the post-august plan

hello. (I have a boss-type person who starts every email with "Hello." It always strikes me as a "Greetings, people of earth." kind of statement, even though this boss-type person is not alien-like in any other way. I just typoed that as anyonther, which I think would be a really useful word.) (I'm pretty sure it's the period instead of a comma that causes this line of thinking.)

ANYWAY - hello! I have been an inconsistent blogger this summer, but since it's now raining and cold and I slept for 8 hours last night I feel like recklessly pledging to be more consistent. (I had a whole diversion here including the phrase "all that jazz" which sent me to youtube where I ended up watching a clip of that song from the Chicago movie, which had the singing in English but the rest dubbed into Italian. This perfectly illustrates my problem with the internet - it is both a source of joy and an endless time suck.) Anyway again - September: more blog. I'm looking forward to it.

extended

Guess what? My temporary thing at work got extended for another 6 weeks! Awesome, but I must make mental and practical adjustments - this is the most regular schedule I've had in YEARS. (those capitals are no exaggeration! YEARS, people.) Anyway. I got through the first stretch by thinking about getting paid (woo hoo!) and a handy weekly countdown. (I mentally count it off like The Count on Sesame Streeet - two, TWO weeks left, aha ha ha! ) I need to transition to more long term thinking and planning, which means going to bed earlier (wah) and responsible adult stuff like that. (Though I will never stop counting like The Count.)

I've gotten used to it, more or less. The initial body shock of standing for so long and talking to people all day*, every day has worn away. This, plus the fact that I like my coworkers (so much!) makes the next 6 week stretch something I'm looking forward to. Now to devise a plan so I don't crumple with exhaustion as soon as I walk through the door at home. After that goal is reached, I must figure out how to keep up on email and projects. So many schemes to wrangle, so little time!

(*a friend and I have been discussing what it means to be an introvert (me) and an extrovert (her). It's been interesting - she didn't think I was an introvert because I get along pretty well with people, but I don't think that has anything to do with it. I think it's that thing where introverts need time alone to maintain maximum mojo, and extroverts need the company of others for the same. It doesn't mean that extroverts don't enjoy a day alone or that introverts don't like parties, it just means different people are different. (although I am a people loving introvert with party anxiety - but the party anxiety is a separate thing!!)
Her: are you sure you're not just a cranky extrovert?
Me: … pretty sure.

ANYWAY, aside from the hilarity of imagining myself as an extrovert, my point was that spending so much more time with people - particularly in a customer service capacity like I do at the library - takes it out of me.)


(this picture is my little cousin tending to a Godzilla wedding pinata.)

This summer has been so busy! Alongside worky August there have been a million other things going on: places to go, people to see, live birds that the cats brought in to rescue, houseguests, ETC. The past couple of weekends have been low key and I'm so glad! Yesterday I sat in a chair and read a book almost all day long. It was lovely.


I love pinata Godzilla and his photocopied eyes. (and his bent paper teeth in the first photo.)


Here he is waiting undercover with his business partner and girlfriend, Uma the unicorn.

OOO,OOO,OOOO

This week, this month = bananas. BANANAS. (at this point, I just like saying the word. That's where I'm at. Bananas.)

This video has been all over the internet but I'm putting it here so I can find it with greater ease. Why? Because I love it! WARNING: lots of catchy swears. NSFW unless your work is a-okay with lots and lots of catchy swears.

weekend quote

Shi (age 7, middle child, only boy): leaning over a rock looking into the clear lake at a frog or a stick or something - "OMG, OMG! O-M-G!!!"

M (age 10, big sister): "doesn't it sound weird to hear him say that? It's like watching old people try to text."

randomly flammable

I am so tired! This week had a lot of good stuff in it and has more good stuff starting very early tomorrow, so I'm trying not to whine about it because GOOD STUFF, right? But dude, I am so tired! It's been a busy few weeks. Many of the good things have been outside of my normal range of good things, which in and of itself is…good, but it makes me tired. This paragraph has been brought to you by the words good and tired.

