My birthday tattoo

People love it!!! Yesterday I wore the shirt I got the picture from and they were amazed that they match. 

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Future dabbling

I'm really excited about this kit. I found it yesterday at a UMaine Scholastic Book Fair. I was determined to have it. I didn't have enough money so I asked the cashier to hold it until I found someone who would lend me the rest. It took less than ten minutes. I will have so much fun crafting and wearing the bracelets. 

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Future Dabbling

I was really good at cross stitching before the stroke. After it became aspirational. Now I'm in the dabbling stage. I picked this kit at Bangor Goodwill recently. It was a purrrfect find. I mean bookmarks. And Amber and I love 🦉 s. I plan to make one for each of my children and three for myself. I've been surprised by how random reacquiring skills can be. Knitting came back in a flash fairly soon. One day I couldn't; the next day I could. You'd think crocheting would follow a similar trajectory. Wrong! I still can't take the first stitch. And I want to make Katie a few of the crocheted animals she's become quite fond of.

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Current dabbling

One of my favorite forms of dabbling is my little garden. Before the stroke I left it to Eugene. Despite my years of Community Garden volunteering I didn't think I'd be good with flowers because I'd never attain women's magazine perfection. The summer after the stroke I took over and became enchanted with the wild beauty of my garden. It became a source of overwhelming joy when I tended to it and when I read near it. Every year I learn more. This summer, my third, I fell in love with mini garden mums. I also added small objects like statues and shells to make it a more magical space. 

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Present dabbling

I pinned or stuck all the decorative patches on last spring. Then I didn't get around to sewing them on until fall semester when my good friend started a mending club on campus. It's especially hard sewing because of the thickness of the patches and denim. In congenial company it became less frustrating. Who knows? I may be able to finish it by Christmas. 

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Rosa By Any Other Name (YA historical fiction)

     Hailey Alcaraz's Rosa By Any Other Name begins with the unusual juxtaposition of two quotes--one famous and one much less well known. 

"Some shall be pardoned and some punished. 

For never was a story of more woe 

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. 

--William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. 

Our stories are important. 

They give us strength; they give us power. 

                          --Sandra Cisneros"

     They give the reader two important clues. There are star crossed lovers involved; Latinx stories are also present. 

     Rosa By Any Other Name is set in Phoenix, Arizona in 1955. As readers meet Rosa she's getting ready for her last high school first day of school. Her school life and home life are in two different worlds. 

     "What we were doing--what I was doing--was dangerous. Integration was happening, sure. The courts told us that it had to, but it wasn't nearly as quick or easy as those folks in Washington seemed to think it was. Race mixing was messy business, no matter how you looked at it.

     Just because I was allowed to go to school at North Phoenix High didn't mean I was welcome."

     So Rosa, going by the more Anglicized Rosie, must pass as white in order to attend a school with academics that will prepare her for college. The high school for Latinx students is basically vocational. She has her mind set on going to college and majoring in journalism. She only has one year to go. 

     What she is blind sided by is her best friend from home (Ramon) and a white classmate from a prominent family (Julianne) meeting and falling in love. When they get fed up with keeping their feelings secret they decide to go to a school dance as a couple as a plea for tolerance and acceptance.

     Only they never get to the dance. As Rosa and Julianne get ready for the dance at Julianne's house and their dates wait downstairs Julianne's Sheriff father...

     ...a white supremacist with anger management problems...

     ...arrives and becomes enraged. Julianne and Ramon end up dead...

     ...The sheriff, who is planning to run for Governor, doesn't want his plan foiled. He's spin doctoring the murders so he looks innocent. Local activists want Rosa to foil his plans by coming forward with the truth. 

     ...But is she willing to jeopardize the future she's working so hard and sacrificing so much for?

     Rosa By Any Other Name is Alcaraz's sophomore novel. (I'm going to do my best to acquire her first to acquire her first by inter library loan.) She started it during the pandemic to explore a question that was haunting her. 

     "It is inspiring to watch people be moved into action. And yet I couldn't help but feel unsurprised when our collective interest and energy began to wane. We live in a complex world, and we are, unfortunately, barraged with a variety of crises every single day. It is challenging and draining to maintain such concerted energy for every single cause that demands action--no matter how worthy these causes are.

     But how do we create change otherwise?"

     Rosa By Any Other Name is highly engaging and thought and emotion provoking. Alcaraz's unique voice brings characters and situations vividly to life. It would be very hard, I believe, not to care about them.

     Although the book and its characters are fictional, they represent mid twentieth century racist reality, a reality the history deniers and white washers don't want kids exposed to. Books like this one belong not only in libraries but in curriculum and classroom. Students should be helped to think critically about the ethical dimensions of the 1950s and their bearing on our time.

On a purrrsonal note, I had a really wonderful birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 Monday. I heard from family and friends. I got myself a beautiful birthday tattoo. Eugene took me out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and to Goodwill where he paid for my purchases. I got to read near my flowers 💐. Tobago was her sweet snuggly self. Who could ask for more?

A great big shout out goes out to all who remembered and celebrated my birthday and to Stephen King who who was born the same day a few years earlier. 

Jules Hathaway 

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Dabbling

This is one of my favorite recent dabbling projects. The kit was a truly fortunate yard sale find. What's obvious is the 450 knots it required me to tie. What isn't obvious was the harder part. It required my brain to translate printed instructions into hand actions. I think you'll agree that the result more than justified the challenge. My next picture post will be my current and future dabbling and my gorgeous birthday tattoo which I know you're eager to see. 

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