Cheryl Beckham Blog

It’s not that I don’t like what I am doing right now, but I don’t think I can see myself still behind this bar when I’m in my 50′s ya know? I’m hearing more and more people that are going back to school, and not the traditional school setting mind you but using their computers and on their own time and scheduling, which is pretty cool. I’ve heard  that WaldenU.edu is a great place to attend via the Internet. So I think that I will take a look at the Walden University’s online degree programs and see what all they may have to offer me at this point of my life.

The thing is, I’m not sure what I’d be good at or smart enough to do, don’t get me wrong, I’m no dummy, but it has been so long since I had to really learn anything, except how to mix drinks that come about every now and then depending on what new “fad” drink is being consumed out there. Oh well, like I said I’ll take some time over the next few weeks and do what I can to just learn about Walden and see if I can find something that I think I can handle getting into as well as afford.

I try not to have too many things, if I can get away with it, sent to my all ready over flowing email inbox. But a customer of mine has telling me about an interesting, entertaining and educational web site called The Online Slang Dictionary where each day they will email you a slang “Word of the Day” so far I have all ready known most of the words, but it is still pretty cool and once in a while a new one will pop up for me to learn and then try and use.

Today’s word I had never heard of, kerfuffle, a noun - with the definition listed as: a minor fight, a spat, or a commotion. What a silly looking and sillier sounding word, but I have tucked this knowledge away and plan on using it when I can, which is what I’ve been doing with all the words that I’ve picked up from this online dictionary. If you want to see what it is all about you can go to their site of onlineslangdictionary.com, live and learn, right?

So far I have found local.com to be the best online local yellowpages for my wants and needs. I have tossed out (placed in the recycling bin) all (and I do mean all) of my paper telephone books, the white pages, the yellow pages, and all but one of the local and surrounding counties book. I can’t believe how many I rounded up when I set my mind to it. There were eleven of them in all, several were way out of date and should have been gotten rid of years ago and a couple were still in the wrappers for heaven’s sake! Now I have more room on my book shelve and a kitchen drawer now has room for more kitchen items instead of all of the phone books that have lived there for so very long.

Now a days if I want to find one of our local restaurants I head straight for my computer to find everything I need there in a nutshell. Not only can I find the typical name, phone and address information at local.com, but I can find the businesses hours, driving directions, ratings and reviews, menu samples, heck you can even make your dinner reservations right online as well. So anytime I need to do a local search for anything I start at local.com, so far they haven’t let me down yet and I’ve found some pretty interesting and useful information along the way, just by entering my zip code I become privy to a ton of opportunities for online consumers as myself. It’s all good folks!

I picked up a book titled The Templar Legacy, by Steve Berry, a few weeks ago, it came home with me in a box flowing over with books that were being given away at one of my doctor’s office waiting room, the only good thing that came out of the doctor’s office. I found myself having a hard time reading it for several days and when I reached page 200, out of a 500 page book, and I still wasn’t enjoying the story I almost put the book down for good, and then decided to give it one more try. I just wasn’t getting into the story or the characters, it was proving to be a chore just reading the darn thing.

Well I finally finished it, and it wasn’t until around the last fifty pages that I actually looked forward to reading the story. I’m glad that I did finish it though, the ending did explain a whole lot and gave me some things to think about and has made me want to do a bit of research on some issues that were talked about that I am now curious about. I love it when a book does that to me, gets me interested in some off the wall subject that normally I wouldn’t give a second thought about.

My passion for reading has been with me all of my life, although it take a back seat for several years after giving birth to my daughter, 12 years ago. Now that I am on my own once again, my ex has custody, for the time being, I have been excited about given more time on my hands in order to start some serious reading once again.

I have been a “Parrot Head” since way back and have always enjoyed the tropical type music that he is so well known for producing and I have heard that he has written some books lately, but have never seemed to be able to come upon any of his books until just recently.

So I was thrilled to find one of his books called “A Salty Piece of Land” at my favorite used book store, and for only $2 and I’ve really enjoyed the reading of it this past week. I’m glad that inside of the book it tells me the names of his other books that I will need to see if I can find at a good bargain also. I’m especially interesting in finding the one entitled “A Pirate Looks At Fifty”, if I can’t find it locally then I guess I could always look on-line and see if I can find it somewhere out there in cyber-world, for cheap.