One Hundred Things My Mother Taught Me A Million Times - Chapter 21

#21 – “Never get on a motorcycle because if you have a wreck and scar up your face no man will ever want to marry you.”

This morning when I saw this one of one hundred things on the list of the things my mom taught me a million times, I let out a big honking laugh and flashed back on a vivid memory. When I was around 16-ish, I started dating my children’s father, who was five years older than me, in college and owned a number of very fast vehicles, including a motorcycle.

One might wonder why a mother (my dad died when I was 12) would let her 16-year-old date a 21-year-old. Simple. He was from a ranching family (which by our little west Texas standards meant “blue blood”), which was every mothers dream in 1964 – that her daughter might marry “well.” Although the fact that he lived on a huge beautiful ranch, drove a hot new car every year, and could afford to take me exotic places (Dallas, ha ha), didn’t escape my notice, but I was head-over-heels in love with him, so all that was superfluous to me.

2009 Books I Hope To Read Soon

What follows are books published in 2009 that I have not yet read, but based upon consistently good reviews and many “best of” lists, hope to soon:

Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn
Vignettes on women activists in Africa, India and China. I’ll listen to this one today on my way to my daughter-in-law’s baby shower!

Click on "Read More" below to see the full list.

MY FAVORITE 2009 READS

A friend suggested that I publish a "Best Books of 2009" list, since everyone else does. The only problem is I didn't read every book published in 2009, or even half the ones I wanted to. So my "best of" list is really just the best books I read this year ... ta da! "My Favorite 2009 Reads!"

I also didn't think it would be fair to name the book and author without giving a clue as to what it is about, but I didn't want to get into lengthy descriptions, so I limited myself to a brief sentence (loosely put), and it ended up being kinda fun. So click on "Read More" below and comment on your favorite 2009 reads.  And the photo to the left, me at the SMU Twirling School in 1965, has absolutely nothing to do with anything.

Push by Sapphire

Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere you’ve no doubt heard about the movie Precious, the Indy darling de jour. That movie was adapted from the book Push by Sapphire.  The book, Push, is a sophomoric, Jerry Springer-ish, pornographic, piece of weirdness that feels like a stereotypical, emotional exploitation of a topic that deserves better treatment. It is also a sometimes interestingly presented, albeit consistently painful story, that if it was a true story, and I have no doubt that it could be true, would feel less exploitive. I found myself alternately frustrated, compelled, disappointed and intrigued. There’s a good story there, but based on the movie reviews, it must be much more well told in the movie than in the book, which is really, really rare.

Between Here and April by Deborah Copaken Kogan

The word filicide derives from the Latin word filius meaning "son". Filia in Latin also means daughter. Filicide, like incest and child abuse, is a topic so hideous that no one wants to think about it, much less read about it, which is not much of a problem, because as a society, we tend to stick our heads in the sand about such things. And although it seems every other book that’s come out in the past few years includes child abuse in the plot, they are usually glossed over pretty effectively – just enough info to get us temporarily emotionally involved, but not enough to send us lobbying to our legislators, demanding a crack-down on child rape and filicide.

OK, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I’ll tell you about Between Here and April by Deborah Copaken Kogan, which is about filicide, marital dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, identity crisis, child neglect, rape, hormonal imbalance, psychiatric malpractice, job stress,  infidelity, pornography, postpartum depression, post traumatic stress disorder, etc., etc.

The Midlife Gals

I can be a little slow on the up-take sometimes, so thank gaud I have very smart gals around to give me a little leverage. I must be the last person in Austin to hear about The Midlife Gals, but as the saying goes, better latte then fever. Thanks to Very Smart Gal, Aralyn Hughes for hooking me up with KK and Sal Jackson, The Midlife Gals. Let me just tell you that I flipped out over these very smart gals. They are hilarious and they're famous. Click on the link above to check out their website. They have a blog, a radio show, videos (must watch), are AAS "Fortunate 500" picks, are guest writers for More Magazine, and are commentators on MidLifeBachelor.com (scroll down to Midlifegals.com Video Responds To Man Who Wants Girlfriend 20+ Years Younger - too too funny!)

So in January I'm meeting KK and Sal for martini's at the Four Seasons, and I can't wait! And I'm practicing my "Head Thwomp" (check their website for explanation). I love it when women come out of themselves to be the unique, special and wonderful creatures into which life has welded them - Very Smart Gals!  Yee Haw! Ride 'Em Cowgirl!