not in high school (or in college)

What I'm reading now: Lady Chatterley's Lover. I've never read it and It was on the bookshelf in the gf's bedroom. Besides, DH Lawrence wrote one of my favorite short stories: The Rocking-Horse Winner.

BTW, the gf is a voracious reader. Eclectic too. Oh, and have I mentioned that she thinks I'm adorable?

oh, and

this too. Take note my liBERRYan friends. It was a Blog of Note, even.

Good, Bad, Fabulous

The good news is that the long anticipated Harry Potter book is coming out at midnight tonight.

The bad news is that I was a dismal failure at getting an early copy of the manuscript for Grayson's daughter.

The fabulous news is that she's around to read it along with everyone else. Woo-Hoo!

How Many of Me?

Have you ever googled your own name, only to find someone (of several someones) besides yourself? I know this may frighten those who know and love me, but there are 18 people in the US who share my first and last name, including an (apparently) famous make-up artist.

How do I know? Click here to find out.

Of how many are you?

Montana and Idaho?

In a recent phone conversation, my sister commented that she'd never read a Pultizer-prize winning book. Once establishing that this is untrue, we began discussing books we read as children. Being avid readers, we thought we'd read many Caldecott and Newberry medal winning books.

Well, it turns out that Caldecott is an illustration award (and I certainly didn't read "picture books" past age 7). And as for the Newberry list, boy were we surprised! Sure, some of our books were there, but the list that really resonated for us was the Pacific Northwest Library Association's Young Reader's Choice Award.
According to Powells.com, this award was established "in 1940 to promote reading for enjoyment."

Good, good. We liked (ok, loved) to read.

Wanna know how these books were chosen?

"Children and young adults of Alberta, Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington select the winners from nominees submitted by librarians, teachers, students and others."

Alaska? Idaho? Montana?

Are you kidding? Me, nice little black (ok, I started out Negro, according to my birth certificate, and since 1989 I've been African-American) girl is reading a bunch of books selected by the loads of loads of readers out in Montana?

Yeah, yeah- you can talk about the universality of children and reading and all that, but really, what MUST my mother have thought? Yeah, I read Mildred Taylor and even Alice Childress, but I also read nearly every book published by Scott O'Dell, and let me tell you, there are a ton of 'em! I loved Island of the Blue Dolphins!

Montana? No disrespect, but really, how many children were even in Montana in the 1970s?

Aside: I also read "wilderness/adventure" books written by a man whose name I cannot remember. It starts with a K and is likely German or Scandinavian. My mouth keeps saying "Kierkegaard" but I know that's not right. Actually, I think the second letter in his name is a j. Anyone? Bibliodiva? Lisa K? Mellanye?

I really did look, and even went to the children's section of my local libe, but the librarians weren't very nice and seemed perturbed that I was interrupting their construction paper craft project (I'm serious). My library isn't staffed by friendly folk, but I go anyway...

Mail for Mom

Today she got 2 entry packets from Publisher's Clearinghouse, a magazine, and a couple of begging letters.

I got a renewal notice from AAA.

For the 3rd day in a row, my mother got more mail than me. And only one of us is alive.

How pitiful is that?

===

Anyone wanna tell me how to get her name off these blessed mailing lists? And no, she doesn't want to contribute to the American Diabetic Association or renew her subscription to AARP.

New Beginnings - An Update

3 months into my "new" job and I'm back at my primary site fulltime, loving that I finally have an assistant (as opposed to a string of temps) and well, settling in nicely.

Today I even reconnected with a lab technician I used to work with. I'm excited to go back to working with him (although my current lab is quite good).

Life is good.