nice people live in la too

Sometimes I get grumpy about speeding cars that almost mow down children walking in a crosswalk, or loud-voiced television people bragging about their careers while on a peaceful hike, or, you know, the fact that the sky isn't really blue. But yesterday I did experience a brief moment of niceness at the grocery store. This was not my usual grocery store and I did not, therefore, have the little membership card that allowed me myriad discounts. I said as such to the check-out lady because usually they have a little card up there that they'll swipe for you. This one seemed to be a stickler for rules, because she nervously informed me that they didn't like for the cashiers to do that. Oh well, I thought. But! Then the nice lady behind me put her phone number into my little machine, thus entitling me to my whole $4.00 worth of grocery store discounts. I attribute most of this niceness to the fact that I was not in my own neighborhood, where the person behind me would have impatiently sighed and tapped her foot during this encounter.

wedding time!

being silly, as per usual
Originally uploaded by kitty.pants

This weekend was the Big Event of my summer, aka Lauren's wedding. We arrived on Thursday night and had a yummy dinner in Berkeley. Friday was cupcake baking day. With a few trusty assistants, I made cupcakes for the reception. I made approximately 150 chocolate cupcakes and frosting--yes, from scratch. They turned out just fine, despite the fact that I was concerned afterwards that I had forgotten to add sugar to a few batches. No one complained, so hopefully I didn't actually do that.

The wedding itself was on Saturday. In the morning my family and I headed over to the Oakland Museum of California where we saw some California art and history. Then we headed off to San Leandro for the wedding! The ceremony was perfect. Touching but not cheesy readings, poignant sermon, funny and sweet officiant--what more can you ask for? Some of the UCLA people and I were laughing afterwards because their dates were Catholic and were shocked when the ceremony was over in under an hour--and they didn't even have to go up for Communion! Meanwhile, we were thinking it was longer than the 20 minutes of most non-religious weddings we were used to. Reception was wonderful too with fabulously yummy Filipino food, a tasty cake, and, of course, cupcakes! Beadle broke it down for us on the dance floor and a good time was had by all.

Sunday, the Wellesley peeps and I went to her family's house for a brunch and present-opening. I got to be the official gift recorder, a job that I am not really that good at, because I have bad handwriting. I think Lauren is up to the job of reading it, though. After the happy couple departed, we headed off for some brief San Francisco tourism and then to the airport!

Now I am back to the real world, suffering from a cold I acquired from Lynne, and trying to get back into the swing of things. Oh yes, and wishing I could be on a Hawaiian vacation like Lauren and Beadle!

saturday morning in la

That title has nothing to do with anything, other than the fact that it is a Saturday morning in LA. I am running a bunch of errands this morning and decided it would be a good idea to get to the mall right when it opens. I am pretty sure I inherited this tendency from my mother. Anyway, here is an article about how librarians are cool. It is the number one most emailed article from the NY Times right now. At first I was like, wow, how exciting, people really care that librarians are cool. And then I realized it was just that all the librarians in the country were emailing it to each other.

here i am!

According to my loyal fans (ie, my sister), I have not been updating enough recently. I'll start with an important news story. In case you don't want to follow that link, a UCLA professor received a "suspicious envelope" causing the bomb squad to shut down part of Sunset Blvd. this afternoon. Let's turn to how this affected me, since that's obviously the most important thing. I had decided to be lazy and drive to school to investigate the Dictionary of American History for my Advanced Reference class (yay librarians). This road shut-down totally ruined my laziness and it probably took me longer to get there and back than if I had walked. But oh well, at least I didn't have to use my legs. Also, I pretty much thought that Paris Hilton had crashed her car again before I read the news, and was kind of disappointed it was just animal rights activists causing trouble.

I have been a world traveler in the past few weeks. Two weeks ago Mom and I visited Lynne in NYC. We saw Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends at the New York Public Library, walked through Central Park, watched a ballerina fall at the New York City Ballet, and became fans of flamenco in the East Village. We also helped Lynne get a new air conditioner, which is considerably more difficult in New York than in a normal place where you can drive your giant car into the giant parking lot of a giant big box store and just get a new AC. Instead our trek involved lots of carrying and a taxi. Geez! I don't know how people survive out there.

