Five Good Things
Small things that are making me happy right now, in no particular order.
1.Winter morning desert drives. There are certain areas in the Coachella Valley where I stop the car, get out and give myself a few minutes to take in the beauty of the desert landscape. As the sun slowly rises over the mountains near the Indio Grade, look to the east and you’ll notice blue and pink tones hovering behind the San Jacinto Mountains, right now the tip of the mountain is lightly dusted with snow and it is so pretty. Promise me you’ll pull off to the side of the road when passing over the wash on Cook St (in Palm Desert) and Adams (in La Quinta). The backdrop is a purplish blue and hazy pink sky and seeing the moon just resting above San Jacinto, it is a truly breathtaking scene. Now inhale and exhale deeply, and have a great day.
2. This Vera Bradley backpack and Stanley mug.
3.Satrudays are for nostalgic podcasts. During Covid when I was commuting to work (even though we were closed to public), I started listening to The Blume Saloon Judy Blume podcast. Saturdays were my favorite, my whole department was off and the upstairs area of the library was closed to the public, so I would work on my tween and teen activity grab bags and listen to Jody and Allison talk about Judy Blume Books, my favorite book they cover is Forever! As worried as I was about losing my job during Covid Times, crafting and nostalgia really helped my anxiety at the time. And because I was in a Nostalgic mood, Saturday night during 2020-2022 became Pizza Hut and 80s/90s kid/teen movie night.
4. The Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill. Just go and read it. (I know I’m about a decade late in reading this book)
5. Reading through my personal library. Over the last fifteen years I have amassed a library of 850 books (and that doesn’t include my cookbooks or what I like to call “My Old Children’s Books,” collection). Working in libraries, reading the new stuff was always important for Reader’s Advisory and making sure I was keeping up-to-date with children’s lit (series and non-fiction) so my personal library has unfortunately been neglected for awhile. Last January, I made a decision, I wanted to start reading through my personal library. I’ve reread a few favorites and excitedly picked up books I remember buying when I moved back to California over a decade ago. I treat my personal collection as if I’m visiting a public library, sometimes I’ll spend thirty minutes reading the backs of each book on one shelf, and get excited when I’ve found the book I want to read, like I’ve never seen it before. I’ll be writing a post dedicated to me reading through m library over the last year and a half!
