To Kill A Mockingbird

I choose To Kill A Mockingbird because it is a classic I haven’t read yet.

This book was written by Harper Lee and is about life during the depression. During this time children were raised differently, things were a lot more simple in many ways. The two kids in this book Jean Louise Finch (Scout) and Jeremy Finch (Jem) were able to walk to school and roam the neighborhood without a care. Other than the fear of staying away from the Radley place. Their Father Atticus Finch was the town lawyer. In many ways things were tough back then as well, with new teaching methods being introduced and extreme racism things weren’t as free as they are today. Now you are put in a class based on your intelligence and not held back as Scout was in this book.

I liked how I could relate to Jem and Scout’s summer adventures. It is like child nature doesn’t really change that much even in a completely different time period. Children will still stretch their boundaries as much as they can and get away with all that they can.

The most important thing that happens in this book was the trial of a black man for rape. Tom Robinson was the black man’s name and people were wanting to hang him for something he didn’t do. Atticus was publicly ridiculed by the townsfolk for defending him. Scout fights an internal battle when trying to stand up for her Father with dignity. Everything in her wanted to beat up anyone who said anything.

I don’t really want to ruin the ending; but I thought this book was good because it deals with issues we don’t really have to worry about today. It is good to learn about how things were like in the past and to see how far we have come since then.

The Hospital

I am currently sitting in a hospital room. I am not here for me…even though I am accident prone enough that I probably should have wound up in here many times. Luckily that hasn’t happened though.

My Grandmother just had back surgery this morning. So here I sit in Wesley Long, my Grandmother was having breathing problems after the surgery. There is an occasional beeping noise in the background that just sounded that tells when her oxygen level dips.

My Grandmother has always been energetic, just three years ago she was dragging my oldest sister around New York while my sister struggled to keep up. When she hit 80 this year she started admitting, “I can feel all 80 of my years.” This is starting to make me realize the mortality of my Grandparents; it seems that they are becoming more and more frail every time I see them. I am hoping this back surgery will allow her more freedom so she won’t be as limited and in as much pain as she has been in the past. She has always been the one who ties the family together.

This March my Grandparents made a tough and rushed decision. They decided to move out of their home of 41 years and into a retirement community. They moved this summer and I can’t say it was fun moving and sorting through all the furniture, newspapers clippings, and office supplies my Grandfather collected over the years (giving him 4,000 sq. ft. to store stuff gave him a LOT of leeway). The move was for the best, my Grandfather was having trouble walking up the stairs.

They have settled into a small house at River Landing and enjoy it there. When my Grandfather was first asked how he liked the new house he would reply with a big smile and just say , “it’s a little small.” My Grandfather has this way of joking that seems like he has an big inside joke the only thing is he is the only one in on it.

My Grandfather is hilarious; He is always making jokes even though a lot of times they don’t make sense to anyone but him. It just is tough on him because he is extremely hard of hearing. When the whole family gets together which includes 16 grandchildren, 5 aunts, 5 uncles, and my grandparents my Grandfather winds up being left in a chair left out of the conversation. I take this time to sit with and talk to my Grandfather. I have grown close to him in the past year or so.

He is used to being in control of everything; he used to be the head of radiology here at Wesley Long. He doesn’t normally respect or listen to anyone when they are explaining things to him. When I explain things about computers he actually listens because it is something he doesn’t know much about the use of. He reads up on computers so he can talk to me about them. He even cuts out newspaper clippings on them for me writes my name on them. He saves them in a basket for me until the next time I see him.

My Grandparents are getting older and it is something I am going to have to face. Moments like this make me realize I can’t take them for granted and have to enjoy my time with them.

Charlotte

This weekend I took a train to Charlotte to visit my sister Ashley. I used to go to Charlotte at least once a month but recently I have been too busy to go. I figured the Halloween party at her boyfriend Ryan’s house would be the perfect excuse for a trip down there. Also the fact that her old roommate Gretchen and Gretchen’s fiance Pat were down there both of whom had been living out of state for the past few months.

The Advance

So I just recently started going to a youth group at my parents old church. My parents had been bothering me to go for the two years that they actually attended the church but being the rebel I never went. I ended up deciding to give it a chance after meeting one of the leaders of the youth group. This was after my parents stopped going to the church. Now they want me to go to the youth group at their new church but I am happy where I am now. There is no making my parents happy and I have fun not making them happy.

