03.29.10
Two Tarts!
More Things About Portland, PLA, and the Last Few Days
1. Publishers seem desperate to find the next “vampire.” At various events, publishers swore the that one of the following is going to be the next vampire phenomenon: angels (fallen and non-fallen), ninjas, and dystopias.
2. Things seen during conference sessions: a librarian talking on her cell phone; a librarian with her baby (what set of circumstances led her to bring that baby to PLA? I felt like I was back at work in the children’s department when the baby starting crying, which in turn almost made me start crying); a librarian (Nancy Purl, see earlier post) knitting–her pink sweater was really coming along by Friday
3. Thank you, Albert Whitman, for The Boxcar Children, and for dinner on Thursday. Your new books look good!
4. I gave my presentation on Friday. I think our group did well. I hope we spread Scratch to lots more libraries! The presentation is online somewhere and when I figure out where it is, I’ll post it.
5. Bridget and Barrett took me to see the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden!
6. Rumor has it that the Multnomah County Library in downtown Portland has a problem with fake therapy animals. For instance, someone tried to bring in a “therapy squirrel.” Now, I’ll be the first to advocate for therapy animals, but that’s taking it a little too far…
7. On Saturday we had a wonderful dinner with famous authors Laini Taylor and Suzanne Young.
8. The presenters served wine at one session…silly me, I got there too late to get a glass! Now, why didn’t we think of that for our presentation?
9. We went to the Two Tarts bakery! I have never been so full from cookies in my life. YUM!
10. In one 20-hour period, I cleaned up both cat puke and dog puke.
03.24.10
Ten Things I Saw Today
1. Nancy Pearl
2. A librarian knitting (Nancy Purl?)
3. A dirt bike gang
4. A woman carrying a rat on her shoulders
5. A dog on the light rail (with its owner)
6. A long line in front of Voodoo Doughnut
7. A bacon doughnut
8. A panic-attack inducing amount of books at Powell’s
9. A crazy giant pink awning on a store selling funky Asian stuff, but I can’t remember the store’s name. Anybody know what it is?
10. A giant dish of cassoulet
03.23.10
It’s too late to turn back, here we go…
Greetings from Portland! It’s warm and sunny and beautiful here! Wow! And best of all, I got to see Bridget and Barrett today! I’m in town for PLA. Tomorrow I’ll go over to the convention center for some serious librarian action. Button up your L.L. Bean jackets, I’m planning on going to see Nancy Pearl in the morning. And I can’t wait to go to the Tarts bakery with Bridget!
I rode the light rail out from the airport. This is something I did not see:
And so it goes on… by Bridget
Thanks for the great suggestion in the comments, Janet! I hit a spot of luck and they had Polly Horvath’s Northward to the Moon (the sequel to My One Hundred Adventures) at my dinky little neighborhood library so I was able to read it over the weekend and keep my travel/Bohemian lifestyle/planning/finding yourself theme going. I’m a Polly Horvath fan. I love her off-beat characters and storytelling style and this book delivers on both counts. Northward to the Moon has both a love for adventure and how uncomfortable that can actually be along with a sense of home. Strangely enough, the poet mom is the one who seems the most rooted in the idea of home, despite her dreamy qualities.
One of the ideas in the book that appeals to me is this “navel of the universe” idea. How there seems to be one place for a person that just feels like the middle with everything else sort of floating around outside of it. An art history professor that I took a Renaissance art class from at UW-Madison talked about how Rome was the navel for her even though she lived in Madison (and may have even argued that it was the navel of the universe PERIOD and that everyone should feel that way).
The navel concept is so striking to me because I live in Portland, OR and am completely and madly in love with Portland and everyone here and, right now at any rate, can’t imagine leaving to move somewhere else. Yet I have that navel feel for Madison, WI. We lived in Madison for a good eight years after moving back after college so maybe it’s only a length of time thing, but there’s something about Madison being more or less in the mid-section of this country/continent and having so many of the best people in the world in it (in my humble opinion) that gives it a navlishness for me.
Also, you only have to inch a bit in one way or the other time zone-wise instead of being a full THREE HOURS apart as we are now from the east coast.
Which is important.
But Portland – the flowers, the soft damp air, the green, the culture and fabulous people. I’m hooked, but my navel appears to be taken. Portland is going to have to take another valuable body part.
Any other suggestions for books to add to my travel/Bohemian lifestyle/planning/finding yourself theme?
Or suggestions for a new theme that you’ve found yourself accidentally or on purpose reading all in row or always wished that you had?
Look for a joint blog post coming soon as Janet is headed out this way for PLA. We might even blog from the Tarts bakery while snacking on mini cookies.
Bridget
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