So, some random stuff that is flitting across my mind right now:

epiphany 1: I can talk about things on this blog more than once! (obviously, as I crab about being tired all the damn time!) So I can mention that I saw Inception last night and I really enjoyed it even though I'm sleep deprived and had really freaky dreams this morning, and that would be OKAY because it doesn't have to be my last or final or only word on the subject. (I realize this is junior league as epiphanies go, but that is also okay!)


These are more pictures I took with my digital camera through the viewfinder of that old square format camera on permanent loan from my uncle (who had it on permanent loan from my other uncle). UNCLE UNCLE CUNCLE CANKLE UKULELE LUNCHEON. Ukulele luncheon! that could either be really fun or an interminable hell dressed in artificial yet entirely flammable fibers. (this reminds me: I checked in two awesome books on aloha shirts today.)


random tangent #lost count: I would like to be more internally consistent with my star rating system on goodreads. I try to go along with their ratings (2 stars means "it was okay" for example), but then, especially with low ratings, I find myself inflating them a little bit because I feel guilty for not liking something more. How dumb is that? Maybe I feel stupid for reading a whole book I don't really like? What about ones that I enjoyed not liking? (these exist!) I think I gave the most recent example of this 3 stars - it was really a 2 star book in my mind, but I guess I gave an extra star for the author's entire body of work. Or maybe because everyone else I know liked it more than I did, which is a very dumb reason indeed. Hmmmm.

Since I have to get up at the CRACK OF DAWN tomorrow I guess I should go to bed and think about this while I sleep. Maybe the author of the 2 star book hired those Inception dream wizards to give me these doubts! I realize it's not very likely, but it would get me off the hook for my inconsistencies nicely.

staff pick

I love the staff pick shelves and so do the patrons. It's a challenge to keep them stocked, but I LOVE putting things on it and watching them go out, and I LOVE seeing what my coworkers put on the shelf and watching them go out, sometimes in my bag. It's a low-intensity pitch for things I like or find interesting. Stealth evangelizing! It makes me happy when someone picks something I've chosen. (which is all the time because putting books or music or movies on that shelf is like blood on the water for sharks, to borrow a gruesome image from the just concluded SHARK WEEK. Or maybe it's like feeding coal into an old timey steam engine headed up a mountain that needs to jump a bit of uncompleted track over a ravine full of hungry, hungry sharks, to borrow an image from the History Channel's imaginary upcoming TRAIN DISASTER WEEK starring Jackie Chan.)

I was going to bitch about the terrible things people do to library books (folding corners! underlining! cutting things out! leaving in 10000 post-its!), but I need to go to bed so I can't get my heart rate up with extra outrage or I will never get to sleep. (but seriously, if you do any of those things to library books - and I'm sure YOU don't - please stop.) I'd also like to make a quick note to those who think it's cute to leave notes to their friends and neighbors on hold slips: please stop. It's invasive and nosy and a little bit stalkery - there are other, less potentially creepy ways to communicate! It's not cute, which hypothetical you would probably realize if you thought about it for more than two seconds. As for YOU, Jerky McJerkface who writes things like "terrible book" on hold slips - I've got no patience for you at all. If I spy one of those I generate a new slip immediately. (P.S. it was a GREAT book, and even if it was terrible it's none of your goddamned business.) I feel obliged to note that most patrons are amazing and wouldn't dream of doing any of these things.

coming soon: things that are awesome!

