still here

Our internet is down at home so I have not been able to post much. I have not totally fallen off the planet, though lately I feel like I might get sucked into a black hole of activity. This was another crammed weekend while left me feeling that I had no weekend, and I have a sneaky hunch that this week will also feel a little stressful.

That said, I have amazing friends who at least make it feel better with phones calls that sound something like this.

"Hey, what are you doing this weekend?"
"Nothing."
"Good. We're going to Saugatuck this weekend. I already talked to A3 (my bro) and Chris and they are in too."
"What!? I can't. I am really broke right now."
"I know. I got a cheap cabin and it's ok, it can be your graduation...and birthday present."
"Um...ok. But I am pitching in for the gas to get there." (It is 3 hrs each way).

So now I am looking forward to a busy week, but also many pleasant things to come.

tagged and it

Thanks Mummy for tagging me.

15 Things: facts, goals, and random.

1) Fact: I love orange lillies--and I don't mean tiger lillies, those are different! I mean just plain old orange lillies.--I planted 7 over a decade ago at my parents' house and when I weeded them out two summers ago I counted over 115 bulbs.
2) Goal: To cry again as hard as I did when I was a kid. I think a rib cage shaking cry every once in a while is good for you. But, alas, I am emotionally stunted.
3) Random: If I were a vegetable I think I would be broccoli because then I would have a book named after me.
4) Fact: I am the youngest of four siblings. (2 boys, 2 girls--like the Brady Bunch sans Bobby and Cindy...so we really aren't missing out on much. But does that make me Jan? "Marsha Marsha Marsha!")
5) Goal: Publish a book before I turn 30.
6) Random: When I was 6 I was playing baseball and the ball hit my hand when I swung the bat. Two of my finger nails fell off.
7) Fact: I had enough credits my senior year that I "dual-enrolled" at UofM and took one class each semester. Since the school payed for the classes I didn't care about my grades (since I knew I wasn't going to go there for my BA), so I used to skip class and go see movies for free at the movie theater I worked for at the time.
8) Goal: To learn how to tap dance. I have always wanted to know how since I was really little.
9) Random: One nickname I someone once gave me, which I HATED, was "Nibbles." Thank you Bill Shein!
10) Fact: I really don't like clowns or when people have really small hands. I don't know what it is! (I am sorry if you are/have either!)
11) Goal: Pay off all my loans and other debts within the next 5 years! (Audible laughter is heard somewhere! Maybe there should be a "miracle" heading.)
12) Random: Sometimes things happen so "coincidentally" that I begin to wonder if my life really isn't like "The Truman Show." I swear I am not paranoid..."What was that!?!?"
13) Fact: I wish there were such things as "Existential Detectives," like in "I Heart Huckabees." I would hire them.
14) Goal: To travel to Alaska.
15) Random: I think that I will always be mystified by men; no matter how old I get, no matter how well I know them individually, they will never make sense to me.

I tag:
From the Bibliofiles
Tizzy
Effing Librarian
Fear and Loathing in the Library

library stuff #403

List of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2007 (per the American Library Association website):

1. "And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

2. "The Chocolate War," by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence

3. "Olive's Ocean," by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language

4. "The Golden Compass," by Philip Pullman
Reasons: Religious Viewpoint

5. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain
Reasons: Racism

6. "The Color Purple," by Alice Walker
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,

7. "TTYL," by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

8. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," by Maya Angelou
Reasons: Sexually Explicit

9. "It's Perfectly Normal," by Robie Harris
Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit

10. "The Perks of Being A Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Off the list this year, are two books by author Toni Morrison. "The Bluest Eye" and "Beloved," both challenged for sexual content and offensive language.

For more information on book challenges and censorship, please visit the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom's Banned Books Web site at www.ala.org/bbooks.



High Tech Haven for Teens at Detroit Library's Main Branch

Mass Media Representations of Librarians

the end of many things

Friday brought the end of the conference. I can honestly say that being an extrovert and not usually minding being around a lot of people, I nearly ran to my car—though I walked as maturely as I could to my car in my “business clothes,” got in and once out of ear shot cranked up the radio and sped off. Ah, yes. Being an adult is about those choices, eh?

After getting a little lost on my way home and making some very frustrated calls to Married K who google mapped me some new directions, I was on my way. After a brief stop at mi casa to change and repack I was off again, this time with my friend Stac. We headed out to Harrison Twp. to catch up with the rest of the Bachelorette party, and after a painful couple of hours of small talk at my friend Justine’s house we headed out for a night of bar hopping: too much alcohol all around, too much drama—how is it that girls can always cry and pour their hearts out when we are supposed to be having fun?—and a very tired me curled up in the back of the limo bus as the bar was closing. Oh, yes, there were some fun moments in the night but I will leave those shameful stories for my journal.

And of course nights that end on those high notes never end there. We were a motley crew the next morning, stumbling—maybe still a little drunk—into Mickey D’s for a greasy breakfast before we flotsamed and jotsamed ourselves ready for the Bridal Shower. As if I don’t hate Bachelorette parties enough, let’s pair another one of my favorite (insert sarcasm here) wedding themed activities the day after.

Ugh. And my day didn’t end there. After Stac dropped me off at my house I changed again and headed out to my parents house, which is in its last throes as our home—though is a home really ever a home after the heart of it has broken? For a change I watched Monster Niece and Nephew while everyone else packed. Monster Niece and Nephew ran all over the yard and played; blowing dandelion seeds, plucking weeds out of the ground, digging in the dirt and rocks of the driveway. It is amazing how many memories and dreams are wrapped up in something as simple as a yard. How many things you don’t realize that you will miss; the way that the birds sing in the yard, the smell of your road and the wide open spaces; the way that no matter how many trees had fallen over time you can still find the nooks and crannies of the woods were you played as a child, where forts were built, fights were fought and lost and weapons were designed and used in mock battle.

