Zelda with a "Z"

   June continues to seem like a long month to me. Summer slow, where the air begins to get thick. I yearn for these days. My back door is open, and Satan's humidity is creeping into my diggings. Atlanta is no Miami hot, but it will certainly cause you to wet your whistle! Ice water, sweet tea with lemon, a little something to ease the pain, so you can wither away longer. These are reading days, back porch sitting, reading days. So before I settle down, I thought I would share some of the books, that have been my friends for June.

 The Fitzgerald duo are near and dear to my heart. Scott and Zelda, are like relatives to me. Scott, because he married Zelda. Miss "Z" because she was born in the south. That Alabama girl is surely related, so I read all books about my kin.

 I love writers, books about writers, and when you throw in the influence of the south, Iam in knee deep in hanging moss and humidity.

 So it is no surprise to me, that I picked, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler.

My Bill always asks me, as do others, what I am reading? When I told him about Zelda, he said, "You could write your own book about her."
I semi-smiled and said, "Why thank you, I think?"
I remind him, that it is all family research. "You know she is a relative?" repeating myself over and over!
"Yes, so you say!" he responds, knowing I know he is not listening to one word I have said!

 Back to my story, the book was delicious, but you know that. Who doesn't know about Zelda? Anyone?
 My daddy always said, " Never assume!" but I think the world reads like I do. Unbridled desire to learn everything! Non-fiction, fiction, you need to read about my Zelda.
 Here are some lines from the book, that may spark your reading fever.
  *If only people could travel as easily as words.
  * Nothing except luck protects you from catastrophe.
  * But Zelda, what wouldn't you give to go back to the beginning, to be those people again.
  * Look closer and you will see something extraordinary.
  *"You can't have peach preserves every day of your life!" Aunt Julia said that was the only thing keeping me sweet enough to evade the devil!!! (delicious)
  * My standards were based on good sense, not the logic of lemmings
  * Zelda Sayre of 6 Pleasant Avenue, she of the toe shoes and angel's wings. Livye said, " and devil's smile."
  *"I'm wiser than I am impetuous or improper, rest assured."
  * Trouble don't need an engraved invitation.
  * His father was old-fashioned, too, but Scott thought him benign, like an old pocket watch that keeps time and has style but isn't worth much.
  * "Ludlow once told me his nanny could cut his meat just by scowling at it.
  *Days longer than whole months crawled by
  *There would be too much everything and not enough anything, and then where would that leave us?
I will end on that line. Zelda and Scott sucked up life and spit it out, and if they had lived now, certainly would have been put on some good meds. Then no books would have been written, and no stories told.
It is a fine line with artists, alcohol, mental illness and the years you have it all.

T.S. Elliot wrote, If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?

This is a tall story, a long month of June story, a must read story for all who read.

My Zelda, "Z", from Montgomery, dressed in her prettiest spring dress and finest floral perfume, met Scott and the story begins.

I love them both.

Its Not Just A Container

 I am a very lucky girl, always have been, it takes work!!Luck just doesn't happen, you have to hunt it down!! Daily, I remind myself to be grateful for this thing called "luck".?.?
 Just last week, or one of those weeks, hubby brings me my cup of coffee. In the wee hours of the morning, we have always shared the serenity of the morning without a herd of kids awake YET!! Its early, 4 or 5am, and the coffee is hot. On this particular glorious morning, Dr. B. brought me my cub of Joe, in a weird mug. "What is that?" I questioned.
"Your cup of coffee?" replied my lucky husband?
" I believe that is a cup, that was filled with bad candy, that a child gave me at school!" said I.
" Its just a container, Bonnie, the coffee will taste the same.?" He that spoke, knew he had spoke too soon.

Oh Lord Jesus, "Bill, I want my cup, that I use everyday. You should know, as a scientist that I like the ratio of cream/sugar/coffee, in my cup, thank you so much." AND "Its not just a container, its a vessel."
Not only am I lucky to have married someone who appreciates my sense of humor, but after so many years, gets that I am also right.

Attention to details, the right cup, changes everything. That is how luck starts, or should I say No luck could start. It takes work, to know yourself, and to know others. Work or luck, to make another person happy.

To incorporate luck and joy into your day to day living, is not easy? or maybe it is?

I heard a sermon once, that the message was, you have to empty your cup before good can fill it up again!
Amen, to that.
AND I would like to add...your cup better damn well be the right one, or what you put in it, is not drink worthy!!
You create your own luck, trust me, my coffee is perfect.

Ongoing Improvements

 As I begin to piece together my thoughts, I sit here enjoying this Georgia rain. Wondering why I procrastinate so much, and remembering there is just so much to look at.

 Ongoing improvements have to be done, right? We repair our cars, put oil in them, change the tires. Some of us update our homes, new paint, a new chair, granite sinks, summer annuals in the yard, the list is long.
So it would stand to reason, that a tweak, to the old face, now and then would seem to be understood.

At least that is how I explained the COST of some botox and a tad of filler, to Bill. I am like a Bentley, a classic, that needs to be pampered and well oiled?? Maybe I did not say oiled?? Well maintained, smooth, and worked on from time to time. I told the doctor, that she needed to be conservative, that I wanted my eyebrows to remain in the right place, and I like a few wrinkles. Bill laughed, said that I was probably the only woman that asked for a little to be fixed. I guess I should tell him, it was a little, that time!!! I have the doctors name on speed dial. Ongoing improvements are important.

  Just last weekend I read, that Paradise Gardens, Howard Finster's place was having an overhaul and it made me nervous. ( note poison injected into my face did not!!) Some things need to remain the same, or do they? I guess that is always the hard decisions that we all have to make.
I have been to Howard's digs and I don't see how you fix a mess that is crazy beautiful. ( OK, notice that words like that were not used by my doctor!)( nor did Bill say, " Oh Bonnie you are so crazy beautiful, you don't need to go to the dermatologist! Here is thousands of dollars!)
 Seriously, Howard Finster, was a peculiar genius. A folk artist, and a collector of junk.
 One summer, my gals and all our kids, went to see this.....property...his stuff..I don't know what to call it. All I know is his relatives????had a house on the gardens, and then there were buildings and like a yellow brick road, type of path, with things that all of humanity had discarded, and he had put in this path!! It was like a Where is the world is Waldo book, minus Waldo. There was a building built entirely out of old bicycles and bike parts, an entire building! I think I was the only one brave enough to go in. You know that snakes loved his mess. He was a religious man, so I had hoped he had cast out the snakes, before my arrival!! GAWD!
 I think artist may have called some of his concrete art, mosaic treasures. I call them crazy on moonshine, fabulous art. There was a house of mirrors, that I think he called the chapel and a bottle house. Mirror prisms hung on every surface, so that the sun twinkled on all this junk. His painted art pieces are manic writings of his thoughts and opinions, simple drawings from a not so simple man. He even had his coffin, ready to go, decorated for all to see.
  Thinking about his work, causes me to ramble, because I truly cannot describe it. All I know is that some people are fixing it up. A big new building to house his work is going up,  because after he died, natures vines consumed the place.  His shacks were crumbling, and how do you protect and kept his vision alive.
With new building?? ongoing improvements?? I think it will not be the same, but.....what ifs its better? I like the word restore the gardens, that people with money are using. I just want it restored to Finsters' liking, his style. I hope it is possible.
 I guess we all need a little brushing off from time to time.
Ongoing improvements, me and you Howard!