DOCSLIB.ORG

LAST PRIMER: STORIES THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
LAST PRIMER: STORIES THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council LAST PRIMER: STORIES THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of Texas State University-San Marcos in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of FINE ARTS by Rene S. Perez II, B.A. San Marcos, TX May 2009 LAST PRIMER: STORIES Committee Members Approved: _______________________ Dagoberto Gilb, Chair _______________________ Nelly Rosario _______________________ Jaime Mejia Approved: _______________________________ J. Michael Willoughby Dean of the Graduate College COPYRIGHT by Rene S Perez II 2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to the gatekeepers of this university and this program for letting me in. Thank you to Tom and your rag-tag group of writers and teachers for being the wisdom and half the soul of this program. Thank you Denis for calling me a fellow writer. Thank you Nelly for caring and believing and taking my back. Thank you Dagoberto for doing what the other two did, but also for being a friend and a mentor whose work and characters inspired me to do what I do before I started doing it. Thank you San Marcos, Austin, and Round Rock, for as uninspiring as some of you may seem, I was able to produce within your bounds. Thank you Jardine’s and Wag- a-Bag and CTC@RRHEC and La Jolla Village Mobil for keeping me paid, fed, and grounded in my time as a student. Thank you Bessie Blue the Bronco II, my faithful steed, for never quitting on me even when I wanted to quit on you. Thank you Adam, Ben, John, and Danny for having taken this ride with me—the horror on your faces at times let me know I wasn’t the only one afraid of some heights. Thank you Mom, Dad, Vicki, and Angie for your undying support and for being the first people to pretend what I was writing was good. Finally, and most importantly, thank you to Ulyana for being a friend, a reader, a wife, and a cheerleader. Your love, inspiration, and faith allowed me to pursue this path. If it takes a lifetime of sore muscles and tired bones and 70-80 hour work weeks, I’ll do all it takes to allow you to pursue whatsoever makes you happy in life. This manuscript was submitted on April 14, 2009. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................iv Last Primer .............................................................................................................................1 Closeness to Taste ..................................................................................................................16 One Last Drive North.............................................................................................................38 Letting go a Dream ................................................................................................................50 Curses by Numbers ................................................................................................................60 Ridin Like a Balla ..................................................................................................................69 Lost Days ...............................................................................................................................73 Random Punchlines ...............................................................................................................81 Remember, Before You Go ...................................................................................................102 The Art of Making Something out of Nothing ......................................................................120 AGROSOMAS ......................................................................................................................144 v Last Primer John David Gomez sits waiting for me in his 1986 LTD Crown Victoria, the same one his mother used to drive, though he has touched up the car’s paint and tinted its windows in the many years since she left him and the car, at her mother’s house so that she could pursue a future with an amateur boxer she’d only known for 2 days. He’s parked at the end of my block, so I jog-step to his car so we can drive off before anyone sees us, though I don’t know that any of my neighbors would be up at this hour. The sight of him behind the wheel of that car reminds me of his mother and those rare times when she was waiting for him after school, times