on poor planning

My family planned a little mini-vacation for a long weekend in California--to see my brother A2's Commisioning Ceremony (he is becoming an officer)--about 5 months ago.

I leave tomorrow for California.

I come back on Monday.

I do final laundry, final packing, last minute cleaning and pack my car on Tuesday.

I pack the cargo (moving) van on Wednesday. I leave for MA.

I arrive on Thursday. I unload my car. I unload cargo van.

I start work Friday.

I feel ever so thin scrapped as it is.

Just want to get there and get settled.

Tired.

Hoping California has reviving powers. Well...I guess anything that isn't Michigan in February will.

a lot like Eustace Scrubb

For those of you who are familiar with The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, you will be familiar with the Voyage of the Dawn Treader as well.

The first time I read the story I hated the character of Eustace Scrubb--who is introduced in Dawn Treader; a cousin to the Pevensies--even though Lewis gives him an opportunity for redemption. I disliked his curmudgeonly behavior from the get-go, and disliked his disbelief in Aslan. (I was however highly entertained by his journal entries.)

And then, I reread the series this fall and was amazed and awed, upon closer inspection, at Eustace's transformation from dragon back into boy (after some number of mishaps) I fell in love with the character of Eustace this second time around.

For those of you who don't know the story: Eustace is turned into a dragon and then after a series of events, finally becomes a more humble person, which then allows him to open himself up for a transformation. He is turned back into a boy with Aslan's help; in the story, literally peeling off the layers of dragon to reveal the layers of boy underneath. With Aslan's help he is able to peel off the bad junk to reveal the real Eustace.

(Eustace telling of Aslan's help)
"he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious... "

For some reason I have been thinking of this part of the story a lot lately. I think in part because I am about to start a new chapter in my life and of course, with change comes transformation, "fo sho." I think too, that the last few years have definitely been dragonish for me; self absorbed and one track minded as I did Grad School and then have had to focus on finding a job, post school. I am ready to start getting to the core, to dig deeper and...I guess what I am trying to say, dear readers, is that I may soon have to change the title of my blog to: Misadventures of the Monster Farmer-Librarian.

The Farm, which I always speak of, has kindly re-hired me (I worked there 2003-2006, until I left for Grad School and Librarian adventures). I am going to be co-assistant managing the Farm's Kitchen. And, no, I am not giving up on being a Librarian. I think I am going to start volunteering at local libraries and then eventually move up to something part-time.

The Farm is a therapeutic community in Massachusettes, which helps adults with mental illness learn how to better manage their mental illness (i.e. schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, depression, schizo-effective illnesses) and rebuild themselves in a confident and life sustaining fashion. The Farm is an actual working farm, about 650 acres, sporting its own dairy production: cows, chickens and acres of gardens all things which the Farm utilizes. The Farm also owns and operates a greasy spoon diner, very popular with the locals and New Yorkers and Bostonians alike.

When I left the farm in 2006 I knew that I would one day return, so while I am sad to leave my family behind: my Mom, sister A1, bro-in-law M, niece and nephew Monsters S & A and brother A3, and a slew of good friends, including best friends K and L, I know it is time to move on. There is no easy way, it is like being torn in two in some ways, but, that's life.

So, dear readers...stay tuned for my moving misadventures...

‘Advance Australia Fair’

I visited Australia when I was 16 years old, only for about 3 weeks, but I found the country to be one of the most beautiful places I have been; the people to be welcoming and friendly; a better traveling experience I have never encountered.

Just wanted to mention that my family and I are praying for all of those who have been affected by the fires in Australia; for the crews of firefighters and emergency workers; and for the country in what seems a dark hour. I ask that if you are a prayer, please keep everyone in your prayers!

This picture was on the news the other day. Pictured is a firemen feeding water to a burned koala, which is pretty amazing, as wild koalas are not known for their gentle nature. I got tears in my eyes when I saw this; this picture really illustrates that in times of suffering we are all vulnerable and have to trust one another.

Australia our prayers are with you!

Also, welcome Rakstar of Life as a Rakstar--you were missed Friend!

OH MY GENTLE JESUS moments!

