Feeling Blessed

Life is pretty exciting these days. My cousin is getting married in the Virgin Islands in May, and I have been given a once in a lifetime chance to go. On top of that, all of my siblings on my mom's side have also been given this chance. This will allow us to spend 4 unstressful, amazing days on St. John, sharing a villa and just enjoying ourselves together. We have been growing closer over the last few years and this is a great opportunity for us to become closer as a family.

And to see my cousin married! Of course I am excited about that. She and I grew up together until her family moved to the East Coast when she was around 10. Before that we were like twins when we were together, having only 9 months between our ages (she still likes to tease me that she is younger than I am). Our grandparents got us the same gifts, we played tea party and had tickle fights. We loved it. We stay in touch, although we talk less than we should. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding back in '94.

She deserves unconditional love in her life, which she gets from her beautiful daughter, Brianne. I think that her fiance will also be a good fit for that position. She seems very happy with the match and I am looking forward to being at the wedding.

I am all a-flutter over planning this trip. I just can't stop thinking about it. My Grandfather and Step-Grandmother are making the whole thing possible. It gives me feelings of gratefulness and unworthiness at the same time. It definitely makes me feel loved. Not that I need a gift like that to know that they love me, they show me all the time in many ways, but I never expected such a selfless gift and it really turned my world upside down.

The Boy doesn't know about this yet. I am sure he will feel let down that he can't go, but it is in the last two weeks of school and we are hopefully taking a road trip during his Spring Break in April. I know he would love a chance to take a trip like this, but maybe in a couple of years we can do it again. I keep thinking that it wouldn't matter if he missed a few days, but it is a pretty crucial time for him and he hasn't been good this year at keeping up in his classes. Dr. T can't go because of school either, so the two of them will have something to bond over ;)

Sutra and a short recap

Last night a few friends from work and I went to a neighborhood restaurant. We had been talking about it ever since the owner's house was burglarized in November last year and they had come in to print off their menus in the library. The woman is our neighbor and she and her partner run both Sutra and Rain City Yoga.

None of us that went are vegetarian, but the food at Sutra is, and is actually vegan as far as I can tell. At Sutra everything is created and crafted with a lot of care given to how the foods look, taste, and go together. Each dish was beautiful and tasty with a nice blend of flavors. Nothing tried to pretend to be meat, which is where some vegetarian places go wrong. Also, everything was fresh, much if not all of the food was locally grown and it was filling. (The full menu of what we ate is on their website right now, but will change next Wednesday). I didn't get hungry after I got home. The chef/owner was very welcoming as was the server. He seemed delighted that we were from the library and so had ties to his community. There was a moment of thankfulness at the beginning for, well, everything good including sustainable farming that was not awkward at all. The whole experience was wonderful. I would eat there more often if only I could afford it. My co-workers felt the same. Since I can't eat there often, I will recommend Sutra to everyone I know ;)

Since my last post, I have cut my hair off above the shoulder. Also a local endevor--I went to Dandelion in Wallingford. Lindsey is wonderful. I also went to Silent Movie Monday with Sister U and saw The Magician. I have only gone to one of these about a year or so ago, again with Sister U, but I really like them. They have a live organist and other musical back up to fill in for the silent movies, and while their datedness is comical in many ways, I like the feeling of watching history. The Magician originally came out in the 20's, so I suppose my grandmother might have seen it then.

And finally, Comixtravaganza at my branch is tonight. I am both excited and scared. My headliner for the night almost had to cancel due to illness, but now assures me he will be there with helpers. Everything is purchased and now I just have to get there, remember my camera and be a good hostess. Wish me luck!

The End of Libraries for All -- Bwahahaha!

Another cool library event coming up: The Libraries for All Celebration and Passport Distribution

This is going to be all kinds of fun. Every branch will be celebrating and patrons will get a passport to get stamped any time between September 13 and January 2nd 2009. If you get all 27 stamps, you can turn in the last page to enter a drawing for a book lover's baskets full of goodies, and lunch with the new city librarian/CEO--a job that is yet to be posted.

The party (YES! Party!) will be held at all branches from 1-3.

Architects and artists will be present at the Library locations they worked on to visit with members of the public and to sign passports. There will be free coffee and snacks.

So come out and join us to celebrate our wonderful libraries!

I lied...

Libraryland was crazy yesterday. I spoke too soon when I said that it had been slow. I don't know what the door count was, but people were coming in in droves and they stayed for the duration. We had to shoo them out the door at closing. No behaviour problems though, that was nice. People were very understanding when I told them they couldn't sleep, take their shoes off or leave their bags unattended in the library.

Here is a picture of the scarf I made for my sister in law:

The picture is a little bright, but hopefully the effort shows. She picked a really pretty color.

We watched Ratatouille last night. It was pretty good, although I missed the last 10 minutes so I will have to try to catch that later. Tonight I am hanging with my friend. Tomorrow night is the Symphony! Beethoven's Ninth. I am looking forward to that.

Re-occuring Themes

Today has been a job search day at COL. At opening time I had a woman come in that needed to fill out an online job application for the University of Washington. The problem was that while she spoke pretty good english, she can not read it. I had to tell her that I was not able to sit with her to fill out the application. I was the only one here, and I don't know the neighborhood that well. I have been to the Worksource down here though, during my woefull year of unemployment, so I gave her the information there. I have since found that there is a place called the Rainier Vista Technology Center that might have been able to help her, but this was hours later. I also recommended that she have a friend help her, preferably someone that spoke Arabic so they could communicate on all levels.

Another gentleman came in a couple of hours later. He started out asking how he could get on a computer. We went through the card application process, and I explained to him how the computers worked. He was dismayed by the short amount that SPL allows patrons to spend on the internet. I ended up finding out that he recently lost his first job out of college. He asked me if he qualified for unemployment and I told him what I knew from my experience, but told him he should talk to the folks at worksource to find out for sure. He was a quiet young man that asked a lot of smart questions. He had an accent that I would describe as very light bronx, but really could have been anywhere on the east coast.

It is absolutely beautiful today. The sky is blue and bright with both fluffy and jetstream clouds. On my lunch I went for a walk and had a coffee. I emailed my dad earlier to find out the best place for coffee down here, since this is his neighborhood and I don't go in for Starbucks for various reasons. He directed me to the Columbia City Bakery. What a gem! Cafe Vita coffee served very well and with very little wait, and beautiful baked goods--I got a pretzel roll for a snack and a sunflower mulit-grain loaf for later. There were a lot of lovely croissants, cookies and scones calling my name but that don't fit into my goals for the moment. I was barely able to resist!

Have I mentioned that I love this area?

Oooh, another one! A woman just asked me for Seattle Magazine, which I happen to have looked up for a patron yesterday. She also wanted the top physicians issue, so I was able to direct her to their website--I even knew the url off the top of my head. No wonder some patrons think we are magic...