Dude, Where's My Cart?

I work in a public library, mostly behind the scenes, in tech services...but sometimes I come upstairs with a cart to do various internal projects I didn't even know existed until I got this job. I try to remember to wear my name tag so I can help people, but often I don't, as name tags are cumbersome and at times downright hazardous when you are in tech services. Interestingly, it is usually when I am not wearing a name tag that patrons ask me for help.

I think I am like a "cat magnet." You know how a cat will seek out the one person in the room who is not fond of cats (my mom) and jump up into her lap? I don't mean that I am not fond of patrons (though it's true I do not want them to jump into my lap); I mean that I am a shy person, an introvert, and I suspect I attract equally shy and/or introverted patrons who want to ask a question of a quiet, non-threatening library-looking person who is not very customer service oriented or trained. I love helping patrons find just the right book or audiobook or movie! I don't know how to work any of the machines--copy machine, fax machine, scanner, public computers--so I go get real circulation staff for that.

Anyway, what I'm getting at here is that recently I went upstairs with my cart on a tech services project, paused to help a patron, went into the workroom to do so, and came back thinking, "Dude, where's my cart?" I knew I had pulled it out of the way, but where, exactly?! Never fear, I found it, and now I can recommend that, if you are local, you go see the 10-Minute Plays at Heartland, this year all on the theme of The Library. They are hilarious and poignant and well-written and well-performed. Every weekend in June! They made me laugh, they made me cry, and no one said, "Dude, where's my cart?"

Darn it, I should have written that play!

And here's a random but nice announcement. Patricia Clark, a poet I admire, just won a contest I also entered, The Fourth River Folio Contest. As I am always a finalist, never Miss America, I was once again a finalist, and honored to be one! If I were not such a shy introvert I might be Miss Congeniality. Or if I were an undercover FBI agent. Yay for Patricia Clark, who is also one of our poets at Escape Into Life! If you read this interview with Patricia Clark at EIL, you'll see her connection to nature, some cool art by Tim Simmons, and be set up for a fine random coincidence of the sort I love. She mentions camping out with her parents, and next year's theme for the 10-Minute Play Contest at Heartland is The Campout! Dude, where's my tent?

Wear Orange

Today I am wearing orange. I attended one of the many nationwide Wear Orange events in a public park on this beautiful June day. We had orange balloons, a "Honk if you are wearing orange!" sign by the roadway (many honks), the chance to paint designs on orange rocks, info and flyers from many organizations (including our local Moms Demand Action group, who were the sponsors, and Prairie Pride Coalition--it's Pride month!--, the YWCA, and more!), the chance to decorate a t-shirt for someone you love who was a victim or is a survivor--to hang up with our 10 (oh, no! alas, yes!) orange t-shirts for 10 victims of local gun violence. We had Be Smart education info for gun safety. We had a chance to write downs the names of the lost. We had orange Sno-Cones and fun games. We had joy, and we had tears.

Two of the mothers who had lost their sons to gun violence this past year were there to speak, to cry, to inspire us to action, to hug each other and to be hugged.

Thank you to all who attended, locally and nationally. Thank you to all who are working so hard to raise awareness for gun violence prevention and for legislation to help reduce gun violence in America. Thanks to those of you who are running for office and voting for people who support sensible gun control. Thank to all the responsible gun owners who also support gun safety legislation and to those who speak out. Thank you to the friends of Hadiya Pendleton, who started this particular Wear Orange awareness event, wearing orange, like hunters, to say, in essence, I am human, not prey, after Hadiya was killed at 15 by a stray bullet. Thank you.*

Soon, soon, but not today, because of the long, cold, late spring...soon my orange day lilies will bloom.

*Thank you, Ulf Eliasson, for this day lily image from Wikipedia!

Three Ducks Spark Joy!

Lap swimming has begun for the summer! On Monday, it was in the 50s, but water was warmer, so, yay! Tuesday, I swam with three mallard ducks. Well, I stayed in my lane. They stayed in their half of the pool. They did spark joy, so nobody got rid of them.

Today, I discovered that my little white anklets do not stay up by my ankles, so goodbye to them! And probably to my navy blue criss-cross Mary Jane shoes, which are coming apart at the seams. I wore them till I wore them out.

Busy, and busy reading. And writing. And editing. And being human.

Sitting Mallard photo credit:
Bengt Nyman - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Mallard Pair photo credit:
Richard Bartz

Road Trip/Redacted

I just wrote an entire blog post that I--oops!-- deleted. It was about driving cross country to move my daughter and her boyfriend to Portland, Oregon (right before 10,000 writers and writing teachers descended on the city for the annual AWP Conference). My husband and I drove her sturdy little used Miata (not this one), and she and her boyfriend drove his car, the backseat and trunk full of their essential belongings. (We unloaded their heavier belongings from a U-Haul pod, delivered to their new apartment.)

 Our country is beautiful, just as the song says! Spacious skies! Purple (purple?) mountain majesties!

When we got home, our reliable but broken red Ford Focus wagon still sat in the driveway, falling apart. New tires! Still starts! But the bottom might drop out. My little old (1991) blue Ford Escort wagon still sat in the garage awaiting me, its license plates not yet electronically redacted. It was time to get another reliable used car. In Peoria, via Craigslist. As you can see, it is a two-toned Miata. Somewhat tensely, I drove the little blue wagon to Peoria and back, not sure it would withstand 65 miles per hour. It did! But I needed the glass of wine.

I have yet to drive the Miata.

Portland, by the way, is also beautiful! We saw both sun and rain, we hiked a forested trail, we visited the Saturday market and Powell's City of Books and all 4 of the city's quarters. We drove to the coast and walked the beach and hiked another forested mountain trail. I remained awed and grateful.

At Powell's I got Fall Back Down When I Die, by Joe Wilkins (hardback, signed!), and The Pisces, by Melissa Broder (paperback, funny, fishy!).

This is basically what I wrote before, but shorter, so better! The images were still available to me, but the words had flown the coop. Now I am reading The Life of Objects, by Susanna Moore, from the library book sale! And writing a poem a day for April, National Poetry Month!

Fat Tuesday with Abe

It's almost like I've given up everything for Lent and as if Lent is all the time. I am behind in my blog, poetry writing, poetry submitting, letter writing, and all things me. Except that I was in a play, so that explains my absence in January and February, 2019, but it doesn't explain anything else. Tuesday, I was downtown and saw Abe Lincoln all dressed up for Mardi Gras on Fat Tuesday. Here he is.

The play I was in was Marjorie Prime, by Jordan Harrison. I played a human and an A.I. (artificial intelligence) version of Marjorie (Marjorie Prime.) It was a wonderful experience--the process, the performances, the cast, the crew, the audiences, all of it! People keep stopping me to say how much they liked it, how thought provoking it was, how much they appreciated Heartland Theatre Company for doing it. So, yay! And, strangely, I learned a lot about what it is and what it means to be human. There are four characters in the play. One is A.I. throughout, one is human throughout, and two of us got to be both, and we both felt the difference. I felt not just like A.I. but, in a way, like a Buddhist. I like the play better than the movie, though the movie has a stellar cast, in case you ever seek it out. I advise seeking out a live theatre production, though!

Then I went to Chicago for four days to discuss human nature with a lovely bunch of coconuts via a wide array of readings (excerpts). We also visited the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie--to ponder again what humans do to other humans--and asked questions of a survivor who is, for museum purposes, also a hologram.

Now (again, forever) it is snowing, and I must decide whether to go out in it and for which reason: candidate forum or volleyball regionals. Sigh....

And it's not Tuesday, fat or skinny. It's Thursday.