2.18.2011

The Goodness of People

Every morning when I wake up my husband has the news on. I personally don't understand it. I have yet to ever watch the news and hear anything good. The news, in my humble opinion, is chocked full of depressing and horrific stories. Why would anyone want to start their day out this way?

The news media has done their best to try to scare the crap out of our nation. How many "feel good" stories do you hear in an hour on the news? I believe I counted one this morning. If you visit the www.azfamily.com website (our local news station) the links that you are first subjected to are as follows:

Where are all of the good news stories? I know that we need to be informed but I just feel as if I'm bombarded by stories about how much the human race stinks. How awful we all are. Every time I hear something positive I'm mystified.

SO in order to do my part, I have the following story to share with all of you.

Two Wednesdays ago I drove to pick up my friend for Zumba at the community center. I was chatting with her on the way to get her on my blue tooth. When I arrived at her house, I hung up, stuck the blue tooth in my purse, and off we went to Zumba.

The next morning I couldn't find my blue tooth. I knew it couldn't have gone far because I just had it the night before. When I couldn't find it in my purse I knew I didn't to dig out under the seats in my car. This took me a couple of days. I still couldn't find it. I asked my family if they had seen it laying around the house I emptied out my purse and looked through the car one more time just in case I missed it. I finally realized it was gone. It could be any where. Especially if it fell out of my purse. I could have dropped it in a parking lot somewhere. I just knew it was gone.

A few days later I thought I should probably call the community center. Maybe it had fallen out of my purse during Zumba. I tried to call the community center but they were closed. I'd have to try again tomorrow.

It took me over a week to finally get around to calling the community center again, I had no hope that they would have it. It had been over two weeks since my last Zumba class and really, what were the odds that a Good Samaritan found it and had turned it in? Someone was enjoying my handy dandy blue tooth.

This morning at 7:45 I called the community center while I was thinking about it, so I could rule out that they had it and plan on having to get a new one. A very nice lady answered the phone. I told her my story about losing my blue tooth two weeks ago and she put me on hold to go look in the back. She came back on the phone and told me that she had one. She'd had it for about two weeks and I was welcome to come up after 8:00 and see if it was mine. The clouds parted, the angels began to sing and I told her I would be there in 15 minutes.

Now, there was a chance that the blue tooth she had wasn't mine. Some other poor soul had lost their blue tooth also, but the fact that she had even one was a good sign. Someone, even if it wasn't me, was going to get their blue tooth back. The world has some good people in it after all.

Turns out it was my blue tooth. Thank goodness. I really didn't want to have to replace it. I would love to thank the person who found my blue tooth and turned it in instead of taking home as their own. Since I have no idea who this person is, thank you, to anyone who has ever turned something in to the lost and found instead of keeping it. You are an awesome human being and you deserve a big huge THANK YOU!

I think we all need reminders every once in a while that not all news is bad.

2.15.2011

The Problem with Reading A Series. . .

A few months ago I Googled "if you like Janet Evanovich" and the name Stephanie Bond was revealed to me. Not only does she write romance but she also writes the mystery series Body Movers. Luckily for me, since I haven't had any time to actually pick up a book lately, the series is available in audio format. What a great series.

One of my favorite things about this series is that the books take place one right after the other. The first six books all take place within a two month period. IT'S SO AWESOME! Stephanie Plum has two sexy men in her life. Bobbie Faye has two sexy men in her life. Carlotta Wren has three, count them THREE sexy men in her life. There is one of them that I don't particularly care for, but I'm not going to discuss that here.

The problem with reading a series is that eventually you catch up. Eventually you're waiting for the next book release. The problem with reading this series? There isn't a next release date. According to the Stephanie Bond web page, Books 7 and 8 haven't been scheduled for a release date yet. Apparently her publisher is busy trying to sell the books for a TV pilot so has decided to leave all of us readers out in the cold. Very nice.

I have a problem with this for two reasons. You may or may not agree, but they're mine so you don't have to. First, Woman's Murder Club, the TV series. Anyone watch this series? No? That's cuz it SUCKED. ABC took a GREAT series of books and twisted it into a really awful television series. The damage that they could do to these fabulous Stephanie Bond books really worries me. Second, why are the readers being punished? If you missed it earlier in the blog, these books are consecutive. There is no time lapse of weeks or months in between these books. The end of the sixth book left us all hanging. Wondering what was going to happen next and we don't get to find out.

Having said all of that, these are amazing books. If you love Stephanie Plum, Bobbie Faye, witty dialogue and fabulous characters, these books are for you. Just read slowly.