Ate too much chocolate

I asked a friend to get me some salted dark chocolate from Something Sweet, a chocolate store in the front of Bogart's books. I should have just eaten ONE square. Two are making me feel a bit overstuffed.

A spool of blue thread (book), by Anne Tyler. I like her. Liked the book enough. Stories of an aging couple, their children and their house in Baltimore. Back stories tell how they came to have the house in the first place. Now, they will be aging out of it. The blue thread reminded me of the blue paint argument of some of their ancestors. He wants the porch swing to show the wood grain and she wants to paint it blue. (Millville Public Library - F TYLER)

"The thing about caller ID is," Red said, more or less to himself, "It seems a little like cheating. A person should be willing to take his chances, answering the phone. That's kind of the general idea with phones, is my opinion."

God what a gloomy winter day

The only saving grace is that it is not too cold. Should have worn my rain boots. When am I going to remember that my driveway sucks you down and messes up your shoes?! The ONLY good thing about this winter is that I have not had to shovel once.

Sitting here at the Millville Public library. At least it is bright. But there are smelly patrons - smoke. Also other people talking to themselves while trying to create passwords. Me, I am lost on Youtube, listening to Emili Sande singing You can read all about it, part 3. Just have to keep myself from singing along and thus becoming another annoying patron.

Vanessa and her sister (book), by Priya Parmar. An enjoyable, fictional story about the Bloomsbury group. Boy, did Virginia Woolf have problems dating back even to childhood. The story starts when the four Stephens siblings are living together in London after the death of their parents. Vanessa (later Bell) was a painter and her sister, Virginia, was the more famous writer. People move in and out, fall in and out of love, sleep with this one and that one and generally enjoy themselves in salon society.

Headphones on.....

Enjoying Youtube....Train and 50 ways to say goodbye. Using the computer at the Millville Public Library. I enjoy the quiet sounds of a library. Had to get out the headphones when I started fixating on woman sniffling, patron with that really annoying bird-like phone cheep, other ignorant, too loud patrons conversing.

Tuck everlasting (audio book), by Natalie Babbitt. Has been on my list a long time, not sure why. Charming tale of a young girl who meets a rather strange family. They tell a tale of living forever and try to convince her it is not a good idea. Who will learn and use the secret?

Yikes! I tried to get into the library before the school kids. Now they are driving me a bit crazy.

It has been four days since I got online. My pile of things to do is growing, as my piles are wont to do.

What did we do before the Internet?

I should know that. I am a librarian. It has been sad to see the inexorable neglect of our reference collections of books. And, yes, I am guilty myself. When was the last time I actually looked at some of my favorite tomes, such as The statesman's yearbook or The encyclopedia of associations?

So, today, here is some of what I have been looking up:
- What is the name of the symbol that Prince, the musician, used as his name? I drew how I thought it looked and thought maybe it was called Ankara. Well, no, Ankara is a city in Turkey. Prince's symbol is unpronounceable but sometimes known as the LOVE symbol. It is a combination of the male symbol, the female symbol and the symbol for alchemy.
- How to grow poppies like I saw in Italy and are all poppies opium poppies?
- Why do I have a metallic taste in my mouth? There could be many reasons, but if the reason is unknown, it is called IDIOPATHIC DYSGEUSIA.

Finished an audio book, Seeds of hope : wisdom and wonder from the world of plants, by Jane Goodall (from the Millville Public Library - AUBK 580 Goo). Yes, that is the chimpanzee woman. She has many more interests. Talks about our relationships with trees and trees relationships with each other. Also clear cutting, rain forests, herbal remedies, how people ruin everything for greed, and GMO's, to just name a few of the topics covered. She travels most of the year giving talks. I found it interesting but hard to get through. Not exactly scintillating. And she actually reads all of the credits and thanks at the end. That was truly boring, but I stuck with it. I liked best the trees parts.

Which is worse, high blood pressure or slow resting heart rate?

