Bibliomama

Last week was banana-pants crazy. Well ha ha no it wasn't, but as I said to Angus when he texted asking me how I was I texted back "This week I am out three nights in a row, which I am too old for, and also running one library and working in three others, which I am too lazy for".  The previous week-end we took my parents to Prince Edward County and met my sister and her husband to celebrate my mom and dad's eightieth and eighty-third birthdays. The weekend was glorious - rained on the drive there and the drive home, but we did a super-fun wine tour with a fabulous limo driver/ guide on Saturday and the weather stayed nice and it was SO much fun (pictures to follow).  So the week-end was lovely but not restful (wine. Also gin. Some rum. I stole a few chairs). Monday I got to my library and all the shelves were moved around. This is secondary to them being moved around the PREVIOUS Monday in a completely unworkable fashion for sightlines and student safety. So now they

 I'm not really surly. This week has been pretty good, after last week's intense-fest (Eve being home, Matt being sick with Covid, me trying to work and feed and nurse everyone).  I love my job. I get to work with books, I get to see kids, many of whom love coming to the library, and I get to do it part-time so it doesn't burn out my body and brain. I was having a major back issue that was really distressing, and I finally figured out that it was the crappy chairs, not the being on my feet. I started bringing a cushion and it has nearly resolved, which is a massive relief. Last year at my Thursday school the grade sevens and eights coming in at recess were loud and disruptive and stressing me out. I don't like shushing, and I try really hard not to think of any student as "bad", and I felt ineffective and started to dread Thursdays. Then one of my friends (HI KERRY) said "okay, but you know how some adults are just assholes? Some kids are also just asshol

 Matt drove Eve back to Hamilton yesterday preparatory to flying out of Toronto to Korea today. He's feeling much better and neither Eve or I have gotten Covid. I did go to the doctor to address the apparent lung inflammation still hanging on from when I did get Covid a year and a half ago. I think I may have gotten a cold at the beginning of September when school started and the cough is really wearing on me - it's merely annoying for a few days and then suddenly it is extremely exhausting and aggravating. Let's go, little orange inhaler.  They're supposed to be rolling out a flu-shot/new Covid shot combo here for high-risk populations so I went online to see what I could book for my parents. I found it extremely confusing to figure out exactly who was eligible, and nowhere seemed to have the combo appointments available, so I booked them for flu shots at Walmart this morning and Covid shots a half hour away at the end of October. Then my mom emailed that they went for

This past weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada, which is always the first weekend of Eve's fall break. I drove down after work last Thursday to be ready to drive home with her after her late-afternoon mid-term Friday. That all went great, but then Saturday morning Matt texted that he had Covid tested before getting on his flight home from Glasgow and he was positive, although just barely symptomatic. This threw all of our Thanksgiving plans into disarray, since my parents had been planning to come over for dinner Sunday but the new vaccine is going to be just a few weeks late to cover Thanksgiving here.  We rallied fairly well, partly because this is just something you kind of have to expect will happen now, and because we had decided to order the Farm Boy Thanksgiving dinner since Eve and I and Matt would just be getting home and be tired from traveling. With my parents not coming and Matt coming home and heading straight to the basement, this meant I would not be spending all day c

 First of all, before I unintentionally start a class war, the whole "you get a room even if they have to bump someone" at Titanium status was a throwaway comment made by Matt that I suspect can't really be true. Also, I think this is less a 'rich people' thing than a 'people who spend way too much time on the road' thing. When I researched it a little, it does say that Titanium status means if you book your room 48 hours a head you are guaranteed a room. I think it's much more likely that a few rooms are kept aside and magically appear even if the hotel is 'full'. Also, there are 'terms and conditions', so who the hell knows. At any rate, we almost always book our hotel rooms way ahead, and we would never kick anyone out of their room. Even if we have to say "please do not give us a room if you have to turf someone else out of theirs".  For the last few years there has been an increasingly bold series of car thefts (SUV theft