We have a T-shirt problem at our house...

I accuse Josh of being the addict but want this so bad. Tell me it's okay. Please?

Ohhh Pretty

This had given me a great idea for a craft project at the library this Saturday. Now I better start saving cardboard.

I can't remember the last time I went out to a movie but...

I caught a bit of The Seeker: The Dark is Rising on TV last night after Valeska and I watched Atonement. I only saw a few minutes and most of the time it was on I was explaining to Valeska why the movie is nothing at all like the books. It seemed like such a bland, generic movie, I couldn't get into it at all.

Oh and yes Atonement was good but Keira Knightley drives me nuts. I feel like her acting consists of straining her neck and gulping down air. Too bad too, because she always has these great roles. Though maybe she could have made a good Bella since she's so good at looking distressed. Oh well.

Is this readers block?

I just finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I loved it even though I felt like a lot of the characters, especially the teens, were too good to be true. I feel like the story could have easily been a really depressing one and I think that that might have even been easier to write. But I'm glad that it wasn't.

So what to read next? I have a huge to-read list and yet I can't seem to decide on anything these days. I'm contemplating The Southern Vampire Mysteries since I've been loving the TV show True Blood so much. But I hear the books are very different from the show, so maybe not?

New Job

So this past week I started a part time job as a Saturday After School Leader at my neighborhood library branch. It looks like it's going to be a fun job that will keep me busy while I wait for a librarian position to come up, but there are a few draw backs. It means working every Saturday, which kind of kills my weekends. But I can deal with that because it's a short term thing. The other problem is that I find it depressing to work in a library and not be a librarian. I mean it's fun to work with the kids and I appreciate that the librarians at this branch have gone out of their way to help me get a job, but I want to be planning programs and making decisions. I miss that part of my old job. Sadly, with the economy the way it is it may be a while before I get to revisit my former role. I should use this time to catch up on my reading but I haven't even picked up a book in weeks. I think I'm in a funk. I have The Absolutely True Dairy of a Part-Time Indian on hold though so I should have something to read by next week.

It's not that I have a thing against Sex and the City...

Hey, I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode multiple times. But this is just sort of disturbing.

I mean wasn't the fact that these women were no longer in their twenties the drive behind the show? Eh, I guess not?

I'm still planning on renting the movie.

I'm a Sesame Street Dork

Strange Dream

Last night Emerson (who once upon a time was perfectly crate trained) was being a pain and whining about being in his crate. Finally I couldn't take it anymore so I got up and slept on the couch. Apparently this makes for some messed up dreaming because once I fell back asleep things got weird.

I dreamed that I was back in high school and a fascist regime had just taken over and two high ranking officials moved next door. Who were these officials? None other than Sarah Palin and Nate Birkus (a designer who's on the Oprah show a lot). Crazy, right? But then it gets weirder because I go next door to give them a pie (Huh?! I've never brought a neighbor a pie! What is this Desperate Housewives?) and end in a giant yelling match with Sarah and Nate. Then, Nate switches sides and says he doesn't want to work for the fascist regime anymore and then Sarah kicks me out.

I think I woke up for a second here and when I fell back asleep I was pregnant and had to ask Sarah Palin for permission to have an abortion. Thank goodness Josh woke me up then to tell me he was leaving for work.

And Sarah Palin, please get the hell out of my head and stop giving me nightmares!

And then a movie I totally do want to see...

Chuck Palahniuk's book Choke has been made into a movie and it comes out Sep. 26th. I've read all of Palahniuk's books except, oddly enough, for Fight Club (but I did see the movie) and though I like them well enough, I find it easy to tire of the whole transcendence through the grotesque. But Choke is one of my favorites. It has one of the funniest, sickest scenes I've ever read. A scene which I really hope they didn't cut out in the movie, but I'm guessing they probably did.

And now I kinda want to see the movie...

So I am reading the Midnight Sun Commentary over at Occupation Girl (If you don't mind spoilers read it! It's great for inducing fits of "I'm glad I haven't had cofee yet this morning because I'm sure I'd snarf it all over my keyboard" laughter.) and while on her blog I came across this quote from Robert Pattinson about playing Edward Cullen.

"When you read the book," says Pattinson, looking appropriately pallid and interesting even without makeup, "it's like, 'Edward Cullen was so beautiful I creamed myself.' I mean, every line is like that. He's the most ridiculous person who's so amazing at everything. I think a lot of actors tried to play that aspect. I just couldn't do that. And the more I read the script, the more I hated this guy, so that's how I played him, as a manic-depressive who hates himself. Plus, he's a 108-year-old virgin so he's obviously got some issues there."

Where the middle class ends

It's been in the news and the topic of more than one discussion with friends of late: how much do you have to make before you are no longer middle class? Slate author Daniel Gross weighs in here.

Last time I had this discussion I went so far as to say that I thought $100,000 is more than the average middle class salary. What I guess I meant is, while in places like D.C. or New York you might not be able to buy a home and send the kids to private school, in most places you could. Plus, your lifestyle is going to depend, not only on how much money you make, but also how you spend it. Even if you double that amount, you'd still have to make choices about how you spend. But I'm totally in agreement with the Slate article; just because you can't have everything doesn't mean you're not rich!

Back!

Maine was beautiful and relaxing. Good times were had with good friends and Emerson was given way more attention than he ever gets at home. The only mishap was on our last day there when we went out to breakfast and returned to find that Em had escaped the confines of the house. Luckily a neighbor found him dancing with the cars on the street and put him in the back of his truck to keep him safe. As Ginny, Josh and I scoured the neighborhood this guy happened to pass us in his truck. I've never seen Josh so relived. I thought he was going to have a heart attack! As promised, there are pictures up here.

