Day #8492 - Christmas Came Early

I know that Thanksgiving is supposed to come first and that's not until tomorrow, but I am almost positive that Christmas was actually on Monday night because I got to meet ten fabulous YA authors at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville.

For a librarian's/more professional perspective on why these events and independent bookstores are a great thing, I suggest you check out my book review blog here. Right now I'm about to express nothing short of love and gratitude for these writers.

You have been warned.

But seriously, who knew that Mondays could ever be so great?! First of all, the whole event was moderated by author/editor extraordinaire David Levithan (Every You, Every Me; Will Grayson, Will Grayson; Boy Meets Boy) which was fantastic. He asked great questions that someone like me who's not really in the business (yet? haha) wouldn't have thought of.

First off I got to joke around and talk about "old-school, MySpace self-portrait skills" with A.S. King, author of Please Ignore Vera Dietz and Everybody Sees the Ants, two books I'm insanely excited to read. There was Stephanie Perkins who I got to talk to and she signed my copy of Lola and the Boy Next Door. She's incredibly nice, has a sense of style I wish I were bold enough to pull off, plus she's a Nerdfighter - she's easily one of my favorite writers.

Me with Stephanie Perkins

Then there was Carolyn Mackler and Jay Asher who each signed my copy of their brand new book The Future of Us (which I'll be reviewing over at The Fuma Files shortly once my grad school semester ends). I was so excited to tell them that the students at the school I work at voted for them as some of their favorite authors and it felt really good.

Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

I continued making my way around the room and talked briefly with Heather Brewer, author of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod series, and David. I asked if I could get a picture of the two of them for my students (it makes me sound slightly less like a nerdy fan-girl) and they did, which was awesome. Then David asked if I would mind taking a picture on his phone so he could send it to Heather. And I gladly did. That's right, folks. I got to hold THE David Levithan's iPhone haha. Then I got a picture with Heather and she asked if I'd gotten any swag yet. I admitted that I didn't, so she gave me a Vlad Tod tote bag AND t-shirt. You can bet your bottom dollar I checked out the first book from her series the next morning as soon as I got to work. I'm excited to give vampires another chance.

David Levithan & Heather Brewer

Rocking my new Vlad Tod shirt with Eighth Grade Bites

Then there was talking about cicadas and colored hair extensions with Jackie Kessler (The Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The Riders Quartet) and C.J. Hill (Slayers). I shared with them the secret of my incredibly bright blue hair, and in return they let me get a picture and gave me signed posters.

Jackie Kessler & C.J. Hill

Also there were Coe Booth (Bronxwood) and Jeff Hirsch (The Eleventh Plague), neither of whom I got to talk to but they both seemed incredibly nice and I'm anxious to read their books as well.

So long story short, I'm super pumped now to keep going with my draft. I know I've been a bit whiny lately that it's dragging on, this month is so long, blah blah blah, but at the end of the day, writing and telling stories makes me so incredibly happy that it's all worth it. I was so bummed when I got home that I couldn't just burn the midnight oil and write in to the wee hours of the morning, but my students and work deserve my full attention during the day so that would hardly have been fair to them. All in all, though, it was an amazing night, I'm so glad I went, and I hope I can continue going to events like this which encourage people's love of reading in the years to come.

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Anderson's Bookshop

Jay Asher

Carolyn Mackler

Stephanie Perkins
Heather Brewer

A.S. King

Jackie Kessler

Janette Rallison (aka CJ Hill)

Jeff Hirsch

Day #8056 - I am a Transparent Eyeball

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who once wrote, "I become a transparent eyeball-I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me-I am part or particle of God." Sure he was one of the fathers of Transcendentalism and was completely consumed by the majesty of nature, but even in my suburban environment I still get what he's saying. Of course there are less trees here, but I like to believe I catch his drift.

However, today as I was sitting here trying to decide what topic to blog about for you, my few but faithful and generally silent readership, I felt like a transparent eyeball. My mind was going a mile a minute in about 50 different directions, none of which were what I wanted to be focusing on (which was trying to pic a topic). My day planner, the articles I have to read, the paper I have to finish, the children's books that I just picked up from the library to read for my class next week, my back still not feeling the way it's supposed to, the pile of laundry growing on my floor - in the course of the glance around my bedroom, I felt like I was about to fall over due to the rush of "currents of the Universal Being" coming at me. Sure, stopping to smell the roses is a necessity in life, but at the same time, when is there time to get to just focus on one thing at a time?

Priorities come into consideration and so I turn to my daily to-do list for guidance. In the meantime, I should probably get to work, but not before playing with Addy who finally resembles a dog again now that she got a haircut. Enjoy the little things, but then recall Sanka from the classic film Cool Runnings: "You know what my grandfather told me? 'Get back to work!'"

