Smoothies

Little Books for Cooks: Smoothies by Jane Stacey
2000
Weight: .8oz
Method of Disposal: Donating

I began working, illegally, at the age of 12.  I worked at a smoothie shop.  I will withhold the name of the company, as my boss was a pedophile with a theft problem and no one knew.  He was a bad egg but it was not the company's fault.  Luckily, the worst he ever did to us was to rub my best friend's ears, and his wife frequently propositioned me and tried to get me to go home with them.  I always said no and never felt bad about it.  It was not violent and not even why I call him a pedophile.  I call him that because, after leaving that job for the bookstore, someone found the police record.  I guess we were lucky.

Despite all of that, we loved working there and had a lot of fun and a lot of freedom--because, as I said, our manager was awful.  We ran that place.  He was almost never there.  We closed the store down at night, we opened it, and we were there for all inspections.  We have so many stories.  We were also able to barter smoothies for Arby's fries, cookies, and free piercings from the attractive woman at Claire's I would write poetry to, and she would blush. 

My friend purchased me this book after I left to my new job selling books. When you pressed the button a man would exclaim, "Deeelicious!"  We found this hysterical for some reason.  I am fairly certain that, if I make it to 80 or 90 years old, I will be able to hear that voice clear as day.  It is burned into my memory.

Penguins

Penguin by Fran Lanting 2000
100 Things You Should Know About Penguins by Barbara Park and Denise Brunkus 2008
Three Cheers for Tacky by Helen Lester and Illustrated by Lynn Munsinger
Weight: 4.4 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

I love penguins best of all, and I frequently am gifted everything penguin.  This includes a lot of really cool books like these two that I hate to see go, but that I know I do not need anymore.  I also know that if I give them up that is 4.2 lbs I do not need to move to another house come February and, hopefully, some other penguin-loving child will get them.

Our landlord has moved the date to sell this house forward and now we are desperately looking for a new rental that allows pit bulls during the holidays.  It has not been fun.  I do not think many people are looking to rent out their houses around Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and the New Year.  The closer and closer we get to January the more sick to my stomach I become.  I am not sure that we will get everything ready to go and find a place in time and yet we have to.  Meanwhile, I am afraid that I will not be able to stay at my job of ten years much longer and am also panicked about that.  It makes me wish I was a kid immersed in penguin books, drawing all the different types in my sketch book.  Those days are long gone, as are they days where I have time to read and/or draw.

Feast Day of Fools

Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke
2011
Weight: 1.6 lbs
Method of Disposal: Leaving Somewhere

Anytime I start to argue that I have a sleeping problem remind me that I only seem to have this problem when I know I have to go to work in the morning.  Something about knowing that I will not be able to control my schedule, freedoms, and admonishments makes me feel like I have to pack everything into one night.  If I stay up the morning will never come, but I know from college (all those years ago) that is not true.  Morning does come.  Over and over and over. Responsibility is this beast that some people try to maintain and others just let run away, but either way it complicates things.  If you stay up all night you are just tired the next day.
 

Lamplighter

The Lamplighter  by Cummins

Unsure of date.  There is an inscription dated 1896.

Weight: 1 lb

Method of Disposal: Donating

It is almost 3:30 am, and I have been working for hours.  They (being the people) always act like the overtime won't be so bad and ask you not to burn yourself out, but it seems impossible.  I still feel so far behind, and I know I will not be able to get anything crossed off my to do list at work tomorrow because I have to fix my reports, and we will have surgery paperwork.  I am overwhelmed.  It is possible that I have broken down crying in the last 4 days more often than I have eaten.

Back in the day, Lamplighters were the people whose job it was to light the streetlights.  At least, I think that is true.  I felt like the very title of this book made it appropriate for this post.  When I took the trash out to take a break, no one else was lighting up the street with their indoor lights.

This book, initially, was an unexpected treasure for me.  I ordered something else and this came in.  I wrote a nice e-mail and said I was glad to return this one, but I would still like the other one.  He wrote me back to just keep it and sent the other.  No worries, no problems, and two books.  One from the 1800s!   It is over a hundred years old.  Oh my God.  If I keep talking about it I won't let it go...