J'Espere

It was awful to read the front page of the N&O on Sunday, about Johnston essentially going through it's collection and pulling books it finds "offensive". I hate that word. At least in terms of literature. For one thing, it's exclusive. I don't mind cursing or sex scenes in my books, but can imagine there are a lot of people who do. I am not biased by ethnic or religious authors. I think you can read either and both just fine and am not offended. I think that drugs should be a part of YA literature, since they are a part of YA life. So what is offensive? Apparently, it's whatever Fred Bartholomew thinks. And no one knows what he thinks. When the newspaper talked to them the BOE was very vague about how they were selecting books to pull. Were they selecting all the books that contained sex and drugs or just a few of them? Would all minority authors be up for review, or just those that are filling children's heads with "filth". I'm fascinat

Yes, I had a small accident. My first in seven years, to be exact. And hopefully my last. Since the repair shop completely underestimated when i would be retrieving my own vehicle I was forced to deal with the reality of living in Small Town America again: The Rental Car. Which meant I had to deal with another reality- who was going to pay for this rental car? I try to budget 40 dollars a week for food. That meant having to call the parents and say, "mom, you want to pay for my rental car?" Fortunately I am a Southern girl and they said yes, as long as I promised not to wreck it. So I called Enterprise and now have a very bright red Nissan Versa with unlimited mileage. And it's an automatic. Which, if you're used to a stick, can be complicated. I keep wanting to drive with two feet. And it does something weird when I park it. At the same time, it's kind of fun. I never get to drive other cars (since I have had the same one for a while and plan on keeping it) and i

Always a socialist at heart (I told y'all I love the French), I'm speaking out on insurance in the US today. It started with a phone call last night. One of my friends just suffered her second miscarriage in a very short period of time. She went to the ER and then to her normal doctor. Who said she suspects she has lupus. I'm not going to judge her for actually getting pregnant on purpose without health insurance. But I am going to judge Blue Cross Blue Shield for trying to charge her $700 a month for insurance. When her husband hasn't received a paycheck in two months. When she has two children to feed. She doesn't know if she has lupus- she doesn't have money for the test required. Nor does she have the insurance to cover it. Now, onto situation 2. My friend has a friend who has a medical disease that requires daily medication. But he isn't getting it because he again doesn't have health insurance. And he needs it- without it he could get really sick a

I flew up on thursday morning, the official beginning of my fall break, and just got back today. My house is a mess, I haven't done any of my homework, and I'm still breathing and living New York in the fall. If you haven't been there for this particular season you should go. this fall since it was a little warm, it was weird- people were wearing shorts and t-shirts. I brought all 3/4 and long sleeved stuff but was determined to wear it, because, after all, it's mid-Oct in the Northeast. It's a little ridiculous. Since the boyfriend was not on fall break, I actually had a while to just wander around the city on my own. Which I love to do anyway. That's actually one advantage to my friends having real jobs is that I do have some alone time. I did a whole lot and walked around 75-80 blocks total. I walked a lot. But that's not the point. The New York Public Library. I went on the tour (offered M-F 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.) I highly recommend this. because you will b

So I've noticed something really interesting about people and library school. Whenever I mention that I'm in library school I get two responses- 1) "Really? You have to go to school for that?" or 2) "That's great!". The latter being from people who are generally more educated. So I'm here to clear up a few things. Librarian is a legitimate career. We find things for people. We help people select books. We select books for our libraries. We support school curriculum, we educate people of all ages, we fight for the money to keep you informed with dictionaries, encyclopedias and databases. There is no constitutional right to the Public Library. The Public Library is there because it was started hundreds of years ago, because it turned out that people liked borrowing books for FREE and because people had questions that they could not answer on their own. The library is here today because even our government realized that to an extent libraries are a wond

or at least the Triangle area. Today may have been a day out of "Office Space". I spent two hours on 40-E going 25 miles. at approx. 20-25 miles per hour. It really took that long. In the time I was on the road, I had two phone conversations, worked on my nails and hands, and thought of reasons to carpool. Or at least incentives that would help people want to carpool. These are some of the ideas I had: 1) Tax break for people driving and participating in organized car pools 2) Gas cards for drivers of carpools (maybe $150/year?) 3) Discounts on car maintenance through Jiffy Lube or something for drivers 4) Special lanes for cars holding three or more people 5) Free Satellite radio I think the best thing would be for hte Triangle to realize it's becoming more urban and embrace it. And put in a true Public Transportation System. I was imagining, to start, a high speed train looping from Raleigh to Durham to Cary and Chapel Hill. It would make few stops, but each one would b

