Monday, September 20, 2010

My Favorite Book, the Herriman Fire, and the Best Birthday Ever

Happy Monday.
Here's today's question from FOB (Friend of the Blog) Lulabell:

Q: What is the most meaningful book you have ever read? How did it affect your life? 

Well, I'm going to discount religious books, because it's my blog and I can do what I want. And I can't pick just one book, because that would be crazy. Among my favorites:

Dracula (taught me that classic books can actually be good)
The Sky is Everywhere (taught me that maybe I do like poetry)
The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian (Because remember when Sherman Alexie remembered my name?)

But the one that really started my love affair with reading and writing is: Fried Green Tomatoes. 

I've read it probably a million times, and I even adopted it's time-shifting storytelling into my book. When I was younger, I tried to change my name to "Towanda".

On to the blog. 

Here's what's going on:

1. The Herriman fire continues to burn. 

I'm across the valley, but I have a lot of friends and family in the evacuation area, and I'm sending virtual hugs their way. (Side note: virtual hugs are not as soft as real hugs, what with the electrical shock and all).


My bff Sheree and her kids are bunking at her family's home, and the cat that I gave her is safe. Repeat, the cat I gave her is safe. Nothing destroys that cat. 

How bout y'all? Everyone out there okay?
2. Thank you for all the birthday wishes. 

The big day came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. I have to admit it was my best birthday ever, even beating out my 8th birthday where I got to go to Brigham Young's house and make taffy and celebrate my polygamous heritage. I mean, my pioneer heritage. 

-Sam took me to Benihana, where our Chef was named "Kurt" and he dropped an egg.

-Friends brought me treats. Chocolate bars, home-made pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins, sugar cookies with yellow frosting, caramels, Munchoes potato chips (available only in the finest gas stations) and Diet Coke. 

-My mother-in-law made Fried Green Tomatoes for Sunday dinner. 

-My sister-in-law gave me an entire homemade cheesecake. 
That takes care of breakfast, lunch and dinner.

So, really, I guess for my birthday I received... FIVE EXTRA POUNDS! Which is what I've always wanted.

How was everyone else's birthday weekend?

22 comments:

  1. The fire is so awful, I'm just grateful that more homes didn't burn. It's sad that ANY burned, but thank heavens it didn't turn into a 100 like they thought.

    And I'm glad you had such a great birthday! I'm jealous that you went to Benihana - it's my fave! :) Enjoy those extra gifts you got left with, ha ha.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I also adore Fannie Flagg's books. Have your read "Welcome to the World Baby Girl?" (Probably the dumbest question ever since you've read everything.) Loved that one too.

    Glad you had a great birthday!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sara- I know, the fire could've been so much worse. Thank heaven for small blessings.

    Paula- I haven't read that one! I will have to check it out. As much as I love reading, I'm not one of those people who reads 50 books a year or anything. (That would be my husband Sam.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. i was happy to contribute to the sugar overload--and it's not a birthday if you can't eat 25 lbs of sugar guilt free...weight gain and all.

    or is that halloween?

    either one-glad it was good!

    ReplyDelete
  5. You don't even read 50 books a year? Wow. No wonder you have to play solitaire! :) (Last year I read over 170. Reading is more fun than solitaire.)

    My sister, her husband, and their dog had to evacuate.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dorien- That frosting you made? Evil. Pure evil. And there wasn't quite enough of it.

    Robin- 170 books? That is crazy awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well, one of the two....

    Sister reports her house is unburned. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. No one reads as fast as Sam--he's a savant. Note I did not include idiot!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm glad you had a such a good birthday! Birthdays are the best. PS - all your yummy food it making me rethink my lifestyle change. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Eden- Yes, thank you for leaving out the "idiot" out.

    Jenni- I'm the one who needs the lifestyle change! I keep thinking I need to hurry up and eat all the bad stuff so that I won't have it around me anymore. What kind of reasoning is that??

    ReplyDelete
  11. Happy belated Birthday to you! And aren't fried green tomatoes delicious? The book and the dish? =]

    ReplyDelete
  12. Glad you had a good birthday, sorry I missed it! Wishing you wonderful, belated birthday wishes, Brodi!

    Sorry to hear about the fire. Hope they are able to contain it quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  13. L.T.- They really are delicious! I've never had them before, despite looking at the recipe in the back of the book and thinking, "maybe, just maybe, I could do that."

    Una- Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm glad you had a great birthday. That fire is terrible. I love fried green tomatoes - to eat. Haven't read the book, but I did like the movie and I was exactly like Iggy(I think that's the right name) when I was a little girl.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Mary- I wanted to BE Idgie so bad! She was like my idol.

    ReplyDelete
  16. What? You go walking by our front window, look once and don't look back to wave?? That was you - right? Or am I falsely accusing you of a walk on a beautiful moonlit evening - solo.

    Just giving you a hard time. But I thought it looked like you! And I'm just jealous - that you were out by yourself while I was clipping fingernails and anticipating an evening of laundry.

    I was thinking of Sheree last night as I watched the fires. Is their house alright? And yes - so glad the cat is okay. Really sad to see that many families evacuated. Love your posts, as usual.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Yay! You answered my question! I'm glad you had a great birthday, I wish I could've tried those fried green tomatoes!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Cath- I'm sorry! It was me. I was thinking it would be right around the time when you were trying to get five kiddos to sleep, and I didn't want to disturb. Plus, I couldn't see you in the window. And the sun was in my eyes. And then, the dog ate my homework.

    Next time, I'm totally stopping by.

    Lulabell- They were delicious. I'll mail you some.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Happy late B-day. I'm glad it was so...nourishing. *Grin*

    ReplyDelete
  20. At least the junk food interrupted my steady stream of jellybean intake.

    ReplyDelete
  21. This year, the first person to wish me happy birthday was the lady running the pay-to-print station... I must be spending too much time at the library.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I missed your birthday. :(

    Happy very very late birthday.

    That fire was really really scary. And it's nothing short of a miracle that only 3 homes were lost.

    The fire stopped like 3 streets away from us. (Not that we were home.)

    ReplyDelete