So, I stopped taking my blood pressure pill as it was making my heart rate too slow. Now my blood pressure is too high. Darn, I thought maybe I was overcoming HBP with my modicum of weight loss and my pathetic, half-hearted efforts to exercise. Jeez...when you get to be 66 you just think about all of the things that can go wrong. And you see them happening to many of the people around you, even the ones YOUNGER than 66.

Taking an art class. I guess I like it. It is nice to get involved in something for three hours and I have noticed that I don't think about EATING during this time. I do, however, have a lot of competition anxiety. I don't think I am very good at it and have already mentally moved on to the next project. That is one reason I don't want to go out and spend a lot of money on fancy art supplies. Yes, my materials are possibly limiting what I am able to accomplish. Today I painted a sunset that I took a picture of down at Bivalve the other night. Now, I need to think of a project for NEXT week. Every week that I have been there the day has been sunny and gorgeous. And today a woman who fell down with a stroke a couple of weeks ago was BACK and none the worse for the wear. The nurse who had guided the rescue crew went home and painted her a picture and presented it to her in a frame today. After the class, I went out in back of the barn and relaxed by the pond. Was taking my "Vitamin D bath" and waiting for my watercolor to dry. Enjoyed greatly the sounds....wind chimes in the trees, waterfall fountain in the pond, wind blowing through the bamboo trees. Add to that the heavenly odors and another artist painting a fabulous pink flowered tree. It was rather heavenly!

On my way home soon. It is a struggle to get to spend time at home so I can read and organize (ha ha) and look out the windows at the sunny day. I was supposed to have a French club meeting tonight but one and then another dropped out so we ended up rescheduling it. I am just as glad as I had too many activities today. Started off with arthritis class at 8 AM, then art class, then a substantial lunch at the Olympia Greek restaurant, then chiropractor and massage, and now computer time at the Millville Public Library. It is a difficult life (not). I guess I should feel guilty about all of my self-indulgence, but, hey, don't I deserve it?

Things I hate right now

People and their habits - snorting, snuffling, making a mess in the bathroom, throwing plastic stuff into the toilet, singing out loud when they have headphones on (in the library), body odor, smoking odor. Right now the sniffling and body odor are going to chase me out of the Millville Public Library.

Things I love right now - Youtube, The story of my life, by One Direction, sunshine.

Can't figure out how to print or cut and paste from books on Google. Perhaps I should join Goodle play although the thought of PAYING for stuff bothers me. Doing historical research about a composer names Root who hosted a three day musical convention in Bridgeton, New Jersey, in March of 1856. Even though there is very limited info (sentences or paragraphs), I get very excited about it.

Too many computer questions

Am in a library with a lot of complaining and trying to figure things out. Must remember not to use #8 again as headphone jack does not work and keyboard is very worn down. I needed my headphones to block out the annoying OTHERS.

Will have to return The goldfinch. Book is too thick and I have had it already for a month (?) Am really enjoying it as well as The book thief. How fun it is to read books that are pleasing me. Spent one hour reading today. That was a treat. Was home in the sunshine and the neighborhood was nice and quiet. Too damn cold, however. Didn't really want to go outside but I came out to get online and to go to an art film. Or should I say a film about art. Tuesday nights an art film is shown in Millville. Tonight is going to be two different films....one on Diego Rivera and one on Frida Kahlo, his love interest.

Another storm coming this week, going to mess up a few things. Was supposed to sing at a funeral (funerals don't get postponed, do they?)
"Game night for the elderly" will probably be postponed. We were going to get together at 2 PM for games. Then I was going to go to a meeting about helping the homeless. This is the main problem with weather events....having to reschedule the world.

Dumb things I have done today

First dumb thing was I texted the WRONG man with this message...."I'm dressed. What is your schedule? Did you get enough sleep last night?"
The wrong man kindly texted me back with his schedule. Then I texted the RIGHT man, forgetting that he lives in GREENWICH, where cell phones do not work! Went to the health club only to find out that they were going to turn off the electric. Happily, I completed my workout before the switch went off. Also, it was good to find that the soap and paper towel dispensers and toilet still worked even though I had to do it all in the dark.

