And I thought it was just brown

Over fashionably 10 year old: "You have beautiful hair. I want hair that color."

Favorite student of the year: "It is golden."

Chorus of brown nosers: "Yeah."

Over fashionably 10 year old: "It is just so silky."


Judge me all you want for letting the hair conversation infringe into a multiplication lesson. I am too busy swishing my beautifully golden, silky tresses to care.

Reformed Library User

Not only did I return my books in the month they were due, I payed my fines in the year they were levied. I am rising above my delinquent library status.

A sad fact in my past library life is that I USED TO only pay enough of my overwhelming fines to keep me under the $25 maximum limit. But not now; now, I pay the whole fine. I do not wait for the dollars to slowly pile up, and then dole out quarters and dimes to keep my library account afloat. I pay the whole dollar. Slightly because of sheer guilt and terror - the older librarians know stern like they were schooled in it. But slightly more because I am a good library user.

Confirmation of my selfish ways.

"Would you rather have a personal penguin or a house elf?"

"Personal penguin. House elves come with too much guilt."

"oh." (pause) "I want a house elf."

It hurts to admit that he is right.

Dad on Sunday night: "Why did you finish your book so fast? It is like going to the beach and reading your book on the first day. What do you have left?"

Me on Sunday night: "Don't be silly. I can re-read."

Dad: "Not the same."

Squeals of the Little Girl Variety

I am torn between taking the shower that I skipped this morning to re-reading all my favorite scenes. I do have many things to ponder as I re-read, starting with Potter as King Arthur (He did jump in freezing water for a sword, too bad Ron was his lady of the lake.) or Jesus (Dieing to save others? Dieing to destroy evil?). Maybe, however, my Lord of the Flies loving self might be coming out as it tends to do sometimes. Proof being that my gut reaction when Harry talks about his glasses is "sucks to your asthma."

Chapter 8

Favorite HP line to date: "You there! Give me your chair, I'm a hundred and seven." Which I will use from now on everytime one of my students is sitting in my chair.

You can poop on me and I will still love you.

Niecey,

Do you know how I know we will be best friends forever? We already have the essentials in common: 1. Enjoyment of dancing in front of mirrors. 2. Importance of regularly scheduled meal times. and 3. Love of splashing. Plus, you have discerning, yet open minded, literature taste as exemplified by your love for both This is Not My Truck and Where the Wild Things Are. We will be reading Pride and Prejudice before you know it.

Tips for those inclined to abuse library privileges

- Create category options for selection. For example, if I were/ did categorize my check out selections, I would have the following categories: art books, picture books, grown-up chapter books, young adult chapter books, classic chapter books, short stories, books on tape, cd lectures, Masterpiece movies, learning movies, travel books, poetry books, children chapter books, Victorian novels, and newly released books I have never heard of.

- Narrow selection categories down to five. You can also create generalizations that encompass more then one category, such as "non-fiction," "novels," "multi-media," "audio," and "children's."

- Only check out one thing per category. Examples of things that might be on your library receipt are: The Plot Against America, Parts 1 and 2 of Horatio Hornblower, "Life and Works of Joseph Hayden," and Zeke Pippin. You cannot substitute that trashy looking novel with the pink cover as "non-fiction." That would be slipping down a dangerous slope that only leads to a tape recording of Charlotte's Web lost in your backseat.

Wanted Woman No More

I found a tape recording of Ella Enchanted under the passenger's side seat last week. This particular tape recording was mine, but not mine; I "bought" it from the library about two years ago. It had been missing for about 6 month prior to the purchase.

However, I could not, in good conscious, keep the tainted goods. I had to rid my bad library karma of this symbol of my failure to adhere to due dates. My last library rendezvous was Purchase Day and I missed my long standing dates with the stacks.

Courage in one hand, library card in the other, I returned Ella, distracted myself with the library book sale, watched Ella scan through the system, and requested a librarian to confirm that I was Fine Free. I was free to roam the stacks. Free to read through the children's books. Free to skim through the massive art books. And free to check out 50 books.

I limited myself to one - one book, one movie, and one book on tape. Some of which maybe under the driver's side seat.

Me As a Loafer: words and maybe colors

melting into the couch
glassy eyed -
my mind turns

vibrant pinks,
yellows,
greens,

and then

just grey.

“I don’t think we’ll survive if we’re static.”

