BURN AFTER READING * WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS * PARADISE LOST

Finally, here I am....Since arriving home from vacation, it's been a whirlwind of activity and things to do around here. Of course I'm still not caught up! Today I finally finished making this skirt to match a jacket that I made a couple of years ago. It feels so good to complete a project that has been on my lists for weeks. I've seen a few movies and read a book......
Burn After Reading - This was a great little Cohen brothers movie with Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney and others. It's changing and engaging, and you can't believe what these people get themselves into all for a little nipping and tucking. Too funny and too scary. Just what we like.
What Happens in Vegas - How can you go wrong if you want a few laughs from Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz? It ran a little long, but otherwise, you know the drill. Couple meet in Vegas, except what happened there didn't stay there. Fun to see On Demand. For free.
Paradise Lost by Giles Milton - Smyrna 1922 The Destruction of a Christian City in the Islamic World - This is a non-fiction book about the Smyrna Catastrophe. The Smyrna Catastrophe took place in a land called Asia Minor in 1922. The Greeks were encouraged by the allies to invade western Turkey after the first world war, in 1919. They never really came close to establishing power because the world leaders never gave clear direction, and didn't want to offend the turks after all. So the turks pulled themselves together under the leadership of Mustapha Kemal (Attaturk), and pushed out the Greek soldiers, and then the Greek and Armenian population, straight into the sea. The turks set fire to one of the most beautiful of the ancient cities of the world, and it was all lost. This was first documented by George Horton, the American Consulate in 1922 who lived in Smyrna, a few years later in a book called Blight of Asia.
This author, Giles Milton, has used Blight of Asia as well as numerous accounts of the British and French Levantine population of Smyrna to compile a complete history of those times and those events. It's remarkable reading and so thorough, and adds a new dimension to the history through these new accounts.
My grandmother was one of the Smyrna refugees. She was on that pier, and she and her sisters and brother survived. I know her story, but now after reading this book, including a day by day account of the last days of Smyrna, I have more questions than ever about how she and her siblings (who had been orphaned years before) made it to the city from their village (which is an 1 1/2 hours from Smyrna by car now), then made it onto a boat and to safety in Greece.
This is a story that is known the world over by those people called "Refugees" and their children and their children's children. Some children and grandchildren know it and live their lives. Others keep the story inside them always, and it's a part of who they are, and they are always aware of it. It's just a word. Refugee. Except if you think about it, it's about a life lost. It's about never being able to go home to home as it was.
It's about painful and life changing events.
Tonight is Easter Eve, and we are going to church where my candle will be lit in honor of my Grandmother and her siblings. Xristos Anesti.