Lessons from Lauraland

Okay I may be completely wrong about this, but I am offended. I was wandering around the book section at Walmart tonight as Adam looked through the DVDs and blue-ray (season 3 of Breaking Bad!). I picked up a book, Saved and Single by Sheila Copeland and thought about buying it. As I was looking at it and the other Christian fiction, I noticed that all the covers featured African Americans. As I took a step back, I realized every book on the two 4-foot shelving units on the back wall were fiction and non-fiction written by or at least featuring black men and women on the cover. These shelves were along the back wall, next to the tvs. The rest of the books were in an aisle the ended at the section, but I still found the segregation of the books disturbing and unnecessary. I'll admit to having the same thoughts about cards geared toward African Americans at Hallmark, but at least they are all from one company. I just had to put this out there and see what you guys thought. Please...

I think my days and nights are getting flipped again, but more on that later. Do any of you remember the show Jem? I was just about to go to bed, when I hit the guide button as I picked up the remote and saw that Jem was on a channel over from where I was. JEM! I loved this show when I was little. Now I can't remember even the basic plot of the show, but I can still sing the theme song and remember wanting to wear my grandma's makeup like war paint (really, that was supposed to be attractive?). I was trying to find a good picture to share, something that did justice to my memories, when I ran across this link for a Jem Makeup Challenge . Thinking about it from an artist's POV as opposed to that of a child, the show really has an interesting color scheme and does interesting things with their backgrounds. I love the way they insert the songs! OooooOOOoooo Jem... :) I have no idea why I am staying up so late. I think I just enjoy sleeping in too much, which leads to me ...

Tomorrow is Father's Day. You know this year I was really hit with Mother's Day, although I have never been one to really celebrate the day with my mom. And now, after losing my dad nearly eighteen years ago, I am really spending a lot of time thinking about Father's Day. Growing up, we never really celebrated, even with Grandpa. I know the commercial idea of the day, with barbecues and such. I always found it odd that mom's day was all about her getting pampered, while dad's was about him cooking over a hot grill all day and maybe lawn work besides. Although I lost my father so early, it was always the lack of a relationship with my mom that bothered me. Now that they are both gone, I can see how wanting what still might (on some completely other plane of being) have been possible, made me hurt less for the loss of what was impossible. I think losing mom has somehow freed me up to really deal with the loss of my father and so I am working on it. It might take...