done, and done

No, not the blog, although one might think so, since my posts have been so infrequent . My career. Buh-bye. New York State offered an incentive I couldn't refuse, and I didn't. I'll be over and done, 10-4 good buddy, on 10 September, at least in this incarnation of a career.

I was dithering until last Tuesday, when my therapist provided me with clarity, and a mantra. Should I leave now, should I wait until November, blah blah blah... and she said, "Teabird, you're done."  She's right. (She doesn't really call me Teabird.) I'm done.

I.Am.Done. I.Am.Done. I.Am.Done. I.Am.Done. 

Done is good. A job well and truly done is good. Time now to breathe, and move on.

What have I been doing? Reading, some. I've read the first two Sookie Stackhouse novels on my eReader, and I'm listening to Saturday by Ewan McEwan. I bought the e-book of Lives Like Loaded Guns by Lyndall Gordon, the new biography of Emily Dickinson, and started to read it today.

Writing, some. Mostly letters, some rather tardy. My friend Stoneview inspired me to join Postcrossing, which I did today, and my friend Madame Purl inspired me to take up crewel embroidery, which I shall as soon as I get the design I've been drooling after considering on eBay for a month. 

Spinning, some. I've spun another big hank of the Teddy Bear roving and more of the AbbyBatt, and almost finished the shawl I was knitting when last I mentioned knitting.

Spending, some. I've just ordered a tiny inkle loom from here, and I'm looking forward to some loomtime with Penny (not to mention scritch 'n' snuggle time with Shadow Ninja).

Fretting, some. That's my nature.

And - beginning to see possibilities for adventure, learning, growth, facetime with friends, and maybe even productive uses of precious time. Just beginning. I don't want to jinx anything.

Over to you.  Are you retired? Are you going to retire soon? What does "retire" mean to you? I really want to know.

Oh, by the way: this spindle was designed for me by Yorkieslave, whose purse puppies have become an obsession (and a growing collection). This one depicts a fossil, in amber, one of my favourite things. Amber is wonderful for a spindle, for jewelry, and for an object of contemplation. It's also good for a reminder of what not to be...

p.s. - this post is for Carrie, who prodded me to write it... go over and wish her a belated happy birthday!

finished object and - I'm a winner!

First, thank you - I won these books!

• Jean Plaidy - The Heart of the Lion from Historical Tapestry, a collection of book bloggers whose reviews and recommendations always are exemplary! (Kailana is reading the Maisie Dobbs novels right now, and so am I - do go and read her reviews!)
• Jeffrey Eugenides - The Virgin Suicides from the Biblio Brat at Biblio Blogazine.
• Heather Gudenkauf - The Weight of Silence from Mira Books .(Kristi's review at Books and Needlepoint sent me scurrying for it!)

The green background is my finished object: a blanket for baby Houston in Idaho, a certified cutie. Trust me.

I also won The Heartfelt Award from Rebecca, Lost in Books.

• Do you reach for a cup of cocoa or tea when you're relaxing, seeking comfort, sharing a plate of cookies with family and freinds? You know the feeling you get when you drink a yummy cup of cocoa, tea, or a hot toddy? That is what the Hearthfelt Award is all about, feeling warm inside. Rules: Put the logo on your blog/post. Nominate up to to 9 blogs which make you feel comfy or warm inside. Be sure to link your nominees within your post. Let them know that they have been nominated by commenting on their blog. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

I'd like to nominate all of the blogs I've mentioned today, plus one more - A Pass Through the Moonlight Garden, created by friends whose site soothes and delights this teabird. I do, after all, worship the moon.

• Let's take a walk together and share our season's glowing gifts of night, we will spend a moment imagining what will come after the twilight's air.
  

Musing Mondays

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about talking to strangers…

We were all warned as children to 'never talk to strangers', but how do you feel about book-talk with random people? When you see people reading, do you ask what it is? Do you talk to people in the book store or the library? Why or why not? What do you do if people talk to you?

Even as a book-mad librarian, I am shy about asking people what they are reading - especially at the library, where my own fanaticism about privacy issues has to override my curiosity.

("Madam Librarian," says the detective, "was the shoplifting suspect reading anything suspicious?" "I may not divulge that information without a subpoena," says Madam Librarian, hoping that the Wally Cox lookalike reading The Borrowers was not guilty of anything more serious than a desire to revisit childhood delights.)

