Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

My bestie asked for some helpful hints about a visit to Universal Orlando, so here goes. I just went 2 weeks ago, so this is a recent, and December experience! It should be mentioned that I am NOT a big theme park person, but I did want to experience Wizarding World of Harry Potter. 1. As to telling you what order to do what ride, truly download the Orlando Universal Apps, there is one that specifically tells you how long the waits are. Even though we had Express Passes, the non-express pass folks never waited more than 20 minutes for anything. This is apparently a great time of year to go--Disney AND Universal in Jan., according to my sources. Also, I'm a big fan of just starting in the back and working my way forward so by the end of the day I'm close to the exit. 2. When it comes to Harry Potter, I agree with this article: http://fieldtripswithsue.com/ the-world-of-harry-potter/ 3. Go to Harry Potter part of the park first, it was the busiest section of the pa...

Today was lovely. Hopped in my jalopy and drove around the Chicago suburbs. Stumbled upon this cute little town called Itasca, where you can catch the Metra to Union Station. Ate at a cute little diner called Daddy O's, where I filled up on delicious greasy diner food and that silently enjoyed the world's-my-oyster feeling that always creeps over me on days off. I love days off. Found my way to the Itasca Library today. Awesome little library, very well organized and tidy. Snagged a couple of their kids and teen booklists--suggested reading lists are always a helpful thing for us to see, for when we're feeling uninspired.  Farmers Market nom nom for lunch! Found my favorite flowers at the Farmers Market this morning Next I found a Farmers Market in Schaumburg. The city, as well as the FM, were bustling. This is what I bought.  Today has been grand. Already feeling eight million times more rejuvenated. Now off for some more of those sweet tomatoes a...

So, I fell in love with Berlin and can't promise that I won't be going back there for more. The " free tour ," we found--which winds up being free, with you paying what you feel the tour was worth at the end--was amazing! I would definitely recommend this tour company (New Berlin Tours), but be advised that you should go online the night before and register, so you have a spot when you show up. There were over 100 people at the meeting place when we showed up and they split us into groups of roughly 25, those who hadn't registered weren't guaranteed a spot. Our group had this wonderful tour guide named Alexander "Zabi," a half German, half Englishman; a fascinating fellow who knew his history (and could have been James McAvoy's cousin!), and who loved to tell the most fascinating stories (both of the history and the players) of each thing we saw. He was well versed in the history of each place and absolutely interesting as hell! And funny....

I am still amazed and envious at how accessible European countries are to one another! In no time we were leaving Hamburg and Germany behind for flat, lovely southern Denmark. Aside from the Danish signage, much of it looked so much like home. We stopped in Esbjerg , Denmark, which is a seaport town, on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in the southwest part of the country, where we did a little shopping, enjoyed coffee and lunch before paying $415 Danish Krones (about $40Euro) for a ferry that took us and the car over to the island of Fano. Fano , an island in the North Sea off the coast of southwestern Denmark, is the northernmost of the Danish Wadden Sea Islands, and is absolutely gorgeous. The middle of it reminded me of farmy New England, while the sand dunes around the beach (near where we camped) and their neighboring brushy areas looked almost like the southwestern deserts that my brother A3 and I drove past on our roadtrip to California so many years ago. I hiked...

We said goodbye to Bonn yesterday morning, taking a 5 minute ferry over the Rhine River, before heading about 40 minutes north to Cologne. I would have liked to spend more time here and see this lovely city at night, but we were all getting car weary and were looking forward to Hamburg (where Yannick and Nadine live) and rest.  Cologne's stop was with the sole purpose of seeing the world famous Cathedral. The Cathedral is across from a very bustling train station, and as you walk in there are beggars on either side of the door (we found this at all the Cathedrals thus far), and just inside priests standing sentinel, making sure male visitors take their hats off --I overhead one priest ask a man to take his hat off and I quickly took mine off as well, pleased as punch that I understood the priest say to me in  German that women didn't have to remove their hats. I am picking up bits and pieces of the language...we'll get there eventually!  I managed to forget my came...

Writing from Paris! It is late here and we should be getting ready for bed and another long day tomorrow, but delicious chocolate ice cream has wired me; the Germans are coming up for a route for tomorrow's adventures: maybe Lusanne, Switzerland en route to southern Germany...? I know some people have said Paris is no great shakes, but I love it here. I know that the locals must get tired of us tourists, but we've encountered kind Parisians too, and sweet waiters who were kind--we haven't found a place yet in any country where the waitstaff doesn't speak English! Also, every place we've been has English menus too., makes it easy to be a lazy traveler. I still try and order in the native tongue, to the entertainment of the waitstaff, I'm sure. It was hard to walk around Paris this evening, as we tried to find a dinner spot and we walked a city where kitchen windows were open and everything smelled divine. I ordered from the menu, not knowing e...

