Happy Mother's Day

Both the Incredibly Patient Mother and I have to work today, so any chat will have to wait until evening. 

In fiction, the majority of mothers seem either to be absent or various caricatures: vague, evil, ridiculous, too busy. If you only looked at our literature you might assume that the mothers of all of our teens were alcoholic drug addicts who had abandoned their children with a) a father who doesn't love them b) a father who cares but is absent or c) no one leaving them to fend on their own while she pursues men, money, etc. It's not new--one need look only at Grimm's Fairytales or Shakespeare to see this is a long standing trend.

For what kind of drama would it be to have a good (alive) mother? Would you want to read a book where the character grew up knowing her mother loved her and always could depend that no matter what happened or what might have gone wrong, that she could go home? Would you want to read about a girl who faced betrayal from friends and other family members, but always had her mother's shoulder to cry on, even as that mother was facing similar betrayal? Would it be so exciting if the mother was always there--not in an intrusive helicopter kind of way--but in a supportive way such that everyone knew that you'd best not hurt that daughter? Would you want to read about a daughter who spread her wings and flew on her own, but kept her mom's cell number on speed dial--just in case she needed advice, an opinion, or an ear to rage about general frustrations of life?

Would it be exciting if this mother was a good woman, doing the best she could, raising her children without trying to define herself by finding a new man, designer shoes, or public office? If the mother was only a gifted cook, talented gardener, brilliant seamstress, excellent writer, and incredible listener--what a boring story that would be.

Fortunately for me, that's only real life.

Happy Mother's Day to my Incredibly-Patient-Mother.

Holiday in T-6 and Counting.....

I'm leaving for NYC/Egypt in six days!!

M and I have been discussing vague travel plans for two or three years and finally, with the help of Air France Holidays*, we're headed off to Egypt.

I have a long weekend in New York on the way out, which is never a hardship. And then--camels, 70 degree temperatures, a totally different cultural experience and a new continent for me!

So far:

• I got my visa, which is a full page in my otherwise unstamped passport. Obviously it's been too many years since I traveled out of the country.
• I have arranged for a cat sitter in residence. O met Gypsy last night and it was a smashing success. Gypsy might want to go home with her at the end of it...
  
• The Incredibly-Patient-Mother hemmed a pair of jeans so I can wear them with flats for hiking about pyramids and such. All of my other jeans are hemmed to two inch heels, so this was an important consideration.
  
• The Brunette has agreed to keep my winter coat and some heavier clothes at his house so I don't have to worry about hauling a down coat there and back.
  
• We've arranged for a tour guide/driver while we're there, working off recommendations of a professor in MN who is a native Egyptian and regularly takes student groups.
  
• Wound up five skeins of yarn and bought new 4" knitting needles to take with me. They're TINY, it looks like I'm knitting with colorful toothpicks.
  

Still to do:

• Pack some clothes.
• Load the mp3 player
• Get a larger memory SD card
• Figure out what to take to read. I'm thinking about my hard cover of Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Yes, it's heavy but I'll be able to lay it out flat on the tray table and knit while I'm reading. Also I'll pack some paperback romances that can be left behind.
  

It's unclear how much web time I'll have once we get there. I expect to mostly be off the grid for five or six days. My cell phone won't work and I'm not packing my laptop. So the pictures and trip updates will probably have to wait.

We're not sure if we'll get to go through full body scanners on the trip home. It's the one thing I'm concerned about as we're headed home because we won't have a long layover in Paris.


*The prices are amazing!

Photo Break Friday

Since you suffered through my nearly 1700 word diatribe, I figured you'd bear with me for a couple of completely non-library related images.

Over Christmas, Gypsy got to watch "Cat TV" at the Incredibly-Patient-Mother's house. There were a ton of birds hanging out in the backyard and three very healthy and acrobatic squirrels. I'm told this is the "skinny" one. Squirrel sandwich anyone?









On the way home she met AudioGirl's Dinah. They spent the night hissing at each other.











But Gypsy has settled in nicely since we got home (she was happy to be back here). She found which chair gets the most sunlight for her battery recharging naps.










She's located a wonderful supply of "celery" (that's what it sounds like she's eating).









She's figured out if she gets in between me and the monitor that I HAVE to pay attention to her. (Yes, my desk is a disaster)










And she continues to be stunningly beautiful.










I'm having "Cat Warming" tomorrow night so she can meet some of my LPL coworkers. And I've arranged for the RefQueen's daughter to cat sit for my next long trip.

15 Things About Me and Books

The venerable Steve Lawson and Warmaiden got me thinking about this...

1. I learned to read at four and was almost instantly a voracious reader. Sending me to my room was rarely an effective punishment because I'd go and read.

2. The only books I ever remember my mother telling me no about were the Fabio-covered bodice rippers when I was thirteen or fourteen. Running into parents who are a lot more restrictive always throws me, though I try not to judge.

3. The Incredibly-Patient-Mother's rule about how many library books was that I had to be able to carry them, by myself, out to the car. I learned a young age how to stack up books quite highly, set my chin on the top to balance, and carefully teeter out to the car. I'm sure it was quite a sight.

4. One high school English teacher told me, at age 15, that I was "too young to appreciate Jane Austen." As a result, I didn't read them until after college. Austen is one of my favorite authors. I've never fully forgiven her for that.

5. Over the past year or two I've finally started getting rid of my college texts. Admitting that perhaps I no longer am interested in the Norton anthologies was incredibly painful. Now if I could just admit to myself some things about the beginning library science books....

6. I started listening to audiobooks in junior high or high school, long before the current trendiness. Primarily I listened to Lilian Jackson Braun's Cat Who series and Clancy's The Hunt for Red October (Recorded Books/Frank Muller version). I listened to these at bedtime, which meant a fair amount of rewinding in the morning to figure out where I'd fallen asleep. George Guidall's voice still makes me sleepy.

7. Out of desperation one semester, I slogged through Jane Eyre over a couple of weeks because it was the only thing I had in my dorm room that wasn't course related. I was surprised how much I enjoyed grabbing a chapter here and there.

8. I read historical and paranormal romance novels. I send regular shipments of Regency Romances (150-200 pages, no sex) to an opera singer in Chicago. It gives her new reading material and justifies me in my buying of them.

