journey – Peaceful Reader

The Choice: Embrace the Possible

Dr. Edith Eva Eger’s memoir is a deep look into what it was like to live through extreme trauma and survive. At 16 Edith was sent to Auschwitz and was herded into one line with her sister and watched as her mother was pushed into another line, one of death. Edith and her sister Magda fight one minute, one hour, one day to make it through their ordeal together. In four parts, Prison, Escape, Freedom, and Healing, Dr. Eger’s shares with us what her own experience was like as well as patients she has worked with who have been imprisoned in other ways. She lets her journey be the guiding force to helping others. I enjoyed her family story very much, as well as her work with patients. Several of the patient accounts made me cry. It is always difficult to read first hand accounts of the Holocaust; the details overwhelming, and painful. I highly recommend her story and want everyone to read it. It’s an critical reminder of how important our freedom is and that we should never take it for granted.

I’ve discovered that I’m baking more these days and I think it is a stress-reliever. Baked goods for mental health! I made this delicious Czech breakfast cake one morning and shared it with friends and another day I woke up really early and made this French apple cake (Once upon a chef) for a trip to Iowa City to see Groovy Girl (Groovy College Student?). I will make both again. I’ve discovered a new little recipe spot on Bon Appetit called It’s Just that Simple! It’s like family recipes that they just talk you through as if they are telling you a recipe over coffee. I made the Desi Omelette one night for a quick dinner and a Korma recipe another night. It’s my kind of easy recipe site-like I’m getting them from friends.

(French Apple Cake)

Reading three books: Untamed by Glennon Doyle, my friend Angelle’s book, Wrong guy, right room, a fun romance book-find it here on Amazon, and The Guest List by Lucy Foley.

Be safe out there. Wear your mask. Stay positive. Do everything you can to get out the vote. Last night’s debate was even more proof that our current leader is completely unstable.

Solar Eclipse Journey

Just a week ago we made the trek to Missouri to be in the path of totality. It was exciting stuff to be on the road headed to such a monumental event and one that, in our lifetime, we may not be able to see again. My husband started plotting this adventure back in April and was shocked to find all campgrounds in the area to be booked. He did find a hotel in Columbia, MO for the night and then we’d head to Boonville, MO to be right in the path. He even had a large park picked out that would be perfect for hanging out and waiting for the moon to cross over the sun in the middle of the day.

{Harley Park-same location-after eclipse}

Somehow he managed to take care of many details except to find the appropriate glasses. This is the part that stunned me. Here we are making this 5 hour journey to watch an amazing moment in time and not prepared with the right equipment. We might be left looking like Mr. Trump squinting into the sky. Once we checked into the hotel I made this my priority. Luckily the University of Missouri book store had ordered more than enough paper glasses and were selling them at a reasonable rate. We were set for the next day. We had fun at Cosmo Park with an eclipse themed party; live music, food trucks, and fresh local beer. After that Groovy Girl picked a place for dinner; Babbo’s Spaghetteria! We headed back to the other side of town, near the U of M, and found this place in a highly traffic commercial area-not our usual dining preference but it’s what she’d picked.

This is the thing with road trips that I love. If it is a new destination for you; you have know idea what you’re going to get. The place from the front looked like a glorified Olive Garden but what was inside was a different story. Our dining experience was delicious. I had a strawberry salad that was the perfect size with great flavor. And Greg and G.G. both had pasta dishes they loved as well. We shared a bottle of wine as our excellent server informed us the bottles were on sale AND we could take the rest of it with us. I think that’s a great rule. We had a leisurely dinner, enjoying the staff, the food, and the ambiance even though we were in a fancy strip mall. A good reminder to never judge.

Harley Park after eclipse}

The next day we hung out in Harley Park with our own snacks and beverages. The park service of Missouri were extremely helpful and polite, using golf carts to help ferry people and their chairs, coolers, and bags up and down the hills. Super hospitable. After the amazing event we hung around a bit, waiting for the rush to leave the park. And in order to hopefully miss much of the highway traffic we hung around in downtown Boonville doing some vintage shopping.

Our drive home was l-o-n-g. In other words we DID NOT miss the traffic. In Hannibal, one of our favorite little cities, we decided we needed a dinner break. We trawled through town looking for something interesting other than fast food and one of our phones brought up the Rustic Oak (motto: best food by a damn site). It had an interested front-like an old west saloon and we walked in. This is again just part of the road trip experience but let me tell you flat out that this place sucked. It’s tough to be a foodie in the real world of restaurants on the road.