I would have to kick JD and his friends out of my classroom so I could go home to my wife and daughter. He’s even smoking like she always was when she waited, though he’s smoking a Black and Mild rather than the Doral 100s she used to smoke, the kind my mother had switched to towards the end of her life. I get in the car and JD turns down the radio to greet me. “Hey sir,” JD says as he turns the car on and puts it into gear, “You don’t mind the smoke do you?” He is wearing his work clothes. He must have just gotten off; I don’t think he would go in after what we’re about to do. “JD, it’s been ten years since I was your teacher. You can call me Frank.” Neither of us speak and, for a while, the thumps of the wheels passing over the freeway section splits mark time. JD turns the radio back up. “I don’t mind the smoke,” I tell him. “My 1 2 wife doesn’t know I’m out and if she wakes up when I get home I’ll tell her I went to a bar.” “How’s she doing with everything?” He doesn’t look over at me. “I don’t know. She was so strong after it happened. She stayed day and night with Sara in the hospital. But now that Sara’s home and, for the most part, physically better, it’s really hit Imelda. She sleeps a lot, so does Sara, she’s taken to sharing Sara’s pain pills. So, I just don’t know.” It’s strange being this honest with someone who sat in my classroom before his voice changed. I look at JD driving; his cigarillo, the speedometer, and the radio the only lights in the car. It’s just so unreal—looking at him from the passenger seat, sitting in a car that I’ve never sat in but seen so many times. I feel as small as he must have felt all those times I drove him home after school, those numerous times when his mother was elsewhere after Lexington Middle School closed down for the day. “And you?” JD looks at me. Now, I need to lie. “I’m fine. I think it hurts less, but with this investigation bullshit I’m so angry all the time.” “Yeah. I would be too.” JD shakes his head empathetically. “There’s a flask in the glove box. You can smell like that bar your wife thinks you’re going to. Or, you know, just numb it all a bit.” I open the glove box and sitting on the flask of Tanqeurey is a .38 revolver. The light of the moon shining through the window reflects blue off of the gun’s nickel plating. I push off the gun lightly with the back of my hand and reach for the flask. 3 The mouthful of gin I throw back is burning in my belly when I pull the gun out of the glove box. “Is this the one I’m going to use?” He glances over briefly and then looks back to the road in front of us. “Yeah. It’s a .38 like you asked for, like the one that he--” JD stops short of saying it, but the idea pronounces itself. The gun he shot your daughter with. The pain of it all mixes with the gin in my stomach. My daughter—raped and beaten, shot and left for dead—and my comatose wife are riding in the car with us now. I drink more gin, put the flask and gun back in the glove box, and try to make out stars over streetlights in the night sky. “It’s going to be fine, sir. I mean, Mr. Rodriguez. We’ll do this thing now and you can go back home knowing I’ll take care of everything that needs taking care of.” Looking at JD in the dark, I can barely make out the traces of the “ABC” tattoo on his neck. I was so mad, so disappointed, when I saw him just a year out of middle school with the gang marking on his neck. The audacity it took for him to visit me at school for the first time with that ink on his neck shook me. I initially thought he was parading in a defiant show of freedom, telling me that he didn’t need me or my respect. But when he kept coming back, after dropping out at sixteen, after getting out of prison at nineteen, to tell me he was going to be a father at 20, I realized he was seeking proof of my respect and love unconditional. The tattoo is fading. He has others, the names of his son and wife on his forearms and the Virgen de Guadalupe on his right bicep, but now I have to squint hard to make out that first one. “Thank you for doing this for me. This has been killing me and I need to know I can make things right, as right as they’ll get. Like I’m not just watching someone get away with doing this to my daughter. Like I can protect my family.” 4 “I think I know what you mean.” “Thinking of how to do this, all I could come up with was you. I couldn’t do this by myself. I wouldn’t know how.” I look over at JD thankful, rationalizing. “Me either.” I know he’s telling the truth. “But thank God for family and long-lost friends.” I drink a little more gin. What I am about to do and what’s happened and the fact that I’m in this car right now are making me lightheaded. I try to think of my family as we were before and it gives me clarity; it heats my blood and I focus on what’s about to happen. We’ve gotten onto the interstate and are heading north. The city is almost entirely behind us.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Title 10 Years Beautiful Wasteland 10,000 Maniacs More Than This
