i just want to go the effing library.

Ughhhhhhhhh. It's just so irritating that the two freaking municipalities can't come up with an agreement so I can go to the library that:

1. I like
2. is convenient to my home.
3. is conveniently on my way home from work.

I was mad at Louisville for wanting more money from Superior, then mad at Superior for wanting me to PAY FOR MY LIBRARY CARD. I've had a library card since before I even had an allowance. Growing up in my family meant getting a library card as soon as you learned how to write your name. I had that freaking card with my name scrawled on the back in blue ink until I moved to Colorado (and I may still have it). LIBRARY CARDS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FREE. Now, of course...

Since forking over the cash is no longer even an option for me, all I can think is that I'd pay the $30 they wanted, and would probably pay more than that. BUT THE CITY OF LOUISVILLE WON'T TAKE MY MONEY. Literally. Therefore, they get nothing. Not my money, not the town's money. BUT I AM* THE ONE WHO LOSES.

My anger is probably irrational, as I think I can join Broomfield or Boulder (and may even be able to use my card in Louisville, my righteous indignation has prevented me from researching thoroughly). But the fact is I already HAVE a library card. I EVEN HAVE A FINE!!

Ugh, this post is going nowhere and writing it is making me madder still. I am being a baby and I don't care. At least you can just close your browser window or navigate elsewhere. Poor Joe has to listen to me.

*Also any other Superior residents who use the library but whatevs.

yeah, what he said.

I haven't got the slightest idea how to change people, but still I keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.

David Sedaris

BSC

Oh my goodness...

I have no idea what the equivalent of the Baby-sitters Club would be to today's girls. I loved those books. I wanted to live those books. Are you kidding? Middle school girls, starting their own club-- one of them had her own PHONE LINE-- traveling across the country together.

When I was in 4th grade, my friends and I gave each other names from the Baby-sitters Club. I don't remember who I was, but I do remember one thing: Krista Donaldson was Stacey. I remember this distinctly because we once had a classroom visitor named Miss Stacey.

Is anyone names Stacey? She asked.

Krista raised her hand.

My friends sometimes call me Stacey.

That was supposed to be our secret club. I may have been Dawn. Maybe Kristi because I initiated it. Not sure.

Little did I know, however, that there were entire blogs dedicated to the BSC. Holy Crap! What Claudia Wore Oh my goodness! BSC Headquarters

Seriously. Where are these girls and why aren't we friends?

during my unemployment...

When I first got laid off, I made a vow to read lots of books and watch lots of movies.

Books I've Read (* denotes "crap"):

• Armstrong, Lance with Sally Jenkins; It's Not About the Bike
  
• Keyes, Marian; Last Chance Saloon*
  
• Rowling, J.K.; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  
• Rowling, J.K.; Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  
• Smith, Alexander McCall; The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
  
• Smith, Alexader McCall; Tears of the Giraffe (More from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency)
  

Netflix I've Watched (* denotes "encore presentations"):

• American Splendor
  
• Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
  
• Closer*
  
• Felicity, Junior Year (Discs 1-5)*
  
• Guess Who?
  
• The Last Kiss (L'Ultimo Baccio)
  
• Like Water for Chocolate
  
• A Love Song for Bobby Long
  
• The L Word (Discs 1-5)
  
• Million Dollar Baby
  
• Searching for Bobby Fischer
  
• Sneakers
  
• The Spongebob Squarepants Movie
  
• Unfaithful*
  
• The Upside of Anger
  
• You Can Count On Me
  

Other Movies:

• Bewitched
  
• March of the Penguins
  
• Mad Hot Ballroom
  
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith
  

Plus innumerable hours of The Food Network. The list is surprisinglu short, I think.

i heart harry pocket.

from this morning's Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of the novelist J.K. (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling, born in Chipping Sodbury, England (1966). She's the creator of Harry Potter, who, in the first book about him, is an orphan forced to live with his aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley at Number Four, Privet Drive. He sleeps in a cupboard under the stairs. For the first ten years of his life, he's believed that his parents were killed in a car accident. But on his eleventh birthday, he learns that they were wizards and that they were murdered by a man named Lord Voldemort, who is trying to take over the world. The Harry Potter books follow Harry as he attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and learns how to use magic and tries to avenge his parents' death.

J.K. Rowling grew up in the suburbs of Bristol, England. She was telling stories when she was a little kid. She said, "The first story I ever wrote down was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends ... Ever since Rabbit, I have wanted to be a writer, although I rarely told anyone so."

She set out to be a secretary, learned French so she could get a job as a bilingual secretary, but she found that she hated office work. Instead of taking notes in meetings, she daydreamed and wrote possible names of fictional characters in the margins of her notebooks.

She was in her mid 20s when she took a four-hour trip by train across England, and the train stopped somewhere between Manchester and London. Rowling looked out at a field of cows and suddenly got the idea for a story about a boy who goes to a school for wizardry. She said, "Harry Potter just strolled into my head fully formed." She liked that it was a story about a boy who was powerless in the ordinary world but who gets to travel to a place where his power would be almost limitless. By the time the train trip was over, she had already invented most of the characters that would appear in the Harry Potter books.

She worked on the first one for about four years, during which time she got married, had a daughter, got divorced, and was living in Edinburgh as a single mother. She had to live on public assistance to finish the book. It came out in America in 1998, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and J.K. Rowling became one of the best-selling authors of all time.

white oleander

what did i do before i had netflix? i guess i missed out on awesome things like the entire series of wonderfalls and nostalgic things like anne of green gables.

last night hotcop and i watched white oleander. i'm about to say something about this movie which i don't think i've ever said about any movie (even anne, although it was close): it was as good as the book. sure, there were things which they left out (the foster home where astrid almost starves to death) and things which they changed (ingrid was actually a poet, not an artist). but HOLY CRAP. i mean, seriously. michelle pfeiffer really can play "the most beautiful woman i've ever seen... the most beautiful woman most people have ever seen. she was also the most dangerous." the mother, like the flower, was just so beautiful, but just so poisonous to anyone who got too close.

i think it really confirms a thought i've had for a long time: there is no relationship more fascinating than the mother/daughter relationship. yes, it's more fascinating than a male/female relationship, more fascinating than a father/daughter relationship, and more fascinating than a father/son relationship. even more fascinating than siblings or girlfriends. there is an unparalleled sense of expectation and urgency between a mother and a daughter. the mother sees the daughter as her second chance, the daughter doesn't want to be like the mother at all; yet wants to please her more than anything.

my own mother and i didn't start really getting along until i went away to college. the intensity of our aversion to each other really came to a head my junior year of high school: she would do things like not get off the computer when i needed to do homework, and i would do things like tell her to shut up. i told my mother to shut up. i cannot even imagine what i would do if i'd had me for a daughter. smacked me. taken away my car. i mean, i got good grades, didn't do drugs, didn't get arrested, but i sure could make my mother feel bad about herself. thank goodness i grew up or something by senior year, because i don't think either of us could have taken much more of it. i've never fought with anyone more than i've fought with my mother.

no daughters for me, thanks.