Christina Ballerina

Four year old Christina is starting ballet in two weeks and she is totally psyched. For now she is "practicing" with Angelina!

A Trip to The Zoo

"I'm on my way to the zoo, the zoo, the zoo, the zoo, the zoo
The monkey cage is nearly full but I think there's still room for you!"
Robertson Davies
A Leaven of Malice

It was one of those ideas that seemed like a good idea at the time. Go to the Zoo member picnic, have supper with thousands of other Zoo supporters, see some animals, do some fun activities, ride the Zoo train and go home in time for bed, having had dinner. And the kids were so excited they are literally jumping up and down for joy. The first sign that it might go wrong appeared when we were walking to the zoo. It did seem as if there were a lot of cars parked along the street, by the way. Christina mentioned that the sun was going down. "No sweetie", I said, "its just cloudy outside". Did I remember the weather report mentioning rain???? No, I distinctly remember the weather report NOT mentioning rain. We turn into the parking lot. The line up seemed rather long. No as I look closer, the line up looks very very long. Christina and PJ attempt to bud in front of .....everyone. We wait in line for fifteen minutes, short considering the size. As we wait in line I am reminded again and again that the mosquito population in South Bend is the worst apparently in 18 years. We get to the front of the line and feel the first drops of rain. We decide to go into the reptiles and small mammals building and let the rain pass. It doesn't pass. We decide to take a trip on the zoo train and either go home and get pizza or get our zoo lunch. We get on the train and are told that the train is shutting down. We get off and go get our lunch. The kids are not happy to not be taking a trip on the zoo train. We stand in line for food. Now it is really pouring. Some children are running up and down the slippery hill and PJ and Christina join them. Darn it, where is Christina when I'm holding a bag, her doll, three lunches and three cups. There is an accident .....and....there goes supper. Pizza for dinner it is. All the way home Christina complains that she never wanted to go to the zoo......As I write this, its a quarter after nine and I'm still not sure when I'm geting the kids to bed.

A World of Temptation

Taking a preschooler and a toddler grocery shopping can be harrowing at times. It is me or is marketing junk food to kids becoming even more aggressive. Do "fruit" snacks really need to be shaped into every possible preschool marketing success story to make them more attractive to children? Isn't it enough that they are fruity flavored and loaded with sugar? Here is a partial list of the food that Christina tried with various levels of success to sneak into my grocery bask this morning:

1. Two boxes of sugar cookies
2. Muffins
3. A half watermelon cut in an interesting way
4. "jelly beans"
5. Post Honeycomb cereal
6. Fruit Loops
7. Nibs
8. Strawberry whoppers
9. Two packages of mini donuts, chocolate and crumb
10. Dora AND Blues Clues yogurt
11. Ice Cream
12. Ice Cream Treats
13. Ding Dongs
14. Pizza
and oh yes 15. Candy from the checkout strategically placed in prime "I want it territory"

Book Review - Tipperary by Frank Delaney

I was delighted to receive the Advance Reading Edition of Tipperary by Frank Delaney though LibraryThings Early Reviewers program, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Historical fiction is not a genre I usually gravitate towards, but I found the book beautifully written and was drawn in from the start. Charles O’Brien, the main character and an itinerant healer, issues a warning to “be careful of him” which was intriguing. O’Brien proved to be a likeable and fascinating main character. In fact it was hard to see why his love interest, April Burke, spurned him so!

What a life Charles O’Brien claims to have had! He inadvertently brought down Irish political hero Charles Parnell, is a healer at Oscar Wilde’s death bead, (this is where he meets Miss Burke and first hears the story of her claim on Tipperary castle) gives writing advice to the young James Joyce and become acquainted with George Bernard Shaw and William Butler Yeats. Finally he becomes involved in the Irish civil war and assists member of the Irish Republican Army.

Upon meeting April, O’Brien falls in love not only with her but with Tipperary Castle and tries to involve himself wherever he can in the upkeep and the restoration of this building that both he and April love so much. The descriptions of the Castle and of the Irish countryside are beautifully detailed.

A secondary narrator at first seemed intrusive, especially since I would have like to find out what was happening next, but as he gradually became more ingrained in the story and less dispassionate his insight became more and more important. This is especially true after the fourth chapter where he introduces himself and starts to give the reader some insight into his very personal interest into the story of Charles O’Brien and April Burke. Other narrators including Charles’ mother Amelia and Charles’ dear friend Joseph Harney add interesting perspectives on events as they unfold.