9. I really enjoy medieval and renaissance history: Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks, and the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini. I just put in an ILL for an audio version of Canterbury Tales that I started in high school but never finished.

10. There are certain books I'd just rather own in paperback, mostly series mystery books: Cat Who (Braun), Meg Lanslow-Birds (Andrews), Mrs. Jeffries (Brightwell).

11. I spent several months and a ridiculous amount of money on ebay collecting a complete set of the M.A.S.H books by Richard Hooker/William Butterworth.

12. Used book stores and library book sales are a little piece of heaven for me.

13. I committed what I'm now told is a library cardinal sin. I went into library science because I like books. Moreso because I like information and organization of information, but also books.

14. I have had no formal training in children's literature.

15. It came as a great shock to me to find out that I apparently read very fast, or perhaps just a lot. Reading over 100 books a year is easily par--and that doesn't include picture books, though I will include longer children's chapter books on the spreadsheet I keep.

Thanks for the Audios....

It's painfully clear we're a week out from Christmas at the library: all the books are in (except the Christmas books, we still have a fair number but they're starting to look picked over) and the audio books and videos are flying out the door.

People have already begun to travel and parents are valiantly trolling the books on cd, trying to find something that will a) not drive them crazy and b) keep the older children engaged while c) still be appropriate for the three year old. I'm trying to hover with intent a little more by those shelves than usual. There's the various differences in families: age of the youngest child, fantasy v. non-fantasy, series v. non-series...but those are the general parameters.

Audiobooks have greatly increased in popularity, which I think is fantastic. I listened to George Guidall every night in high school, to the point that it was an instant sleep-inducer for the Incredibly-Patient-Mother for a few years thereafter. And yes, I order the kids/teens audiobooks and it's nice to see my collections circulate. Keep in mind I'm trying not to whine about the fact that the fabulous new chapter books that are coming down from tech services are languishing....

With the acceptance that audiobooks are not just something for people with poor vision and the wonderful quality and variety we're seeing of performers and titles, it makes sense that there are some followings of narrators. Among the most recognizable of these is Jim Dale.

Two years ago, if I mentioned the name Jim Dale, someone usually swooned in my presence. No matter the subject previous, I would then be treated to a glowing review of how wonderful he was, how fabulous the HP books were on audio, and how their entire family had listened to those books together. Anything he'd read flew out the door as families coming to the end of book 7 sought something else to appease their ears.

Today I came past my display of new audio books and noticed, not for the first time, that our copy of The Return to the Hundred Acre Woods by David Benedictus is still sitting there. Despite the allure of the sequel to a popular classic and being brought to life by no less than the venerable Jim Dale and being displayed face out on the top shelf of the display area (where other things are going quite nicely)...it's there, wistfully waiting to be popped into someone's "car bag" and taken along.

Wonder if that will change in the next couple of full court press "we need something for the drive to Grandma's" days...

How to Write a Regency Romance: A Tongue in Cheek Series

It's become too serious of late, so it's time for some frivolity. This will be a multi-part blog series over the next few weeks.

I now offer you, based on my years and years experience reading historical romance novels, suggestions on how to write one.* I'll mostly be focusing on so-called "regency romances." Many of these suggestions, though, play over nicely into modern/paranormal/etc etc etc. I make these points not to insult the authors, whose books I read, suggest, buy, pass to friends, etc.; nay, friends, I come only to amuse.

Let us begin.

We'll start with something easy--the Top Five Things You Should Mention in your Regency Romance (RR). This way you can plan to build your story around them.

1. Tea : Everyone drinks it, everyone offers it, there's always a fresh pot around somewhere.
2. Almacks: The ton revolved around it, who was invited, who was going, who wasn't going, which rake showed up there, who was banned, and the Patronesses.
   
3. Ankles: Apparently they were the height of sexy, since bosoms were exposed by evening wear. Make sure there are nicely turned ones. (Turned, not sprained)
4. Napoleon and the war: Half pay officers, wounded soldiers returning, soldiers dying, someone leaving to war, getting a commission, the escape from Elba, heros. TONS of possibilities here.
5. Cravats: No nice man is without them. They're used to promote the hero, bind wounds, point out the silliness of brothers, and so on and so forth.
   

Next we'll be exploring your hero.

*Please note, these suggestions are not intended as practical advice. I have neither written nor published a regency romance, though the Incredibly-Patient-Mother has suggested that perhaps I should.

ALA: Sunday

Bedecked with french-braided pigtails (what I do with my hair when it's wet), it was off to the LITA Program Planning Committee Meeting. I felt undressed, being one of a few in the room without my laptop, but as I was headed to the exhibits, I hadn't been able to justify the weight of bringing it along. I did have to turn off notifications on my phone temporarily--Griffey was tweeting from the other end of the table and it kept setting my phone off. Oops.

We had a good, productive, short meeting about timelines, deadlines, and ideas for programs. The initial program suggestion form had already gone out, now we had to discuss timelines to get things done. Though I knew deadlines were awfully early, my head was spinning to realize they really thought we'd have all programs submitted by the end of this year's conference. I'm still planning things for fall programming at my library, let alone programs for an annual conference NEXT year.

Back to the conference center, because the Incredibly-Patient-Mother was coming up for an exhibit day! Yippee!!

This was an afternoon planned to simply stroll amongst the vendors, partake of food type offerings, grab a couple Advanced Readers Copies of fall books, identify things that I wanted to order, and make trouble.

Yes, I’m a problematic little hedgehog. I had very strong words for Overdrive, most of them not very polite. I still need to sit down and write a full out letter to the president of Overdrive, because the “oh, we’ve never heard anything like that before” and lame excuses for your "front line promotional team" told with wide eyes just doesn’t cut it. Other librarians have told me of similar problems, don't lie to me.

The audiobook vendors were gently put off again, no, I don’t use standing orders, yes, feel free to email me things. I don’t do face to face meetings with vendors outside of conferences and I don’t like phone calls either. Send me an email, if I have questions, I’ll get back to you.

