a letter to my readers...

Myspace Lover Letter

NaBloPoMo April: Letters!

So I've taken the jump--to post daily here at this blog. Letters is pretty broad, but I love them:

• ABCDEFG...
• missives in the mail
• typography

D'ya like the badge? You, too, can have one, oh crazy blogger, if you go to the napoblomo-ning page.

See ya tomorrow...

A random quote that I've just fallen in love with from CS Lewis

Found this by going over to the Holly and the Ivy and then Miss Erin...

"We are always falling in love, or quarreling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve knowledge are those who seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come."

~C.S. Lewis

So, while the conditions are still unfavorable (read: dishes galore, bills to pay, stuff to do) I'm going to unpack that suitcase!

"Can I hear the magic word?"

This phrase was a refrain in my childhood. My mother would pull on her earlobe and it was my cue to say "Please!"

Today I drove thru (through?) at Burger King, under the sign that talked about having your own way. BK is big on having personal choice. At the window, the young woman handed me my coffee as I handed her my card. She gave me my receipt and said is there anything else I can get you? I said, cream and sugar. She went and got my sandwiches, passed me my bag, and said these magic words: "Please have a nice day."

I now feel obligated to do so. What a great feeling.

Having come from a conference where my favorite workshop was on Web 2.0, or "Web Two" as one of the presenters called it, I've been thinking about semantics and how the most provocative words in the English language are "Do not." Until I was about 17, I never had a desire to pull a fire alarm--I was a goody two shoes. But something turned that year, and though I've never pulled one yet, I am tempted, because of those provocative words, "Do not." Signs that say "Do not use your cell phone" or "Do not pick your nose" or "Do not smile" make me want to do the opposite. However, that magic word, "please" does WONDERS. I sit up and consider what that person or sign has to say, because they are being polite to me.

One of the presenters at this workshop talked about a sign at a local library that said "Danger, do not use your cell phone, signed by the library director." Wow. That seems to me fire in the hands of a seventeen year old girl (or boy.) **okay, the sign doesn't say that, (see link, below) but if you look at the sign, that's the sense you get.**

**pause as I find the link. Actually, the sign does use the word please, but it also uses RED lettering, which to me reminds me of English teachers...**

Anyways, here's a link to the sign, which apparently the library hopes to make less inflammatory, if you read the comments. Yay!

I think a great sign would be, "please use the vestibule for cell phone conversations and switch your phone to vibrate while you are in the library." It's a lot of words, but it's polite. It would make me want to comply...

Wow, it's 11:34! I better get a move on the unpacking the suitcase thing...

random thoughts now that i'm HOME!

A week and I haven't been here, wow! Here are some random PLA thoughts, quotes, tidbits:

quotes from Marian (we were roomies at the Holiday Inn Metrodome):

second day, very early (we got up for a vendor breakfast): "the hot water must be coming from Guam!"
next day, a little later in the morning: "someone else must have used all the cold water this morning"

Number of librarians reading Skinny Dipping by Connie Brockway at Gate D8 in the Humphrey Terminal: 3. (Marian and I were two, the librarian from WI was #3)

Gas is cheaper in MN, but we should have bought it on Tues, when it was $3.09. It was $3.15 by the time we walked back to the hotel from Open Book midday on Wednesday. We decided that taking gas on the plane was a bad idea (flammable n'at) and driving just to get cheaper gas not a great idea either.

Open Book, btw, is not a bookstore, but worse (or better, actually!) It's a network of non-profits that have to do with poetry, book arts, bookmaking, and has a very nice cafe (we didn't try) and a bookstore (yes, we plunked down some cash.) Marian got a book pin. I got a collage kit. Other things. We pulled each other out of there before we bought everything in sight.

Did I mention I was in Minneapolis? The home of The Onion? That solved the "what to get (cheap yet nice) for Max for putting my heavy suitcase in my trunk?" issue. What a relief!!

We ate at:
Grandma's Saloon and Grill, got the Fully Monte (lots...of...food), (2nd link is to a pdf of menu...yum)
Quizno's * (yes, I know, but it was cheap, quick, and open til 3 a.m. four nights a week)
Wasabi Fusion, (Marian is a real sushi connoisseur) (and this was the night our boss paid!)
the Holiday Inn (no, we didn't get the breakfast buffet),
Staccato, I had a salad, we sat at the lunch counter...

We didn't eat at Grumpy's, though we wanted to. So many books...(fill in the blank.)

