Wow... glad Bravenet kept this journal open. In the next five to seven months my hopes are to change the design and start blogging in it again. I enjoy Bravenet services, especially since AOL decided to reformat their system and deleted all their FTP stored homepages and their journals. Thanks Bravenet for another option in blogging and homepages.

Shirley Chisholm
I watched a PBS documentary about a woman who ran for U.S. President in 1972. Her name was Shirley Chisholm. Although we all know she didn't win, her story is still inspiring for any young lady who is feeling that they can't make a difference. (YES YOU CAN!) Chisholm may not have achieved her Presidential goal, but she did open doors for many others and changed history. Her courage and fortitude was awesome.

web sites to visit:

» African Americans - Shirley Chisholm

» National Women's Hall of Fame - Shirley Chisholm

 I began reading Paula Deen's book, It Ain't All About the Cookin'. It is a wonderful read. Her words inspire. She talks about dealing with agoraphobia. She is also frank about her life and emotions. I enjoyed how she didn't let age stop her from dreaming or taking action toward making her life better, more stable, more secure. This helps me, or reminds me, not to give up and let laziness or lack of will power kill off my dream. Her story also shows how we must get out and mingle. People can help you along the way. No one does it alone. But if you hide away or stay stale, no one will know how to help or you'll never meet them.

If you enjoy reading, this is one book to pick up. If you're not a Paula Deen fan, but love to read, wait until it's at the library and then check it out.

 And for her fans, yes, there are receipes scattered through out the book.

When the day fades, we relinquish the ability to fight. No need to lie. No need to disguise the fakeness of our words. In the cold shower, our hearts beat blood through weary viens. Pill bottles clutter the cabinet. Scraps of paper scattered everywhere, to remind us of the many things undone. Slowly our minds slither into zombie waves. Thinking of nothing, feeling everything until the music shatters the world into broken memories.

We rationalize. We argue within our logic. We hunger for the lost. We search for the forgotten. Where did the ambition turn into glass edge threads, cutting our hearts out in slices of failures? The few writing self-help books for the rest of us who seem to can't find the strength to turn tragic into triumph. We let one moment, scarred and unfortunate, control the rest of our lives.

I look and you're not there. I turn and find you not smiling back at me. I see the door you'll never walk through. I hunger for the scent of your presence. I reach out and find vapor, never your skin shall I touch again. My fingers ache to entangle your hair. This all comes alive when I need you most. Seems it occurs when I'm weak and pitiful.

When I think I'm standing, I'm really only swaying to the winds of time. Change has not brought amnesia. Your face hasn't faded. Your voice is not distant. However, when I count the moments without you I only feel empty and disgusted at the wasted years. You would not be proud of me. You would be sad that I let it disolve, nearing extinction. Streams of dreams in drought, no ambition to energize me. You and I would've had our fights. We would have had our passion. I would take the bad just to taste the good.

Night lingers too short, for day brings another war of logic verus emotion. Responsibility dictates routine. There may be a day, when I will feel again like I felt with you. Until then, sweet existence until my being transcends, joining you in the next novel of our lives.

(avatars above from Pink Paisley Art)

Author Khaled Hosseini

» Biography (from Amazon.com Profile)
"Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980. His first novel, The Kite Runner, was an international bestseller, published in thirty-eight countries. In 2006 he was named a goodwill envoy to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency. He lives in northern California."



(smaller version of the White
House photo by David Bohrer)» Khaled Hosseini at the White House
"President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush welcome author Khaled Hosseini to the White House for a screening Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007, of the film adaptation of Hosseini's novel, "The Kite Runner," a fictional story of the friendship between Amir, a privileged boy, and Hassan, the son of his father's servant, in Afghanistan during the last days of the monarchy through the rule of the Taliban."
For more information visit this page. (whitehouse.gov/news/...)

 Books by Khaled Hosseini

» The Kite Runner
Hardcover - 29 May 2003, Publisher: Riverhead Trade Paper
» Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com
"In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try."

» A Thousand Splendid Suns
Hardcover - 22 May 2007, Publisher: Riverhead Trade Paper
» Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com
"It's difficult to imagine a harder first act to follow than The Kite Runner: a debut novel by an unknown writer about a country many readers knew little about that has gone on to have over four million copies in print worldwide. But when preview copies of Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, started circulating at Amazon.com, readers reacted with a unanimous enthusiasm that few of us could remember seeing before. As special as The Kite Runner was, those readers said, A Thousand Splendid Suns is more so, bringing Hosseini's compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women that is weighted equally with despair and grave hope."

 OFFICIAL WEB SITE
KhaledHosseini.com