My name is Heather aka NFMGirl aka Cerebral Girl, and this is my blog. This blog was started in 2009 as I was getting back into reading again after having had myself on a book ban due to excessive book purchases.
If you're wondering about the blog name, I was raised in south Florida in redneck country. I grew up across from a cow pasture and gunshots in the woods were a regular thing, and sometimes I could hear the nearby ranch ringing the dinner bell to call in the cows. Yes, a literal dinner bell like from the movies!
But I was always a sensitive child who loved animals and books. The redneck world was something I watched from the outside, but never participated in.
So, in 2009 I started this blog and had a good run for about 10 years, and thoroughly enjoyed it!
Then I went through a bad stretch of time. 2017 brought the eye of Hurricane Irma just past my town. I escaped the flooding and damage that many endured, but had tons of cleanup for months after. 2018 was my father's death. 2019 was a rollover accident the week before the one-year anniversary and memorial of my father's death. 2020 brought COVID, and then an injury that caused a bone infection that almost caused me to lose my finger and required a week in the hospital and months of recuperation and physical therapy. In 2021, both my mother and my best friend were diagnosed with cancer. 2022 brought a direct hit from Hurricane Ian which left us without power or internet and living like we were in a third-world country for weeks, waiting in long lines for food and water. And after a nightmarish almost two years as a primary caregiver of my mother while working full-time, she passed away in 2023. Since then, I've been buried under the demands of settling her estate. It's been a hellish time!
In 2018, I was reading one of the best books I've ever read The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne when I had to get on a plane to rush to my father's hospital bed. I
spent the next 10 days or so trying to bring
him any comfort I could in his final days. After that, it became
extremely difficult to pick up a book again, and I have been struggling
for five years to find joy once again in reading. I still haven't finished that "best book I've ever read".
But I think I'm finally getting there again. I've been picking up books and enjoying reading them. I think I'm on the road to recovery!
And over the last few years I have become good friends with a few of those living the redneck life who like to make me ride in the back of giant pick 'em up trucks while flinging mud and forcing me to drink vodka straight from a bottle passed around, and I have a new appreciation for some aspects of the redneck life!
-- March 17, 2024
Copyright Infringement Notice:
It is not the intention of this blog or author to perpetrate copyright infringement on any other individual or corporation. If this blog has mistakenly breached copyright on your material, please contact us via email to alert the author, and we will address the matter immediately.
Copyright Notice:
This website and its content are copyright of the author of Cerebral Girl in a Redneck World. Some rights reserved. Terms and Conditions
Posts
