One thing I do... (updated)

Luke 10, 28-42

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’

Lord, teach me the sort of kindness that takes cues from other people's needs, not from my own plans.

(from Sacred Space, for today, Sunday, July 22, 2007)

I have on my bathroom wall a print of a Leonardo Da Vinci Michelangelo sketch. On it, is a quote from the master: "I am still learning." It is such a comfort to me, and such a testament to the life Leonardo Da Vinci Michelangelo lived--always learning. I admit I know far less of this man than I should, but I do know this--he experimented with everything.

(I am always learning, too, to read what the name is of people's quotes that people my bathroom walls...)

So I am learning to "take cues from other people's needs, not from my own plans." Yesterday morning, instead of going in at 9, when I could have, I went in at 10, as I had requested to come in later because I was planning on attending the HP party, which in the end I did not do. I moved slowly about my morning, which was nice, for once, to just relax. I finished watching "Bruce Almighty," which if anything is a movie about "tak[ing] cues from other people's needs, not from my own plans." I had heard about "Bruce Almighty," that one of the things Jim Carrey's character did as "God" was to make his girlfriend's boobs bigger. From this, I thought, not the movie for me. But Monday, in my distress over "what is going on, am I on the right path in my life, etc, etc" and being at the chiropractor's office way too long, I had a heart to heart with the receptionist, who said "BA" changed the life of her husband and converted him to Christianity. Now that is a testimony I'll hear. Now I wanted to see this movie. Since "Evan Almighty" is currently in the theatres, there are all kinds of interviews with the director, who (I didn't know this) also directed "Liar, Liar," one of my favorite films. He sees laughter as a ministry and doesn't care who his audience is or if they take a bigger message from his movies. He does not see himself as a Christian director or one who makes religious films. Rather, he is a director who makes funny films, and he happens to be a Christian, so that oozes out. The man quoted Madeleine L'Engle!!

Madeleine L'Engle talks about this in her book Walking on Water—that you would think it would be our Christianity that affects our art, but it's more like our art affects our Christianity. We're storytellers, and by engaging in stories, you become more aware of the human condition, of the journey, of the challenges. And that affects our faith. So we don't target faith-based audiences, but we do think the faith-based audience will enjoy this film. (Tom Shadyac, in "Make 'em laugh," Christianity Today, 6/19/07)

Now, I adore ML'E, but if you're gonna be quoting her, by all means, quote my favorite of her non-fiction works, Walking on Water, a book that was given to me as I was learning what it meant to be a Christian, in my senior year of high school/freshman year of college. That art is bigger than me, that all good art is Christian, even if the artist is not, because art is about creation, and the great artist realizes that and has a connection to the divine.

Can it really be 5:09 am?

Yes, yes it is. Yikes. This insomnia has got to go!!

One of the things I love about this medium (blogging) is that I can do what I want, to a degree. I can break out of a post about today's lectionary and write about current movies and then quote a poem. No one is grading me on this, no one is paying me to stay on one topic.

So I'll end with this and then go do something about the gnawing that is in my stomach.

He drew a
circle that
shut me out--
Heretic, rebel,
a thing to
flout.
But Love and I
had the wit to
win
We drew a
circle that
took him in!

"Outwitted" by Edwin Markham.

I think I am the one drawing circles these days. Afraid that I will be shut out, I draw a circle that I can stand in alone. But again and again, people reach out to me, saying, come, be in the wider circle. For this I am grateful, and pleasantly surprised. I am afraid of being abandoned, and time and again, people break into my life and force me to see that they are not going away. Thank you, if you are one of those people.

*************

Happy Sunday. May your day be restful.

I, for my part, will be working my way through Harry Potter #7. I'm about 1/3 through. I've been enjoying this delicious weather and I intend to sit on the front porch with some iced tea and enjoy it some more.

Books and folksonomy n'at (updated)

Folksonomy: a way to tag things, usually used by Internet based social networks.

So, I've had three four invites for "friends" on Shelfari. Yes, I joined. But I JUST upgraded to a lifetime subscription at Library Thing, so I think Shelfari will sort of be like my MySpace page--a place where I can go to see what my friends are up to, but not something I participate in, per se. Because I really like LT.

And already I'm not crazy about it, b/c it won't let me add Gilead the book and Gilead the audio. But enough about Shelfari.

LIBRARY THING ROCKS!!


And that is where my energy saps out. I have been living the life of a woman who has been awakened at 6 a.m. (no alarm, no dog) (and while I realize all you moms are out there saying, "AND your point is?" My point: I have no husband, no children. Sleep is my one reward.) I want a nap by 9 a.m., which is generally when I need to be somewhere besides my bed. (Also, I'm in my PMS week, when I require more sleep but somehow can't get it. Gotta love those hormones!!)

*************

Saturday morning update: Shelfari does allow you to import LT files. I'll think about it. Shelfari is free b/c they get their $$ when you buy books through Amazon off their site. I'm not enamored. I'll keep yins posted.

Oh, and I slept, but forgot my bedtime meds. Oh joy. Today at work will be fun -- not! I have the option to work 10-6, since I told my boss I was going to the HP party. But I didn't, (I opted for sleep) and it's 7:15 a.m.--I think I'd rather go to work at the normal time and get off at 5. Not that I have plans for the evening, UNLESS NH Sally has finished HP 7 by then and lends me her copy. Which is most likely what will happen. And since I haven't read anything but emails or the Bible or blogs in a LONG time, I'm ready for a nice juicy tome. So. very. ready.

NH Sally did something very un-like her--but I won't tell you what until she reveals to the person it's for. But I am extremely proud of her going outside the box. (And it's SO MUCH FUN what she did.)

***********

Oh, and Hot Dog Day was a success. We couldn't have asked for better weather if we had picked it off a menu--a blue sky, it was not too hot...and I manned (womanned) the desk most of the morning so that everyone else could do the set up, but exactly when Bea came to relieve me, NH Sally was out there with her beautiful three children. I can't believe how tall her daughter is--she's more than half legs. And seeing my patrons grow up--Alli is now 12--she was 7 when I started at the library, and she's in the same class as Sally's oldest boy. Gosh, they would make the CUTEST couple. Not that I'm into matchmaking or anything, but THEY TOTALLY WOULD.

Okay, off to my morning walk, to get some of the jangles out of this body. I have no breakfast food in the house, but I NEVER go to Whole Foods on the weekend so I'll have to regroup on that one. (My general daily breakfast is Whole Foods brand organic blueberry waffles.)

Is July over yet???

Coming soon--Pictures!

Good walk. Downloaded all the pictures since I've been back (all 250...) and realized I AM a perfectionist. (I won't subject you to the leaf I photographed 12 times before I changed positions and got the picture I wanted.)

And other things: well, I just don't know. We're still talking. That is a good thing, as Martha would say.

rejiggering after the storm...

The other night we had a storm. Where I work, near Passavant Hospital in the North Hills, it only rained. In other parts of the North Hills, it stormed. But where I live, across the Allegheny river, in the East End, trees came down. As I got closer to my house, some houses were dark, some street lights were out, also some traffic lights. But on my street, the street lights were on, and most houses seemed to be lighted.

Now, after a storm, I don't have much rejiggering to do, as I don't have any digital clocks, as I don't wake up with an alarm. I have a clock in each room (I'm obsessed with what time it is unless I'm on vacation) but they are all on batteries. So the only clock that was messed up was my answering machine and it was messed up many storms ago. I haven't been able to figure it out so it matters not what day you call, or what time it is, the day will be wrong, and so will the time. So I will get a message that has the time stamp "Monday, eleven twenty one a.m." (That is the current time stamp, even though it is 7:23 a.m., Thursday.) I rely instead on my caller id to let me know when person A or person B left a message. Someday my sister will come back for a visit and she'll fix it, I'm sure.

The other thing that was messed up by the storm was the lamp in the hall that is on a timer. I tried to figure it out last night when I came back from my evening walk, but it was dark and I didn't have the patience for it. This morning when I woke up, I went downstairs to check something and the light was on. So I turned on the main hall light and figured out that the light's timer "thought" it was midnight. So I rejiggerd the timer to let the light know it was seven in the morning.

Sometimes after a storm, we need to be reset. I know I do. My inner clock is messed up. It was messed up by a recent storm, but like my answering machine, it really was messed up many storms ago.

Why else would I go out in the rain in my nightgown and house coat to see if someone's car was back, now that it's morning? (It's street cleaning day, so all the cars are parked on the other side of the street. I couldn't look out my window and see.)

I'm fretting.

I know I shouldn't.

But it's a long ingrained habit of mine, and habits don't go away overnight. I need someone to reset my clock.

I'm afraid, you see. Of being left behind. I have been, so many times before. Even if I'm the one doing the leaving, I still feel the loss. I didn't mean for anyone to leave anyone when we had our "storm" Sunday night. But like the capricious weather, other people can be unpredictable.

****

The sun is breaking through the trees. It doesn't seem to even be drizzling. Perhaps I'll go on my morning walk.

