Working for Vacation

I've been on vacation for the past week and a half. Although it has not been difficult vacationing, it was difficult getting to the vacation part.

Taking time out for vacation, at least in the library field, is a process one must start months ahead of time. Our county wishes us to start a year ahead. They pass around a calendar at the beginning of the year and request us to mark all of our vacation days for the entire year. Who knows in January if they are going to be taking off in October? Not me.

Then once the dates are set one must get all the work done for those weeks ahead of time. All ordering, projects, programs etc must be taken care of. This can require extra hours to take hours off.

Then when one returns they are faced with hundreds of e-mails, calls to return and projects to do. One time I left for five days at a previous place of employment. My supervisor, let's call her Black Lagoon Lady or BLL went crazy with the post-its and covered my desk in an intricate design of pink and yellow pieces of paper. Then BLL made stacks of paper littering my desk, chair and on top of the keyboard awaiting me for my arrival. I could feel her evil grin as soon as I entered the room eight am Monday morning.

So for that stress-free week of vacation one might have to go through a stressful month in preparation and recovery. Hope you enjoyed those pina coladas.

Why Authors Really Write

I went to a conference today with several authors talking about what inspired them to get into writing. One mentioned having a mind bursting with creative and imaginative energy that needed to come forth. Another expressed a passion of writing since childhood that developed into a career. One writer said that he wrote to inspire young minds. At a previous conference I went to writers gave similar reasons as these. All these motivating factors are very uplifting and noble. However, they leave out one very important motivation: money.

I cannot believe for one second that all these authors write either out of the pure goodness of their hearts or simply because they have too much creativity. Everyone has to make money to survive and writing is a business like everything else. I believe the reason that they leave the monetary motivating factor out of their lofty speeches is that it sounds morally repugnant to say you write for money. People would look down on writers as greedy if they said they wrote for money. Writers that write for money are not artists but are given another name: journalists. But why does this have to be? Almost any other profession can say they work for money except writers. You don't see starving engineers romanticized like starving artists. We need to let our writers not be afraid to say they want to eat.

Go, Worm Go!

Our summer reading program, and the summer reading program of many libraries is all about bugs. For an activity this week I wanted to have a "worm day." We would have a worm craft, worm snack (chocolate pudding, oreo 'dirt' with gummi worms), and I wanted to attempt a worm race. My boss was a little worried how he would put "worms" on the purchase request slip that we turn into the county. He didn't need to worry because worms are 'dirt' cheap. You can get two dozen for three bucks.

So I bought the worms and after the large gaggle of children had eaten their chocolate 'dirt' I told them we were having a worm race. I didn't know how this was going to go, I didn't even know which was the front or the back of the worm. I made several concentric rings on a large sheet of paper and had the kids each pick a worm. I thought the kids would be squeamish about touching worms but they reached in and dug their hands into the big squishy pile. They each put their worms on the outer edge of the circle and then with as much fanfare as a worm race could have I said "Go!" The worms, not realizing this was a race, squiggled and some tried to race off the table. But a few valiant ones made their way to the center. Soon it was a neck in neck race between two pink worms. Who would win? The kids were wide-eyed in anticipation. Finally we had a winner and the kid with the worm held it aloft like an Olympic torch. Who knew that worm racing could be fun?

Talking, Dancing, Clothed Animals

I am going through all my picture books one by one and I have noticed that roughly one half or more has either a talking animal or an animal dressed up in human clothes. There are every type of creatures imaginable in these books from aphids (Anna Aphid by Christine Goppel) to wombats (Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French). To tell the truth I'm not exactly sure what a wombat is and I don't think a five year old would know.

My coworker and I were talking as I was weeding through these books one by one. I mentioned how adults how ascribe emotions to animals. They think their pet hamster feels sad when they go or their bunny feels such complex emotions as jealously. Not only do adults think their pets feel this way but they dress up their pets in costumes. Does this have something to do with the massive amounts of picture books with talking, dancing, clothed animals? From day one children are taught in books that animals talk, feel, and have families and lives just like they do. Does this belief continue in some way into adulthood?