Hee. Hee.

George Bush as Frankenfurter. Urgh. I'm probably on someone's list now. Oh, that's right. I'm a bisexual pagan librarian. I'm sure I'm already on a list somewhere.

Ooooooo

Well, the good news is that I may not have an allergy to nuts. No nuts today, just Dove Dark Promises. Although the reaction was milder, I still had it. I'd like to think it isn't chocolate (I did have a little chocolate last week, too) :( I had dairy-free chocolate the other day and that didn't bother me at all. It could be the milkfat in the chocolate, since I know milk is an issue. Last week I also had Poppycock nuts and popcorn, and there's probably some milk in that. But I build up a tolerance to milk; it doesn't normally affect me that badly. I can eat pizza, drink milk, and eat cheese, and it may bother me a little but not so violently. So why am I having trouble on game days? Gremlins, gremlins I say! Suffice to say something's tearing up my system, though, so I think carrots are my best bet for next week. :)

I'm up early

Although just to feed the animals and grab a bite to eat myself before going back to sleep for another hour or two. I sooooo crashed yesterday. I went out to a gaming store and over to Turfland Mall, then did some entry work into the computer. I was so sleepy I was falling asleep whilst typing. I laid down for awhile, then got up and caught the bus (and yes, I really appreciate the bus saving more walking in the heat and its cheap summer fares--25 cents--and told the driver so). Then I had some dinner and crashed some more.

I got the notice yesterday that my student loans will consolidate in 10 days. Yea! No word on what the payments will be, although I used an online calculator they had at the Department of Education's loan consolidation site, and it looks like it'll be about $200 a month, which isn't great but is doable. And it'll help my credit, I'm sure, to have just one loan instead of 23. The total damage comes to...gulp...$125,000 and some change, and I'll have up to 25 years to pay it off, on an income contingent basis, with anything not paid in that time forgiven at the end. Considering I make less than $23K a year, it was the only way to make payments where I could still live. Even if I get a job at the normal librarian range ($32K to $40K) for my experience level, it'll continue to be a reasonable percentage. Ah, the problems of too much education and not enough earning power! I would not recommend anyone not, say, going into medicine take out that amount of loans. On the other hand, there's no way I could have made it without them, especially during some of the past job market crashes. Unfortunately I missed to boom in the '90s, but hopefully we're edging at least back up in terms of the oeconomy. At least since I wasn't making money hand over fist in the stockmarket, etc., I also didn't lose much from my retirement, etc.--although I did have to freeze my contributions for awhile to deal with my current finances. I need to work out another budget now that I have a general idea of my payments so that I can restart those contributions.

Damn, I'm still sleepy, even after breakfast and a soda. I'm going to go nap a little more. I caught a bit of another programme on PBS called Waiting for God which was absolutely hilarious. It's set in a British retirement home where the inmates...sorry residents...are determined not to age gracefully, and are, indeed downright cantankerous in that biting manner that the British are so well known for. One of the residents is the father of the administrator. In the first episode he stages a hunger strike, gets the others packed off to Lourdes, and trades barbs with a woman who seems his match. He gets better food by threatening to disembowel himself in the town square. There's a certain freedom to being treated like a batty old gentleman, because he can get away with just about anything, even calling his son 'Harry' instead of 'Harvey' just to needle him. Trust me, he knows exactly who Harvey is--the man who put him in a home. Check it out if you like British comedy. Dwana and my mother, I'm sure, could relate, having worked in nursing homes.

Talk to you later.

I watched Manor House tonight

It's a sort of Edwardian reality show where people take on the parts of family or servants. The website has some interesting features, including a 'Snob-o-Meter' (I came out 67%; not too snobby but enough that I can honestly say I've never watched American Idol). There's also a test of who you would be in 1905. My results were spinster with a decent income who devoted herself to causes such as sanitation and poverty. (All because my father is an engineer). It was interesting, to say the least.

I guess it's an indication of how many Americans are part of iMood

since the Internet is feeling 'patriotic'--rather than the usual 'tired'. I have to admit, whilst I would like to travel to other lands and even live there, I can't imagine ever giving up my citizenship--adding another, fine, but not giving up my own. I am generally quite proud of being American (although there are times, like when I look at our current admininstration, when I worry if it's all going down the tubes). I love America, warts and all. I just wish that Americans didn't come off as complete louts to the rest of the world so often. :)

What a good Fourth it was...Happy Birthday, America

I walked downtown and watched the parade (a great contingent for Fairness, the ACLU, a group working for peace, various politicians, organisations, etc. Not too much crass advertising, thankfully, although it was a loooonnngg parade even so). I had lunch at Subway's, resisted the urge to get a funnel cake, then visited the booths. They were interesting although I didn't find anything I couldn't live without. I got hit on (I'd say having my ear kissed with tongue action counts) by a local artist I won't name but trust me if you're in Lexington and in anyway connected with the art community you'll know who I mean when I say he's a textile artist who in the space of three minutes hit on me and three men. I also got a look at some of the 'Dynamic Doors' that are installed as part of an exhibit. It's sort of a follow-up to the popular Horse Mania from a couple of years ago. (Nearby Bourbon County is doing a similar thing with bourbon barrels this year). I'm not as entranced with the doors as I was the horses, although some are quite beautiful, especially those that turned the doorways into sculpture or used stained glass. I was quite embarrassed that I look straight at one called 'Pillars' and didn't pick up the Cabalistic significance. I guess I just wasn't expecting it. I was a little disturbed by a military helicopter that flew around downtown for hours--I guess they were trying to be alert for any problems. But generally everything was great. A band on one of the floats passed out free CDs. There were gobs of kids everywhere and I just thought they were cute rather than annoying; maybe it was the Paxil, I don't know. After fun in the sun (with sunscreen and a hat of course--no sense looking like a lobster), I went indoors and collapsed for awhile and watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Then I walked back home (I live about a mile-and-a-half from downtown) in time to watch the fireworks in my neighbourhood. They were stupendous.