Last weekend I went up to Lauren's spa day/lunch in San Francisco. I got to stay with Kate in her new and beautiful apartment and the weather was delightful! Spa-ing was great, lunch was delish and Kate and I visited Green Apple Books, so I was a happy camper. I may or may not have acquired a new book, which is just what I need since I already have a nightstand pile of at least six.

This weekend I'm sticking around home base and then next weekend is Lauren's wedding! Other than my travels, I am working at my library job and taking two classes. Don't want to get bored, you know!

Oh also, last week (I think?) I got my hair highlighted in Beverly Hills. I am fancy. I read good reviews of this place online, all of which mentioned their "coffeehouse" music. Indeed, they played a satellite radio station called "Coffeehouse." A Tracy Chapman song came on and my hair lady commented on the fact that everyone likes Tracy Chapman, but no one you know actually has one of her CDs. I informed her that I, in fact, own a Tracy Chapman CD. Of course.

not the best week, so far

eagerly awaiting cheese toast
Originally uploaded by kitty.pants

I did have a fabulous weekend at Lauren's sister's home, where I attended her wedding shower. I got to meet her lovely niece, Beadle's family, and catch up with my college friend Kate.

Unfortunately her baby niece had a little stomach bug that I managed to catch. I haven't been as sick as I was yesterday in many years and I hope to not be that sick again in a long time! I'm feeling a bit better today--well enough to blog, at least!

In addition to the unpleasant tummy situation, my parents put our dearly beloved Piper to sleep yesterday morning. He was over fourteen years old, had increasingly weakening back legs and a case of doggy dementia that caused him to spend a large amount of time barking for no reason. He wasn't getting any better and it was just time. I did get to see him over Memorial Day weekend, so that was good. He is the one looking intently at the microwave in that picture--it was his fourteenth birthday and he was eagerly awaiting his birthday treat of toast and cheese. We hope he is getting to eat lots of cheese toast in doggy heaven.

Today I am resting up and working on a take home final--thought I would be able to get started on it yesterday, but that obviously did not happen. Hopefully the week will get better!

wellesley, wellesley, only to be there!

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic currently, as it was one year ago this week (June 1, 2006!) that I graduated from old WC. I think I have started to annoy my library school friends because I keep bringing up Wellesley, and I don't want to turn into one of those, "Well at MY college..." people. Oh well.

Anyway, I've been thinking about it for that reason and also because of this Management class I'm taking--it's an MLIS core class, don't worry, I haven't decided to get my MBA or anything. We have talked a bit about mission statements and I always want to mention Wellesley's (I don't, because, again, I don't want to be one of those annoying people) which is "Wellesley College provides an excellent liberal arts education for women who will make a difference in the world." That's it! Succinct and to the point. We've also been talking about the symbolic management style, which has a lot to do with the culture of an organization. Again, I was thinking about how the mission statement and the motto (Non ministrari, sed ministrare--not to be served, but to serve) affects the culture so much.

Since I'm being all nostalgic and rose-colored-glasses about it, I think that the culture really centers around creating people who do want to go out and do something good in the world. Numerous recent grads have "I'm not being a good Wellesley woman because I'm not doing anything great in the world" crises. Might not be such a great thing to inspire guilt in your alumnae, but at least it's guilt that pushes you to try to create positive change! Anyway, here are some words from our departing president in her charge to the class--it's very Wellesley:

"I hope that life of learning for you – so that you will be doing your part to transform the world from the inside out, seeing your first and most sacred task as the work of transforming yourselves — not once and for all, but over and over, greeting with an open mind and a courageous heart the hard questions that life will continue asking of you."

with my hand held out

I've been remiss in not posting this earlier, but life has been a bit busy recently. Our volunteer group, along with UCLA's Graduate Student Association, are doing a book drive for juvenile detention facility where I volunteer and if any of my devoted fans would like to donate a book or two, the kids and I would be ever so grateful. Tonight we had a taker on the Malcolm X autobiography, a Stephen King, a Walter Mosley and oh so many more. One kid booktalked this book, which I was a little surprised about. We often have a difficult time getting kids to read fiction that purports to tell a story about a kid with a hard life, but our reader enjoyed this one. I noticed that the Amazon review thinks that the book's hard luck story is implausible, but our reader mentioned no such thing--sadly, it probably seems completely plausible to him. Anyway, here is the little book drive spiel--sorry that it is kind of long. Thank you in advance!

