It's Weekly Reader Day!

Okay so my good friend Mandie yesterday posted a link to some old weekly readers and the scholastic inserts we used to purchase books in elementary school. Over the years I have thought about those weekly readers and wondered if they were still around. FYI, they are but of course, they look so much more jazzed up then when I was a kid. Beside from the thrill of getting my own little newspaper in class, I got the opportunity to purchase books! Yes, I looked forward to that day in class, dreamed about it even. What books I would buy, which books I would circle for "next time" because Mom and Dad couldn't and wouldn't buy me every book I wanted. The circling frenzy rivaled that of the Sears Catalog at Christmas time! "I want this!" "Oh, and yes, this!!" "Can't l-i-v-e without this!!" It was awesome until one day, I bought the wrong book.

When say it was wrong, I mean in that it was not a book for me. I read the snippet and thought it sounded like my kind of read, a series of mysterious!! People who had vanished without a trace. Sounded intriguing! So I circled it and then filled out the little order form. I waited. Then the shipment arrived and my teacher handed me my stack of new books!! Sweet. And then...I read the back of the book of "mysteries" and discovered to my horror that it was not about that at all. It was about alien abductions. NOOOOO!

I must confess that I have been terrified of aliens ever since I was little kid. Hell, I was scared to even watch "V: The Final Battle" on television. I vividly remember getting scared out of my mind when one of the female characters on the show gave birth to an alien baby. (Now I have since watched this scene on YouTube and it is ridiculous. Seriously, I am no longer scared.) And now here I was with this book on alien abduction. I took it home and sat with it in my room debating on my next course of action. Keep it? Read it? Hide it? I had no idea how to tackle this new problem. And it was a problem. I realized that if I started reading the book I would no doubt have nightmares. And I slept in the basement of our home, in my own room while the rest of my family slept upstairs on the opposite end of the house. Yes people, I would be alone with this book. And easy access for the aliens to find me.

Well, I thought I would try reading it. I was hoping that by diving into the material I would somehow be less afraid. Wrong. These were "true accounts" of people who had been abducted or knew someone who had been. OMG. Seriously? I panicked. I mean, how often does this happen? Where does this happen? Could it be that someone I know right now was getting abducted by aliens? Would I be next? Crap. And then the truth finally occurred to me. This very book that I held in my hands was a beacon. The aliens now knew I knew about them and worse, they could now find me! For my young brain, this was like having a gps handed to you from outerspace. I was screwed and I knew it. For days I feared bedtime. I tried hiding the book in my closet, burying it under other odds and ends but I still knew it was there. Hell, the aliens still knew it was there. I imagined in the dark that the book pulsated and radiated strange lights, conveying the coordinates of my whereabouts. I had to act and act fast if I wanted to stay on earth.

It was over the weekend because my father was home. He normally worked late nights during the week so I hardly ever saw him. It was cold outside because our wood burning stove was on. I came up to him crying, begging him to do something with this book. I sounded irrational, I was irrational. I was also 10 years old so whatever. I don't think he exactly knew what to do about this situation but he signed on to do his very best to protect me from alien lifeforms. We settled on throwing the book into the wood burning stove. Somehow he convinced me that the fire would squash out any trace of me and once the book was resorted to ashes, the aliens would no longer be able to find me...ever. It sounded logical so that is what we did. I watched it burn. I felt better when it no longer resembled a book or my nightmares. All was good with the world again. Proof you say? I am still here. The aliens never found me.

However, that fear still remains in some mild form. Now, I don't go burning books anymore (and I admit, I am ashamed that I actually burned it) but I won't watch any movies about alien abductions. What about "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" you ask? Haven't seen it. I'm serious about this. However, "E.T." is an entirely different bag of hammers. To try to right my wrong, over the years I have passively looked for the book that I burned. All I remember was that the title had the word "vanished" or some form of that word and the cover was grey. Not a lot to go on. I took it as a sign that I couldn't find it, like I wasn't meant to see that book again.

Until yesterday. Mandie's site referral and there it was in the February 1985 scholastic. It was called "Vanished!" and it was written by Wayne R. Coffey. Well, I immediately went out to Amazon.com and found the book for $1.29. I bought it. Yes, I did.

Now the adult in me is very excited to see this book again, to finally read it. To finally conquer that damn book. But the ten year old that still lives inside is scared all over again. What if, just WHAT IF it really was a beacon and I merely escaped the clutches of alien hands last time? I might not be so lucky again, to tempt fate like this. I suppose if you never hear from me again, you know why.

