November 29, 2006

Thirteen Opening Lines from Classic NovelsYou Should Have Read by Now
(can you name the book?)

1. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man inpossession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
Answer (highlight to see it): Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

2. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”
Answer: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

3. Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.
Answer: Homer’s The Odyssey

4. “A throng of bearded men, in sad-coloured garments and greysteeple-crowned hats, inter-mixed with women, some wearinghoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a woodenedifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, andstudded with iron spikes.”
Answer: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (this is from chapter one, not the introduction)

5. “A surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate.”
Answer: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

6. “Tom!”
Answer: Come on! You didn’t have to check this one, did you? Really?
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. You know who wrote it.

7. “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”
Answer: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

8. “The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon.”
Answer: The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

9. “It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
Answer: 1984 by George Orwell

10. “On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though
in hesitation, towards K. Bridge.”
Answer: Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

11. “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.”
Answer: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

12. “This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history.”
Answer: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

13. “The Salinas Valley is in Northern California.”
Answer: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

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November 29, 2006

I’m sure you’re all delighted and astonished to know that, yes, I can now say I’ve moved pianos.

It’s quite an art, really. Have you ever seen anyone move a grand piano? It’s really very interesting, breathtaking, and yet frightening–especially when it’s your dear husband under the big thing.

But let me back up.

When I first met my Music Man, he was trying to find himself after five years of working as an engineer. (If you know anything about my MM, you’d know that having him sit at a computer station all day, every day, on a certain schedule, in the midst of corporate politics, just isn’t him. I shudder to think of it!)

Anyway, he was trying to “find” himself and one of the things he did when we first met was move pianos for almost a year. He worked with a big guy named Jimbo, and they were perfectly suited to work together: they read each other’s minds, and that made moving those big instruments a piece of cake. Jimbo taught my guy everything he knew.

For awhile, my MM owned a grand piano (are you starting to see where the moniker comes from?) that he leased out to musicians when they visited Philadelphia (where we lived at the time)–for jazz fests, for example, or other traveling musicians (such as the late, great Warren Zevon).

Once, during their heyday, Wilson Phillips leased the piano and he had to bring it to a small little studio where they were rehearsing. We got to sit in on a very impromptu and extremely intimate session with the gals–my big brush with fame! Woohoo!

Anyway, this long story’s getting really out of hand, but suffice to say that Music Man has lots of experience moving the big instruments. And one time, he moved our grand piano by himself.

When a grand is moved, in case you aren’t aware, its legs are removed and it’s tipped onto its side–the straight side opposite that curved one, so that the curved one is toward the ceiling. And it’s put on the little piano dolley that they use to relocate the instrument.

For me, it was a combination of horror and total turn-on. I kept waiting for the darn thing to crash over to one side, yet I couldn’t look away, ’cause there were a lot of bulging muscles and interesting grimacing going on.

And of course, I could do little but stand there and gape. He moved it out of the little house we lived in (fortunately, there weren’t any stairs) and onto a big truck. All by himself.

So, here we are, more than fifteen years later, and while he doesn’t move pianos very often, because he’s a Music Man, sometimes he gets into a situation where a piano has to be moved…and, well, since he considers himself the best mover in the business (no confidence problems there!), he often manages the move.

Last night, a last-minute move came up and he called to see if I would help since he couldn’t get ahold of his regular helper. I nearly fell off my chair, but, since I’d been procrastinating on my own work, I seized the opportunity.

My payment, he said, would be dinner out. I was delighted (you all know how much I love to eat out), yet more than a bit frightened.

What if the darn thing fell on me and broke my fingers so I couldn’t type?

Anyway, it was a piece of cake. Couldn’t have been an easier move (thank goodness). First of all, it wasn’t a grand, and secondly, it was a smallish little upright.

I did very little but move wadded-up blankets around so they’d be in the right position when he lowered the piano to the ground/floor/sidewalk, etc. Although I did help to push it up a little ramp over the front steps of the house.

He snapped out orders to me (admitting later that he realized I wasn’t Jimbo, but I was at least a lot prettier than he was~and I provided fringe benefits he never got from Jimbo), and I managed to get through the move with nary a scratch or broken nail.

And, the lady whose house we moved it to was delighted to hear I was an author (when I wasn’t moving pianos), and she can’t wait for my book to come out.

And then the Music Man took me to dinner. What more could a girl ask for?

November 28, 2006

Name the band…

1. To have you with me I would
swim the seven seas
2. Crazy little woman in a one
man show
3. Went the distance, now I’m
back on my feet
4. Got in a little hometown jam,
so they put a rifle in my hand
5. There is freedom within,
there is freedom without
6. But whatever road you choose,
I’m right behind you win or lose
7. I need fifty dollars to make
you holler
8. So let’s sink another drink `cause it’ll give me time to think
9. Goddess on the mountain top
10. Couldn’t see how much I missed you (now I do)
11. They even bother my poor father `cause he’s down with me
12. Where can I find a woman like that
13. Paul, I think I told you I’m a lover not a fighter
14. Mine’s an ordinary life, working when it’s daylight and sleeping
when it’s night
15. I had a whiskey on the rocks and change of a dollar for the jukebox

(and yayyy! I have an excuse to post a pic of my favorite singer!)

November 27, 2006

This is the time of year I always remember the first time I watched, and then, later, the first time I read, Gone With the Wind.

I don’t remember how old I was when I first saw it–likely in middle school–but it was over Thanksgiving break, and I was immediately in love with Rhett, of course.

It wasn’t until years later that I actually picked up the book to read–during my first week of college final exams (mid December), when I should have been studying. (Not the smartest move I’ve ever made.)

Fortunately, I passed all my classes (respectable As and Bs) and still managed to read the book in less than a week.

I’m thinking this might be the year I’ll introduce my oldest daughter to the movie (she’s ten) because she’s fallen in love with Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice. (She’s obviously her mother’s daughter.)

I remember once when I was in college, a friend of mine watched the movie while it was on TV. She told me the next day that I reminded her of Scarlett. I’m still trying to figure out if that’s a compliment or not….

Anyway, my favorite scenes are when Scarlett dresses up in the curtains and goes to visit Rhett in jail. He’s just so suave and cool…and then it’s a bit heart-breaking when he realizes Scarlett’s not there because she cares about him, but because she wants something from him.

And I love the scene where he sweeps her up in his arms in that blood-red gown she’s wearing, and carries her up the staircase. (And then the next morning where she looks like a cat that’s been into the cream.)

Poor Rhett. Talk about the perfect reformed rake. The perfect character arc of selfishness and superficiality that culminates in “twu wuv,” only to have it dashed away by the inimitable Scarlett.

So perfectly matched they were, yet Scarlett’s character didn’t grow along the same path as Rhett’s. While he came to learn selflessness and deep, abiding love, she learned she could only rely on herself to get what she wanted.

One of the most romantic stories ever told, yet it doesn’t have a happy ending. Or does it?

Do you think Scarlett ever got Rhett back?

November 24, 2006

…and who’s recovering from eating too much, cooking too much, drinking too much, napping too much?

Me? I’m having lunch with my two best writing buddies while everyone else is pounding the pavement at the stores.

I’m much too impatient to wait in lines and push through crowds and organize my shopping. I’m more of a haphazard kind of girl.

So, lunch with the ladies. Hopefully, the new James Bond tonight with the Music Man.

Hope all who celebrated Thanksgiving had a great one!