m00se

creighton posted about the new tegan & sara album. the tracks that i’ve heard are fantastic. it makes me want to drive to the beach in a convertible. and i don’t even like convertibles.

now hopefully i can see them live, even though the philly show is sold out :(

Today I hit the ALA exhibits area and had a totally fun time. I feel like I’m one of the few people that I went through grad school with who has never been to any part of the ALA conference. I decided to go to the exhibits area since it was inexpensive exposure to the conference and my company would easily cover that cost. Talking to various exhibitors, I was a little surprised that very few of them got my title (which shortened to “Internet Librarian” which was the official title of my predecessor). One library software exhibitor that I talked to was all but hostile when I told him my title and where I worked, saying, “What’s that have to do with libraries?” I was amazed at the degree to which many people in and serving the field, simply didn’t get it.

Regardless, I had fun. I got to look at products that I’m interested in but don’t currently have the opportunity to use, and re-familiarize myself with all of the pertinent vendors. I’ve also gotten to hang out with local librarians, and friends from grad school whom I rarely get to see which has been super nice.

Most importantly I scored lots of free books and went holiday shopping for my little cousins. It’s nice to have that out of the way so early. I got them:

• Feels Real Under the Sea
• West Virginia, The United States, by Julie Murray
• Little Whistle’s Medicine, by Cynthia Rylant
• How To Speak Moo, Deborak Fajerman
• Skippyjon Jones, by Judy Schachner - I got this one signed by the author
• An Egg is Quiet, Diana Aston & Sylvia Long
• Noah’s Ark, Jerry Pinkey

I’m trying to keep a list of all the books I’ve read over the course of the year. I know this isn’t all of them, but it’s a start. If any of you have any questions about any of these books feel free to ask. Also, if anyone else has read them, what did you think?

- Cancer Etiquette: What to Say, What to Do When Someone You Know or Love Has Cancer, by Rosanne Kalick

- My One-Night Stand With Cancer, by Tania Katan

- Tipping the Velvet, by Sarah Waters

- Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book:4th Edition, by Susan M. Love

- The Feisty Woman’s Breast Cancer Book, by Elaine Ratner

- Rubyfruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown

- In Her Day, Rita Mae Brown

- Lucky, Alice Sebold

- Babyji, Abha Dawesar

- The IHOP Papers, by Ali Liebegott

I’m currently in the middle of Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties, by Felicia Luna Lemus

it’s 3am and i absolutely can not sleep.  the upside of this being, dear reader, that my internet connection is once again up, although that has nothing to do with my not sleeping.

I know, I know, it’s been a few days. I’ve been busy and my internet connection from home is still spotty. Whatever.

Saturday was the National Race for the Cure. I walked with the Young Survival Coalition’s DC Chapter (incidentally we raised almost $6000. yay!). The start for walkers was 8:15 so we attempted to get there to meet the rest of the team at 6:50AM - but we got there closer to 7:15. Regardless, it still meant getting up at 5:30AM on a Saturday, which is less than fun. The day was gorgeous, but as soon as the fog burned off, it became incredibly hot very quickly. Considering the torrential downpour we were treated with on Sunday, walking in under the blazing sun certainly beats walking in heavy rain, but even with the sunscreen I wore I kept thinking of all of us upping our potential melanoma risk out there walking for breast cancer, but that’s another story all together. It was only a 5K but there were so many people that it took my team almost 2 hours to get to the finish line. The bib pick-up tent was organized by number, the final set being 64,000+. It was a slow, hot walk.

With lots of strollers. I even saw a dog in a stroller which I thought was a little weird. There were lots of teams walking which was nice to see. Overall morale was high, the route was pleasant, and the people were nice.

I really think running is the way to go if you can do it. Hopefully next year I’ll be recovered enough to run. Thanks for the support and donations. I really appreciate it.

(I just had to post this picture. Ronald McDonald was one of the first things I saw when we arrived. I was barely awake, making it extra creepy. Yeah, don’t eat red meat, or fried food, or lots of fat…so, don’t eat McDonald’s? Nothing like keeping up appearances.)