A Challenge to Myself

Here is a dress I used to wear to work. Classic black dress. This was during my marathon-Nike Town--Hash--Diamond-Head-Friday-Night-Running days. I've come a long way since then.
Here is me wearing this dress today.

Hmmm...don't quite think it would fly at work. What do you think? Yes, I have come a long way. A long way through the drive-through lane of about every fast food joint that you can imagine.
Here is a dress I bought on uber sale.

It is several sizes up from the Classic Black. I will call it Platinum Pretty.
Here is me wearing the Platinum Pretty.

A little bit better in the front.
But here is the back.

Hmmm. Not quite ready to walk out the door with this one, either.
But I will be. I plan to wear this dress to the Holiday Tea I host in December.
I have 4 months to inch the zipper up about twelve inches. Wish me luck!! And what every you do, if we go out to eat, don't let me eat too much.

Stories from around the World

The Summer Reading theme this year for kids is One World Many Stories. When we were planning the programming, I decided I wanted to do a storytelling program. I have been interested in storytelling for a while and during the last Mother Daughter Tea, I flexed my skills with stories about my mother. When you are the boss, I guess you can call the shots, so I chose a date and added it to the children's programming schedule. In May it seemed so long in the future. Gradually the idea bloomed and I decided I would tell 3 stories from 3 different countries. Since Estonia has a special place in my heart for stories telling that was a given. Also, Japan was automatically included, not only because I lived in Japan but also because this week's programming revolves around Japan. That left one more country. I thought about a Cinderella story of some sort and explored that for a while, but then I ran across the book Forty Fortunes by Aaron Shepard. I thought it was such a charming story, I decided that this is my third story. Then I decided to put together a Powerpoint presentation with some cultural notes and images from each country. I also added a few words in each language. Ok, I was almost ready to tell the stories: The Old Traveler from Estonia, The Crane Wife from Japan, and Forty Fortunes from Iran.
Then last night, I got a bit panicky that I would make a fool of myself. What ever was I thinking. But I calmed myself, went over the stories in my head and remembered that all I needed to do was to envision the story and tell what I see in my head. Stories have a natural progress and repetition.
Last night I thought Oh I should take the kids on a magic carpet ride, I could take my rug that I bought at Goodwill last month that my dining room table is sitting on top of. And I could wear my haori, that would make me look a bit special, I need to get into character. --yes, black tights, black shirt, black haori, and my heels--that will give me confidence.
So this morning, I dressed and rolled up the carpet, then I had the idea of taking my flameless candles and their containers--all Goodwill purchases as well. When I was getting dressed this morning, I was deciding on my jewelry when I happened upon a round cystal barrette. Oh, maybe I'll put this in my hair. Oh, something streaming from it would look exotic. I know, I have some wired ribbon. So I ended up making myself something of a facinator with ribbon and my barrette.
I came to work, and began to set up the room, I set up a table with the computer, added a bird nest wreath to cover up the computer, added the flameless candles and some other flowers, dimmed the lights and set up a CD playing new age music. I was ready for my storytelling adventure.
I practiced unfurling the carpet, it worked like a charm--that is until I did it for the program. Instead of rolling out, it thudded to the floor still half rolled up. I kicked the carpet all the way out, sat on the carpet told the kids to shut their eyes and repeat after me: By the light of day, by the moon at night, let us hear stories of magic and delight. We were off. Only a few little mix ups, I couldn't remember what my not-a-fortune-teller-fortune-teller was actually eating. I said, He took a fig, a prune,...a date?, yes, a date at one point.