I left with this many bags: 1 suitcase, 2 carryon.
I came back with this many bags: 1 suitcase, 2 carryon. Much heavier on the way back, tho.

While at the conference, I got the following "swaag" (vendor stuff) (listed in order of importance):

• OCLC bag (you have to go to one of their programs, so it's usually a nice bag and this year's flava is the nicest one yet.)
  
• HarperTeen bag (Marian snagged one for me)
• A Nooma DVD from Zondervan. I would have gotten more, but I will forever be indebted to H.W. Wilson, who kept me in their seminar until 2:59, then I forgot where the Zondervan booth was, so when the vendor chick was giving away her booth all the things I'd admired (many more Nooma) were gone. I am excited for my Ben Carson book on CD, though.
• other nice things, including Skinny Dipping (see above), which Marian snagged for me. She was a very nice friend and roomie!!
  

MTC,

SL

btw, the most interesting new swaag item is also my favorite: a "shoulder saver" which is a velcro thingy that you attach to the strap/s of your bag. I got many from Janway and FamilySearch as "swaag for co-workers."


_____________
* the link is part of the humor here...

...some bunny loves you... (random thoughts on an Easter morning)

Happy Easter!

I love in the Easter story how it is the WOMEN (thankyouverymuch) that find the empty tomb.

Today is the 30th anniversary of my brother Peter's* birthday. (He died about 20 days later.) My dad is the keeper of such anniversaries in our family, so he told me as part of the "He is risen, He is risen indeed" phone call. It was Maundy Thursday that year, that year Easter was early, too. I don't remember. I am grateful for my father's memories. And my mother's, too.

I bought hot cross buns at the grocery store and am about to go be the EB to some unsuspecting neighbors...

Which I should get on with...

Max is going to bring in my mail whilst I'm in Minnesota, so yes, it was a good Good Friday. (We spoke briefly outside our house and smiled at each other. It seemed very normal. I was able to stand listening to piano music as I pulled onto the road my library is on.) It feels good to have turned another corner in the labyrinth of healing.

I went over to Blackbird's and watched a YouTube and then another one, the Food Court musical. I'm too lazy (or too intent on finishing this post pronto) to figure out how to link to a You Tube that wasn't the original one you were looking at.

I got a manicure last night and it's already snagged. My manicure place reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine gets George's dad to translate the Korean...

I went shopping at Christopher and Banks--love that store, and got reallly many nice things, for not so much jing. Maybe when I get back from Minneapolis I'll figure out the picture/computer thing again. (I went to C&B two years ago to get my "update" on my professional wardrobe for the PLA conference. My budget of $75 got me a pair of pants and a bunch of tops. This year I got about the same, but the pants are nicer.)

One sad thing about my xpifying of the computer--I lost all my Picasa files. Not the pictures, but I had made notes n'at. Sigh. Yes, you can comment and tell me how Flickr is so much better.

I'm hungry. Maybe I'll eat something before I go be the Easter Bunny. That's it, the Easter Bunny slept late!

My dad reminded me of a story that he repeats occasionally: when I was little, I asked him if when he was little he had an Easter Bunny or was it Granny? And shocked, he looks at me and says, "I think Granny would look awfully silly hopping around delivering candy to all the houses, carrying her keys." (Not a direct quote, next year I will remember to WRITE it down.) Granny apparently got a kick out of that story.

One year (and I hold the memory on this, last year Kiki didn't remember that year I think) Easter was vera vera warm and the chocolate eggs were liquid. There is a family movie of that somewhere, it's when we lived in Silver Spring and Kiki lived in Laurel, MD, so it was over 33 or so years ago, yikes!

Sis made it home last night. Apparently she drives more like the folks on my mom's sister's side of the family (few stops.) Yeah, I would be the POLAR opposite of that, which is why NEXT YEAR when I go down to South Carolina for Easter, I will be flying. (The ALL CAPS is because I would have gone this year if Easter and the PLA conference weren't in the same 14 day time span...)

Happy Easter, all! (and to all a good morning!)



_________________________________________________________
*two peeps that will always get their non-anonymous names
are my bro Peter and my sis, Joy, as they are both in heaven.

You must read this book!

Welcome to Eudora by Mimi Thebo.

Babs would do a great job at doing a review and I probably could churn something out, but I'm weary. I was only on page 31 at 3pm when I had my doctor appointments. I came home and read, and read, and read, and read some more. I stopped for Frasier at 6:30 and indulged in Two and a half men, but then off the TeeVee went, back to the book.

