The Garret

Between frantically reading stuff, steeling myself to work on That Damn Thing, crash-teaching myself tunes for the Fiddleheads spring ceili at high speeds, flailing at various authors and poets at the cash register, and having more shelving at work than anybody else in the world, I've been kind of busy. (Seriously, ENOUGH WITH THE BOARD BOOKS ALREADY.)

It seems like this is the Spring of Sequels--I've been reading a higher number than usual.

( The Sequening...wait, that doesn't sound right... )



What sequels have you been reading lately? Who else is ridiculously excited for the Diversity in YA tour? Not least because it means I have at least two more highly anticipated sequels to get through this week...

LJ! I intended not to abandon you for weeks on end while I gallivanted, and then I did. I am sorry!

Most of the gallivanting took place at the lovely notlob451's wedding last weekend. It was a really beautiful wedding, and I got to see many people I don't get to see often. The Fiddleheads were very kindly asked to play a set at the reception, so I was super nervous excited about that. cadragongirl and I drove out to Ithaca with a friend of ours on Friday evening (okay, she did the driving. We just sat around and and made comments about my DJ-ing skills. Note to self: prepare several mix CDs for road trips! Not everybody wants to listen to Laura Cortese for six hours. Even if her new EP is RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME, who even gets that kind of energy on a studio recording, seriously). We made it in one piece, though not without adventures involving the GPS, dodgy back roads, and several epic thunderstorms. ( continued in ridiculous detail )

I miss everyone terribly and have thus thrown myself into work. Am making a playlist for the bookstore. Unfortunately most of my music is much too energetic/awesome/Japanese to be really good Random Background Music, but I've got a few things. I hope everybody likes Crooked Still.

Friends! Entities! Anonymoi! I am newly returned from the Fiddleheads spring ceili! They had graciously invited local distinguished Fiddlehead alumnae, i.e. several excellent people and my ragtag self, to join the band. Which was a lot of fun--they’re an enthusiastic, well-rehearsed bunch of reformed classical musicians and experienced Celtic players, so a nice mix this year. Most of the dancers were totally inexperienced, which made for a lot of sitting around watching antics, but there were a good number of them and I was really pleased. Wonderful job, ladies! Please continue to be awesome.


Also! I woke up this morning at an unholy hour and, not being able to get back to sleep, read the entirety of Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. You guys! It has boarding school territory wars! Secret pasts! Skirmishes! Chess! Repartee! Makeouts! Rock violin!!!!!

In short, it is made of awesome.

The Fiddleheads have, it seems, replaced their final concert with a ceili(dh). Needless to say, I approve. So, it seems, does the community. There were lots and lots of people there-- just the right amount to fill the dancing space without overcrowding, and a few others not inclined to dance.

I myself was inclined to dance (except the waltzes, which I avoid on principle. I'm not sure on what principle, but there must be one.) I danced, got all sweaty, made dorky DNA-line dance analogies with one of my partners, laughed and grinned like a fool every time there was twirling and spinning. (The great thing about really slow reels? Double-time twirling.)

One of fun things about ceili(dh)s is the equal-opportunity gender-role-bending, especially at Wellesley, but there were a surprising number of gentlemen present as well. (The great thing about dancing with someone taller and probably stronger than me? Extra-fast, well-anchored double-time twirling.)

The Fiddleheads sounded great-- I'm proud of them, in a totally unnecessary but warm and fuzzy way.

Then we tried to have a session in the pub, except they refused to turn down the other music, so we went upstairs instead and distracted people from finals-studying.

A most excellent evening!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The library won’t let me renew Ovid’s Metamorphoses any more. *grumble* I’ve only renewed it a paltry six times since February; what’s wrong with them?

My cheap Venice, CA flip-flops died today. In the office. So I had to flop around like an ungainly Cinderella, until I fixed them with giant rubber bands. Woe, now I have no tacky bronze-strapped bamboo-soled flip-flops to wear with my purple shirts. All mourn.

Wednesday, July 23, 3008
I had to fill in an Intern Profile form today, having done the obligatory week-long procrastination thing. Mostly I spent the morning trying to make my photo look semi-normal, then stared blankly at the actual form for half an hour. What does one do with questions like “Tell us about yourself. Be creative!” and “Tell us about your experience this summer- what did you do, like, dislike?” and “What’s your favorite children’s book?” I eventually listed The Grey King and wrote something insipid for the other stuff.

I was sorely tempted to put the first two lines of Ovid's Ars Amatoria in the “Anything else?” section, because they could be loosely interpreted to be about books. Or a particular book to inspire a love of reading.

Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi,
Hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet.

If there be any among this company who knows not the art of loving,
Let him read this book, and once it has been read, let him love as an expert.*

I took it out, though, on grounds of unnecessary pretentiousness.

Ooh, thunderstorm. *distracted*

I also pioneered dummy book construction this afternoon. This entailed cutting lots of paper, using double-stick tape, and bossing the part-time intern around. NB: dummy book making is much easier if the page images are all the same size. They really did turn out beautifully. These are probably the best-constructed, sturdiest, sleekest dummy books ever produced. The spreads even lined up across the center fold and lay beautifully flat. *proud*

It’s nice to do a good job once in a while.

( Crooked Still and Boston )

*I know, I know. Tweaking my translation to fit an agenda = Bad Scholarship.

...but it's so much fun!