October, I hardly knew ye...Part the Second

What a busy month! November promises to be more of the same because we'll have visitors! Elmo Makes Music arrives in San Antonio this weekend, and with it, Mary! Then, the in-laws next weekend and Jennie the weekend after that. :)

Anyway, more on October. I forgot to mention in my last post the BU alumni event Pat and I went to. It was a pretty fun time at the Belmont, where they have $1 margaritas and half-priced apps on Monday evenings. One of the guys there graduated in '06 and is in UT's School of Education, which is in the same building as my school and I think I saw him the other day, but I wasn't confident about it, so I didn't say anything. Oh well. The person who organized it is talking about doing a Beanpot get-together, which would be nice. Or, considering how the team's doing thus far, maybe it won't be nice...We shall see.

This weekend was a busy one. On Saturday, I went to the Texas Clay Festival with some folks from the iSchool, one of which worked with my cousin Chelle at the Maine Historical Society. Actually, while I'm talking about what a small world it is, I'm going to digress. I finally gave into peer pressure and joined Facebook and I'm glad I did because I was able to get back in touch with two of the people from high school that I really wish I hadn't lost touch with in the first place (there aren't many of those, let me tell you) and they are both living in Texas, too. So bizarre.

Anyway, Texas Clay Festival. I'm a total bum and didn't remember my camera and I really wish I had. I'd love to go back and revisit some of the pieces I looked at during the day because I was experiencing some sensory overload and it would be nice to get a second look. We watched some really interesting demos. One was a man working on the wheel and another was a man doing a quick firing technique that I believe is called raku, but I might be making that up. I could watch people performing their craft all day, and it doesn't have to be art, either. I even get really mesmerized watching other hairdressers when I'm getting my hair cut. I like that pottery is such a tactile art. Every single thing we looked at we were aloud to touch and pick up.

On Sunday, Pat and I went to the Triple Crown Pet Festival. The proceeds went to the Austin SPCA. We saw doggie dancing, a police dog training demo, and weenie dog races! I know, I know, you're thinking, "Becca, weenie dog races? But, I know for a fact that you keep a huge soapbox in your closet for times when you need to talk about greyhound racing." These were people's pets that they brought with them to the festival and they weren't compelled to race by any means other than someone standing 50 feet away with a toy or treat. Some of them chose not to run at all; one rolled over and asked to have his tummy rubbed. It was really cute! I wish we could have a dog, but two cats is the limit in the apartment building.

In other news, I'll be on the east coast from January 1st or 2nd-ish to January 15th-ish. I'll be spending some time in Maine, some in Boston (I'll be begging for sofa space soon, friends!), and some in Philly (woo, Randi!) for ALA Midwinter.

Last but not least, a little story about why library school has its perks: I've spend the last couple of weeks working on a project about Romance fiction for my Public Libraries class. I even decided to read one of the books I talked about in my presentation. In one of the books I used, The Romance Readers' Advisory: The Librarian's Guide to Love in the Stacks, the author told a story of working in her library and having an elderly man come to the reference desk whom she had difficulty understanding. He apologized to her, saying that he'd had a stroke and was learning to speak all over again. She mentioned to him that she'd just read a book about a stroke survivor learning to speak whose first words were swears; he said he'd had the same experience (drove his wife crazy) and he'd like to read that book. She gave him the book I'm reading now, Flowers from the Storm, which he then gave to his wife and recommended to his doctor, who in turn recommended it to other stroke survivors and their families. Very touching story and a pretty enjoyable novel, to boot. :)