Number 52 Read the Best Books Ever Written

I've already read many of these books but, since I read most of them under duress in school, I'll revisit them through grown-up eyes and enjoy them at a leisurely pace. I'm going to reserve the right to change out some books that I read on a regular basis with my class, like The Very Hungry Caterpillar (which I will replace with The Invisible Man) and Where the Wild Things Are (which I will replace with Go Tell it on the Mountain) as I see fit.

• 1. 1984 by George Orwell May 28, 2013
• 2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• 3. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
• 4. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
• 5. Animal Farm by George Orwell
• 6. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
• 7.Asterix and the Golden Sickle by R. Goscinny/A. Uderzo
• 8. Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
• 9. The BFG by Roald Dahl
• 10. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
• 11. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
• 12. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
• 13. The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
• 14. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• 15. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• 16. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• 17. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• 18. The Complete Works of Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• 19. The Complete Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm
• 20. Crash by J.G. Ballard
• 21. The Crow Road by Iain Banks
• 22. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
• 23. Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
• 24. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• 25. Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
• 26. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• 27. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
• 28. Dubliners by James Joyce
• 29. Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
• 30. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind
• 31. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
• 32. Explaining Death to the Dog by Susan Perabo
• 33. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• 34. George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl
• 35. Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Cupland
• 36. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
• 37. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• 38. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
• 39. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• 40. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• 41. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• 42. Holes by Louis Sachar
• 43. The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving
• 44. Kes (A Kestrel for a Knave) by Barry Hines
• 45. Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier
• 46. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• 47. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• 48. The Magic Porridge Pot by Anon
• 49. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• 50. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
• 51. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
• 52. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• 53. Mr Tickle by Roger Hargreaves
• 54. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
• 55. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
• 56. No Logo by Naomi Klein
• 57. Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge
• 58. The Odyssey  The Iliad by Homer
• 59. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• 61. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• 63. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• 64. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
• 65. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• 66. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
• 67. Possession by A.S. Byatt
• 68. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
• 69. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• 70. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
• 71. Sarah by J.T. Leroy
• 72. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• 73. Stupid White Men by Michael moore
• 74. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• 75. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
•  76. Ulysses by James Joyce
• 77. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
• 78. The Van by Roddy Doyle
• 79. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
  
• 80. The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks
• 81. Waterland by Graham Swift
• 82.Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
  
• 83. The Wind in the Willows by kenneth Grahame
• 84. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
• 85. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
• 86. The World According to Garp by John Irving
• 87. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Number 33 Meet Your Childhood Idol

September 10, 2011

When I was a little Edith, I wanted to be a cartoonist. I drew all the time. I would rush through my schoolwork because then I could draw until it was time for the next subject and then rush through that one so I could draw again. I liked to draw with a black felt tip marker and drawing Peanuts characters was my favorite. I can still whip out a Charlie Brown with my eyes closed!

Then  along came Peter Max. Um...wow.

 I was in first grade when the Pop Art thing really took off and Peter Max work was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.  What child wouldn't be attracted to all these vibrant images? And the color! The black felt tip marker was put aside, I learned to spell P-S-Y-C-H-E-D-E-L-I-C and I drew groovy cosmic drawings all over the place trying to imitate Peter Max. I even drew all over my body like Goldie Hawn  on Laugh -In until my parents made me stop and I wrote in groovy bubble writing on my school assignments until my teacher made me stop.

America was like me- just couldn't get enough of this guy. You saw Peter Max artwork everywhere when I was a kid.

He kinda fell of the grid in the 1970's. When he reemerged, it seemed he had also put aside his black marker and had gone in a vibrant new direction with  acrylic painting on canvas rather than drawings:

It was different but you could still see him in the artwork. It was still Peter Max.

So...I found out about an opportunity to meet Peter Max in Atlanta. Really? In Person? The same Peter Max from my  childhood bedroom wall? I got on this so fast, I left one of those cartoon clouds with a zinging noise in my wake!

I hooked up with the beautiful Mary from the Wentworth Gallery and she gave me all the details and on the designated day,  I donned black and white clothing and drove the four hours to the gallery.

It was a quiet affair with wine and crackers and only about twenty or so people but there they were - the paintings. There were pieces from his cosmic period, from his newer period, small ones, huge ones, almost all in the five-digit price range. Well, at least I got to see them up close.

Then along came Peter Max. Um...wow! It was like meeting an icon like Mickey Mouse or Woody Guthrie. He was right there and just as charming as he could be. He's 74 now but he is still very much the Maxiest!

I can't believe I did this but...I bought a painting! It was one of his smaller pieces  from his hearts series and I'm going to be eating ramen noodles and hot dogs for about a year to pay for it but I just got caught up in the excitement and wanted a piece of it. The best part of it was that  when he dedicated it to me, I was telling him how much I liked his cosmic heads but how they werer way out of my school teacher budget  ($23,000) so HE DREW ME ONE (with a black marker)! It's on the paper on the back of the painting I bought.