Another reason Sarah Louise is weird...

I'm crazy about TV show themes and lyrics. I liked the show Taxi because of Bob James' wonderful theme. (I know own the album, Touchdown, and love every track.) I loved WKRP in Cinncinati because of the wonderful lyric: "Got kinda tired of packing and unpacking,/Town to town, up and down the dial." Seriously, a good TV theme would get me to return week after week or day after day (in syndication.)

I mean, c'mon: "Love, exciting and new..."

So ever since they took Clifford's Puppy Days off the air, I have been hankering for the song. And today, I not only found it, but downloaded it to my site. Woo hoo!!

Today is Hot Dog Day. It's this HUGE event at our library. More on that later, maybe.

Wiki what?

Okay, so I'm having one of those nights at the library. Printer paper (clean) scattered on the floor as I flew by, on one occasion. We have had two SEPARATE incidents of children pooping (not on the potty.)

Children running, and no volunteer showed up. Plus, I'm usually on the desk with my boss but she had programs earlier in the day so I'm here ALONE.

Tomorrow is Hot Dog Day--pray it doesn't rain.

So I'm decompressing by going through links I put aside to someday blog on. Here's a cool site, wiki-how. You can learn how to make a house of cards, predict if you'll win the lottery, and restore an abandoned cementary.

Calgon take me away!! Well, at least I have a trip to Target planned when all this is over. To pay my bill and buy some unmentionables.

TTFN,

SL

Some shoe quotes

I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes. I had one thousand and sixty --Imelda Marcos

I'm not home, but my shoes are. Leave them a message. --Carrie Bradshaw's answering machine on Sex and the City

It's easier to put on slippers than to carpet the whole world. --Al Franken.

I still have my feet on the ground, I just wear better shoes. --Oprah

You want to fall in love with a shoe, go ahead. A shoe can't love you back, but, on the other hand, a shoe can't hurt you too deeply either. And there are so many nice looking shoes. --Allan Sherman

one more book...

And I just hit the 200 books in Library Thing, so I now have a lifetime membership. Woo hoo!

Create stuff n'at

So I made eggplant parmesan for the Second Sunday meal which was not last Sunday but the Sunday before. I had extra eggplant and a hunk of polenta. So I mixed some spices, cut up the polenta, mixed the eggplant with a can of diced 'maters, and layered.

Bottom layer: polenta circles.
Next layer: eggplant and 'maters
Next layer: parm cheese with the spices mixed in.

Then I broiled it for awhile. I think I'll have it for lunch or dinner. And then since it's one person here, I'll have it for awhile, unless I share, which I may do.

Depends on how it tastes, I haven't tasted it yet.

I came across a recipe for bath bombs which is less violent than it sounds. That Four Weeks Mag is pretty handy...

Helpful, not helpful...

Helpful: having lunch with librarians to talk about online registration and how it's working out, at MAD MEX, yum.

Not helpful: driving fast on back roads.

Not helpful: slamming doors.

Helpful: spending the afternoon at the Heinz History Museum in the glass exhibit.

Helpful?: buying miniature roses.

Probably helpful: doing my Beth Moore homework.

Somewhat helpful: talking to my girls.

Helpful: getting out of the house. I went to the Union Project for dinner and then to their "Health Fair" and learned about soy candles and other products.

Definately helpful: naps.

Unnnnnnnnhhhh. Off to try to do some Beth Moore homework...

A day in the sun...

Or the shade, as the case may be.

Read into what you will my last post. All is NOT well in wonderland, but I won't be blogging about that. Instead, I want to tell you about my day yesterday, which was such a day that I will hold in the pages of my heart.

First, when I awoke and turned on my email, my online devo finished up the book of Job. The point of Job not being that he ended up with twice of what he had before God smote him... (read below, from Words of Hope)

The narrator ends his story with a version of "They all lived happily
ever after." But that is not really the point. To conclude that
faithfulness always results in earthly rewards flies in the face of
experience and goes against the grain of what the book of Job is all
about. It's not about the goodies. It's about God, and God alone.
"Does Job fear God for nothing?" It turns out that he does.

Prayer: Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; nought be all else to me, save
that thou art. Thou my best thought, by day or by night, waking or
sleeping, thy presence my light.

Now, I take stock in when I hear or see the words of my favorite hymn. I first learned "Be Thou My Vision" in Vienna, (yes, Austria) when I was a sophomore in college. It was a hard summer--I was leaving Pittsburgh, transferring from Carlow College to the small school in Maryland I eventually graduated from. My parents were still living in Poland, so I was doing a lot of the legwork on my own. You might say I had to grow up fast. Well, and I did. But my parents offered me a gift: "Would you like to go to Vienna Summer School?" They had both gone when they were in college. YES! I would love to! So I spent a week with people my age traveling Europe, including Prague. Then I spent three weeks in Vienna, with weekends in Venice and Salzburg. The one weekend we were in Vienna, I insisted on going to church. So I found the English language church and some people from the program joined me.

The prelude was Schuman or Schubert, a violin solo. It was the most beautiful piece of music I have ever heard, and if I hear it again, I will leap for joy. (I never found out what it was.)

And one of the hymns was Be Thou My Vision. Which for many years I thought would be the processional in my wedding but then I came upon [German hymn, cannot remember it at the moment] which has a steadier walking beat. BTMV has sort of an irregular beat. (It is Irish Celtic, and the one I've since picked is German. Go figure.) (I'm finding the mental block fascinating, and strangely comforting.) (update at 11 pm: It's "Fairest Lord Jesus.")

That was the summer of D, who fits the profile of most of the men I've dated since (and bears a great resemblance to a certain fella.) A PPK (professor and preacher's kid), he was agnostic but brilliant. I tried to spend as much time with him as possible. We went to the art exhibits at Upper Belvedere--I had the sense that he had a girl back home, but we didn't talk about that. It was your quintessential "summer fling." For those three weeks in Vienna, it was us.

(Interesting tidbit--my father had the same sort of relationship with D's aunt when HE went to Vienna Summer School. D's aunt was engaged, and yet my dad and D's aunt spent the summer together, as friends.)

Converse to everything I say about what I keep or don't keep about former beaus (I generally get rid of everything), I still have the two letters D wrote me when I returned to my tiny college in Maryland. The second was a letter in which he told me he was getting married. I never wrote him again. But the letters, I cherish, as they are really the only "love letters" I ever recieved in the mail and D was very precious to me, for that period in my life.

Funny how writing takes you to places you never thought you'd return...so what I meant to write to you about was actually another song I learned, during the same period of my life. I think it was the next summer, the summer of my junior year of college, that I found an English speaking Christian fellowship in Warsaw. I was working at the Embassy, in the USAID office. Every Wednesday, I met with a group of people my age and we sang songs. I treasure that time, and many of those songs are songs that I have never sung with groups since.

One of them is this one:

You shall go out with joy
and be led forth in peace
and the mountains and the hills
shall break forth before you
there will be shouts of joy
and the trees of the field
shall clap
shall clap
their hands.
And the trees of the field will clap their hands (clap clap)
the trees of the field shall clap their hands (clap clap)
and the trees of the field shall clap their hands,
and you'll go out with joy.

I still remember walking down Dombrowskiego Street where my parents lived, the buildings pocked with what could have been WWII damage, and lined with WWII memorials which had fresh flowers daily. The year was 1991. It was summer, and light late, so I could take the tram anywhere. Off the tram I came, and walked to my parent's house, singing this song and clapping at the appropriate intervals.

The reason this song came back into my life was that on yesterday, this day of days, I accompanied Mr. FF to the church where he plays piano as a summer substitute. And we had to go early so he could attend a meeting to plan music for an upcoming picnic/worship service. And I was invited in on the meeting. Two of my suggestions, The Trees of the Field (see above) and Shine Jesus Shine, were added to the mix. It was glorious, to be welcomed in so quickly by these people, and included in the creative process.

Stay tuned, for more of "The day that I will treasure."

(Which in some ways resembled Lucy's experience in "While You Were Sleeping" -- the family welcomed her in. It was not FF's family, but the family that has taken him in at this lovely country church, but we were treated as family, and I was brought into the fold as if I'd been there for years.)

Then the time came when the risk it took To remain tight in a bud was more painful Than the risk it took to blossom."--Anais Nin

I am working things out in my mind and heart with fear and trembling. These are the words I comfort and challenge myself with:

When I grow tired of my students, as I always do--
staring at their faces till my sockets burn,
I remember one girl told me
how she followed a boyfriend home--
found him in tears--
He rocked on the bed,
screamed at her to Get away.
So she turned off his light
and closed the door,
and sat on his floor till morning.

When I think of this girl speaking in her gentle voice with its rough edges
I think of how teaching is like crouching sleepless
in a darkened room refusing to get up
knowing nothing will come of this,
--or only a story, maybe.

