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• Lessons

  • From: keysa96
  • Description:

    So at thirty years old I never imaged I'd be living back at home and starting over not just for the first time but a second. I appearently I haven't learned any lessons from five crappy years with Heather, I had to go for a repeat performance with Shannon. I've been trying not to think about the shit she and I did but at every turn there is a reminder (whether a person or place).  I just keep wishing I had a time machine and I would go back to pivot points in my life and change things...yes, I know that won't make who I am today but honestly I'm not fond of who I am today. I know everyone will say things will work out how they should in the end but really, people is that a valid answer? I think not. Everyone else's life is in the fast forward lane and I'm stuck on pause...yes, I realize I have the power to change things and I am workin on it. Believe me when I say I am not just sitting on my ass doing nothing! Lately I when I look at pictures from three or more years ago I see a happier me and I am finding it hard not to cry when I see them because I know how I felt when it was taken and I don't feel that way anymore. I am tired of being the third wheel, whether its with other people's husbands or babies. But here's the weird part I have no real desire to get married again and other people's children are better because at the end of the day you can hand them back! So why do I care that I'm not married with children? I don't know, I guess maybe because I didn't think I would the last one standing that includes my younger sister! I like being single but I hate it too, it would be nice to go out with someone on a regular basis.

    Anyway, I'm just a little vexed with my life so don't mind me right now...just venting people...so no need to hop on the phone to make sure I haven't jumped out the nearest window!

  • Blog post
  • 11 months ago
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• Betty Wilson gets critical acc

  • From: AlphaWorld
  • Description:

    By  Robert S. Newman "Bob Newman" (Marblehead, Massachusetts USA) - See
    all my reviews
    
    
    Back in the 1930s, `40s and `50s, John Gunther wrote a series of books
    called "Inside Europe", "Inside Asia" etc. I read them decades ago with
    considerable interest, but along the way I realized that he interviewed
    some top figures in each country that he visited, threw in some local
    color and gossip, and that was that. He didn't get "inside" more than
    one or two places. Now, if you really want an inside look at another
    world, you couldn't do better than get hold of MR. JEFFERSON'S PIANO.
     From plugging rat holes, to crazy tenants, to corrupt or lazy
    supervisors, to suffocating bureaucracy and one woman's struggle to
    wend her way through all this and still stay sane---in short, every
    last detail of the New York public housing scene as it looked in Harlem
     from 1978 to 2001---this novel brings you inside public housing in
    Harlem in colorful, spellbinding detail. I could hardly put it down.
    
    The thing is, though, that "novel" may not be the correct term here.
    The author claims everything is fictitious. As an anthropologist, I can
    feel the accuracy of all the observations made in the book. Betty
    Wilson certainly stuck to the old axiom for writers, "Write what you
    know." If she doesn't know the ups and downs, ins and outs of public
    housing in Central Harlem, I'll eat my hat....or even several hats ! I
    read this as the inside story on the world of the crumbling tenements,
    cops and drug addicts, both caring and useless officials, junkyard
    dogs, and stubborn old ladies hanging on in the once-beautiful
    apartments of Harlem. A book that constantly came to mind was Dennis
    Smith's "Report from Engine Co. 82", which I read back in 1972 but
    never forgot because of its honest reportage from the inside about the
    New York fire department. Wilson's book reminded me of Smith's, which
    was classed as non-fiction, because every line rings true. Is it
    fiction ? I will leave that to readers and the author. If it's fiction,
    it is based on long experience; the endlessly fascinating stories
    (which kind of telescope one into another) are drawn from gritty
    reality. I'm not sure how necessary it was to include the marriage and
    personal life of the narrator (Melba Farris) nor the section on the
    events of 9-11, though it was moving. While a book portraying the daily
    life of public housing supervisors, inspectors, building
    superintendents and the tenants they "serve" is unique, books about
    battered wives and bad marriages are legion. There are also large
    numbers of pieces on "my experience on Sept. 11, 2001."
    
    I would hope that this book reaches people in many walks of life. It's
    one of those rare slice of life-books that reveal a world that the vast
    majority of people know nothing about. It could be required reading in
    many kinds of courses---from urban anthropology, field work methodology
    and organizational behavior to management and labor relations. It will
    keep your attention all the way no matter why you read it. I usually
    keep five stars for works by the giants of world literature or great
    books of history and anthropology, and I have to admit Wilson is not
    quite up to Austen, Balzac, Tolstoy, Morrison, or Bellow. However, this
    is a fascinating book, regardless of stars.
    

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 92
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• Teresa Allen wins yet another

  • From: AlphaWorld
  • Description:

    The Right Choice by Teresa Allen, Contest #200807

    Printer page Email article

    With fingerprint in hand, Susan's heart began to race, for she had a perfect print. This could be the clue she needed to clear her father. Susan took the fingerprint to the police lab and they were surprised that she had been able to get such a fine print, and had not given up. The print was not her father's so he would be released from jail for the robbery of their neighbor. The print pulled up a man who had been arrested many times for the same crime.
    
    "Mr. Daniels we are so sorry for the mistaken identity," said the police chief as he open the cell door to let Susan’s father out. "If it had not been for the persistence of your daughter, a rookie with our department, well...let's just say things might not have turned out the way they did."

    "I'm proud of my daughter Susan," said her father. He reached over and took her in his arms.

    Susan realized in that moment that she had chosen the right path for her career. Helping the innocent was always what she did best.

    ---

    Teresa Allen , from Albuquerque, NM, has a new murder/mystery novel that has just been released and is working on getting several children manuscripts considered for publication. Her newly published novel is Marti Brown and the House of Face. You may visit her website at: www.teresarallen.com. Allen's blog is called, "MY Books."

    © 2008 Teresa Allen. Original for CCF (Allen grants CCF  first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology).

    
    
  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 66
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• Queenie McBride

  • From: LyndseyD
  • Description:

    Queenie McBride seems to be the most loved character from The Trouble with Emily Dickinson. I'm considering a sequel to the book with her in a lead role. I'd love some feedback. Let me know what you think ...

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 84
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