Two Line Tuesday

I'm still reading Diana Gabaldon, because I got distracted and read a few books on my new kindle. (dance of joy) but, I picked it up again, and this passage struck me. I wanted to share it. This is from Dragonfly in Amber.

"I always thought it would be a simple matter to lie wi' a woman," he said softly. "And yet...I want to fall on my face at your feet and worship you"-he dropped the towel and reached out, taking me by the shoulders-"and still I want to force ye to your knees before me, and hold you there with my fingers tangled in your hair, and your mouth at my service...and I want both things at the same time, Sassenach."


And here are my two lines, which in retrospect should've gone first, after those two lines!

The house wore its desolation like a shroud. Wind torn and weather beaten, she stood defiant against years of abuse. Alex could relate. In that moment, she knew why people stayed, why they staked a claim, and called four walls home. Until that moment, Alex hadn't believed in the word home.


Women of Mystery has more two lines. Check em out. Submit some of your own, even.

Inspiration from a 2 year old.

I've survived the first two weeks of being a (Semi) stay at home Mom. Even though they both need constant attention, I relish the times that Steven crawls into my lap (or on top of my back or head!)

Even though Thomas still wants to be held at all hours of the day and screams every time I leave the room, I relish the times when I get to feed him, and we have that moment where our eyes lock and I realize that I will never have a connection with another human being like I have with my sons.

I've learned to appreciate the small things. Especially the things my two year old says!

Among the other normal things two year old's say like "no!" and "That's mine!" or "I want to do it myself!" my 2 year old says alot of stuff that makes me laugh. The most recent being "Ow! my twig and berries! I can't imagine where he learned that...but my husband has been spending an awful lot of time with him lately, so there's a clue.

He says a lot of things that make me proud.

"Mom, will you read me a book?"

"Mom, will you tell me a story?"

"That was a good story, Mom!"

Occasionally, he says things that make me in credibly sad:

When informing him that I had to go to work he replied, "Can you stay here with me for a little while?"

"No, baby, I have to go to work."

"Don't. Don't go to work."

For being 2 he's also extremely adept at telling me exactly how he feels.

"That makes me so happy!"

"That makes me so sad."

"You hurt my feelings."

But the other day He said something that inspired me. It was relevant for school, for writing, for life in general.

He was playing Wii. We have the resort game, and he loves to play the sword fight. One of his favorite is the one where hundreds of other "resorters" come at you and you have to fight them all.

All of a sudden he was screaming "No! No! No! Don't get me bad guy!" And he was swinging that wii remote like nobody's business! "Don't quit!" he says between breaths. He's screaming "Don't give up! Keep trying and you'll win! Don't Stop! Keep trying.

Suddnely with an exhilartion only a two year old could show, he turns to me and yells at the top of his lungs, jumping up and down, "Momma! I won. I kept trying and I won!"

And it occured to me that if we could all face our every day situations with the strength an resiliance of a two year old, how could we fail?

In the face of countless distractions, enumberal obstacles let us keep trying. Let us not give up, so that finally, we can say "I won!"

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

That song has been in my head all day.

We're not even a week into the new year, and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to manage everything in the coming year.

In 2010 We had some huge changes. We had another son, Thomas who is beautiful! but still keeping me up at night, I decided to go back to school to become a teacher, and then within the last few weeks I've decided to stay home with the kids during the day and work in the evenings. (And a 12 hour shift every Saturday) My husband lost over 100 pounds last year. I think the changes are good changes and I'm looking forward to seeing what the new year brings. But I do have a few regrets.

My reading and writing (anything not school related, anyway) really took a hit. I've missed just curling up with a good book without the words Go, dog, Go, or without hearing Mama, Mama, Mama, every 5 seconds. And I've missed writing. I've missed writing SO much!

I don;t know. I guess that's what new year's is about, looking over the past year and looking forward into the next.

These were a few of my resolutions last year.

*Making lists to help me stay focused. (I still make lists but my day revolves around Thomas and Steven so its hard to make a set schedule. Still a work in progress)

*Go to School (Yeah me! I got one!)

*Write every night. (School kinda took care of that. But this year I'm going to give up another hour of sleep to get it done. In Theory.)

*TV reviews. Yeah that didn't happen. Every one I wrote felt awkward and I was unsure of what I was doing. Plus it took WAY too much time. So maybe one day, but not now.

So this year, I really only have 1 resolution.

Follow the yellow brick road. Let life take me where its gonna take me.

Does that mean I won't have to work hard. Of course not. Dorothy did did a lot of skipping in her pretty red slippers.

When in doubt, I'll sing a song.

I'll meet new friends along the way, but I'll always be trying to get back to those who love me, who miss miss, who've made me, maybe even some who've broken me) I'll get back to those people who motivate me, who inspire me, who will never lie to me.

I'll resolve to forget the complicated and get back to black and white.

I'll follow the yellow brick road/ I may encounter a few flying monkeys along the way, maybe even a wicked witch or two...