(anon, from Small Victories by Samuel G. Freedman)

**************

The Dare

Come walk the alley fence
Come tight-rope like a clown
Before Dad sees we're up too high
and shouts to get us down.

As confident as cats
We'll glide across the top
Hoping Mom doesn't look outside
And order us to stop.

We'll maybe lose our nerve
We'll maybe crash and fall
They'll probably shake their heads and say
"This doesn't make a bit of sense!
We warned you girls just yesterday!"
And send you home and make me stay.
But still--I dare you anyway,
To walk the alley fence.

--Ann R. Blaksler

********************

“What do you do when there’s nothing you can do,” Gram said. “I dunno, I do something else,” Dicey said. (Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt)

********************

Keep walking right through the hard things to where you can see Me. Leave the past behind and look up to me above all anxiety and grayness. I've already risen above them and am about to show you a new day. You'll find out who you are as you face the pain and help other people through it. And intimacy comes when you quit running from the truth about yourself and decide to turn loose...and walk into the future with Me. (the narrator here is God, as written by Keith Miller.)

****************

Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons by Diane Wakoski (snippets. It's a super long poem, but it's worth printing out and reading the whole thing--go to the link.)

The relief of putting your fingers on the keyboard,

as if you were walking on the beach

and found a diamond

as big as a shoe;

***

Love is a man

with a mustache

gently holding me every night,

always being there when I need to touch him;

he could not know the painfully loud

music from the past that

his loving stops from pounding, banging,

battering through my brain,

which does its best to destroy the precarious gray matter when I

am alone;

he does not hear Mrs. Hillhouse’s canary singing for me,

liking the sound of my lesson this week,

telling me,

confirming what my teacher says,

that I have a gift for the piano

few of her other pupils had.

When I touch the man

I love,

I want to thank my mother for giving me

piano lessons

all those years,

keeping the memory of Beethoven,

a deaf tortured man,

in mind;

of the beauty that can come

from even an ugly

past.

Diane Wakoski, “Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons” from Emerald Ice: Selected Poems 1962-1987. Copyright ¦copy; 1988 by Diane Wakoski. Reprinted
with the permission of David R. Godine/Black Sparrow Press, www.blacksparrowbooks.com/titles/wakoski.htm.

All shall be well, and all shall be well, an all manner of things shall be well. (Dame Julian of Norwich)

Sleep deprived blogger...

I'm off to bed. More later.

Not really a post, just a link...

Publisher's Weekly "Book Maven" Blog that asks for suggestions for Post-Potter reading. The librarians in Madison Wisconsin give a list at least a mile long. You got to give them credit.

And here's a fun look at how thick books are, and how to determine which book to clear from your shelf to make room for HP #7.

Nancy Pearl (of the Librarian action figure) recommends some Summer Reading for kids on NPR.

Percolating and doing stuff n'at...

It is a be-gorgeous morning here in Highland Park. Soon I'll post a picture of the bench they put up in memorial of the Italian Ice guy. It is shiny! It is new! It has Italian flag color ribbons! It has his name on it!

I finished the Steering Team questionnaire. Then I called North Hills Sally who gave me the low down on the HP movie. In exchange for her shark (a mini vaccuum) she's feeding me lunch. I may vacuum before then! It would be a mini-miracle!

I have the thing to do my car registration in my purse! To check my mileage! NH Sally says they won't come make sure, but I want it to be accurate, n'at.

I called a congressman and a senator!! To ask them to support Internet Radio!! Because it's really in danger!! (The other senator's line was busy both times I tried....) If you click on the link, you put in your zip code and they give you all the phone numbers to call! It's super EASY!!

I bought prizes for the Smackdown on Saturday! (First time I got to do that! I spent $40 at Target and $10 at the Dollar Store.) And I figured out how to work things! And I have a helper!

So, I guess I'll go vacuum...

You know I am a bear with little brain when...

I spend my lunch in my office reading blogs. (and by office, I mean the non-cube farm I share with 5 other people who just happen to not be here today.)

And then, because someone commented on Jenny's blogiversary with the whole Monica/Chandler planeversary thing, I searched that.

[Monica has just given Chandler tix to Vegas for their anniversary] (thanks to Friends Café for the script)
Monica: For this weekend! Oh gosh, it would be perfect, we get to see Joey plus we get to start our anniversary celebration on the plane. We can call it out plane-aversary.
Chandler: Do we have to?
Monica: No.
Chandler: Okay this is great, but Joey said he didn't want any of us out there.
Monica: Oh, he just doesn't want us to go through any trouble. Think of how excited he'll be when we go out and surprise him! Plus we get to have our own, ani-Vegas-ary! A-Nevadaversary!
Chandler: Yeah, I think we should see other people.
Monica: But we can go, right?
Chandler: Yes.
Monica: Okay!

I just adore Monica when she gets all goofy like this.

Does anyone want to fly to Pittsburgh to help me with this Mother/Child thing? Let's see, tonight I have Bible Study, tomorrow morning I have to finish the questionairre for the Steering team for the OD, then go to work, then Friday I have to work, then Friday night I'm going to see Harry Potta!! Then Saturday, work, AND the Mother/Child thing, then a wedding after work. Yeah, and I need to get the bride and groom their gift. Which might not happen this week since I only got the invite on Tuesday.

Oh, and then next week I'm doing a storytime, plus it's Hot Dog Day at the library on Wednesday...I'm going bonkers.......................................................................I have 9 minutes left of lunch. Mayhap I'll go do something exciting like see if it's still raining outside.

I should be sleeping or something...

My mind is running around with the following thoughts:

• What is Harry's fate in Book 7?
• What will it be like to see Emily -- we haven't spoken since we had a strong conversation (read: fight) in November, but she'll be back in town Saturday so we may get together sometime after that.
  
• When will I finally go online and renew my registration for my car?
• When will the white coral bells ring?*
• Did Al Gore announce his bid for presidency? I saw a car with three (yes three) Al Gore for President 2008 bumper stickers. One said something about "it's a climate for change."
• When should Kelly and I plan our trip to Sandcastle?
• How the heck should I do the Mother/Child Smackdown thing? (I have a few ideas on this now, though)

And the answer comes through, from Lady Julian of Norwich: All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
________
*White coral bells upon a slender stalk,
Lillies of the valley 'deck my garden walk!
Oh don't you wish that you could hear them ring?
That will happen only when the fairies sing! (Mother Goose, traditional)

The charmed life, or Sarah Louise goes bonkers...

So have I told you lately that I love you?

You, my place of employ? My boss did not bat an eyelash when I emailed her today to say that although it wasn't on the work calendar, I would be working on renovating a house during the day tomorrow.

You, Sally North Hills? Who fed me leftover spaghetti and smoozed the evening away--I did go in to work for about an hour which is all my pea brain could stand. I still have no clue how I'm administering the quiz component of the book quiz* on Saturday, but I have enough questions--about 30 per team if no other teams show up. (I now have four teams.) Sally fed me two plates of venison spaghetti, veggies (of course--cuz she's a mama) and we even picked raspberries in her backyard. Plus, she lent me long jeans for the work site since I don't have a pair that fits right now (I've been wearing my J. Jill capri jeans since before Montana--I seriously need to do some laundry.) And I helped her unload and load the dishwasher and lounged on her bed while she folded laundry...I feel SO relaxed right now, I could go to bed.

Which I should, as I'll be at a work site tomorrow at 7:30 (yes, a.m.).

Oh, and did I mention that one of the weddings that I thought I wasn't invited to, the bride merely forgot to mail my invitation and was actually wondering WHY I hadn't responded yet--oops! So on top of everything else, I have a wedding on Saturday. So this week is jam-packed!! (But with nice things. And I will go to the reception for this wedding, as I have eschewed them all summer.) (Which it feels nice to feel that a wedding reception won't be a soul carving experience--I suppose it still could-might, but I'm feeling okay about things right now, and if I can hold onto that until Saturday...)

The invitation thing reminds me of the time on "Friends" when Joey convinced Monica to invite his parents to her wedding and had her call them up to personally invite them. "Tell them it got lost at the post office--they hate the post office. Oh, and the Irish." So, Monica gets on and says, "It must have gotten lost in the mail--U.S. Post office, they should call it the U.S. Lost office! What are they, Irish?"

Well, it's ten, I am going to get ready and hit the hay.

___________
*Officially the Mother-Child Smackdown.

I'm not procrastinating, I'm letting things percolate...

Geez, do kids these days even know what a percolator is? I used to love watching the coffee percolate in the knob at the top.

So, things I'm percolating:

• Nomination essay for Steering Team at the OD. Ack! What are my gifts?
• Pictures to Walgreens from Yellowstone n'at.
• Changing the computer from Me to XP
• Cleaning the Abyss (my walk in closet which by walk in I mean you can't walk in it anymore)
• The laundry problem
• Posting and writing about The Family Vackay to Montana

I will report I am mostly up to date with dishes, and my pile of items for Goodwill is growing.

Last night I made Eggplant Parmigian* (I won't spell it, I won't!) and folks must have liked it, because there wasn't any left!