    M & M MUSIC Title Title 10 Years 2 Pistols & T Pain & Tay Dizm Beautiful She Got It Wasteland 20 Fingers 10,000 Maniacs Short Dick Man More Than This 21st Century Girls Trouble Me 21st Century Girls 100 Proof Aged In Soul 2Play & Thomes Jules & Jucxi D Somebody's Been Sleeping Careless Whisper 10Cc 3 A M Donna Busted Dreadlock Holiday 3 Doors Down I'm Mandy Away From The Sun I'm Not In Love Be Like That Rubber Bullets Behind Those Eyes 112 Better Life It's Over Now Citizen Soldier Peaches & Cream Duck & Run Right Here For You Every Time You Go U Already Know Here By Me 112 & Ludacris Here Without You Hot & Wet It's Not My Time 12 Gauge Kryptonite Dunkie Butt Landing In London 12 Stones Let Me Be Myself We Are One Let Me Go 1910 Fruitgum Co Live For Today Simon Says Loser 2 Live Crew Road I'm On Doo Wah Diddy So I Need You Me So Horny When I'm Gone We Want Some P-Y When You're Young 2 Pac 3 Of A Kind California Love Baby Cakes Until The End Of Time Ikaw Ay Bayani 2 Pac & Eminem 3 Of Hearts One Day At A Time Love Is Enough 2 Pac & Notorious B.I.G. 30 Seconds To Mars Runnin (Dying To Live) Kill 2 Pistols & Ray J 311 You Know Me All Mixed Up Song List Generator® Printed 12/7/2012 Page 1 of 410 Licensed to Melissa Ben M & M MUSIC Title Title 311 411 Amber Teardrops Beyond The Grey Sky 44 Creatures (For A While) When Your Heart Stops Beating Don't Tread On Me 5 6 7 8 First Straw Steps Hey You 50 Cent Love Song 21 Questions 38 Special Amusement Park Caught Up In You Best Friend Fantasy Girl Candy Shop Hold On Loosely Disco Inferno If I'd Been
    [Show full text]
  • Orpheum #6 March, 2014 Produced by Alan White and Jacq Monahan for the Westside Insurgents
    Things Happen in Fandom. we’re certain of it, and while we still wait to hear from the rest of the fannish world we are convinced still survives our there. somewhere, we’ll continue to seek active fans wherever they may be. Until then, since there is “No Place Like Home”, we’ll highlight Fannish goings-on in Las Vegas and surrounding environs. Are we worried Vegas may be the “Last Hope of Fankind”? Not at all, though despite 5 issues pleading for proof of life, we have received little evidence anyone remains across the wastelands though there has been glimmers of life near someplace called Etobicoke, but since it’s an anagram for “Cookie Bet” it may be yet another hoax spread by Fannish Hodads and luddites (Ludofans) seeking to destroy progressive Fandom across the wastelands with their harumphing, PC conservatism, gavel banging and fear of technology. Here we are, breathing the air of a new year following a night of high explosive shenanigans and plenty of booze to make the transition more memo- rable (or forgettable, whatever the case may be). Have you missed one of our back issues dripping with color and Fannish excess? Click that blue arrow down there and be be whisked away to the promised land! In the meantime, winter remains upon Las Vegas for the foreseeable future and still I yearn for the days when everyone smelled of Piña Colada and Margarita instead of mildew and VapoRub®. ! JANUARY 2014 COUNTING GEEKS Our first visitors of 2014 were Chui and Katybug Medina, a couple of SoCal escapees who braved the High Desert chill on a Vegas geek-seek.
    [Show full text]
  • Art of Astrology
