Tuesday, February 03, 2004

The glass IS half full.

It's back to school I go. I go grudgingly with excitement and trepidation. The excitement comes when I realize I am so close to accomplishing my goal. This is my last full semester. If all goes well, I will graduate in the Spring. I will still need to take one more Finance class in the Summer though, in order to receive my diploma. But, I can finally taste the end. I go with trepidation because I know that it will be a tough semester. And, I don't look forward to the stress that I know it will bring.

But, I'm ready. If the teacher asks what we did over our break I have many stories to tell. Unfortunately, it's not grade school anymore, so unless I discuss the stocks I didn't buy or the corporate financial analysis that I should be doing, he or she won't care that I actually got to read a book, a book for frivolity. I'm not so sure you could call Ann Rule's, "Without Pity," a book of frivolity though.

I've never been one to read true crime books. I picked this one up at the airport on my way home from Texas. After reading this one, I don't think I'll be a regular. It's not that it was bad. It was that it was disturbing. I felt like I had a Reader's Digest of all the worst news stories of the 70's. Bizarre murder mysteries occur on a much more random basis in the real world. Right now there is the Peterson trial and the Blake trial in the news. But, even the Blake mystery is 3 years old. To have a compilation of horrid stories that are based on fact makes me even more suspicious then I already am of the world around me.

Please allow me at least one rose-colored lens. This book made me want to rip off the glasses and stare into the blaring light of the noon day sun exposing the dark underbelly of humanity. But, I'm fighting to continue to see the glass as half full. To see the best in people, but to do it with caution. It's hard to see it as half empty when a goal, a dream, is so close to being realized.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am definitely feeling you on this one. I used to read Ann Rule all the time. But, that stuff started scaring the crap out of me!!!! If you are like me and have some fear issues, this kind of book was not what I should have been reading. I have read several of your other entries and just wanted to let you know that I enjoy the way you put your thoughts together.
Look forward to more,
RC

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more. Were such crimes always this common & we're just hearing more about them OR is this a sign of a doomed society? All the violence & degradation makes me wonder. ¤ H

Anonymous said...

Best wishes for a successful last semester. Knowing the end is in sight will help keep you motivated. I've read a couple of Ann Rule's books, but like you, I can only take one every decade or so. I think that I live my life with rose colored lenses almost all of the time. A book like that shatters me for a while. It's not that I don't want to know, it's that the knowing is so awful...

Anonymous said...

Good Luck with your last semester. Each of us handle stress in different ways, You seem to have it all under control from what I have read so far. Keep up the Good work!!!!

Have a good evening.
Kate

Anonymous said...

Rock on Robbie!!! You're almost there! Keep those spirits up cuz it's gonna happen for you! :-)

Gregg

Anonymous said...

I used to like Ann Rule but it got just way to creepy for me. Krobbie, all our goals in life are tough, some seem further away than we want, and some so close you can taste it. You're a strong lady, and the light of the tunnel can be seen. I'm right behind you, and if you need to vent, I'm here! I'm so proud of you =)

Beverly

Anonymous said...

congrats on being so close. Cant wait to you are done john

Anonymous said...

Congrats Robbie, Im sure everything will go as planned and you will graduate. What is your major anyways?

Anonymous said...

Being the focused, determined woman that you are, I have no doubt you will finish on time and with flying colors!

As a rule, I don't read Ann Rule (excuse the pun) either, it's just too sensationalistic for me. The reality of violent crime is gruesome enough.

Anonymous said...

I can't understand the people who read those true-crime novels. The book about the Manson family, "Helter Skelter," was the first and last one for me.

Anonymous said...

Robbie, you are blossoming before our eyes. The glass is fuller some days than others. At least it's still a glass. If it's your dream, reaching it should come easy, stress and all. Wish it and make it so.

Anonymous said...

ok .. i'm reading that very book this month .. but it IS really hard to swallow (so to speak) so i'm reading a book of fiction at the same time .. just can't take too much of that reality stuff in one sitting i guess
pamela

Anonymous said...

I feel the same way, Robbie. I can barely watch the news anymore, for that very same reason. Tragedy, murder, kidnapping, rape....the list goes on and on. What kind of world am I raising my son in, anyway? One that's going to hell....that's what I think.

~Bridgett

Anonymous said...

great review robbie! I am not much a crime reader myself.
yes, go with caution.
"Be gentle like sheep but wise like the serpent".... paraphrased from the Bible.
I have always liked that quote from the bible. nice entry!