Book Review: The Rose Ring by Anne M. Faye

The Rose Ring was a delightful, easy read--just what I was looking for during a particularly stressful time in my life. I read it in one evening.  The characters are likeable and believable, and you probably know someone like just like them. The two divergent story lines came together at the end to teach a powerful lesson--that sometimes you may not learn from YOUR past, but from SOMEONE ELSE'S past.

If you are in the mood for a heartwarming, charming love story, you can't go wrong with The Rose Ring.    

Noises Off

Do you like quiet?  When I was a kid I thought quiet was a curse.  You had to be quiet in school and church and even when playing in the evening in my grandma’s backyard because Hazel, they elderly next door neighbor lady, went to bed at 7 p.m.--even in the summer. 

I grew up in the 70s when loud music reigned supreme.  Why even the groups told you to pump up the volume.  Who can forget Lynrd Skynrd’s encouragement to “Turn it up!” in Sweet Home Alabama?  Or Elton John’s lyrics in Bennie and the Jets:  You’re going to hear electric music, solid walls of sound?  And truly the music played back then sometimes felt like a brick wall pounding your body.  Does anybody remember the Bone-Phone?  It was a sock-like device you draped around your neck that played music that only you could hear because it sent sound waves through your bones.  I never had one, but my first rock concert was to see Seals & Crofts at the Civic Arena.  My date got us front-row seats directly in front of the speakers that seemed 20-feet high.  It was so loud, you could feel the sound waves thumping in your chest, and my ears rang for days afterward. 

Back then noise was cool; quiet wasn’t.  Today, I feel differently, especially after the past few weeks that I’ve had.    

My family room ceiling developed a leak after that first big snowfall we had last December.  We decided we would try to patch it and opt for a new roof in the spring.  We went away for a week in the beginning of March, and when we returned, the leak had gotten worse.  Apparently, it had been leaking behind the wall.  Long story short, the wall and ceiling had to be gutted and the restoration services company that did the work brought in three heavy-duty fans and a humidifier to dry up the water damage.  The fans had to run continuously from Tuesday afternoon until Friday.  I felt as if we’d moved into an airplane hangar.  The sound made it unbearable to sit in the family room, and I couldn’t hear the phone in the kitchen.  I had to snag the portable and run into the living room to talk to anyone.  We holed up in my bedroom for three nights watching TV, but you could still hear the hum of the fans.  

Yes, silence is golden.

The day after the fans left, we got a new car, and we’ve been looking around a while for a puppy.  We found a sweetheart of a pup and made arrangements to meet the breeder in the Walmart parking lot in Uniontown.  I thought it would be a nifty idea to take the new car.  We found the breeder, got our puppy (who is adorable) and had a bit of trouble with the key fob and the car’s alarm system.  When my husband opened the car door, the alarm wouldn’t shut off no matter how many times we pushed the disarm button.  Finally after pushing buttons, manually unlocking doors, it shut off.  It did that several times, but the kicker was after we finally got the alarm to cease, we put the key in the ignition to head for home, but when he started the engine, the alarms came on and stayed on.  And every time we started the car, the horn blared.  

 Here we were 90 minutes from home, with a new puppy, new car, cell phones dying with what sounded likethe Tijuana Brass was under our hood.  Eventually, the brass band morphed into a sound that could only be described as one of Canada geese being strangled.  Mercifully, AAA sent a fellow named Bubba, who should have been named Prince Charming because he fiddled with the locks a bit and silenced it so we could drive home. 

Gratuitous Puppy Photo of Mickey

The puppy, which we named Mickey, is a blue roan cockachon.  His mother was a blue roan cocker spaniel and his father a bichon frise.  He looks like a four-pound pile of ashes and is a big cuddler.  If you have read my column before, you know that I have very little experience with dogs.  With ears still ringing, we settled in for our first night with Mickey, who we put in a crate and set by the bedside.  After a bit of whining, he fell asleep, but he awoke at 2:30.  If I didn’t know that we had a puppy in the crate, I would have thought we’d brought home some exotic creature from the Amazon because the noise that emanated from his crate certainly didn’t sound canine.  My dog-loving friends tell me things will get better on the sleeping scene. 

