I love music. I bet everyone thinks they love music more than anyone else they know. Or at least they think they have better taste than anyone they know. Daniel thinks I listen to boring music. I think his music is too loud and raucous to be good.
I have very limited taste, I admit. I have listened to the same musicians for the entirety of my adult life and the list is short: Sandra McCracken, Patty Griffin, Vienna Teng and Stephen Delopoulos. They all have myspace music pages where you can listen to them for free. Do that.
A short blog will have to do for now. I'm going to pick up some friends from the airport. I love the airport. It is a place of such adventure and possibility. And yes, seeing people greet their loved ones (a la Love Actually) is a wonderful thing too.
Lastly, I have learned to add pictures to this blog here. I've updated a few of the earlier posts.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
A Shark's Tale
This weekend my friend Jill and I went to visit some friends, Abi, Bryan and Anna who moved to the Georgia coast a few months ago. Bryan works at the Tidelands Nature Center on Jekyll Island. They have lots of amazing sea creatures: baby alligators, sea turtles, snakes and more. They also have a shark exhibit that lacks a shark. An attempt to remedy that fact led to this tale. Enjoy.
After a late dinner on Saturday night Abi had the idea that we should go for a walk on the pier. Before we leave Bryan suggests we try to get a baby shark to temporarily put into the shark exhibit at the nature center. Abi fears it will be too much trouble and tells him not to get his hopes up. But she secretly brings the cooler. As we stroll along the pier we start to make small talk with some of the fishermen there. Many of them have multiple rods with multiple lures on each. I ask one nice gentlemen (read: redneck) if he has caught any sharks today. He says they've been biting all day but he's had to throw them back on account of them being too small. Just as we are having this conversation the next fisherman over begins to reel something in. Up comes a baby shark! We explain that Abi's husband works for a nature center that is in need of a baby shark for its exhibit. We ask excitedly if we can have the baby shark. He says yes, pulls the hook out and hands me the shark. I stand there not sure what to do when Jill exclaims, "You better run!", which I do. We left the cooler in the car. Either our hopes weren't high for actually getting a shark or we were too dull to think to bring the cooler with us. Either way, I am a good 200 yards from the car and the cooler. As I am walking/jogging with Jill at my side the baby shark (soon after dubbed Neo) is bleeding all over my hand. We finally make it to the cooler and I drop Neo therein. The cooler still needs sea water! I rush to the side of the pier and crawl down the cement blocks and scoop up some water. Neo doesn't look so good. He's intermittently flopping and floating a little.
We stand there. Out of breath. Hoping he won't die.
Abi says what she's probably been thinking throughout the whole fiasco, "I think we should throw him back." My jaw drops. Jill probably laughs. She explains that Neo is probably going to die anyway and that it would be a lot of trouble for Bryan to go back to the nature center that night to put Neo in the shark tank.
I can't explain why, but being a wife and a mother gives your opinion a new level of authority. Abi is no exception, though she is such a new mom.
I threw him back.
The best part is the story and memories we got out of this adventure.
My only regret is that we didn't get a picture.
Abi is going to try to catch Bryan a healthy baby shark in her fishing net.
I bet she will.
UPDATE June 11, 2009: Abi did get a new shark. From another nice fisherman at the pier. 14" long and named Morpheus.
After a late dinner on Saturday night Abi had the idea that we should go for a walk on the pier. Before we leave Bryan suggests we try to get a baby shark to temporarily put into the shark exhibit at the nature center. Abi fears it will be too much trouble and tells him not to get his hopes up. But she secretly brings the cooler. As we stroll along the pier we start to make small talk with some of the fishermen there. Many of them have multiple rods with multiple lures on each. I ask one nice gentlemen (read: redneck) if he has caught any sharks today. He says they've been biting all day but he's had to throw them back on account of them being too small. Just as we are having this conversation the next fisherman over begins to reel something in. Up comes a baby shark! We explain that Abi's husband works for a nature center that is in need of a baby shark for its exhibit. We ask excitedly if we can have the baby shark. He says yes, pulls the hook out and hands me the shark. I stand there not sure what to do when Jill exclaims, "You better run!", which I do. We left the cooler in the car. Either our hopes weren't high for actually getting a shark or we were too dull to think to bring the cooler with us. Either way, I am a good 200 yards from the car and the cooler. As I am walking/jogging with Jill at my side the baby shark (soon after dubbed Neo) is bleeding all over my hand. We finally make it to the cooler and I drop Neo therein. The cooler still needs sea water! I rush to the side of the pier and crawl down the cement blocks and scoop up some water. Neo doesn't look so good. He's intermittently flopping and floating a little.
We stand there. Out of breath. Hoping he won't die.
Abi says what she's probably been thinking throughout the whole fiasco, "I think we should throw him back." My jaw drops. Jill probably laughs. She explains that Neo is probably going to die anyway and that it would be a lot of trouble for Bryan to go back to the nature center that night to put Neo in the shark tank.
I can't explain why, but being a wife and a mother gives your opinion a new level of authority. Abi is no exception, though she is such a new mom.
I threw him back.
The best part is the story and memories we got out of this adventure.
My only regret is that we didn't get a picture.
Abi is going to try to catch Bryan a healthy baby shark in her fishing net.
I bet she will.
UPDATE June 11, 2009: Abi did get a new shark. From another nice fisherman at the pier. 14" long and named Morpheus.
Monday, June 1, 2009
2009 Reading List
Many of my friends have blogs that I follow. I check them often and am somewhat disappointed when they do not update semi-regularly. So I wanted to make sure that if I started a blog I would update at least once a week. I think that is sufficient.