The Camino de Santiago

I don't quite know when I decided I want to walk the Camino de Santiago--a 500 mile pilgrimage trail from Saint Jean de Pied in France to the Santiago de Compestela Cathedral in Spain--but I would assume that at least the germ of the desire began during my Sophomore year at O-State when I wrote a paper on how the pilgrimage kept Spain European during the 700 year Moorish occupation of Spain. Quite a long time for an idea to germinate if you ask me. But I guess the full blown desire to walk the route has been with me for about 7 years now. I don't know when I will be able to fullfill the desire--there are some complicated praticalities involved such as bills, job, cat care, etc. I would need at least 30 days to do the walk and probably at least 5 days to travel and recover. Let's just go with the sufficient amount of time bibicle number of 40 days. That is not an easy amount of time to just take off from my everday life. If I get a different job, then I could do the pilgrimage between the two jobs--but then timing is a factor there since the route crosses the Pyranees and much of it is at higher elevations winter includes ice and snow. I have no desire to walk 20-30 miles a day in the freezing cold. Part of me wonders why I want to walk 20-30 miles a day in any weather but I think that it best not to explore that. If I ever get on the route, I will have ample time explore this train of thought. So in the mean time let's just say that I want to do it suffice.

This month, I have chosen The Camino by Shirley Macclaine as the selection. I wanted to do a Camino book, but I was unsure about Shirely. I hadn't read any of her books, but the reputation alone made me wonder if my book club people would respond to her. But we only had enough copies of The Camino for a book club so I opted for this title. Last week, I started the book and right away I began to question my choice when on her first day the Angel Ariel gives her advice. Trippy. And it continues to get trippier and trippier all the way to the end. But my real complaint is that about 65% of the book is about the visions she has on the trail, 10% is about get accosted by photographers, leaving only about 25% of the book about the trail itself. So I felt really short changed. I decided I would approach next month's book club slightly differently, rather than read one book and discuss it, I would order what ever copies of other books about the Camino and we could discuss the topic and how it was broached in each of the books.

Can't Believe It Has Been So Long

We are in the midst of Summer Reading which is one of our busier times of the year. I have been co-subbing for the Teen Summer Reading Programs. So far we have done African Masks, Tin Can Lanterns, Retro Stuffies, and Yoga and Smoothies x 2. We have a core group of teens that are waiting at the door when we get started. K-chan won't be back until the fall--and I sincerely hope she misses adult conversations by that time and feels that she can part from the twins for 10 hours a day.
I will be losing my Ref Librarian sometime in the near future. He has interviewed for a Manager position and it seems that they are only waiting for other things to fall in place before announcements are made. C has been a real asset to me. But he is ready to go and he will do well. I have raised him well.
I told my supervisor that they need to get me another good one and I would be pleased to train them up for promotion as well. We will see how far that goes. With the hiring freeze, I don't know what they will be able to do.
I don't quite know why I have been avoiding writing on this. I guess, I have just been another funk. Will I ever get out of them? I found out that I really am allergic to cats. I have been telling my mom for years that I thought I might be, because everytime I go visit I feel like the fur is bothering me. I went to the eye doctor and he said that my eyes were extremely angry. He showed me the handy dandy visuals of what a normal eye looks like and then pointed to what mine looked like. Hmmm. Not good. So I am taking eye drops in the morning.
I decided that the reason I was having such a big interaction when I went to the eye doctor was because I have had the apartment closed up with the AC on and I haven't vacuumed in a while. So yesterday I spent all day cleaning up cat hair. While I was getting all the hair off the bed--one of their favorite hang outs, I felt like a bunch of sand had been thrown into my eyes--confirmation for the theory. I swear I got an entire small trash bag full of hair out of the place. Right now I have the balcony door open. As a result my eyes look less angry today. But I will be using the drops for a while, I think.
Must go vacuum again before I have to get ready for work. I am obsessed now!!

