Everyone Loves a Roadtrip

Unless the roadtrip is 10 hours each way.
For a long ass trip, it actually went by pretty fast. We had iPhones, iPods and Kindles to keep up entertained. Plus, it was THREE sisters traveling together so we had plenty of people things to talk about!

When I was 5, my parents decided to uproot our lives and move us to Mississippi. One sister was already married , one sister was engaged so they got to stay home but one sister was only 16 so she had to go.
We moved to a TINY town where there was one school that housed 1st through 12th grade. I started 1st grade there and my sister finished up her sophomore year and started her junior year there....in the same school. It was weird.

Last weekend was Sister 3's 30 year highschool reunion. She and I planned to go but when Sister 2 heard we were going, she asked if she could tag along.

It was strange to see a place 30 years later. My memories belong to a 6 or 7 year old little girl and I wondered if they would match up to the reality.
In some ways they did. Places were, of course, a lot smaller than I remembered and unfortunately, some places were gone....like the first two houses we rented.

One is now a tree farm and another is a gas plant.

The creek where we use to swim is so much smaller than I imagined but still the same in so many ways.

Surprisingly, we had a good time. Being on the road for 20 + hours in three days is very tiring but the experience was well worth it.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

I was on page 2 when I tweeted this: If I had balls, I'd say that this author really grabs you by the balls but since I don't, I'll just say he writes well.
I was talking about Andrew Davidson and The Gargoyle. Those first few pages really grabbed you; with both hands....really big hands.
For a while I couldn't put it down but I did because Mockingjay came out. I mostly blame Mockingjay for knocking me off course but The Gargoyle became a little too long.
So, this guy was a porn star, drug user and all around not-so-very-nice guy. He gets into a HORRIBLE car accident and it's chilling the way he describes the crash...absolutely chilling.

He's burned beyond recognition but somehow still survives. He literally loses everything but then he meets Marianne in the hospital and he's drawn to this mysterious woman.
She knows him but not in this incarnation, she says.

Figuring out who Marianne is, who the narrator is...well...it takes an awful long time and for a while I stopped caring.
Inside the story are more stories and for a long while I wondered what the hell those stories had to do with the book but finally it all came together.
I mean...FINALLY.

Don't get me wrong, I'd recommend The Gargoyle to most people. It's very unusual and beautifully written. Davidson weaves a romantic yet tragic tale and obviously did a lot of research. Believe it or not, this is his debut novel.
I'll be looking for more from this author.

Short Attention Span Blogging

• I'm in mourning. Baseball season ended for me on Sunday. These last few days I've felt sort of empty and lost. I didn't realize how much I've been involved in baseball this year. It's going to be a long 5 months.


• I am thankful to a complete stranger on Facebook. I went to the game on Saturday and it was a perfect night (except for the fact that the Astros lost). The roof was open, the weather was glorious...just a wonderful night for baseball. I woke up Sunday morning regretting the fact that I didn't get tickets for Sunday's game - the last game of the season. I was moping around the house for a while, then got on Facebook and saw a post from an Astros fan who had tickets she wasn't using. After trading emails, she sent the tickets to me and I had 20 minutes to make it to the game. I barely had any make up on and my hair was still wet in the back but I made it to the game and enjoyed amazing seats and perfect weather...oh and an Astros win!


• I'm angry about this story: http://bit.ly/9UxtU9 Firefighters watched as a man's home burned down with his pets inside because the man forgot to pay his municipal fees. How is this even ok? What kind of heartless people allowed this to happen?


• Still loving my Kindle. I have read so many books since getting it. I don't know what it is but I read faster on the device. I have tons of book reviews to get to. I'll get to those soon.


• I'm going on a road trip with two of my sisters. When I suggested we bring a small cooler for some water and snacks, Sister 3 said she was bringing a bottle of wine because we'll be staying in a dry county. I said in that case, we'd need a bigger cooler. Sister 2 asked if it was too late to back out.