OH MY GENTLE JESUS! Yes, this is a real product, called the BEARD HEAD. WOW! This just made my day!

a friend returning home

Been thinking a lot about the Farm these days. Thinking how the winter there is completely different than the summer, not so much for the obvious reasons like temperature, but more so for the simple luxuries of a season. A season where the smell of wood stoves is present; a time when animals tuck themselves away for the winter and thoughts about things like bears getting into the trash is less of a worry; a season of a winding trail through the woods, with a river who offers a sound slightly louder than silence in the trickling and winding flow of water under a now seemingly completely iced over top.

I love the Farm in every season.

I have been thinking a lot of the Farm lately. For many reasons. One reason is that my good friend TSO, of Travelin' Shoes, is returning home. Back to the Farm where we all met. I am a little more than envious. I think of the Farm as home and getting back there only ever brings joy to me.

In all this thinking about the Farm, and returning to places that feel like home, I was reminded of a poem that our friend B1 recited one day as a couple of us drove into GB, a nearby city.

How to Like It

These are the first days of fall. The wind at evening smells of roads still to be traveled,while the sound of leaves blowing across the lawns is like an unsettled feeling in the blood, the desire to get in a car and just keep driving.

A man and a dog descend their front steps.The dog says, Let’s go downtown and get crazy drunk.

Let’s tip over all the trash cans we can find.This is how dogs deal with the prospect of change.

But in his sense of the season, the man is struck by the oppressiveness of his past, how his memories which were shifting and fluid have grown more solid until it seems he can see remembered faces caught up among the dark places in the trees.

The dog says, Let’s pick up some girls and just rip off their clothes. Let’s dig holes everywhere.

Above his house, the man notices wisps of cloud crossing the face of the moon. Like in a movie, he says to himself, a movie about a person leaving on a journey. He looks down the street to the hills outside of town and finds the cut where the road heads north. He thinks of driving on that road and the dusty smell of the car heater, which hasn’t been used since last winter.

The dog says, Let’s go down to the diner and sniff people’s legs. Let’s stuff ourselves on burgers.

In the man’s mind, the road is empty and dark. Pine trees press down to the edge of the shoulder, where the eyes of animals, fixed in his headlights, shine like small cautions against the night. Sometimes a passing truck makes his whole car shake.

The dog says, Let’s go to sleep. Let’s lie downby the fire and put our tails over our noses.

But the man wants to drive all night, crossing one state line after another, and never stopuntil the sun creeps into his rearview mirror.

Then he’ll pull over and rest awhile before starting again, and at dusk he’ll crest a hilland there, filling a valley, will be the lightsof a city entirely new to him.

But the dog says, Let’s just go back inside. Let’s not do anything tonight. So theywalk back up the sidewalk to the front steps.

How is it possible to want so many things and still want nothing. The man wants to sleep and wants to hit his head again and again against a wall. Why is it all so difficult?

But the dog says, Let’s go make a sandwich. Let’s make the tallest sandwich anyone’s ever seen.

And that’s what they do and that’s where the man’s wife finds him, staring into the refrigerator as if into the place where the answers are kept-the ones telling why you get up in the morning and how it is possible to sleep at night, answers to what comes next and how to like it.

~ Stephen Dobyns

NPR's The Picture Show shared

I heart NPR. I love their articles, their movie and music reviews and The Picture Show, where they highlight different collections of pictures. Found so many good shots, wanted to share them all!

NASA Earth Observatory

American Teens by Daniel Levitt

Civil War Photography

Street Art Snapshots

Scurlocks and the Smithsonian

A Vibrant Past (the U.S. under FDR and the New Deal)

Photographer's Field Day (pics from the Inauguration of Pres. Obama)

Something in the air

Happy (Chinese) New Year

library articles # 8,945

These are some interesting articles to read, Librarian, or no!

YALSA's 2009 Fabulous Films for Young Adults
According to the site, "The 2009 Fabulous Films for Young Adults offers sixteen titles based on the theme “Coming of Age Around the World." (Titles are both Feature films and Non-fiction)

There are some movies I want to check out after reading the list. Also, I was glad to discover that some of my favorite teen-angsty movies are on here (i.e. "Ten things I hate about you" and "Juno.")

YALSA names 2009 Best Books for Young Adults

Librarians head to Denver for a quiet riot
"Check out some of the drink selections at the Hyatt Regency developed especially for the ALA: the Overdue, made with rum, orange and pineapple juices and raspberry purée; the Boolean Operator, with mango rum, crème de cacao and cream; and the Happy Librarian, a mix of tequila, triple sec, fresh lime, cucumber, cilantro and Green Tabasco..."