Fiero

I know I have talked about this car in class but I figured I would talk about it and put up pictures (photobucket album). We bought the car a year and a half ago and have been slowly working on restoring it. The car is a Pontiac for those who didn’t know. Mine is a 4-speed 1985 GT with a 3.1 liter V6 (an upgrade from the original 2.8).

Yes, it happened again.

Today I went to go pick up a friend over by the palladium so we could see a movie. My friend Kayla doesn’t have a bank nearby with an ATM to use so we stopped in at Harris Teeter. That way she could buy gum and get cash back off of her debit card. We got the gum and the money; then we headed out. We had ten minutes until the movie started and were very close by so we were golden. That’s when I started backing up. I looked behind me and didn’t see a car through my blind spot and my side view mirror was broken so I couldn’t see the Lincoln behind me.

From previous experience involving a tree and me driving my sister’s car (which is now mine) I am always careful to look forward and to the side when I am backing up and turning so I don’t hit anything next to me. Thinking everything behind me was clear I was focusing on my side and backed right into the Lincoln. I scuffed the woman’s paint and she called the police and we filed a police report. Kayla tried her hardest to keep me from getting extremely upset and was joking around and trying to keep things light.

After the cops gave me back my registration and license we headed to the movie. We were only fifteen minutes late so we figured we could just miss the previews. We got to the palladium and they apparently don’t let you buy tickets for a movie that has started. On top of the accident I didn’t get to see the movie. Accidents suck.

I am hoping she will let my Dad fix it with out notifying my insurance company. My insurance will skyrocket if they find out. I have only had my license for 5 and a half months, and so close to getting off restrictions (hopefully they won’t let this affect them).

The car I have now is a ‘93 Toyota Celica GT which has been in FOUR accidents since we first got it and already had damage on one side when we first got it, three of the wrecks have been from me (and the drunk guy last week). Let’s just say I am glad this didn’t happen in my Fiero and in my already damaged car. Next time I will be a lot more careful and will take my ADD medicine if I am going to drive.

The Crushing Sound of Metal Hitting Metal

After work Saturday I went out to a small show at a coffee house in Thomasville and afterward I headed to my sister’s place to stay the night. After what seemed like an eternity due to my exhaustion I arrived after a 45 minute drive and passed her house. I went further up the road to turn around; that’s when I noticed there was a huge crowd near the bars up the road. I finally arrived at my sister’s and parked on the side of the street. Her house is a duplex and the downside is there is not enough parking for guests.

Night Games

I go to a camp called Quaker Lake, I have gone every summer since I was 7. Every year one night out of the week we play a night game. There are many different night games that are all sort of like capture the flag except in the dark. This years game was a little different though.

For the night game everyone dresses in the darkest clothes they brought and many people put on war paint. The game we played this year was called A-B. The object of the game was to take some of the objects which included, a candle which had to stay lit, a bowl, a frisbee, and a funyak and bring them to one of the three bases. Each object was worth more the harder it was to get to the base. The funyak being worth the most. The catch was that the counselors of the camp were guarding and if you got tagged you had to go all teh way back with the object you were carrying.

Old Photos

My Grandparents recently moved out of their home of forty-one years into a retirement home. Our family was the one who helped them with the move; being the only willing volunteers we also became storage for important antiques.

We now have a trailer filled with all of the stuff that came out of the house. Looking through the trailer when she was home yesterday my sister stumbled upon an old box of pictures. My Dad foolishly put the pictures in the trailer not realizing that the heat and humidity would damage the pictures. My sister(who wants to be a photo journalist) knows you can’t store photos like that so she brought the box in immediately.

Seriously, what is our country coming to?

I know this is an old video, but I still can’t get over what some kids can get away with these days. His Mom wasn’t responsible enough to watch over her own son so the responsibility was transferred to Latarian Milton’s Grandmother. She didn’t seem to have a control over the boy either. Some people just aren’t fit to be parents.

He thought his punishment should be no video games for a week. Is that how relaxed his other punishments have been in the past? His Grandmother seems to be too afraid to spank him because of society and how that has been made out to be abuse. With the public watching the situation so closely it would get leaked that she used corporal punishment. In my opinion sometimes it’s the only way to get the message through to a kid.