BEYOND 4 WALLS BOOK DRIVE

Greetings, UCLA Community,

Reading changes lives. We ask you to partner with us to impact and improve
the lives of incarcerated children and teenagers, by purchasing books for
the BEYOND 4 WALLS BOOK DRIVE.

The Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Detention Facility in Sylmar houses 600+
children and teens. The members of the Nidorf Collective, a group of
students from the UCLA Information Studies graduate program, have been
volunteering at the facility for the past year, bringing books to this
underserved population. The Beyond 4 Walls Book Drive, sponsored by the
GSA Community Service Commission, will further the work to give the gift
of reading to these kids.

How can you contribute? Here are several ways:

1) The best and simplest way is to use this link to select books for the
kids from the “Beyond 4 Walls Wish List” on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/3GB06L568M0Y3

The books on this list have been requested by the teens at Nidorf and/or
recommended by the library students in the UCLA MLIS program, who have
seen what a difference books and reading make to this population. After
you use the link, please forward this email to others who might also like
to make a fundamental difference in this ongoing literacy program. The
email campaign will run from Friday, May 18th to Friday, June 8th. (Please
note and make use of all the tools Amazon gives you to view the books by
highest priority, by price, in detail, or in summary.)

2) Bring new or used books to our BOOK DRIVE PARTY on Wednesday, June 6th
from 5-9 p.m. at Kerckhoff Art Gallery (Kerckhoff 214). We will serve
food, beer and wine, and celebrate the success of the Beyond 4 Walls Book
Drive. (Paperbacks are preferred.)

3) Finally, if you cannot attend the event but want to make a book
donation, please deliver your new or used books to the GSA office in
Kerckhoff 316.

The GSA Community Service Commission, the members of the Nidorf
Collective, and the kids at Nidorf thank you for giving your time and
energy to community service. Your donation makes a big difference.


========================================
The Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Detention Facility in Sylmar (north San
Fernando Valley) houses children and teens ages 12 to 17, who are awaiting
adjudication. About 70 percent of the kids rotate in and out quickly
(within 28 days)—either sent home or placed in other facilities—but the
rest are at Nidorf long-term, a more stationary population of about 200
minors who may remain at the facility for up to several years.

The only library at Nidorf is in the on-premises LACOE school. The library
is only accessible to the kids during school hours, and then only if their
teachers bring them in for a class visit. They are not allowed to check
the books out and take them back to their rooms, with the result that they
have nothing to read during the hours they need it the most.

For that reason, the UCLA students of the Nidorf Collective have made it
their priority to collect books from wherever they can—mostly libraries
and schools who donate their discards—and deliver boxes of books to the
living units. Additionally, they have started five bi-weekly book
groups—one each in the Boys’ and Girls’ Special Handling Units (SHUs), two
in the lockdown units, and one in the girls’ school—for which they
constantly need more books, since they take books in, book-talk them and
give them away, also taking requests from the kids for specific titles and
then trying to track those down and acquire them cheap or free.

One restriction is that only paperback books are allowed in the living
units. Hardcover books can go into the school library for more limited use
there. The Nidorf Collective’s hope is to eventually provide a stocked
rolling book cart to each of the 15 living units, and a part- or full-time
librarian to visit all the units and also continue the book groups. But
for now, book drives such as Beyond 4 Walls are their best hope of
bringing books to eager readers in this marginalized population. We hope
you will help.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/3GB06L568M0Y3
======================================

of course i have to post this

Even though I don't think it's the best librarian joke out there.


toothpastefordinner.com

sometimes i don't think about libraries and books

Here is a list of fifteen million jobs you can get with an MLIS, just in case you thought all we did was shush people in the public library (in which case I probably couldn't be your friend).

Today was the LA Times Festival of Books, which takes place at UCLA. It is a gigantic event with a ton of author panels, events on stage (sadly, I missed Julie Andrews), and a huge number of exhibit booths. I went to an author panel on young adult literature where I saw some of the big names and got a book signed (An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. When I went to get it signed he said he always feels nervous signing for Katherines, because apparently they don't come across very well in the book. I told him I hadn't read it yet, which is why I wasn't grumpy at that moment. He chuckled.) (Sidenote: John Green is very cute, writes award-winning YA lit, is only 27, used to be on NPR, is funny. Is also married--all my librarian peeps and I were understandably disappointed). I checked out a bunch of exhibitor booths, got a free copy of The Nation and an LA youth-written newspaper, bought a book about woman fighters in the Mexican Revolution and saw the dad from Providence. And I'm going back tomorrow to see Nancy Pearl, famous librarian (who has an action figure and everything) and maybe another panel on "Writing for Teens and Tweens." Fun fun!

don't make me laugh

Normally I refrain from commenting on censorship attempts in libraries. They happen somewhat regularly and I try not to get my panties in a twist because I basically just stick to a fairly strict pro-intellectual freedom stance. This little story caught my eye, however, because of its purely humorous nature. And I quote:

"Two teens, 14- and 16-year-old Kyle Adams and Ryan Adams, went to the Bentonville PL, AR, in February so the younger brother could look up material on military academies. However, they wound up looking at The Whole Lesbian Sex Book, by Felice Newman, a book their father said left his sons "greatly disturbed… and this matter has caused many sleepless nights in our house." Earl Adams, according to The Morning News, has asked the city to pay $10,000 in damages per child, which is the maximum under the state obscenity law."

From Library Journal.

P.S. I wonder how they just accidentally found that book while searching for military academies. It was probably misshelved, right? And don't get me started on the sleepless nights.

juvey update

One of my fellow volunteers wrote a "This I Believe" essay about our volunteer experience. For the non-NPR listeners (do I know any non-NPR listeners?), people write essays about what they believe (not necessarily religious) and then some people are selected to be recorded reading their essays. They play them during Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Anyway, hers wasn't picked to be recorded, but it's on the website. It gives you a little peek into what we do, plus if enough people read it, it will apparently be placed in the "top 25" essays on the site.

I'm a little late with this, but hey, I've been busy this past week.

I've never actually read any of Kurt Vonnegut's books, but this is enough to make me love him:

"And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries."

It's from here.

a few updates

1. Seems as if those years of French finally paid off. I applied for a job at the reference desk at the UCLA library where I work, had my little interview, etc. Then someone else in the same department saw my application and decided that I should apply for his open position in collection development in support of African Studies. I thought it was all sewn up when I went to my interview, since he was the one who approached me, and then he finished the interview by telling me about the four other people he was interviewing. But happy ending, I did in fact get the job, which I think mostly consists of checking databases to see what titles we already have. So anyway, African Studies is about the only area in which my French skills come in handy.

2. I have been having an issue getting into a section of a required class. The other section, which was open, conflicted with an elective class that I really wanted/needed to take (Young Adult Literature). I held out on the waitlist for a long time and then talked to the professor about my reasons for wanting to take both of the courses. Lo and behold, she took pity on me and raised the enrollment of the class so I got in! I was trying to be all calm about not getting into the class, but I am very relieved. Moral of that story is that it never hurts to ask!

3. In case you hadn't heard, Hillary went to Wellesley.

isn't that sweet

From an article about a Vancouver, WA real estate developer who recently passed away (Royce Pollard is the mayor of Vancouver): "Pollard said he got to know Al Angelo Sr. about five years ago, when he (Pollard) joined a group of longtime Vancouver businessmen who meet on Wednesdays, calling themselves 'The Good Old Boys.' Angelo was a key member, known among the group as 'the Mayor,' Pollard said."

Um, what year is this? Oh yes, 2007. And how many people live in Vancouver? Over 150,000. And where is it located? Right across from Portland. So why is it still run by a bunch of good old boys?

This is one of the reasons I don't care that much about Vancouver. That and the fact that I used to spend most of my waking hours in Portland.

thanks for the reminder, really

as if i didn't already worry about practically everything
Originally uploaded by kitty.pants.

It did occur to me, just before I moved down here, that I was entering "major quake" territory. After some wide eyed terror, I decided not to think about the fact that I could be buried under a pile of rubble at any moment. Once I moved here, I decided not to be a complete idiot and followed Lauren's suggestions to create an earthquake kit. I have extra water at home and in the car, and some extra food in both places too. I should do more, but whatever. Also, I didn't hang anything above my bed. Every time I have to do one of these earthquake things, I kind of have a heart attack. I mean, we had earthquake drills at OES and I remember a few earthquakes occurring at home (one this past summer at 1 in the morning). We have them every once in a while, but it's not like we have an official earthquake month (April in CA, now you know). This is just all to say that when I received this in the mail from UCLA today, I was not very happy.

yes, we know you had to go to school in 8 feet of snow

Some of you (Katie, in particular) probably recall my Dar Williams phase. This was back in the day when we could see a lot of other people's iTunes on the Wellesley network, so I didn't even have to actually own any Dar music to listen to it. And believe me, plenty of other Wellesley students had Dar on their iTunes. I liked Dar so much that one of only two concerts I ever paid to attend while in college was hers (the other, revealing the extend of my hippiness, was Girlyman, who opened for DW at her concert and who describe themselves as "delicious acoustic harmony-driven gender pop").

Anyway, I just rediscovered some of my Dar music on iTunes and was particularly amused to remember the song "Southern California Wants To Be Western New York." If there is anything I do not want to be, it is anywhere that could remotely be considered upstate New York. This is primarily because most people that I have met from upstate New York are annoying about it. Lauren has a theory that it is due to an inferiority complex about not being from NYC. Really, they constantly bring up the fact that they are from upstate New York, in upstate New York this is how they do xyz, you think this weather is bad, it's so much worse in upstate New York, blah blah. You think I am exaggerating, but I really am not. It just gets a little old after a while.

Next up: making vast generalizations about people from other Mid-Atlantic states! You'd better watch out Pennsylvania.

from the new yorker

"The in-house counsel was a Wellesley graduate, she wasn't Jewish, she wasn't from New York and Harley figured that if she saw him in his natural environment he would be, he said to his partner, in just a shit pile of trouble."

This article by Larissa MacFarquahar is not online, but it is an interesting profile of a lawyer who goes after counterfeiters. Hey, you can always go read it at the library!

better watch your back

When you're at the plant nursery, that is. Today Lauren and I took a study break to a nearby nursery because we wanted to buy some house plants. While making our purchases we witnessed a large and loud argument ensue when one woman thought another woman had cut her in line. The offended party loudly accused her of said crime, and the other woman denied that she had done so, leading to some yelling on both sides. The accused cutter asked the offended line stander if she wanted to go in front of her, but she refused, saying that she just wanted the cutter to KNOW that she was being a jerk. After some more back and forth, the offended party yelled out, "Actually, I WILL go in front of you!!!!!!" and proceeded to push her plant cart up to the poor cashier.

Only in L.A.

March 1 was a good day

First of all, it was the 20th birthday of my baby sister, so happy birthday to her! Secondly, Katie became the Nelson-Atkins Museum's newest employee! Yay Katie! Thirdly? Um, Lauren and I watched a depressing movie. Ryan Gosling was a pretty cute teacher in Half Nelson. If only he hadn't had that little coke addiction he would have been perfect. Obviously he has never watched Maria Full of Grace and seen how non-fair trade the cocaine industry is. Geez, Ryan.

in which i realize that los angeles is big

Sometimes I really cannot believe how gigantic Los Angeles is. I had assumed that Sylmar, where the juvenile hall I visit is located, was its own city. Why might I assume this? Oh, only because it's 22 miles north of me. I realized that it was, in fact, just a NEIGHBORHOOD of Los Angeles when I saw that they have a Los Angeles Public Library branch, the city library. It makes me feel slightly better to find out (via Wikipedia) that it is Los Angeles's northernmost neighborhood. But still! 22 miles north! And I only live in the middle of the western side of Los Angeles!