My husband has a blog. He is very good at it. He stated in his Blog Manifesto (http://creativeyear.blogspot.com/2009/01/manifesto.html) that if a blog does not have a focus, or a specific purpose it would soon die. Unfortunately I cannot think of a purpose other than just wanting to write down some of the things that I have in my head.
Today, you get a book list. These are the books on my 2009 Reading List. The books whose titles have been bolded are ones I have already read this year. I included the author's name when I knew it.
Amie's 2009 Reading List
Crazy Love - Francis Chan
The Singing - Allison Croggon
Orthodoxy - G.K. Chesterton
A Study in Scarlet
Emma - Jane Austen
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
A People's History of the U.S. - Howard Zinn
People of the Book
River Secrets - Shannon Hale
Freedom of Simplicity - Richard Foster
The Shack - W.P. Young
Wind in the Willows - Grahame
Life Together - Deitrich Bonhoeffer
Story
A Generous Orthodoxy - Brian McLaren
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Enna Burning - Shannon Hale
A Great and Terrible Beauty
Red Letter Christian - Tony Campolo
Letters to a Young Evangelical - Tony Campolo
Contemplative Youth Ministry - Mark Yaconelli
Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
East of Eden - Steinbeck
Coraline - Neil Gaimann
A Little History of the World
World Without End - Ken Follet
The Watchmen
Mysterious Benedict Society
Tiger Rising - Kate DiCamillo
Crusader
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
Chris Farley Biography
Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
French Women Don't Get Fat
Holy Silence
Wisdom in the Waiting - Phyllis Tickle
The Great Emergence - Phyllis Tickle
The Zoo Keeper's Wife
Prayer - Richard Foster
Red Moon Rising
Alphabet Juice
Burning Bright - Tracy Chevalier
Forest Lover - Susan Vreeland
Chasing Vermeer
Forest Born - Shannon Hale
The Time Traveler's Wife
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
UnChristian
Book of a Thousand Days - Shannon Hale
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
World Made By Hand - James Howard Kunstler
Basic Christianity - John Stott
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
Odd and the Frost Giants - Neil Gaiman
There are also some authors I would like to read more of but don't have any specific books of theirs in mind: Henri Nouwen, Ayn Rand, John Keats and T.S. Eliot.
Obviously I've been on a Neil Gaiman kick. I also reread the Twilight series and a few Harry Potters though I didn't include them on the list. I'll probably reread them again before the movies come out. I'm halfway through Outlander and the Watchmen. I've also started Orthodoxy and War and Peace. I don't know if I have the self discipline to read those kinds of things outside of an academic setting. Maybe someday. Also, this list is continually being updated. If you have any suggestions, send them my way. Feel free to share your own 2009 reading list as well.
Ciao.
My husband has a blog. He is very good at it. He stated in his Blog Manifesto (http://creativeyear.blogspot.com/2009/01/manifesto.html) that if a blog does not have a focus, or a specific purpose it would soon die. Unfortunately I cannot think of a purpose other than just wanting to write down some of the things that I have in my head.
Today, you get a book list. These are the books on my 2009 Reading List. The books whose titles have been bolded are ones I have already read this year. I included the author's name when I knew it.
Amie's 2009 Reading List
Crazy Love - Francis Chan
The Singing - Allison Croggon
Orthodoxy - G.K. Chesterton
A Study in Scarlet
Emma - Jane Austen
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
A People's History of the U.S. - Howard Zinn
People of the Book
River Secrets - Shannon Hale
Freedom of Simplicity - Richard Foster
The Shack - W.P. Young
Wind in the Willows - Grahame
Life Together - Deitrich Bonhoeffer
Story
A Generous Orthodoxy - Brian McLaren
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Enna Burning - Shannon Hale
A Great and Terrible Beauty
Red Letter Christian - Tony Campolo
Letters to a Young Evangelical - Tony Campolo
Contemplative Youth Ministry - Mark Yaconelli
Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
East of Eden - Steinbeck
Coraline - Neil Gaimann
A Little History of the World
World Without End - Ken Follet
The Watchmen
Mysterious Benedict Society
Tiger Rising - Kate DiCamillo
Crusader
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
Chris Farley Biography
Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
French Women Don't Get Fat
Holy Silence
Wisdom in the Waiting - Phyllis Tickle
The Great Emergence - Phyllis Tickle
The Zoo Keeper's Wife
Prayer - Richard Foster
Red Moon Rising
Alphabet Juice
Burning Bright - Tracy Chevalier
Forest Lover - Susan Vreeland
Chasing Vermeer
Forest Born - Shannon Hale
The Time Traveler's Wife
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
UnChristian
Book of a Thousand Days - Shannon Hale
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
World Made By Hand - James Howard Kunstler
Basic Christianity - John Stott
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
Odd and the Frost Giants - Neil Gaiman
There are also some authors I would like to read more of but don't have any specific books of theirs in mind: Henri Nouwen, Ayn Rand, John Keats and T.S. Eliot.
Obviously I've been on a Neil Gaiman kick. I also reread the Twilight series and a few Harry Potters though I didn't include them on the list. I'll probably reread them again before the movies come out. I'm halfway through Outlander and the Watchmen. I've also started Orthodoxy and War and Peace. I don't know if I have the self discipline to read those kinds of things outside of an academic setting. Maybe someday. Also, this list is continually being updated. If you have any suggestions, send them my way. Feel free to share your own 2009 reading list as well.
Ciao.
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