I talked with the lady who acquired Tum-Tum and Nutmeg by Emily Bearn for the American market and celebrated with her how wonderful it was. I told her my primary market for it was 10 year old home-schoolers. She hadn't considered the home-schooling kids. :)

I got a few Advanced Reader Copies. I had no hopes of weaseling my way into another copy of Catching Fire, but I did get a copy of Kristin Cashore's newest "Fire". If you haven't read my Graceling review, see link. I haven't gotten to it yet, but it's high on the "read now" pile.

I was pretty impressed with most of the vendors. They engaged me in conversation, not immediately my mother. I wondered, as I can pass for well under my normal age in pigtails, if I'd be written off as one of the teens running around the conference. I grabbed some catalogs, ate a few cookies, got some insight on new foreign language stuff coming from Recorded Books (actually kinda interested in that), and met Carman Agra Deedy. I know her from her beautiful cockroach story and The Library Dragon, done so well and with such beautiful illustrations. She had a new book with her, 14 Cows for America. It's a post-9/11 story and between the beautiful words and the artwork, I was a mess by the time I finished reading it. Deedy graciously gave the teary-eyed me a copy and signed it for me--along with some posters that I'm going inflict upon my office mates because they are cool!!!

The Incredibly-Patient-Mother and I lasted until the vendors closed at five and then she drove me home, taking pity on her daughter who would have otherwise had to carry four bags of stuff back on Blue Line Shuttle Buses (Blue Line was still down).

The exhibits were the last task for me. I spun from there out into the summer sun of Chicago, ready for a street fair, fun and adventure.

And with my brain overflowing....

Mixed Management...

Jenica has a very thoughtful post about management, and the general attitude of library professionals towards management and managers. The attitude is skepticism, fear, mistrust, anger, and general frustration and she makes some excellent points about the comments that have been made to her since taking on a directorship for one of the SUNY schools.

The comment that best struck me was the "don't forget where you came from." Her answer is somewhat indignant and rightly so. And while I don't expect her to overnight turn into someone completely incapable of remember how to answer a reference question, it pointed out something that I have witnessed with managers and educators within the library profession. When moving into management or education, it seems to become beneath many to actually perform the everyday tasks called upon by the majority of your staff or students.

I have had the unfortunate experience of watching a reference librarian I respected advance to the directorship of a library. The power went to her head and I've watched her not only find the work of the library beneath her, including the work that falls into her job responsibilities, but also run off the good people who worked for her. It's become a toxic environment where the focus seems to have become building her legacy, as it certainly doesn't seem to be patrons, materials, staff or anything else. I've met managers who were firmly of the belief they should only ever work bank hours and certainly never on a public service desk (not because they were needed elsewhere--but because it was beneath them, keep that in mind). But then, I worked for a system that adamantly argued that I as a professional wasn't to shelve but conversely the pages who only shelved weren't allowed to do a "shelf check" for an item for someone from another location. If that isn't convoluted and setting people up with a "beneath me" mindset, I'm not sure what is...

And then there's the story that hit a week ago from Tulsa--where the Library CEO has had her position restructured so that she has no day-to-day responsibilities in the building and gets to work from home two days a week--with the same pay. They say it's having an effect on employee morale. Without day to day responsibilities in the building, or even having a presence in the space, it's rather unclear how the CEO is planning on staying aware of what is going on and what the needs of her staff are.

But for the ones that scare me to pieces, there are managers I have to point out my admiration for.

At present, I have the pleasure of working both with Madame Storyteller and Madame Director--neither of whom despite their lofty titles and extended experience--find shelving and checking out books beneath them. Granted, shelving isn't the everyday task of these two women, who have a lot of other things on their plate, but Madame Director takes a shift on the circulation desk nearly every week. It's one of the best places to catch her when I need something signed, because for those two hours, I can guarantee she'll be pretty much in one spot. But it also shows to our aides and the other managers that she values that work just as highly as any other professional work, and it's noticed and appreciated.

And there is a branch manager at CPL that I would have stayed for, had they let me work for her. She has the management of a west side branch and works, works with and for her staff, and is pretty awesome. As a result, people really want to work at her branch.

We do need a shift in our view of management, on that I agree with Jenica. But we need to find a way to highlight the managers who are doing it right, doing it well, and training other good leaders--as opposed to those who are most concerned with getting things out of it only for themselves, such as those banking hours and relief from the ref desk. Myself, though management wasn't my initial goal on entering the field, I see it as somewhere I'd like to go. I've managed people before and it's one of the few promotional paths available to me. I just have to remember what the Incredibly Patient Mother taught me about management long ago: one leads by example and a good manager won't ask you to do something he or she won't do*.


*with the caveat of course for things one physically can't do or don't have the appropriate training to do

Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

It comes as little secret that Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors. I have Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice quite nearly memorized (I'm close on Sense and Sensibility), mostly from having listened to Nadia May's readings of them while working on my databases or driving. I have no doubt my next door neighbors were relieved when the last round of data entry was complete last fall and the calm female voice no longer hummed on for three to four hours at a time.

Keeping this in mind, I wasn't overly excited to see this title come out. Certainly many authors have taken the characters and continued one of the stories or borrowed them. The Dashwoods show up in Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair for example. But I've not made it a big practice to read continuations and the whole zombie thing just doesn't appeal to me. I'm okay with vampires and werewolves, but not so much with zombies outside of MJ's "Thriller."

It sounded funny and tongue in cheek, though, so I grabbed it--ahead of Oprah mentioning it and causing the library hold lists to explode.

It started out well enough, the girls transformed from mere husband hunters into zombie warriors who have trained in China. And the majority of the text was lifted from the original, with zombie scenes added in discreet places in between Miss Austen's. But then Mr. Grahame-Smith started altering the attribution of dialogue. While I knew it shouldn't bother me, and it wasn't done in such a fashion to make dialogue not work...I knew immediately when he'd changed something. (As I told the Incredibly Patient Mother, my brain wouldn't stop shrieking "But he doesn't apologize to Mary....")

He threw in odd, sharper dialogue between the characters--particularly coming from Darcy and Mr. Bennett. These two men, for their faults of pride and lacsidasicle raising of daughters, are supposed to be gentlemen. Odd references to the sexual definition of the word "balls" (as opposed to the dancing) and rude responses jarred me out of the text. And, for me at least, it didn't add. Fighting scenes, visually descriptive enough scenes of people being eaten by zombies that I wouldn't want to read this and eat spaghetti at the same time--those worked and were interesting. While most of the characters needed to survive (won't work if Darcy is the living dead), Mr. Grahame-Smith found a way to kill one of the characters off who survives the original.