But I'll stick to my path, and I won't stray. (Those damn poppy fields always look so inviting!)

I'll follow the yellow brick road, and I'll always remember that there's no place like home. Because in the end that's where all dreams begin, and where all dreams end.

Happy New Year!!!

I like TV. I can't help it.

So I wanted to sneak a blog post in. But hope you're not expecting anything profound. But then again, maybe you're already used to not seeing anything profound when you find your way here. Either way I've got 3 papers coming up...profound is on its way. ha.

So I'm a little obsessive. If I read a book that I like, I suddenly find I have to read everything that that author ever wrote. If I see a TV show, and there is something about it that makes me LOVE IT. I watch it OVER and OVER and OVER again. I have a few obsessions, as you may already know. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural, just to name a few.

Today I'm going to enlighten you on my top 5 favorite TV shows. I know you probably couldn't care less, but what else is a blog for, but forcing your psychosis on all of your friends?


5. True Blood
I read the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris long before True Blood premiered on HBO, and honestly and not surprisingly the books are better. Being HBO they upped the sex and violence 10 fold. But I can't deny the sheer entertainment value. And to be fair they stay mostly with the storyline that I loved in the books. The supporting characters get their own storyline in the show and they come to VIVID life in the TV series.



4. Smallville:
I don't know if you know about my secret obsession with men who wear nerd glasses. Every time I see a man in big black socially awkward glasses I fall in love just a little bit. I can't wait till Superman gets his glasses full time.

As a show, I find it fascinating to see the Superhero that we know and love grow from an awkward 15 year old, working with super powers he doesn't know or understand.

And lets not forget Lex Luthor. Great villain. interesting to see his descent into darkness as well.

But I'd keep watching for years just to get a glimpse of Tom Welling in those glasses!





3. Dexter:
How Awesome do you have to be to write a serial killer that we can all root for. Than you Jeff Lindsay! Dexter was found in a storage shed when he was 3 years old covered and sitting in a pool of his mothers blood. The police officer who found him adopted him. Recognizing that Dexter was showing signs of being a sociopath, someone who cannot feel emotionally like the rest of us, his father decided to control the impulse instead of deny that it was there. He taught Dexter how to fake it in society and how to pick his victims. Murders and rapists that had somehow slipped through the cracks in the justice system.

Each episode builds and builds and builds, getting more intense, with Dexter having more to loose, until the final episode of the season that always leaves you tingling, sometimes with your mouth hanging open and wishing you could skip the summer just to see what happens next.

I haven't actually read the books yet, but they are definitely on my list.




2. Supernatural:
What can I say about this show? As if looking at the boys wasn't even to make you watch, they've got that bad ass car. And then there are the monsters which are actually scary enough to give you the wiggins. Seriously!

The show is also about family ties. The bond between the two brothers is touching and a little crazy. Not to mention that its the most quotable show in the world. For example: Sam: Dude, you're confusing reality with porn again, or PUDDING! or "Oh my God, I'm Pattinson!" And then there's that time when Dean screams like a girl "That was scary!" Or "The whistle makes me their god! I could go on and on but its better if you watch for yourself.



1. Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Angel
Last but definitely not least. Everything about this show is sheer genius.

This is also a monster of the week show, but each monster represents something real that teenagers go through. The idea that High School is hell is definitely something that I can relate to.

The characters are unique: they have their own way of dressing, and their own dialogue.

Its also the only show that can make me laugh and cry in the same episode. The only show that can do a musical episode and make it work (before Glee came along, of course) The only show that can have an episode of television with more than half of the episode without dialogue. And the only show that can make you feel SO intensely without the help of background music. Joss Whedon can create an episode that is completely in dream sequences of the main characters.

The main characters make mistakes, and when they do, they have to pay for them.

The things that man can do with the power of words. But don't take my word for it. You have to see to believe.

Check them out if you've got a little spare time. Tell me what you think.

The Road to Lost Innocence

So I just finished my first week of school, and despite problems with financial aide and my lack of books, I think it went pretty well.

There's a lot to do and its a little overwhelming, but in a good way. Im working toward a goal and Im such a nerd that I actually enjoy my classes. I forgot how much I love psychology.

I'm having to repeat some classes since the first time around I didn't take it as seriously as I should have, (let this be a lesson!) so Im taking freshman English, which I kinda find ironic.

We're reading this book called "The Road to Lost Innocence," by Somaly Mam. The book is a autobiographical account of her life in Cambodia. I can't tell you how much this book affected me.

Somaly Mam is the name this woman picked for herself. She can't remember the name she was born with or her biological parents. For a long time she was an orphan living off help from the village she lived in until a man came and took her in. He in turn sold her into prostitution to pay off his debts.

I can turn to any page and find a quote that leaves me horrified. The world she describes is so very different from where I live, it almost doesn't seem real. It would be easier if it weren't.

