Like The Queen
Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content.

2 Comments:

Okay, you tease, who is Your Favorite Author? Did I miss a clear hint? This could open up a new reading direction for some of us!

Sorry life is so busy, and there is so little time for sleep. It has become summer-with-a-vengence here as well, and I'm just not ready to retreat into a/c yet.

Shelia

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:47 AM  

Nope Nope. It's a wicked tease. I will write about My[Other]FavoriteAuthor but - she deserves a Whole Post and I am not going to say anything till I can give her her due. Evil Me!

By Blogger Bess, at 9:23 AM  

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Wednesday, June 08, 2005  

Once a year we conduct tours of the library for elementary school children. We’d love it if the teachers would schedule them the last 3 weeks of school, but they always cram them into the last few days. It means a spate of days where we arrive early at work, read the same cluster of stories, lay all the Barbie, Nascar, dinosaur, snake, cake decorating and drawing books on the tables in the children’s room and brace ourselves for 30 minute tidal intervals of squirmy cute little kids. It’s fun, but mind numbing and it doesn’t mean that other people don’t come into the library wanting the same services they always want. The phone still rings, the computer network still freezes, in short, life goes on.

As a rule, in the weeks before the library becomes KiddyLand, we start planning and organizing the programs we’ll be offering during the summer. Everyone pitches in but the responsibility is mine. Unfortunately, this year, my mind was a little distracted with heart attacks and the unexpected responsibilities of doing all the lifting, toting and driving. The demands on not just my time, but my brain, were insidious, not really apparent, so I hadn’t realized how much else I was forgetting to do. Now, it is 12 days till everything is supposed to begin and I’m scrambling around trying to line up performers and design crafty, yet literary, activities for 9 year olds. Usually it is not only fun, but something I can do without much conscious thought. Nevertheless, some actual brain activity must occur in order for things to happen, and evidently, what little brain I have has been concentrated elsewhere.

So work is not just busy, but mad. It only lasts for a little while, then we’ll get a brief moment to catch our breath before the onslaught of SummerReadingClub and RivahVacationers pours over us. Between mid June and Labor Day the tempo at work notches up about 45%. It used to be really rough because there were only the two of us holding down the fort 49 hours a week. Life is a little easier now that we have a little more staff but that quaking sensation, that eerie stillness before the storm, still permeates these days after Memorial Day but before the last day of school.

We’ve been blessed with a spring of idyllic weather; dry cool days followed by Camelot-ian rain; it only falls after midnight. This happens only once in a very blue moon and 2005 was our lucky year. In true Virginia fashion, though, this Edenesque weather smashed into the misery that is an east coast summertime on Monday. Slimy humidity and 90 degree temperatures plunked themselves down along the riverbank, leaving us gasping and sweating. Doors swell and either won’t open or won’t close. Your hair does it’s humidity thing, flattening down around the temples making your face look like a pear, or sproinging up into a 60’s ‘fro like something from Mod Squad. In 24 hours the rose bushes have all sprouted black spot mold and the peonies - which are usually burnt to a crisp by now, have balled and hung their droopy heads. It matters not what the earth is doing on it’s orbital track round the sun. It’s summertime with a vengeance here in Gawd’s Country and don’t you forget it.

Gone are the sweet clear May days when it’s a pleasure to walk outdoors at lunchtime, peeking into shop windows as you stroll down main street. Gone are those sleepy afternoons when I can look around the library and say “hmm. I think I’ll weed the 600’s.” (library talk for updating the collection.) Gone is that feeling that I got it all done and can go home with a light heart. In it’s place is an edginess, a scrabbly feeling that I forgot Something Important. And I probably did.

And so, what does TheQueen do when her life begins to crumble around her? Oh - well, she retreats into a book, of course. Better yet, into an "oeuvre" by Her[Other]FavoriteAuthor. And she is having so much fun escaping into HerFavoriteWorld full of HerFavoritePeople she is staying up late or waking early and trying to do That Which Is June on 4 hours of sleep. Needless to say, she is not posting much on her blog. She’s not even reading other blogs or even - gasp - KRForum posts. She is even imagining how she could read while driving to work - although she is not attempting to do so.

She will come back one of these days with details of her travels, but until then, you can take comfort in the knowledge that she is multi-tasking to the max, feeling frazzled and guilty, and still thrilling to the secret pleasure that is reconnecting with favorite fantasy friends.

posted by Bess | 7:28 AM
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