So, I am running around trying to get all of my STUFF done before 5 PM. It is Friday and libraries inconveniently close at 5. So nice to have sunlight and get my Vitamin D bath in.

Youtube is making me happy. Had to put in the headphones to drown out the sound leaking out from someone else's earbuds. Listening to James Blunt singing, "You're beautiful".

The "new hot" 107.9

Came across this radio station and stayed awhile. Two women were talking ghetto trash and I was mesmerized. The music was rap, including Biggie. They played a good song I had forgotten about and can't name.

Returned a book to the Millville Library....Dad is fat, by Jim Gaffigan. He is a comedian with which I am not familiar who has 5 kids and lives in a small Brooklyn apartment. Apparently he has a famous rag on hot pockets which I must look for on Youtube.

Excursion for the day cancelled due to rain, wind, chill, dank and damp. I was supposed to be the driver for 5 women so am just as glad we didn't go. I don't like driving FAST, particularly in the rain. You are not supposed to use cruise control and that is hard for me. Of course, now it is not raining, but the forecast for the next few days is dismal. Boy, did we get spoiled with the seemingly endless run of sunny days! Instead we all got together at a newly opened restaurant called Lucy's Mexican restaurant. Lots of MEN came in, cops and I don't know who all. Might be a good place to meet men except that they were all playing with their phones. So we had our few hours of talking which we like to do monthly. Only one other woman was in the place. The waitress was cool and gave us free stuff and good advice about what to eat.

God, I hate summer

My apartment is "cooled" by 1 - 4 window air units and it just doesn't get rid of the humidity.
A dehumidifier is on my very long list of big-ticket items that I "need".  It seems I am always in need of a FAN, directly on me, or at my beck and call.

I "could" have gone down to the beach yesterday as I had nothing on my calendar.  That is very unusual.  But I chose to stay home and get started on some things like paying bills and save money on gas.  That was enough of that.  My home is not the place to be on a hot and humid day.  I did go out to do some "local" errands, if you call driving all the way to Carll's Corner local.  I found myself sitting in the car in a parking lot wasting gas just to get the air conditioning.

Then I did go out to Millville to a restaurant for dinner.  I was delighted with my meal at Kawa thai and sushi.  There were so many creative menu items!  I had the MAN IN BLACK, #26 on the Chef special II menu.  It was SO delicious, I couldn't even save any for leftovers.  And you can get BROWN rice for only 15 cents extra.  Usually I am disappointed with what I order and am envious of what others order, but this time I was totally enthralled with MINE.

I think I would like summer if I were here...                                                                                                        

No body drying with the hair dryers

A funny sign at the health club.  I like the one at the Cape May Court House library that says, Please remember to flush.  I wonder if that would work at the Vineland Public Library?  They don't tell you in library school that you will have to spend time FLUSHING TOILETS.  That was one of the 35 things I had to do every night when we closed down the library.

Came into the Millville Library today and saw a guy with sagging pants and jewelry in both sides of his bottom lip.  My heart sank.  Then he stepped forward to open the door for me.  My heart soared!

A friend is having a book signing tonight.  I am going over in honor of the longest day of the year.  Lots of daylight I mean.  Anyway, Sally Willowbee is a very creative woman who I have known for decades.
Here is the book she wrote about OTHER creative people in the South Jersey area, Found artists : on country roads, side streets and back alleys of South Jersey. 6 PM book signing at the Renaissance Riverfront gallery in Millville, New Jersey.

http://www.rrcarts.com/book-signing.html

I want to eat something right now

An apt phrase for me....learning in the car with Pimsleur.  It is a good thing I already KNOW French.  Don't know how I could do this audio lesson if I DIDN'T know French!  I have noticed that proper pronunciation gives your face and neck a workout.  The conversations are sort of stupid...stopping someone on the street and then asking her how she is.  I am trying to get ready for all of that helloing and goodbyeing and politeness that the French go in for.  It is hard to be on a diet when you are constantly having to say in French....Do you want to eat something?  Yes.  What do you want to eat?  I don't know.  Very good. (see what I mean about stupid conversations?)  WHEN do you want to eat something?  Je voudrai manger quelque chose maintenant! (I want to eat something RIGHT NOW).

