Beach!

Greg is taking me to the beach for the weekend since my birthday is next week. Isn’t he sweet? I’m looking forward to some R&R.

No card, no ID, no books for you!

The number of people who come into the library without their wallets ASTOUNDS me. I can understand not always carrying your library card in your wallet. A lot of people don’t carry them in their wallets because they have so many other cards. Having this same predicament myself, I understand that completely. That’s why we accept photo ID to check out books, place holds, etc. Pretty much everyone has photo ID. Right? Except when they leave it in the car! And lots of people do. (At least I assume they’ve left it in the car. Maybe they’re driving around illegally without their licenses!)

When this happens, many people seem perturbed when they’re not allowed to check out books. Well what did you expect?? You don’t expect to go into the store and charge your groceries to your credit card without actually PRESENTING your credit card, do you? Same thing here. You’re taking home stacks of expensive DVDs and books. We need to make sure you are who you say you are. Therefore you need to SHOW us your library card or driver’s license. I don’t get why so many people find this concept difficult to grasp.

And another thing. What gives these people so much confidence? They’re leaving valuable personal items in their cars! Yeah, this is a pretty nice community with a low crime rate. But car break-ins can happen anywhere at any time. As someone who has been the victim of car crime three times, take it from me when I tell you that it SUCKS to have your car broken into and your stuff stolen. You leave a purse or wallet in there and you’re asking for a break-in. And if you think getting your stereo stolen is a hassle, you’ll think that’s a piece of cake compared to having your money, ID, and credit cards stolen.

Failed

Last night Greg and I went to see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly downtown (good movie; go see it). On the way back to the car he told me a story about his mother and a beggar. Then not five minutes later when we were sitting in the car before driving away, a guy tapped on our window and asked if we could help him get something to eat. Out of habit I said (not unkindly) “I’m sorry.” He waved, said a polite and non-angry “thanks”, and went on his way.

This is always my response to beggars and always has been, for a variety of reasons. But last night was the first time I really regretted my denial to help. After having JUST talked about being empathic to people like that, I felt like that guy showing up when he did was a test, a test that I failed.

Always a librarian

You don’t stop being a librarian just because it’s your day off, and I’m actually kind of proud of that. Today I helped my mom with the ongoing photo album project, getting the last 18 years of boxed-up family photographs into photo albums. Some photos require much mental dredging to remember what was happening or where we were. Some photos require outside help, such as the Central Oregon waterfall Mom couldn’t remember the name of (Greg, who is a huge waterfall-lover, identified it immediately when I sent him a scan of it).

Today we relied on Google tremendously. My dad was sent to a conference in Boston in 1993 and my mom tagged along. While Dad was conferencing during the day, Mom was out exploring Boston. She took LOTS of pictures. Boston is full of cool historic landmarks, many of which Mom photographed but which are not easily remembered today. Google to the rescue! Some of the things I looked up:

• A picture of a sailing ship that said Beaver on it. It turned out to the Boston Tea Party ship.
• A picture of a statue/monument in which I could barely make out the words “monument” and “forefathers.” It was the Monument to the Forefathers in Plymouth, MA.
• A picture of a familiar-looking building along the Freedom Trail. The name escaped us, but it had a distinct gold dome. The Massachusetts State House!
• A picture of a Samuel Adams statue in front of a famous brick building, which turned out to be Faneuil Hall.
• And then we had to look up the significance and importance of Faneuil Hall.
• A picture of a docked sailing ship taken from the harbor, where Mom was on a little harbor cruise. I suspected it was the USS Constitution and a Google search confirmed I was correct.
• A picture of an historic brown house, which Mom thought she remembered as Louisa May Alcott’s house. It was indeed the Alcott family home, Orchard House.
• A picture of an historic yellow house that someone famous lived in. This one was the most challenging since Mom remembered nothing about it, but I eventually found it online. It was the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in Cambridge, now known as the Longfellow National Historic Site.

This is the kind of thing that I’ve always been good at, taking a few clues and doing some detective work online to find the answer. I get this kind of thing in the library pretty regularly, and I’m pretty good at it. Heck, I did this kind of thing even before I was a librarian!

By the way, I was appalled to learn that the Boston trip was only my parents’ second trip alone together since starting a family 14 years earlier. Mom also said that for the first five years after having me (Debs came along after two of those years), they didn’t go out to a movie ONCE. And this was pre-VCR days! It really makes me rethink wanting to have kids of my own!

Dumb movie, dumb book

Last year I tried to read the book Eragon. I really struggled with it, and only made it halfway before I gave up. I can read good fantasy, but I have no patience for mediocre fantasy. I really do not understand why this book was hyped so much. The kid who wrote it was obviously strongly influenced by The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Star Wars too. But while LOTR is both a good read and a good movie, and I can appreciate the Star Wars movies, I thought Eragon wasn’t written very well and I could not stomach it.

The book was made into a movie in 2006, so when I spotted the DVD at the library recently I went ahead and checked it out, thinking I’d at least get to know how the story ended, without having to suffer through reading the rest of the book. Well the movie was just as bad as the book! Not only that, but it was obvious that the filmmakers had deviated drastically from the book. Well, at least I only wasted two hours instead of many more hours slogging through the remainder of the book.

Always a sucker for beautiful scenery, I felt that the one redeeming quality of the movie was the scenery. There were some really awesome scenic shots of beautiful rugged mountains. According to IMDB, the exteriors for the movie were filmed in the High Tatras, in Slovakia. I didn’t know they had such beautiful mountains there! It also says that reshoots were done in British Columbia, which definitely has many beautiful mountains, but if it was just reshoots then I’m guessing those weren’t the scenic shots. You know what’s really interesting is that my grandmother’s family came from Slovakia. Hmmmm…… I think I’ll have to add Slovakia it to my list of places to visit someday!