I just finished. Someday I will own this book. For now, I want everyone else to READ it. Because this is a book that you could talk about with good friends for years to come. Remember when Lottie? Remember the Snow Ball dance?

Not even the din of the 2nd floor misses pounding nails into every single wall swayed me from my retreat into the tiny town that is Eudora.

I can't even begin to describe it, except to say that it is a book just like me.

Risky and funny, and with great taste in food.

If you liked the Stone Gap books, you'll love this.

I'm sure I was supposed to be doing something more spiritual as I prepare this week for Easter...

(Oh, Mom's candy and Easter grass arrived today--with a box of Samoas!! Some lucky neighbors are going to help me share them...)

Off to play some more Scramble--one of my friends keeps trouncing me...

the lost morning...or where did all the minutes go?

So I was supposed to have this work meeting this morning. On my day off. And I was well, whatever. But then it was canceled, at the last minute. So I got online.

Three hours later...these are the things that ate my minutes:

Thanks to an email from Women's Wall Street, Daily Cents,

....I discovered a new women's site, Women on the Web (WOW).

...in adding it to del.icio.us, I found some articles about it. Which took me to a blog about social networking, and I found myself...

...watching an interview with the creator of Facebook.

....which was like an hour long. I find these things fascinating, and even more fascinating that I find them fascinating...

I went onto Facebook, read some friend's notes, which led me to...

....read about the Library Journal Movers and Shakers.

I am updating my Java patches.

I have showcased my Facebook house and won some, lost some. Oh, and bought another flamingo.

I played a few turns on Scramble.

I started a new blog, which will be my professional place, me writing about stuff concerning writing and librarianship. It's still in the very experimental phases. (As in, I have a tiny first post and a blogroll.)

But to give you something, an accomplishment worthy of blogginess, something to make you glad you came over here to say hi, I came up with a great movie plot, thanks to the Official Movie Plot Generator. (Yes, while I'm waiting for Java, I actually stepped away from the screen to pick up a BOOK.)

So here goes. I think it will be a blockbuster hit.

A Fraternity of lovable slobs, misfits and drunks
Hit the Karaoke Circuit
In the Feel-Good Comedy of the year.

Now, wasn't that worth clicking over here? (No hate mail in the comments, please!)

In other news, I fell asleep with my glasses on yesterday afternoon and now they fit wonky. I wore contacts to church last night and got the usual "Did you get your haircut" comment.

And I bet you're happy to know (aren't you just jumping up and down) that my Java update is now complete. So I guess this morning wasn't a total loss...

Which leads us back to two posts ago, WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE???

Reminiscing...moments with Max

One of my favorite memories is of us sitting at my dining room table, flicking a rubber band at each other.

Silly. We were silly together. And it was fun.

I miss that.

And yet, every day, when I get in my dull red car, I want to slam it into his shiny one. Life is like that.

Jesus take the wheel...

Gah. I'm having one of those "what the h-e-double hockey sticks am I doing with my life" moments/days/weeks.

So Carrie Underwood's song applies, even as it makes me think, gah, I'm only taking care of me, not even one other person!

On to the next...

Owner of not one, but TWO ear infections...

YUK! At least now that I'm taking Sudafed the pain is less--why was I not taking a decongestant with my cold???

Not much else new, well, except that the depression broke sometime around Friday. But if you've been reading this, you might have guessed that.

Back to work...

So yes, my schedule is Tuesday-Saturday, so today would be like your Monday, if you are most people in the working world. I generally attend a Women's Bible Study (which is what we call it, hence the caps, WBS for short) on Tuesday mornings, but today I feared I would go nuts if I tried that, as at 11 a.m. I have a therapy session and from noon to four I have a work "retreat." (Um, the only "retreat"-ish thing about it is that we will be off site. It's to talk about strategic long term planning. Our library turns 40 this year in October, so the board has decided that it's time to get serious. Or something. Anyways. I figured my introvert sirens would be going at full blast anyways by the time we hit four o'clock, so to add going to WBS (which I'd be leaving early anyways, b/c of therapy...) (This, the last month of seeing my therapist, I have had to change days because she's not available on Mondays, except for our last session.) (Looking at this paragraph, I realize an English teacher would make it bleed. Which is why I'm not an English teacher. Which is why this is MY blog.)

