Sentimental Journey and a (sort of) Book Review

I will be leaving soon for my trip to my junior high school reunion in my hometown, Tulsa, Oklahoma. I have no idea what to expect from the reunion as I have never been to one before. I do, however,  expect that the trip back to Tulsa will be something of a Sentimental Journey. I will be staying with my cousin and his wife who live on the street where I grew up. I, in fact, spent many hours of my childhood in the house where they now live. I expect I will spend some time just driving around the area seeing what has changed and what is still the same, and giving some thought to how I have changed and what is still the same.

One of the things that has sort of surprised me about myself in looking toward the reunion is the occasional spark of teenage angst that has come back to me. I can't say that my teen years were wonderful, but I also can't say they were awful, so I'm not sure where these feelings are coming from. It may be that I just have a bit of anxiety about what it will be like walking alone into a room full of people that I haven't seen for (gulp) nearly 50 years. All in all, I am expecting it to be fun, interesting and hopefully a catharsis for my latent teenage angst.

One of the fun things about the timing of my trip is that a novel, titled A Map of Tulsa, written by my cousin's son was just released this week. The book is set in Tulsa and is a coming of age story told by the main character that begins when he comes back home to Tulsa for the summer after his first year of college.

I just got the book from Amazon so I haven't read it yet to be able to give a personal review, but the following, an excerpt from a  Publisher's Weekly review, makes me look forward to reading the book.

If Catcher in the Rye has lost its raw clout for recent generations of Internet-suckled American youth, here is a coming-of-age novel to replace it. Instead of running away, the pretentious narrator of this updated version of Salinger’s bildungsroman travels headlong back home to claim the town where he came of age. After his first year at a never-named college back East (bearing a striking resemblance to Harvard, Lytal’s own alma mater), Jim Praley returns to Tulsa. On his first visit to a local bar, he reconnects with a woman he went to high school with, who invites him to a birthday party. There he meets the beguiling Adrienne Booker, muse of the local teen set, a rich high school dropout who lives alone in her family’s downtown penthouse. In spite of a vow to spend the summer reading classic literature, Jim falls hard for Adrienne, spending days on end teaching her the art history he remembers from his freshman course and watching her paint. After that mythic summer, and a chapter chronicling Jim’s brief literary career in New York, a motorcycle accident draws Jim back to Tulsa to witness Adrienne’s ruination firsthand. Although the doomed girl is the focus of Jim’s obsession, the strength of this debut novel is Lytal’s evocation of place: Tulsa through Jim’s eyes is tenderly revealed. There is magic here if the reader has experienced any such provincial city, for the prose provokes remembered images, acutely vivid. 

It will be the perfect book for me to read on my Sentimental Journey back to Tulsa.

S'now Kidding

It's Springtime in the Rockies and spring here usually brings a few good snowstorms.....heavy, wet, hard to shovel snowstorms. We woke up today to a good one to welcome the first Saturday of spring.

I stole this picture from my friend Dawn's Facebook page. She said she had already shoveled 7 inches, and it was still coming down.

Our deck had 8" with more falling.

Dodger doesn't accept weather as an excuse for a change in his routine so we slogged off to the dog park for some running in the snow.

My photography is never the best, but it is really as gloomy and gray as it looks in these pictures.

Before the dog park, Doc had to take his truck in to the tire store to get a check on a tire that he had pulled a screw out of last night. I saw this when I was getting in the truck later and thought the tire store had done a really slip-shod job on the tire repair. It turned out that Doc had pulled the band aid out of the glove compartment to mark the spot just below where the screw had been so he could show them at the tire store....who knew the man could be so practical?

I can't exactly say I am loving the cold and snowy weather today, but I'll go along with what everyone around here says because it is true.....we really need the moisture.

Has spring shown up with a better personality where you live?

Freewheeling Friday

  

I was supposed to work for about 4 hours today, but when I got there the computer I work on was down and even with help from tech support it wasn't coming back up. They said they would have to send a technician to the office at some undetermined time, so instead of working I came home and changed clothes and went to the gym. I can't say I worked too hard at the gym, but my arms are well aware of the time I spent on the rowing machine. It is funny how a plan to attend a school reunion in a couple of weeks kept me on the machine for an extra 5 or 10 minutes.

Anyway, I'm using the rest of my found time to empty my brain of thoughts for posts I didn't write this week in a little Freewheeling Friday.

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I wasn't paying much attention recently to an interview on TV with someone who had written a book about women's friendships, but something I did hear really stuck in my mind.

They said that spending time with a good friend is as important to a woman's health as regular exercise and a healthy diet. I wasn't listening closely enough to cite any scientific proof for what they said, but that is a health tip that I can gladly follow. I liked it so much that I had to call my good friend Patty to plan a coffee date....much more fun than all that time on the rowing machine.

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Even when I am not a very good blogger I try to be a good commenter on blogs I read. Sometimes, even when I find a post interesting, I don't really have an interesting comment to make. I think we all like comments when we write a post, but sometimes I can't decide whether to leave a boring comment or no comment at all. What kind of commenter are you? Do you leave a comment on every post you read.?

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My little crocus' survived the 10 inches of snow they got covered by last Saturday and are happily blooming today in temps in the 70s.

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BTW, I like comments, even if they are boring.

Six Word Saturday

Where have all the flowers gone?

The prediction is that these little crocus' outside my window and the tulips in front will be covered with 10 inches of snow by the end of today. We had temps in the 60s earlier this week and should be back in the 60s next week so hopefully the flowers will be back soon.

To participate in 6WS visit Cate here: http://www.showmyface.com

Note: This little post is a violation of my pledge to myself not to do posts about the weather but the poor little cold crocus' looked like they needed some attention.

Dog Telepathy

Doc and our dog, Dodger, pretty much fit the phrase "joined at the hip". Most of the time wherever Doc is, Dodger is right there with him. The exceptions are if it is time for a meal or a walk when Dodger sits and stares at me until I fulfill my responsibility to him, then he is back to Doc.

I am beginning to think that in addition to being joined at the hip, they may also be joined at the head....in other words, there seems to be a little dog telepathy going on. When Doc leaves the house, more often than not, Dodger goes with him. When Doc leaves without him Dodger usually just naps on Doc's pillow on the bed or sits at the back door monitoring the activity in the open space behind the house. Then at some point he suddenly lifts his head, perks up his ears and trots to the front of the house and sits and looks out the front window, and within 10 minutes or so Doc's truck pulls into the driveway....every time.

Doc doesn't come and go on any set schedule, so it's not like Dodger's inner clock that tells when it is time for something like a walk, that usually happens at about the same time each day, is due to happen. The only answer I can come up with is Dog Telepathy . I'm sure there is a better, more logical explanation as to how Dodger always knows that Doc is nearly home but I don't know what it is. For now, I am sticking with Dog Telepathy.

I just hope he doesn't learn to levitate his
treats out of the cabinet next.