Oh, and this week I have to finish working on the Mother/Child thing. Cuz it's on Saturday!! I need to finish my questions, get prizes, and and and I always think that my week starts on Monday. In Children's, it starts on Wednesday. So maybe I'll go in tonight for a few hours. Yes, on my day off, but I have to see where I am, because I have a feeling if I wait until Wednesday, I'll have a meltdown on Thursday. We do not want that.

Oh, and Tuesday I'm helping fix up a house. Oh, and because it's summer, Tuesday night I will be in Children's. So maybe I don't need to go in today.

I think I need breakfast.

Lucky me, it's Entamanns (and yes, I know that's spelled wrong too!!)

Today's agenda:

• breakfast
• therapy
• do the Walgreens photo thing
• have lunch with Mr. FF
• percolate (see above)
• probably some laundry

Have I thoroughly bored you yet?

________
* On the second Sunday, our church has dinner. We are all pretty good cooks.

Sweet William strikes again...

Billy Joel has not succeeded at life, you say. I agree. He is a bit of a tormented soul.

But when I'm sitting here, browsing the New York Times most emailed list and realizing how much I am like my father (emailing apropos articles to friends), an instrumental of "Just the way you are" comes on my radio station.

And I stopped, stock still, and put my feet up on the side of my desk, and listened, filling in the words.

Don't go trying some new fashion
Don't change the color of your hair
You always have my unspoken passion

Looking at the lyrics, I realize it's Mr. Roger's song "It's You I like" for grown-ups.

And thinking theologically, I open my Women's Devotional Bible (NIV) at Psalm 139. "You hem me in -- behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me... (vs. 5)

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful (AND I'M ONE OF THEM, is the silent shout.) (vs. 13-16)

A little call and response for this Sunday morning.

It's you I like,
It's not the things you wear,
It's not the way you do your hair--

As my friend from high school Scott would say, Good morning.

All this time...

...I've been wanting to be my mother. Married at 26, first child at 28. Or at least married by 28. (That was my original goal.)

Those anniversaries passed.

...so then I wanted to be my grandmother, married in Brazil, divorced and then married to my grandfather at 36, had my mother when she was 40 (And that was in the 1940s!).

I'll be 36 in less than six months...

...then I thought, I'll be Aunt Margaret, who eloped with Uncle Ed when she was 50 and after he died, she was a rich widow and endowed my mom and aunt with trips to summer camp, magazine subscriptions, and the like.

And I've resented my sister, who is shocked that at 25 she is not married. I think, she better not get married before me--the whole Rachel/Leah story, the "fairy tale" oldest daughter must marry first syndrome.

And I've made a game of counting: pregnant women, engaged women, newlywed women. They are all around.

But I forgot someone in this mix: Me.

What do I want? And what is life handing me? And what will I do with the mix? More importantly, how do I love where I am and love where they are at the same time?

Inevitably, I will turn the dial on the radio and catch the end of Rascal Flatts singing "God Bless the Broken Road (that led me straight to you.)"

Inevitably, I realize I am glad to be single in this moment. To be childless. To be Auntie Sarah Louise.

It feels good to be happy in my skin. And it feels good to stretch my legs and walk. It feels good to be ME.

When I was seventeen, it was a very bad year. When I was twenty four and twenty five, too. When I was twenty eight, I was learning how to live with psych meds and weekly therapy sessions. And then there was the drought. But now I'm thirty five. And I am glad to be alive. To have a job I love most days. To have a garret I adore. To have a trusty twelve year old car (that's paid for!).

And so I'm in no rush. Which feels absolutely wonderful (and absolutely foreign and scary, too.)

************

If you went to see Ratatoille (I cannot spell it, I refuse!) and are in the mood for another culinary delight, watch Mostly Martha (it's in German, so mind the subtitles.) The American remake is coming out this summer--I think it's called No Reservations with the chick that married Michael Douglas. (Catherine Zeta-Jones.) (Warning: it is a chick flick, and you will probably want your trusty Kleenex box nearby.) (But it's good crying.)

I'm tired. I'm going to bed. Perchance to dream, and SLEEP. And to wake up tomorrow. N'at.

Where have all the young memes gone? Gone to bloggers, every one, oh when will they ever learn, oh when will they ever learn?

So it's eight random things. (On 7/7/7.) Paula tagged me. I may have done this one but hey, I'm sure I can come up with eight MORE random things--I'm a pretty random kind of gal.

1. I really like flip flops. I have a flip flop magnet on my desk at work. I wear flip flop sandals all summer if I can get away with it.


2. I like glass paperweights. I have one at my desk and two in my shower. (You asked for random!)




3. My friend Marian the Librarian has a thing for pink flamingos. I sort of do too, but whenever I find something, I buy it for her because I don't need more things. (And if you believe that, I have some ocean front property in Arizona...) Also, I like buying things for other people.


4. I really think the Dewey Decimal System and the Cutter Charts are cool.


5. (Can you tell I'm at work?)


6. Besides pink, my other favorite color is green, and not just any green. It's like watermelon yowsa green that's been pretty popular in fashion the past six years or so. My Liquid Paper on my desk has a lid that color (to the right, that striped thing is the edge of my flip flop magnet)


7. Two more to go!! I love taking pictures of spiderwebs. Hmm, maybe you knew that. Well, deal with it!
   


8. Last one!! And then I go off to eat my dinner. (This is using up the first 15 min of my dinner half-hour.) For dinner I'm having eggplant parmesan that was half of my mom's dinner last night at Gullifties.

And, according to the rules, I have to tag eight bloggers. Paula knows I twist rules, especially in memes, but this time, I will go with the flow. But first, dinner.

1. Kiki, my dear cousin.
   
2. Erin, of the Biscottis n'at
3. Babelbabe, who has three boys, two cats, and one dog (and wishes for chickens)
4. Eileen, who introduced me to Taco Loco, one of my FAVORITE restaurants.
   
5. Alyssa, who just posted vackay pix! (We were gone the same week)
   
6. Katy, who lives in Chicago. She went to CMU eons ago. She knits.
   
7. Jenny, who cross stitches...but that's not her main gig.
   
8. Sneeky, who lives in Hawaii... (but don't worry, she has problems too.)
   

And if any of yins have done this already, I bet you can come up with 8 more--for little ol' me!!

Oh, and a tidbit: Mr. FF & SL are in a mutual admiration club. He's really funny, makes me laugh. That is all.

It's FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just felt like having a shout.

In which Sarah Louise eschews thoughts of her vacation in favor of talking about books...

Yes, I promise more vackay pics to come. But as I am at work, manning (womanning) the Summer Reading desk, I thought it more apropos to write about books.

Kids books I am loving:

Ramona and her mother (Beverly Cleary). I somehow read most of B. Cleary but never Ramona! This year my intent was to do Ramona's World for the Mother Daughter book club, since it starts at the beginning of fourth grade (and the MD club is for fourth and fifth grade girls) but somehow I transposed the titles and so all the publicity went out saying Ramona Forever, where Ramona is in third grade and a flower girl in a wedding. Ramona is soon becoming one of my favorite literary heroines.

I just finished Ramona and her Mother, where Ramona wants to be her "mother's girl." It's one of the books for the Mother Child Smackdown, which seemed like a good idea--a quiz show format highlighting 8 books, but now it's like those 8 books are all I'm allowed to read until I come up with enough questions...

The chapter books:
Sarah Plain and Tall by Patty MacLachlan
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers (the audio is FANTASTIC)
Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay (I'm actually getting tired of this wonderful book. It truly is wonderful.)
Ramona and her mother (see above)
The School Story by Andrew Clements (LOVE LOVE this book. Clements is a master. Haven't read Frindle yet, it's next on my list.)

The picture books:
A Chair for my mother by Vera B. Williams
My mama had a dancing heart by Libba M. Gray
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey.

I have decided to not do "quiz" questions for My mama had a dancing heart as it would ruin the book, kind of like when I had to do vocabulary words for A Wrinkle in Time in 7th grade. I couldn't read AWIT for seven years after that soul carving experience.

So far I have three teams signed up. I need to get prizes together n'at. It's a good challenge but I won't really know if it's worth it until after all is said and done, next Saturday (which happens to also be Bastille Day.)

**************

In other news, we (the rents and moi) went to see the movie Paris J'te Aime--WOW! It seemed a little longer than two hours, it was hard to keep track of how many vignettes we'd seen, but they were all wonderful (well, Elijah Wood as vampire was my least favorite). I especially loved the last one, in which the American mail carrier fell in love with Paris. It reminded me of Carrie's love affair with New York City and how New York is the fifth character in "Sex and the City."

MTC,

Sarah Louise

Time to start thinking about Christmas...

Yes, it's July. Have you made your list and checked it twice?

Yes, according to Women's Wall Street, it's time to think about who and how much and all that. But I prefer chickens. Chickens will take you out of any dark mood. So, from Savage Chickens, here it is, The Christmas Carol.

