Life and Family:
Yesterday was a day of dance. My daughter had her first performances with the dance company she had auditioned for and she had a great time. Truth be told, I really enjoyed it too. After a flu shot, shopping for her "company older"'s present and a karate lesson, we headed to the Goleta Lemon Festival where the group performed to a huge crowd (and not just parents and friends either).
Next stop was the dance company party (which means I got a break to walk the dog, grocery shop, etc) where the girls bonded with their "olders". This is a great tradition where girls in the top two dance groups are paired with a girl in the lower two dance groups as mentors. Sophia is so excited about her older, Skyler. Actually, Skyler's mom has started a t-shirt company that has texting messages on them (Sophia got one that says "dncr", which she loves).
Last stop? Performing the half-time show at the local community college football game. All in all a really fun day. Sophia slept over 10 hours and woke up to say "that was the BEST sleep ever"
Work:
I've spent the last week or so processing $2,000 worth of books at work. It's so fun to see what I ordered (I often forget) and then I get all excited about displaying the books for the students when I know certain students will love certain books!
I've been working my a** off for the soon-to-be-launched new website at work. It is so much more work than I thought it would be. I feel like I am always bugging the teachers about it, giving them updates, and "making" them do something they don't want (our new site includes web pages for each teacher and an awesome grading program that they can/will upload to the website each week). Many teachers have come to me to ask if it's mandatory, do they have to upload weekly. My response has become "I am not your boss. I can't make you do anything." I definitely feel like I am being pulled in too many directions as work and am not giving my full attention to my job as teacher librarian. At least half of the English department came to me in the last couple days saying that they were discussing me at their department meeting. Some were concerned that I am going to get burned out. Once member said "We'll never burn Helen out, she can do it all." Um. I think my cape is working in overtime. As I say to my colleague Jayne, "no good deed goes unpunished".
Books:
My giveaway for Joshua Gaylord's Hummingbirds ends tomorrow.
I had a fun time shopping at my favorite book store this week since we got a new PO for the Library. I just love book shopping with someone else's money! I bought some Tamora Price, Simone Elkeles, James Patterson, Laurie Halse Anderson, Lauren Kate and more.
I also attended a meeting of what we hope will become a new non-profit. A woman in one of my book groups spent time in Uganda this past summer visiting schools. Our goal is to get books into the schools (all levels). We had the director of Direct Relief International talk to us since they ship stuff to Uganda monthly. We have so many decisions to make, contacts to find, and money to raise!
