July 02, 2009
Building Yourself Back Up After an Illness: A Recipe
1. Get yourself some freshly picked strawberries.
2. Pour some heavy cream into a ceramic bowl. I’d recommend about an eighth or quarter of a cup for every day you’ve been sick.
3. Use an electric mixer to beat the cream until it is almost perfect.
4. Pause to add a little vanilla and sugar.
5. Resume beating until the cream is perfect. If you overwhip the cream, it will be dry and sad and you might as well start over.
6. Wash, hull, and slice up the strawberries.
7. Throw the sliced up strawberries in the bowl with the whipped cream.
8. Stir gently. You can stop when the whipped cream starts to turn a little pink.
9. Eat it all before anyone else figures out what you’re up to.
Posted by adrienne at 10:26 PM | Comments (8)
July 01, 2009
Friends Are Never Far Away, or How Hell Froze Over and I Bought a Book by Madonna
As most regular readers know, I have carried a long-standing and vocal hatred of Madonna’s books for children. I am fine with Madonna as a musician—like any sensible human being, I have “Like a Prayer” on my iPod. But I have flatly refused to buy any of her books for the library. I have even turned away donations.
Until today. Today, I caved.
About a month ago, girls started asking me for the English Roses chapter book series. Previously, adults were the only people who would ask me for Madonna’s books for kids, and I had no problem telling them that we didn’t have them and wouldn’t be getting them. Ten-year-old girls are a different story altogether. Today, I overheard two of them in the chapter book aisle discussing whether they would find the series under “E” for “English Roses” or under the author’s name, “whoever that is.” I had to be the one to go over there and tell them that they weren’t going to find any because we didn’t own them. I spared them my diatribe about the author.
And then I went and put a bunch on order.
I want to be there for parents and the other adults who come into the library, but, ultimately, my allegiance is with the kids. And if the kids are clamoring for something, I buy it. Usually, I try to make sure I get it in stock before they start clamoring. I mean, I’m the librarian who bought My Little Pony Jr. Cine-Manga Vol. 1, Friends Are Never Far Away. In case you have never encountered Cine-Manga, it basically consists of stills from cartoons put together in a comic-like form with word bubbles for the dialog. This particular example is only 32 pages long. Whenever I see it on the shelf, I think of it as my little cry for help, evidence that I will stock anything, ANYTHING, in an attempt to make sure every child who comes in the building finds something he or she wants to read. I don’t have to think this over too often, though, because My Little Pony Jr. Cine-Manga Vol. 1, Friends Are Never Far Away has circulated 44 times in the few years we've owned it. It is checked out even now.
Somehow, it comforts me that those girls have no idea who Madonna is. For whatever reason, they find something in the English Roses series of interest outside of Madonna’s fame (maybe those uber-cute covers?). And the books only cost $9 apiece. And they will circulate. And they will make some girls happy.
Okay, okay, okay.
Posted by adrienne at 08:40 PM | Comments (12)
June 27, 2009
Strep Throat or Swine Flu or Maybe Mono
I have been a children's librarian for about a decade now. When I tell people who don't know much about kids that I am a children's librarian, most of them respond with an "Oh, that's nice" in a tone most commonly reserved for children, as if my life is full of sunshine and puppies and it would not do to converse with me with too much attention or conviction.
When I went to the doctor with a very sore throat the other day, though, and when he asked if I'd been around any kids lately, I said, "Well, yeah, about three or four hundred this week. I'm a children's librarian."
Then the doctor said, "Oh, God. You could have anything."
Thanks to my years of working with kids, I hardly ever get sick--certainly nothing that sends me to the doctor begging for help the way I did the other day. It was he who had to tell me that the aching in all my joints was probably caused by the fever I didn't realize I had. (Him: "Didn't you take your temperature before you decided to come in?" Me: "No.") I knew I might be in trouble when I woke up Thursday morning and my throat hurt so badly that I didn't want to make coffee. I knew I'd regret not having caffeine, so I got a frozen coffee, which I could manage. It wasn't until about noon that I felt like lying down on the floor in the Children's Room and going to sleep.
Still, I thought I probably had a sinus infection and was just being a wimp. The doctor said no, it's strep or the swine flu or maybe mono. He prescribed an antibiotic, ran some tests, and told me to come back Monday if I wasn't better.
So I've been doing this "sick" thing I've heard so much about. It's kind of a drag. Mostly, I sleep. My throat and aches started feeling better pretty quickly once I started the antibiotic, but the least little thing tires me out. This means I have to reserve my energy for the basics: showering, eating, maybe reading a magazine or doing a crossword puzzle. I don't have the attention span for a novel (or even to complete a crossword puzzle--in the last two days, I've started about five of them, but I abandon them as soon as I come across a section I can't solve). I see why people avoid and complain about this so.
On the bright side, I've let myself eat as much ice cream as I want, and I've still somehow dropped a pound. A weak huzzah to that.
Posted by adrienne at 12:22 PM | Comments (14)
