The Power of Travel

Apparently my brain has been on hiatus...well, the writerly part of my brain anyway.  Time to fire it up again and see if anything comes out...

I've had a tune running through my head lately..."He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich."  If you're of a certain age you'll remember that line from the song 'Down Under' off the debut album by Aussie band Men At Work.  Of course we had no idea what vegemite was back in '81 and no idea it could be purchased at the local grocery store.  I mean, why would we? Don't think anyone I knew ever had a hankering to spread left over brew's yeast extract on bread...until I met a guy from down under.  He actually had a craving for the stuff.  I may have tasted it.  Or I may just have looked at the tar-like paste and turned my nose up in disgust.

Thirty-three years later...

I'm living with a kid with a very limited palate.  "Try this, just taste it," was met with the aforementioned turned up nose, the pursed lips.  Yeah, parents, you know the look.  She'd forage through her food looking for anything that might be a bit of mushroom, a sliver of onion.  It's pretty damned amazing watching someone pick out every little bit of ground beef from a sauce.  She's not a vegetarian, she just doesn't particularly like meat.  Me:  "If you want to travel, you're going to have to learn to eat different things."  Her:  "Yeah, whatever."  So when she headed off to New Zealand I was secretly thinking, "Oh, you're gonna be soooo hungry."

But nineteen days after she walked out the door someone different walked back in.  She looks the same, walks the same, talks the same.  But something's changed.  It's subtle.  Maybe something only a mother would notice.  There's a little more confidence showing, a little more of the "I've got the world by the balls and there's no stopping me now" attitude.  And I mean that in a good way.  She walked back in having eaten lamb, fish, venison. And yes, even a vegemite sandwich.  Me:  "How was it?"  Her:  "The first half wasn't bad, then it got really disgusting."  "Me:  "Was there anything else to eat when you didn't finish it?"  Her:  "Oh, I finished it."  

Who are you and what have you done with my daughter?


Book Reviews...I've got a little catching up to do...

It really impresses me when an author can make me accept something that is just not in the realm of possibility.  Like Joe Hill did in his second novel, Horns.  Ig Perrish wakes up with devil horns growing out of his head which causes people to tell him all their deep dark secrets.  Okay, I'll buy that.  Not as good as his debut Heart-Shaped Box, some draggy bits, but overall a fine read...if you're the kind of reader who's willing to suspend belief for a little while.

Read two YA novels in a row, not because I read a lot of YA, they just happened to come in back to back at the library.  And as a testament to their popularity...The Perks of Being a Wallflower was published in 1999, The Fault in Our Stars in 2012 and I still waited months and months and months on the reserve list.  Both deal with teens dealing with real life and in the case of Fault, real death.  I highly recommend them.  But be warned:  both books are vampire free zones.