Overall--mixed feelings. It was interesting and made the girls a little more active than just five young ladies seeking husbands but I definitely found elements of the change distracting and contextually jarring (moreso than the dead crawling out of their graves and eating people's brains even).

The Pile in My Library Basket

As I commented recently to M or the Incredibly Patient Mother, probably both, I'm reading more "adult" books of late. I don't mean books of a prurient nature but ones that are in the adult portion of the library rather than the teen or children's room. This, I'm learning, comes as a shock to some people.

I must keep in mind that those in my immediate day to day don't recognize that I haven't always read children's literature. Though widely read as a child,* I skipped the teen section almost entirely and went straight for Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton around the age of twelve. Through college and graduate school, the reading I did outside of class tended far more towards escape literature: short romances or mysteries. After a forty page dense essay on taxonomies or the ethics of the copy machine, you too would be ready for an easily solvable crime where the killing is done off-scene and a happy ending is achieved in under 200 pages.

Then I started working in children's departments. This hadn't really been the original plan--I'd wanted to go for music cataloging. But previous experience working with children led me to Chicago Public and now La Crosse Public in the Youth Services departments. And if I haven't read the fiction books--it's awfully hard to make a good recommendation to the patrons coming in.

So, for nearly two years I've piled on the children's books. The selection these days seems better written and from a far greater variety than I remember as a child**, this excepting the diabetes-inducing series that I can't order enough of to make our little princesses, superheros, fairies, underwater sponges, and pop stars happy. Our Teen Librarian really enjoys her work too, which means there are a lot of spiffy teen novels that follow me home as well.

But a diet of literature intended for those under 18 (or spiced only with that familiar escape literature), has lost some of the appeal. So I'm wading through Buy-ology (review to come soon) and going back to Four Queens. The latter isn't really a stretch, I like European histories of Medieval and Renaissance times and actually read an Eccesiastical History of the Bristish People for pleasure***. The former caught my eye somewhere and has proved interesting thus far. We'll see. I still haven't ventured much into adult fiction for the moment, outside of my usual consumption of cozy mysteries and regency romances at a rate that seems to not surprise only the circulation staff (who are either too polite or are taking bets on how many I'll check out in the next month).

But while I know my reading has been rather focused, it's been strange to hear reactions to the book s. Based on those, you'd think I'd never read anything above a sixth grade audience level. "Oh, an adult book." First the surprise and then the backpedaling. "Well, it's not that you can't read one, I just never see you read one" seems to be a popular refrain, despite the fact that the people speaking rarely see me read anything other than those cozy mysteries and romances (the latter of which come with their own assumptions and reader baggage). Children's lit tends to be consumed at home.

Ah, the joys of other people's assumptions about me. Here's your friendly afternoon reminder not to assume--for you know what it makes, right?


*The Incredibly-Patient-Mother's rule about library books was that I had to be able to carry them all to the car by myself. Fortunately, I just had to make it to the car. Once we got home, I could make two trips into the house.
**Though I'm sure I missed some gems of the 80s
***And to a lot of weird looks on the subway

Motivation on a Monday

I've been trying to figure out how to write this post effectively.

It's a tumultuous time, this current January. There are quite a few people in transition and more for whom the outlook just isn't very positive. Add to it the usual round of seasonal depression, winter induced isolation, stressful job situations and whatever other variables there are and the negatives quickly seem to outweigh the positives.

I'm probably not the best person to speak on this subject, certainly I'm not a professional motivational speaker, but I offer you a few ideas to think on and some suggestions that help me. Feel free to pick and choose, if it will help, or add your own.

1) Make two lists

• List one is a small list. It can be one thing, it can be three things. No more than five. These are your things to do today or this week. These need not be earth shattering things. My short list for today includes "water the plants" and "portion out the calico beans I made so I have lunches for the rest of the week." (It may then later include the ever popular--wash the crockpot.) Why? It's a self-esteem thing. I can accomplish my small lists every day or week and crossing things off helps. If I keep it short--I complete a list rather than feel like I'm not accomplishing things.
  
• List 2 is a big list. Write down all kinds of things you'd like to accomplish--goals, projects, classes, travel, clean outs. Be honest about things you'd like to do, no matter how out there they may seem. Do not say "I could never do that"....it's just a list. A set of ideas. You don't know what you can do yet.
  

2) Consider journaling

• Writing is healthy. It's part of the reason I make lists, blog, and (unless I do something stupid like leave it on the bed in Atlanta) why I'm never without a journal. It's easier to look back and see things that have shaped you when you have written things down. I write down the bad things and the good things. I try to write the good in more detail. Reliving good times is not a bad thing.
• Don't question yourself as you write--just put it down on paper. If you say a mean thing about a person in your journal (as long as that journal is properly tucked away when they visit) you're getting it out of your system rather than letting it fester. Be willing to admit things to yourself -- honesty with yourself goes a long way.
  
• If you're a more verbal type--record yourself. Microphones aren't too expensive if you have a computer. Put it in an audio file--and talk it out. You can burn it to a cd and store the cd--so other people don't come across the files. Yes, it may feel like you're talking to yourself but think about the multitudes of podcasters who have to talk to an empty room for us to get episodes.
  

3) Go for a cup of coffee

• How many of us are bogged down by place? If you're frustrated at your place of work or you have no clarity at home--trying to focus at one of those places may not be in your best interest. After coming home last week from my own coffee shop visit, I made a deal with myself that I need to go to said coffee shop for one evening a week--for at least an hour. If you're not getting traction in your current settings, take an hour and go with book or notebook (preferably both) to the coffee shop. [Insert sit in bakery, quiet room at your library, somewhere where you can handle the ambiance and tune out]
  
• When you do this, consider shutting off your cell phone and not taking your laptop or other wireless device. Amazingly (as evidenced by sleep and air travel) most of us can be out of touch for 60 minutes without the world ending. I bring my mp3 player, but usually the coffee-shop light jazz is enough.
  

