Sunday Salon ~ life and books

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Family

Let me tell you about the best date I've had in years.  On Thursday evening, my grandson and I went to Chili's for dinner.  He'll be 19 next week, is over six feet tall (6'3"), and towers over me.  And he's amazingly polite.  He opened the car door, let me out at the door when we discovered the parking lot was full, tried to pay for the meal (no, grandmothers get to do that), and — immediately after he got home — posted a thank you message on Facebook to let me know how much he enjoyed the evening.  I'm so glad he's my grandson.  I told Jamey about the "olden days" when I was dating his grandfather and how romantic he had been on the night he proposed to me.  One week after we were married, he brought me a long-stemmed red rose; the second week, two red roses; then three the next week and four the next; and a half-card (literally, an anniversary card cut in half) when we'd been married six months.  The next day, Jamey posted this on Facebook:

"I learned a whole new side about my Grandpa that i never knew last night. Thank you Bonnie Setliffe Jacobs."

Friends

A couple of days ago, I attended the First Friday event Leap into Art, a group exhibit of original artwork celebrating leap year, at the In-Town Gallery, to see my friend Jane's artwork.  This week, I've been teaching Jane how to blog.  Since she is still learning, I won't link to her blog (yet), but she's coming along faster than I did.  I learned by trial and error, so she is benefitting from my knowledge, and — as of January 30 — I've been at it for five years.  As I think back over the years, I realize I've come a long way, baby!

Books

For some reason, I bogged down in the chapter "The New Testament and Anti-Judaism" in the middle of The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine.

So I have set it aside for the time being and have started reading 11/22/63, a novel by Stephen King about a time-traveling attempt to thwart JFK's assassination.  This is a 849-page book, so it ought to keep me busy for a few days.

I finished reading my first book of 2012:  Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, a 2011 novel, set in Mississippi, that I rated 9 of 10, an excellent book.