first of june, hooray!
i love the first days of months. so cheery and optimistic ~ who knows what the month will bring! we have been in bolivia for forty days and though there’s been moments of omgi’mlivinginbolvia and wtfamidoingwithoutajob, it’s been amazing. i’ve had twinges of missing u.s. stuff and i’m absolutely positive that won’t go away (especially california pizza kitchen’s carmelized pear and gorgonzola pizza. just writing the words made me drool just a teeny bit. i have a recipe but it does you no good when you can’t find gorgonzola. yet. oh and i miss my nieces and nephews. and.. oh and a lot of stuff, i’ll shut up already or else i’ll get all sighy.)
but! i am so glad to be here and every so often i’m filled with this feeling of wow lucky lucky andrea, how in the world did you swing this?? i remember how years ago i realized there was this feeling i’d get now and then, a feeling i ended up calling “being on the right path.”
i’d had that feeling for years – that’s what i felt about being an exchange student in high school and living in palermo, italy for six months, that’s how i felt about going to bryn mawr (totally random casual decision – i just liked the turrets in some of the campus architecture. plus they had flags flying the day i visited! the sci-fi/fantasy girl in me could not resist turrets with flags.)….
after the first few years in los angeles, i think, for a long time, i didn’t feel it that much at all (except for library school – that was a wow, of course i’m a librarian. ;) moving back to maryland, for those of you have been reading for a long time (thank you!) know already, wasn’t that feeling of being on the right path at all, it was more like i was stuck between a rock and a hard place, so, i chose the hard place. or rock? whatever. it was tough. and then my dad getting sick and then dying. it was a hard time! to say the least.
and now, now.. i just feel like i’m back on that path. (knocking on wood, knocking on wood.) and oh my gosh has it been long enough! not that i haven’t done and learned a lot in the past however-long-it’s-been years, i sure have and i don’t regret it. too much. but i’m so glad to be here now. here is tough in it’s own ways too, but i love it.
the end.
….ok ok, super cheesy writing, i should just write a self-help book or something, right? my memoirs. haha! but with that said and out of the way, i can go back to normal stuff. like showing you all pics of the apartment! and pics of bolivia itself! it’s amazing here. i loved it as a kid, visiting here every few years for the summer or christmas, but now…?? it’s even better than i thought.
so, let me just hit ‘publish’ for this little post and then i can get back to feeling all normal about mellowtrouble and not like oh my gosh, it’s so out of loop from where i am, what i’m feeling, what’s occupying my brain – you know what i mean, i suspect. a big hello to you from gorgeous la paz, bolivia! happy june ~ ~
comment [2]
{ posted 58 days ago, under moving to bolivia & more me }
i couldn't resist
what books have you read from the list of top 100 children’s books? here’s mine, in bold, 57 in total. not bad. and though there’s some titles i see missing from this list (no fairy tales? i loved reading the brothers grimm and hans christian anderson as a kid!) and though there’s some that are, i supect, mostly here because they were recently published, it’s still a good list.
The Egypt Game Snyder (1967)
The Indian in the Cupboard Banks (1980)
Children of Green Knowe Boston (1954)
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane DiCamillo (2006)
The Witches Dahl (1983)
Pippi Longstocking Lindgren (1950)
Swallows and Amazons Ransome (1930)
Caddie Woodlawn Brink (1935)
Ella Enchanted Levine (1997)
Sideways Stories from Wayside School Sachar (1978)
Sarah, Plain and Tall MacLachlan (1985)
Ramona and Her Father Cleary (1977)
The High King Alexander (1968)
The View from Saturday Konigsburg (1996)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Rowling (1999)
On the Banks of Plum Creek Wilder (1937)
The Little White Horse Goudge (1946)
The Thief Turner (1997)
The Book of Three Alexander (1964)
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Lin (2009)
The Graveyard Book Gaiman (2008)
All-of-a-Kind-Family Taylor (1951)
Johnny Tremain Forbes (1943)
The City of Ember DuPrau (2003)
Out of the Dust Hesse (1997)
Love That Dog Creech (2001)
The Borrowers Norton (1953)
My Side of the Mountain George (1959)
My Father’s Dragon Gannett (1948)
The Bad Beginning Snicket (1999)
Betsy-Tacy Lovelae (1940)
The Mysterious Benedict Society Stewart ( 2007)
Walk Two Moons Creech (1994)
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher Coville (1991)
Henry Huggins Cleary (1950)
Ballet Shoes Stratfeild (1936)
A Long Way from Chicago Peck (1998)
Gone-Away Lake Enright (1957)
The Secret of the Old Clock Keene (1959)
Stargirl Spinelli (2000)
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle Avi (1990)
Inkheart Funke (2003)
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase Aiken (1962)
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 Cleary (1981)
Number the Stars Lowry (1989)
The Great Gilly Hopkins Paterson (1978)
The BFG Dahl (1982)
Wind in the Willows Grahame (1908)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret Selznick (2007)
The Saturdays Enright (1941)
Island of the Blue Dolphins O’Dell (1960)
Frindle Clements (1996)
The Penderwicks Birdsall (2005)
Bud, Not Buddy Curtis (1999)
Where the Red Fern Grows Rawls (1961)
The Golden Compass Pullman (1995)
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Blume (1972)
Ramona the Pest Cleary (1968)
Little House on the Prairie Wilder (1935)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond Speare (1958)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Baum (1900)
When You Reach Me Stead (2009)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Rowling (2003)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Taylor (1976)
Are You there, God? It’s Me, Margaret Blume (1970)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Rowling (2000)
The Watsons Go to Birmingham Curtis (1995)
James and the Giant Peach Dahl (1961)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH O’Brian (1971)
Half Magic Eager (1954)
Winnie-the-Pooh Milne (1926)
The Dark Is Rising Cooper (1973)
A Little Princess Burnett (1905)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass Carroll (1865/72)
Hatchet Paulsen (1989)
Little Women Alcott (1868/9)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Rowling (2007)
Little House in the Big Woods Wilder (1932)
The Tale of Despereaux DiCamillo (2003)
The Lightening Thief Riordan (2005)
Tuck Everlasting Babbitt (1975)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Dahl (1964)
Matilda Dahl (1988)
Maniac Magee Spinelli (1990)
Harriet the Spy Fitzhugh (1964)
Because of Winn-Dixie DiCamillo (2000)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Rowling (1999)
Bridge to Terabithia Paterson (1977)
The Hobbit Tolkien (1938)
The Westing Game Raskin (1978)
The Phantom Tollbooth Juster (1961)
Anne of Green Gables Montgomery (1908)
The Secret Garden Burnett (1911)
The Giver Lowry (1993)
Holes Sachar (1998)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Koningsburg (1967)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Lewis (1950)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philsopher’s Stone Rowling (1997)
A Wrinkle in Time L’Engle (1962)
Charlotte’s Web White (1952)
hope you had a great weekend ~ my intention of posting every day hasn’t come through as i hoped but shoot, at least it got me posting a whole lot more. ;) bye ~
comment [2]
{ posted 102 days ago, under books }
flying (comfortably)
This post is password protected. Write me if you’d like to have the login info.
comment [2]
{ posted 107 days ago }
indeed.
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{ posted 108 days ago, under libraries & politics }
my library
it’s been such a great year, and i’ve learned so much, my head spins. i remember the very first day at the library, on feb. 2, 2009 ;), i sat at my desk and just grinned and kinda eeked (softly) in extreme happiness. i was so thrilled. and i couldn’t believe my good luck in just falling into a profession that suited me so perfectly and one i was so proud to be part of.
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{ posted 109 days ago, under libraries }