Keep it classy, readers.

Day #8001 - The Power of Great Oratory

Over the last week, I have been re-watching my dvds of The West Wing, starting with Season 1 and am now about halfway through Season 2. In addition to the genuine characters, interesting story lines, and a unique setting, one of the things I am finding myself appreciating more and more is the great writing that made up this show. The dialogue is smart and fast, the patterns of speech are strong and pleasing to the ear, and the sentiment is strong. Especially in the early seasons, I feel like Aaron Sorkin really raised the bar for viewers, challenging them to watch a show where highly educated people didn't dumb themselves down for the sake of ratings. After seven seasons, I was sad to depart with these characters, but even still, the show has been off the air for nearly four years and I still quote some of it's most memorable lines.

Though I have a dismal vocabulary (especially considering I have an English degree) and my ability to deliver understandable oratory has only moderately improved thanks to my semester of student teaching, it is still a trait I value above all when it comes to story telling. Anne Lamont in her book Bird by Bird stresses that for new authors, the biggest struggle is often developing realistic or believable dialogue. I can attest to that in my attempts at writing fiction. But I also think that this can be a double-edged sword - there are many people (right now, politicians come to mind) who are capable of great writing and oratory, but aren't actually saying anything. You have been warned, readership, to try your best not get lost in flowery language unless there is a point to it.

That's all from here. Keep it classy, readership. Comments and suggestions for blogging topics are always welcome :o)

Day #7991 - The Long and not-so-Winding Stacks

Every year in the back of the iBook (the assignment book that U of I sells that's all school themed) there is a list of things students should do before they graduate. And let me tell you, when I was a freshman I thought this was the coolest list ever. Like an undergraduate Bucket List. Some of the things were more common ("Play frisbee on the Quad", "Attend a barndance") while others were a little more out there ("Attend a lecture that isn't one of your own").

(On a sad note, "Ring the bells at Altgeld" isn't on this year's list, which is a bummer because that was seriously one of the coolest things I have done on this campus. Also gone is "Get free condoms from McKinley." - what is this public school coming to??)

Another item that was cut from this year's list that I had always wanted to do in the past was "visit the main stacks in the library," but for whatever reason, I just never got around to it. But today, that changed. As further part of our orientation (and we didn't even really start the class part of our class until 3:30 this afternoon), we got to take a tour of the Main Library building including going into the stacks. Awesome? I think YES!

Day #7972 - The Longest Day

Happy Summer Solstice!

Now for those of you who either don't know me or haven't been paying attention, I have an awkward love for anything to do with either solstice or equinox - they make for four wonderful times of the year to celebrate. June 21st means different things to different people - it's (technically) the first day of summer, it's the longest day of the year in terms of hours we have of sunlight, it's the anniversary of the release of the 5th Harry Potter book, etc. Whichever you choose to acknowledge, from now until December 21st, the days will be getting ever so slightly shorter. Also, I know that the whole myth about being able to stand an egg on its end is something that actually goes along with the Spring and Winter Equinox, but I did it today during dinner. Pictures will be coming soon, never fear.

Let me just fill you in a little bit on the crazyness that has been this weekend. Friday there was a storm that came through - not a huge one, but apparently enough to knock out our power. After 56 hours of no electricity, it finally came back last night (of course, right after I had brought my computer and phone over to my grandparents' house so that I might charge everything up, update this for you the readership, and check facebook. Clearly I have my priorities in order).

On a brighter note, Saturday was a day for the ages. While at Woodfield Mall with my mom in search of an acceptable Father's Day present for Dad, we could not help but notice the huge crowd that had formed outside Field of Dreams and the entorage of mall security flanking the door. Seriously, I did not know that Woodfield even employed that many guards. Anyway, upon reading the sign outside the storefront we saw that they were expecting two athletes to come and do autograph signing. About two minutes later who should come down the escalator but Andrew Ladd and Kris Versteeg of the CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS!!! I was quite excited, I've never seen any members of the team before other than on tv because I've never been to a game. It was really cool. As if that wasn't enough hockey goodness for one day in the off season, later on Mom, Dad, Steven and I went over to Elk Grove for the Rotary Fest parade. I ran into some people from high school which was awesome because it wasn't awkward and then we staked out prime spots on the curb for the main event. As part of his designated day with the trophy, John McDonough decided to share it with his neighbors. I could barely contain my enthusiasm as I saw the STANLEY CUP with my own eyes on a float with "Chelsea Dagger" playing in the background. Yes, pictures were taken - my current facebook pic is me standing in the street grinning like a fool with the Cup behind me. And it wasn't just me - the street was full of Hawks fans and even the rest of my family could not deny how it cool it was to be so close. When the float stopped, the mayor said some nice words as did Mr. McDonough and then that was that. It was nice to have something fun happen in the middle of our power outage.

