An Author in the Family

Hey Everyone,

I know I haven't updated in a while but I have some exciting news to share! I want to let you know that my mother's writing has recently been published in Story Circle Network's True Words Anthology (6/08). Copies of the anthology are $5.00 and can be ordered here.
Awesome!

The Peasant Blog

Check out The Peasant Blog! It is the latest blog that I contribute to and the link is under my favorites section! Here's a hint: look for the entries posted by "poorlittlegirl". hehe.

Interesting stuff!

A Birthday Surprise

Today was the birthday party of one of my favorite people in the world: Jack. Jack and I have been going to the same church for 16 years. The picture of us on the left was taken 14 years ago, in the old church building.

About a month ago, I was thinking about Jack and it seemed like I had not seen him in a long time. I asked my mother if he came to church anymore. She said, "He comes every week but he sits in the back and leaves at 12:15."

The next Sunday I made it a point to find him and sure enough, he was there. I made my way over to him, but I had to wait in line because he is quite popular. When my turn came, he said, "Saved the best for last!" and gave me a hug.

Later that week, I found out that since his birthday was coming up, we were having a birthday party for him after church. When Sunday rolled around, I showed up at church but the party had been canceled because Jack had been admitted to the hospital the night before. Our Pastor said that we could send a card to Jack's house. However, my sister and I didn't think that was good enough.

After doing a little research, we decided to go look for Jack. We thought that the hospital nearest to his house would be a good bet. My sister got out her Sidekick and googled for directions. We set out to find him.

When we got to the hospital, our first objective was to find the visitor parking lot. One problem. There was a $2 fee in order to park there! The hospital also offered valet parking! (What kind of hospital has valet parking? What is the purpose of that???) Anyway, we turned around and parked in the neighborhood. We walked a few blocks to the building, washed our hands, and went to the information desk where we sheepishly interrupted the clerk who was flirting with a security guard. "Um, we're looking for Jack M.," I said and spelled out the last name. To our surprise, she replied with a room number and directed us to the elevators. Success!

We found his room and boy was he surprised to see us! His daughter and nieces were with him and we told everyone that since he could not be at church, we were bringing the party to him! We spent the afternoon chatting with them while they waited to hear from the doctor.

As we were leaving, my sister said "He's got to be about my favorite person in the world."

Today at his rescheduled birthday party, he was looking vibrant and in good spirits. As we walked into the fellowship hall, we saw a wall full of awards that he had received throughout his life, including one for being "Indispensable". That pretty much says it all.

Happy Birthday, Jack.

Interpret This!

This may seem weird, but I very rarely dream when I sleep at night. Last night was an exception though, because I had a very strange dream. Maybe I should preface this by letting you know that I do loans for a living and also that I have a secret obsession with following celebrity gossip.

Ok.

So in my dream Chris Brown, the famous singer came to talk to me. He wanted to get a loan for some reason, so we were discussing his options. Well, the whole time we were talking, he was on the phone with Rihanna (also a famous singer). He asked her to hang on the line while he was "taking care of some business." And so the whole time we were talking, he let her just wait because he couldn't bear to hang up and call her back. He wanted to feel like she was there, nearby to him, because they were so in love.

Huh?

Can anyone tell me what this means?

Life

Ahhh, life...
It's good to be alive, isn't it?
My mom used to tell me, "Where there's life, there's hope."
We never really know what's going to happen in life, but as long as we keep going, there's always hope that things will turn out ok. And usually, it's in ways that we could never foresee.

Life happens, stuff happens, things change, we change.
The biggest lie is the feeling that we are alone in our situation. We aren't.
The biggest lie is the feeling that things are always going to be this way. They aren't.
Life is not perfect, it's not supposed to be.
If challenges never came to us, would we have opportunity to grow?

At about the same time that my mom was diagnosed with cancer, there seemed to be all these specials on television about people who were over 100 years old and still living. I could hardly watch, all I could think was, "How did they get so lucky?" and, "Why am I sitting here watching a bunch of old people?" =)

My mom was less than half that age at the time. Although she had always told me that life isn't fair, this was the biggest example that I had experienced. Everything else that I had ever complained about seemed so small, so trivial, in comparison.

It's been a year and my mom is well. Life gets back to 'normal', but it's a different kind of normal than before. And it's full of hope.

Ahhh, life...
It's good to be alive, isn't it?

a happy new year's coping mechanisms

Ha! So I just found this picture on the internet. This was for last year's Christmas pageant (December 2006). My sister is the model in blue and I made the costume that she is wearing. The pink kimono was made by my mother and it was really cool. We had a lot of fun (as we do every year), and each year it seems to get better and better.

That particular year, I remember being especially excited to participate because I had more responsibilities and I got to do something that I like (making something with my hands).

When I get restless or when life comes along with scenarios that are so difficult to handle, mainly because they are out of my control, I find myself starting little projects. It's a coping mechanism, I guess.

Anyway, that particular year it was especially important to be distracted from what was going on around me. This photo was taken probably a week after my mom's diagnosis. I remember getting home from work one random day and my mom asking me to sit down at the kitchen table...and then the day became not so random.

I was really glad to have something that I had to concentrate on at that point. I mean, it's really hard to worry when you are singing Silent Night (which by the way, is what I am doing in this photo). Try it and see =)

Adventures in MySpace

My latest experiment is a foray into the world of MySpace. I swore that I would never get a MySpace because something about it bothers me. I just don't really like it that much.

These uneasy feelings probably started when I found out that I already had a MySpace page, courtesy of a prank pulled by my brother's friends. Apparently, they snuck into my room while I was on vacation, stole a photo of me, scanned it and put it up along with a background full of pink hearts. If that wasn't bad enough, they proceeded to post comments from "me" to them about how they're so cool.

So I know you're probably thinking "who does that? that is so lame!" Yeah, I know. Nevertheless, I decided to give MySpace one more try. This time my "official" page can be found at http://www.myspace.com/amemoryleak.

P.S. I still don't need MySpace in order to meet people.