Such a Pretty Random Blog

Eh, I missed blogging so here is just a random one as I wait for Bridezillas to come on, then Design Star, and finally Army Wives.

The title of today’s blog is due in part to Jen Lancaster’s newest memoir Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest to Discover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer which I finished reading today.  Thanks to my cyber pal Gridiron Goddess who introduced me to Jen’s first memoir, the popular, snarky, and laugh out loud Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office.  In between Bitter and Such a Pretty Fat is the snarkalicious Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl’s Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me?

Reading Jen’s memoirs, you will often laugh out loud as I did Friday while reading Bright Lights, Big Ass at work, you will agree with her thoughts on life and weight loss attempts via Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, or you will be reading about her neighbors, only to drive home and see a teenager riding his bike by sitting on his handlebars and doggedly refusing to get out of your way after working a 12 hour day.  Whooo saaaaaaaaaah.

So today’s blog will be a poem of sorts, umm not really but it will be about the word Sunday since it is written on a Sunday.

S

is for siblings as I sit here waiting for my sole sibling to place his weekly call unto me.  I missed last week’s call so I am eager to talk to him but I hope he calls before 9:00.  I would love to hear how his comedy show went last week at the Juneteenth Festival.  He’s an up and coming Christian comic.  And he’s bonafied thanks to YouTube.

U

is for the umpteen hours of TV I will watch, books I will read, and naps I will take on a Sunday.   And for the umpteenth time I want to know, why didn’t they just use a set of real twins when making The Parent Trap?  And then to do that same concept twice?  Okay, I get that the budget might have been smaller when the original was first made, but the most recent version surely had a bigger budget and the Olsen twins at their beck and call.  Yesterday they showed the original on Hallmark and now the Lindsay Lohan version is on ABC Family.

N

is for the neighbors who are seriously make me contemplate moving this year after living here for 6 years.  All of them leave trash outside their doors, but the ones next door left one newspaper outside the only door we have, the door they walk past at least 6 times a day per person, especially that youngest daughter who loves to slam the bleeping door.  The newest neighbors on my floor put the bumper sticker that belongs on their car that proclaims their child is a good student at No Child Left Behind Elementary School on their door.  They’ve had a plant outside their door for almost two months.  It’s dead.  It’s really just a pot with dirt that they keep putting water in. They also eat at McDonald’s a lot and leave that bag outside their door as well.  They seem to have a strong dislike for real trash bags and seem able to only have trash in Wal Mart bags that they leave outside for days on end.  The ones next door to them drink a lot and leave that trash outside.  I don’t even speak to none of these people.  Well I did to the dad of the No Child Left Behind Elementary School Achiever one day when he decided to hammer the bottle tops from countless bottles of Heineken purportedly for NCLBESA’s homework assisgnment outside my door.

D

is for quotes about dreams.  This week, someone cheered me up and reminded me of my focus in life by sharing with me two quotes about dreams.   “Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you.” ~ Marsha Norman

“To dream anything that you want to dream. That’s the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed.” ~ Bernard Edmonds

A

is for the amazing wonder that is Aldi.  For no real reason, I never shopped there until sometime in May.  I was such a novice that I didn’t even know about the shopping carts for a quarter thing.  Today I went just to get some water so no need for a bag, just the $.25 cart, but they had some dried fruit on sale so I grabbed several packs, paid 10 cents for a bag and then I might have did the next part wrong.  My cart was in the way as I tried to bag and pay at the same time.  So feeling slightly embarrassed, I left the store.   I just need them to have 2 sets of car by both doors so I don’t have to walk around the corner to return the cart and get my $.25 back.  Otherwise, Aldi rocks!  Bread for $1.19/loaf?

Y

is for me saying, “You heffas are crazy/trippping/bleeping nuts” as I watch Bridezillas.  I watched like 3 episodes last season and am currently on the third episode of the new season and I seriously shake my head at these brides with their “This is MY day/It’s all about the bride” mentality and have the nerve to want to be Big Willys when they’re broke.  I would love to do a longitudinal study (psych degree put to use) and see how many of the married couples from the past 2 seasons and the present season lasts beyond 1, 3, 5, and 10 years.  50 years from now if any of them are still married to each other, I say they receive a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Brown Bookshelf’s Summer Chat Series

This summer, the Brown Bookshelf will be hosting three chats on our MySpace forum looking at various aspects of children’s literature.

This week we will examine the state of children’s literature with literary agent Jennifer Carlson.

Jen will answer questions posted on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 from 10AM - 11AM.  Stop by and inquire about children’s literature, present and future.

Charlotte, NC’s Sorority Sister Luncheon

A time to gather, a time to celebrate, a time to uplift, a time to embrace . . .

 

Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, and Sigma Gamma Rho will gather at the Marriott Charlotte City Center in Uptown Charlotte to celebrate sisterhood, not just within, but across, their respective organizations.

 

I will be at the Sister II Sister Sorority Luncheon on June 28, 2008 in Charlotte, NC selling autographed copies of Freshman Focus and Just Be.

Have You Seen My Childhood?

A few weeks ago my mom sent me an article from The Plain Dealer announcing that today, June 12^th, would be the day that Randall Park Mall officially closes minus Sears, Burlington Coat Factory, a sports complex of some sort and the movie theater.  Reading the article, I grew nostalgic for the place that I spent many Saturdays during my adolescence.

 

I grew up in North Randall which is a tiny village outside of Cleveland, Ohio.  North Randall neighbors Warrensville Heights and I lived up the street from the Brown Derby (long gone), Dunkin Donuts (gone), Bob Evans (still in business), Baker’s Square (gone), Denny’s (gone), Best (fare thee well), the Holiday Inn (resting in useless peace), Thistledown, and Randall Park Mall (dying a slow death).