So now I've had a cool bath and I am very, very, very (yea, very) tired. I figure I probably walked about 5 miles today. But it wasn't too bad. Boy, though, when I take the bus tomorrow I am soooooo going to be more appreciative of LexTran (They were off for the holiday. I had to break the news to some guy waiting at a stop this morning).

Well, that's enough for now. I'm pooped. Between the festival and some stuff I'm doing for the game tomorrow and the game on Sunday, I have a full weekend--which is why I'm taking Monday off just for me. :)

A little delayed from the festivities, here's a Friday Five a librarian could sink her teeth into!

1. What were your favorite childhood stories? H.A. Rey's Curious George, Yertle the Turtle, anything by Marguerite Henry--but especially Black Gold, William Armstrong's Sounder, Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, Antonia Barber'sThe Ghosts , the Trixie Belden mysteries, Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series, Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet, CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, Mary Renault's The Bull from the Sea, and Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern.

2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children? All of the above. Plus, I never had the book, but I did have a 45 rpm of the story Little Black Sambo, a story I loved and only realised later that the book's traditional illustrations were considered racist. I still think the story itself is worth sharing, and whilst I do no believe in rewriting the story, I could see illustrations placing it in the original setting of India being somewhat less inflammatory. There are a lot of books I only discovered AFTER my childhood. Like Where the Wild Things Are or The Giver or The Tripods. One of the great things about being a librarian is even though I don't have kids, I still stumble across great books for them--and can 'justify' reading them, too. And of course Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl and Lemony Snicket all have to go into the mix.

3. Have you re-read any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything?
I always thought Mary Renault's books were children's book because I read them a child. When I re-read The Bull from the Sea, I was struck by two things--one, I do not remember homosexual connotations from my childhood; they quite literally went over my head--I think some of her other books have a more obvious tack; two, I realised that this book, along with Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series, probably did more to shape my religious beliefs and interests than any others.

4. How old were you when you first learned to read? Three. Apparently I taught myself from a combination of 'Sesame Street', 'Electric Company', and a set of first to third grade readers that had been up in our attic. I cannot remember ever not reading.

5. Do you remember the first 'grown-up' book you read? How old were you? Probably the Renault book, when I was maybe nine. I was definitely reading adult fantasy--my favourite being Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Pern books--by the time I was 13, but some reason the Kern County librarian just didn't want to let me read John Jakes' The Bastard, even though it was on TV, when I was 12. :) She'd be very shocked at Elizabeth A. Lynn's books, which I think I read at 15; they contain gay sex. Funny that the first books I read that described sex had sex between two men, and then I went on to marry a gay man and have several gay friends. :)

Want to meetup?

International Blog Meetup day in 13 days (Wednesday, July 16th). The idea is to get together with other bloggers in your area and actually socialise, talk, whatever. You can signup:


http://blog.meetup.com

There's 5 of us from Lexington so far (including another librarian!) and almost 5000 worldwide. The idea is to meet at 7pm local time. You can vote for your local venue, too. (Choices for the Bluegrass: Common Grounds, Lynagh's--both in Lexington and Corner Pocket in Nicholasville.) Ooohh...please pick a Lexington site; I can't get there otherwise.

PS I sent an email to MSF (see post below) to ask if they could use a volunteer medical librarian who could e-mail/fax lit searches, etc. I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

I'm off tomorrow (yea!) for the July 4th holiday, but also Monday (double yea!) The only trouble with tomorrow is that the buses aren't running, so to get downtown for the festival I'll probably have to walk. But it's only a couple of miles, so hopefully it just won't be too hot. Then I'll come back for the fireworks display at the golf course near my house. :) Hope those of you celebrating have a safe holiday.

Here's something to applaud

According to this story, The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) links the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) with public health organisations in developing nations to address the lack of safe and obtainable medicines for a variety of ailments--some deadly--that primarily affect the poor. This is wonderful news. I've always felt more needed to be done on this front from a humanitarian front. However, it is also true that we can no longer afford to dismiss any disease simply because it only affects those who are far away or too poor to pay for medicine. As SARS and other outbreaks show, diseases can travel quickly and mutate into global concerns.

I have a lot of respect for MSF. I first became aware of their work during the war in Bosnia. If I had become a doctor or other health care worker like I once thought I would, I'd probably have joined it or a similar organisation. I wonder if they ever need medical librarians?

How about a firedancing librarian?

This article includes comments from a librarian who practises the ancient art of firedancing in the Balkans. Here's hoping it doesn't become just a stupid tourist trick--it's a part of the cultural heritage of the area.