So. I woke up at 5 am feeling feverish. I stumbled to the loo, stumbled back to bed, at some point stripping off the socks I'd been wearing. I figured a) I might sleep off the fever and b) I was not in a clear enough mind to find the thermometer, much less take my temperature. So I went back to bed. And when I woke up, I felt less feverish but more congested, still with the slight sore throat...and I'm a little disappointed that I don't have a fever... but it is completely possible that I will use some of my accumulated comp time as a sick "rest of the" day after the "retreat."

***
Pause for phone call from Dad. He and I are often each other's "internet librarians," so I'm off to find the phone number of a chiropractor/physical therapist I used when I lived in Virginia with them. Generally, the conversation starts with "are you by your computer?" The good news is my dad went to the bone doctor this morning, no longer has to wear the sling, which he referred to as a "noose" in our short (for us) conversation. There were conversational alleys I could have veered us onto but didn't because I still have much to do this morning. It is a treat though, that I enjoy talking to my father, that I'm related to this interesting and fun man.

***

Am generally amazed at how easy Google searches are. In library school, I had an entire class on "Retrieving Information" and the professor, was he ever CUTE. Sigh. But as a children's librarian at my library,* I rarely have to do searches involving online subscription journals--my dad as a library patron is more well versed in those than I (and his library has a much better online selection than ours...). So my "online retrieval skills" are not the best beyond "look up a phone number," but I'm really good at that one retrieval type. I sometimes fill in at the adult reference desk when Adult Services has their monthly meeting and some of the questions they get...gah!

Well, it is the 10 o'clock hour, so to fit in a shower etc., I must bid you, dear reader, adieu. (Which makes me think of The Sound of Music but I mustn't down any blog-writing alleys either.

STOP!

mtc,

SL

___________________
*reference work varies from library to library. Our patrons don't ask a lot of questions beyond "I'm looking for books about...." but I can't be so narrow as to say that exemplifies ALL children's reference work.

Bird by bird, breath by breath...

A few Saturdays ago, I went with a friend to see Anne Lamott, who had a cold. Yet while she stood there talking to us, we who were there to celebrate the Community of Reconciliation's 40th anniversary, she said in the middle of the talk, "I am not sick while I am here with you." Somehow our presence in her presence, she was not coughing, she was able to be her best self (which is pretty wonderful, btw.)

And that is how I felt this evening. I spent most of the day just vegging, as I am in the second week of this cold. I didn't go to any meetings, I just watched an episode or two of SATC, started reading The Namesake, and took an afternoon nap. But generally felt tired, wiped out, and glad I had nowhere to be.

However, I had an evening engagement, the Succor Soiree, an event for the Union Project to raise some money (they always raise money by eating and drinking...). And Sally encouraged me to go, esp. when I told her I hadn't been out all day AND I have a zero balance on one of my credit cards. (I got them to take the 50 cent balance to zero.)

And while I was there, talking with some old friends, sharing about how life is and my dreams, I was not sick. I felt wonderful, and people told me I looked wonderful, people were glad to see me and I felt great.

The minute I walked out the door, I was exhausted.

But that's okay. Because for an hour and a half or so, I felt wonderful.

mtc,

SL

Librarians and book lovers, unite!

So, I didn't start writing a post about Veronica Chamber's book, The Joy of Living Badly. I slept. all. afternoon. And in a few minutes have to don something so I can go to church.

And something as important as RIF (Reading is Fundamental), a program that fights illiteracy in the U.S. deserves a great post.

Which I don't have in me at the moment. Instead, I give you this article which Heidi just sent me, from the Charlotte Observer. Read it and do something.

Mtc,

SL

What I'm looking for (part deux) (with corrections)

Just finished watching Stranger than Fiction.

The first featurette is finishing playing as I write this.

What I want is a therapist that can see me as someone besides a woman who needs a date.

Emma Thompson did not marry and Kenneth Brannaugh got divorced in 1994. She is a woman of greatness, who is not married.

Queen Latifah is not married (that I know of).

(These are two women that star in STF.)

It IS possible that I am destined to fall in love and get married (and not have twelve or two point five children.) (I still think that even if I get married, I will remain childless, BY CHOICE.) (But I'm open...)

And if I am going to be spilling my life story, telling a person things that my mother would rather stayed in the closet or even in the wrapper itself, (price tag on) I need a person who believes a little bit more than me than someone who needs to "get out more."

If you, dear reader, saw the state of my apartment, you would KNOW two things. Either, a) I need to STAY IN MORE and clean my apartment, or b) I need to hire a personal assistant/cleaning person.