Now, that spring is here, thoughts are turning to vacation.  A few people have asked me what our plans are for this summer?  With roof repairs and a new puppy, I’m not certain, but I wonder if Travelocity has any package deals to a silent monastery.

This originally appeared in the April issue of Northern Connection magazine.

Roll With the Changes

The only sense that is common in the long run, is the sense of change—

and we all instinctively avoid it. -- E. B. White

Do you like change?  Every month I edit articles for this magazine and many of those articles deal with change—changing your appearance, your attitude, your living space, your health or your financial status.  It seems that everyone is interested in changing something about their lives.  If you look at the other magazines on the newsstands, you will find that most of their headlines deal with changing something as well. 

Change is very appealing—on paper.  When it comes to actually doing something different or making a major adjustment in your circumstances, that can be a bit less palatable. 

I don’t know about you, but I usually don’t take to change very readily.  There have been episodes when, like the commercial says “life came at me fast,” sometimes too fast, catching me off guard and throwing me for a loop.  When I went to first grade, I didn’t adjust well to this transition and fretted obsessively that I would miss my bus after school.  I was so upset one morning while getting ready for school, that when I went to the closet to get my shoes, I barfed in my Buster Browns.  Years later when I was working, there was a reduction in the workforce, and I was bumped from my position into another department.  My new co-workers were so different from my former colleagues, that I feared I would never feel at home with them. 

There is a whole area of psychology devoted to the study of change and how it affects people.  In 1967, Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe developed the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, which assessed numerical values to life changes—good and bad events.  The death of a spouse rated a 100 while Christmas rated a 12. 

My reaction in first grade and later when I was moved to a different job were normal responses to those normal life-changing events, but after perusing the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, I think it may need a change as well. 

Life comes at you even faster now than it did in 1967.  We have introduced many more changes and many more stress- producing circumstances over the decades.  Most of them have not come from happenstance but from a shift in our collective attitude and technology.  For instance, back in 1967, we didn’t obsess about food.  People just cooked food and ate it.  Every day it seems a new study is released telling us which foods to eat.  One day coffee is bad, the next it’s good.  Bread used to be the staff of life, now it’s the scourge of carb watchers.  There are so many different diets from low-fat to caveman style, that it’s no wonder people are tied up in knots not knowing how to eat properly. 

Technological changes are also a source of consternation.  Technology changes so rapidly now, it’s almost hard to keep up with it.  Do you realize that the first iPad was only released on April 3, 2010?  Now, we are up to the fourth generation of the iPad, and you can bet before long a newer version will be on the shelves.  It seems you just learn how to work a device and it’s time to get a new one and get acquainted with its new features.  We recently purchased a new car.  I love all the new bells and whistles on it, but it used to be you merely inserted a key into the ignition, shifted into gear, released the emergency brake and away you went.  The new car came with an inch-thick manual that explained how everything worked, and I’m still trying to figure out all of the icons on the dashboard. 

I’m not some Luddite.  I love technology; it has made my life much simpler and more convenient in so many ways.  Paradoxically, at the same time, it has also made life more complicated.  I have so many computer passwords, I’m afraid that some day my brain will crash, and I won’t remember any of them and my life will collapse in ruins around me.  Therefore, I have a small notebook where I maintain all of my passwords.  When I worked for Westinghouse back in the mid-1980s, IBM personal computers were purchased for all of the staff.  Most of us were very excited to receive them, but there were several secretaries who chose to retire rather than attempt to learn how to use a computer.  I often wonder how they are faring with this onslaught of innovation if they are still alive. 

I eventually adjusted to first grade, and those new co-workers I acquired when I was bumped into that new department, eventually became my friends.  With age comes wisdom, and I’ve learned along the way that although most change feels as uncomfortable as a pair of wet socks, you eventually get used to it. And it might even be better than what was prior.  I recognize that although I’m more comfortable with the status quo, I’ve come to agree with the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus who said “Nothing endures but change.”  Therefore, I’ve decided to adopt a more welcoming attitude and to try to roll with the changes—but, of course, if I find that being so adaptable is too stressful, that will be subject to change. 

This article originally appeared in the March 2013 issue of Northern Connection magazine.