After an 8+hrs flight (6+ hrs was full of screaming babies. Ugh!) I made it safely to Berlin this morning, coming in over the city as the sun was on the rise. After a delicious breakfast in a hip little restaurant, where the waiter was charming and sweet, as I stumbled through ordering my food in German, our epic roadtrip began and we spent the afternoon driving the Berlin countryside on the Autobahn to Holland. It is exhilarating and terrifying how fast some people drive! We've showed up at and booked a 4 person room in a hostel for tonight: $18 Euro/person ($23/person U.S. if I'm guessing correctly)--in an old industrial building, turned hostel, called WOW Hostel. It's super hip and modern arty, very clean and wonderful. Clean beds and free Wifi--that's all I need! Tomorrow we head downtown and hopefully to the Anne Frank house (that's on my list); we're talking about the Red Light District tonight, as we're all a little intrigued by the real see...

You remember Joan Didion's epic packing list post? Because I'm a dork I inventoried what I've packed for 2.5 weeks travel in Germany and beyond: Carry-on: 1 skirt 1 pair jeans 1 pair khakis 1 pair black capris Enough underwear, bras, socks for 1 week 5 blouses 1 thin sweater Bathing suit PJs: 2 pairs shorts, 2 t-shirts Hat Bag with: shampoo, conditioner, facewash, bar of soap, face astringent, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrush, hair brush, floss, tweezers, jewelery, prescriptions Backpack:  2 journals 5 pens Copy of Fodor's essential Europe (2014) Copy of Lonely Planet's Europe on a Shoestring (2011) 3 books Glasses Camera & charger Phone & charger 2nd pair of shoes flip flops Passport, Birth Certificate, License, Credit Cards, Cash Laptop & cord European power converters Chewing gum I only am packing for a week, as Yannick said I can do laundry at their apartment and we can probably do it at hostels along the way while w...

Going out of town the last 3 weekends has been lots of helpful practice for when I go to Germany in LESS THAN A MONTH!!! Lots of opportunities for how/what I am going to pack, and what I am now deeming unnecessary. Last year when this was still a pipe dream, Yannick, Magdalena and I were talking about what I'd like to see if I made it to Germany. Me, the ever crazy one blurted out, "EVERYTHING. I want to see as many countries as I can, in the time I have with you." We laughed about this not too long ago, until we got to talking in a Facebook message between the 3 of us where we all agreed that we'd be game for an EPIC roadtrip. I LOVE roadtrips. They are one of my absolute favorite things on the planet. And doing it with some of my friends IN EUROPE! Could my life be any better!?!? So, I read travel books and make half-assed notes in my journal. I shock people when they saw, "So, what are you going to see? Which cities are you going to hit up" to which...

I made a promise to my dear Germans , Yannick and Magdalena, during their visit last summer (their second visit to Ohio!), that I would go and visit them in Germany. I asked the Board and was granted the ability to use my vacation time as one huge chunk at the end of the summer. The Germans and I discussed dates via Facebook. And I BOUGHT MY TICKET!! I will be headed to Germany (and who knows where else!!!) for 2.5 weeks in August and September!  I honestly don’t think I’ve been this excited since I was a teenager gearing up for my first foreign travel. Though I’ve done quite a bit of traveling, this is the first time since I went to Jamaica 11 years ago that I will be traveling alone…and there is something exciting in that, no Now can it be August already?!

"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose. Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune, Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing, Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms, Strong and content I travel the open road. The earth, that is sufficient, I do not want the constellations any nearer, I know they are very well where they are, I know they suffice for those who belong to them. (Still here I carry my old delicious burdens, I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go, I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them, I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return...." --from "Song of the Open Road," Walt Whitman For the whole poem I am SO GLAD to be getting out of Sticks for a few days. After a quiet, and somewhat lo...

It is a truth long since recognized that time drags when there is something we can't wait to get to, and flies by all too quick when we are in life's wonderful moments. That in a nutshell is this week. I have been looking forward to my planned 4 day weekend to Chicago since back in July. Not only do I want to go see the art exhibit, " Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity ," at the Art Institute of Chicago, but there's a small chance I might get to see a fellow former Farmer, and most importantly I am going to see the Boy. But I just talked to the Boy and he was in bed at 10p.m., and had the beginnings of a cough. OH NO! I am hoping that this is not the nasty bug I had two weeks ago, which left me feeling TERRIBLE for a couple of days. I am so so so hoping and doing that Catholic thing of praying to any patron saint I think might help. Oh dear... And yet, it is hard to be worried when there is such loveliness about: "Boundaries" There is a place w...

My itchy feet are screaming: "Throw down your chair, take nothing, burst through the doors, head north south east or west, it makes no difference! RUN! RUN!" Work is going to be hard today... "We two--how long we were fool'd!" We two--how long we were fool'd! Now transmuted, we swiftly escape, as Nature escapes; We are Nature--long have we been absent, but now we return; We become plants, leaves, foliage, roots, bark; We are bedded in the ground--we are rocks; We are oaks--we grow in the openings side by side; We browse--we are two among the wild herds, spontaneous as any; We are two fishes swimming in the sea together; We are what the locust blossoms are--we drop scent around the lanes, mornings and evenings; We are also the coarse smut of beasts, vegetables, minerals; 10 We are two predatory hawks--we soar above, and look down; We are two resplendent suns--we it is who balance ourselves, orbic an...

