yAy-L-A

I've been trying to think of something to blog about to kill my last 40 minutes of work (SWOTD! Shameful Waste of Taxpayer Dollars!) but I just remembered I said I'd be talking more about, just, life. And there's lots of it right now, so this will be almost entirely un-library-related blog post (shocking, I know).

Sadly, firstly, Matt's grandpa died last weekend. He was 96, and still lived by himself, in his own place, on his own terms. Matt flew Home yesterday and will come back tomorrow night (world record for quickest there-and-back 1,500 mile each-way trip). I'm thinking about the whole family, and hoping the weather starts behaving itself so Matt can get home safe. It even snowed here today. December indeed.

Secondly, and what the silly title of this post refers to, I finally joined the American Library Association today. It's important career-wise but it also means I actually had a hundred dollars that wasn't ear-marked for something else. And at Xmas time no less! I feel, finally finally, like a bonafide grown-up employed librarian. Yay, yay ALA.

And we're going to see Nickel Creek next week! We saw them a few years ago at an outdoor concert in a vineyard in Eugene and it was magical and we became instant life-long fans. Matt & I have both managed to get off of work Tues night for this show -- which should tell you something about the level of fandom, if our workaholic selves both asked for time off.

The last thing has to do with books, but not really libraries. I've set myself a holiday season challenge: to read all 83 of the Newberry medal-winning children's books. I've only read 19 of them already (but will happily read them again). I started this endeavor this week, and I've nearly finished this year's winner, Kira-Kira, which is both beautiful and sad.

Okay, consider yourselves chatted at for now. Tune in next time for ... who knows what but I bet I'll make you learn something!