"Ideally in Cambodia, a woman walks so quietly you can't hear her footsteps. She smiles without showing her teeth and laughs softly. She never looks directly into the eyes of any man. A woman must not talk back to her husband. She must not turn her back to him in bed. She must bow before she touches his head, and if she walks over his legs she will become ill. In Cambodia, you must respect and care for your parents, and your husband is your master-second only to your father."

It was bad enough that this was the life she led before the prostitution, but what is even more horrifying is the fact that this is a common practice. Parents and gradnparents who find themselves in debt will use their daughters to pay off their debts. "I can truly say that I think that for many parents, feelings have nothing to do with it. Their children are money on legs, an asset, a kind of domestic livestock."

As if being raped repeatedly by dozens of different men on a daily basis wasn't bad enough sometimes the clients tortured the girls for their own pleasure, beating them and cutting them. If the girls showed any insubordination, they were punished.

"I think that was when Li discovered something I was really afraid of. He was scientific about punishment; he wanted us compleltey cowed. He must have realized I wasn't terrorized by the basement room, because when I was taken down there I didn;t scream helplessly like the other girls. I just glared at guards and thought about how one day I would kill them. I always tried not to show pain, because I didn't want to give them the pleasure.

But one night Li dumped a bucket of live maggots on me. Hideous maggots, like the ones on meat. When he realized how much they frightened me, he began dumping them into my mouth and on my body while I was sleeping. I thought they would make their way inside me, into my body. That's what I have nightmares about, even now."

In cambodia, young girls sell oranges in the park. For the price of an orange a man can do whatever he wishes to girls as young as six years old. Men in Cambodia pay a lot of money for virgins. They believe that having sex with a virgin will cure you of AIDS.

Today, Somaly Mam runs a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending sexual slavery and giving victims a chance at a new life. She takes social workers and police into the brothels and rescues the victims. She provides shelter for the victims she rescues and teaches them a trade so that they don't have to find themselves in brothels again. She speaks to men in cambodia about the effects of prostitution and what the brothels are really like. English is her fourth language. She has received the World Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child, in Sweden, the Roland Berger Award for Human Dignity in Germany, and in Washington D.C. she was honored at the Vital Voices 2009 global leadership Awards.

At first she didn't do anything but speak up, and pass out a few condoms. She has been threatened with death. She's had a gun to her head. Her own daughter was kidnapped by one of the brother owners and was missing for 3 days. They wanted her to stop talking.

I feel helpless, the situation is bigger than me. but I can speak up.

Today, I urge you to look around you. You have a home, your children are protected. You married a man of your choosing. Today I urge you to forget the little things, the bills you can't pay, the arguement that you had last night. Forget the rude words of your mothers, your fathers, your brothers and sisters, and be thankful. Thankful that we may not have money today, but we have a job. We have hope. Thankful that even in arguements we have a voice. And no matter what relationship we have with our parents, in most cases, they wouldn't sell us into slavery for the price of a US quarter.

Wives make love to your husbands. Relish the fact that for us, sex is a beautiful thing, an expression of our deeper feelings, an expression of our love for one another, and an expression of ourselves.

If you'd like to know more about Somaly Mam, you can check out her website www.somaly.org. or come see her when she speaks at WTAMU on Thurdsay, October 7, at 5 pm at the first United Bank Center in Canyon.

Two Line Tuesday

I snuck a few extra lines in, but they were too good to pass up. From Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon:

"Murtagh was right about women. Sassenach,I risked my life for ye, committing theft, arson, assault, and murder into the bargain. In return for which ye call me names, insult my manhood, kick me in the ballacks and claw my face. Then I beat you half to death and tell ye all the most humiliating things have ever happened to me, and you say ye love me." He laid his head on his knees and laughed some more. Finally, he rose and held out a hand to me, wiping his eyes with the other.

"You're no verra sensible, Sassenach, but I like ye fine. Let's go."

Sassenach, meaning Outlander, is a term used by the Scottish to refer to the British. If I understand correctly its not exactly a term used in polite company. I like how Jamie uses it as an endearment.

And my two lines:

A sudden sense of urgency woke me much faster than the light in my face and I stood quickly, throwing my book to the ground.
I heard the clatter of the gun hitting the rotted boards of the porch and tried not to look so scared.

Don't forget to check out more lines at women of mystery!

Two Line Tuesday...

It's Tuesday. You know what to do. And don't forget to check out what other people contributed at Women of Mystery!

My two lines:

How long would it take me to be die of starvation or thirst? How long would I have to wander in this desert?

Outlander By Diana Gabaldon.

This is the second time I'm reading this series. The romance is completely engrossing but not half as engrossing as all the very precise Scottish History. And you know how I love men in kilts!

The two semicircles passed each other at increasing speeds, sometimes forming a complete circle, sometimes a double line. And in the center, the leader stood stock-still, giving again and again that mournful, high-pitched call, in a language long since dead.