50 things in 2017
Inspired by Austin Kleon’s 100 Things that made my year, just a quick summary of the year as I look forward to 2018. I can already see that we are long overdue for a real vacation, and I need to make it to the movies more often.
- First Day Hike with friends at Bastrop State Park.
- Visiting east Texas for work and going to NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility.
- The Women’s March and The Science March. I loved participating in them, though I didn’t love the circumstances necessitating them.
- Selling my diesel back to VW. Good riddance.
- The 2 year old having this conversation with Dottie the dog: “I lub you Sweetpea. I lub you. [Dottie licks the bongos.] Hey Goddammit Goddammit, you’re eating the drum!“
- Giving my daughter a Hello Kitty sewing machine for her 5th birthday, and watching her learn to use it.
- Selling my mom’s house and going through all the old photos
- Seeing My Neighbor Totoro on the big screen.
- Seeing Irish dancers at Central Market on St. Patrick’s Day
- Making chocolate-dipped strawberries with J.
- Taking a quilt class with Libs Elliot.
- Going to my friend’s monthly craft club at her house with a bunch of ladies.
- Easter at the Sherwood Forest Faire
- Taking a quilt class with Tara Faughnan.
- Visiting the Quilt Museum in La Grange and the fabric store next door.
- Moving my mom into memory care, which was sad but gave me peace of mind.
- Seeing the Pirates of Penzance with J and listening to “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” in the car for months after.
- Buying a FitBit and learning all about sleep patterns and what it takes to get 10,000 steps a day.
- My husband taking our daughter to New Mexico to visit his parents, and being on my own with the 2 year old for a while.
- The fig-splosion in our back yard, necessitating the making of a giant batch of fig jam and, sadly, chopping down the fig tree to get rid of the rats! The fig jam was good though.
- The solar eclipse on August 21, seeing all the shapes of the shadows change.
- Watching Black Books, the Detectorists. B watching Toast.
- Discovering my neighborhood Buy Nothing group, getting some good stuff for free and getting rid of some stuff.
- Starting Shrew and Snail!
- J started Kindergarten, and is loving it!
- Great audiobooks make everything better.
- Going to a bird illustration workshop with Pat Falconer at Art Science Gallery.
- Visiting Bracken Cave on September 19 and seeing millions of bats emerge. The largest bat colony in the world!
- A lot of birthday parties. That’s our social life now. Birthday parties.
- Listening to Celtic music at work, like Flook and Talisk.
- A day trip to the Science Mill in Johnson City with the kids
- Seeing Dylan Moran live
(photo from Wikipedia)
- Cabin camping at Bastrop State Park at the end of October with friends.
- Going to Luby’s on Saturdays. Kids eat free! (And they love Jell-o!)
- Murder on the Orient Express on the big screen.
- The Ornithology print by Liberty fabrics, with images made by Edwyn Collins while he was recovering from a cerebral hemorrhage.
- Thanksgiving walk with my mom at the Houston Arboretum.
- Quitting Twitter.
- Moving the kids into a bunk bed! Then moving the 2 year old to a regular bed! But that’s ok.
- B sleeping better thanks to a CPAP machine!
- Buying my first season tickets to anything ever…. for Ensemble VIII. So good.
- Moving little kid furniture out and setting up J with a mini art studio in her room.
- Thanksgiving weekend brunch showing of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with the best drag queens in Austin.
- Buying a lot of Christmas presents locally, like at Blue Genie, and doing minimal Amazon shopping.
- Volunteering on Thursdays at J’s school library, shelving books and helping 2nd graders check out.
- Staying with friends in Houston at Christmas. Visiting the Houston Zoo on a cold, wet day with zero crowds and getting right next to the gorillas.
- J finally getting a Hatchimal for Christmas and hatching it in the car.
- Spending the last few days of 2017 at home, sewing, cooking, reading, playing, and visiting with friends.
- Finally visiting Austin’s spectacular new Central Library.
- New Year’s Eve day lunch at the revolving sushi place with friends, then watching Uncle Buck at home and going to bed early.
I really like your list. Especially #3, #4, and #24.
