Contrast

About a year ago, I could easily be described as a stress ball with a bun. My first year of summer craziness made me unable to breath let alone relax. This year, hewever, I am like a whole new person. A year of experience and a few other distractions have made me ... well, zen.



This is me just after a successful chalk art program. I'm pretty sure I didn't smile for the entire month of July last year.

I Am a Master

This week I used my Master's Degree to:

• scrub obscenities off a book drop.
• teach young children the crab walk.
• make a vegetable costume.
• explain to young ones that soccer is an outside game.
• and place 1,232,673 holds on Diary of a Wimpy Kid (the book, not the movie).

It's a good life!

An Assignment

On the bus ride to work today, I was told
that I looked "neat and tidy."

On the bus ride home, I was told that I
looked like Britney Spears.

What is wrong with this? Discuss ...

A Berry Small Garden

As I was preparing to move to California, I told everyone who was willing to listen that I wanted a small bit of dirt to grow things in. California seemed like the ideal place. My first apartment had just that, but sadly I did not take the opportunity. Luckily, I work for a garden obsessed library.
Meet my container garden - two little strawberry plants. It will sit and grow on my little stairway. I will love it, and water it, and sing to it, and maybe even hug it a little until one day a small berry will grow. Then I will eat it and feel very proud that I have accomplished one thing I set out to do.

The Huntington

My mom came for a brief, but wonderful visit last weekend. Whenever I have guests, I always try and do something I have never done before. We headed to the Pasadena area where there is a place called The Huntington - a combination library, art gallery, and garden. The gardens were delightful and we spent most of our time there.
This is looking towards the Japanese gardens and the tea room, which was originally built in Japan, dismantled and sent to California.

The roses never cease to amaze me. I've blogged about this a year ago, but I am still obsessed. I think they are amazing.

After visiting the gardens and perusing the art galleries, we headed into the bookshop. I normally get a bookmark from every place that I visit, but I stumbled upon the collected works of Randolph Caldecott. Caldecott was a pioneer in children's illustration and the prestigious Caldecott Medal is named for him. After taking stock of my wants and my needs, I decided I couldn't live without this book. I now own a little bit of children's literary history.
The day was sunny, wonderful, and ended with some frozen yogurt. Glorious!

Another Bus Story

I've gotten used to my bus riding routine especially on Wednesdays. Typically, I wait in intense sun for my first leg of the trip. If glares could kill, the driver of this bus would have murdered me months ago. I can feel hate emanating from her aura. (It is not necessarily directed at me, but all who would have the audacity to ride her bus.)

At night, I'm used to seeing the same friendly driver. I sit near the front to avoid the riff-raff in the back. We make small talk usually about the broken money collecting machine, the weather, and our gladness that the day is nearly over. Then, I wait for what seems like eons for my last bus to come. That driver gives no indication that I regularly ride his bus.

Well, it's been a couple weeks since I've done my regular Wednesday night routine. Today I got on the bus greeted the usual driver, and we chatted for a bit. She asked me why I haven't seen her and what I've been up to. Then she told me that last week when she didn't see me, she decided to wait a few minutes. She didn't want me standing alone in the dark wondering when the next bus would be along.

I decided that that was pretty much the nicest thing ever! At the end of the day, when she could have sped forward and gotten of work a few minutes early she waited for me. I am pleased to announce that there are some nice bus drivers out there.

Rockin' Rexburg

Yesterday, I returned from a visit to Rexburg. Having gone my entire Provo experience without visiting Idaho, I assumed I was in the clear. Now four years later, I flashed back to college life for the weekend. Some family friends from Maine graciously allowed my friend, Meagan, and I to stay with them while we visited my other friend, Sarah.
Here we are happy to be reunited. We drove from SLC to Rexburg in excellent time, but some confusing Google Map directions made us very happy to finally see each other.
Sarah gave me a tour of the BYU-I Library. I was quite impressed. I'm a library tourist. It being late March in Idaho meant that it was still pretty cold. Meagan and I tried to cope, but complained occasionally and stayed bundled up.
On Saturday, we were pretty tapped out on ideas of what to do in Rexburg. We drove out of town. We found this lovely park and river in St. Anthony.
This giant root beer mug is Ashton, Idaho's claim to fame.

This trip was relaxing and fun - my two favorite things.