I have a cold.  I haven’t been sick for a while, except for a brief stomach ailment, but this cold is going to make up for it.  My neck hurts–not just my throat, the whole thing–, I have a terrible headache and my back hurts like crazy.  My chest feels like someone filled it up with cotton.  I slept most of today and was really happy to do it.

Unfortunately that meant I missed work and my listening session with our interim City Librarian.  I am mostly sad that I didn’t get to hear from the other people at the session.  I know how I feel, but I want to hear from others.  I know I would have had something to say as well, but I’ve been living with my thoughts for months.  I’d like a fresh perspective. I hear there will be more scheduled, so I will try to get into one of those.

Oh, and I did get my 4th program for summer, but only by saying that gaming is a regular program.  Others won’t be as lucky and I did lose the promised funding that would have gone with a gaming program.  It wasn’t a lot, but it would have paid for some popcorn.  I am very happy to have the program though so I’ll stop complaining.

What am I reading? Currently Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick–the title says it all.  I am learning a lot about the history of Korea and the lives of ordinary people there and I am still in the first 40 pages.  Sometimes non-fiction can make me turn away, but this one stands the test and I am so curious about the subject.  This book was another recommendation from Librarian of the Teenagers and she got it from TBTL, a podcast I used to listen to when I made time for podcasts in my life.

I read Girl Wonder by Alexa Martin, and while the story was good I had a hard time getting past all the Pacific Northwest references.   It would probably be fine for anyone who hasn’t lived here, but if that book inspires someone to move here, they will be disappointed that there are no spawning salmon in the back yards of Seattle.  Also, there is no Walmart in Seattle, especially not close to Seattle University.  There was more, but I’ll leave you a bit to discover for yourself.

I did like the contrast between Charlotte and Amanda.  The first is the protagonist and she idolizes Amanda, who is the darling of her school, both the gifted progam and the ‘normal’ side.  Charlotte has been remanded to the ‘normal’ side because of a math learning disability.  Her father pushes her to be an over achiever, never feeling able to live up to his expectations.  This roadblock makes her start to realize how much she is just living for him and she begins to live for herself with a few hiccups along the way.

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