Rainey Blogs on Some Days

I feel grown up when I wear hoop earrings, like my body is maturing to the point where my ear lobes can take the weight of those big hoops. People seem to pay more attention to me when I wear those big hoops, dangling, jangling, spinning around. And they are dangerous. You could easily get your hoop caught in something and—oooh!—that would be bad. It’s like having a couple of big hula hoops hanging off of your ears. Sometimes I like danger, though. It’s exciting, thrilling. Like riding a rollercoaster only it doesn’t make your stomach sick. But for some reason, when I put on those hoops I want to do wrong things. Listen to music I shouldn’t. Wear clothes that I shouldn’t. Use words that I shouldn’t. I don’t even want to go to church when I wear my big hoops. I don’t understand why having a couple of big circles hanging from my ears makes me feel this way. But it does. And I wear a lot more makeup when I wear the big hoops. It doesn’t make sense to wear those big hoops and not hav...

On this year's vacation in Jamaica, I read a book by fellow Leonian John Zeaman called Dog Walks Man: A Six-Legged Odyssey . Much of it takes place in Leonia, but it gets interesting when he starts walking the dog in the Meadowlands. Reading the book almost  made me want to get a dog.

On our vacation to Jamaica in August at Beaches Boscobel, I tried to stay true to the craft of writing, taking the early morning just after the sun came up to journal on my steno pad. (Of course, most of the time, I just sat there and looked at the beautiful view while drinking my coffee.) Like the crippled man in the Bible who kept returning to the Pool of Bethesda each day in hopes that he would be able to get in the water when it stirred and be healed, I keep showing up with a pad hoping for something meaningful to end up on the page. Most of the time it doesn't. But when it does, it is wonderful.

The Hawthorne Gospel Church has this sign posted by the access road into the church just off Route 208 for their "Kid's Klub." However, the placement of the apostrophe indicates the club is only for one child. Who will be the first to sign up?