do your work with mastery.  Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds.”  Buddha

 

-“When your mind is already made up, facts seem to not matter.”  Do not know who said this one.

 

And then this piece of sad news:  in the US veterans make up only 1% of the population, but 20% of the suicides.

My observation:  war is good for no one.

 

Bedtime it seems.  Happy dreams!!

 

Getting rid of junk mail

/ Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

The amount of junk mail seems to endlessly increase.  Once recycling ceased here for all practical purposes, I became a bit distressed and somewhat obsessed about what to do with all this useless paper.  It took me more time than I planned to discover where and how (hopefully) to at least get rid of some of this useless mail.  Now that I have done all this opting out, they claim I may have to wait several months before the junk mail quits showing up.  I will let you know what happens.

In the meantime if you want to try this for yourself and you live in the US here are some options:

-To remove your name from all catalog mailing lists, email optout@abacus-us.com and give them your name and mailing information.  You will receive a return email explaining that this will opt you out of all catalogs.

-To remove your name from only certain catalogs you do not want to receive, go to catalogchoice.org.  You will have to create an account and can unsubscribe to those catalogs you specifically do not want to receive.

-To opt out of other types of junk mail, you go to http://www.dmachoice.org.  They provide various choices for different types of junk mail you wish to quit receiving.

After doing all this, I decided to take a little hike in the new land of green in which I reside.  I discovered a tree, which I thought the drought killed, slowly leafing out–a rather strange sight in June.  Usually, this occurs a month to six weeks before.  Black foot daisies are blooming everywhere, their small snowy faces showing up boldly in the emerald grass sea.  When I opened the gate to let Rosie out to graze–finally there is enough grass to let her out, she ran and ran and ran and bucked.  Nothing is more glorious than a happy, running horse.  The prickly pear are near the bloom stage and some other cacti are starting to bud magenta blossoms.  When they come out, I will take photos to share.

 

 

 

Rosie

 

Rosie–photo taken by my friend, the photographer, Anabel McMillen.

Is my book really that racy??

/ Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

Today, my ten year old grandson and I worked at the gift shop at a nearby state park.  We worked the 1-5 afternoon shift.  At first it was quite busy and the main attraction was the Native American made jewelry.  We do show a fabulous collection with some unique pieces.  One woman bought more than 500 dollars worth.  It is difficult to work there in respect to the books and the jewelry–we have a LOT of both.  We are all volunteers, we get a discount but do not get paid.  So much to want!!

Two members of the organization which supports the gift shop have their books on display in the shop for sale.  Over a month ago, I left my most recent book of poetry (see the side bar for the cover and yes, you can buy it from this site or Amazon) for the manager to read.  I have known the manager for years.  In fact he painted (he is an artist as well and Native American himself) the corn plant on my wall next to where I am writing this.  I thought probably since the others sold their books there, I could do the same.  I realized that one of the books is a collection of poetry specifically about Palo Duro Canyon so it “belongs” there.  However, the other one has absolutely nothing to do with the Canyon.  When I saw the manger, I asked him what he thought about the book and the store selling it.  He seemed a bit astounded that I had written it and commented that I certainly had a lot of talent.  He had taken the book home and it was not at the store.  However, when I asked about selling it there, he said he was working on it.  Apparently, and in some ways not totally to my surprise, he is afraid some of the other members would find it too shocking, too racy.  Really?!  Maybe I should have encouraged one of the blurb writers to say something racy, maybe I should advertise differently.  Racy sells more books.

Lazy Day and Dinner

/ Juliana Lightle / 1 Comment

Cool and cloudy reigned today.  Now tornado warnings west of here glide across the TV screen I’ve turned on mute.  About now, the severe thunderstorms are supposed to start.  A repeat of yesterday when I took these photos from my patio.

 

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Fed Rosie earlier to beat the predicted storm, swept the dirt and little rocks from yesterday’s storm off the drive, and strolled around to get some exercise.  After several hectic days of no cooking, decided to cook something vegetarian.

1 medium sized purple onion coarsely chopped

6 medium brussels sprouts cut in half

1/2 large red bell pepper coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon chana masala (East Indian spice)

1 teaspoon berbere (Ethiopian spice)

Olive oil

Pour enough olive oil in 8-10 inch skillet to cover the bottom.  Saute the onions in the oil until translucent.  Add the brussels sprouts and spices.  Stir and cook until the brussels sprouts are cooked but still crisp.  Add the red pepper and sauté.  Do not over cook.  Serve over Jasmine rice.

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Not quite ready but almost.

 

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Berbere on left sent from Ethiopia by my friend’s mother.

