“And as I cut myself, I imagine that my sacrifice, my pain, my spilling of blood, might do the trick.  Maybe it will get God’s attention.  Maybe he will kill my dad without me even asking.”
~Ruth Wallace in Blade Silver: Color Me Scarred by Melody Carlson

I’m trying to make an effort to introduce christian teen fiction into the libraries where I work, because the librarians have sensed a need for popular reading material that is not “Gossip Girls.”  Something with a little less sex, drugs and rock n roll.  Enter Melody Carlson’s “Color Me” series.  Carlson, who has written mounds and mounds of books, all of which I would like to read but only a handful of which I have actually gotten around to reading, is quite possibly the master of christian teen fiction (henceforth known as CTF.)  The “Color Me” series addresses current, pertinent topics like homosexuality, popularity, family issues, and the trappings of modern culture, but from a more subdued (and did we mention slightly religious?) perspective.  For those kids who don’t feel like running with the fast crowd, this seems like a good series.  Mainstream enough to start out with anyway.  Then I’d love to bring in Brio Girls, Carlson’s “Diaries” series, etc.  But I think this is a good start. 

 (Caution!  There may be some spoilers here!  You have been warned!)

This is old news now, but I’m gonna say it anyway.

 Jorja Fox is leaving CSI.

I’m sad, but not surprised.  However, my sadness was significantly lessened by the fact that GRISSOM PROPOSED TO SARA IN BEE GEAR.  AND SHE SAID YES.  I really hope that nothing tragic happens in her last couple eppies.  I hope they get married and she becomes a stay at home mom or moves to day shift or something and they just don’t follow her anymore.  I hope she doesn’t like, run off and leave Grissom at the altar.  That’d just ruin everything.

But now I want to talk about Women’s Murder Club, the new show on ABC.  Good lord, it’s fantastic.  I dare say it is the best new show that has come out since 2001 (when Crossing Jordan and Criminal Intent hit the air.)  I originally turned it on because Angie Harmon is in it, and I’ve been a fan of Angie Harmon since her Law and Order days.  But it ended up being well worth it, beyond just the Angie Factor.  Harmon’s character, Inspector Lindsay Boxer, reminds me a lot of Jordan Cavanaugh from Crossing Jordan– lots of balls and issues and angst and attitude.  It’s a little bit procedural, a little bit girly gab time.  In fact, it reminds me a lot of my other other favorite show, Army Wives, which is currently on hiatus cuz it’s a summer-run show.  WMC and the return of Angie Harmon takes away the sting of losing Jorja Fox off CSI.  And I even love it enough that I’ll catch What Not to Wear on a rerun so I can watch WMC on the 9pm Friday slot instead.  And let me tell you, that’s saying something.

After spending an afternoon at the library with fellow programmer and LIS student Mollie L., it occured to me that all of our previous dealings have not been flukes– she and I really do work brilliantly together.   It seems like any time one of us opens our mouth, we give the other one an idea for storytime, or a program, or a class assignment, or something.   Needless to say, our boss and mentor Lucy is beyond thrilled with this situation and happily lets us babble on about string and straws and cotton balls and leave books all over the place as we invade her office on her lunch hour.  Recently, Mollie and I have started discussing how we should find a library where we can both work together when we graduate.  When it was (half-flippantly) suggested that we should just get hired in our existing library system and work together there, our boss replied “that’s what I’ve been pushing for.”

While unfortunately my boss’ whims are not the governing body of the library system, it’s nice to know that someone else has recognized our stellar work relationship.  Obviously there’s no way to predict the future, and I still do eventually want to go back to the Motherland (Rochester,) but I certainly wouldn’t turn down a chance to keep working with Mollie :-)

Last Tuesday, in the middle of the “Law and Order: SVU” premiere we had a thunderstorm.  One of those knock-down drag-out lightning-that-makes-it-looks-like-daytime-out thunderstorms.

Before I continue I should point out that I hate thunderstorms.  And I’m terrified of them.  They’re not too bad in the daytime, but at night….. count me out.  And this mammoth thunderstorm was distracting me from the SVU premiere, which was annoying me, because I was *trying* to watch it since it was the highlight of my week.

But back to the story.  A huge lightning crackle and thunderclap occured about 10:20, and I will admit that I shrieked like a little girl.  About 5 minutes later, it happened again, but the crackle sounded different– the only way I can explain is that it sounded like breaking bones.  That sickly sound that tells you something is not right.  I shrieked again, louder.
Then the internet went out. Which wasn’t so bad because I was watching SVU and I didn’t need the internet for that. Then I watched an EMHE rerun and went to bed.

I woke up the next morning to have my roommate inform me that the University Police had called her at 1am that night to tell her that our building had been hit by lightning (!!!), and the lightning had fried our fire alarm system. In short, our fire alarm, which is normally connected directly to the central campus police station, had been fried out by the lightning, and therefore UP would not know if our apartment caught on fire. Though Estar (my roomie) was assured that there would be people patroling our building every hour to check on us, they offered to move us to a hotel for the night if we’d feel safer.

Estar declined the hotel offer, as I was already asleep and she was nearly asleep, and everything was fine. But days passed and our fire system was not fixed (staff members continued to stake out our apartment in the dark with flashlights and walkie-talkies) and more importantly, we lacked internet service. By Friday, needless to say, Estar and I were pissed. I went home for the weekend and returned to find that neither problem had been fixed, although I did bring back some fabulous new clothes.

Today, FINALLY, the internet works again. Though for some reason it appears to only work in my room and not Estar’s, so we may have to get one of my computer friends on that. (HT, I may be contacting you soon.) And I think the fire system works again too. More on this all later, but I’m all blogged out for the moment. Peace.