Cold

I want more than anything to be warm again. I’m sitting here in front of my computer with frozen fingers and toes and nose. I refuse to turn the heat on because our electric bill is high enough as it is. Last January it was more than $100 because we used the heat so much. I’m not making that mistake again.

Fortunately, I asked for and received a down comforter for Christmas. I used it for the first time last night and it kept me toasty warm. But oh! the agony of emerging from that warm cocoon into the cold cold world! We had a lot of wind last night, but today it is just cold and drizzling. Yuck. I hate January. It is the absolute worst month of the year.

End-of-year Meme

A look back at the year 2007.

1. What did you do this year that you’d never done before? Went on a multi-night backpacking trip in the wilderness. Deborah and I spent three days and two nights in the beautiful Eagle Cap Wilderness.
2. What countries did you visit? Canada. I visited my friends in beautiful Vancouver, BC in July.
3. What would you like to have in the next year that you lacked this year? Gosh, I really can’t think of anything. It’s actually been a pretty good year for me.
4. What date from this year will remain etched upon your memory? November 1 – the day Greg and I first kissed!
5. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Getting a full-time permanent job! Woo hoo!
6. What was your biggest failure? I prefer not to think about my failures, and I didn’t have any major ones this year anyway.
7. What was your biggest surprise? Meeting someone special where I wasn’t even looking for him.
8. Did you suffer illness or injury? Thankfully nothing major. The worst was having the flu and a sinus infection last March.
9. What was the best thing you bought? I technically bought my Nikon in 2006, but late in the year, so I didn’t start utilizing it’s potential until 2007. A big purchase for me, but SO worth it!
10. Where did most of your money go? Rent. My place isn’t that expensive, especially since I split the cost with a roommate. But librarians don’t make much so while I have extra money to spend here and there, the single biggest expense is definitely rent.
11. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My trip to the Wallowa Mountains with my sister. I looked forward to it for months and we ended up having a really great time and seeing some fantastic scenery.
12. What song/album will always remind you of this year? “Hold On” by KT Tunstall. I checked in iTunes and I didn’t purchased this song until September 25, but it was in heavy rotation on my ipod this fall when some big things were happening so it will always remind me of this year.
13. Compared to this time last year, are you…
    • Happier or sadder? Happier! Oh so much happier. This was a good year and a lot of happy things happened to me.
    • Thinner or fatter? Fatter, unfortunately.
    • Richer or poorer? It doesn’t feel like it, but I’m richer.
14. What do you wish you’d done more of? Hiking. I did a good number of hikes this year, but not as many as I would have liked. I just ended up working so much.
15. What do you wish you’d done less of? Driving. I spent a lot of time going back and forth between all my different jobs.
16. How did you spend Christmas? I spent it at my parents’ house with family and Greg. Mom cooked a fabulous dinner, Greg played the piano for us, we enjoyed delicious goodies made by my aunt and cousin, and played a hilarious game of Outburst. A good time was had by all.
17. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? My sister. We talk pretty frequently.
18. What was your favourite TV program? I’ve cut WAY back on TV watching this year, mostly for practical reasons. I worked so many evenings that it was getting too difficult to keep up with my TV shows, plus I’d much rather spend my free time reading or hiking or taking pictures.
19. What was the best book you read? A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini. It’s a wonderfully-written story about two women’s lives in Afghanistan. A fantastic and heart-breaking story.
20. What was your greatest musical discovery? I don’t think I had a great musical discovery this year.
21. What did you want and get? A permanent job.
22. What did you want and not get? Nothing comes to mind.
23. What were your favorite films of this year? Oh gosh, I saw a lot of good movies this year. I know I’m probably missing some, but here are a few: Once, Hot Fuzz, The Lives of Others, and The Simpsons Movie.
24. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? My friends and I went out to dinner. I turned 28.
25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept this year? I didn’t have much of a “fashion concept” this year, but I definitely wore more skirts than normal. I’ve grown tired of pants.
26. Who was the best new person you met? Why Greg, of course!
27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned this year. Lesson learned: everything happens for a reason. I look back on some of the things that have happened to me, things that seemed unfortunate at the time time, and I now realize they led to something good happening or they better prepared me for something I had to face.
28. What do you hope the next year brings? Continued happiness! (I know it’s cheesy, but it’s true.)

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great New Year’s! Greg and I stayed in, which is the way I like it. I’m not the type who likes to go out on the town on New Year’s. Staying in with some movies, chocolate, and champagne is the perfect way to spend the evening.

New Year’s Day was cold and clear (no rain!), so we went hiking in the Gorge. We intended to do a five-mile loop, but we ran out of time. The days are incredibly short this time of year. Plus, you put two photographers out on the trail and progress is slow, what with all the picture-taking. While it was quite cold, it was still great to be out there getting fresh air and exercise. We even ran into some snow, leftover from last week. Very pretty. It was pretty much dark when we got back to Multnomah Falls Lodge, which looked oh so lovely, still decked out in Christmas lights.

To top the day off, we bathed the cat. Yes, a very fun way to end the day. Charmin did very well, though. She meowed in a pissed-off sort of way, but it could have been much worse. I escaped unscathed and Greg got one bite. Charmin looked pretty pitiful for awhile, but all was forgiven by bedtime when she snuggled up next to me in bed. We didn’t take pictures, but take a look here to get an idea of what a recently-washed pissed-off cat looks like.