Drawing Parallels

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

I looked up this poem and reread it after reading "Matched" by Ally Condie. She mentions the poem in her novel about a dystopian society. I really like this poem. It speaks to the part of me that loves adventure and doing crazy stuff like Tough Mudders and skydiving. The part of me that isn't afraid of dying, just of dying poorly. I only get one chance to experience life on this rock, and I will not live in fear of what might happen.

(So, this was lost in my drafts for a few years. Better late than never!)

Hello again... 2012: a year in review.

Hello, my name is Jennifer.
I have a blog.
I got a little busy and forgot about it, for 13 months.
I am back and will try to do better.

So, what have I been doing? What has been going on that has kept me away from you? Well, let's see:

My job responsibilities went through the roof when our Sports Director at the Y quit to take a full-time teaching job at a local high school. I have been chasing my tail since last summer as we try to stay at least one week ahead of the sports chaos that never ends. Fortunately, I have a great work partner who shares the load handling all of the 'on the field' responsibilities while I handle the office/paper work.

Julia joined the 4H BB team. Learn how to shoot a BB gun, all the parts of the gun and safety & compete at meets. I became a certified coach for this BB team.
This was on top of school, soccer at the Y and joining the Book Club at school which required her to read 20 books and compete in the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. (Her team won the county meet and continued on to State! They didn't place, but Julia did take one round all by herself.)

My bestie moved home to Pittsburgh and left me with the title of PTO President (which I never wanted). But she brought me into her circle of friends that she has 'collected' through her travels around the country and now we all laugh and share via Facebook. These ladies are funny, smart, talented & fiercely devoted to family and friends. We share each other's burdens, slap each other out of a funk, ask parenting questions from those with kids older than our's, tell stories about neighbors or co-workers that we can't tell anyone 'local'.

I finished up my PTO responsibilities at Heard Mixon and passed on the baton to the poor suckers that decided to stay.

I turned 35.

We visited our new nephew Philip Wesley Towns III in NC.
That same weekend we saw TFK & Manafest live in concert! (we also discovered Nine Lashes at that concert, good band.)

Summer came and went with it's usual bang, but the kids were old enough this year to hang at the camp some and even work a little in the canteen. They preferred, however, to spend as much time as possible at Grandma's house and play with their cousins.

Julia spent almost as much time away from home as not this summer! Soccer Camp, Church Camp, Wildlife Camp, Camping with Grandparents, long weekend at my sister's.

Connor attended his first Boy Scout Summer Camp - 4 days, 3 nights - by himself.

We made several weekend camping trips with the kids to state parks. We tent camp and cook our own food over the fire. The kids love it! We have been to Fort McAllister, Tallulah Gorge (adult only trip), Tugaloo State Park, Lee State Park (with Leroy and Ryan for the Tough Mudder weekend).

TOUGH MUDDER!!! Russel & I completed our first TM October 27th in South Carolina. If you don't know what this is go to their website and check it out: Tough Mudder  We did a lot of training before the race building up our strength and stamina. It paid off because we did a lot better than we expected to, although I had bruises that didn't go away for about 6 weeks, and Russel had to deal with bruised ribs from falling off a 12 foot Berlin Wall.

Saw our niece Samantha get married.

Sent our nephew Zach off to college. (Julia has had a hard time with this. They are pretty close.)

Welcomed our first great-nephew Edward Clark Lang into the world.

My baby girl started middle school & joined the youth group at church. (this makes me feel old!)

DISNEY CRUISE!!!! This was our family vacation for 2012. Four night cruise aboard the Disney Dream. Amazing. Can't wait to go again!

And I read 23 books, a short story and a poem.

What’s Your Reading Profile? | BOOK RIOT

What’s Your Reading Profile? | BOOK RIOT

This is a new-to-me blog that I really like, and this post in particular got me thinking.... what is my reading profile?
Looking back over my list of books it breaks down like this:

23 books from 2004-2006
Christian - 7
Historical Fiction - 3
Action / Suspense - 22
Contemporary Authors - all - 14 total, but 6 of them worked on the same series
Series - 2 (6 each)
Based on a TV show - Alias Series

20 books in 2007
Series - 3 (Alias - 6; Transformers -2; The Bourne Trilogy)
Sci-fi - 6
Action / Suspense - 20
Contemporary Authors - all - 13 total, but 6 of them worked on the same series
Based on a TV show - Alias series

21 books in 2008
Series - 2 (Alias - 13; Women's Murder Club - 7)
Action / Suspense - 21
Contemporary Authors - all - 15 total, but 13 of them worked on the same series
Based on a TV show - Alias Series
Made into a TV show - Women's Murder Club Series
(i think i was a little obsessed w/ Alias this year!)

18 books in 2009
Series - 1 (The Chronicles of Narnia - 7)
Christian - 1 + Narnia
Non-Fiction - 1
Sci-fi - 1
Fantasy - 1 + Narnia
Classics - 3
Contemporary Authors - 8
Heart Wrenching - 2
Action Packed - 3
Painfully slow but worth it - 1
Romance w/ biting wit & sarcasm - 2
Historical Fiction - 4
Dark twist on a Classic Movie - 1
My daughter read it first - 8

20 books in 2010
Series -2 (The Percy Jackson Series - 5; Women's Murder Club - 1)
Young Adult Lit - 5
Action Packed - 14
Sci-fi - 4
Historical Fiction - 2
Classics - 2
I thought the movie was better - 1
Best last line of a book - 1
Dark twist on a Classic - 3
Contemporary Authors - 9
My daughter read it first - 5
My daughter wants to read, but I said "not until you're older" - 2

10.5 in 2011 (so far)
I didn't finish / "saved for later" - 1
Contemporary Authors - all
Series - 2 (The Heroes of Olympus - 2; The Kane Chronicles - 2) both are still "in production"
Sci-fi - 4
Action Packed - 10
Historical Fiction - 1
He better hurry up and write the next book because the last line was just mean! - 1
My daughter read it first - 5