4) Set a timer

• This can work either for self-rewards or work. I can get an amazing amount of things cleaned up, put away, dusted, vacuumed, thrown away in 30 minutes. Make a deal with yourself--if I do this for 15 minutes, I can then... Most of us are open to self-bribery. And often, it's not the doing so much as the getting started. Personally, I tend to work in two sets of time chunks: the length of a CD soundtrack that I've become enamored with or however long it takes the tea kettle to heat (approx ten minutes). I've become the queen of tea-kettle dishes. Flip side is "when I do this, I can knit/read/
  

5) Take something off list two and make action cards

• This can be an action list or note cards. I've seen either work for other people. If you have a big goal though, it helps to break it down into bite sized portions. And those portions need to have deadlines.
  

6) Find someone to whom you can be accountable and who must be accountable to you.

• This may be a spouse or significant other but I'm guessing this is more likely to be a friend/relative you don't cohabit with.
  
• Nag and give each other deadlines. Do reminder calls. If they're willing to fuss at you about your action cards--that's a good thing. Fuss at them. "Should"/"want to" needs to be come "did"--even in little bitty pieces.
  

7) Remember that you need human interaction, no matter how wonky the public and people seem to be.

• Human interaction comes in many forms: the phone, social networks and email are primary forms of communication for many of us. If your locals aren't cutting it, look for an online community.
• Community classes are available in droves and it's a short, tangible way to get out of the house that doesn't have to involve people you already know. If you have a shared interest for six weeks you can decide if you'd like to ever have coffee with those people again or if you think they're all insane. Either way, hopefully you'll learn something from the class. And if you didn't--and you could teach it better--then you need to be proposing your own class.
  

8) Go through a stash and remember why you bought something you loved or wanted to try

• Stash includes the kitchen cabinets.
  
• If you're me--this means looking through the yarn stash and saying "right, I wanted to make x with that yarn." Then I have to go find the pattern and needles and cast it on. Right now I'm doing a cull of worsted weight yarn and trying to use it up as fast as humanly possible. We won't discuss just how many hours a week I can find to knit.
  
• If you love it--get it out. If I spend an hour knitting yarn I enjoy, that's time well spent. It is not a waste of time to spend an hour on a project that makes you happy. Ten hours over the course of the weekend might be a stretch *cough guilty expression cough* but one hour is not.
  
• This is also a good time to do light weeding. As the Incredibly-Patient-Mother was reminding me when I was home, if you don't love it and it doesn't have a purpose, you don't have to keep it. She also advised working by a 20% rule---try to clear out 20% of whatever it is you're stashing. (Yes, she does organization and clean out consultations.)
  

9) Exercise

• I'll admit, I'm bad about this one. I know exercise helps people feel better and you can look better too and it's healthy. Anywho, do as I suggest, not as I futon-yam. Maybe I need to add a round of pilates to that short list.

10) Share the small accomplishments.

• Certainly it's lovely to hear that you just climbed Mt. Everest. But most of us can't do that every day or week. So just as we're not supposed to sweat the little things, I think we are supposed to celebrate the little stuff.
  

With that, I leave you with my accomplishment of yesterday: I cleaned the bathroom and remembered to order a birthday gift more than 24 hours before the birthday.

And today's short list:
1) Water the plants
2) Portion out the calico beans
3) Wash the crockpot
4) Send out the complaint letters I wrote so the companies in question are aware of the problems
5) Vaccum the living room (use the hose attachment on the fern...it's shedding)
5a) About that pilates....

Evaluating Passion

It's one of those things that strikes you while spending an hour working on an incredibly simple scarf or staring out the window at the grey winter sky. You wonder at the passion in your life: for your work, for your craft, for life and what you're doing. Is it enough? Are you living or just existing? If the former, are you making the most of your living? If the latter, then what's wrong with you that you're not living?

Winter brings on a lot of reflection, especially when faced with my solitude and my own company for more than 24 hours. I'm a nocturnal creature but these days where the light lasts a scant nine hours (at least that I'm conscious) are draining. Without the foliage to think upon as I stare somewhat blankly out my balcony, instead I look at my own internal branches and shrubberies. Am I doing enough in my profession? Am I happy in my chosen career? Am I creative enough in my craft? Should I be reaching out to other crafts and projects? Am I missing something for lack of experimentation?

A million questions, all swirling through my head as I work row after row of knitting. It's not a project that is probably the most valuable use of my limited knitting time, but it is just enough to keep my hands busy. And perhaps that is the problem--I don't really have to think about my knitting and so my mind takes off.

I'm sure we all question our chosen career paths at times. Was it the right decision? Was it the best use of our talents and skills? Could we make a different decision five, ten, or twenty years before (although--making career decisions in 2nd grade might have been a bad idea), would we have made better one? In the past year I've really seen an expansion of my use of social networking technology to coordinate with other like minds and this is both encouraging and depressing. I'm caught somewhere beyond the veriest beginner and the expert. I'm capable of figuring out new tools, able to see their applications, and have moved through blogs, wikis, chat formats and Twitter.

I've written a couple of articles, gotten rejections for a few more, and wondered why it is I just can't bring myself to hop up and down with glee at the idea of submitting dry research for peer reviewed journals that don't seem to be read very often except in limited academic circles. Those authors writing for tenure, I beg your indulgence, I've not yet faced the prospect of tenure and considering the current trend of libraries and the open condescension I've encountered from a few hiring academic libraries, it seems it may be a while yet before someone is willing to take a risk on a current children's librarian who might not want to be one her entire career. Baffling idea, no? Add to that the recent kerfuffle over at the Journal of Access Services (an entire issue written by an unnamed acerbic blogger) and one wonders the efficacy of article proposals.

I've not yet presented at conferences, mostly for financial reasons as well as trying to figure out what it is I'd present two years in the future. By then I expect to have new tools and tricks--and you'd ask me to speak on what I'm doing now in early 2009? Now is two years old by then and heaven help us in this fast paced online world if those coming for their spray of knowledge (single spray versus steady trickle or stream idea of learning) are only catching up to two years ago.