Book Review Request
Title: A PLACE CALLED SCHUGARA
(Multicultural/literary fiction; 133,000 words; 520 pages)
Dear Gentleperson,
Since you are addicted to well-written words with meat on the bone, I believe you will like A PLACE CALLED SCHUGARA–a lot.
Here’s what Dr. Richard Hanson, Professor Emeritus (English), University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire
has to say about A PLACE CALLED SCHUGARA:
A PLACE CALLED SHUGARA offers an interesting variety of unusual characters, from
frustrated and unhappy Midwesterners to shrewdly enterprising Caribbean natives
whose colorful patois is entertaining and delightful. Three of those characters–a
jaded academic from Chicago, a desperate factory owner from Ohio, and an
opportunistic insurance investigator from New York–are drawn to a place that
lovingly welcomes the three misfits. None is actively seeking spiritual rebirth as the
story begins and each has his own reason for traveling to the little island, but the
serendipitous result for all three is essentially the same: a renewal of life and spiritual
wholeness among the inhabitants of a loving community that lives in a place called
Schugara. Along with its cast of colorful characters the novel also contains a memorable
blend of rollicking humor and poignant emotion, qualities that will linger in the memory
of every reader.
Published by: Line by Lion Publishing, Louisville, Ky, [NOT a vanity/subsidy/participation press]
Synopsis:
A Place Called Shugara is the story of three Americans who come together on the Caribbean island Mabouhey at a place called Schugara. Travers Landeman, an Ohio businessman, escapes a failing marriage and a failing business. Mourning the suicide of his nephew, he flees to Mabouhey, where he fakes his death. Joe Rogers, owner of The Yellow Harp bookstore in Chicago, leads a group of amateur archeologists to Mabouhey. He finds a pre-Columbian treasure, a jeweled mask dating to the Arawak era. Albert Sidney McNab, a private investigator, is hired by the Atlantis Fidelity Insurance Company to search for Travers. Travers discovers his nephew’s diary, which tells of his nephew’s sexual abuse by his parish priest, Father Art. He feels obligated to return to his former life to bring Father Art to justice. Joe, who has his own axe to grind with the Atlantis Fidelity Insurance Company, persuades Travers that it is better to leave that task to Albert. Albert consents, for the love he has found on Mabouhey, a woman named Esmerelda, matters more than the money he may or may not get from Atlantis Fidelity. Albert, Esmerelda, and the mask go to the United States. Father Art is beaten to death in his jail cell while awaiting trial. As United Nations Ambassador of its newest member nation, the Commonwealth of the Island of Mabouhey, Mrs. Esmerelda McNab has the mask auctioned at Sotheby’s, despite protestors from Columbia University who denounce the sale as “cultural genocide.
Author’s Bio:
Along with William Carlos Williams, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, and Victor Cruz, Joe English is a proud son of Paterson, New Jersey (with one “t.”) He came of age in Mexico City, Mexico. He worked as a ranch hand at the Wild Horn Ranch in Florissant, Colorado. He has a B. A. cum laude from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and an M. A. from Rice University in Houston, Texas. English is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. He has lived for 48 years in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s west side. When Austin resegregated from 100% Caucasian to 95+% African-American in 1970-71, English was one of a handful of residents who cast down their buckets with their new neighbors. As a minority in a majority minority community, he has a unique perspective on the state of urban America. English was featured in a 60 Minutes broadcast as a first hand witness to neighborhood resegregation in Chicago. He was a professor at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, for sixteen years. He founded Oak Park Real Estate in 1984, which provided decent, safe, and affordable housing, primarily in the Austin neighborhood. At its peak, Oak Park Real Estate managed 900 residential apartments. He still maintains a residence in Austin but now spends much of his time in Sosua, Dominican Republic, founded by Jewish refugees in the late 1930’s who were fleeing Hitler’s tyranny. “I live in two soulful places,” English says. “I am doubly blessed.” English’s writings have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Reader and Co-Existence, the literary journal which featured the works of Henry Miller. His most recent publication, the short story Mrs. Padgett’s Pearls, was selected by Zimbell House Publishing for the anthology After Effects.
Please view SCHUGARA’s website: http://sites.google.com/view/schugara
or schugara.com
Please let me know if I may send you a copy (paperback or electronic file) for your review consideration.
Maximum respect,
Joe Englishly