I was unable to look around without seeing the orange lilies I had planted over a decade ago—the original 7 numbering over one hundred flowering plants; my Mom’s rose bushes and my Dad’s miniature evergreens; our sassafras tree whose leaves has been borrowed for school projects and stowed away in books, caught between sheets of wax paper; my Dad ‘s garden which he loved so much, the bed waiting to be churned with the thick heavy blades of the tractor now laying still. I was unable to go to my old bedroom and look out at my old view and not become a little sad. Even after I moved out and my room became the office I still owned that space and always was called to its seasonal views of green and robust spring and summer life, autumnal colors of far away forests and winter piles of soft downy looking snow.

And as we loaded the kids into the car, both Monster Niece and Nephew not wanting to leave “Jammie and Pop’s house,” as they call it, I knew exactly what they meant. I didn’t want to leave it either.

conference initiations

My absence from blogging was filled with such busyness that I don’t feel as though I have slept for about a week. Last Wednesday I headed across the state to Grand Rapids for my first conference—Spring Institute, a Conference put on by the Michigan Library Association for Children’s and Young Adult Librarians from across the state. It was a really cool opportunity to get some new ideas for programming and art projects, do some social networking, listen to some really great guest speakers and even get some people-watching in—we librarians are a weird, socially retarded lot, I think.

The 2.5 hr. ride out to Grand Rapids was lovely. I took in the scenic pieces of countryside that can be found the farther west you drive. The untouched pieces of Michigan not too far north, still quiet in its farm splendor; freshly churned dark, rich fields waiting to yield crops; the lush smell of country seeping into the vents of the car and making me homesick for my old farm life, and smells of animals and tractor fumes and fresh cut grass and freshly agitated soil.

The conference was held at the beautiful Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, which is a historic old hotel complete with the most dazzling and ornate furniture and decorative pieces throughout. My room was in the old section of the hotel where a beautiful fountain surrounded by roses is located, with the main room surrounded by little side wings where bars are nestled into the crannies. It was one of those marvelous hotels where no small detail is ignored down to the smallest fresh flowers in crystal bowls and vases on the tables. If you are ever in the area check it out.

Some of the highlights of the weekend were the guest speakers, my favorites were Judith Schachner (author of the Skippy John Jones series of books among many others); 2007 Mitten Award Winner and also Newberry Honor book winner for RULES-Cynthia Lord; 2007 Thumbs Up Award Winner Pete Hautman (author of many books, there to speak about his newest Rash); and children’s musician and all around amazingly funny entertainer/teacher Jim Gill, who had us up and acting like idiots in no time—and having a good time while doing it. The venue is such that you can actually go up and talk to the guest speaks, which enabled me to be able to ask Pete Hautman questions about one of his books (Mr. Was), which I read in the fall; and also chat with Cyndi Lord while she signed a copy of her book for me.

Overall, it was a really interesting opportunity, only made better by the fact that the library paid for everything. And yet, the end of the conference only marked the mid-point of my busy few days.

my Cult Classics

In this blog I mentioned an article in the Telegraph listing their Top 50 Cult Classic Books. I decided to come up with my own list, still using their definition of "cult," which gives a wide berth in choosing the books on my list.

I loved parts of their definition so much that I had to share it here: "'What is a cult book? We tried and failed to arrive at a definition: books often found in the pockets of murderers; books that you take very seriously when you are 17; books whose readers can be identified to all with the formula “whacko"; books our children just won’t get…Cult books are somehow, intangibly, different from simple bestsellers – though many of them are that…They are different from books that have big new ideas – though many of them are that…In compiling our list, we were looking for the sort of book that people wear like a leather jacket or carry around like a totem. The book that rewires your head: that turns you on to psychedelics; makes you want to move to Greece; makes you a pacifist; gives you a way of thinking about yourself as a woman, or a voice in your head that makes it feel okay to be a teenager; conjures into being a character who becomes a permanent inhabitant of your mental flophouse. We were able to agree, finally, on one thing: you know a cult book when you see one. And people have passionate feelings on both sides: our appeal for suggestions yielded enough for a list at least three times as long as this one.'"

I am not sure that all of my mine would fall under that description, so I have instead posted a list of 50 Classic favorites. (You will note that books in a series, i.e., Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Little House on the Prarie are counted together as I read those books as one long work, only broken up for print-ability (and to make more money). These are the books that shaped the person I am and the way that I think.

So, without further ado, my Top 50 Classics (in no particular order):

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Roots by Alex Haley
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Lord of the Rings (all 3 books) by J.R.R. Tolkein
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Night by Elie Wiesel
Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Little House on the Prarie Series (9 books) by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
To Kill a Mockinbird by Harper Lee
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Harry Potter (all 7 books) by J.K. Rowling
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Snows of Killimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Picnic Lightning by Billy Collins
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Marie Remarque
The Chronicles of Narnia (all 7 books) by C.S. Lewis
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
The Count of Monty Cristo by Alexander Dumas
Beowulf by Anonymous
A Boy's Will by Robert Frost
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
The Bible
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Narative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave: written by himself by Frederick Douglass
Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

everyone's a poet, didn't ya know it?

Everyone's an author or poet in some sense, no? TSO wrote this poem about me per an i.m. conversation we had this morning. Ah, the wee hours of the morning are good for something. Here you go, TSO.

Little miss Monster
sat on her sofa
watching shitty movies.
Along came a spider
and scared the hell out of her
and Ewan McGregor is hot.