Even in bookstores, even in the cafes of bookstores, I do not ask questions about peoples' books, even if the books are arranged artfully to attract notice. ("Look at me, I'm reading Nietzsche.") I even resist the urge to talk about the pile of knitting books in front of the woman at the next table with Noro peeking out of her tote bag.

However, I do find myself in situations in bookstores that force me to talk to strangers. In fact, I can not be in a bookstore without being approached by someone who asks "do you work here?" - even if it's the dead of winter, I'm swaddled in a winter coat and scarf and mittens, and I'm carrying my purse. Somehow, my aura must announce that I'm a book person. It's both comical and complimentary. I can't control my aura, but I can do my best to amass some good karma.

"No," I say, "but maybe I can help..." And, usually, I can.

a bad day, rescued

I lost most of the weekend to a migraine and dread. I can take pills for the migraine, and I can take pills for the dread, but the combination is tougher than pharmaceuticals.

However --
I won a contest! JenClair (A Garden Carried in the Pocket) is sending me The Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander. Thank you, JenClair!

happy dance

I won a contest over at Romancing the Yarn - a skein of utterly delicious Dream in Color Smooshy and a book by Barbara Bretton - also known as WickedSplitty on Ravelry. YAY! Thank you!

As Barbara wrote here, the Internet has an amazing power to bring people back into your life. I knew Barbara as one of my favorite patrons when I first worked as a librarian, and I was so sorry when she moved away. What a treat to meet up with her again!

We'll have to wait for her next book, Casting Spells, forever until November. Here's a peek...

I do have a FO or two to show you, but I'll have to wait until they arrive at the home of baby Narjis.

Tagged!

Anna (Knit-Write) tagged me for a meme:

Open the book you're currently reading to page 161 and read the fifth sentence on the page, then think of 5 bloggers to tag.

I'm reading The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor: "They started off through a field of rough yellow weeds to the hog pen, a five-foot boarded square full of shoats, which they intended to ease him over into."

I'll tag Kim, Sallee, Bridget, Caitlin, and Silvermoonrani (all of whom just love to be tagged...)

Hedwig and I await (along with how many billion others??)

I usually post Booking Through Thursday responses at Tea Reads, but this one has to be here, too...


Okay, love him or loathe him, you’d have to live under a rock not to know that J.K. Rowling’s final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out on Saturday… Are you going to read it?

1. If so, right away? Or just, you know, eventually, when you get around to it? Are you attending any of the midnight parties? This Ravenclaw will be reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the moment it arrives from Amazon.uk. If I don't get it by Saturday, I'll have to hide in my closet to keep from being spoiled.
2. If you’re not going to read it, why not?
   
3. And, for the record… what do you think? Will Harry survive the series? What are you most looking forward to? I am in the "Snape is a good guy" queue because I trust Dumbledore completely. I think he took Harry on the (purposely) unsuccessful quest for the Horcrux as a rite of passage, to toughen him and to ensure that he could do anything necessary to vanquish (hiss) Voldemort. It was Harry's Bardo, facing what he feared, and he got through it.

Danger, Will Robinson

Part of the pleasure I take in being a librarian, a cataloger, is that I get to handle almost every new book that comes into the library. Today, I cataloged The enemy at home: the cultural left and its responsibility for 9/11 by Dinesh D'Souza. D'Souza has been on many political talk shows, promoting his book, for the last week or two; Book TV gave him 3 hours last Sunday (which I missed) to discuss his ideas. (Ok, Bill O'Reilly, let's hear how the liberal media suppress conservatives.)

My practice, when I catalog a book, is to give it a thorough scan. I want patrons to find the book easily, and I'm liberal (ahem) about adding subject headings to the catalog if I think patrons need more access than the Library of Congress allots.

Although (actually, since) I think that the central idea of this book is preposterous, I gave it a lot of attention. I'll skip the political and cultural absurdities, such as his contention that "the right of mothers to have careers" is a product of "the liberal assault against family values in traditional cultures." If I argued every one of these points -- well, let's just say that I'm damn sick of arguing these points.

However... I can't let this one go:

"Pressured by Philistines, ignorant prosecutors brought obscenity charges against works like James Joyce's Ulysses, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and D. H Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover. These are not works of equivalent value: Lawrence, for example, is markedly inferior to Joyce and Flaubert, and literary culture would not suffer greatly if any of his books had been suppressed."

Ok. Discuss. And congratulate me - I managed to keep myself from making up a subject heading that would assist patrons like myself if they were searching the catalog, although "Delusional punditry" almost was too good to pass up. I'll have to wait for the Library of Congress for that one.