While, yes, the entrance of Max into my life, my very apartment, did mean it was more well kept for a time, the return to its native state of chaos says more about me than it does about the breakup.

Sally, the last time she was here, found and assembled the remote control holder that I had purchased at IKEA at least a year prior. My remotes now rarely are not in their place, in the "a place for everything, and everything in its place" schema.

One of the women who prays for me regularly suggested that I needed to get out of myself. Feed the hungry or something. Sally said, you could babysit for Kelly as she packs boxes (yes, dear reader, Kelly is moving to Virginia--sob, sob.)

So I need something in between.

I have said for many months (almost a year?) that I need to write a post about the book The Joy of doing things badly. Well, darlings, give me a few hours to work on it, and later today I will start that post.

We are hitting some significance.

As an aside, it is Sally that has continued to badger me to watch Stranger than Fiction, which I think I need to own very soon. It fell off the holds list (yes, even library computers are error prone and lose things) many times and FINALLY I got it in my hot little hands earlier this week. But knowing what I did about it, that it was in the "Truman Show" school of comedy, I didn't want to watch it in the evening, when I desperately need more direct comedy, something that is outright hysterical. And I am GRATEFUL that I didn't see STF in the theatre, because I laugh at all the understated humor and I am almost always the only one laughing at those points.

And it seems that in the movie theatre is the only place that my very unique laugh is unappreciated.

Must watch next featurette. More later, I promise.

Oh, and it snowed yesterday. The houses are coated with snow that looks like sugar. And the sun is out, melting it away. I think Max is the one that keeps our steps cleared from the snow. The girls have completely moved in now, so I can't differentiate their slamming of doors from his, mostly because I've stopped listening.

I can't seem to stop writing. I love sentences, I do!!

MTC,

SL

TGIF...and thoughts

Whew! When I said I was doing a meme because it was silly, I should have said because I'M SILLY.
I have become addicted to YouTube. I now have watched EVERY preview for the SATC movie, even the "unofficial" one, which may be the one I post.

Off to work...

What I'm looking for...

A rough draft after watching "How to lose a man in ten days." Chick flicks can be very empowering...

I love Pittsburgh, therefore, I am looking for people who love Pittsburgh. (Or wherever it is they live.)

I love my job, therefore, I am looking for other people who love their jobs.

I know where I stand spiritually when it comes to the basics, etc.

I am not sure a man or a relationship or children will "fix" where I am right now, so I'm not looking for people who think that going out to find people "my age" to date will get me out of the dumps.

I ask for a lot, YES. But I have a lot--everyone said you can't get a library job in Pittsburgh, guess what, I got one, in six months. And I have a lot of great friends who also got library jobs in Pittsburgh, some of them AT the library where I work.

Pittsburgh is not Manhattan. If you want Manhattan, move there. Pay rent for a few days. We'll still be here, paying our medium cost of living.

Relationships are great--YES. But if a man is what I need to get me out of the doldrums, then I must be depending too much on outside stuff to nourish me.

If it's so hard to find a relationship in Pittsburgh, why did I go to five weddings this summer? (Um, they were all IN Pittsburgh.)

If I'm looking for someone to listen to me, to give me guidance on how to move about my life, then I want them to know that they solidly believe in something.

These are the ins and outs of Sarah Louise. This is what I'm looking for in a friend, any relationship, and yes, a therapist.

When I told Marian that my therapist was leaving, moving on to another job, she said, "What do you do to them?" which we laughed about later. But in the past few weeks my therapist has shown a few things that I could have ignored if we were still going to be therapist and client--she was unhappy at that particular practice, told me her pay structure and benefits. So does that make me think I want another therapist at that practice? I would want to know if that particular therapist was happy, or biding her time. I am currently in a depression, due partly (but not only) to the fact that my boyfriend dumped me a few months ago. I'm not sure I want to get married, have kids, the whole kit and caboodle, but I haven't been able to share this with my therapist because her advice to me is get out there, meet people my age, and yes, you have a challenge because you're looking for someone with similar beliefs.

I am having problems with my car. So I don't need to know (after I have been told by my therapist to face my car problems) that she, herself, is trying to figure out how she's going to handle the issue she has with the guy who sold her the car she is currently driving.

It's time to get real. It's time to cut the crap. Yes, I'm angry. But anger can be a driving force.

Once more, with feeling... (10 answered, 0 to go!)