In other news, the parents will be in town today. So I'll pick them up in Moon Twp. and vacuum my car at the free car vacuum (more on this later) and we'll do stuff, like go see a movie about Paris. (My dad wanted to see Waitress, but um, movies don't stay around that long in this town.)

Happy Fourth, to all my readers in the USA. And for the rest, here's a super corny joke:

Do they have Fourth of July in Australia? Yep, it comes right after July third and right before July fifth.

May the fourth be with you, n'at.

Summertime and the living is easy...

Fish are jumping...

I go back to work today. Yes, folks, the vacation is over, time to face the job of being a children's librarian. Slog, slog...wait, I have tomorrow off?

God Bless those Founding Fathers, that's all I can say.

I thought I'd give you a vackay pic. More will come, I promise. This is the kind of picture I take, but you knew that. This is at Lake Missoula, Flathead Lake outside Big Arm, Montana.



We had just gone on a boat ride to "Wild Horse Island." More on that later. But Sis, observant that she is, saw this and knew it would be my kind of picture. When I snapped it, she crowed, "I knew it!"

Re-entry is....

Babs was like, but was it a good vacation? Yes. And I promise tales AND PICTURES galore. But I still need to whine.

I'm in the laundry room flipping a load and this is my soundtrack, a la WJAS (America's Favorite Nostalgia Station):

Yesterday (as in a cover of the Beatles song)
I remember things we used to do (like walking in the park)
I love you Bill (won't you marry me?) AT WHICH POINT I turned the station to anything else. I do believe Satan knew my weak point and was playing the Devil's Radio--isn't that a George Harrison song?

It is, as exemplified by the link. So I'll throw you a bone--on my vacation, the news was EVERYWHERE. I try to avoid it--since 9/11, I have a higher sensitivity. And Fox News, which is what most places seemed to deem the best source, is the worst in yellow journalism. Oh, except for CNN, which had the Paris Hilton interview, then the analysis of the PH interview, and then Larry King came on to talk about the PH interview??? As Sis would say, "Build a bridge and get over it."

Also, this week, we lost an American Icon--Liz Claiborne died on Tuesday. She was 78. I have an eagle eye (unfortunately not for eagles--my sister spotted most of them) for Liz items and inevitably 90% of what I pull off the rack at Red White and Blue or Goodwill is Liz. My sister's suitcase is Liz, so we had a moment of silence for Liz, maker of wonderful clothes and suitcases.

On this vacation, I had the chance to look at my life, which right now is pretty sweet. While Sis can't believe she's 25 and still ringless, I have discovered that after (too) many train wrecks, I am fine to live for today. I'm not ruling out companionship, and I do wish I could start the grandchildren process for my parents yesterday (although I have no desire to have children by myself so it's sort of a science fiction/fantasy situation), but a ring on any finger is not going to solve any of my problems. It will create more. I will be happy one day, I hope, to have such problems. Oh, just nod and smile. Sarah Louise is just venting.

I saw a wolf. No one else saw it. I was sitting in the front seat and we were driving by and I saw it. It was a gray wolf. We couldn't stop. Somehow I'm glad that we didn't get a picture--that no one else saw it--what is it the Native Americans thought about cameras? That they would steal their souls? I had that sense--we weren't shooting buffalo with rifles or killing sheep, but we had to get a picture. The wolf will live in my memory.

This day has been a wash (literally--two loads of laundry and I may later wash the car) so I'm off to the cinema. I'll let you know if Ratituouille (I'm not spelling it!!) is good and what for what ages.

Buh-bye, n'at

Warning: vacations can be hazardous to your health!

It's true! I went for my twice a month chiro appt this morning and I didn't need HIM to tell me I was tight. So I'm going back on Friday.

It was great last night at the OD to talk to all my friends who heartily agreed that "family vacation" is a bit of an oxymoron. I am grateful for my married men friends who talk to me--my life is so female oriented and it's just nice to talk to a guy. (We talked about family vacations--don't go getting ideas!!)

Lily and I went out for subs after church. She's moving, probably to Dormont. Which means her calling me on Sundays at 5:30 and saying "come get me for church?" are going to be a thing of the past--wah! I am so grateful for her friendship, though. She's older and wiser but able to ask for advice and I find I'm able to give some good advice!

While I was gone, some birds really pooped on my car (sorry about the TMI). So sometime this afternoon, when it gets HOT (it's still in the 60s here) I'll be at the car wash.

Kelly just called. "Give yourself grace" is her best advice on everything. Deep breaths.

So, don't get me wrong--I had a lot of fun on my vacation and I will tell you about it, but right now I need to decompress and do some "re-entry." Of course my stupid hormones aren't helping--I had Day Two on Day Four which coincided nicely with two delayed planes and a layover of less than 20 minutes. Instead of arriving in Pittsburgh International Airport around 11:30, we arrived around 12:30, and finally got into bed by 1:30 (there was a mix-up with the first hotel room.) Which then caused me to miss my bedtime meds so I woke up ringing. (My body was not happy. I don't know how else to explain it.)

This is my mantra, I need to memorize it: "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)

(Of course my online devo right now is starting into Job, where the whole point is that we are here for God's glory, not the other way around, and God may allow us to go through crap and a half and more to prove to us and him (and to Satan) that we love him for him, not for the rewards.)

Oy vey. Time to take a shower. Then off to the therapist.

I just want to do some laundry!!!!!!!!!

Miracles happen in the garret--it's true!

NO JOKE! I have unpacked:

1. my suitcase and sorted out the dirty from the clean laundry.
2. my carryon bag
3. the duffle bag I took to visit Mama in March.
   

Now, not everything is put away, but this is HUGE process for Ms. Procrastination, me!

I have started sorting pictures. Sis and I shared my digi camera on the trip. Al(most) all of her pictures are of landscapes and animals. Mine...well, they're on a smaller scale and rarely of livestock or wildlife. I won't be posting many of hers (one buffalo looks like the next, one mountain range...) (don't tell my family I said that...) but a few will show up here and there. We took about 200, and I think it is cruel and unusual to post ALL, but let's just say you'll be getting pictures again after a long drought.

I'm slowly learning how to work with Picasa.

AND Sis fixed the clock in my car, Hallelujah!

Off to the OD--church, yay!!

Wait a minute, where is the chocolate I bought for the ladies at work? I should have found it upon unpacking...

Welcome back, Sarah Louise!

I'm back!

More to come. Sis is here and we are downloading pix--I didn't have to reinstall my camera software after all (which is a good thing--the disc seems to be missing...)

Today will be just rest. Tomorrow, some doctor appts, unpack (unless I get ambitious today) and Tuesday, back to work. I have lots to tell, but you'll just have to be patient...

Hugs,

SL

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

(John Denver)

...I hate to wake you up to say goodbye...

In one or two minutes Sis's alarm will go off. And then we'll be scrambling for showers and last minute additions to our suitcases (at least I will.)

The whole 3 oz. of liquid thing is such a pain!!

But for this last minute, I am free to write. This may be my last post for a week--or not. Both Dad and Sis have wireless enabled laptops.

Yes, I'll take lots of pictures. And I have Flat Stanley with me, I'll take a picture with him too (our library is posting pictures of FS for Summer Reading.)

Yesterday I visited Minnie. She's my Italian neighbor, about 80 years old. She's pretty much homebound. I try to visit her but I more than often forget. But I had miniature roses that I bought for myself when I was at Whole Foods--sometimes a girl just needs roses (pink of course) and the minis are like 4.99 a bunch. Anyways, they were still lovely and I wanted someone to enjoy them. So I took them to Minnie.

She is a dear heart. She is the only person I know where our conversations are almost only about "how is your family doing?" So I told her how Sis was on her way, and she remembered that the trip to Montana was for my dad's 65th. It was nice to not have to talk about work, and for once she didn't ask me (as she almost always does) to give the litany of who lives on the other floors of our house.

Last night I dreamt my car was stolen. I checked an online dream dictionary and a stolen car means a loss of identity. Hmmm...maybe I really need this vacation, to clear my head of work, and....other things. I also dreamed that the guy I crushed on (not the most recent one, a different one) someone told me he liked me. Oh, that's mature. Whatever!!

I will be taking the Mother/Child books with me to continue to think up questions. But I think my family will help me, and since Sis loved both Blueberries for Sal and Ramona and her Mother...

I think I'd better check on that alarm. Duquesne Light says: 7:36, current temp 57 degrees F.

Ciao!

Remember this one: Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Sum-sum-summertime!

Yes, I'm procrastinating again. But only to share the best in chicken cartoons.

"And if you can't commit to something big, then commit to something small." (Merle Shain)

from When Lovers are Friends.

I hate packing. You must know that by now. The thought of being away from my garret for a whole week--I don't relish it. So I procrastinate. Because the big job of packing for a week seems way too big.