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Jasmine rice ready to serve.  Here is how I cook the rice:

Pour enough olive oil in the bottom of the saucepan to barely cover it.  Add 1 heaping tsp. finely chopped garlic and briefly sauté.  Add one cup rice (here I used white but sometimes I mix red, black and white evenly) and sauté a little bit more.  Add two cups water and 1 tsp. vegetarian bouillon (I prefer Better Than Bouillon).  Stir and cover with several paper towels or one thick tea towel.  Place lid on top and turn down to low.  Cook 1/2 hour if using only white rice.  Other rice requires double the time.

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The finished product ready to eat.

 

Now I am going back to reading while awaiting the lightning and thunder.  About 1/3 way through a light but entertaining read:  “Coyote Cowgirl” by Kim Antieau.

 

A New Day

/ Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

Guessing today’s post will be written in pieces.  It is now 11:55 in the morning and this is at least a start.  Yesterday, a friend posted this on Facebook.  Its message appealed to me so much that I downloaded it because I wanted to post it here:

 

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A lot of young people and even older ones seem to struggle to discover who they are, what they stand for, their life’s purpose or even if they have one.  Not me.  Somehow, in spite of struggles as to the best way to express it, I always knew. In some ways, I think I owe this knowledge to my parents who always accepted and encouraged ME to be ME.  In fact, my current work relates closely to what I said I wanted to be when I was in high school:  a college professor, actually a philosophy professor.  I teach high school now.  Yes, about my third career or maybe even fourth, but my first real one was a college administrator.  When I received my BA in English first in my class, my professors tried to talk me into going to grad school in literature.  At that time, English professors were the proverbial a dime a dozen so I went to grad school and studied higher education administration.  Later, I almost went to law school–was accepted at several good ones, but grad school gave me money so I did that.  If I had to do it over?  I would go to law school.  I would have made a great kick butt lawyer because I don’t give a damn what people think except for one thing.  I do not want others to think I’m stupid, but that never occurs so I need not worry.  Regardless, I feel happy with my life and my work, really happy.

12:25 am Guess it is technically tomorrow.  About fifteen minutes ago, I returned home from a party at the house of my friend from Ethiopia.  Guests included many Ethiopians and also a number of people born here and lots of Ethiopian food.  Since I am going there in less than a month, I will then be providing more reports on food, including my experiences in learning how to make some of it.

I had to run in the rain to get to my vehicle when I left their house.  Running in the rain is not a common experience here.  Weather has gone from drought to day after day of rain.  Apparently, a part of my house thinks it is too much because I found a small lake in part of my bedroom when I returned home.  Therefore, instead of hopping into bed, I have been mopping up water.  Now I am waiting on five bath towels to go through the spin cycle so I can mop some more.  Repairmen are going to have fun trying to locate the leak.  My guess is it not where one might think.  Oh, the joys of home ownership.

Mop time.

What day is it?

/ Juliana Lightle / 2 Comments

Probably only school teachers and students will relate, but since school was out a couple of days ago, I have to really think to know what day it is.  You would think I could remember because today is a busy day and last night’s sleep was interrupted by lightning, tornadoes, crashing rain, and hail.  Tonight they predict more of the same.  I live out in the country; I cannot hear the tornado sirens going off.  About 1:30 am, my daughter calls from her basement in town.  The tornado sirens had gone off and she and my grandson had gone to the basement. Honestly, hail worries me more than the threat of  a tornado because hail is relatively common here.  Little hail won’t destroy my steel roof or break the numerous banks of windows in my house, but large hail…I don’t want to even think about it, especially since the company from which I bought all these windows went bankrupt.

It’s humid, really humid.  We here in semiarid country are not used to humid.  Feels like you cannot quite ever get dry.  Clouds come and go and I am guessing tonight will be a repeat of last night.  I do not need a weather forecaster to tell me that.  But it’s green, really green, emerald green, an infrequent site here too much of the time.  At least, I won’t have to worry bout wildfires like I did two weeks ago.

My daughter was called in to work–she’s a nurse, my grandson is eating a grilled cheese sandwich–I use artisan bread and cook it in olive oil.  Gives grilled cheese a whole new meaning.  In two hours we will go to friend’s house to visit with her dad who arrived from Mexico for a vacation.  I will have to use my Spanish; he speaks no English.  Last night he called me on the phone.  He talks fast and I am a bit lost.  It’s easier in person.  Then we will pick up my grandson’s older brother, we will take grandson to soccer practice, take him home and finally older brother and I will be off to a concert we know nothing about (an adventure) and to Art Walk.  Art Walk occurs the first Friday evening every month.  You would think I would remember what day it is.