It's not only professional, it's personal too. Listening to podcasts, reading blogs and participating in social networks for knitters, I often wonder if I'm stunted in some way. I knit. End of story. I don't spin, dye, weave, do much more than the basics of crochet, paint, blend perfumes, bake, art journal...any of those things. I can sew, and do on occasion but mostly the sewing machine the Incredibly-Patient-Mother got me for my birthday has been waiting for me these past few months. My last project was altering a hoodie-lined jacket for a friend of mine Christmas 2008. I need to hem a tablecloth for my kitchen table, repair a bag, hem some jeans and make some new flannel/satin pajama pants. All of these combined would take one afternoon, two at the most. Instead, garter stitch squares and one row scarves get turned out. To listen to the creative minds on the intertubes, I'm a major slacker. I should be balancing at least three crafts, two of which I sell on at least an etsy store level, as well as a full time job, three children, two pets, one husband and moving houses.

But here there's just me, and my stash. Simple projects that Audio Girl teases I should be moving on from but it's nice to have control over the little things. The one row scarf that doesn't require checking a pattern every ten minutes would definitely be a nice little thing.

Do I then lack the correct passion? Should I be doing three times what I am now? Obviously I'm feeling a bit of stagnation or it wouldn't bother me to the degree that I keep returning to this blog post. Looking ahead to the new year, facing two freelance contracts finishing and not really sure what comes next I'm wondering what 2009 will bring. Renewed enthusiasm? Continued stagnation? More vague confusion?

I will continue to reach out professionally--it's what one does to advance in this field and it provides variety. If I can get my resume fluffed, I need to volunteer to wile away the hours reading books it's likely I'd not have picked up otherwise and about which I may/may not care very much. One of the articles that was rejected needs to still be written. I don't know whether or not it'll get submitted but the LSW seems to be a nice venue for such things. And ALA Annual is coming up fast. Maybe this time I won't feel like such an outsider. After all, I do have "librarian" in my job title this time.

As for the crafting? Well, I've resolved to knit for myself this year. So at least maybe I'll get some warm woolly things out of it.

Facing a Fresh Landscape

There's a fresh layer of snow dusting over the older snow outside for the new year. While, if at all possible, I have absolutely no intention of leaving the building today, it is a good time for a bit of reflection and planning.

Last year was in two pretty distinct sections:
Before August
After August

Before August was mostly focused here in La Crosse and on work. I orchestrated our Knitting in Public Day, started a kids knitting group, went to PLA, did summer reading in La Crosse, worked on my databases and went to Sibling-the-Younger's graduation. I went on two different yarn diets. I made one flying trip out to New York and a couple down to Chicago to hang out with the Kickers and AudioGirl, but beyond that it was a pretty mellow spring.

And then August hit. My immediate supervisor retired, I flew to New York for a wedding shower and then flew out to Colorado to spend a week with the Tech Sergeant. I came back, drove to the Incredibly-Patient-Mother's for a dress alteration, flew back to New York for a wedding, took on the care and feeding of the chapter book collection, went back to Chicago and caught up with a lot of people I see only sporadically. I started NaNoWriMo though I didn't finish, got braces, and cut a foot off my hair. I flew to Atlanta and bought a tea and coffee pot, knitted until my hands nearly fell off, and went back to the Incredibly-Patient-Mother's for a week at the holidays.

This year lies before me with a lot of potential. Certainly today is not all that different from yesterday but with a new January ahead of me, there seems to be many fresh options.

Goals for 2009:
1) Use things -- I have tea, yarn, books...so many things that are here waiting for me. When they start feeling like clutter rather than things I enjoy, it's time to use up or get rid of rather than hold on indefinitely.
2) Knit for myself. I talk a lot about knitting but almost always it's for other people. Call it selfish but I want some warm woolly things for me.
3) Write for more than just my blog audience. I need a better collection of rejection emails and letters and possibly some acceptances too.
4) Scrapbook old papers. Not the incredibly matted, decorated, and beribboned, just the "here's a paper, here's something from junior high" with some notes on the side about why I kept it.
5) Survive braces....20 months to go.
6) Get my books into LibraryThing.

I wish you big and conquerable goals in 2009 and good health for the new year. With hugs, best wishes and a clean but already filling calendar,

Happy 2009
Abigail

Getting Rid of Books

Exhale...

At least two of you gasped that I would write a blog post with that title. Admit it. Especially if you've ever seen an apartment I've lived in or you've been to the Incredibly-Patient-Mother's house. I think I've gotten about 80% of the books that are mine that were living at her house out--but I know there's at least one more bookshelf I have to tackle. Maybe this Christmas? (What am I saying? Now she's going to be anticipating it....)

I usually weed when I move. Clothes, books, everything got evaluated when packed 0r--more likely--unpacked. It helps when you move at least once a year, which I did for a full decade. But this year it does appear I'll make my new years resolution for 2008: Not to move for a calendar year. It may sound kind of frivolous or not really a resolution but it meant I wasn't hauling all of my belongings out of my current dwelling. It meant I did things like switch from/to summer/winter wardrobes without packing to move. Not having to wonder where I packed my toothpaste for 12 months has been a pleasant change.

It also meant that the Incredibly-Patient-Mother could suggest ever so gently that I start getting all of my books out of her house. Considering many of those books had been languishing in boxes for the better part of a decade, I suppose this was a reasonable request. And I was surprised how many of the books I was able to easily part with. When they've lived in a box for five+ years, you've forgotten you had them and the connection to them has lessened. So I could prune much of that collection.

Getting rid of books that have lived on the shelves more recently? That I've repeatedly un-boxed and shelved? That's harder. Not bringing home more books from trips to bookstores and library book sales? Nearly impossible. But I'm trying.

The short fluffy romances that I read in alternative to sitting through RoCos or television go into two boxes which get cleaned out every couple of months and sent either to the mother or friend. Everything else kinda sits around, waiting to be assigned a correct shelf spot. Or they've been assigned a shelf space (based on incredibly deep thoughts this last move of "this will go here") and are now just languishing.