I've started eating lunch and sometimes breakfast in my big black chair which resides in the front room. Two bookcases flank the chair, so inevitably I spend my meal flipping through a book. Today I'm especially "off" as I missed my bedtime meds last night. (Yesterday was a marathon day.) So I've been doing small things. And I've been procrastinating. I'lll do a load of laundry, but when I bring it upstairs, I don't fold it right away. I'll do a load of dishes...you get the idea.

So I flopped into the big black chair a bit ago and was soaking in some music on WORD-FM. And to reach my water glass, I had to peek around a large book and what did I find but Merle Shain's classic. In the passage above the quote I cited in the title, she tells the story of Sisyphus in a way that redeems him. He was banished by Zeus to an island where there was nothing to do, and was going crazy. But then,

one day he took it into his head to push a big rock up the mountain on the island, and all day he labored with the big rock, pushing it and pushing it in the hot sun, until at night, with the top of the hill almost in sight, he finally gave up and let the rock roll down the hill again.

...

...though he never reached the top of the mountain with his rock, when they finally found him he was sane, just as sane as he'd ever been.

So, though sometimes it DOES matter what you do, sometimes it just matters that you do SOMETHING. That you commit to something, and see it through. So I folded laundry. And I finally took my shower. Then Sis called and said she was almost at Breezewood. So now, I'm off, to find the next small thing to commit to.

other things I'm processing right now: Simple Way fire

If you know who Shane Claiborne is, you know that the Simple Way is a community he helped build in Philadelphia. Which had a 7 alarm fire Wednesday morning.

Here are some links. Please consider helping them out.

The Simple Way
(their website)

Tony Campolo's site: donate here.

More info:

Christianity Today

bobbie posted this YouTube back in March.

'nuff said.

The Bird Sisters, Together, Forever!

Let's see...one sister* fell asleep at 8 pm and slept until 6 am.

The other one called at 9:30 pm and was still in bed at 8 am. (The one who has to drive to Pittsburgh)

Oh yeah, we're ready to go to Montana!!

MTC,

SL

*That means I have a lot of packing and cleaning to do...

"What I've learned is that if you live long enough, then the things you want most in life will wait for you."

(Veronica Chambers, in The joy of doing things badly)

Today I returned two DVD items unwatched to the library: Freaks & Geeks Vol. 1, and Volver. I never caught F&G when it was on TV and I really enjoy Almodovar's movies (I remember in college watching Women on the Verge of a Breakdown...). But I must off to vacation and there are people who have holds on these items.

I have to trust that when my time to watch them comes around, I'll be able to get my hands on them. As a librarian, I live with the books. So I want to read all of them, RIGHT NOW. I get greedy and add tons of items to my holds list and then when they come, I don't have time to read them. Librarything has been useful for that--I have an entire category devoted to TBR (To Be Read). Instead of putting them on hold, I open my LT account. (Of course, as a WorldCat user, I'm tempted to join their thing-y too, but I don't know anyone else doing it, and most folks I know are using LT. But the WorldCat thing-y already gives you a "tbr"-like designation, which is nice.) (Of course, I can't find that particular aspect now and have wasted time searching the WorldCat site...)

There's a Jorge Luis Borges quote: "I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." Before I worked at a place where all the books are free and I don't incur fines and there are so many books, I lived by the philosophy that in heaven, all the books I didn't have time to read on earth would be waiting for me. I'm trying to grow up that idea--that the right books will find me, and I find them, and the rest I'll trust Babelbabe to read. (The woman is a reading machine!)

And I've always gone by the philosophy that like the philosophy that says "life is too short to wear uncomfortable shoes," life is too short to read boring books. There is always another book waiting in the wings.

I haven't yet decided which books will go with me on my trip West. Well, the picture books for my Picturebook Picnic on July 5th, copies of my mother/child smackdown books (which, btw, I now have 3 teams!!!) But other than that...

Hopefully Sis and I will have time to watch Mostly Martha, a German movie which is being remade and released in the US this summer as No Reservations.

I'm thinking Eat Cake will go with me, esp. since I haven't read it since February.

Back to writing questions for the M/C smackdown...

Friday's child is loving and giving...(even though it's still technically Thursday)

So my parents finally called--they thought I might call them. Um, they are on vacation, a different time zone and this is the craziest time of my work year? Yeah, I think I'll wait for them to call me, thankyouverymuch.

This is one of those very boring posts, but I'm too tired to care.

Still working down the list. (Which seems to be growing--is that possible??)

Got caught in torrential downpour this afternoon whilst doing errands. (Happy Solstice!)

Both bosses (and possibly our director) are either at or en route to the American Library Association Conference in DC.

I'm going to sleep. I am EXHAUSTED. Sis seems to be feeling better, though still tired. In the packing/laundry race, she's winning. But I have tomorrow evening and all of Saturday morning to do that--although t-shirts need time to dry...I'll do laundry Friday night. Um, and compete with my housemate, Ms Second Floor.

I gotta go to bed. I can't process all this.

Oh, and I seriously need my sister to come and fix all my electrionics. The clock in my car is still in Daylights Savings Time, my answering machine thinks that it's Monday 6:48 am, and my computer, well, there's no help for that. (Although I just checked and it's not too far off. Earlier this week it was like a half hour off and I went bonkers.)

Must. go. to. bed.

Buh-bye.

I promise at least one more interesting post before I leave you to search my archives whilst I frolick in Montana for a week.

Thursday's child has far to go...

No kidding!

So Caro posted pictures of her kitchen, which is what MY kitchen looks like, wasn't that nice of here? Esp since my camera and computer don't like each other right now, YES I know I should just reinstall the software, but have you seen my to do list? Software is the LOWEST priority right now.

I slept ten hours last night!! Oh, and this is what I wanted to tell you: We now have over 1200 kids signed up for Summer Reading Club.

EGAD! And that's not even 10% of the kids in our service area--we need branches!!

That is all. Off to wash hair, then dishes. IF I have time, I'll throw a load of t-shirts. Doubtful though. I need a wife...

Oh, and if you're the praying type, say a prayer for Sis, who has the flu. Yes, she's driving to Pgh on Saturday...

I'm going crazy, wanna come??

Wednesday's child is full of woe...

Well, I was a Sunday's child, but this week has already driven me to want to drink...heavily.

Let's see, we had two engagements on Friday, plus a wedding. (But one of those "engagements" was swimming, so...) Saturday, work. I came home and tried to watch Volver, but I was too tired to keep up with the subtitles. (And I used to be FLUENT in Spanish.) Sunday was a delight--a day at the Frick. Monday--four doctors which included a dentist. Tuesday (was that only yesterday?) I made reservations, I called in prescriptions, I forgot to call someone, I talked to friends and friends, and I got a book from Babelbabe. (Footprints of a Pilgrim--the poetry and life of Ruth Bell Graham) Plus, it rained and stopped raining and then poured and then just rained.

And that's just the hightlights (well, maybe you can pick out some lowlights...)

Observation: the audio to the book Freaky Friday is AMAZING!
Observation: it feels so good to reunite with old friends.
Observation: yahoo! mail is often slow. NH Sally sent me an email around 7 last night and I didn't get it until 7 this morning!! (when it was too late, as she is on her way to Michigan) I'm considering switching all my email over to gmail. (let's see, right now I have two Gmails, one work email, and one Yahoo!...four email addresses is better than some folks I know.)
Observation: I LOVE the book Babs got me.

Here's a quote from Ruth Bell Graham that I have always loved. It certainly is true of my parent's marriage: "If two people agree on everything...one of them is unnecessary."

Today the sky is blue. Not a cloud in sight. Who will buy this wonderful morning? (from Oliver! the only musical I actually performed in.) (in which I actually performed??)

Must go to work.

Moments in librarianship (another in a series)

(This conversation has been abridged)

Boy 1: I'm looking for a book

Sarah Louise (thinking in her head, well, you came to the right place!) What's the book called?

Boy 1: Final Strike.

Sarah Louise (silent, as she looks up book, doesn't find it in catalog, searches Amazon.) What's the author's name?

Boy 1: Erik Ngoobly gook. He spells it with a K.

Sarah Louise: (not finding it, trying to buy time) Strike, as in (pretends to swing a bat)?

Boy 1: Yeah.

Sarah Louise: Final Strike, by Pendleton? (She turns the computer screen so Boy 1 can see the cover on Amazon.)

Boy 1: No.

Sarah Louise: (still not finding anything.) Spell the author's name, please.

Boy 1: N-y-l-u-n-d.

Sarah Louise (to herself, Eric, with a C?) (finds author, but not book in question, though there is a book called First Strike.) I'm sorry, it's not in our system. (looks again in Amazon, but Eric with a c is very prolific.)

AFTER ABOUT FIVE MINUTES OF THIS:

Boy 1: I found it on the computer back there (points to catalog opac).

*************

The rest is too painful and it would take too long to transcribe. The book he was looking for was FIRST Strike. My boss, who sat there the entire time I was going through this arduous process, later agreed with my thinking that if there was a book called First Strike, there MIGHT be one called Final Strike. (Otherwise, it would have been a MUCH shorter reference interview.)

