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Americanah
‘Americanah’ is the story of a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who in college, falls in love with a boy, Obinze. They come from different backgrounds…his mother is a high minded academic, a college professor. Her parents are much more working class, living with the issues of power outages and so on. They fall deeply in love, but amongst the constant strikes in the college, it becomes almost impossible for them to graduate from college, so she moves to the United States, where her aunt has invited her. She is an excellent student and gets scholarships, but still she owes plenty of money on tuition and living costs. She’s suffering. Things…
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Friday Randomness ~ Historic Edition
Work is crazy busy this week, so I’m just going to jump on in, OK? Here are a few random thoughts buzzing around in my brain. I have been hearing some of the coverage of the 20th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. Interesting tidbits…there was a story on NPR yesterday, where they were discussing how much the rest of the country HATED Dallas afterwords. People having polite conversation with a nearby table in a restaurant, and when they said they were from Dallas, people would get up and leave. That kind of thing. I can’t imagine. I think nowadays we’d be more sympathetic to the residents of a city…
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Infected ~ The The
I mentioned a mix-tape on Monday, with the Bruce Cockburn song. Anyone old enough to listen to albums or tapes, be they a mix tape or a full on album, knows that when you’ve listened to the album/tape over and over and over again, one songs leads you to expect the next in sequence. So it is with this song. Infected came after Lovers in a Dangerous Time. Another great 80s song. What was next? I’m not sure…but if I run out of blogging ideas again during NaBloPoMo, you may find out…
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My Happy News
I won an iPad Mini on the NaBloPoMo/BlogHer website! Isn’t that excellent news? I feel like I never win anything, though that’s not true. I won the lotto once, though not big. I won $96, which was pretty exciting. Safeway is smart to let you cash in your winning ticket there, because yeah, I spent my money on groceries. I was picked out of the audience at Marine World, Africa U.S.A, when I was in the 5th grade. I was called up front, and got to pet a cheetah, which was pretty awesome. When they picked me, they called on my for my bright yellow (sunflower yellow) sweater. I then…
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Boy Food vs. Girl Food
Ted and I were talking about the difference between ‘boy food’ and ‘girl food’. Prepare for some huge generalizations here, and you will likely think of plenty of exceptions to any rules we can come up with. Nevertheless…girls like small plates. Tapas. My friend Janet (and my friend Katie, and my friend Cherry) and I like to go to a local small plates place where we get a few bites of this, a few bites of that, and maybe (HA! Maybe, that’s funny…the particular joint I’m thinking of has wine flights…) some wine, and by the time we’re full, we’ve sampled many different items and had just enough of each.…
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Lovers in a Dangerous Time
It’s almost 9:30pm….Ted gets up at 0:dark o’clock (before 4), and has gone to bed. Maya is the rare teen who doesn’t stay up too late, so she’s getting ready to sleep. My book is calling me to get a chapter in at least before bed, because 1. I’m hooked, and 2. it’s due at the library on Saturday, and I can’t renew it. So for tonight’s post, here’s a video from a song I loved way back when. I can’t remember if I put it on a mix tape for Ted, or if he put it on one for me. We were never really in a dangerous time, except…
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Donut Test
You Are Sensitive You are very intuitive and insightful. You understand what’s going on around you without needing to be told. You are naturally nurturing and caring. You look out for people, even if they don’t ask you to.You tend to stay attached to those you love. It’s hard for you to let go when you need to. You are in touch with your emotions. You know exactly what you’re feeling and why you’re feeling it. The Donut Test Blogthings: 100’s of Fun, Free Quizzes and 3 Stupid Ones I suspect this is one of the stupid tests referenced in the last line, but who cares. Pick a donut, and…
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Batkid Saves Gotham!
SF got all giddy yesterday and went all out to help a boy with cancer to fulfill his wish to be a superhero. The make-a-wish foundation hoped for hundreds of volunteers. They got thousands. The mayor was in on it, there was a Lamborghini made to look like the batmobile, city officials, actors, and tons of civilians on the sidelines with signs held up, thanking batkid for reducing crime by “1,000 percent”. What an awesome day. (I like the special Chronicle put out yesterday, with bylines by Clark Kent, Brenda Starr, Lois Lane, and Perry White…photos by Peter Parker….excellent) Read more here, if you haven’t heard enough elsewhere. I, personally,…
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Friday Randomness
I’m reading the new novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and at almost half way in, I’m loving it. It’s the story of a Nigerian girl who comes to America to get an education, because the colleges in Nigeria keep closing down due to strikes. She’s getting ready to go back to Nigeria, many years later, and see what the world there has for her…but right now we’re in flashbacks, her college life, trying to live as an American African (different from an African American), trying to pay for tuition and rent and so on. Trying to overcome her self hatred at some of the things she has done. I’m adjusting…
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My 13 Favorite Independent Films
Whilst searching for blog fodder to try to keep me going through NaBloPoMo (really, could the name be any dumber?), I was looking at my old posts, and saw one about favorite films in 13 different categories. One of the categories was Independent Films. So today, I thought I’d share my favorite 13 independent films. Maybe you have some time to spare, and either can find them on Netflix, your local video store (we still have a great one), or Amazon. The first ‘independent film’ I remember seeing was Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and it was so different from anything else I had seen before, I really loved it. It’s still…
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Wordless Wednesday
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One of my favorite quotes
“Believe that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Believe that you might be that light for someone else.” ~ Kobi Yamada I don’t know that I’m going to make it through NaBloPoMo this year. Actually, I’m pretty sure I won’t. But that’s no reason not to make a last minute attempt at a post today, with a quote that I really adore. This one speaks to so much of what we can be. For a student who is clearly in trouble at home. To a family member who needs some encouragement. Heck, it could be the person in front of you at the grocery store who doesn’t have…
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Veterans Day
Take a moment to thank all of the Veterans this Veterans’ Day, for their patriotism and service. There is a sad, lovely poem written during the First World War, by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian soldier and surgeon, after he witnessed the death of a friend. Lieutenant Colonel McCrae died of pneumonia during the war, in 1918. “In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now…
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This Week I….
once again, for the umpteenth time, gave up soft drinks. I’m coming to accept that I have a problem (1st step), and I cannot just have 1 a day. I’ve tried so many times to cut back to one a day, trying the idea of moderation, but somehow, it just doesn’t work. I keep reading about how horrid soft drinks are, with all of their chemicals and so on. The soda I drink happens to be diet, which brings its own set of medical challenges. So I decided that I don’t want to drink them anymore. Rats. I happen to LIKE soda, diet and regular, so it sucks that I…
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20 Years
Today is the 20th anniversary of the death of Ted’s father. We’ll be going to visit his grave and honor his memory. It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years already. Pops was born in Guyana, came to the United States for college, went to medical school and became a doctor. He returned to Guyana for a few years, married Ted’s mom, and they moved to England so he could study ophthalmology there. When life in Guyana got to be a little crazy (independence in the works), he got a job at a Kaiser hospital in California. The immigration rules at the time were pretty strict, and they were unable…