Hearing loud drunk people on the streets of Bridgeton.  Maybe every downtown has loud drunk people?  There were some hanging outside of the Millville Public Library the other day.

Heard an oldies station on the radio today.  WIBG?  I thought that was defunct...or maybe it was just on AM and moved to FM?  So, I looked it up.  It seems to be broadcasting out of Ocean City now..... I guess they weren't OLDIES the first time.  WIBG is pronounced WIBBAGE.

About

Wibbage 99 was Philadelphia's original rock and roll radio station, introducing millions of Delaware Valley teenagers to the sounds of Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Motown and much more.

Wibbage FM 94.3 is our tribute to the great Philly station of our youth.  You'll hear retro commercials, jingles and airchecks, but you'll also hear local news, weather and events.  Plus, that great music you know and love!

Your favorite songs from...
The Beatles, Beach Boys, Four Tops, Billy Joel, Herman's Hermits, The Association, Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Elton John, Van Morrison, Roy Orbison, Rolling Stones, America, Buckinghams, Martha & the Vandellas, Doobie Brothers and so many more!!!

Feeling rushed

Computer time running out.  Don't want to do anything which will take up any amount of TIME.  However, I must write up this audiobook because it is due today!

Book review: A week in winter, by Maeve Binchy, read by Rosalyn Landor.  Seemed a bit too long, but I enjoyed it.  Similar to a recent book I reviewed, this author introduces characters one by one.  By the end you are thinking,, "Stop already!" The end was satisfying and focussed on the first week of customers in a hotel in a mansion on a cliff in a small town in the west of Ireland.  The first characters we get to know are the people who own the hotel and work there.  Later we are introduced to some of the guests who end up there, all for pretty different reasons.  Sometimes we get all the way to that last week and then we go back and meet ANOTHER character and proceed again to the last week, each time learning a few new details.
I think some of the people have dinner at a restaurant called Quentins, which I think was the main subject of one of her other books.  I borrowed this audiobook from the Millville Public Library (AUDK F BIN)

Ugh...what else do I have to say today.  Am at the library, with a few irritating patrons.  A woman talking to herself who was trying to print out an entire conversation between herself and a girl's father, but it was going to cost $16.30, which she didn't have.  Then she had problems emailing or saving it.  So much drama on Facebook.  I can't imagine having much of a conversation at all on it.  Guess I just don't GET IT.

Suddenly humid

Wow, it is going to be over 80 degrees today.  Having a hot flash just thinking about it.  That is getting a bit over my limit of comfort.

I only watch a few minutes of TV each day.  Happened to catch Matt Lauer at the top of One world trade center at the moment the top spire was raised, lowered and attached.  1776 feet tall - is that a historical date or how many people died on 9/11?  We now have the tallest strictly office building in the western hemisphere.  Ain't America great!?!?  Other interesting facts were that it takes the workers 40 minutes just to get to the top to do their jobs each day!  And that the first businesses will get their keys in 2014.  I happen to be going to New York next Saturday.  Must add this to the list of things to do (it is short, so far).  Feel kind of bad that I haven't visited the site at all in ten years.

Book review: Winter journal, by Paul Auster.  I didn't/don't even know who Paul Auster is, but according to a Henry Holt & Co. ad I saw in the New Yorker, he is "one of the great writers of our time".  I did enjoy this memoir...which detailed all the places he has lived (in order) and traveled and the decline and death of his mother.  Also there is a New Jersey connection, which I always like to know about.  And he wrote this when he was 64, about the same age as I am.  I liked the first paragraph - "You think it will never happen to you, that it cannot happen to you, that you are the only person in the world to whom none of these things will ever happen, and then, one by one, they all begin to happen to you, in the same way they happen to everyone else."  I recommend this book.  You can borrow the large type edition from the Millville Public Library (LT 92 AUS).

