46 posts tagged “2007”

It's over.  It's been over for a week.  I'm not sure I'm acclimated to 2008, yet, but I'm rather glad to have 07 over with.  It started out rocky and improved/spiralled down from there.  In 2007, I surpassed my previous personal best for living in one place.  I went to college for three and half years, but otherwise hadn't kept the same address for more than three years until now.  I have lived in Geneva for four and a half years.  And I don't plan on moving.  But staying somewhere for a long time takes a different set of skills from picking up and moving around every couple of years, so I needed to work on that and get some help.  I think I'm in pretty good shape now, but it took some effort to get through this past Spring. 
I traveled to two places I had never been to before ever in my life.  I went to Spain (Barcelona where they have Dunkin Donuts and appropriately-sized servings of coffee) and New Mexico.  I still don't speak any Spanish beyond the basics a tourist learns, but wow, both were incredible in their own way. 
I worked summer school.  Until I moved overseas, I had always worked two jobs.  I also worked summer school the two summers I was in the States.  My attitude was go ahead, live beyond your means, you can always get another job if you need the money.  Yeah, not so much on a job-specific work permit.  I'm still working on the brain-retraining.  I was able to work at a high school this past summer as their librarian and it was one of the most affirming and positive professional experiences I have ever had.  Of course, when it's only 26.5 days, it can be positive from start to finish.  I won't work summer school this coming summer, but I'll be back for 09. 
I applied for a graduate program in children's literature.  I don't know when I'll hear about it and which way that decision will go, but I got back on the grad school horse and tried.  And I think my essay was okay. 
Time with family.  This was the first year that neither of my parents came over to visit.  I spent two months at home with them this past summer and was home for Christmas as well.  I'm blessed with amazing parents and a wonderful sister who has a great family, too.  I also have all these aunts, uncles and cousins who I just adore.  They might be tired of my face by the end of 2008, but I'm looking forward to a couple of good trips home. 
Things don't always go my way, but I have good friends who pick me up and encourage me as well as sit next to and say, "well, that didn't work!" and then we try something else. 
2008 will be a great year.  Hopefully, I will finally get out of debt, only to rack some up by going to Australia, but I will get to spend more time with family and friends, cook more, drink more, read more and hopefully get into a regular exercise routine of some sort.  Hence the swimming today. I've got a good feeling about this year!

YAY! Tomorrow when the war began by Marsden is the first in a series!!! I read the second one and have the third at home, but I'm not sure if I'll read it. I have a bunch of other ones to read as well. And this weekend is...
But, I was ecstatic to find that there were a bunch of books about Ellie and her friends. Even if I don't read them, it's nice to know they're there.
Originally posted July 18, 2007

The idea of consequences is a foreign one in my life. They're there, but not in a huge way like in Not Quite a Stranger by Colby Rodowsky.
Told from the points of view of Tottie and Zach, it's the story of a father's past arriving in the present. I think the reactions were pretty realistic, definitely a warts and all sort of telling.
Worth a read. Will interest the early teen crowd.
Originally posted July 18, 2007

I joined 43 Things today and one of the things (I think I only have five so far) is to be able to sew clothes. I already quilt, but there is a certain amount of forgiveness in quilting that there isn't in clothesmaking.
Working in a gorgeous, mostly well-stocked library, I decided to pick up some sewing books. The first one I chose is Sewing Projects in an Afternoon. It says that it's by Susan Mickey, but almost all the projects in it are by Jennifer Jacob and Cindy Lou Who (of all people, I kid you not!) and others.
Anyway, the directions are horrible. They say beginner level on most of them which says to me you might know which end of the needle to grab. It's hard to follow them from one step to another and the illustrations are not much help.
What a disappointment!!!
Originally posted July 17, 2007

A fairly unsympathetic protagonist turns out to be a pretty cool chick by the end. BernadETTE is on the debate team and because of her test score ends up on the school team for a trivia contest, think It's Academic for Michigan, but somebody cheated to get her school into the contest. Was it the principal? Her sexy, British, porsche driving English teacher? Or perhaps the school librarian? Or is it just all in her head? Along the way, she actually makes some friends, nearly loses one and has to determine what really is the right thing to do in a very grey area.

It's a pretty funny (ha-ha) book, too. There's one line that really cracked me up, but now I can't remember it. A little flirty romance, too, that's cute. I'd recommend it to anyone. Teen People called it a "light breezy read", but while it's not heavy lifting, there's a little more substance to it than say Meg Cabot...
Originally posted July 10, 2007

I always forget that this word means Miracles. I just think of the movie the Milagros Bean Fields War (which I never actually saw). Quite a few (all right, two off the top of my head) of the books that I've read this past weekend deal with adolescents figuring out their place in their family mostly because they do not biologically belong to both parents.

This story, Finding Miracles, by Julia Alvarez is a lovely story about a family finding its place and the the main character figuring out her whole self, in terms of her, her family and the country of her birth. I cried.
Originally posted July 8, 2007