The Meme of Fives

The Meme of Fives

I was all set to follow up, as promised, on my library opinions post of a couple of weeks ago, but it will have to wait until next week, as Charlotte of Charlotte's Library has tagged me with the Meme of Five. Here it is:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read the player's blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

What were you doing five years ago?

At work, I was a school librarian, getting ready for the annual school-wide Authors' Circles, and starting to put together recommended reading lists to send out as part of the school Summer Reading Program. At home, I was answering a running list of "why?"s from an energetic two-and-a-half-year-old.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?
(Some of these have been done, but on the other hand this day is just about over)

1. Work a 4-hour shift at one of the libraries where I am on-call (done!)
2. Write a condolence note to my elderly cousin, whose husband died recently (not done yet…)
3.  Start some laundry (also not done. What will I wear tomorrow??)
4. Make dinner (done, and it was pretty yummy)
5. Write this post!

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1. Chocolate, in any form, but especially little chocolate bonbons that come in boxes
2. Potato chips, the tangier the better
3. Cookies
4. Gelato
5. Deviled eggs

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

1. Buy a nice old house in Vancouver with a view of the water.
2. Buy original art by children's book illustrators like Vera B. Williams, Kevin Henkes, and Elisa Kleven.
3. Go to the beach. A lot. Also back to New York, the land of my youth.
4. Visit  friends and family who I haven't seen for years because they live scattered all over the country and the world, or else pay for them to come visit me or meet up with me someplace nice (like the beach!)
5. Give a big chunk of it away, but where? Research on electric cars and global warming? Libraries in under-funded schools? Arts education? Women in developing countries? The mind boggles…

What are five of your bad habits?

1. Staying up too late at night
2. Waking up too late in the morning.
3. Procrastinating. (I see a theme developing here…)
4. Starting a book, then bogging down because I don't really like it, but feeling like I can't start another book until I've finished the first one.
5. Forgetting to feed the cat.

What are five places where you have lived?

Manhattan, suburban New Jersey, Alaska, Seattle, Vancouver

What are five jobs you've had?

1. Babysitter
2. Trade magazine reporter on the Oils, Fats, and Waxes beat (really!)
3. Salmon cannery worker
4. Childcare teacher
5. Librarian

I now tag five people who have commented here in the past, or whose blogs I've commented on recently (though honestly, I'll understand if you choose to pass—this is not a chain letter!)

Catherine at Preschool Mom
Adele at the Grandmom Blog
Emily at emilyreads
Susan at Crunchy Granola
Cheryl at Cheryl Rainfield

And, because I have a hard time getting through a post without at least one book recommendation: If you like lists, might I suggest the picture book 17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore, by Jenny Offill and Nancy Carpenter? The heroine's list of creative and enterprising misbehaviors ("I had an idea to staple my brother's hair to the pillow…I am not allowed to use the stapler any more.") are sure to bring a smile. This book might be best shared with kids who are old enough to get the joke and not take the heroine's antics literally, though it could also be a relief for some young mischief-makers to see that they're not the only ones. And the illustrations are lively and funny and smart and perfectly depict that certain gleam in the eye.

May 15, 2008

Comments

[Catherine]

Oils, Fats, and Waxes, huh? I'm not sure I can top that! Thanks for the tag!

[charlotte]

thanks Els!

[charlotte]

thanks Els!

[Susan]

Thanks for the tag--I got my post up earlier tonight.

And glad to see I'm not to late to add a comment about what I want in a library: librarians! I don't actually go to the library in my neighborhood much b/c it doesn't really have a children's librarian--they have librarians on duty in a reference area in the middle of the branch, and I can't figure out who is the children's specialist (it's probably the person who does story time in the mornings on week days when I am never there). So I've never developed a relationship with anyone there. At our synagogue library, we used to have a wonderful librarian who really got to know me, and my daughter, and made great book recommendations. She left and is replaced by someone who knows more adult collection stuff than kid collection stuff, and I miss that. I like librarians who can recommend books to me. at our big new city library, they have librarians who hang out in the kids' area and who have made some great recommendations (the last time I was there, Curious Girl said, "I want to read a book that won an award." So we found a librarian, who told us that they had a Newbury section, but not a Caldecott section, but then he walked us over to the picture book section and recommended Tuesday by David Weisner, and we took out a whole bunch of his works, plus just randomly found Nora's Stars on the shelf kind of nearby (which won no awards, but is great). So that's the kind of librarian I want to find in libraries I frequent. The next best thing to having librarian friends in the computer, you know?

[EM]

I am finally putting up my Meme of Five. Thanks for the tag!

[Catherine]

Mine's up now too!