Booty, Brains and the Beasts

Here's a photo of the booty I hauled in at the SGB (society of glass beadmakers) meeting on Saturday. The large blue tab bead is from Haley. It is stunning and shiny and everything I love about glass. The puppy bead is by Mary. It reminds me of my own lovely Puppykins and is so cute I want to hold it always. The olive shaped organic bead is from Aja. It is complex and gorgeous and dreamy. Bead people are the best. Getting together is like being in a room with people who totally 'get' you. They understand my jokes about burns, scars and general glass mishaps. Normal people look at you in horror when you talk about how you lit your bangs on fire. These people laugh. How awesome is that? Normal people won't show you the nasty scar they have in between their boobs. Glass people will. We all have scars and all the scars have stories. It's good to be part of that crowd.

For about a month, Desiree has been obsessed with reading. She has finished one book and is nearly done with the second. If you knew what we went through when she was in public school, you would know what a miracle this is. She has never, I mean NEVER, read for pleasure before in her life. She has dyslexia and reading has always been a challenge for her. Suddenly, or maybe not so suddenly, her whole outlook on reading has changed. I attribute a lot of this change to video games. Yes, you read that right. Video games. She is a gamer. Not just an average gamer, either. She finishes games. More and more of the games she has been playing have immense amounts of text to read. Over the years, she has slowly stopped asking me what this word is, what does that word mean? Her vocabulary is now noticeably larger than that of her friends. When she does that text-messaging thing, she refuses to abbreviate anything. She's slowly learned to read and spell proficiently through the use of technology. Who knew my kid would become a brainy book worm?

I got some requests for beads this week. Take a look: