229. Fireworks Out my Window

Activities, Events 0

Tonight I discovered there was a fireworks show going on outside my window.

Okay, it was far enough away that the bangs came quite a bit after the bursts of light. And, okay, there was a tree between me and them.

But the tree’s foliage was fairly sparse – didn’t really obstruct my view much at all. And the fireworks were also reflected in the lake – which was beautiful.

And I could actually sit in my rocking chair and put my feet up and watch the show – which makes them marvelous right there!

228. Answered Prayer

Family 0

Today I learned about an answer to prayer. My sister Abby recently finished her PhD in Educational Psychology and had asked for prayer about what job to look for in the Fall. We don’t know if she will still be needed to help care for my mother, who is in the last stages of Alzheimer’s. So she wasn’t sure where to apply or whether full-time or part-time.

Well, through a friend of a friend, she was put in touch with a professor who was looking for someone to teach a course in educational psychology this fall. After talking 3 minutes on the phone, she was hired!

It’s one night a week, 3.5 hours per night, and sounds like a course she’s interested in teaching. And the professor has some very good connections for when she’s looking for a long-term job.

It’s lovely to see prayers dramatically answered.

226. Family Math Games

Events, Libraries 0

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this one before. But I do love it when I get to host families playing games with their kids. Today I brought my cousin’s game, Sovereign Chess, and a teenage boy and his dad showed up and really enjoyed playing it. I really enjoyed watching them. (The dad started out aggressive and came very close to winning – but then in the longer game, the son controlled many more colors and won the game.)

It just makes me so happy to provide this for our community and get to watch it happen.

225. My Friends

Friends 0

I posted a quote on Sonderquotes tonight that hit the spot.

When I was married, I didn’t feel like I needed my friends as desperately as I do now. After all, I went home to my Best Friend.

I no longer have a Best Friend who lives with me – but I do have a wonderful hodge-podge of wonderful people in my life. Tonight I’m thinking of Silent Book Club and the two friends who came – one a delightful and kind storyteller, and the other a young college student who loves horror stories and drives an hour to join us.

I’ve got friends who build me up in my faith. I’ve got friends in the library world. I’ve got 14 new friends who are going to help choose this year’s Newbery winner with me! I’ve got friends who play board games with me.

And this quotation reminded me that the wonderful variety in my friends enhances my life. Even though I’m not “in a relationship,” even though I’m in my home alone right now – I am so rich in my friendships.

224. Michelle Obama at ALA

Activities, Events 0

I got to hear Michelle Obama!

My flight was delayed almost 4 hours – and I didn’t get to my hotel until it was almost time for the opening session to start. People had been lining up since before I got on the plane. But I was able to get registered and get in there by 4:20 pm – and they were still doing Opening Session things. I heard her introduced and every bit of her talk, and it was a treat all the way around.

223. Healthy at ALA Annual Conference

Health 0

Maybe this should be a small thing, but I felt great at ALA Annual Conference this year! No headaches, no neckaches. I was even able to get up early! (The joke was on me – I didn’t realize until my plane landed on the way home that there had been a one-hour time change in my favor.)

The fact is, I’d noticed a lot of underlying irrational fear about the conference. This was for two reasons.

The big reason was that traveling to ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans in 2011 was where I got the neck injury – a vertebral artery dissection – that caused my stroke. The stroke didn’t happen until 4 weeks later, but I had a bad headache, centered in my neck, for all of those four weeks. I am absolutely sure that carrying heavy bags of books did not help. So my associations of New Orleans had been strongly flavored with pain and fear. (So glad to have new associations!)

The second reason was that at ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver just four months ago in February, I had started thinking maybe I didn’t really need to be careful about carrying heavy things – I hadn’t had neck pain or headaches in months. And then the first day of the conference, I overdid it lifting my carry-on into the overhead bin and lifting my heavy rolling bag up the shuttle bus steps. And the first night, I laid awake in my hotel room for hours with my neck hurting badly. Not as badly as when the stroke happened. But badly enough to keep me from sleeping and make me wonder if I should go to the ER. But I wasn’t going to do that in a strange city, and I had a Newbery meeting to go to….

(It did feel better after I got up the next day. But my neck continued hurting off and on for the next month. Then I aggravated it again and it hurt for about another month. So I’m very glad I didn’t aggravate it.)

I suppose there’s a third reason – and that’s that for most of my life, traveling – and strongly disrupting my routine – tends to give me migraines. This time I didn’t get any migraines at all, including when I had a glass of wine. (It made me tipsy instantly – I can’t hold wine at all – but did not give me a migraine.)

So I am very grateful to be feeling great the day after ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans!

222. ALA Annual Conference – Paid for

Activities, Libraries 0

I’m on my way to ALA Annual conference in New Orleans tomorrow! And one of the lovely parts of being on the Newbery committee is that my library is paying for my trip! Usually, I have to apply for a scholarship, and it doesn’t always pay for all expenses. So this is lovely, to get to go without worrying about scrimping at every turn. (Not that I’m going to be extravagant. But it’s one less worry.)