Come see me (sort of) in NOLA

This is just a quick post to remind you that I'am blogging the conference over at LKNOLA. I know there is some way I could use RSS to make those posts appear here/in your aggregator. But I am not going to figure that out any time soon--sorry! Meanwhile, here's a pretty picture of Lake Pontchartrain at sunset, which I saw yesterday. Forgot the camera, of course!

Good times will roulez!

Wow. I cannot begin to describe my feelings about the support you are all offering. I am beginning to feel like a bit of a fraud. Then I remember that weird other person in my body last week. The one who couldn't log onto Millenium by herself, and had great difficulty finding reference? I tried being a librarian who hands out p slips with Dewey numbers from the desk and points. So not me, plus I was getting to a point where I couldn't write down a Dewey number, or hazard a guess past Dewey century! I am at the best of times challenged by numbers, but this was dyslexia on crack. Hope I don't meet that awful librarian again soon!

Some of my regular customers were so sweet when I went in for four hours yesterday. I didn't think they would even notice, as I was only out for a week, and I often feel part of the furniture/equipment. I have to hold on to the knowledge that the customers do notice and care. Cynicism just comes so easy. The cockles of my heart are just toasting!

It is my plan to attend the Leslie Burger Blogger Bash on Saturday night (but not the scholarship bash). Last year's was so much fun. I am sad that Alane won't be there, that Eric won't be filling my wineglass, and the Steven and I will not drunkenly discuss thick books this year, but I am sure hoping to connect with a few particular people? there.

I have confirmed with ALA accessibility that I can have a pushchair for the Convention Center. I wonder if I can find a Blogger button. No, decorating the chair is not a good use of time/effort! I am afraid that my swag greed will be on steroids, too. No, will not use wheelchair as swag ferry! Though we do need more teen summer reading prizes...If you are at the Blogger Bash, I'll be the ornery one with the cane!

Truth and consequences

Warning: this post was not outlined or structured in advance. It contains messy thoughts and feelings, and some startling (at least to me) news. It is not an outright sympathy ploy. I am feeling better than I have in months! But I do feel a need to share, and apparently my blather hasn't completely turned you all off (yet, that is).

Well, last week, I started having double vision, and if I ever heard AC/DC again in this life, it was too soon. By Sunday, I was getting terrified. I consulted my handy home copy of Merck Manual. Its conclusions were that I needed to go to an emergency room immediately. I did not like that advice one bit. [OMG. All this and I am sticking in a serial record.] So I emailed my primary care physician and asked her if I should go to urgent care. That was Sunday afternoon. So then I tried to distract myself from the idea of brain cancer, mad cow, neuro-syphillus, myasthenia gravis, and all the other ideas Merck gave me. I know medical reference goes that way, really. But I couldn't stop. Plus I could not read at all by evening.

Long story short: admitted to hospital, many many tests, Around 10:00 p.m. Monday, the ER neurologist came to tell me I have MS. I spiralled all over Kubler-Ross and really chewed out anyone in earshot. Terrorized the residents--they scattered! They had never seen an angry librarian I guess.

Some time Tuesday, when the drugs kicked in and my vision began returning (no, I will not be spending the rest of my life in a nursing home listening to audio books!), I started thinking. I thought about requesting the MacBook so I could blog the experience. I do scare myself. Of course, I have concerns beyond the professional, but by Wednesday I was asking if I could still go to ALA Annual next Friday.

I am going to New Orleans, albeit with a cane. Plus Boyfriend will be there with me, and will help me to keep the pace sedate. I am wondering what it will be like not to jam in every possible session at ALA. Maybe better?

The picture up top was sent to me by Boyfriend's friend, J.M. J.M. recently flew his two-person plane from San Diego to New Orleans, where he lives. We will be seeing J.M. next weekend, and maybe going for an aerial tour--how's that for cool?

This is a shot from a camera phone from inside the plane near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico--literally a town named after a game show. I think the photo is awesome. J.M. stops every 300 or so miles to refuel his plane. That's based on how much fuel he can carry safely. So he stops in at little airfields, camps out over night, talks to other pilots and passengers. It is not about speed.