British Holocaust Recordings online

Cuba sharing Hemingway papers

"Go read a f*&%ing book!!" Study links TV and Depression

lying under a pendulum

After a series of emails which made me feel less than comfortable, it became apparent that things are again shifting at Library X. This time for the people…not just the budgets. One of the emails read as follows:

"Hi all, The news is not good. Our budget for part time hours has been reduced. I am revising the February schedule to reflect the cuts. According to the new budget numbers, we ran 40-50% over budget in January. The hours have to be reduced to essential scheduling only. This is the case in all departments with part time employees, Circulation, pages, custodial, and Reference. The materials budget was cut as well. I wish I had better news."

When the remainders of my audio visual budgets were cut in October, I was ok with it. I had done a lot of purchasing earlier in the year, and what I didn’t get then I figured I would get after the New Year and our budgets are replaced. My audio visual (DVDs, books on CD, read-a-long book/CD sets and Playaways) budget last year was $16,000. THAT IS ENORMOUS! (SIDE NOTE: I actually applied for a job not long after I took the job at Library X and when speaking of responsibilities we chatted budgeting and collection development, and the Director almost fell over when I told her how much money I was responsible for.)

This year my audio visual budget is $7,000—less than half of what it was last year. When friends outside of Michigan have asked how the Michigan economy effects me at work, I use that as an example. That was the first example.

Now there is another example. The emails that floated around last week, followed by a discussion with the head of Adult Services where I was informed that I am going to be responsible for a lot more reference shifts, are further proof of the economic crunch here. From the time I was hired in (last January—woot woot First Anniversary!)—until now I have worked about 27 hours a week at Library X. Of those 27 hours, 6 were spent at Reference, 21 were spent in Children’s. Now, due to the cutting back of the Adult Reference Librarians, I am responsible for 19 hours of Reference and only 8 hours in Children’s. I am by no means complaining, because as a fast-growing adage in Michigan these days goes, “Be glad you have a job!” And I am. It is just hard to feel anything but stressed out these days as things continue to change and possibly shift again.

As if I wasn't feeling worried enough already, today we received another email, this time from the Director of Library X, mentioning what Govenor Granholm talked about in her State of the State address this week. The email read:

"A number of you heard that the Governor has proposed the elimination ofthe Department of History, Arts and Libraries and have asked me aboutit. The most troubling part of this cut for us is the possible elimination of State Aid. State Aid to libraries is two pieces, 1. the direct money that we receive, which in 2008 was about $27,000 for our budget, and 2. the money the state pays to our coop (XXX) for services to support our library, which in our case pays for XXX delivery. The Michigan Library Association has been monitoring the situation and released a fact sheet..."

I am going home to watch some less than cheerful movies which I rented this week:

"The Rape of Europa" (which I can't wait to watch) and "Schindler's List."

My roommate asked my why I rented such depressing movies; that when things are as bad as they are these days in the economy, etc., she likes to watch happy things. Hmmm...I think it is for two reasons:

1. Because there is much in commiserating with characters that are going through hardships (though my hardships are OBVIOUSLY nothing compared to a Concentration Camp!!)
2. Sometimes at the end of hard and sad things there is truth and beauty and hope.

So, thinking of all this unknowing at work and the prospect of my depressing movies got me to thinking about Edgar Allan Poe, so I did some reading (this is starting to sound like If you give a mouse a cookie--which is BRILLIANT--by Laura Numeroff) and thought this passage was appropriate:

"I saw clearly the doom which had been prepared for me, and congratulated myself upon the timely accident by which I had escaped. Another step before my fall, and the world had seen me no more and the death just avoided was of that very character which I had regarded as fabulous and frivolous in the tales respecting the Inquisition."
~ Edgar Allan Poe, "The Pit and the Pendulum"

Now...off to find some hope and truth in my movies...

reviews

I haven't done a book or other review in forever, so thought I would share some new discoveries.
Review of Books:
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
I really liked this book. It is about a young lady, who on her way out west accidentally acquires a little Native American girl. After settling in her digs she learns what making a life of your own means; how families don’t always happen organically, but rather like bean trees, sometimes finding a way of winding around the things that least expect it.