View from one of my favorite spots in Chicago I love looking up at these skyscrapers, then down at the Chicago River Navy Pier and that monstrosity of a Ferris Wheel! I call it itchy feet: this need to be going; to get on the road, to drive away; to start all over again somewhere new. And yet, each time I start all over again I am exhausted by the actual starting all over again bit. It must be the thrill in the travel I want. And I've got it again, the itchy feet. I'm having a hard time settling and sitting still after 3 weekends in a row of going, and seeing dear friends, and of fun: Massachusetts, Chicago, Michigan. This morning we begin week 5 of Summer Reading, OVER the HALFWAY mark and we're excited about that. And everyone's tired. And I'm sitting here suffering from itchy feet, my mind wandering back to the places I've been lately and I am dreaming of more time in Chicago in particular...*sigh*

I was supposed to leave tomorrow for Massachusetts and the Farm, but winter storm Draco (Malfoy) is headed our way and so I am leaving early, taking to the open road. I pray that no matter how old, how crooked, how arthritic, I never forget or lose this love of the open road ; this dog-like desire to bounce on the seat, stare out the window, breathe in the changing smells--tongue lolling in excitement. I don't want to lose this desire to see towns, cities, lonely country unfolding in front of me; to go over the bumps of hundreds of railroad tracks and know the different journeys available in that too. I will keep this need to look for familiar signs and traces of roads I've traveled on, walked on, lived on. I will never lose the appreciation of what it means to add seconds, minutes, and hours--a math sum of home. I am so excited to get back to the Farm; to spend Christmas with my dear Farm friends; to again walk the familiar paths and roads, to see the animals and gardens. Ca...

I am feeling so grateful. I came back from my vacation well rested and thankful for the time spent with dear friends and family. I love road trips, even short ones, and the drives there and back gave me the opportunity to see the glorious remnants of fall as I drove through places south: Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia. I am excited to get back to work tomorrow and looking forward to the busy week, which kicks off with a training at the State Library of Ohio in the morning and a towny meet and greet dinner at night...a week chock full of stuff! Also, thought I would share this fun band I just discovered--can't wait to get their CDs that I ordered from the library!  "On Top Of The World," Imagine Dragons from their CD, "The Making Of Night Visions"  

I am heading to Michigan again today after work, for a summer party, but really just a grasping chance at trying to see someone whom I'm sure won't even be in town for the weekend anyway. Life really is a maneuvering game, no? I am riding up with a friend, her boyfriend, and another one of her friends; feeling in a funk and nostalgic and so glad that I packed Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and a full iPod o' music--I can either giggle to myself or fall asleep to my nostalgic mix. Think the nostalgia is because today is my bro A2's birthday--HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Brother! I love you--and August also marks my Dad's birthday...*sigh* I miss him so. So, as I think back on our time in Michigan and shoot north, I will listen to this, one of my favorite Simon & Garfunkel songs: Homeward Bound . Happy weekend all!

Heading to Michigan AGAIN today after work for the 3rd of my 4 weddings this year. Always enjoy the time away, spent with friends, but definitely getting tired of the 6 hr. roundtrip drive. I will be taking a break from the drive for the month of August, and hopefully spending more time discovering Cleveland! More soon, I feel like my posts lately have been lackluster, but until this Stella rediscovers her groove, I will share this wonderful poem: "Little Summer Poem Touching the Subject of Faith" Every summer I listen and look under the sun's brass and even into the moonlight, but I can't hear anything, I can't see anything -- not the pale roots digging down, nor the green stalks muscling up, nor the leaves deepening their damp pleats, nor the tassels making, nor the shucks, nor the cobs. And still, every day, the leafy fields grow taller and thicker -- green gowns lofting up in the night, showered with silk. And so, every summer, I...

I an in Michigan this weekend for Kate and Chris' wedding shower...Ugh...I hate showers of the wedding and baby variety. So, while I am bound to a chair playing ridiculous games and pretending to ooh and aah at household appliance gifts, the real me will be fantasizing about wandering barefoot through my old garden plot at the farm; wondering at the barefoot boy in all of us. "The Barefoot Boy" Blessings on thee, little man, Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan! With thy turned-up pantaloons, And thy merry whistled tunes; With thy red lip, redder still Kissed by strawberries on the hill; With the sunshine on thy face, Through thy torn brim’s jaunty grace; From my heart I give thee joy,— I was once a barefoot boy! Prince thou art,—the grown-up man Only is republican. Let the million-dollared ride! Barefoot, trudging at his side, Thou hast more than he can buy In the reach of ear and eye,— Outward sunshine, inward joy: Blessings on thee, barefoot boy! Oh for boy...

I want to get into my car and go on a journey, just drive and drive...or move from here and start somewhere new. The word "journey," is like magic, isn't it? "The Journey" One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice— though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. "Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the on...