Memorial Day

To most Americans, Memorial Day is a three day weekend spent with family and friends, but most of us forget why there is a three day weekend and even fewer forget to actually give thanks, and I'm not just talking about on Facebook or Twitter. Memorial Day is dedicated to the men and women who served the United States and paid the ultimate sacrifice, their lives for our freedoms. Memorial Day, always on the last Monday of May goes back to the end of the Civil War in 1865. Traditionally it was held on the 30th of May, but in 1971 Congress changed it to the last Monday in order to afford a three day holiday weekend. 

Some people attend a parade where veterans from wars past walk holding the flag up high, others go camping with family and friends in their own tradition, some might grill food and have a party in their yard, while my family typically goes boating.


Whatever you do today, if it is one of the things listed above or if you celebrate in a different fashion, please make sure you thank current servicemen and women and veterans and take time to remember the servicemen that couldn't be here today that have ensured your freedoms with their deaths. 

Books

It is probably no surprise to any of you (especially when you notice the background I have picked out) that I like books. Actually, that's a lie. I LOVE books. It wasn't always this way though. When I was in elementary school and even middle school I hated to read. I had a speech problem and reading in class was a pain. In high school one of our assignments was a book report on any book in the library. I like horror and mystery so I thought I'd give Stephen King a try as I heard he wrote some dark stuff. The book was The Eyes of the Dragon. 

It was brilliant. I couldn't put it down. It was the first book that I actually enjoyed reading. I started reading other works by him, such as Cell, Christine, Under the Dome and (my personal favorite so far) IT. While I love how he develops his characters and their interactions between them and throws them into the action then explains it, I knew that he will only write a limited number of books. So last year I started branching out. I've read The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and some various short stories by the one and only H.P. Lovecraft. I now have over 70 books (still need to read quite a few actually) but I can't wait to get to them all. To step inside the world. To meet the characters, some of which will become my friends and a little piece of me. 
With all of these books on my shelf waiting to be read, you would think that I would not go out to buy more books. Well that is where you are wrong. Yesterday I went to a store called Half Price Books where you can buy a book for roughly half of what it would be new. I told my boyfriend (Mason) that I was going and that I was going to limit myself to 6 books (I tend to get carried away at times ~ I'm the one typically sitting on the floor in the middle of an isle with a stack of books by my side as I forgot to get a basket reading random pages from the book currently in my hand). Well 6 books was too many for him so he made me a deal. If I only bought 4 books, then next time we were together he would buy me one.
At the store, I instantly went to the horror section and found Stephen King's On Writing which I grabbed off the shelf as I was looking for that one for a while. Then I found his Danse Macabre. I read the back cover and it sounded like a good gross-out book. That made two so far. Now going back to the above, I am trying to branch out on who I read, so I found Glen Duncan's Death of an Ordinary Man (the author of I, Lucifer which I am currently reading and is hilarious) and Pete Hamill's Forever.

So I stuck to my promise and only bought those 4 books (for $20 ~ AWESOME!) then made plans to go over to Mason's house last night where I met his parents and sister. After slight awkward hellos, and nice to meet yous, we escaped and took a walk to a Half Price Books about 2 miles from his house (that would be very dangerous for me because I would visit weekly). We made our way to the horror section and was looking at books when one called to me, The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson which is now all mine (Thanks Mason!). 

Long story short, I love books and love this new deal. 

Choo-Choo

As you may have guessed from the title, today is National Train Day ~ a personal favorite of mine. It all started back in 1869. The Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads were reaching the far corners of America yet they weren't connected, that is until the tracks that were laid became the first Transcontinental rail line. Once this was completed, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would be connected through the metal rail. The place they met was none other than Promontory Summit, Utah and a golden spike was driven into the final connection of the two tracks, making it one. The Continental Rail Line was 1,776 miles long and cities and towns soon spread with the rail way system helping create the America we know and love today. 

So here are a few ways you can celebrate today: play with your own model trains,

go for a train ride, or join a train club. You could even go around wearing a conductors cap (like the one I got my dad for his birthday last year).

Main thing is, go out and enjoy and be thankful for trains. 

Random Guitar

Yesterday Christina, my sister, came in from having lunch outside because it was a beautiful day. She came up to me and said there was a guitar by the garbage room. I didn't believe her and thought it was a lame attempt to get me to take the garbage out (and it worked). I threw the garbage out and sure enough, there was a guitar sitting there. It was a decent condition, missing a string but no big deal (and majorly out of tune) but otherwise really good. 

Only thing was, it was kind of boring looking (I prefer electric guitar but that's just me). So what do I do, I grab a permanent marker and go to town on it. First I drew the Aerosmith logo

Then I added Led Zeppelin (with each band member's logo)

And pretty soon the guitar was getting covered in band logos.

100 points to who ever can name all of the bands on here. (remember, the points don't matter, just like having an umbrella in a tsunami)