some mid-week music.

In an effort to stave off the soggy emotions I alluded to yesterday I have been filling the rare empty silences with what I like to call 'angry' music.  Melodies with thumping basses and screamed lyrics that keep me pumped up and ready to tackle everything.  Frank Turner's been on constant rotation (that's also to get me prepped for his concert in a couple of weeks) and these guys have gotten a lot of airtime as well.  But I think the winners of the week are the Dropkick Murphys.  They've been around for years and this is one of their signature songs. Hope it gives you the gumption to power through the rest of your Wednesday!

a good friend.

I have been blessed with some of the greatest friends on the planet. I know most people think they can argue the same but I doubt that anyone has better friends than I do. As my time here begins to wind down (18 days and counting) I am struggling to find enough time to spend with the people I have met here who have become my support system, my source of entertainment, my surrogate family. In some ways the move still doesn't feel very real. Every moment of every day is so crammed with last minute to-dos (both the fun kind and the necessary kind) that I haven't had a lot of down time to process the emotions that are swirling in my heart. I still have nearly 3 weeks left, after all.  Plenty of time to see everyone and fill my mind with memories to hold me through those months I'll spend in my parent's basement (it's only temporary!) and then the months I'll be all alone in a foreign country. Right?!

Well, everything sort of came to a head this weekend as I found myself saying my first real good bye. One of the best friends I've made out here is leaving town this week and won't be back until after I'm gone and, thinking I had more time left than I did, there was a mad scramble to find a few minutes in the chaos for one last heart to heart before we go our separate ways. Our late night tete a tete Sunday was more than worth the groggy day at work on Monday.

It was just the first of many but I'm already feeling the loss. So far I've kept the tears at bay (though I've found they leak out at other, non-emotionally justifiable times like when I'm reading a very not-sad book at lunch at work!) but I imagine that my drive out of town is going to be a soggy one.

A host of cheesy greeting card phrases run through my mind. Things like "god can't be everywhere that's why he gave us friends" and "friendship is a single soul living in two bodies." Things that sound ridiculous until you know them to be true (though that doesn't make them any less cheesy!) I'll never have enough time to get my fill of some of the people who have touched my life and there's no way to fill the holes that will surface in my heart when they are no longer near, but my heart and life are immeasurably improved by their influence and a little part of each of them will go with me when I go.

a good book.

Today's theme is authors who create their own illustrations (or if you prefer, illustrators who write their own stories!) The author/illustrator is a curious beast. It is rare to find someone with one particular talent, but to find a person with two, well that's just cause for extreme jealousy (on my part at least.)

One perk is that they know exactly what they want from the story they are trying to tell but on the flip side they have full responsibility for the whole shebang, no partner to bounce ideas off of or collaborate with.
Here are a few recent editions of solo undertakings that shine.

Flora and the Flamingo
Author/Illustrator: Molly Idle
Pages: 32
Age Range: 2-7
Published: 2013
Genre: picture book
Cover Score: ****
Overall Score: ****
Rating: G

Chubby little Flora dons flippers and mimics the graceful flamingo's every move but the flamingo is having none of it. Doing her best to discourage Flora, the flamingo squaks at her and sends her splashing into the water. But seeing her dripping and sad then she has a change of heart, helps her up and the two dance beautifully togteher. Beautiful, wordless with lifting flaps creating movement and action on each page. soft pink palette will appeal to the ballerinas in the crowd proof that anyone can do anything they set their minds to (though they may need a bit of help along the way!)

The Great Lollipop Caper
Author/Illustrator: Dan Krall
Pages: 32
Age Range: 5-8
Published: 2013
Genre: Picture Book
Cover Score: ****
Overall Score: ***
Rating: PG

All kids love Lollipop but no kids love the earthy, acidic little Caper (well, except adults but he doesn't count them, he wants the kids!) But he has a plan to flavor all the lollipops to taste like capers and thus win them all over! Donning a trenchcoat and hat (looking a bit villainous but apparently passing as a harmless pea) he sneaks into the lollipop factory to carry out his evil deed. But it backfires and only Lollipop can save the day and conseqently teaches Caper a thing or two about being yourself. Cute, sillly and ...capers, seriously! The endpages are adorned with (doctored) photos of the two main characters. Running text tells the story punctuated by speech bubbles from the characters and bystanders. The book has an almost cariactured vaudeville feel but with bright, unlikely color combinations (vivid red background spreads, neon greens,) rather than black and white and the comically grotesque facial features will be sure to make kids giggle. Perfect for fans of the slightly dark and twisted like Lemony Snickett and Jon Klassen.


Windblown
Author/Illustrator: Edouard Manceau
Pages: 32
Age Range: 3-6
Published: 2013
Genre: Picture Book
Cover Score: ***
Overall Score: ****
Rating: G

In the vein of Press Here and so many other interactive types of books to come out of late this also invites the reader to participate, but not until the end. Some colorful scraps of paper are blowing in the wind but with each page turn they rearrange into a different animal who had a part in making them what they are now (cutting them up, making the paper, shaping the wood etc.) The text builds in 'the house that jack built' fashion inviting vocal participation from the reader/listener. The illustrations are simple, the colored pieces taking center stage and being accented by basic pen drawings to turn them into something new. It could easily be used in a classroom with students being given some matching scraps and encouraged to add their own embellishments (or big pieces of paper to make scraps of their own.) By the end the wind blows them all the way to you…what will you do with them?