Really there are several things that I abso-lute-ly love in NC. One is the Duke- Carolina game, be it basketball, football, or even soccer. The second is the NC State Fair. Held every year in Raleigh NC, the State Fair is a cumulation of everything that is good about the South- giant vegetables, rides that might fall apart at any moment, and deep-fried anything (even pickles or Twinkies. really.) I've been going nearly every year since I was too small to remember. My favorite memories are from when I was in elementary school and my parents would actually let me skip a half-day to head over to the fair with them. I loved being pulled out of school for any reason, but that was an especially good one. I loved eating junk food, picking up cheap prizes at the grab-a-bag, and petting the goats and seeing the bunnies. I could go on and on. So I talk about the fair a lot this time of year. It's nothing against anyone else's state fair, it's just that this one is the best. when

I was put in charge of the farm for this weekend and next. My responsibilities include but are not limited to raking, weeding, feeding horses, cats, dogs, walking said dogs, grooming horses, cleaning part of the house. It's been stressful, to say the least. I have a newfound respect for my parents, who do this every single day. But I think the rewards are also kind of great. Like tonight, when I was standing outside, filling troughs and staring at a beautiful starry sky. that should be reason enough to stop development. People never realize how many stars there are, and how beautiful they are, and how our paved roads with streetlights reflecting off of them are affecting what we see, or better said, what we aren't seeing. It scares me how suddenly we are sprawling out. Instead of taking steps to conserve what we use and what we are, we are beginning to think that 8000 square foot houses with swimming pools and Hummers are normal. I can't think of anything worse than not

I was very disappointed to hear that the Federal Supreme Court ruled to abolish partial -birth abortion. At least in states that "wanted" to do it. Meaning most of the Bible Belt, and beyond that I'm sure a lot of other places. They wrote that they were trying to protect women from "making a choice that could cause...loss of esteem". Part of the reason I'm shocked this went through is that there is nothing that can cause "loss of esteem" faster than a woman carrying to term a baby with birth defects, a woman wanting to get an abortion and being refused, or a woman who is bringing into the world a baby that is not wanted. Right wing supporters suggest alternatives- adoption is one of the suggestions. I have a suggestion for them- why don't they put their money where their mouth is and adopt a child. After checking the current Trends in Foster Care today, there are somewhere around 800,000 children currently in foster care (2005).Of these, only 5

or I may as well be. There was a duststorm on campus today. Really. I was coming from behind our planetarium and watched as several very clean, preppy kids, were hit with waves of dust that must be common out west. But shouldn't be here. This drought is slowly changing the landscape of where I live. Trees that are hundred of years old are dying out, being lost. The Lake has sunk to a level we weren't aware was optional. It's like living in Sahara Africa. Crazy how dry this place is. And, unbelievably, people are having to be told not to drop their cigarettes in the woods or fling them out of car windows. Because they will inevitably catch something on fire. I feel like I'm living in a time bomb. It's the only time I've ever seen this place disappointed that a tropical storm didn't hit. What's most significant about all of this, of course, is the Global Warming that's obviously affecting it. I hate when people say "How can we be sure?" J

I remember seeing some of Blake's work at a gallery once. Lush colors on busy screens. It was too much for me to take in. So I left. Then, last night I happened to pick up a copy of New York Magazine's Fashion, and there was a long, detailed article about the deaths of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake. There are several things I found really interesting about this. One, that it was a double suicide and yet not done together. Two, that they chose completely different ways of ending their lives. Three, that they spent the last twelve years together and yet he had no clue that she was planning on killing herself. The idea of a double suicide is not uncommon in literature of history. Probably the first couple that most people think of is Romeo and Juliet, whose love affair led them to their deaths. And then there are Tristan and Isolde, in which Tristan is mortally wounded and Isolde feels compelled to follow him rather than live without him. From medieval times forward, this is