Book review: Peaches for Father Francis, by Joanne Harris.  In which the characters from a previous book called Chocolat come back to Lansquenet, a small village in France.  There is an interesting addition of an Islamic theme and the push and pull between the cultures.  There is a bit of a mystery about who caused a fire and who is the covered up woman and why has she come to town.    Our heroine, Vianne, returns to the small town to straighten out some things. She gets very involved and has trouble getting back to her life in Paris.   I borrowed this book from the Vineland Public Library (FIC Harris Joanne)

Vaguely Jesus-y bon-vivant

I love this phrase.  A woman told a story on NPR last night about a plane ride and people who may have thought she was a "vaguely Jesus-y bon-vivant".  That's me!

Stopped by a group of people in front of the municipal building in Millville, New Jersey.  I heard singing.  They were singing a patriotic song.  How nice, I thought.  Then I got a creepy feeling that they were gun rights supporters or something I wasn't in favor of.  Guess I will have to read about it in the paper.

Went to Jim's lunch for lunch today.  It is a very colorful little restaurant that closes down for the whole summer every year.  They have three sizes of rice pudding, WITH or without raisins.  Now, where else can you find that?!

What did I do for Earth day?

- I sent an ecard to someone who has a birthday today wishing her a happy Earth Day AND birthday.
- I picked up trash around the outside of my house.  None of it mine. Cigarette butts and other disgusting stuff.
- Going to a free film about the problems of the horseshoe crab and the redknot.  It is called Crash and will be showing at 6 PM at the Levoy theater in Millville.

My wish list has once again disappeared from Overdrive.  This is very aggravating as this is where I go when I need a new book for my Nook.  I have a theory and will investigate it.  Not that I don't already have enough books to read.

Feeling overwhelmed with my computer chores.  My folder of stuff to look up is getting thicker.  And my old emails more than a year old are looking too interesting to delete.  Seems like the past few days I have just been trying to fit in an hour here, and hour there and getting nowhere.

Millville, the next best thing to Washington, DC?

I am referring to the cherry blossoms I saw everywhere on the way to the Millville Public Library today.  It is grey and raining but they still looked beautiful.  Never in my life have I planned a trip or gotten to DC at the right time for the cherry blossoms.

Paris, here I come?  I am seriously "vacation planning impaired" but now I have a goal, albeit a bit late.  Some friends are going to be in Paris and have invited me to stay with them for a few days.  Can I do it?  Can I overcome my terror of any price over $1000 and actually commit?

In a rush today.  If I devote ENOUGH time to exercise and online activities, there is practically no time left over.  Thus, I find myself in a fix with my taxes incomplete.  Now, this is not uncommon as the earliest I have EVER filed is April 14th.  I used to say I was doing it so as to have compassion for the library patrons who would be rushing into the library at 8:45 PM on April 15th yelling, "What form do I need?"  It makes me anxious to realize that I will have limited time for my OTHER important activities from now until I am finished.  I don't believe in extensions, because I know myself well enough to know that I would need an extension to the extension.  Unfotunately, I have MANY plans for activities in the next few days.

Out of sorts today

Came out of my house to go to breakfast and found that someone had been riffling through my car and stealing things.  They stole my makeup bag (new), my kleenex, $5, my snacks and sunglasses and tire pressure guage and the worst thing was...my AUDIOBOOKS.  They can be really expensive and I will have to pay the libraries I borrowed them from.  Since I am a retired librarian, I do not have the nerve to ask them if they have a special rate for victims of crimes.  Luckily, they did not go into the trunk.  I am into and out of my car a million times a day and 99% of the time I get the locking thing right.  BUT: they smashed the window of my new neighbor's car, so perhaps it was lucky I left my car unlocked?!  He has only been a resident for three weeks and is probably rueing the day he moved to Bridgeton.  I could have told him to expect bad things to happen once or twice a year.  I could make quite a list.  Each time I call the police although it has never helped me.  At least this time, they made a valiant effort of taking fingerprints, but said they thought the guy(s) were wearing gloves.  So now I have fingerprint dusting powder all over my car. 
The other reason I am out of sorts is that I went to THREE libraries until I found one with good parking spots available.  (I know it sounds crazy to not want to walk a few extra hundred feet and then go to the health club to exercise, but....)  So the Millville Public Library is good cause there is a lot of room to spread out and I haven't yet been here this week, but THE SEATS ARE HARD.