Sick Kitty Again

At 6:00 this morning Misha woke me up meowing. He usually nuzzles me with a loud purr. No purr just insistent meowing. I got out of bed and stepped in diarrhea. "Oh, no Sasha." I run to the bathroom, pull off my pajama bottoms which got soiled, grab some Kleenexes, clean up the mess, then back to the bathroom for the pet stain remover all the time calling Sasha. I pull on shorts--with images of finding s very ill Sasha running through my head and feeling the need to be decent when I run out of the apartment to the emergency clinic.
I run to the living room, no Sasha. Misha is under the chair looking very worried. I am not sure if it was worry for Sasha or worry that his human mom was suddenly acting like a maniac. I go back into the bedroom and under their window stool, I find Sasha acting very quiet. We sit with each other for a bit and then he gets a cramp and low rider runs into the living room. Not much with this one. Seems like he emptied his system. I spray pet stain remover on the new spot, go back and clean the stuff before.
I get out his pipe cleaner and notice that he is perky enough to play. I decide to go on the Internet to see what I should do. This isn't the first time on the Internet with this for him. I run through my head and remember that he ate some cheese the other night--maybe that was the problem. Well, I didn't really give him the cheese as much as he took the cheese. I stopped giving them cheese after the first bout because I suspected that his tummy could no longer handle the lactose. So it seems that this also might have been the case. At any rate, the Internet says that if the diarrhea lasts for more than 24 hours then take him to the vet.
So far over an hour without incident. I can only hope that I don't have shell out another God knows how much. Sasha tells me to say that he is fine now and there is no need to get the carrier out, needles, prods or anything else. He just needs his tummy rubbed, ears scratched and a little bit more playtime with the pipe cleaner, that's all.

Madder Tea and Trivia at Lee's

I started the day off yesterday at Walmart picking up Scotch removeble hangers for the meeting room at the Canyon Country Library. There isn't a hanging system installed and since I wanted to hang garlands and pictures on the walls, I opted for the Scotch solution--what a fabulous time we live in! Ten years ago I would have been out of luck.
I headed for Canyon Country Library, spent about an hour and a half putting up the wall decorations, then I had luch at Baja Fresh. The manager remembered me from the many lunches that I had there when I was manager of the library. He is such a friendly guy.
After lunch I headed for the Goodwill to do my normal checking to see if there were any bargains to be had. Indeed there was. I got the final piece of art for my apartment. It has three French shops. I don't think it is a real oil. I think that it has been scanned onto canvas and then touched up with oil to give it some texture and dimension. When I was checking out one of the customers, oohed and aahed over it, lamenting that she missed it. She even took phone photos of it so that she could show her artist mother what she missed.
The tea party was a success. People always seems to say that I should become an event planner and that I missed my calling. I enjoy it as a hobby and I always get nice satisfying compliments that make me feel good. When you do it as a job and people are paying for it, they tend to be picky and sometimes they get very testy. I wouldn't want to walk into the landmine profession of event planning at all.
In the evening I walked over the Lee's Wine Bar, they have trivia night there on Tuesday's. A couple of weeks ago I stumbled on it when I had the odd Tuesday off. I usually work late on Tuesday, so it wasn't an option. But I had such a good time, I am switching my evening shift so that I can become a regular. Finally, I am widen my social network some. We won a bottle of wine last night. My team--Dale and I--came in second place. It was a very smooth Castle Rock Pinot Noir.

Count Down to the New Santa Clarita Libraries

No one is clear what is going to happen in the coming months. The seamlessness that the Mayor talked to me about months ago quickly unraveled. The County plans to close the libraries on June 18th. The Santa Clarita website says that all three libraries will open on July 1st. This means that Santa Clarita will be without library service for a minimum of 13 days. But a LSSI told a candidate that interviewed with them that it is possible that the only library that opens on July 1st will be Canyon Country. The city wants to spruce up Valencia and the talks for Newhall were in a stall so the city might not purchase the Newhall Library property and may instead open up a storefront library until the big new library is opened. Another new hire admitted that LSSI and the city don't seem too terribly organized and seem to be flying by the seat of their pants. Yet, another new hire hasn't heard anything about anything and isn't scheduled to report until July 1st--the day the new libraries are supposed to open. Hmmm...I am still concerned. July is going to be a very interesting month for Library Service in Santa Clarita. I am interested to see what will happen.
Last Wednesday, I had the day off and took all my tea stuff to Canyon Country. Dot and I set up the meeting room for the final farewell for the Friends of the Santa Clarita Libraries which has decided to dissolve because the city and LSSI never actually sat down with them and made them feel that they would be a valuable organization in the new system.
I am looking at starting a PhD in Information Science and see this as the perfect case study on the future of library services.