And books aren't meant to languish. They need good homes and ideally someone else who'll read them to falling apart or at least enjoy them and pass them on. So I'm trying. I've put 40+ books on Paperback Swap and have actually gotten about fifteen out the door. Pay no attention to the fact I've then grabbed copies of the few Cat Who books I don't already own in paperback so I can get a complete set. At least those I will read until they die. Even if her writing has gotten lousy. The ones that aren't moving out the door in a timely fashion are going to go somewhere. Where I've not figured out just yet, though the Talking Books Librarian mentioned Cash4Books a couple of days ago and I might look into that for a few of those weeds. I can't imagine they'll want much of what I've got though. I could drag them back to work and give them to the Friends group, which I've done with other books I've weeded and probably will do with some. Most fiction has a shelf life...

It's hard to get rid of books though. And little apartment dwellers like me don't get to have yard sales. So if anyone wants 5 of the six books from the Dragon Prince/Dragon Star series by Melanie Rawn, let me know. They've been read once, maybe twice but I doubt it. I'm missing book 1--it got loaned apparently and never found its way home. And since it's been two moves since I remember seeing it, I'm guessing it's somewhere in New York. Also...for some reason I've started grabbing every vintage Gertrude Chandler Warner that comes across my desk. I have to think about whether or not I really need hard cover copies of all 22 of the original Boxcar Children books. Even if I think some of them might be first editions.

Holiday Wool....

The more I knit, the more ideas I get of things I should knit for people for Christmas. So then I cast those projects on and think of more things. It's a loop that is set to run right up until around 6 p.m. Christmas day--when I'll probably have seen all of the people who are receiving Christmas knits. At which point I'll have to start after-Christmas knits (maybe some stuff for me?) because a) I live in freezing Wisconsin and b) my hands will be so used to constantly knitting that I'll have to work on something to maintain my sanity.

No, unfortunately I'm not joking. I knitted pretty much non-stop last year in December and by the time I finished the holiday projects I was quite literally unable to just sit and converse. Fortunately, the Incredibly Patient Mother had some knitting tucked away that I could work on to keep from just sitting in a very fidgety manner.

Things to note: I never want to knit another pair of gloves ever again in my entire life. Sibling-the-Younger requested a pair and while this was a first from a family member (knitted request), I don't think I'll be doing more of these any time soon. I can do a pair of fingerless mitts in about 8 hours. With fingers nearly doubles the time and I had 9 double pointed knitting needles in one glove at one point.

I am trying a new pattern for a number of gifts this year: Turn a Square by Jared Flood. Jared's patterns have been received with high acclaim and this one is pretty addictive. Of course, I did have to come in this morning with one of the finished products and track down a couple of male coworkers to double check size but I certainly would recommend this pattern! The rest of the knitting world is doing the Noro scarf (again, Jared Flood) --- I'm making hats. Hey, they only take 3-4 hours. Another coworker seemed stunned when I mentioned how long they take to make. Yes, there's time involved, which is why I'm knitting mostly for people I am closely related to. But it's four hours of time at home, with an audiobook or a movie or a friend on the phone. When I finally catch up with the Tech Sergeant, it's good to be able to sit down and knit something moderately mindless while I'm hearing all the details.

So, that's my plan for December. Me and the wool.

One More In Early = One Less in Line Tomorrow

After seeing the Incredibly-Patient-Mother off last Tuesday, I headed to City Hall to get my vote in. As we're facing a 14 hour day at the library tomorrow (for which, thankfully, I'll only be present for about ten hours of...), and since I usually have at least an hour long meeting first thing--it definitely behooved me not to make the day any fuller than it needed to be.

I was surprised and pleased at how easy it was. I work at a public library and a number of the staff had been through training to take voter registration--so registering was as simple as tracking down Our Lady in Charge of Circulation. I'd changed my driver's license in early September so as to be able to vote in this election. I stopped in at City Hall and within about ten minutes everything was done. My vote had been cast for the next President.

If you have gone early or voted absentee--great. If you haven't, please make sure to get out tomorrow and vote. We're a democracy, not an oligarchy.

I'll catch you on Wednesday if I'm still standing.

Random Quote Sunday: It's a Wedding

Yesterday one of my best friends, the Brunette, was married. I had the honor to be in his wedding party, even though that meant transporting my dress on two planes (after having it mailed to the Incredibly Patient Mother and driving to/from her house to get it hemmed) and buying two pairs of shoes because we went from gold to black at some point (June? Maybe?).

"When he says brunch does that mean brunch bring something comfortable to wear on Sunday or brunch bring another pair of heels and skirt?"
(When you're flying half way across the country, you need to know what shoes to bring.)

"Did you tell him I have waist length hair?"
(The hairdresser. You warned him right?)

"I just found four pair of tweezers in the bottom of my make up bag."
(That explains where they sneaked off to when I couldn't find them. I hope they're not like coat hangers....)

"I put on a little mascara for the dentist."
(Discussing with Sibling-the-Elder waterproof mascara the night before a dental appt after I practiced "wedding make up")

Congratulations AJ & DJ! And thank you for letting me be a part of your special day.

Embracing Childhood Literature

Does anyone else remember the Little Miss and Mr. Men series? Why it was always Little Miss and why never Little Mr. I'll never know but I have fond memories of making the Incredibly-Patient-Mother read Little Miss Clean to me over and over and over and over again. She ran outside, wiped up the puddle, ran inside, washed the rag, dried it, ironed it (a washcloth...), and put it away. It was quite extreme but I'm here to tell you--I don't iron my washcloths. So apparently it didn't warp me too much.

But those books--are back. They were in my fall Penguin Group Catalog under the Price Stern Sloan section.













and Amazon has them.

Okay /dork.


Heffalumps... the Acquiring Of

I have a somewhat limited tolerance for street and other sorts of park festivals. I suppose I would enjoy them more in the throng of other people of similar age with whom I might attend but in the last few years, I've generally found myself wandering about them alone. Varying only slightly depending on the city (NYC, CHI, LSE) and time of day, this has seen me surrounded by people who aren't wearing quite enough clothing, people who don't understand being polite in their usage of shared space, overpriced but sometimes quite yummy food, the occasional interesting craft booth, alcohol of various varieties, and loud music that is only sometimes to my taste.