Oh the waitress was okay and the decorations were interesting to look at but the food-total bomb. It had an extensive menu, with many pages to look through. At the appetizer section both my husband and I spotted fried okra, which we both love. We ordered that with our waters while we continued to browse the menu. I finally spotted fish tacos and felt pleased that I’d found something. I’m usually pretty happy with just an app or a salad but this was the kind of place that included meat on every salad. Blech. A good salad does not need meat. Just fyi. Eventually Greg and GG found things they were excited about and our order was placed. Oh how I wish I could take it back. We knew we were in trouble when the okra showed up looking like hard little puff balls straight from a freezer box.

We waited a long time for the rest of our food to arrive and when it did we should have sent it all right back. There was something off-tasting in my tacos-I still don’t know what it was. It wasn’t spoiled or rotten but it was on the way. It might have been the cole slaw or something in the fish batter-but I had to stop eating after a couple of bites. Greg agreed after one bite that I was right. He had a burger (the meat was good) but the lettuce was like the limpest piece of bottom of the bag that should have been tossed away, the bun was stale and GG’s chicken parmigiano was gooped with a bunch of really plastic cheese. We laughed at all of these things although we did turn the fish tacos back in to the waitress.

You just never know and that’s what adds to the excitement and fun. We have so many memories like this as a family. And we are lucky to have them. The Rustic Oak will live in infamy when we joke about crappy food.

The Goldfinch

When we vacationed in Yellowstone with my family this book was on everybody’s list; either they’d read it, reading it (me), or were soon to read it. Or like my husband who bragged about reading all of Tartt’s books and basically discovering her for the national treasure that she is. He’s quite proud of his author finds.

The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt

(2013)

Theo Decker is a 13-year-old boy and he’s in trouble. He and his mother set off for a meeting at school and when they have trouble in the cab and it begins to rain they stop at the museum for a quick look around. It’s the stop that changes his life. As he wanders away from his mother and begins to follow a young girl and her grandfather a blast destroys much of the building, leaving many dead including Theo’s mother. He spends the next few hours and days bewildered and in shock.

His mother is a gorgeous character that once you meet you don’t want to let go. Told in Theo’s voice he flatters his mother and lucky for us later reminisces about her. Tartt makes sure that each character is fully fleshed out and real to us including Theo’s mother or we wouldn’t know what he was missing.

“She looked startled, as if she’d forgotten I was there. The white coat-flapping in the wind-added to her long-legged ibis quality, as if she were about to unfurl her wings and sail away over the park.” (16)

“Lalloping?” So much of her talk was exotic to my ear, and lollop sounded like some horse term from her childhood: a lazy gallop maybe, some equine gait between a canter and a trot. (17)

After the blast he is sent to live with a very wealthy childhood friend because his father had taken off and his grandparents are really not interested. He lives for awhile with his friends on Park Avenue for awhile until his dad and his new wife show up to claim him. His dad’s true interest lies in whatever money or belongings his mother may have left but he’ll take the kid if it will help his cause. Theo reluctantly packs up and is whisked off to Vegas with his dad and Xandra. A completely different way of life awaits Theo.

In school Theo makes friends with Boris, a young Russian who also loves to get Theo into trouble. Boris an amazingly funny character, lovable as the ruffian. He’s Huck Finn to Theo’s Tom Sawyer. Boris and Theo embark on a drug-crazed odyssey filling their days with drunken conversations about life that center on how bad they have it, how awful their father’s are, and how hot Xandra looks in her work clothes.

Donna Tartt’s wordy yet wonderful novel takes us on quite a journey with Theo as he eventually escapes back to New York and tries to make his way on his own terms. Yet his past keeps bumping back into him and old ways are hard to slough off. And the painting, The Goldfinch, is present throughout the story as an interesting twist that continually gives both pain and pleasure to poor Theo.

There comes a point in the book where you must just sit and read without answering your phone, your email, or even eating just so you can help Theo move toward a very shaky but present future. I finished it now several weeks ago and when I think of Theo and Boris, Hobie and Pippa all make me smile as I think about how we are all connected.

New York Times review by Stephen King

Huffington Post’s thought by Maddie Crum