Blog Break…Sorta

Hiya blog followers! I’ve got some good news and some ‘other’ news.

The good news is I got a job! For the next few weeks I will be back in the library world again! Yay! And the best part is, I get to play with pre-schoolers! Double Yay! I’m going to make some more readers! Yay! Readers!

The ‘other’ news is that I am not going to have quite as much time for my blog. So, in case you feared that I had forgotten about my blog and you, my lovely reader, fear not. I haven’t forgotten, I just don’t have enough hours in the day at the moment.

Feel free to talk amongst yourselves. (As well, for a low, low, introductory price, you can pay me to brainwash these little ones into loving the genre you write in.)

It’s Wonderful

Today was the first day of getting the library off the ground at the junior high and everyone was so wonderful! And so grateful. People were thanking me for coming and filling in and saying how nice it was for me to be there. And it was really nice. I don’t think I’ve ever had that many people be thankful and wonderful like that. It was just really sweet. It totally made my week!

It was really fun too. It was a challenge getting my mind around the problems of a new library where there were only the odd hints here and there on how things were done as the previous librarian had trained someone before she quit and therefore didn’t leave me lists of how-to. (The new hiree ended up moving over the summer, hence me stepping in to get things going.)

Being in the library, being my own boss (sort of) made me miss steering the ol’ school library ship. I’m not going to give up being a stay at home mom, but it was a lot of fun being in there today. Something I may go back to in a few years. (In fact, I was disappointed a bit to hear that someone had already been hired, so I’ll only be there for a few days to help her get on her feet before going.)

It is just such a great staff full of wonderful, helpful people. It was fun.

Thanks, guys! Here’s to you!

Dead Trees and My Trip to China

Well, what to say? Hubby got a promotion, but has to move buildings. In fact, he will now have a half hour commute instead of a nice 20 minute walk.

I got offered a job. I said no. Am I nuts? Possibly. But, I don’t think so. I want to try this new avenue of writing novels. I have to give it a decent try.

We have a beautiful new tree. You see, last year we got one in trade from a tree farmer. So, we got a nice Royalty Crabapple. Anyway, long story short—it didn’t make it. So, what do you do with a nice dead tree in your front door? One that weighs 750lbs. Hmm… Oh yeah, and you don’t have a lot of money.

So, we decided a tree spade would be the best since our front yard is pretty minuscule and basically the only place for the free replacement tree was where the dead one is. Problem is, ATCO (gas company). Some bozo though it would be great (for them) to run not one, but two lines through our front yard. Parallel to the sidewalk and of course, two metres apart and right smack dab in the middle of the yard. So basically, you have to have a tree up against the house or the sidewalk. Right. That’s EXACTLY where I would plant a nice big tree.

Anyway, once realizing this problem last year, I dug nice, big 4 feet deep holes (2) for the trees a metre away from where the gas lines were flagged. Okay, a little closer. And I was painfully careful because see…once upon a time seven years ago, I was talking on the phone with the guy we bought our first house from and the house next door blew up as they had hit a gas line. Yeah, so a little paranoid here.

Anyway, too close to the lines for the tree spade’s comfort—which is perfectly reasonable. Who wants to hit a line? Anyway, I started digging out the beast, known informally, as the f***ing dead tree. I got it about 1/3 of the way out (that is a lot of dirt, if you are wondering), the tree spade guy calls and says, “hey, if you dig down and get me a visual on that gas line, I can dig out your tree with my spade and get rid of it for you.”.

Nice.

Well, gas lines are way the hell down there. Right next door to China as a matter of fact. And how the hell do you dig that deep without making a huge hole?

Well, I did it. Long story short, we have a nice new, beautiful tree that is going to be absolutely fabulous to climb when it gets bigger and we will have gorgeous blossoms every spring and it better not f***ing die on me.

And, no, you don’t want to know the full story—like the fact that our dead tree is sitting on a trailer in our front yard and a bobcat left huge ruts in our yard and definitely, not how much the tree spade cost. The tree might have been free…but…oh, don’t even ask.

So anyway, I went and saw Jann Arden last night. A last minute thing. And SO worth it. We were on the floor and everything. And man, the crowd was so polite. All sitting nice so shorty pants like me can see. And Jann is funny. She knows how to put on a show. She jokes and talks and mixes old and new songs together. And before you know it, she’s done. You’ve laughed, you’ve cried.

Oh man, does her voice rock. I forgot how great her voice is. The first note she sang, it just hit me, like WOW! I like the stuff she has written. The covers she does don’t showcase her voice in the same way.

Anyway, as I was listening to her sing, and actually, even before her—her opening act, JP Ho made me realize, just BAM, that I can do THIS. I can. I really can. That guy got up there in front of us all with just his guitar and shared songs that he had created. It was just all him out there on stage, on the line. Just him bearing it all and doing FABULOUS! And I just thought, Jean, you can do this. (Not sing, but write.) I can put myself out there. I need to stop being chicken. Yes, people will try and redefine me, but whatever. At the end of the day all I ever am, is just me, right?

I remember the first time I saw Jann Arden. That was mid-90s. In Lethbridge. I didn’t actually go to her concert, but I went to HMV and bought two of her CDs and got her autograph. But what was really memorable was not the fact that I was a university kid who really couldn’t afford to buy two CDs, but that the kid in front of me. (He was maybe 13-14.) And he asked Jann to sign his cigarette package and she refused. She said something to the effect, “I’m not signing this. Smoking is bad for you. When you are walking down the beach when your older pulling an oxygen tank behind you, it’s not going to be cool and I want no part in that.” She was polite, but firm and totally won my respect.