Friday Retro...

Here's another instance when I wish I could invent a time machine... The graduating class of 1911 Barnard College.

In 1889, Barnard College was started for women who wanted an education due to Columbia University's policy on only admitting men. Good news, right? Maybe, but see this is where I would really like to be able to talk with these graduates. What did they study? What were their options?  

The college's history page http://barnard.columbia.edu/about/womens-college/history states Barnard was "...one of the few in the nation, where women could receive the same rigorous and challenging education available to men."

Was it really as rigorous and challenging?  During a time when women fought so hard for equality this statement could be totally accurate, or it could be complete balderdash.

Thus, my desire to go back and discuss, to see with my own eyes. To experience not just college life of 1911, but to also explore the suffragette movement from an up close and personal perspective.

A Day in the Life of Serena 

Song of the Day:  Two Princes by Spin Doctors

Currently Reading: Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward

Currently Writing:  Werewolves.  Editing:  The Submission

Just Finished...

Born to Darkness by Suzanne Brockmann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Joseph, Anna... I'm heartbroken!! ~sniff~ I loved this story, but I'm hoping there are more to come and very, very soon...

View all my reviews


 A Day in the Life of Serena 

Song of the Day:   Boot Scootin' Boogie by Brooks & Dunn.  Hubby was playing it in the car the other day, now it's replaying through my mind over and over.  Good thing I'm a fan of boot scootin' plus I got a flash out of it for my Shapeshifter Seduction blog!  ;)

Currently Reading: Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward

Currently Writing:  Werewolves.  Editing:  The Submission

Quote of the Day:  Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?

- Lawrence Durrell

 
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Tuesday Temptation...Gale Hawthorne

So yesterday I blogged that I'm on Team Gale, well check out the picture above and you'll see why!  Liam Hemsworth, ~sigh~ such a sexy thing.  Too bad I'm old enough to be his...er, um big sister.

Yes, I did say big sister but that's as good as I can do.  I realize age is nothing but a thing, but I'm still feeling the need to fight mine, tooth and nail.

In addition to Liam being so darn good-looking he has an equally fine brother, Chris (of Thor fame.)  Temptations indeed!!

Last, but not least is the pleasure I get from Darling Diva giving me the "Mooo-um" voice and blushing wildly when she says I should be on Team Peeta.  Ah, young love.  I remember mine...C. Thomas Howell.  Do you remember yours?

A Day in the Life of Serena 
Song of the Day:   Vogue by Madonna.  "Rita Hayword, gave good face..." I love that line!  Tell me you're not thinking of the Vogue dance right now.  ;) 

Currently Reading: Born To Darkness by Suzanne Brockmann

Currently Writing:  Werewolves.  Editing:  The Submission

Quote of the Day:  The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.

- Elie Wiesel

Movies...A Tool For Reading?

Is it really Monday?  I think I missed Sunday along the way...

As is typical in life these days, my weekend went by crazy fast. Darling Divas voice lessons on Friday night, shopping and general have to get done chores on Saturday and a whirlwind of things on Sunday one of which being a promise I made to Darling Diva over spring break.  Finish reading The Hunger Games book and I will take you to see the movie. 

Yes, parents will use any tool available to get their kids to read.

~Interesting side note:  I think my mother cursed me...  You know how parents at one point or another say to their kids, "You just wait until you have a child of your own!"  Yeah, for my mom it always revolved around reading.  LOL  No matter how hard she tried, when I was young, she could not pull my nose from a book.  Yard work bored me, cleaning was a punishment to my way of thinking and sports...no thank you, all the things my mom enjoyed brought tears to my eyes.  So as the killer of my mom's simple dreams for me (as all children do growing into themselves) she always warned "You just wait...your child will hate reading!"  Guess what, she was right!  Okay, hate's maybe too strong of a word for Darling Diva's feelings of the written word, but she can always find something else to do when I suggest reading.~

Anyway, back on target...  Apparently this movie was worth the cost of reading, because Darling Diva did finish the book...and started the next one, Catching Fire, because she like Hunger Games that much.  So I got tickets for opening weekend.  I'd hoped to have more time to read the book myself before seeing the movie, but no such luck.  I wanted to encourage her to read more and that meant following through on my promise.  However, seeing the movie before the book has not diminished my interest in reading the story...the movie was incredibly compelling and paralleled RL society in so many ways.  The book and movie have started many meaningful conversations between DD and I about starving people, our responsibilities as good and caring people in the world and even love/war/death. 

And on a lighter note for my Darling Diva who I live to amuse...the following picture:  

Stop by tomorrow and see why I'm firmly on Team Gale and not Team Peeta like my daughter.  :)

A Day in the Life of Serena 

Song of the Day:   Birdland by The Manhattan Transfer. I'm feeling Jazzy today.  :)  

Currently Reading:  Kiss Me if You Can by Carly Phillips

Currently Writing:  Werewolves & Blogs.  Editing:  The Submission

Friday Retro...

House, Houston, Texas  1943 May

Okay, now isn't this the bomb-diggity of old homes!!  Yes, it's run-down, but I can't help wondering, dreaming about what it looked like first built.  Plus, how cool would the inside be...  I'd love to check out that little turret room!  And, to sit out on the wrap-around deck with a cool glass of Lemonade or Iced Tea on a hot Texas day...Heaven!!

A Day in the Life of Serena 

Song of the Day:   After Midnight by Eric Clapton.  Doesn't this house scream after midnight fun!! 

Currently Reading:  Original Sin by Allison Brennan.  Nearing the end, this is really an interesting read.

Currently Writing:  Werewolves.  Editing:  The Submission - I made it through three scenes yesterday which put me at exactly have way through!  Woot!

Quote of the Day:  Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.

- Stéphane Mallarmé
*Ha, my muse feels the same way!*
 
 Link of the Day:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress  Incredible photos!

Wednesday Weave...

What?  Wednesday Weave...where's the Wednesday Word??  Not to worry, it's still around.  Today it's at the bottom of the blog, but it'll eventually be front and center.  I wanted to shake things up a bit on Wednesday's.

So check this picture out...I did that!  Okay, maybe I should start at the beginning...stop, rewind, play...

Last week, during my awesome spring break/escape from the web(lol) Darling Diva taught me how to weave, a skill she started learning in school.  She brought home her weaving project to show her Dad and I so I did what all parents should do and asked questions, starting with how did you make that.  Well, she was enthused by the process.  Instead of telling me, she was determined to show me.  As gently as I could I reminded her that we don't have a loom, so she'd have to tell me...

"Mooouum"  Yeah, can hear the exasperation in that voice.  I swear all kids are born with that tone, I know I had it as a youngling, but for me it was always, "Mo-ther"

Anyway, come to find out all we needed for a workable loom was some different sized cardboard pieces...well that I have!  What I didn't have much of is yarn.  I had a standard Red, Black and White from a Christmas project  we did together a couple of years ago, but that was it.  Darling Diva made it work though and cracked out a lovely red and white piece to show me how to do it.  From there I was intrigued.  I've always loved to do crafts and large scale weaving was so enticing, but who has the room or money for a larger loom.  Knitting is killer on my wrists and I have yet to pick up on how to crochet, but weaving like this...it felt right.

So I'm attempting a scarf with the treasure my sister-in-law(whose been more a sister to me from the moment we first met-I got really lucky with my hubby's family) gave us.  Darling Diva taught her the new skill as well and was overjoyed with the mother load of yarn her aunt wanted to share with her.  Yep, that bag is packed full of balls of delight.

I also learned of the joys to be had in balling yarn.  Who knew taking yarn from the skein and making it into a ball was so darn relaxing!  I can't wait to buy more.  :)

I'll be keeping ya'll updated on my progress on the scarf.  If anyone has any weaving tips, drop me a note...I'd love to hear them.



A Day in the Life of Serena 

Song of the Day:   Devil With the Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly by Mitch Ryder.  Back when I was young I would pretend to sing back-up on this song...of course I was never very good at being back up since I would start belting out the lead.  LOL

Currently Reading:  Original Sin by Allison Brennan

Currently Writing:  Blogs.  Editing:  The Submission

Quote of the Day:  Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone.
 - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
In honor of World Poetry Day.