(photo note: this isn't the staff pick shelf! it's a random picture from the GN section a couple of years ago because that's what I found.)

gleneden beach

I love the path from the parking lot to the ocean at the Gleneden Beach state park. It always looks like this, more or less - from the darkness to the light and so on. It reminds me of how Dorothy would come to a new kingdom in the Land of Oz - hit the border and you're in a whole new place with new rules and new people. (it LOOKS like that in this picture, but the people of the Parking Lot were the same people of the Sand and Sea and they did a lot of traveling back and forth. It's an open border, frequently crossed.)


my camera was wigging out for some unknown reason and was taking in a lot of light. There must have been some setting gone south or some other logical, mechanical reason - when this happens I have to take a deep breath and remind myself that it is a tool with some mysterious setting ailment and not a moody little beast deliberately trying to enrage me. (I think we all know who the moody beast is in this scenario.) After my deep breath, I try to make the best of it. I do like how the white is a little fuzzy and glowy against the shadows.

water, sleep, books

Water and sleep are two of my ambitions for August. My work schedule is the heaviest it's been in a while, which is good - but it's also a lot of standing, lifting, and THE PUBLIC. I love The Public mostly, but they can wear you out. Anyway - as I adjust to this schedule, I'm also trying to drink a lot of water (hydration powers, activate!) and get enough sleep. My cousin, who has her master's degree in kineseology (she's a strength and conditioning coach for a university), says that hardly anyone gets as much as they should, and that it's one of the easiest ways to make yourself feel better.


SO MUCH TO READ: I found some great stuff today - I have a stack of things I'm excited to read, which is one of my favorite feelings in the world. Anticipation followed by enlightenment! (even if that enlightenment comes in the form of "this book was very disappointing.") In the spirit of saying it now in case I don't get around to saying it later, today's library haul included: White Heat by Brenda Wineapple, which is about Emily Dickinson's friendship with abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson. (the name alone!) I can't remember where I read about this, but it looked interesting. I was happy when it came through the bookdrop today and nobody had a hold on it. Yoink! Also nabbed was Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand - Maggie had added a book of Hand's on Goodreads, so I looked up to see if anything by her was available at my branch - this one was! Punk-rock photographer and a decades old mystery: yeah!

My other book finds were more along the lines of adding them to my read later list. If you're curious, you can look at my To Read section on Goodreads. It is slowly replacing the round metal tin full of post it notes as a way to manage my TBR list. I should probably start keeping track of where I got the recommendation, but enh. What I should REALLY do is get cracking and figure out where I left off on some of the series I was reading and get those added, etc. etc. One thing at a time.

And now I've stayed up too late! It's hard - my natural time to be awake is later rather than earlier, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

(photo is of a zinnia, which is one of my favorite summertime flowers.)

JULY SECRETS REVEALED:

I am making this one last post while I'm still awake in what is still my July if not the Gregorian July. (you can make your own Julian calendar joke here if you want.)

LET'S GET TO THE SECRETS! (warning: these may or may not be secrets. They also may or may not have anything to do with July except that I'm writing this in July. kind of.)

1) I love July, and not just because of my birthday.

2) I sat down for too much of July. What's up with that? Maybe I should commit to standing for all of August. I'll sleep propped up against the wall!

3) low-effort crowd pleaser: Sam Cooke singing Cupid from the car stereo. This came up on a mix CD (thanks, Martina!) when I was coming or going from one place to the other - it wasn't super loud, but it was audible - so many smiles and waves and people just singing! Young/ old and all those other opposites. I felt like we were performing a public service.

4) I'm so pleased that I'll get to work all of August at my favorite branch, but I'm also nervous because of an after hours casual backyard picnic. It's RIDIC, because I like all of these people and they went out of their way to invite me, but certain social situations can cause my rational brain to go totally wonky. I think I have to make myself go, if only so when Christmas comes around I'm not the person who has some convenient excuse three times in a row. (they asked me last Christmas, too. There was ice on the road, but I probably could have made it.)

5) so many good books! I think my favorites read this month would have to be The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender, and A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. More on those later, in the standing month of August.