I'll try to keep you posted....

Second quarter down

So I just finished my second quarter of teaching and you know what? It was better this time around! Not perfect but better. I felt more comfortable in front of the students and I genuinely felt we learned something together. And I discovered, the students do not hate me. I suppose it is ridiculous to fear that they will loathe me but I do want to do a good job. One of my students said she liked my style of teaching and I replied, "well, if I have to stand up here for two hours every week, it better not suck." I mean, I have to be there too and I know I don't want to be bored to tears. So I try to make it as painless as possible.

Truthfully, at first, I missed my "old" students but I must admit, I loved my new students just as much. I hope I continue to get some really awesome people in my sections. I think one of the best parts of teaching is getting to know so many different types of people.

The spring quarter begins next week....yeah...so much for a break....so I get to do this all over again. With some tweaks. I have been paying attention to what works and what doesn't and I am fairly confident that I can fix the problem areas. I am going to try out a few different things this time around, hopefully getting better outcomes. I'll keep you posted on that.

Outside the library world, Matt is trying out for a spot on the second season of SciFi's "Face Off". (Yes I know I didn't spell it the way SciFi would like you to but you know what? I hate the new spelling, so there.) Since he can't make it to the live auditions in California (duh), he will submit his entry via online. He's been crazy busy making his creation. The stipulation is that you have to put the makeup on yourself. I really hope he gets a shot at this. I mean, everyone deserves a chance to live out their dream and this has been his dream ever since he was a little kid! Plus, how cool would it be if I was married to a very successful FX Makeup Artist! I mean, I am already married to a kickass tattoo artist! Score.

For me, I'm still trucking along hoping, wishing, and keeping my eyes open for a professional librarian position. Yes, I know, they are hard to come by these days but a girl has to dream. I wish, oh I wish....

Well, that's it for now.

Stay tuned...

Long time no see...or write...or call....

Yeah, okay, I realize that my last blog post was in 2009. Right now I have the option of totally lying to you and saying that I have been in Hollywood since that last blog entry, working on the film version of my best-selling novel. All the things I had to blog about were sworn to secrecy because of a nasty little beast called "a contract." But alas, this is pure fabrication, fiction, which by the way is what I have been writing in my spare time so at least a small nibbly-bit is true.

So you want the truth? I freaking forgot. There you go. I just didn't give enough of a crap to come here and write something down for you to read. Shameful, I know but hey, I like to believe I have something that resembles a life which requires some of my attention.

So what have I been doing since July of 2009? Rocking it out. Yes, that's what I said. I've had many laughs, watched some cool movies, met Corey Haim [before he died :( ], had a cameo as a zombie in a horror movie, finished the rough draft of my novel, and cuddled with my husband. Not bad. Not bad at all. Oh, and I also started teaching. Don't faint. I'm speaking true here. Me, of all people, who hates to speak in front of groups, took on the challenge of teaching a night course in Information Literacy. Say what? Exactly. Information Literacy is one of those vague terms that not even librarians and people who love libraries actually understand what it means. Nonetheless I threw this term out there to my unsuspecting students, led them down a potholed road (first time teaching, first time this course was ever offered), and minus a few casualties (a few students dropped), we survived! And I am fairly certain most of us, including me, learned a thing or two in the process.

One of the main things I learned is that I don't suck at teaching. This kind of surprised me. I mean, other than ordering my husband to do this or that my way (the right way) I have never really taught anyone anything...ever. I honestly feared that I would just babble on for two hours once a week about random whatnots. Turns out, I can actually do this whole instruction thing. I also learned that I must constantly ask myself, "Did I know this before I went to library school?" I often can't remember what I knew as an undergraduate student when it comes to research and library usage. I used my husband as my test subject, asking "Baby, do you know what a primary source document is?" 9 out of 10 times I take for granted what I "think" people know. Turns out, most of them don't know.

So what's all this mean? Who the hell knows. I signed up for another quarter of teaching and am currently invested in that, with a whole new crop of students. I think I am much better this time around since I am familiar with the way things work. Plus, I am no longer terrified that my students will chase me with pitchforks if I bore them to death. Yes, I do sometimes fear this type of thing.

I'm also going to try and remember that this blog exists and that I should every once in awhile come here and say something mildly interesting.

I hope I did that today.