Number 75 - Get a Tattoo

August 18, 2011

I know it's really trendy now but, when I was growing up, tattoos were just for sailors (or really trashy girls). All of my siblings have tattoos and both my children, as well. It's seems that now everybody has a little sumptin'. I went with my son to a tattoo parlor once when he was having one done and there was an grandmother bringing her  teenage granddaughter for her first tattoo. She turned to me in the waiting area and said, "I never thought I'd see the day." I understood completely.

Daughter's butt

Son's arm

The whole tattoo thing is just so...permanent. What If, down the road, I wasn't into whatever I had put on my body? I put the question to my son about his Nightmare Before Christmas tattoos. He asked my what tattoo I would have gotten at his age. Easy. Kermit the Frog. And today? I was still thinking Kermit the Frog. Or maybe a claddagh, or maybe one of those breast cancer ribbons. I was still trying to decide when I read about  something some cancer patients were doing -permanent make-up! This is where you have your make-up tattooed onto your face. Although I was never a big make-up person (except for that creepy Human League period in the 80's),  I was having to use make-up now to cover up the fact that  my eyebrows and eyelashes had come back in random patches after the chemotherapy and radiation (I also still have no leg hair or hair under my arms but I don't mind that so much.) Wanna see my history in make-up? Here are passport and ID photos that show my journey


As a teen- too cool for make-up






 
 
 







 





In college- a little much



Now - the minimalist

 I went to Sandy at The Locks and Lashes Salon and explained what I needed and found out out that she had helped many others in my situation.  Our plan was to tattoo the eyebrows and a little eyeliner to give the impression of eyelashes and after that healed, she would hook me up with some semi-permanent lashes made from the hair of minks (harvested by brushing them, not killing them). So, I was joining the ranks of the tattooed!!

Here are the before and after pictures from the day of the the tattooing. My eyes are still swollen in the after pictures but I was extremely pleased with the results!

Took this pic right before the procedure.

Swollen but happy!

I'll post again after the lashes are attached so the finished (and unswollen) product can be seen. the tattooing hurt like a son-of-a-bitch but it went quickly and I like the way it turned out. I'm not giving up on a possible Kermit tattoo in the future but it won't be the near future; I need time to forget the pain!

UPDATE - August 9, 2011. All healed and semi-permanent lashes applied:











Number 58 Compete in a 5K

Number 58-Compete in a 5K

I am not a runner. I do not care for the activity at all. When I was a kid, my dad was put in charge of this  military running program called Run for Your Life at Fort Benning and we all had to go out and set the example as a family - hated it!
I ran ALOT in the army because they threatened my life if I didn't but I can't imagine running just for the fun of it. Still, the list has brought me to this place so I will be a good sport about it.
When I was sick, someone else usually walked my class to and from the lunchroom, their other classes and recess be cause I could barely walk across the room. At this point, a five 5K run seemed impossible.
At the end of the year, the running club at our school holds a 5K run/2K walk. That year, I decided I would come out and walk the 1 mile part. It almost killed me! The next spring, I was feeling much better and decided to try to run the 2K in preparation for dreaded 5K. I didn't time myself or anything, I just wanted to see if my body could hold up. Here are some pictures from that race:

I did it!



 

Here I am warming up with my friend, Jen.
She is a marathon runner!

 

Stretching





 

Okay, I can see the humor in
getting lost in a race now
but at the time, I was pretty upset.

Next step:Register for a 5K.  I went for the Run for the Roses sponsored by the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority at Georgia Southern University. Results: DISASTER!! I'm ashamed to admit this but, during the race, I managed to get LOST and ended up running 6K instead of 5K (left, below). Still, made a good time (for a 6K) and finished the race without dying.



     Bad news followed. During one of the follow-up medical exams, I was told that the chemotherapy had left me with some major bone loss and that this kind of  slammity-slammity-slammity activity was ill-advised. So, I transferred to the elliptical while we worked on this medical issue. After about nine months, I was told that I had reversed the bone loss and  as of this date, I am beginning the Couch to 5K program to get ready for a 5K around the September time frame.

Stay tuned for details!

September 17, 2011-Details.

After I wrote that last post, the weather here in southeast Georgia stayed in triple digits for weeks so I pushed back my training schedule so I wouldn't...um...die. Despite this, a friend, Rob, managed to talk me into running in the 3rd Infantry Division's Top of the Rock 5K Fun Run. My goal on this day was just to finish the race and get some baseline data for improvement so I could work toward finishing a 5K in 30 minutes or less. I had exactly 30 minutes of running music in my Droid for this purpose.

So, here's the deal: I ran most of it walked some and finished in 30:14. I was feeling pretty good about myself for the first run I'd done in a year.Walking tall! Still, many suspected that the run was not really 5K. Too many people had unbelieveably good running times for 5K. I didn't want to hear this!!! After the race, we clocked it in the car. Only 3.25K. First, I run too long, now I've run too short. Can't catch a break, can I?