Third Posting

I am continuing to read the book Crystal Lies and it is getting really interesting. In one of the chapters I read, the author describes the first time that her drug addicted son left home and how it affected her. He left home after getting in a big fight with his father, Geoffrey. The author describes her emotions: “It felt as if a giant pair of hands reached down and tore my life in half on the day that Jacob left home.” This quote struck me as very powerful because it shows how truly deep her feeling was when this occurred to her. It helps you to feel her emotion and understand her grief. The author goes on to explain how her sons drug addiction also led to less interaction with her daughter who had left for college. Having a problematic son had left her less time to focus on her daughter, so she felt some remorse for having slightly ignored her other child, through all the turmoil. This book really shows the true reality of how tough it is to live with a drug addicted person. It’s sad to think that someone else’s problems can negatively affect so many other people. This is a very sad book but it is an intriguing story and I can’t wait to keep reading!

Second Posting

I recently picked up a book at the library with the title Crystal Lies by Melody Carlson. I was walking through the shelves of books and its teal book bind caught my eye; I must confess, I am a sucker for fun colored book binds sitting on the self. I pulled it out from the other books and preceded to read the synopsis, which described that the book was about a mother and her family’s experience with a drug addicted son. I began reading a few pages on the car ride home and I found it really interesting. This quote specifically intrigued me, “Just to hear his voice on the phone reassures that he’s not lying dead in a Dumpster somewhere, the result of an overdose or a disgruntled drug supplier who hasn’t been paid on time. Despite my departure from what used to be my life, I still read the paper and watch the news, and I know for a fact that these things do happen” (pg. 7). This quote came from a section of the book where the author was describing an experience she had once when her son didn’t come home for a week. She was extremely worried and she didn’t even know if he was alive. This quote really struck me, because I can’t imagine being in this situation. To not know where a loved one was for a whole week would be devastating. This passage showed how this teen’s addiction did not only affect him, but also his loving family. In the next few pages, Carlson explained how her life had been turned upside down by her son’s issues. She had gone from a stay-at-home mother living in a fancy house, driving snazzy cars, to a single woman living in an apartment building, driving a dumpy Ford Taurus. I can’t wait to keep reading this book, and so far, this book has thoroughly solidified my prior beliefs that DRUGS ARE DUMB!

“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” World-renowned fashion designer Coco Chanel spoke these words. She is known as the woman who created the “little black dress”, defied all fashion boundaries of her time, and epitomized the words classy and chic. She was born in 1883, in Saumur France, to a very poor family. Her mother died when she was 12 years old and she spent the next seven years of her life in an orphanage, which was where she learned how to sew. After leaving the orphanage, she worked at a tailor shop, where she met the French millionaire Etienne Balsan whom she had an affair with. He treated her to the nicer things in life and she soon started designing hats as a hobby. She realized that fashion design was a passion of hers, and in 1913 she opened her first shop, in France, where she sold fashionable raincoats and jackets. Over the years, she expanded the types of clothing she offered, opened new shops, and began to become a household name. She died in 1971, at age 87.
Coco Chanel is well known for her cutting-edge, trend-setting styles during the 1920s, her feminine twist on menswear, her ability to make high fashion comfortable, and much more. Chanel started out as a poor orphan child and worked her way up to a respected woman with her name appearing on TIME magazine’s list of 100 most influential people of the 20th century. She was a strong-willed person who didn’t let small setbacks get in her way. Coco Chanel is a great role model for women and girls of all ages. I highly respect her flair for being different in a classy way, and her drive to achieve her goals in life. I would love to meet her…but given her current state, I guess reading articles about her on my computer, at home, will have to suffice.

Hello and welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading my future postings and I look forward to reading yours!