The One About Nobody

A post a day. Why did I say I would do that? Crazy talk. Dillon registered for school today. Do you realize I have a child in elementary school, one in middle school, one in high school, one in Marines music school, one on a mission, one at BYU, and one at UCLA law school? Holy Hannah Montana… do you think I missed anything? But that is not what I wanted to post about today.

I wanted to mention that I finally caught up my photography blog a bit, and put in some samples of some of the photos I have taken this summer. You can click on the link on the left side of the blog to check them out. You will have to tell me which ones you like. But that is not really my post today either.

I actually wanted to talk about reading today. I haven’t read much this whole year. I have been focusing on music, and have mostly deprived myself of my usual entertainment. Yes, I can’t lie. I love TV. But the books… I have been avoiding them, because I know I neglect other things when I indulge. I have decided to change that, and I am looking forward to it.

I read a book by Neil Gaiman this summer called The Graveyard Book. I don’t always love his books, although I really enjoyed Stardust. My only problem with his books is that I don’t always connect with the characters. My favorite books are those where I love the characters, and feel like I know them. For instance, Orson Scott Card, one of my favorite authors, writes characters that become part of my family, practically. Now, I am not a huge fan of sad books. But there is this one book Card wrote, called Lost Boys. You read along, falling deeper and deeper into the story, and all of a sudden a couple of chapters from the end, there is a twist. Suddenly, everything you thought you knew has changed, and your heart breaks into jagged shards and you sit in the bathroom with a big wad of Kleenex for an hour. And then when you have stopped sniffling, he very carefully patches you back together so that you can finish the book and find out how it all turns out. An author who can do that… well, it is a gift.

Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book really worked for me. It is a story of a boy named Nobody who is adopted by ghosts, and I admit I shed a few tears over him as well.

Next up, there is a new Shannon Hale book I want to read. Question: If you could pick just one book for me to read, what would it be?

The One With the Baby Bruin

My grandson Jif (yes, it is an alias…it would not be right to name a child after peanut butter, even if it is the one choosy mothers choose) has finally reached a decision about which law school to attend. Well, okay, it is actually his parents, Josh and Jessi… and they based it solely on proximity to Disneyland. Yes…it’s UCLA Law School!

Proximity to Disneyland may not have been the only factor. It seems that UCLA slid in at the last minute with a scholarship offer that was so good it even beat out Univ. of Texas Austin by a few thousand. Tuition at UCLA Law School is $43k a year, and Josh received scholarships that bring the tuition to $11k a year. And it doesn’t hurt that they will only be an hour away from us. Unless it is 3:00 p.m. on a weekday…then it is more like three hours.

I’m going to take credit for this one. For all of it. For the scholarship offers, the acceptance letters…everything. I ate really well when I was pregnant. Face facts: it’s not like he just got that smart all by himself.