Reading for English

The college brings guest speakers on campus whenever they can. They try to get speakers for different topics and in different subject areas so that there are plenty of opportunities for enrichment of the students and employees. The most recent speaker was an author, Michael D’Orso. He has published 15 books and been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times. His latest book, Eagle Blue, is about a high school basketball team in Fort Yukon, Alaska.

My English instructor offered us extra credit to read Eagle Blue, come hear the author speak and write a small report on the book. I took her up on her offer in order to get the 10 bonus points on one of my grades. I know what you’re thinking, “You read a book?” but to be fair, I don’t claim to never read books, I just claim I only read them for assignments. I finished reading the book this past Saturday and began working on the short report. Sunday night I was finishing up the report when I started thinking about it. I begin to recall what I was doing in the Winter/Spring of 2005 (when the story took place).

D’Orso was researching material for this book while I was starting my new job and we were finishing our move across state. At that time we were traveling back and forth still and trying to meet up with everyone we could since we were relocating (kind of saying our goodbyes). One of those weekends we met up with my former co-worker, Joy. I hadn’t talked to her in a few years and she was excited to meet Chloe. We went to her place to have dinner and hang out. Joy was in a nice house and I joked about how she was moving on up in the world. She told me that it wasn’t her place – she was house-sitting for an author who was in Alaska for several months working on a book. It was at that moment that it all flooded in to my conscious mind. Wait, is that right? Was I in this author’s house while he was working on the book I just read?

The next day I checked my old emails at work and sure enough the timing and location seemed right. I had to find out – I had to meet this guy and ask him. Long story short, it WAS him and that WAS his house. He is friends with Joy and she had house-sat for him while he was away. He offered to pass my business card along to her and let her know he had met me. I haven’t spoken to Joy in a few years now, but it would be nice to catch up with her again.

The world truly is a small place after all. I’m still amazed sometimes by the people I’ve met (or know) and the number of degrees of separation that exist. No matter how exciting the overall experience was though, I’m still not going to take up reading. LOL

Politics

I’ve finally started to become interested in the presidential race a little. I think they started way too early, but it is kind of nice because there is a lot of information out there about the candidates. There sure are a lot of contenders (and pretenders) out there. Some are interesting and some are invisible, but mostly it’s just more of the same political rhetoric spewing forth. Who knows if I’ll ever find a candidate to back, instead of the usual one to oppose?

I’ll be surprised if Gore doesn’t throw his hat in soon. I could actually see a strategy of Gore/Clinton being pretty effective, but since he’s still a wild card, I’m sticking with my prediction of an Edwards/Obama ticket on the Democratic side. Hilary is too divisive to win as front-runner, but might be able to gain a foothold as a V.P. with a really strong running mate. Clinton, like her husband was, is a great public speaker, but rarely ever says anything of substance (in my opinion).

I’d like to hear more out of Thompson on the Republican side. Since he entered the race later, there isn’t as much on him, but I am curious. Giuliani seems like a good leader, but I question his moral barometer. I have gained some respect for Ron Paul after reading a little about him. I’m not sure though because some of his views are a little to the extreme and I don’t really know enough about him. I’m still not making a prediction on the G.O.P. side until things shakedown a little more. Maybe after the first two primaries the cream will rise to the top.

At this point I don’t know who I would vote for, but I know who I would vote against. Now it is up to the candidates to earn my vote. I’m not voting for more of the same politicians, but I will vote against someone I believe is wrong for the job. That isn’t a winning proposition by any standards, but such is life. It still amazes me that the Democrats and Republicans can retain power even though much of the country is fed up with both of them. I don’t think either party will allow a third to arise – it wouldn’t be in their best interest. But, imagine if a third party did arise. What a shockwave that would be.