(3/9/08 update: THANKS EVERYONE, WE DID IT!)
(3/7/08 update) I don't think I've ever worked so hard on a meme...

Okay, Sarah at Lemony did it. Kim at All Consuming did it. Blackbird at SayLaVee did it. Badger did it. So, because memes are silly and right now I need silly, I give you...


The Movie Meme:

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. When someone guesses, put who guessed it and the movie.
5. GUESSERS: NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions. I mean, you can cheat if you want, but is it really that important?
6. One movie guess per blogger. Give people a chance to guess before you steal all of the awesome!*
6.5 try to not badger your friends to answer...
7. Thanks for playing, everyone! Just a few more, you know you can do it!!


The movies:

1. Marian the Librarian got this one, The Cutting Edge. Well, and she should have, she's the one that got me addicted to this movie about a hockey player turned figure skater.
(Father) "What about Spindler?"
(Russian Coach) "Spindler? Spindler say before he skate with her, he wear garlic from neck and sleep with cross. Who is left? I am at bottom of barrel."
(Father) "Then you find another barrel."

2. Em got this one, Almost Famous:
William: I'm glad you were home.
Lester Bangs: I'm always home. I'm uncool.
(the second Cameron Crowe movie on this list, and we are done!!)

3. Katy got this one. Home Alone. Bless this highly nutritious microwavable macaroni and cheese dinner and the people who sold it on sale. Amen. (Kevin)

4. Katrina got this one: Jerry Maguire: "Don't cry at the beginning of a date. Cry at the end, like I do." (Laurel) (the first of two movies on this list by Cameron Crowe.)

5. Katrina got this one: About a Boy "Suddenly I realized - two people isn't enough. You need backup. If you're only two people, and someone drops off the edge, then you're on your own. Two isn't a large enough number. You need three at least." (Marcus) (the first of two Nick Hornby books turned into a movie.)

6. Em got this one, A Knight's Tale. "Hope guides me. It is what gets me through the day and especially the night. The hope that after you're gone from my sight it will not be the last time I look upon you." (Sir Ulrich, in a letter to Jocelyn.)

7. Sarah O. got this one, woo hoo! High Fidelity.
"I can't fire them. I hired these guys for three days a week and they just started showing up every day. That was four years ago." (Rob) (and the second of two Nick Hornby books turned into film on this list.)

8. Katrina also guessed this one, which I wondered if anyone would. Persuasion. (The BBC one from 1995.) "Anne? You want to marry Anne? Whatever for?" (Anne's father)

9. Katrina got this one too (thanks! I was getting worried that noone had seen my ten favorite movies!) Enchanted April
Caroline: I want to just sit and not talk and not have to be the centre of attention all the time. You know what that's like don't you?
Rose: No.

10. Em also got this one. That thing you do. "When was the last time you were decently kissed? I mean, really, honestly good and kissed?" (Guy to Faye)

*I'm using Kim's asterisk thing--go for it, guess away, because I have no idea if anyone knows these (btw, GREAT) movies...but these are the ones I've watched again and again...

Update as I struggle with a bit of insomnia as I just added Katrina's answers: thank you both to Katy and Katrina for making me smile.

11. Katy got this one: Metropolitan, which is a great movie that I had to purchase because I could never find it even at video rental stores back in the day when we went to video rental stores...a wonderful movie!! When it came out at my college's movie theatre, the year I was a junior, I went to all three showings and from then on wanted pearls! Which I got in 1995 when my friend Sally became a Mary Kay consultant. (Back in the day when you got Majorcan pearls if you brought someone into the company.) (Now you just get a pearl pin.) Apparently this whole movie thing (and this vapid cold) is making me babble...

Audrey: What Jane Austen novels have you read?
Tom: None. I don't read novels. I prefer good literary criticism. That way you get both the novelists' ideas as well as the critics' thinking. With fiction I can never forget that none of it really happened, that it's all just made up by the author.

*******

(3/6/08 update:) Now, as you can see, I do not watch high profile movies. Geesh, I'm glad I didn't pick Picture Perfect! So I'll give out some hints, because you probably have seen these movies, maybe just not a gazillion times, like I have.

That Kiki...

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Duchess Sarah Louise the Intractable of Old Yarkhillshire Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Oh I like being silly. Got this from my silly cuz, Kiki

oh, and I ate the cookies...

for breakfast, Saturday.

Nuff said.

(Although I shared half the box with my neighbors.)

I like the library and el numero once.

It's the One Semester of Spanish Spanish love song.