Kim’s Comments (group member since Sep 17, 2008)

Kim’s comments from the Runs with scissors group.

So yesterday, I forgot my towel, I had to turn around half way to the Y and go home to get it. So, I am now late, and I am meeting a friend at 2(ish) so I am not happy with myself.


I did my 3/4 mile and made it to the place before 2.


I got into the pool about 20 minutes later than normal. I was out of the pool at my normal time.

I did a 3/4 mile in just over a half hour.

That is the fastest I have gone yet.

It is cancerous. Slow growing. They were only able to get to one of the growths in her biopsy. Carrie will see the oncologist today and will have surgery on 4/3.

Jean Kwok is back with her second book and it is as good as her first one. Dealing with the issues of family and change against the backdrop of being an American Born Chinese, our heroine, Charlie, must balance what she is able to do, what is expected of her, and how to be both mother and sister to her middle school aged younger sister with a father who has checked out of life following the death of her mother. Charlie is an untreated dyslexic who finds life is not so bad once she learns that she takes after her late mother with a particular talent. Her talent flies in the face of all her family and cultural expectations for her, and yet she succeeds.


This is set against the backdrop of Chinese culture, but it resonates with all backgrounds. It is about how we change to become ourselves, and how those around us deal or do not deal with the change.

My best friend's sister, Carrie will need a surgical breast biopsy on March 18. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

I love "To kill a mocking bird" both the book and the movie. I know that Nelle Harper Lee has been a relatively reclusive author, shunning the limelight since day one of her book, and that she did not give interviews often. So, when Mills has the luck to be the journalist who becomes friends with not only Nelle, but her sister with whom she lives, Mills had to walk a delicate line of friendship and a journalists instincts.

This book is not a tell all, nor is it a biography of Lee, but a portrait of Lee as an older woman,one who has lived her life with no apology. What struck me more were the stories of her friends vs. the stories about Lee directly. Her oldest sister still practiced law well into her 90's. The African-American woman who took care of the older sister when Lee was out of town especially stayed with me. She had been a nurse most of her life, lived in their small town and her story about what happened one night stayed with me. The towns biggest bigot and bully to blacks was in the final stages of his life. Now being "chased" by his victims, the nurse stayed with him, "got rid of his attackers" and was the shoulder on which he died. She knew how bad he had been,how mean, even suffered from this man back in the day, and yet could be the shoulder for him to cry on before passing. That compassion hit me so hard, I cried for several minutes.

It is worth the read,but do not expect any tell all or big reveals.

Janie Chang's debut novel is so rich and well done, it's like a good meal. Fan's of Amy Tan will really get into Chang's writing, like I did. The story is told from the ghost's perspective as Leian looks back on her life while awaiting the time she can be reincarnated. Her three soul aspects sit with her, making judgements and watching as she watches her life choices affect hers and others. Finding salvation along the way is what she is trying to achieve.

Set against the back drop of the Chinese Civil war, this a well done and worthwhile tale.

Remember "Reading is fundamental" PSA's from your childhood? Well, RIF is still around and is launching a new campaign to get books into the hands of kids.

Go to http://bookpeopleunite.org/ and sign the pledge, then tweet, facebook, g+ it, email it.

We are all book people and we need to unite.

I switched locations in late September and am now in a 25 yard pool and am now up to a 3/4 mile at a time. I almost made a mile in December but due to a cloudy pool, it was shut down when I had 8 lengths to go. As of yesterday, 1/24/14, I was interviewed on local radio and swam a mile! So, I did a total 1 3/4 miles this week!

I read an ARC of this that comes out later this year. It is the first of a new teen series by Kelley Armstrong. Armstrong has turned her talented had at epic fantasy and does it well. In a new world filled with an empire,spirits and rituals, twin sisters have to brave a new version of their lives when a terrible thing happens on a ritual day. Twins are not common in their world and when they are born, they are subject to a test, pass it and you are now a Keeper and a Seeker, charged with keeping the spiritual balance of the region. They live at the edge of a forest where the damned are sent. Survive and you go free, but anyone rarely goes free, because they don't survive. Throw in a set caste system and you have an excellent beginning to a new set of tales from Armstrong. Geared for teens, adults will love it too.