 

Farther down the street away from the mall used to be the Miles Drive In, a place we went as a family when I was a kid and later a place to go on a date as a teenager.  That too has closed.  So much good, so many possibilities, and a whole lot of memories are now gone like dust in the wind.

 

The grand opening of Randall Park Mall was 1976, when I was a toddler to be, and was the mall that many in Cuyahoga County flocked to that year and for many years. 

 

But like time, things change.

 

I no longer live in the area, but every time I go home, I see that something else has disappeared.  When I learned that Geauga Lake, the amusement park closest to my home, easiest and most affordable to go to, and the site of Grad Night in 1993, closed in 2007, I was crushed.  How could a park that opened in 1888 just close?  So many people worked there during high school and college.  Couples and friends used to go there dressed alike and stand in line with their hands in each other’s back pockets, lol.  The home of the Double Loop, the first roller coaster that I ever rode in 1986, Geauga Lake was a fun place for me as a kid and a teen.  Plus I loved to get the cotton candy, salt water taffy, and funnel cake sold there.

 

Next door to Randall Park Mall used to be Children’s Palace which later closed and then reopened as Circuit City which is also now closed.  Before I knew about Toys’R'Us and KB Toys, there was Children’s Palace for all of my toy shopping needs.   For my 8^th birthday, I got a Ms. Pac Man handheld game that was the center of my world until my brother ruined the game in his quest to make the joystick move faster.  He used to pour water on the joysticks not realizing that he was destroying my game.

If someone had told me in the 90s that one day this popular mall would one day resemble a ghost town, I would have laughed in their faces.  But I was young and dumb and didn’t realize that changes do come. 

                                                       

In this day and age of high gas prices, high unemployment, what used to thrill us, doesn’t anymore.  The spaces that used to be occupied by May Company (later Kaufmann’s and then Macy’s), Higbee’s (later Dillards), and JC Penney’s (later Burlington Coat Factory) would one day stand empty or hold less appealing merchandise.

 

On the Saturdays I was at the mall, I entered through Sears, where my first stop was Petrie’s, the place where I purchased many cute outfits, including my Sweet Sixteen party outfit.  I used to buy my music at Camelot.  Back then I purchased tapes or cassette singles like Guy’s debut LP with one of my favorite songs, “Piece of My Love.”

 

I guess even in the 90s, the mall was declining, but in my eyes it was just fine.  I remember seeing Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Lean on Me, Candy Man and a plethora of other movies there in the theater that used to be on the second floor, long before the Magic Johnson theater arrived on the scene.

 

Now with Randall Park Mall closing, I cannot imagine what they are going to put in its place.  I have ideas of what needs to be done to revitalize, rejuvenate the area, but I am not in a position to make my ideas known beyond phone calls with my family and this here blog so here goes.

 

The area needs economy, but it also needs a place for the residents of Warrensville Heights, North Randall, and Cleveland to go.  There used to be a Ponderosa and all sorts of restaurants there in the area that no longer exists.

 

Recently another company, United Church Builders, purchased Randall to save it from its pending close.  While the 2 million square foot mall is in desperate need of something being done to it, becoming a church or a group of churches is not the answer.  The last thing that area needs is a place of worship.  There are enough churches in Cuyahoga County that the corner of Miles and Northfield does not need to join the crowd.

 

The area needs places for people to have a job, a bookstore, a gym, and more shopping choices.  There was recently a Super Wal Mart built about 5 - 7 miles from where the mall is now so they can scratch that off the list of possibilities.  But a Borders, Joseph Beth, Barnes and Noble along side an affordable gym (meaning less than $20/month membership fees) with a few stores would be a great addition.  Allow the people in the area the opportunity to work and shop in their communities.

 

Living in Columbus, Ohio and Charlotte, North Carolina has caused me to grow accustomed to having many choices of food and shopping near by.  There are so many stores that Cleveland doesn’t have or only has one located thirty miles or more away from where you live.

 

Put some sort of gaming complex there like Dave n Busters, Jillians, or a skating rink in the area.  Increase the attractiveness and the appeal of what is now a huge eyesore.

 

 

So much could be done to revitalize the area, but churches are not the answer.  North Randall mayor promises that the area will not become a church, but in my non-mayoral opinion, the name United Church Builders seems to suggest otherwise.

 

I know I can’t bring back all of the stores and places from my childhood nor am I trying to do that.  I just want a place that has the possibilities to regain its potential.  In 2004, I was devastated to read that my hometown was ranked as the #1 Poorest City in the United States.  Building more churches won’t help improve that classification.

 

I love my hometown and want to see it rise out of the miry clay.

Let’s Go Blog Hopping 7

I rock!  That’s just in case you didn’t already know.  I came home yesterday from a long day at work to find out that my hard work reading paid off this weekend and I earned a 2nd place prize with the 48 Hour Reading Challenge!

There were approximately 40 participants this weekend who read thousands upon thousands of pages.  One impressive participant read 6479 pages.  Can you imagine?  She rocks too!

Bibliophile, the reader of 6479 pages, who slept like 5 hours this whole weekend, spent her 48 hours reading series books, including  Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series. 

Jen Robinson and I both read 11 books, but I think I didn’t count my time as accurately so it might be less than 30 hours that I read, but we live and we learn.  Completing this challenge has revved Jen up to where she might do a 24 hour challenge once a month.

Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews announced on her site a YA Romance Reading Challenge that starts July 1 and ends February 28, 2009.  That’s way longer than 48 hours so sign up and fall in love with books again.  Becky also participated this weekend with the challenge and read a book by one of childhood faves, Lois Lowry. 

To check out all of the participants’ blogs, visit Mother Reader and hop away.  I’m sure once you’re done reading and skimming blogs, you’ll find new blogs and books to read.