Father's Day was yesterday, and so I must give a shoutout to my own amazing DAD - You Rock! KB!! We were supposed to have people over here, but we were still without power so instead we brought the party over to Grandma and Grandpa's where the Curtis "funeral" took place, Bocci ball was played, we rolled down the hill, and all around good times were had. Finally after we got home, the lights came on around 9:30. A nice way to end the weekend.

So that's all that's been happening really in my world, loyal readers! Please keep the comments coming - it makes such a difference to know if anybody is looking at this thing. And if there's ever a topic or random factoid on which you'd like to hear my ramblings, please let me know! Bring on those emails and enjoy the rest of your solstice!

Day #7225 - Rome wasn't built in a day, but I saw it in 3

This past weekend in Rome had so many ups and downs to it, but mostly I can't believe everything we were able to see just in one long weekend. On the other hand, I kind of wish we had a little more time.

The real adventure started on Friday night while I was packing for the trip. It was around 10:30 at night and decided I was hungry, so right then would be a perfect time to learn how to make pasta by myself. Oy vey. Once one of my roommates came and showed me how to light the stove the old-fashioned way, I proceeded to make enough spaghetti for about 3 people and only heated up enough tomato sauce for a small child. It all tasted good, but needless to say my proportions were a bit off. And since we don't have tupperware here and I was leaving the next day, I ate all of it by myself.

Saturday I woke up at 5:30 to get ready to meet a bunch of the other girls at 6:45 for our 7:15 train to Bologna. However when I called them, they told me that they were already on board a 6:10 train and they had tried calling me but my phone had been off and we don't get voicemail on these phones. Not to worry, though. About 10 other people from the program were on the 7:15 train with me, so all of us got to Bologna and made the same transfer to our train to Rome.

Once we got to the city and found our new hostel (the one we had made reservations for was overbooked, so they moved us someplace else), we had lunch, saw the Trevi Fountain (BEAUTIFUL!!!!!) and did some shopping before our pub crawl that night. This pub crawl was intesne - it's a whole business. They go on the same crawl every night, starting from the Spanish Steps and charge a flat fee that includes cover at all the bars and cost of drinks for the night. I had some vino but mostly just enjoyed being out with the whole Verona group.

Sunday started bright and early at the Colusseum. Four of us decided to take a guided tour which ended up being extremely helpful. After that, we stopped at a caffe for something cool to drink. It was only late morning, but the sun was already brutal. Then we went back and took a tour of the Roman Forum which are all the ruins right in the middle of the city. Again, having a tour guide was really helpful otherwise I would have no earthly idea what I was looking at. It was also at this time that I got the majority of my weekend sunburn haha. After the Forum, Krista and I proceeded off to the Pantheon. I've read all about these different sights in books before and have seen a lot of them in movies, but to see it with your own eyes is just incredible. I was constantly blown away by how BIG it all is. After the Pantheon, we were all exhausted from the late night before, the early morning, and the toll the sun was starting to take on us. We went back to the hostel and took a several-hour nap, after which I felt infinately better. All 10 of us girls then got dressed up, went out to dinner, and headed back to the Trevi Fountain to get some night-time pictures. Again, I was blown away.

Then came Monday, the day I was looking forward to more than any other day for this whole trip. Vatican City. As luck would have it, the weather was completely dreary and after 2 days of the most incredible sunshine, it was raining. We made the best of it though while we stood in line for 2 hours for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel and in the end, it was completely worth it. I also felt like if it had to rain any of the days, Vatican day would be the best one because everything was indoors. It would have been miserable to see the Colusseum like that. Once we finally got inside, I feel like I was just in a complete state of awe. Every inch of that building's ceilings and walls are covered in the most detailed art I have ever seen. The Sistine Chapel was everything people always say it will be and more. After the museum, we walked to St. Peter's Square. Nothing on earth could have prepared me for it. The sight put an instant smile on my face and also moved me to tears - I couldn't believe I was finally seeing this with my own eyes. Being there also gave me a huge sense of belonging as a Catholic because the Church's history is very much a part of my history as well and here was our own seperate nation-state just for Catholics like me. The inside of the Basillica was absolutely astonishing; beautiful doesn't even begin to describe how it looked, but also how it made me feel. As you can see if you looked at the links I posted last night, I took a few pictures =) The only thing that could have made this weekend better would have been to have my family and friends here with me. Don't worry - I prayed for all of you, so it's kind of like you were there.

Anyway! So that was Rome. There's more to be said about the journey home, but I need to close this up for now and get ready for school. Of course because some of us had planned on going back to the pool today, today's weather is looking like a high in the middle 70s and nothing but rain for the next week and a half.