My new hero and role model, public librarian by profession, world changer by default: Dionne Mack-Harvin.

I love this line the most: "She views the library as a vibrant community center, not a book vault..."

Dearest Jane

Dear Jane,
You are a better woman then I for going back to your broken, moody, and tempermental love. Unless, of course, you enjoy teasing and tormenting the emotional tacitun type. Then, more power to you sister! Nothing gives me more pleasure then joshing with brooding fellows who see little humor in their stick in the mud ways.

Forced Feed

I really want to read it. It sounds funny. It is about food. It takes place in my favorite places - New York City and Italy. It is non fiction (an admitted turn off) BUT written in the lyrical casualness of fiction. I really, honestly want to read it.

But I haven't. I have tried. I read a bit before bed, a bit before I read the paper instead, a bit while I brush my teeth. My bits add up to 40 pages.

Maybe it is not just right? Maybe it is just flat? Maybe I am not in the right place to appreciate it's flashback style? No, it is just a book club book. I really, honestly, and truly want to read them. It is just that my inability to meet deadlines is infecting my literary social life.

Meeting Mr. Right

Places I will not meet my Mr. Darcy:

• My refrigerator.
• My kitchen.
• The library.
• The sticky feet, cheap seat movie theatre.

Places I might meet my Mr. Darcy:

• A party saturated in social awkwardness.
• A wedding - I will be one of 10 in the purple, puffed sleeved disaster.
• A crowded bar heavy on the citron and music from the 80's.

Out of Order: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The narrative reads more like a serious of occasions that create a life, less like a series of events that create a complication.

Maybe as children we do not see the complications that impact our life. The drunk father, the lack of money, the fights with neighborhood ruffians - that is Just the Way Life Is. Even as adults reflecting back, do we, should we, break apart and dissect our childhood? The why did this happen? And how did it come to this point? Or should we just accept our childhood experiences at face value - this is what happened, this is who was there, this is what she did, he did, I did.

Jeannette Walls presents her childhood at face value - this is what happened, this is who was there. She does not reflect on the why, the cause and effect, the ramifications of her childhood. Just on What Was.

Her memoir reads as a series of vignettes. While the vignettes flow chronologically, they stand alone, enjoyable on their own merits. I can skip from her childhood in Arizona to her life in New York, and still enjoy the lyrical flow of her words and the comfortable rhythm of her storytelling. Read out of order, her story is not lost. It reads like a new friend, telling me about their life in piece mail. Recounting childhood memories as she remembers them. I do not need to know that this event lead to that event. I already know the finished product - I am reading the resolution.

Is that Character Me?

List of ways I am like Hannah Gavener, main character of the man of my dreams:

• Older perfect sisters
• Not trying on the first couple of dates and then being surprised when the gentleman calls for more dates
• Pretending to be interested in sports by asking what the score is
• Thinking snide comments but keeping them to myself

List of ways I might be like Hannah Gavener, but I hope to almighty I am not:

• Copping out of a fun night last minute in order to wear soft pajamas and then fall asleep in front of bad tv
• Jumping from small talk to making out (in my head only) when making small talk with a random guy

List of things Hannah Gavener and I would talk about, if we worked in the same office:

• The weather
• The weird funky smell coming from the refrigerator
• The color choice of the kitchen
• The lightening in the bathroom

Ode to the Friday Paper: 12 words and 2 colors

Such power in black and white -
Yesterday,
I cried
for the "missing"
movie review

Me as An Aunt

Niecey,

When you smile, I cannot look away. I selfishly think that my words, my singing, my story telling created that smile. You humor me, laughing at your self centered aunt, because you know that once you can eat solid foods, I will buy you the ice cream cone you crave. Even though it is before dinner.

Much love.

Me as a Reader

I am an addict.

I have an addiction, a compulsion, a desire, a need. I’m just one block from a street corner and a cardboard sign, begging others to fuel my fire. I wake with a soft numb, a white noise reminding me that the need is there, driving my actions to find more, to bring me closer, to keep the buzz. My mind rushes to my need – in libraries, in book stores, in street signs. I am an addict and I will read ingredient labels to feel the comforting rhythm of the written language.

Classroom in Perspective

Teacher:
Blank face, vacant eyes.
Frustration boiling. I
reached my breaking point.

Students:
Is she still talking?
Does she want us to answer?
Why is her face red?