I have been driving a Toyota Prius hybrid car since last October. I really like the fuel efficiency of course; that's why I bought it. But I also enjoy it's quietness. It doesn't idle. It doesn't pollute much. It is small and nimble and turns on a dime.



I have been thinking/planning/plotting my big bad librarianness for years. I have always been pretty competitive. I actually bore civilians with my circ stats, talk about authority files in public, and thought I would eventually be running the show somewhere in some corner of libraryland. I wanted bigger, stronger, faster, larger. Now I am thinking to see what I can get out of librarianship on a small tank of fuel. I have been having a grand time at my little branch in San Diego. Things have been going swimmingly on the work front while my body was burning violins and haystacks and whatever to get my attention the last few months.

I am not thinking about this just on the basis of my personal situation. It is so easy in this business to want more. More budget, more materials, more staff, more space, more respect. Yadda yadda. I am not saying I want to give my customers less, of course. But maybe we can walk a little lighter, listen a bit more? I am not exactly sure, but it is something I am going to ponder.

Duck, duck, goose

OK, another post about the ducks. Also goslings, this time. I will get over them soon, really. On Thursday we had a very special pre-shool story hour at my library, which included a nature walk. It surpassed fun. We walked along the lake with a park ranger. She brought binoculars for the kids. We all clambered along in stroller brigade. The ranger pointed out ducklings, goslings, and a red-winged blackbird. Also, an egret nest. If you look hard, you can see an egret, I think. To make this biblioblather, here's a link to Make Way For Ducklings.

Ducklings a l'orange, but no egretlings

Sometimes it's life that is stranger than fiction, or even the "nonfiction" 133s.

Ducklings hatched under my office window this week. Way beat when pigeons hatched on my apartment windowsill in Hell's Kitchen. I did not kill the pigeonlings before or after they hatched. So I was not a real New Yorker. The ducklings are very twee. They actually follow mama duck down to the lake for a dip and back. Almost makes me want to set the staff digicam to video. What a misuse of the taxpayers' money! Bad bad librarian.

I am a bit cheesed about the egrets. Approximately twenty egrets are nesting in the trees between my libe and the parking lot. You probably are unaware of the noise and mess of nesting snowy egrets. Just take my word for it--mess and noise times ten. So I said ok, I won't park anywhere near you guys for months. In return, I get to see egretlings, right? Wrong. So far, no egretlings.

Guess what?!? I am typing this on my brand new shiny black (that's right) MacBook. First order of business, charging battery. Second, connecting to DSL wireless. Third, Firefox, with search engine plugs for IMDB, Wikipedia, and Dictionary.com. Have to keep looking for the Worldcat one--couldn't find. Wait, it's in this blog (somewhere) and in my del.icio.us--with gmail, LISNews, Bloglines, and Blogger as my home page tags! Oh happy happy joy joy. Pig in ordure. All it took was money, patience, planning. OK, fourth thing is to finish this post! Well, with a brief pause to find th Open World Cat search plugin. Cannot resist such goodness, plus am lazy.

Back to this post! I read THE BEST BOOK, Julie & Julia [365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen], when I was sick last week! I laughed until I wept. It's kind of a strange book. I am not one to browse 641.5092 for fun. But Divya recommended. I understand that Mme. Child was not a big fan, but the breadth of the effort. I have engaged in some maniacal Christmas cookie baking in some hellish NYC apartment kitchens. I mean, I can talk at length about the importance of counterspace, and I dragged my KitchenAid mixer (<3 <3) 3,000 miles even though it weighs a ton and eats an acre of countertop. I have baked every day for roughly 21 days in a row, and I have baked all night more than once. But my mania is contiguous with Advent, a short, sweet season. The idea of engaging in 365 days of far more challenging recipes than Chocolate Crinkles, Pinwheels, or the dread Pecan Tassies. Aspics! Cold-blooded mobster-style lobster murder. Boning a duck in one piece. It would have beggared my imagination, but Julie Powell took me along for the ride, fueled by gimlets, friends, and a truly loving spouse.

Mind you, Julie is not welcome anywhere near my libe's ducklings!