Lincoln at Home: two glimpses of Abraham Lincoln’s Family Life, David Herbert Donald
This book was an interesting look at an Abraham Lincoln we seldom see. The short book (114 pages) is split into two sections: the first being a look at the Lincoln Whitehouse, the second half, letter correspondences between honest Abe, his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, and a couple from Robert Todd Lincoln (the eldest of their sons). Here is an excerpt from one of the letters, showing a softer side of Lincoln:

“The leading matter in your letter, is your wish to return to this side of the Mountains. Will you be a good girl in all things, I consent? Then come along, and that as soon as possible. Having got the idea in my head, I shall be impatient till I see you.” ~ Abraham Lincoln to Mary Todd Lincoln, Washington, June 12, 1848

The book was a nice, brief look into Lincoln’s life from a new perspective—most of what people read about Abraham Lincoln has dealt with his positions throughout the Civil War—and was chosen to help me celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, which happens this February. (I set up a display at Library X highlighting this: book and DVDs about A. Lincoln for patrons of all ages.)

Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis (Audio book series, read by: Helen Mirren, Kenneth Brannagh, Patrick Stewart, and a slew of other great British actors)
Though I read this entire series 3 years ago, like the Harry Potter books , I find myself revisiting this series at different times. I decided that I was going to instead listen to the entire series this times, which was great as it is read by loads of wonderful British actors. I love the books and thoroughly enjoyed the readings! I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Frindle, Andrew Clemente
Frindle is the story of Nick, a fifth grader who always has great schemes, schemes which have made him famous with his classmates. After his class begins to learn about the dictionary and how words become words, Nick decides to wage a war against his teacher Mrs. Granger, and gets his fellow classmates to replace the word “pen,” with “frindle.” While Nick gets the other students involved in his prank, which he had wanted, he eventually sees that he can’t stop what he started and there are consequences FOR everything. I loved this story! So much fun. Definitely recommend it.

The Lives of Girls and Women, Alice Munro
Ugh. This book was insanely difficult for me to get through. I started it almost a year ago and then put it down for months, then saw it on my bed-book table and realized I was past my quit-now-or-whoever-hold-your-peace-mark in the book and had to finish it. And finish it, I did. My friend B1 suggested I would like it, and while I had an appreciation for the manner in which the story flowed; moving along as though a human life; it was definitely not my bag.

Review of Movies in the Theater:
"Curious Incident of Benjamin Button"
I loved this movie. It flows in a very Forrest Gump-ish way; where Benjamin, coming from humble beginnings experiences life in such a splendid fashion. Also, the cinematography was gorgeous (as was Brad Pitt on a motorcycle--a thank you!!), that alone made the movie (which is three hours long) fly by quickly.

"Slumdog Millionaire"
This was the best movie I saw all year—not to talk it up too much, because I hate when people do that. Though the premise is that a guy gets onto the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, the movie offers many unexpected twists. Shocking footage shot in India, showing the juxtaposition between the extremely wealthy and the working poor is both saddening and eye opening and in some ways shockingly beautiful. I was fortunate enough to have a new friend come along with us; Satish is from India and he and I chatted about the realism that the movie portrayed (according to him).

Movies available by rental:
"Vicky Christina Barcelona"
Holy crap. I was actually watching this movie as I am typing this entry. I rarely turn off movies. I shut Vicky Cristina Barcelona maybe half way through. I HATED it for many reasons: A. The role of narrator does not need to extend through the entire movie…does it? Javier Bardem is a very strong presence, so it was disappointing that the director, instead of giving him strong dialogue, instead chose to have the narrator explain things, as though we are an unimaginative, unintelligent audience. B. Scarlett Johnanssen (Lost in Translation being the amazing exception) is a terrible actress, as far as I am concerned.

"Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist"
LOVED IT! I love this movie! Really wanted to read this book after a recommendation from Miss C, but having never got around to it, but definitely was not disappointed with just seeing the movie. I love Michael Cera too; I love that he plays this straight-laced, plain-Jane kinda guy, but still pulls off these lines that are hysterical. (I LOVED him in Juno!) The premise is that after some crazy circumstances both Nick & Norah, as well as a slew of characters, are searching for a concert all night long. Along the way the audience gets to listen to an awesome soundtrack as the kids run into funny circumstances.

Also, wanted to give a WELCOME!! shout out to Nejla, my newest follower!