random favorites

I tried to post a show and tell yesterday from the library, but even those computers don't handle change very well, and TWO completely froze up. Sadly. I have a show and tell planned, though, and as soon as I'm at a computer that was made in this millineum, I'll post it. Until then, here are a few favorites for you. See if, after reading each one, you aren't tempted to say, well, that's random.

favorite phrase: My mom has a brochure for a workshop entitled "Prisms of Place." Prisms of Place - I love the idea of picking up a place, turning it in the light, seeing it differently. What a well-written phrase. The workshop will probably be completely mundane - Prisms of Place is probably a computer program that automatically writes multiple choice comprehension questions, or something. Even so, I love the name. Plus, the brochure has a picture of a huge tree on the front. Even better.

favorite character from a book: I once read a book of Valerie's called "Eddie's Bastard." In it was a character named Annie, who was the main character's best childhood friend. I love Annie. I think about her all the time (still, and I bet I read this book four years ago). That sweet girl - so smart and so trapped, and nobody knew. Even the main character (was his name Billy?), who knew enough to help her, was naive. He saved her life, but she hated him for it, for what he saw and for needing him to save her at all. Annie is a complex character planted in a simplistic book that is otherwise full of stereotypes and hyperboles (think Paul Bunyan, dialed down). In retrospect, maybe the book was always really about Annie. Maybe the male characters were intentionally flat, so that she would stand out. Sweet Annie ...

favorite album: You might laugh at this, but I LOVE Switchfoot's Beautiful Letdown. Actually, I love about five songs on it. Every three or four months, it will be the only CD in my car for weeks. I listen to those songs over and over and never get tired of them, even though I don't particularly like his voice and it isn't the type of music I usually enjoy. Go figure. My favorite line from my favorite random album is: "We are a beautiful letdown, painfully uncool. The church of the drop-outs, the losers, the sinners, the failures, and the fools. What a beautiful letdown. Are we salt in the wound? Let us sing one true tune. I don't belong here ..."

favorite TV show: American Justice. It has become my habit to be at home before 5 pm every day, so that I can see the day's justice (or injustice, as it were). Yesterday I was actually yelling to the host (and whoever happened to be in the living room while I was watching) about the inconsistencies of the American judicial system. I knew they were going to convict that guy! Just because you're unfriendly doesn't mean you're a murderer! Don't worry; his conviction was overturned.

favorite food: Spinach. I bet you didn't know that about me, did you? When I am home alone for dinner, I almost always eat spinach and cheese omelets. Yum. And do you know how good spinach is for you? SO good.

favorite quote from the book I just finished: About ten minutes ago, I finished reading "The Rapture of Canaan" (I know books should be italicized, but I just can't talk the computer into it. And I'm already pushing my luck by blogging at all) by Sheri Reynolds. It was good - not The Best Book Ever, but definitely worth reading. I liked the rhythm - it reads like folk music. Anyway. Here's my favorite quote from it.

"All the time that I was growing and my baby was growing within me, all that time that I spent alone, I prayed that God would show himself to me, would come visit and help me strangle the lonely.

"He came to me in a thousand ways. Sometimes he came like a lamb for me to cuddle and nurse. Sometimes he sat on my bed and beat out hymns on the bottoms of my feet. Sometimes he rode in on the wind, his curly hair long and thick as mine, blown all over his head so that I was almost sure he was a woman, and he'd pull up my dress and put his mouth on my stomach and talk to the baby.

"Sometimes he came like a thief in the night. Sometimes he wore lipstick. Sometimes he sent James."

Beautiful.