booking through history, shredded fingers and book presents!

History:
In 2004, I had been in the U.S. for just a few weeks, starting out in my new life with Kosh, when the Bush vs Kerry election was held. I remember sending out sms'es (phone text messages) to a whole bunch of folks in Malaysia saying something like "Hmmm looks like Dubya's going to win" on the assumption that 1. they cared about the elections, and that 2. they knew who Dubya was. Lesson learnt: don't assume! Every time I think back to that day, I find myself shaking my head in incredulous disbelief at how many either emailed or sms'ed back "Ummm, who or what is Dubya?".

But in 2008 ... what can I say? Even though I couldn't participate in making it happen, I saw everything unfold, and saw history being made. I love the pics that PolitiGal posted - made me all a-teary-eyed :) Makes me believe in America again, y'know? Obama's got a tough road ahead of him: the economy needs addressing, yes, but perhaps more importantly, the entire population needs to do some self-reflection: the racism, the hatemongering, the racism, the blatant lies and the swallowing of said lies, the racism, oh did I mention the racism? This was an ugly ugly ugly election. How to heal from that?? Not going to be easy...


Shredded fingers:
So recently I had my appointment at an USCIS facility to "capture fingerprints, photo and signature". They seems to have improved their system greatly. I was in and out within 15 minutes!

But while doing my fingerprints, the person doing me asked "Do you work with glass, or metal?"

"Ummm, no, why?"

"You have all these lines, you see?", she said, pointing out fine lines that ran across my fingers, "We usually see this in people who do a lot of work with their hands. What do you work as?"

"Umm, I don't work. Back when I did, it was just a regular office job..."

"A lot of typing?"

"Meh, sure, but not much, and not very well!", I joked.

"How about crafts?"

Crafts? Having just visited a Michael's store the day before, and my unsuccessful search for cross stitch kits as something to do in my spare time besides eat, tv, blog and drop card still fresh in my mind, I speculated, "Well, I did some cross stitch a long time ago..."

She shrugged and continued with the fingerprinting, while I studied the screen as the fingerprints were taken. Yeah, there were a lot of those fine lines.. how on earth had I shredded my fingers such that the fingertips, which heal and slough off skin just like the rest of the body, still had traces of this occurrance? What a mystery.

Later, I told Kosh about it. Immediately, he said, "From all your pottery, right?"

Duh, what else??!!
Can't believe I didn't think of it.
I suppose it's been too long, I've stopped even missing it? :(


book gifts:
This week's Booking Through Thursday's question is "What, if any, memorable or special book have you ever gotten as a present? Birthday or otherwise. What made it so notable? The person who gave it? The book itself? The “gift aura?"

One book immediately comes to mind: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

My parents gave it to me for my birthday back in 2000 when it had just come out amid quite a bit of hoo-hah. Since I read all things fantasy, and since they had heard that this series was enjoyed by adults as well as its original target of children, they assumed I was wanting this book.

Well, you know what they say about making assumptions... because while I'd certainly heard of the series, I just wasn't gonna bother reading it - it was, after all, for kids... but now I had Book 4 in my hands!

I certainly wasn't going to read it without going through Books 1-3 first, but it's not like I had access to a library, so if I wanted to read them, I was going to have to buy them... but they're KID's books!!! I wasn't sure if I wanted to throw away $$ like that, y'know? Books are NOT cheap! So Book 4 sat on my shelf, gathering dust for a few months....

... until a chance remark with a work colleague, who was a fan of the series, who immediately offered, insisted!, to lend me his copies of Stone, Chamber & Prisoner so that I could read them *and* Goblet, he was confident I would enjoy them all. And whaddaya know,,, I did!

Now I have all seven books.

Funny how that turned out, eh? :)