The City of West Hollywood Book Fair: Goodness

The first book fair I can remember was in my elementary school library, in third grade.  My mom came to school that day, because she didn't trust me to carry the money to school myself.  The whole library was transformed by red folding shelves, just full of yumminess.  Glitter pencils were all the rage that year, but I spent my $15 book fair allowance on American Girl books-- Kirsten, Molly, and Samantha were the only girls then.  Felicity and Addy (and now, Kit, Josefina, Julie, Rebecca, Kaya, and Julie, and their best friends) were out by the time I was in fifth grade.  My mom volunteered for the book fair that year, and I remember coming home and finding three of the Addy books and a beautiful blue bookmark on my bed.  As I was driving to the book fair today, with the crisp weather and the jumbly clouds overhead, I was so excited I wanted to hug myself... which is a bad idea when driving down Santa Monica.  But the feeling was there, and it was good.

I was stationed to volunteer at the information desk in the Children's Area, next to the Storyopolis booth, and in perfect line of the stage, where ballerinas, rats, and pirates cavorted all day.  Psuednonymous Bosch, who may or may not have written The Name of This Book is a Secret, If You're Reading This, It's Too Late, and This Book is Not Good for You (besides Here Be Monsters, one of the best websites I've seen) may or may not have been at the Storyopolis booth, but he certainly signed my copies of the latter two titles (the former being one of my favorite chapter books I've read in the last year), with some of the best inscriptions ever.  I may not be a librarian yet, but I about cried when I read this one:  

I also picked up a subversive feminist coloring book, by Jacinta Bunnell and Julie Novak, girls are not chicks, and a DVD of the history of KPFA, which I was introduced to at 17 by Ms. Sarah, and is now an addiction, and not to forget, of course, a ton of resources for the future librarian, including a brochure for 826LA, whose theme is time travel, which is at least as cool as 826Valencia, and their pirates and blowfish.

The goods:

Homework, then tea, chocolate, and inky deliciousness!  

New Digs!

I have returned, with all kinds of newness and fabulosity!  A new design, a new apartment, a new city, a new school... even some new flats-- but more on those later.  

With all this newness, I have committed myself to this blogging thing, in the sake of being a future "information professional"-- a librarian, that is.  After only three classes, I have been amazed and astounded at the intensity of academic study that goes into blogs, Wikipedia, Google, Bing... you name it, somebody has written a thesis on it!  I imagine I'll talk more about this later, as well.  The really juicy bits I want to share is my new pad.

I've been in my new West Hollywood apartment for one and a half weeks, and my stuff is all moved in. Things are still changing-- and missing.  I need a couch, a nightstand, and a cheese grater, among other things, but in the past I have always jumped into buying what I needed, in addition to what I already had, right away.  The resulting effect was being sick of my apartment decor in two months, which meant taking all the curtains down, re-dying them, sewing new pillows, and spending hours in thrift stores looking for dishes in this particular shade of olive that they have exactly at Restoration Hardware, but who can afford that malarkey?  I want this to be a bit more of a growing process, adding only things I love, one at a time.  

So I may have to lie on the carpet for awhile-- I don't really like chairs anyway-- at least, for sitting in.  I use to rescue chairs from the San Francisco sidewalks, and line them up on the walls all over my apartment, then stack books, plants, or whatever on the seats.  This was incredibly frustrating to my roommates, but I thought it was just adorable.  When I moved all my things out of storage last fall, I had eight mis-matched chairs (two with no seats), and almost nothing else!

So let's see where things stand so far, some areas I'm really digging:

My desk (vitally important, as I already have a ton of homework!), and my coffee cart, which I have some plans for, but is serving its caffeinating purpose just fine for now:

I love my mantel, but I cannot figure out what to do with my empty fireplace: I have a couple ideas, but I would love to hear more!

And, of course, what would my apartment be without a wall of books?  I really need to get a fourth bookcase though; they're starting to spill out!

Today-- the new apartment; tomorrow, the new school!