    CONTENTS PART I Introduction The Planets, The Seven Spirits Before the Throne Time and Place as Factors in Calculation of the Horoscope Signs and Houses The Rising Sign and the Twelve Houses How to Calculate the Positions of the Planets The Aspects Making the Index PART II A Philosophic Encyclopedia of Astrology Table of Logarithms Table of Houses--Sample Pages Ephemeris--Sample Pages Tables of Planetary Hours PART III Were You Born Under a Lucky Star? Amulets, Birthstones and Planetary Colors When Is the Best Time to Be Born? Reading the Horoscope. Introductory Mundane Houses Signs of the Zodiac Cardinal Signs Fixed Signs Common Signs Comparative Effect of Cardinal, Fixed and Common Signs on the Angles Triplicities Sun, Moon and Ascendant The Rising Sign Influence of the Twelve Signs When Rising Intrinsic Nature of the Planets Children of the Twelve Signs Sun, the Giver of Life Sun in the Twelve Houses Sun in the Twelve Signs Sun in Aspect with Other Planets Venus, the Planet of Love Venus in the Twelve Houses Venus in the Twelve Signs Venus in Aspect with Other Planets Mercury, the Planet of Reason Mercury in the Twelve Houses Mercury in the Twelve Signs Mercury in Aspect with Other Planets Moon, the Planet of Fecundation Moon in the Twelve Houses Moon in the Twelve Signs Moon in Aspect with Other Planets Saturn, the Planet of Sorrow Saturn in the Twelve Houses Saturn in the Twelve Signs Saturn in Aspect with Other Planets Jupiter, the Planet of Benevolence Jupiter in the Twelve Houses Jupiter in the Twelve Signs Jupiter in Aspect with
    [Show full text]
  • Th€ JW.IULC CORK the JW.HAU C013
    » iJJIhajl J"' jjy,(IJ., U niDAT, JAKOAB^A IMO Am ram Dolhr dreatatloo t-y- H i* WMtiMr fomnsEif »r tho Montli o f December, 1989 iRatirliratfr Eoratiig X#r«I& For Forocaet of U. S. Weatbai croafe Uie stranetk o f Uie company The regular meetliig o f the An Run in WvdnMdw’a Im im to 100 men and local man with the 6,328 Qeoerally fair toalgkt Mancbeeter Coon sad Fox club of Th« Horald undvr » Dnnlvlaon Engaged to Wed Co. K Awarded Invited MwbroeldwAedU days sllghHy colder tenight. dateline aUted that a woman, po- Flames Destroy Bam or rAboutTown will be held Sunday morning at 9 Burean o f Clreolattons Am. at the Highland Park Com­ llca aald waa a Mra. Edna Hall, munity clubhouse. had been fined for intoxication. A High Rating DiW c ^ ic s tor the laat quarter Manche$ter—~A City of Village Charm CWter Church Women's Guild In fairness to local persona of that have been received and wUl be dis­ name it should be stated that the ! • m il ------ ‘~ r to secure s speak- The Manchester Green Commun­ Cow, Horse, Chickens tributed to Company K members arrested woman was not a Man­ (ClaaeWed Advertiaing on Hage 10) MANCHESTER. CONN.. SATURDAY, JANUARY 6. 1940 (TWELVE I*A(;ES) PRICE THHBK OKI I the Federal Bureau of In- ity club will hold Its regular Fri­ Excellent Report Given tonight. Due to the lucre VOL. LIX., NO. 82 ittcns for ita meeting Wed- chester resident. enlisted strength and the day evening setback party tonight large frame atructure and an old The Local Unit by the ■ftemooB df next week at at 8 o'clock at the Green school Property 1m m of $3,500 work Involved, drill checks Kdward Dellert, of West Hart­ j landmark in the West Side, waa given out on drill nights only.
    [Show full text]
  • Scholar Voices, the Literary Magazine of Pathways to College
    SCHOLAR VOICES Spring 2019 People find it funny that I find comfort in my cat, but to me, he is an unspoken friend. I appreciate his mischievous motives that keep me on my toes. Here I caught him off guard right after he finished a drink of water and was able to make his face the central focus of the photo …just like the part he plays in my life. By Kayla T. Arts High School, Grade 10 INTRODUCTION Judith Berry Griffin, President, Pathways to College Welcome to the 2019 issue of Scholar Voices, the literary magazine of Pathways to College. We are so very pleased to share the creativity of our Scholars. Because their words and images are striking and affecting in so many ways, selecting those to highlight was, as always, a joy as well as a stimulating challenge. This year, for example, Wendy M. (East Side) wrote about decision-making and taking risks, in her poem, “Which Way Should I Go? “ “I am going to step outside the person I am and take a chance… I could go the left when nothing is right or go to the right where nothing is left…” Alexandra M. (Arts) contributed a rap: “U Got It.” ”No more wishing for stars to fall, you got to go and catch them, take them all… You got it, yeah You got it, you know you got it. You got it, yeah.” We know that expressing ideas is not always easy – even if the ideas are important and eagerly communicated. But we continue to say that self-expression of all kinds is well worth the effort! Writers and artists through the centuries have shared their thoughts and passed their ideas and stories on to people they would never meet but to whom they have given invaluable gifts of knowledge, inspiration, insight and enjoyment.