Finished the book The blind side, by Michael Lewis.  The movie was much more engaging.  You never hear much about Michael Oher, but he is still on the Baltimore Ravens and they won the Super Bowl so he must be doing something right.  After the Super Bowl, I wanted to read the book.  I borrowed it from the Bridgeton Public Library (796.332 LEWIS).  It is the story of a black guy who gets adopted by a (Republican Evangelical) rich white family in Tennessee and becomes a football star.  He has a real shy kind of personality.  He came from a family of 13 with a crack addicted mother.  He guards the quarterback's side of greatest vulnerability, his "blind side".

On my Nook, I finished a book by Walter Mosley called The man in my basement.  It was not one of my favorites.  I seem to be obsessed by this writer.  This good-for-nothing black guy gets hired by some guilty white guy to keep him a prisoner in his basement and take care of him for a whole lot of money.

Speaking of accomplishing nothing...

My sister complained that her son accomplished nothing over the Spring break from college.  I saw a great quote last night at Fibre Arts Cafe at the Village on High, in Millville, NJ. "My goal for today was to accomplish nothing.  So far I am ahead of schedule."

Maybe I am missing something, but...here is what I am NOT into:
- Facebook (barely)
- Twitter
- Tumblr
- Pinterest
- Memes
- Avatars
- Video games

How do I have the time when I am reading so much?  I don't even have time to watch TV or DVDs.  Here is what I am reading:
 - Current newspaper
- Old newspapers
- Current magazine
- Old magazine
- The man in my basement, by Walter Mosely
- Eccentric glamour, by Simon Doonan
- My beloved world, by Sonia Sotomayor
- Insane city, by Dave Barry
- The uncommon appeal of clouds, by Alexander McCall Smith
- Beautiful ruins, by Jess Walter
- The importance of being seven, by Alexander McCall Smith
- The blindside, by Michael Lewis
- Luka and the fire of life, by Salman Rushdie

Trying to copy stuff from Youtube

Not successful.  Sending the link there is a period where there shouldn't be a period.  If I take it out I just go to a white screen.   Anyway, I no sooner had listened to this song called The Harlem Shake and decided NOT to add it to my playlist, than I discovered it had become an Internet sensation.  I will try again to add the Vineland Public Library version which you can look for on YouTube.  Ok, now I am CUTTING and PASTING.  Sending through YouTube does not seem to work!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwIyIQTQCnA

Finished an audiobook today.  I spent a lot of the time NOT liking it.  It all began in Monte Carlo is by Elisabeth Adler.  It was narrated by Susan Boyce.  I borrowed it from the Vineland Public Library (AUD CD FIC Adler Elizabeth)  There were too many characters.  The annoying ones were REALLY annoying and I kept saying to myself, "Don't they SEE what is going on !?!?!"  There is Sunny, who leaves her boyfriend in Malibu and travels to Paris and ends up in Monte Carlo.  Then there is her friend, the ex-movie star and HER friend, the dumpy dumped wife.Anyway, her boyfriend is a respected detective known ALL OVER THE WORLD and there just happens to be a jewel robbery and a blackmail scheme for him to work on.  There is a lot of discussion about clothes and shoes.  I hate to admit it, but I probaby BOUGHT this audiobook because I used to purchase these at the library.

Another day of sun, but cold and windy.  It is my imagination, or am I obsessed with the weather and how my playlist works or does not work?  It DOES work nicely here at the Millville public library but not at Vineland.  And they just gave me another hour of computer time.  Life is good!