Still, they are popular and with the gorgeous weather we had this weekend, I ventured out to one of the ones here. We have many festivals in this locale, with thousands of Harley-Davidson (and other motorcycle) owners descending upon on last weekend and more festivities forthcoming later in the year. Btw, if you're coming for Oktoberfest, I need to know in the next month so I can plan accordingly.

After meandering about the current festival, sitting down by the river to enjoy the view, and rejecting the beer tent on the knowledge that I had to drive myself home, I headed back towards my car. I detoured upon seeing an "Antiques" sign on the sidewalk outside of one of the buildings. It is named, my receipt tells me, the Antique Center of La Crosse Ltd.

The city has a number of antique shops both downtown and on the north side. But this was one I'd not been into before and truly, it is a gem that should not be missed.

The buildings on that section of Third Street were all built together--so the north wall of one is the south wall of the next and, while giving you a lovely continuity, it hides the size of the building. One sees cluttered windows from the outside but stepping in--one could be transported.

Now, keep in mind this transportation takes some heavy imagination. Bear with me if you will and picture walking into an extremely successful dry goods type of store from the turn of the century. An enormous room with ceilings probably of the fifteen or twenty feet and a lovely red staircase at the middle back that takes you up first to a mid level room (currently has security system in it) and then another full floor, or down to a basement probably mostly for stock in the old days. The upstairs is sectioned into two rooms while the basement has the damp mustiness that basements almost always seem to have. But coming down the stairs from the second floor you are struck by the magnificence of the staircase, the glorious sunshine streaming in large front windows, the spaciousness of the room--and a strong feeling that there should be floor to ceiling shelves and glass counters where men in collars and vests or neat shop girls are attending men in suit jackets and bowler hats or ladies in long sweeping gowns with Gibson girl hair. I kept waiting to find myself swept at very least into a film set or to have some nice young man with oil slick hair and mustache offering to assist me. Considering I was in a knee length cotton sundress, I would have been most out of place, but the idea suggested by the building was certainly there.

Into this space there are CRAMMED antiques. Thirty-five different independent dealers is what I was told. Their cases are open or locked, stacked or shelved. China cabinets and curio cabinets and everything packed to the gills. Furniture, figurines, china, toys, spoons--not much in the way of costumes or clothing but all other manner of things.

And not a hedgehog in the place. I know. I looked.

Fortunately, I do also collect elephants. This is a much longer standing collection which the Incredibly-Patient-Mother has been helping me develop for years. I have elephants that are representative of many times in my life: the tiny green figurine purchased from a street vendor near the Met, the stuffed elephant received for my senior recital, the elephant creamer from my visit to M last fall, the elephants said Mother brought back from a trip to South Dakota--one on purple stone (amythest or quartz?) and the other carved of a stone that hopefully she'll identify in the comments (cream ish?).

So here I was sailing through, lost in thoughts about the building and eyes sharply peeled in search of an elephant. There were many that were not what I wanted to follow me home, though I could have easily picked up fifty new pachyderms to add to the herd. Apparently I like Japanese elephant figurines, although one heavy pottery teapot that I picked up was probably the most hideous elephant I've ever seen. The elephant looked like a pig with a trunk--white with gold tusks painted on and floral blanket on the back with figure sitting on top. There's one for sale on ebay at the moment. The one I saw didn't look that nice and was much more expensive.

I did come away with five new elephants. One, which isn't photographing well, is a Wade Whimsie. Another is glass--which my camera is not pleased to show off. But I will share the coolest one that followed me home. It's a mug, though I won't be drinking out of it anytime soon, and it's was made in Occupied Japan--according to the bottom.

Indulge me my adoration of elephants. Isn't he cute?

Mmmmmmm...Strawberries

Apparently, unlike a few of my coworkers and several other friends, I don't have particularly negative memories of fresh fruit picking as a child. So when my Business Manager suggested we go U-Pick together, I was quite excited.

I have happy memories of strawberry picking, assisted by the fact that we had family friends who had a 40 acre strawberry farm. (They might still have it, near the southern border of Michigan--also asparagus and blueberries. I can give you an address if you need it.) So it was less of a chore and more of a field trip to the H's place. And it was very different from what we did at home and meant you came out of the fields with mouth and hands stained with strawberry juice.

Of course, this meant then coming home, cleaning berries forEVER, and then freezing them (twice).

But one forgets the cleaning, and instead remembers the warm happy memories. And yesterday absolutely added to the happy part.

Due to weather considerations, we spontaneously field tripped to La Crescent, MN last night for strawberries. It's a gorgeous farm that's in between bluffs, situated in an incredibly picturesque valley. After grabbing big trays in wood baskets from one sun-kissed teen, we headed to the end of the field.

And so, in work clothes and work shoes (fortunately, I was wearing stacked sandals), I hunkered down and went picking. It was incredibly meditative. It was coming up on six p.m., so while the sun was really bright but the temperature had cooled off. There were other people in the fields, but we were spaced out pretty well and I really didn't really feel like I had to listen to others conversations. The fields were beautiful. Tall, lush plants that were covered, just covered with strawberries. Not huge strawberries but normal sized ones, brilliantly ripe and red.

In just under an hour, we each filled our tray, hauled ourselves off our knees (I was crawling (super carefully) by that point--no strawberries were smashed on my pants!!) and headed back to the barn to have our strawberries weighed.

And mine came in just under 12 lbs. for....me. Hmmmmm. We adjourned to the car and I realized I had broken out in hives. While strawberries themselves don't bother me, apparently the little prickles all over the plant stems don't do good things to my lower arms. After I was dropped off at work (where the Gecko [Hedgepig's green car] was parked) I went in and scrubbed with soap and that seemed to rectify the situation pretty quickly.

I came home with my berries, also with new vacuum (stole type suggestion from another librarian on Twitter). I even managed to get them cleaned last night! I don't have a big deep freeze, so I couldn't do a "proper" double freeze (clean berries, freeze whole/flat, wait overnight, put frozen single berries into ziplocks and back in the freezer. So---this is what ended up happening.

The Freezer:















The Fridge:

I'm a happy happy hedgehog with many strawberries. Also, pretty pleased with myself that I remembered how to clean and freeze strawberries appropriately. Thank you to the IPM for dragging me through appropriate processes. That's as close to it as I could get with a teeny freezer and tons of strawberries.