Delaney demonstrates in this book a great love of the Irish land and people and a tremendous grasp of Irish history. I found this book to be a very entertaining read and had no problem with the ambitious scope of this book. Even better the book held surprises right until the very end. I would definitely be interested in reading more by Frank Delaney.

Virginia Counties Targeting Illegal Immigrants?

I just got my issue of American Libraries and learned that in the wake of Congress' failure to pass a Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act in June, Loudoun and Prince William Counties in Virginia are passing resolutions to limit illegal immigrants' access to public services. I say shame on Loudoun and Prince William County and all the other counties and states who are passing laws and resolutions to limit freedoms to illegal immigrants.

What Americans need to realize is that 1. the system of immigration in this country is broken and 2. someone is benefiting from illegal immigration and contrary to popular belief it is *not* the illegal immigrants. Think about this. There are 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Some one must really want illegal immigrants here. Everyone who hires domestic help illegally and pays them under the table benefits, every corporation who "unknowingly" contracts illegal immigrants to work for less than minimum wage benefits. Corporations who can keep wages for all their employees low benefit. Illegal immigrants do not benefit from current immigration law. They end up on a dangerous journey to a country that doesn't want them, to work in a job which puts them in a situation where they are easily exploited.

All immigrants would benefit much more from having an easier legal path to immigration. Employers would have to pay a living wage and benefits, and when the children of illegal immigrants grew up they would not be barred from an education or employment because they too, quite innocently, are also illegal immigrants. I know what the path to immigration is like in the United States because I too am an immigrant. I started the immigration process legally over ten years ago and am not appreciably closer to achieving permanent residency status, never mind having citizenship than I was then . I also know the casual insults that immigrants endure everyday, like having to send my immigration documents to the State Capitol every time I renew my driver license so they make sure that I'm in the country legally, or being tested for Std's just to get my green card, like being an immigrant makes it more likely that I'll engage in risky behavior.

Christians are often admonished to consider, ironically enough, "What Would Jesus Do"? Well, I know what he would not do. He would not throw good people in jail for helping God's people in need, He would not make strangers feel unwelcome in his home and he certainly would not turn people in need away from his door.

The Maternal Wall in Libraries?

Once again I find myself pounding the pavement as it were looking for a new position as a librarian. This time however I find myself having even less success than the last time I looked for a job despite a new gung ho attitude and a positive new spin on marketing myself and ironically three more years of experience. Every time my phone calls are not returned yet again I start to get suspicions why.

You see, since I last worked as a librarian, I have gained five years of more than full time experience in another highly demanding field. You could say that I have experience working with children in a particularly intimate way. Yes, I am a stay at home mother to a five year old girl and a three year old boy. Naively I thought I would stay home with the little ones until they were ready to go back to school and then carry on where I left off. That was before I heard about the Maternal Wall.

Not that I know for sure that this is the issue in my case, just that I know anecdotally from other stay at home mom librarians that it can be hard to get back in the field once you've been out and I also know that discrimination against mothers is widespread in business and the professions. With the wage gap between non mothers and men being narrowed, discrimination against mothers is in large part to blame for there still being a wage gap at all. I also have experienced particularly in academic libraries that the value placed on the so called ideal worker, ei one without outside obligations is huge.

So, where does this leave me? So far I'm learning Spanish and taking a multitude of continuing education courses in my "spare time". It has also left me wondering if some of the continuing education I take should not possibly be in the direction of a new career.

My little Fairy

My son has always been one to develop a clothing fascination. Last week he wanted to wear his Miss Spider rain boots with everything. This week he is wearing a fairy Tutu I made for his sister for Halloween two years ago. So cute. It reminds me of a story a friend told me that she heard on Bill O'Reilly. Bill claimed that some parents of a young boy who liked to dress up in girls clothing decided that their son was a transvestite and convince the school to treat him like one. Typical Bill story. Take one case, which may or may not be true, blow it way out of proportion and use it as an example of the decline of family values in our civilization. Really, I think what happens much more often is that parents blow these innocent little phases out of proportion in the other direction. Right now, I think a T-shirt with a tutu with the all important addition of Thomas the Tank engine sneakers is a good look for my son, just like underpants and rain boots were during the "rain boot phase".