Oh, and when I finally found it on the patron-view of our catalog, I clearly read the words "Checked out." Boy 1 resisted at first putting it on hold (typical male teen behavior, but Boy 2 handed over a library card.) Was I ever glad when they stepped away from my desk!!!!!

By the way, Boy 2 was wearing a shirt with a tear in the front. How did he get out of the house like that?

Live blogging the vacation preparation...

So we have the "Stay n Go" room booked at La Quinta. They don't take discounts for that particular package, but it means we can leave my sister's car at the hotel for a week, which saves us long term parking etc. etc. so we'll take it. (Stay n Go: you drive to the hotel, leave your car, take a shuttle to the airport, fly away, vacation or whatever, come back, stay one night, and have a lovely continental breakfast.)

It's raining outside. I hope all my car windows are shut. (I usually leave them a crack in the summer) (Live blogging indeed--I just ran down, double checked--they were shut but I got my umbrella out of the car.)

Most of the pills are ready except for the ones that are waiting at the pharmacy.

This has been the morning of phone calls--Sis has a cold and wanted advice on whether or not to stay home. I had a chance to reconnect a long lost friend. (Grin!) Also, I had to make all the phone calls--La Quinta was the only one that didn't put me on hold, so guess what, they got my business! Then I had to call Dad to let him know I had the reservation, which entailed first calling home, getting sick Sis, then calling Dad's cell, leaving a message, and then talking to him as he beeped in whilst I was leaving one of those long messages where you'd really rather be talking to the person...

I finally connected with Kelly (I left messages, she left messages...) She is going through a tough time--it's the whole "the boys are home for the summer," plus other stuff and her anxiety levels are through the ceiling. We prayed, which helped I think.

And now it's noon and I have to get dressed, eat lunch, and go off to be Madam Librarian.

Oh, I know. I told Dad the suitcase was open and I had my bathing suit in. "Well you've got the essentials then!" He then quipped that if I was going to Rio, that would be all I needed. Oh Rio. I'll blog about that day sometime...I don't think I have already.

The rain has stopped.

And so I go.

ACK!! (and some lovely sassafrass leaves)

spoon

fork

mitten

******************

Paula always does it up nice with pictures, and I haven't posted any since my camera decided it didn't want to communicate with my computer. But now that I have Picasa (not that I know how to use it to post pictures) I can at least see my pictures, not just the lined up folders. So here are some pictures from last summer. Maybe posting these will make me feel like I can move forward, take a walk, eat something, and continue working on

• packing
• booking the airport motel for our return at 11:30pm on July 30
• packing

Nope, I still want to sit on the couch and eat bon bons. Well, it was worth a shot...

Have you seen/heard this guy yet????

Blackbird was the one who introduced me to this guy, but I just got to hear the whole thing on the radio (with color commentary by Jack Bogut--now the audience is standing, now the judges are sitting up in their chairs, etc. etc.)

How do you know Sarah Louise is tired?

When she clicks on blog after blog, reads, but does not comment.

• Four doctors appointments in one day, check!
• One crown inserted, teeth cleaned for another six months, no cavities, check!
• Started looking at airport motel deals, check!
• Started the refill process so as to begin the pill packing, check!

Going crazy, wanna come? Check, and check!

You can pull all you like, and have it your way, but this door is pretty stubborn...

(seen on a door marked "PUSH" at Burger King.)

I had to laugh. I went to ALDI to get frozen waffles for breakfast, but when they were all out and my stomach was clearly saying "feed me!" (Feed me, Seymour, feed me!) I went across the highway to BK. I got one of their breakfast croissants, and sat reading The joy of doing things badly by Veronica Chambers. On the other side of the divider were tables full of retired old men, doing what they do best, passing the time with a cup of Senior Coffee.

I'm pretty stubborn too. I've been on my own for a long time now, and I know what makes me happy and what makes me mad.

Things that make me happy:

• Looking at paintings and drawings at the Frick, with someone else. I never look that closely when I'm by myself, figuring out the stories the pictures show, counting the flies in the Dutch still lifes.
• Grilled cheese sandwiches. I've had them twice this week.
  
• Singing. Listening to songs. Tapping my fingers to the beat.
  
• My friends--all of a sudden they have bloomed out of every corner, like the honeysuckle about a week ago.
  
• Seeing groundhogs (this morning, one) or possoms (last week, one) when I clearly live smack dab in the confines of the City of Pittsburgh.
• Seeing a wild turkey cross the road with her turklings (what are they called?) on the way to work one day last week.
  

Things that make me mad (or just annoyed):

• Remembering how I stayed with men who wanted too much, too soon.
  
• That economics still defines how we live our lives.
  
• That I have to pack pills and call in refills for a trip that is in less than seven days.
• That I have to spend my day going from doctor to doctor.
  
• That I left a vinyl record (duh!) in my car on a hot day and it's warped now, so I'll have to pay for its replacement.
  
• That I second guess my spelling. (Is that really it's or is it its?)
• That I really have to get on with my day. My list for today (not counting the remaining three doctor's appts, I've already been to see the chiropractor) is over ten items long.
  

I took a walk this morning, when I woke up at 7:30, wondering what my life is going to be these days. As a jogger passed me on the right, I had a flash of Téa Leoni in Spanglish, and all of a sudden, of how she fought for her marriage by not panicking when her husband stayed out late, the night he spent at the restaurant with Paz Vega.

Gotta go. Have to cross something off the list before I'm on the road again...

"Thank you for making this occasion necessary" (Yogi Bera)

Happy Father's Day! Google has done up one of their doodles again. It's early -- well, not really, but I've only been awake for a half hour and so my voice had frogs in it when I wished Pa a happy day.

Father's Day grew out of some lady hearing a Mother's Day sermon. So she worked to get a day for Dads. Father's Day is also the highest netting "retail holiday" besides Christmas. It makes sense -- for Valentine's, most folks buy chocolate, for Mother's Day you can get away with a dishtowel, but dear old dad invariably gets golf clubs* or at least a coffee table book on Augusta.* (And those go for like $40 a pop) (pop, get it...) Also, Dads aren't as good at that thing Moms always do, "pshaw, I don't need a thing." Erin over at Biscotti Brain has a great idea if you're shopping for "the man who has everything and then some" or you just want to make your gift more meaningful.

Speaking of golf*, Pittsburgh is (I speak on behalf of the city) pleased as punch to be hosting the US Open at Oakmont.*

*This is the one and probably only time you'll EVER hear me talk about golf more than once in a post or in a post EVER, so I had to cram it all in.

(About the quote: my dad is forever quoting Yogi Bera--yours too? This year he has amended his usual, "You were the one that made me a Daddy" to something like "I wouldn't have been a Daddy so soon if it weren't for you." I think the first one is more literary, but real people resist editing, and surely he has his reasons for changing his tagline -- maybe that he has two other lovely children... I love you Daddy!)

signed,

His #1.

Ruth Bell Graham, 1920-2007

I can't absorb this right now, but what a woman she was. Now that the Billy Graham library has been dedicated, and Ruth has died, I don't doubt Billy will be too far behind her.

Today I opened my package from Amazon: Johnny Cash reading the New Testament. I look forward to listening to it.

For her epitaph, she wanted it to read: "End of construction: thank you for your patience."

The Summer of 97: Walks, Dollar movies, and Highland Park: or Sarah Louise and the best things in life (and Pittsburgh) are free

Last summer, Loretta instituted List Fridays. They sort of died out, but I'm all for bringing them back. (I'd link her, but her site is taking like five minutes to load today...)

So it's truly bizarre to think that Toot and Puddle is ten years old. Wow. But it gives me a milestone, as Mr. Ten Years Ago was the one who convinced me it was a great book.

The summer of ninety-seven, he was studying for the qualifying exams for his Ph.D. We had broken up in April, but we were back together by July 4th, and there it was: he had no time (he was studying for the exams) and no cash (he was studying for the exams).

It was the best summer ever.

We had a standing Saturday or Sunday "date" which was often just a walk around Highland Park. We were pretty boring--We'd walk up Jackson, maybe go around the reservoir, and down Highland Avenue. None of this "which way shall we go?" which I personally find very fun.

Every once in a while we'd go see a dollar movie. I think we went to see whichever Batman movie was out.

So, honor of the best summer ever (and Mr. Ten Years Ago, who is happily married and the father of a son) here's another Sarah Louise List.

Free or almost free things to do in Pittsburgh in the summer.

1. Take a walk in Highland Park. Optional: take a penny, and make it a "Penny Walk." At every intersection you drop a penny, and heads is right, tails is left. (I read about it in a book once.)

2. The Three Rivers Arts Festival. I haven't been in YEARS, and this is the last weekend. Maybe Saturday night. (I have the wedding Friday.) Just checked the schedule and Ricky Lee Jones is playing at 6! I suppose if I drove straight from work... well, special guest Lohio--that usually means "opening act," huh. So I could drive home, take the bus down...