Vacation!

Yay, we leave for Maine on Saturday. Initially, I was worried that Emerson was going to hate traveling but now that he'll be with Michelle for part of the way I know he'll be a happy puppy. How is it my dog loves everyone else more than his owners? We take pretty good care of him. We love him. But somehow his heart belongs to our friends.

I promise pictures when we get back. Wheee!

Spoiling Breaking Dawn

I just finished Breaking Dawn and I couldn't have predicted how much I hated it. I mean, I'm pretty sure that the whole time I was reading part of my mind was just repeating, gross gross gross gross gross....

I've copped to it before: I liked Twilight. I even kind of liked New Moon. Though the characters annoyed me and the writing grated on my nerves, I felt it was no more disturbing than your typical romance novel. And I can see why teenage girls are loving the escapist fantasy of it all. But for me Breaking Dawn took disturbing to a whole new level.

Ok. There's spoilers ahead. Stop reading if you don't want to know.




So the book begins with Bella and Edward's wedding. It's boring and perfect. Oh except for the part where Bella briefly gets manhandled by the two men who are supposedly in love with her. Way to show off your affection guys. Anyway, then they have a boringly perfect honeymoon. Oh except for the crazy Vampire /Human sex that leaves Bella battered. But then she doesn't care. Why should she care that she's being hurt? All that matters is that she's got her man. And so we learn the first lesson of Breaking Dawn, as long as your guy loves you, who cares if he beats the crap out of you! I mean, he didn't mean to and he's really really sorry. He swears it will never happen again.

At this point I had to put the book down for a bit. It was that or hurl it out the window. I should have hurled because it gets so much worse. You see, nobody thought about birth control on this perfect honeymoon and guess what...Bella's knocked up. Yup, Bella's got a blood sucking bun in the oven. If you want to walk away from this review now, do it. I think this was the point where I really should have just stopped reading. Because even though the little hybrid vampire fetus is killing her, Bella loves it and refuses to give it up. Let that be lesson number two, abortion is immoral. The better alternative is to let the fetus kill you. I mean how selfish is it for Edward to want to protect Bella's life over that of an unborn child. Oh but don't worry he comes around once he hears the kid's thoughts. You see people, this fetus has a soul! How could you even think about doing away with her? You are so going to hell!

And it gets so much worse. Bella gives the baby the most hideous name ever. Even the characters in the book refuse to call her by her given name. It's THAT bad. Oh and remember that Werewolves like to in fall in love with babies. So I'd watch the kid around Jacob. And then some political Vampire stuff happens, which is boring. And then they all live happily ever after. Now, I have no problem with happily ever after. I do have a problem with almost everything else in the book though. Wait, to be fair there was some interesting stuff going on with Jacob and his pack. True, Jacob is a whiny baby when it comes to Bella but for the most part the wolves were way more fun to read about. I guess I liked how they, you know, cared about people other than themselves.

I know that there are die hard fan of the series out there and that there are also the flip side of the coin, people who detest the whole series. I considered myself pretty neutral before. Though I guess this puts me firmly in one camp.

Now that I'm unemployed the crafty me emerges...

So I've already refinished a table. Now I need a new project. I've been thinking about getting a sewing machine but I wasn't sure I'd really use it. Then I came across this Eric Carle fabric over at Apartment Therapy and I'm inspired. I am so getting this!

Goodbye DC

We move tomorrow. I have to say I am doing rather well considering that when we came here I cried and wouldn't leave our apartment. And yes it helps that the Stella sprout is in Philly. Still, there's a lot I will miss about D.C. and there's a lot I just never got around to doing. So I'm making a list. My top ten reasons I'm going to miss D.C.

1. Living next to the zoo.
2. Living walking distance from almost all my New College friends.
3. Spending Sunday morning at the farmers market.
4. Friday happy hour with my librarian friends.
5. Free museums. I wish I spent more time in them.
6. Babysitting for Leon, because he's super funny and cute.
7. The story time crew.
8. Cherry trees in the spring.
9. Driving over Memorial Bridge. I do it every day and it's still pretty cool.
10. Rock Creek park.

Goodbye Arlington

We had a staff meeting today and at the end our Friends of the Library representative and his two darling daughters came in with cupcakes for the staff and a vase full of marigolds. The marigolds were the very same little seeds we planted months ago after our gardening story time. Sigh. The oldest daughter is four and my most dedicated story time participant and she is so sweet and sensitive. She's all sad that I'm leaving and I'm sad too! I'll miss her little pixie face peering up at me each week. Aw, I'll miss the whole story time crowd.

Food and Picture Books

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is getting made into a movie, with Andy Samberg. It doesn't sound like it's going to be very faithful to the book but still, pizza and ice cream raining down from the sky is just fun!

The New Yorker does something right

There was a link to this in my ALA newsletter. We like articles about children's librarians. Yay!

American Girl on Slate

Spurred by the new movie that's coming out this summer, there's an interesting discussion of the American Girl franchise over at Slate. I'm glad that they address the "commodity fetishism of it all" as well as the appeal of the dolls. And I thought that it was a rather intelligent conversation until I came across this quote:

I think I'll get my kids the catalogs. I miiiight consider getting them a doll, but I'd definitely pair those plodding books with some better kids' lit.

Wait, isn't that backwards? You will get your kids the catalogs, media that is purely consumerist, you might get the dolls; and but your biggest worry is that the books aren't quality kid lit?! What on earth do you think the catalogs are then? Alice in Wonderland? Treasure Island? People just don't make sense sometimes.