    [Show full text]
  • Marcia Schuyler by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
    The Project Gutenberg EBook of Marcia Schuyler by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.guten- berg.org/license Title: Marcia Schuyler Author: Grace Livingston Hill Lutz Release Date: August 2007 [Ebook 23132] Language: English ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARCIA SCHUYLER*** Marcia Schuyler by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz Edition 1, (August 2007) [1] MARCIA SCHUYLER SIXTH EDITION [4] Copyright by C. Klackner “OH,YOU NAUGHTY MAN!” SHE EXCLAIMED PRETTILY, “HOW DARE YOU!” [5] Marcia Schuyler by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz Author of “The Story of a Whim,”“According to the Pattern,”“An Unwilling Guest,” etc. Illustrations by E. L. HENRY, N.A. GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS · NEW YORK [6] Copyright, 1908 By J. B. Lippincott Company Published February, 1908 Electrotyped and printed by J. B. Lippincott Company The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A. TO [7] THE DEAR MEMORY OF MY FATHER The Rev. CHARLES MONTGOMERY LIVINGSTON WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP AND ENCOURAGEMENT HAVE BEEN MY HELP THROUGH THE YEARS CONTENTS CHAPTER I ........................ 1 CHAPTER II ........................ 13 CHAPTER III ....................... 25 CHAPTER IV ....................... 34 CHAPTER V ....................... 47 CHAPTER VI ....................... 56 CHAPTER VII ....................... 69 CHAPTER VIII ...................... 79 CHAPTER IX ....................... 86 CHAPTER X ....................... 94 CHAPTER XI ....................... 108 CHAPTER XII ....................... 119 CHAPTER XIII ...................... 134 CHAPTER XIV ...................... 145 CHAPTER XV ...................... 160 CHAPTER XVI ...................... 174 CHAPTER XVII ...................... 185 CHAPTER XVIII ..................... 197 CHAPTER XIX .....................
    [Show full text]
  • Uncluttered Uncluttered
    COLLEGE PARK An American Baptst Church UNCLUTTEREDUNCLUTTERED advent devotions 2015 College Park Baptist Church Advent Devotions 2015 Advent is a time of waiting, of preparation, of anticipation – it is the time we look expectantly to the coming of God who is Emmanuel. It is a time of emptying oneself that God might find space to dwell in the very depths of our hearts, in our daily lives, in the hurting world we live in. Our theme for this Advent season is Uncluttered. Over the next 27 days we will examine the busyness of our day-to-day lives, of our minds, of our hearts, of our spiritual practices, and we will consider ways that a simpler, less-cluttered approach might leave room for the gospel to transform us, for our creator to renew us, for the Spirit to meet us. We will practice emptying ourselves and making ourselves available to a living, active God. This booklet is designed to guide you in the daily practice of reflection and examination. These reflections were written for College Park (and to be shared by College Park) by people who know and love and have ministered alongside our congregation. Each entry includes a scripture, reflection, prayer and an advent action. The action provides you with a concrete, spiritual response to the devotion – a challenge for embodying your prayer. It is our hope that you might find much needed encouragement, challenge, blessing, calm, prodding, tugging as you journey through this advent season. It is our hope that you might encounter God in new ways each day.
    [Show full text]
  • An Interrupted Life: the Diaries, 1941-1943; And, Letters from Westerbork I Etty Hillesum; Translated from the Dutch by Arnold )
    Trans[ater£from tfie Dutcfi liy Arno[r£]. Pomerans Foreword:liy Eva Hoffman lntroauction ana notes liy ]an G. Gaar[ancft. Etty Hille sum An Interrupted Life THE DIARIES, 1941-1943 ana Letters from Westerbork AN OWL BOOK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY NEW YORK Henry Holt and Company, LLC Publishers since 1866 115 West 18th Street New York, New York 10011 Henry Holt® is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Foreword copyright© 1996 by Eva Hoffman Introduction and notes copyright© 1996 by Jan G. Gaarlandt An Interrupted Life English translation copyright© 1983 by Jonathan Cape Ltd. Originally published in the Netherlands in 1981 as Het vemoorde Ieven: Dagboek van Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943. First English-language edition published in the United Kingdom in 1983. First American edition published in 1984 by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Letters from Westerbork English translation copyright© 1986 by Random House, Inc. Originally published in the Netherlands in 1982 as Het denkende hart van de barak. First English-language edition published in the United States in 1986 by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed in Canada by H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hillesum, Etty, 1914-1943. [Verstoorde Ieven. English] An interrupted life: the diaries, 1941-1943; and, Letters from Westerbork I Etty Hillesum; translated from the Dutch by Arnold ). Pomerans; foreword by Eva Hoffman; introduction and notes by )an G. Gaarlandt. p. em. Previously published (1st work): 1st American ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984.