Post apocalypse.....

I saw a commercial last night that stated that if every American home replaced one light bulb with an energy efficient one, that we could save $300 billion. Now, I am all for the environment and saving it, and have been at this a long time (before it was popular) and have no problem with the idea of being more energy resources saved, but I do have a royal problem with the power companies. As we become more efficient due to federal laws, the power companies are whining that they are losing money because we are not using as much power.

Duh!

So,there is a bill in Ohio that may pass due to passive measures on the Governor's part by letting it sit on his desk, which will allow it to pass due to not vetoing it or passing it outright. This will cost the average homeowner $550 over a period of 3 years due to the lower usage of energy.

So how is this saving consumers anything?

I want my $3oo billion.

I really thought that I could to this and with my recent health scare I really thought I would *have* to do it, but I still couldn't. It is really hard for me to think that anyone would show up to my funeral, let alone want hear about my life. I really think the only reason anyone will show up it is to make sure that I am really gone.

Um, more likely than not.....

I want to thank all of you who prayed and sent energies.

I am happy to report that I am 100% fine.

*whew!*

I go in today at 2:00 p.m. Fingers crossed.

O.K. gang, this is hard, so please bear with me. I have been sitting on this for a week now because I didn't want to say anything until I saw the doctor yesterday.

I have to make the appointment today, but I have to go in for a mammogram and ultra sound because I found a lump in my right breast.

Last Monday, I was supposed to be getting dressed and as is typical, I started to entertain myself by playing with my boobs. Yes,guys,we women to in fact play with them. I was playing "droopy boobs" where I lift them up to where they are supposed to be and let them drop down. I felt something. This lead to my performing my monthly exam which I was going to do later in the week anyway. Since I was at Narzain's I had him see if he felt it too. He did.

I was able to find it every day in the same spot, so I told the doctor yesterday. He felt it too. He said that I am fibrous in this area and he is not panicked, but feels that we should have a picture of it.

So there we go.

I will keep you all posted as soon as I know what is what.

I have been struggling with this idea and cannot come up with a cohesive tale of who I am and who I have become. I am not in the habit of speaking about myself in the third person (I am writing this for someone else to speak in my absence, so pronouns are important here) and am not used to speaking well of myself. I am not sure I can do this and may have suggested something that may be beyond me. Perhaps it is because I am not near the end of my life, so it is hard to look back on who I am as I am not who I am yet. Or it could be I just have too much going one right now to concentrate.

I hope to figure it out soon.

I am still working on this. I haven't forgotten.

For me, it is about celebrating the person who was here and not the fact that they are gone. I would like a green burial with no headstone. A memorial service later would be nice, if there is anyone to come. I am not geographically close to the cousins who are my age (all but 2 younger,the older ones are only older by 2 years and one by 3 weeks), so I have not been emotionally close to any of them. I am running out of blood relatives and I do not have any children of my own, so that leaves my friends if they are around to come.

*sigh*

I was at a funeral this week for someone that I have known most of my life, and left feeling like I didn't know him at all because the officiant carried on about scripture instead of the person. I have noticed this trend in funerals of late where the deceased is not either talked about at all, the same 3 facts are repeated, or that the officiant did not talk to the family at all.

This disturbs me, especially since the person whose funeral I went to was a long time church and choir member,married for over 54 years,and is a father of 3,with grandchildren. The officiant is a temporary minister for our church as our former one's husband took a transfer for his job, and then got deployed to Afghanistan so she wanted to be near family. We understood. I could see how perhaps he may not know our church enough to know all of this off the bat, but all he had to do was ask.

My own cousin perpetrated this lack of personal details when he officiated my grandma's funeral 6 years ago. His reasoning was "this is the only church of these people are gonna get." He was her NEPHEW and couldn't even say one thing about her?

I am sorry, but I think that this is getting silly. I for one have decided that I am going to plan my own funeral down to the eulogy, that way no matter who comes, you will know me, and if you know me, you will be glad you came.

So, how do the rest of you feel about impersonal services and if you could write your own,what will you say?

Watch for my service outline soon.