 Word of the Day:  Limerick  -  a kind of a witty, humorous, or nonsense poem, especially one in five-line anapestic or amphibrachic meter with a strict rhyme scheme (AABBA), which is sometimes obscene with humorous intent.

Refreshed & Ready

So I accidentally on purpose, went offline last week.  Why?  For a couple of reasons actually.  First, it was Darling Diva's Spring Break.  Not much work gets done during that week...fun and games rule the roost, but last week she an I got an even bigger surprise.  The hubster took the entire week off and spent it with his two favorite ladies!

So what did we do?  Well, it was a staycation for three and it was far better than any vacation we could have taken.  We played, we rested....we laughed and joked, read and played cards...we visited with family.  We decompressed from the prior weeks of craziness.  We needed that...I needed that.  My wrist and shoulder are feeling better after giving them a week of little keyboarding and my mind is ready to focus, once again, on writing.

I sent my loves off to work and school this morning with sadness in my heart.  The wildness of life begins again, but I have the memories of our wonderful week to sustain me.

A Day in the Life of Serena 

Song of the Day:   Draw the line by Aerosmith

Currently Reading:  Black Ops Bodyguard by Donna Young

Currently Writing:  Blogs.  Editing:  The Submission

Quote of the Day: Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that noise.

- Philip Roth
The author of American Pastoral was born on this day in 1933.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Friday Retro...

Hehe...well if you insist. ~wink~ 

A Day in the Life of Serena 

Song of the Day:  No Rain by Blind Melon 

Currently Reading:  Baby, Don't Go by Stephanie Bond 

Currently Writing:  Ideas and plot for werewolf story.  Editing:  The Submission

Quote of the Day:  Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. - Harper Lee

 
 

Wednesday Word of the Day

Profluent \PROF-loo-uhnt\, adjective:

Flowing smoothly or abundantly forth.

~Ha!  There are many a day when I would love to be profluent.~

Profluent is derived from the Latin word prōfluere, which meant "to flow forth." ~dictionary.com

A Day in the Life of Serena

Song of the Day:  I Feel The Earth Move by Carole King

 

Currently Reading:  Deadly Sins by Lora Leigh 

 

Currently Writing:  Ideas and plot for werewolf story.  Editing:  The Submission 

 

Awesome New Find:  AutoCrit  http://www.autocrit.com/index.php  I've been trying out the free version to see if this would be a useful thing for me and so far I'm loving it!

Monday Musing...

"Hurry...hurry, gah!"  William tried to stop looking around the tree every five seconds. He tried to focus on relieving the twisting pain of an over full bladder. Of course, if seeing the bride turn into a wolf; a big, slobbering wolf...the kind that could end his life as quickly as she had the grooms, hadn't started the stream of warm down his leg, then what would? 

~My muse is intrigued by this picture today...or she really needs to pee.  Who knows with her some days.  LOL~


A Day in the Life of Serena

Song of the Day:  Long Twin Silver Line by Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band.  1980 - I was just starting to solidified my own teenage musical tastes and loves, but I was still immersed in my parents choice of music.  I was blessed to have parents with Grand Canyon sized tastes in music.  We listened to everything.  New music, old music...all music.  Yes, when my own tastes emerged there was that typical "Ugh, that song, again?" question by my parents, but there could still be heard Bob Seger, Arlo Guthrie, Cat Stevens, Beatles, Stones...the list goes on and on, coming from my room.  They taught me to be well-rounded.  Hopefully, I'm doing the same with my Darling Diva.

 

Currently Reading:  Tall, Dark and Devastating by Suzanne Brockmann.  Specifically, Hawken's Heart of this two story bundle.  This story makes me cry; deep, gut-wrenching tears, every time I read it.  Yet, I continue to go back and read it, it is just that good. 

 

Currently Writing:  Ideas and plot for werewolf story.  Editing:  The Submission - Loosing the overabundance of was' is really tightening up the story nicely.  Even better will be getting rid of the ands.  :)