Thread: Chanti's Little Piece of BRM (Comments are loved)

I have been entirely too neglectful of my favorite corner of BM - MINE! Forgive me, dear possibly non existent reader - I have been lazy. And tired. And distracted. And busy. I have had a wonderful, wonderful day though. And I have to write about it between savoring little glances at Andre Rieu in New York City Music Hall via youtube. I worked today. Usually when I work late shifts on Sunday or Saturday its alone. But today I had my cubby buddy there for most of it. She left at 9pm, I left at 11pm. First call of the day, a guy who claimed to be an electrician in full freakout over not having power. Got him handled, but had to call our dispatch to do it. No worries, they handled it. Second call of the day, some guy said he got shocked when he touched a live wire and got knocked on his ass. I called over ti dispatch again, this time they weren't quite so happy to hear from me. unintelligible mumbled greeting that sounded faintly like fuck you get off my phone for fucks sake Hey, its Chanti again. Sorry to bug you guys, but I have a guy who is saying he got shocked, and whenever we have someone claiming injury we have to send them to you. Whatd he do to get shocked? He touched an exposed wire on his AC Well that would do it. Doesn't sound like our problem No, but its still a complaint of shock and we have to send them to you. unintelligble murmur that sounded like fucking incompetent bitch Sorry, what? Send him on over. Third call of the day, from the sheriffs office dispatch inquiring about two reports of damage to poles, wanting to know if the problems were resolved. I call over to dispatch again. unintelligible mumbled greeting that sounded faintly like fuck you get off my phone for fucks sake Hey, I'm so sorry but I have the sheriffs office on the phone and blah blah blah... They got me the info I needed and then just hung up on me. Thank god I didn't have to call them the rest of the night lol. But then my cubby mate got me started. God help her, she is probably going to put in for a transfer to another cubby tomorrow. She asked me about what I like to read. I told her. I love to read just about everything, and showed her my kindle which contains everything from Byron and Cotton Mather to erotic romance to sappy sentimental 18th century literature which I am currently addicted to by the way! More on that later!. We got into a massive discussion on education, the responsibility of people to educate themselves, how to educate yourself, etc. I haven't had a discussiondebate that much fun since my Dad passed away. She was curious about how my reading tastes got developed, and I told her. Just as I will tell you. As a child my mother refused to have a tv - I think I mentioned this before. Partly she refused because she felt it would rot kids brains. She may have a point there. But partly it was because when the warning came about the end of the world, all the tvs in the world are going to blow up. You wouldn't have a bomb in your house, would you? My mother didn't want a tv. Same reason. My mother is a little crazy. But regardless, without a tv my entertainment was playing i the backyard, tormenting the hell out of my brother, and reading. But my tastes in reading were childish, and purely for entertainment. In the middle of sixth grade I moved to live with my dad with straight Fs. My dad took education seriously. He worked all day. Came home, cooked dinner, and then stood over me the rest of the night ensuring my homework was done and helping me with it. At the end of 6th grade my grades had come up to where I was JUST below passing. My dad went to the teacher and told her if she passed me, he would see to it that I brought my first seventh grade report card to her with straight As and Bs. She passed me. My dad worked on me that whole summer, and the next year in seventh grade I got my first report card and he drove me to my elementary school and marched me to my old six grade teachers class where I presented her with a report card of straight As. Later that year we were riding down the road in his truck, just me and him, and he was listening to talk radio. Woe is the state of american education today! They were giving examples of questions kids didn't know that they should, and one was a question presented to 7nth graders - Where is Pearl Harbor? So my dad looks at me and asks, Where is Pearl Harbor? Umm.....erm.....New York? My dad was horrified. He told me years later he couldn't blame me. I was straight As. Clearly I was learning what I was being taught in 7nth grade. By then he didn't have to stand over me, I had been turned loose to sail on my own on the rivers of our education system. As long as my grades were good he was happy. He was no longer happy. That day he marched me down to the library. Now, I went there every week anyway. I was a voracious reader, but I always went to the fiction section. That day, and several weekends after, Daddy made me pick out a history oriented book, a biography, and a scientific oriented book. He would ask a few questions during the week, but he knew if I had a book it was going to get read, so he wasn't overly worried about me actually reading it. When he turned me loose later it was with a love of reading ALL subjects, not just entertaining fiction. My dad gave me not only the ability to educate myself, but the desire to do so. What greater gift can a father give his child? And now...now where most girls buy shoes when they get depressed, I buy books. I am utterly shameless when it comes to buying books. I buy all sorts of stuff. My favorite used bookstore in my old hometown was run by a sweet couple with a large family. They told me they loved seeing me come in because they were curious about what I would come up with to buy. She said most of their customers had a focus. Romances, mysteries, westerns. I had no focus. She said sometimes she bought stuff thinking No one is going to buy this.... And then I would come bringing it to the counter with a big grin on my face. I do, however, have phases. Right now I am addicted, as mentioned earlier, to sappy sentimental overly religious 18th century literature. I mean...disgusting stuff. Ever read the Wide, Wide World by Susan Warner? Go read the reviews on Amazon - the woman gets a lot of hate from the feminist and anti-religious crowd. I get it. I really do. But I don't care. I LOVE that book! So much so I bought her complete works and am working my way through them like they are a rare, extraordinarily treat. Like they are the last chocolate box in the world. Savoring every morsel. Forcing myself to take time between the delicious stories that make me cry self-indulgent tears. I bought more similar books I will read later. The Elsie Dinsmore Series. The Little Peppers series. The Lamplighter by Maria Cummins. Terribly wonderful stuff I can't wait to see if it is as good as Susan Warner. Why do I like the Susan Warner stories so much? I am not a christian, and have no interest in being one. I am an independent young woman with an admittedly mysogenistic side, but still believing a woman can live a fulfilling life by herself without having to marry. At face value, there is no reason I should even like these stories, much less shamelessly adoring them like a 12 year old girl adoring....whatever fucking boy band is the current fad. I think there are several reasons. One - Susan Warner writes her characters very tenderly. There is no other way I can describe it. And something in me responds to that. Two - I like books that educate me, entertain me, or inspire me in some fashion. It is a rare book or author that can do all three at once - and Susan Warner does just that. I am educated about daily life in the 18th century. What books they read, what food they ate, what they believed, what kind of social lives they had, what kind of jobs they had, etc. I am entertained because these are sweet stories, even if extremely preachy. Somehow the preachiness adds to the stories instead of taking away like it usually does. And I am inspired, because regardless of what you think about religion in general, there are facets of religion that DO work to inspire people to be better people. Also, Susan Warner places a very strong emphasis on education - especially for girls. Not just an education with a sewing needle either. But a real education of mathematics and science and grammar and foreign languages. As a direct result of a steady diet of Susan Warner over the last week I have been inspired. And last night I bought....coughs and whips out her kindle The Complete Works of Byron, The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spencer, The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, Algebra 1 for dummies, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbons, The New Latin Grammar, and the Federalist Papers. I am wierd. I confess it. And I glory in it. And it's 230. So I am going to bed. Goodnight, Blue Moon.