3. The Frick Art Museum. Now, I myself love the Carnegie. But if you drive, you have to pay for parking AND a ticket in to the museum. Plus, they took my favorite painting down years ago. The Frick Art Museum is a sweet little art museum with a permanent collection and traveling exhibits.

4. Bach, Beethoven, and Brunch--Mellon Park Rose Garden. Sundays, 10:30 to noon, starting June 17 through August 12. I've never been, because, well, church is Sunday morning. But, hey, I go to church in the evening, so maybe I'll try this out.

5. Cinema in the Park. I love going to Flagstaff. But you can go to movies seven days a week, check it out!

Now, of course, this weekend is Father's Day, but that sort of was off my radar, since we're doing the whole "Celebrate Dad's Birthday and go to Montana" trip. His birthday is the 20th, so in my mind, Father's Day always gets smushed into Dad's Birthday. It's Friday and I still don't have a card for dear old Dad. But hey, it's 8:30 am and I still don't have a gift for the wedding at 5:30! Last month for J&A's wedding, I worked at the library in the morning, ran to Target, perused J&A's registry, found some wrapping paper, and a card. At the register, I confessed that the wedding was a scant hour and a half away. The cashier gave me some grace. "If it weren't for the last minute, I'd never get anything done." Yep, that's me. K&C are registered at Bed Bath and Beyond, so I'll head over to Waterworks this morning.

I guess I'll get on that. Later Babs and I are going SWIMMING! Lunch is with a high school friend who is a prof at CMU.

Chickens!!

I love this guy!

Sarah Louise writes about libraries n'at

Well, every once in a while, I visit the library blogs. It's like once in a very blue moon, but today being what it is -- CRAZY, I am sitting at the desk and I can justify not working on my upcoming programs since I've done that all day, piecemeal in between desk duty.

So what do the librarian bloggers have to say? First I went to Feel Good Librarian. I luff her. She is so customer oriented and nice and, well, feel good-y. She doesn't post too often, so I rarely get the pleasure of three posts I haven't read when I click on her link.

Then I went to the Doyenne of Librarian Blogs, Librarian.net, Jessamyn West's blog. She has a great post on Social Networking, with an accompanying five slides. I love her last sentence:

"A lot of the print materials I’ve come across err on the side of caution which is not a bad idea but often there’s no “Hey you really SHOULD try this” counterpoint. I hope I was able to offer that somewhat."

Since JW is the one who pushed me in the direction of blogging, I commented, of course.

Tasha, over at Kids Lit is one of the first "kids librarian bloggers" I found. I don't visit her as often as I used to, but this past week (or was it last?) I sat and left her a ton of comments. She's a reviewer, so often gets books before we do. She recently reviewed I'm the biggest thing in the ocean, which I had flipped through the other day and loved. I commented, of course.

Fuse #8 Productions posts almost every day and long and I can't keep up. But she linked to a post from Fugly about Hermione (Emma Granger) which linked to a post about Rupert Grint getting a Howler about what he wore to the HP Premiere.

Click, your time is up. Okay, another day, another dollar.

tap tap, is this thing on?

I GIVE UP! It's a very cool You Tube that shows women in art through the ages.


*I tried like ten times, plus Blogger help, the thing won't embed. And I've done this before, so I don't know wassup. ARGH. But I have things to do, bills to pay, etc. etc.

************
This comes to you from You Tube via Kousin Kiki. ENJOY!

Ummm...it's the emperor's clothes post. Better click on the link in the post below.

Girlfriends are the best!

So the wicked insomnia gave me 6.5 hours of sleep. Yuk. And of course then my moods were all wonked and no one was home, but one of my friends with caller ID called me back and we talked for like two hours. So all my plans of paying the bills, GOING TO THE POST OFFICE, are naught. But I needed that girl time. SO BADLY.

And now it's time to get ready for work!

But first, take a visit to Kiki's for a fabulous You-Tube. I can't figure how to embed it (I know how, but they seem to have changed how you do it...anyways, this is the coolest thing I've seen.)

Off to check Dewey numbers, then help children sign up for Summer Reading...the glam life of a librarian, I'm telling ya.

Yes, it's insomnia

Thanks for asking. I think I'll go brush my teeth now. Do you think this fits me today at all (I've just gone and commented on at least 4 blogs...)

Today's hormone-cast: You're super-talkative today thanks to high chat-loving estrogen and testosterone. And what a perfect day for gabbing away! These high hormones are improving your memory, so you're recalling lots of five syllable words you thought you'd never use again. Plus, you're more eloquent this week than any other week of your cycle, making your verbal stumbles few and far between!

Labels, neighbors, tomatoes, n'at (or SL rambles on and on and on and on...)

There are days where I am label conscious. (You too?)

I fret that Blogger X and Blogger Y don't have me on their blogroll (when there are tons of folks that are still not on mine).* Why isn't Blogger A and Blogger Z commenting? It's always great to discover I'm not the only one that has these thoughts...

I count pregnant women (today I discovered two more--so the count is up to 13!). It bothers me that I'm 35 and haven't started on my family. I hear stories about women who are "older" and so it's really important to get pregnant now and think, GAH, will I be like that too? I want three, but as I woke up this morning, I thought, I don't care if they each have purple, green and yellow hair. I do not want my biology to be my destiny. (Someone remind me of this every once and awhile, please!)

And then (sometimes the same day) I think, WHO CARES?? Our blood is all red. We all cry when we're sad, we all get rejected, we all laugh. We are all someone's daughter, someone's son. So what if I'm never a grandma (as the tear starts at the corner of my eye contemplating that...) There are kids that will always remember that I'm Sarah Louise and that I will read them books or take them for ice cream...

There are some women who will never know that I keep myself well-heeled in J. Jill and Ann Taylor Loft by shopping at Goodwill. There are some women who will never know I'm a half year from turning 36. (I love it when men think I'm under 28!)

Then there are the friends who squeal when I say, I got them at Goodwill...

While standing in line at Tazza, the woman ahead of me was wearing an eyelet blouse, white earrings, and Dolce & Gabana sunglasses. I often will compliment someone on their earrings to start a conversation while in line. But she was unapproachable.

Now, it is possible that she is the nicest person, she just puts on her New York face when she's out. (New Yorkers have a way of not looking at each other when they walk the sidewalks.)

I'm nowhere near to a three floor house, three bouncing boys, a ten year marriage. At 35, I'm still as free as the 25 year olds I often have coffee with.

Can you sense I'm trying to say something but I can't get it out?

Maybe I'm just trying to say (again and again, as I attempt to live every day) is that I'm glad.
Glad that I have an eye for fashion at $5. Glad that I can afford to eat out three times a week (even if it means picking something for lunch that will mete leftovers for dinner). Glad that I can go home and sleep forever. (Darn that sunshine that woke me up at 7 am, though!)

Last week I lived through a storm. It was a tempest in a teapot and mostly my own insecurities playing out on my own inner canvas. But it's Sunday again, my day for whatever, and as I sit here, my wet hair dripping down my neck, I think, I will live through worse. I have lived through worse.

So, I'm getting ready to assemble my ingredients for Sarah Louise's Strata, I think, ahhhh. It's the first day of a new week, and all my worries about my girlfriends and the men in (or out) of my life don't matter. Just keep the conversation going.

Over and out. I'll catch ya on the flip side. I have no predictions about blogging (or life) this week.

Except, remind me that I need to post about The Joy of Doing things Badly.

_______________________________________________________________
*and what's up with that anyway? Is the blogroll the new status symbol of "these are MY friends"?

In Vino Veritas...

You are Chardonnay

You Are Chardonnay

Fresh, spirited, and classic - you have many facets to your personality. You can be sweet and light. Or deep and complex. You have a little bit of something to offer everyone... no wonder you're so popular. Approachable and never smug, you are easy to get to know (and love!). Deep down you are: Dependable and modest Your partying style: Understated and polite Your company is enjoyed best with: Cold or wild meat

What Kind of Wine Are You?

Hmmm...I got this from Badger. I don't drink much wine, but I guess this is an accurate description. Off to Walgreens and then Tazza (for my Sunday sandwich). Have a great day off!

(Tomorrow at the library starts Summer Reading Club...so this, today, is my weekend. BUT I get Friday off, and I'm going to be a lady that either coffees or lunches and then dips in the POOL!!)

Sarah Louise takes a break to read her non-work emails...

Found this interesting blog entry about friendship.

Well, I didn't have anything on that topic, so I went another way...

(Phoebe Buffet, from Friends)

So in the interest of writing about things OTHER than my social life or angst, I offer this: a blog post from Venice. (No, I'm not in Venice--would that be so!, but a blogger for the NYT is.)

Read on, dearies.

I may rant on the other blog later today.

Oh, and this just in: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is now on Thursdays. My Mary Kay consultant emailed me. I missed it, but I can watch it online at nbc.com.