(I just got REALLY TIRED of sitting and am going to go to bed instead. Goodbye July, I'll miss you. See you next year.)

the company of yourself

just sneaking in a quick post (maybe one more w/ pictures tonight, maybe not) - I recently came across this video featuring poet Tanya Davis via:Wild Horses. I think it's lovely. I like sentiment (alone is okay) and that the advice within is delivered with such kindness. I also like the animations, her Canadian accent, and that she reminds me a little bit of a grown up Olive from Little Miss Sunshine. It's a little movie no longer than the length of the poem, but it's just enough.

local news

1) I got a temporary assignment at work which means I know where I'm going for A WHOLE MONTH in advance. Woo hoo! It's the little things, you know?

2) I tweaked my back something awful on Monday. I'm pretty sure it was a dumb lift or turn while carrying a crate of books, but maybe it's just one of those things. I keep thinking "it's all better today!" and then am cruelly disappointed when I actually have to move.

2a) this makes me feel old.

3) COUSIN VISIT! Tues - Sun/Mon. These are my favorite low-stress/ easy-guest cousins - in town because K's brother is getting married this weekend. (Things being how they are in this small world, he lives a walkable distance from here.)

3a) Their son Jacob is sweet, smart, five, playful, shy, well behaved and goofy-adorable. He has an active imagination and patiently explains things he can't believe I don't already know. (Tom is the mean cat, Jerry is the nice mouse.)

3b) the cats, perhaps sensing this cartoon bias, are wary.

4) I like that new Covert Affairs show. It does remind me of Alias, but that's a good thing in my mind. Plus: SANDY COHEN!

(driftwood horse photo is from Harris Beach, Oregon in 2007 and only has anything to do with this post because my cousins were there too.)

kites

This might be my favorite recent kite picture. I like how the tail end of the kite just hooks in the air, like it's giving a pirate salute or asking a question, or doing something else that features yellow stripes and a sassy sense of the wind.


here's most of the rest of it. There were two guys with Washington plates flying this and other giant kites at the D River Wayside in Lincoln City. (compare big stripey to the normal sized kites flying below it.)


bonus beach umbrella.

annie dillard everywhere

I was scrolling along last night and this Annie Dillard quote caught my eye on Smut to-go: “One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.”

This morning, another Dillard quote from Crazy Aunt Purl: "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."

I've never read Dillard, but both of these both rang a chime in my brain so I went to goodreads to see what was what. I clicked on Pilgrim at Tinker Creek; the review at the top was by a Jen who gave it five stars. I love this kind of random alignment or synchronicity or whatever you want to call it! I have added it to my list - does anyone have any other recommendations?

Photo at the top was another TTV attempt from Day 2 at the beach, where we rolled into princess parking at a popular restaurant and were offered ocean-view patio seating (on a glorious, sunny day). I had the fish tacos and they were delicious.

summer color

Note: these photos are from exactly one week ago.
Note: hydrangeas can be so pretty they kill me, revive me, force my finger to push the picture taking button. (helpless! Unless they anger me, which happens but rarely. Gardening can be volatile but mostly it's like self administered natural certified organic happy drugs, with the side benefit of flowers or tomatoes or strawberries. dangerous side effects may include: dirt under fingernails, unhealthy obsession with slugs, mind games with the raccoon who keeps digging things up, dirt smudges on face that become invisible to the smudge bearer but a source of snarky mirth to every wiseacre in the county.)


one of my favorite color combinations.


Shasta daisies kind of smell like feet in certain circumstances, but they're a-ok with me.


!!!! the pincushion flower (scabiosa) doesn't really look much like a pincushion when it has it's petals on, but once they fall off (like here) it does.


I'm not sure how this happened, but I'm glad it did - this is the skeleton of a poppy pod. I stuck it on these leaves so I could get a better picture.

the way it is sometimes

I got called into work today which was one of those ON THE ONE HAND events: a bummer because I have pictures to wrangle and garden to wrestle, but great because my work schedule is light this week and I can use the hours. There's so much I want to do, but mostly it pays in satisfaction rather than dollars. (I would love to waltz into a shop with my wallet full of satisfaction: "you don't understand - I filed them ALL. How many donuts can I buy with that?")

In other news, there are so many good books out there, people! Maybe one of these days I'll get it together and list some of them.