Ben Rides On
Author/Illustrator: Matt Davies
Pages: 32
Age Range: 4-8
Published: 2013
Genre: Picture Book
Cover Score: ****
Overall Score: ****
Rating: PG

Ben gets a new bike and it's perfect! He rides it all the way to school, the really, really long (and adventurous) way. But when he gets there it's stolen by the big bully Adrien Overbite and all day Ben thinks only of his poor bike and how he can exact revenge. He's crushed, particularly when he sees the bike smashed against a tree on his long walk home. But then he realizes that Adrien has been launched over the nearby cliff. At first he thinks he's gotten his comeuppance and plans to leave him there but his concscience gets the better of him. He helps Adrien only to have him ride off again on Ben's bike. But Adrien has a surprise up his sleeve.
This is a great little story of doing the right thing (and a conversation starter about bullying and making good choices). Davies scribblyish illustrations (reminiscent of David Catrow though the pallette is subdued) are fabulous. I particularly love the facial expressions. Former Pulitzer prize winning political cartoonist, this is Davies' first political cartoonist, this is his first foray into picture books.

summer reading

Summer is upon us and that means Summer reading at the library. In an effort to keep kids from suffering from the learning gap that accompanies the long school break and to get people in to the library we offer a host of incentives including prizes for the kids who meet their personal reading goals and activities nearly every day of the week. It also means that kids of all ages, sizes and under various forms of supervision (or lack thereof) descend on the library like a swarm of army ants, swarming over every available inch of floor and low laying display space and leaving a swath of chaos behind them. Books are used as flotation devices, stepping stones, building blocks, and weapons of mass destruction by the armfuls but rarely as the vehicles for transporting kids to other times and spaces (oh that this could be done literally and not just figuratively!) I love kids and I love the library but sometimes they just don’t really seem to go together.

I realize getting them into the building, even if they only come for the puppet shows and never crack a book, is half the battle. They’re aware of the library, they feel comfortable here, we make a name for ourselves in the community and hopefully as the years go by they remember us and return often and maybe even use us for our books. In the meantime we have bedlam in the program room and anarchy in the stacks. So, I dose myself with heavy duty, deep dark chocolate, keep the Advil at the ready and mentally prepare for the daily onslaught, counting down the days to my stretch of unemployment (while trying not to think of the lack of paycheck that will mean.) Bring it kiddies, bring it!

a patriotic song.

I could spend many a paragraph waxing poetic about my love of this country and the emotions that are stirred in me every time I see a man in a military uniform, watch a flag waving in the breeze, or hear the national anthem. Instead, I'll just share a bit of patriotic humor in the hopes of reminding everyone how great a place this country of ours is.

God bless America and Happy 4th!

a to do list

I've got a really crowded month trying to squeeze in a million and a half things before I leave the DC area for good. Some things I've not had a chance to do before and some things I need to do one more time. Here's a quick highlight of some of the cool things I've had a chance to do in the last couple of weeks.  There will be more to come, never fear!

A last visit to the Shenandoah’s to hike Old Rag which is one of the most popular and difficult hikes on the East Coast. The 2500 ft climb and mile or so of rock scramble is pretty intense and makes you feel as if you've really earned your views from the top.

A last performance at the Kennedy Center. Great music, silly story, fabulous tap dances.

One last hike at Great Falls, Billy Goat Trail.

A first/last visit to the Marine Barracks for their evening parade with the silent drill team and The President's Own marching band. It was quite the spectacular event, typical of the patriotism and spirit of the DC area.

And a visit to the tidal basin at night to view the rising of the super moon (too bad I don't have a camera worthy of capturing it!)

So many things I'm going to miss about this place! Sometimes I have to remind myself of the great things to come to keep from tearing up. *sigh*

finishing a task.

I spent the weekend packing up 7 years’ worth of accumulated stuff, praying that it would all squish into the 5x7 shipping pod lingering in the parking lot out front and trying not to cry. I’m really excited for this new adventure but every now and then it really sinks in just what it’s going to mean.

I’ve struggled with homesickness ever since I got here. I came out anticipating staying just a year (I’d only taken a leave of absence from my job) and then once that year passed, really felt strongly that I needed to stay. I’ve toyed with going back west many times and fought with my love of this place and my dissatisfactions with it over and over and over. Now that I’m actually making the move I’m thinking of all the things and places and people I will miss so much when I’m gone and it breaks my heart just the tiniest bit.

Stage one of the move severed the first of the ties that bind me to this place I never thought I would call home. Thinking I might need extra time to sublease my room and having limited scheduling flexibility I decided to bail from my place a few weeks early. I have some wonderful friends who are letting me crash on their couch til I go. So, the majority of my things are making

their way across the country without me. I’ve said (a temporary) goodbye to old roommates and my corner of the world to begin my months of displacement and upheaval, and am gearing up for the next emotional step of doing so many things here for the last time in preparation for saying a final farewell. The emotions are high on all counts; excitement, nervousness, reluctance, anticipation, sadness, gratefulness. It’s going to be a wild ride for the next few weeks. Here’s hoping I make it through in one piece!