    [Show full text]
  • Nobody Stayed the Course
    The Year In Music á Touring LITTLE STEVEN'S UNDERGROUND GARAGE GARAGE IT Ili Nobody Stayed The Course CBGB And Tower Closed, England away two of its best guys, and the best video was not on YouTube Rolling Stones, the Who, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Cheap Swung, Oz Roared Back And Even The but in the AT&T Blue Room. Trick, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Beatles Got Remixed Other than the assassination of CBGB and the Continental Bon Jovi had to go country! And had a damn hit! stopping all music, New York had its moments with new Strokes Bob Seger and Tom Petty are both more country than main- In a year that started with our president "staying the course" and and a fabulous new album, one of the year's best, by Willie Nile, stream rock these days, so they did all right. ending with him saying the Commission on Iraq had some "good and the wonderful surprise of a great new album by New York And Bob, what can we say? points" (yeah, like screw your course, get the hell out of there, Dolls. Dylan's transcending the entire material world at this point and you momo), anything could happen. All right, I'm paraphras- Otherwise, we have reached a critical point now in our cul- heading for another Grammy. ing, but you get the idea. ture from which I fear there is no return: There is simply no And anyway, when you get down to it, how bad a year could it And how about dem majors? place in the mainstream for legends, greatness or gods.
    [Show full text]
  • Corinne of the Circus
    Price, 25 Cents jj^as^ PS 3521 .P86 C6 1916 Copy 1 PUBLISHfLD BY The* Dr>a.matic Pubi^ishing Compant CHA.ULES H SERGEL. , PRESIDENT Hageman^s Make-Up Book By MAURICE HAGEMAN Price> 25 ceats The importance of an effective make-up is becoming more appar- ent to the professional actor every year, but hitherto there has bee.'^ no book on the subject describing the modern methods and at the same time covering all branches of the art. This want has now been filled. Mr. Hageman has had an experience of twenty years as actor and stage-manager, and his well-known literary ability has enabled him to put the knowledge so gained into shape to be of use to others. The book is an encyclopedia of the art of making up. Every branch of the subject is exhaustively treated, and few ques- tions can be asked by professional or amateur that cannot be an- swered by this admirable hand-book. It is not onlv the best make- up book ever published, but it is not likely to be superseded by any other. It is absolutely indispensable to every ambitious actor. CONTENTS Chapter I. Genera! Remarks. Chapter II. Grease-Paints, their origin, components and use. Chapter III. The IViake-up Box. (Jrease-Paints, Mirrors, Face Powder and Puff, Exora Cream, Rouge. Liquid Color, Grenadine, Blue for the Eyelids, Brilliantlne for the Hair, Nose Putty, Wig Paste, Mascaro, Crape Hair, Spirit Curn, Scissors, Artists' Stomps, Cold Cream, Cocoa Butter, Recipes for Cold Cream. Chapter IV. Preliminaries before iViaking up; the Straight iVIake- up and how to remove it.
    [Show full text]
  • Quotes May05
    I bargained with Life for a penny, And Life would pay me no more, However I begged at evening When I counted my scanty store. For Life is a just employer He gives you just what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task. I worked for a menial's hire, Only to learn dismayed, That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid. I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. - William Penn When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. - Alexander Graham Bell I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar. - Robert Brault Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. - Carl Sandburg Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness. no laziness. no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. - Lord Chesterfield It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strongman stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
    [Show full text]
  • A Review of Looking for Lucky I Was Given This Book to Read and Review
    A Review of Looking for Lucky I was given this book to read and review prior to its release. My thoughts are unbiased and are given only after allowing this story to sink in. To be perfectly honest, I didn't think I would like a story about following a dog cross country. Though I adore dogs, I just didn't believe this would be my cup of tea. Boy was I wrong. From the first page to the last I was glued to this book. Each stop along Lucky's path will involve you with excellent, well-developed characters. Some will bring tears to your eyes while others will leave you laughing and sorry to see them go. Each stop on Lucky's jour- ney is outstanding, and all tie together in the end. Shirley must have done a lot of research to cover the most interesting stories in this book. I nearly became a vegan and wanted to give up alcohol after reading factual antidotes on some of these subjects; all beautifully woven into the story. Skiing might not be a bad sport to take up if I had the strength to swoop down those slopes. Julie Gettys, Author Dedicated to animal lovers everywhere and with fond remembrance to the animals I was privileged to know and love in my life. Dogs: Tippi, Butch, Prince & Hot Shot Cats: Sierra, Anabelle, Caesar, & Romeo Horses: Heathcliff & Handsome Joe Bar Feathered friends: Tiburon & Featherly Copyright © 2014 by Shirley Kennedy All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
    [Show full text]