Upside Ann

 Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving....  Terry Pratchett This could have (should have?) been the title of this blog.  I'm back in Versailles - but it isn't the same me.

 "I used to know him," Everett said on their way back to the car, pointing a curled finger at one of the headstones.  "He worked at the tannery out by the water tower.  Played the violin."  Becky looped her arm through his.  "Was he good?" "Better than me." "You play the violin?" "Nope," Everett said. The dead visit us in our dreams? Or do we just conjure them up out of grief or some other need and insert them into our subconscious.   "What was it like?" It took Mrs. Dodson a moment to answer. "I won't lie to you," she said with a shrug that was mostly performed with her thin brow, "dying was unpleasant.  But death? It's wonderful."

I'm fading quickly as the new year starts slipping into the present.  It is almost (gosh!) 9 PM. Here you can see us at our most wild and crazy- about to crack open the sparkling grape juice to toast in 2026 while supping on D'giorno Four Cheese Pizza.  That was 7 PM and as confirmation that I am living where I belong, that meal was interrupted by booms from outside... fireworks over Versailles.  It has been a fine year- but I think we can do better.  Who's with me? From Buckeye by Patrick Ryan: "Rockwell's ability to paint a thing that resembled itself was impressive but his work was too exact for Margaret's taste.  He was always capturing perfect moments and then putting them under a microscope to find cute parts." I am not disappointed to be tossing my 2025 calendar.  I am not a fan of Norman Rockwell's art.  I think I dated a man who was, once.  (Obviously, that didn't last.)  I find this image to be really disturbing.  Look at that ...

 The Court of Silver Flames by Sarah Maas The Bone Hacker by Kathy Reichs Wings of Fire: The Hidden Kingdom by Tuit Guterland (Z) The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom The One Man by Andrew Gross Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher All the Ever Afters by Daniele Teller The Last House on Needless Street by Catrina Ward The Crown  by Sarah Maas Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harrison For Better and Worse by Margot Hunt Masters of Death by Olivie Blake Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers by Alexander Mcall Smith After Death by Dean Koontz Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas Crown of Midnight by Sarah Maas Heir of Fire by Sarah Maas Queen of Shadows by Sarah Maas The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi Empire of Storms by Sarah Maas Tower of Dawn by Sarah Maas Kingdom of Ash by Sarah Maas Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry The Assassin's Blade by Sarah Maas The Dark Secret by Tuit Guterland (Z)  The Brightest Night by Tuit Guterland (Z) Moon Rising by T...

 Run Around by Blues Traveler Games People Play by The Spinners There is a Light that Never Goes Out by The Smiths Celebrate Me Home by Kenny Loggins Just like Heaven by The Cure I'm not that Girl from Wicked I did NOT do a very good job with this project!  I guarantee you that I've had many more songs in my head this year.... Recently, while driving home from work, in fact, yesterday while driving home from work I heard Jesus and Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey".  Wow! Took me back to my days at Duke- Friday evenings visiting my friend Tim in the WXDU radio studio where he was spinning tunes for his show, "The Difficult Listening Hour".  Tim, Regina and I were big fans of Laurie Anderson.  Good times.  

Months ago my auntie lent me a book she really enjoyed "Ghost Riders" by Sharyn McCrumb.  As a consequence, I decided "Hey, I think I'll read all of her ballad series" and requested this book from interlibrary loan.  This is the first book in the series and I really enjoyed the story.  It is a mystery...but unlike later books, it is totally free of ghosts.  Dead people ghosts, that is.  Much of the story focuses on ghosts of one's past as Martha is planning her class of 1966 twentieth class reunion and the recently arrived, formerly-famous folk singer Peggy Muryan seems to be harrassed, if not hanted, by her former boyfriend and singing partner who went missing in Vietnam almost that long ago. Two quotes:  They were not yet old enough to treasure acquaintances not for their own virtues, but just because they were people who remembered one's youth. Yes, I'm old enough.  I miss my family not only for who they were, but also for the part of myself they ...