Confidence

In a few days I'll be moving into the house I've rented. In the interim I've been staying at the house of a colleague of mine who is out of town for the summer, and who very kindly allowed me and Mollie to use her place. I have spoken with her on the phone a few times, but we've never met in person. Still, since she is a scholar, I feel that I'm getting to know her by examining her home library. Come to think of it, this is probably an ideal way for academics to meet one another - take a few hours to scan their shelves before any of that face-to-face business, especially since academics like books, but rarely excel at interacting with other humans. Her interests are varied, as portions of the shelves deal with feminist criticism, Holocaust narratives, the history of fashion, Victorian literature, and lots and lots of Tolkien. She's also an active and adventurous type, as evinced by the books on horse riding, scuba diving and marathon-running. A few days ago I noticed an intriguing title on the shelf - Teach Yourself Welsh. Welsh is one of those wonderful languages that is naturally funny, what with its liberal use of Y and W and its place names that can't be uttered in under eight minutes. I decided to pull it off the shelf - turns out it's a book and CD combo. I wondered what her motivations might be for learning Welsh, let alone teaching it to herself, but the book was helpful in this regard - the cover reads "Goal: All-around confidence." Not just confidence in speaking and understanding, mind you, but all-around confidence. Indeed, if I managed to teach myself a language as difficult as Welsh, I'd feel pretty confident, but I still felt like they were over-selling the benefits of Welsh. However, when I opened the book at random, my eyes fell on this phrase, printed in large, bold letters:

Dw i'n teimlo bod pawb yn fy erbyn i

translation:

I feel everyone is against me

The fact that the book considers this phrase a priority in one's pursuit of Welsh fluency suggests that the goal of "all-around confidence" comes from a much darker place than I had previously thought.

Conceptual Cuisine

Texas is arguably the state with the most compelling shape. It has plenty of visual interest, with a good balance of rectangular forms and meandering river-bend/ocean coastline curves. My readers may recall that when I visited Lubbock for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised by the hotel's Texas-shaped waffle iron. In that tradition, these state-shaped grills greet visitors to Texas at the highway rest stops:

I am not a big BBQ person, but I am curious about how an experienced grill master could make use of the different parts of the state. Does the panhandle produce more heat? Is the Houston area ideal for grilling sausage? I can understand why the grill is chained down. Even the most honest among us would be tempted.

Meanwhile, there's also this:
When I stopped at this place to buy gas, I initially mis-read the sign as "Lizards". Of course, they might serve those as well.

Lone Star

Texas is the Lone Star State. Therefore, proud Texans frequently elect to put gigantic stars on the exteriors of their houses. I noticed this when I visited Lubbock for my job interview, but walking Mollie around town has helped me to appreciate the scale of the phenomenon. I present photographic evidence of a mere handful of such ornaments:

These folks also have a star on their garage, and another engraved in the glass on the front door.

This bronze star brings out the color of the stone. Nice!

A wire mesh star - surprisingly subtle.

If you zoom in you can appreciate the Texas-shaped lawn art below.

No house too small.

No star too big.

At the Gates

Texas!

I have arrived in Lubbock and all is well.  I was thrilled when I stopped at a highway rest area in Texas and was greeted with a "Watch for Snakes" sign.  Once inside, the bathrooms were labelled "Tornado Shelter", while the display case with the state highway map included a "Wildfire Warning - Severe" advisory.  Never a dull moment!

More stories once I locate the cable for transferring photos from my camera to my computer.

  

Savannah, y'all

Dad came to visit last week and we went to Savannah.  I was thrilled to visit Paula Deen's restaurant.  As you can see, Paula's cardboard cutout was equally thrilled to meet me.  For those of you not familiar with her work, she presides over a southern cooking multimedia empire.  We had dinner at her "The Lady and Sons" restaurant, and even though we only had crab cakes and salad, we were totally defeated by the quantities of food and the fat content. Our waiter was concerned, and we had to assure him that the dinner was delicious, but we were from the North.  The thing that did me in was the visit from the young lady who introduced herself as "The Bread Girl", and who encouraged you to put maple syrup on your corn bread pancakes.

We also visited the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the American Girl Scouts.  Our tour guide was straight from central casting, and kept referring to all of us as "babies", i.e. "The chandeliers are original to the house, babies."  I learned to my amusement that Juliette's no-good drunk of a husband died of a "social disease", and apparently, tour groups of Girl Scouts find this fascinating.  The guide said the girls always try to guess which one did Mr. Low in.   

GGG

Yesterday I held a yard sale.  It was moderately successful, considering that it was rainy and chilly all day.  Several people commented that my signage was excellent.  Indeed, I devoted a lot of thought to lines of sight and letter size when making and posting my signs, and I invested in helium balloons to mark the path to amazing deals.  

Yard sales always attract interesting characters.  A fellow, whose appearance struck me as a public service announcement about the dangers of smoking, glanced at my stuff and asked "Do you have any guitars?" (I should note that his pronunciation of guitar placed emphasis on the first syllable, "GUItar.")

I smiled and answered, "No, I'm afraid I'm not very musical."

"Are you sure?"

(Sure that I'm not musical?)

"No, sorry." 

He continued, "When I come to these sales I always ask people to dig around a bit because it might be worth it to them.  Do you have any old or broken gold?"

"No, sorry - just what you see here."

"How about guns - you got any guns?"

I tried very hard to restrain my eyebrows from shooting up to the top of my forehead. 

"No, no guns for sale here."

As he walked away, he declared loudly "Guitars, Guns and Gold - that's what I'm looking for."

And I haven't even moved to Texas yet.