bookmobile book

today someone at work left me a mysterious voicemail, saying she "had something for me." later in the day i walked by her cube--without memory of her earlier call--and heard my name follow me down the hall. i pivoted, remembering i was supposed to stop by her desk, and she handed me a book. a book! a novel about a bookmobile in kenya. she picked it up at ala last year, and thought of me.

my coworkers are so kind.

i started reading it on the bus tonight...

a year in flickr

i'm amazed and perplexed by my friends and family who craft holiday cards that recreate an entire year of events. are their lives that eventful? do they live out the year, taking notes of things worthy of christmas card remembrances? or do they perhaps keep a calendar of these things, and consult it whilst putting pen to paper?

i don't do any of the above mentioned, but since i've lately been of the challenging ilk, here's my go of it:

2007: a walk down memory lane

JANUARY: my good friend hollis and i traipsed barefoot on near-empty kauai beaches. and... in T minus 9 days, we'll do it again!

FEBRUARY: our buddy lee lefever showed up on the scene for a fun, mildly raucous, and thought-provoking visit. mid-month, i left behind my flaneur lifestyle, and entered the world of the workaday set, happily joining the smart folks at techsoup. still happy after almost a year... :)

MARCH: ahhh, ¡España magnífica! david and i traveled to spain, and spent a magical week with friends, learning about food, drink, and history. it was an incredible trip!

APRIL: our good friends jay and anastasia came through san francisco to see old buddies, to catch up on the city's creperie scene, and to support jay's cousin's first novel (read it before the sequel hits!). wine stashes were depleted, new-to-us restaurants were enjoyed, and we now await their next visit.

MAY: this month comprised fun and bittersweet moments. first the fun: a communications conference was held in the city, which meant many colleagues, and most importantly, close friends, showed up in town. on one night, we hosted a dinner party, where we commingled past, present, and future friends. soon after, david and i flew to nebraska to see my sweet auntie lee, who at 94, was just beginning to experience health issues connected to terminal cancer. it was a bittersweet visit, one filled with laughter and tears. i miss her.

JUNE: a much awaited and celebrated visit from mom and dad! we had a terrific time, visiting what seemed like every corner of this urban playland, focusing on what mom and dad termed, "our san francisco."

JULY: a crazy-making and eventful month, we flew to vashon island to see lynne and chris make it official, turned eastward to attend a mini-family reunion, and then moved our belongings and kitty cat to our new pad.

AUGUST: we didn't fly anywhere and no one visited. :)

SEPTEMBER: i took a 2-week trip on a bookmobile!

OCTOBER: lynne and chris visit! as our second visitors to the new pad (mom beat them by 48 hours), they both enjoyed, and played a part in, the demise of our air mattress (public apology to them, and to jay b, who slept on our floor, twice).

NOVEMBER: i traveled to seattle and saw lynne and hollis, my stitch crew, and i met my dear friends' new family. AND, we got married. :)

DECEMBER: after the whirlwind of november, david and i chilled, mostly, in the city. we bought our first tree together, and are enjoying a relaxing holiday at home.

jr. grade

i watched a documentary on the summer of love tonight. it's wild to learn about the history of our city, and even more wild to consider why some may have not welcomed the swift shift in culture and lifestyle.

when i was on the bookmobile tour, we met a spry and energetic woman who ran a victorian bed and breakfast. without meaning to, she encouraged us to stay a few extra days. over time, we learned more about mary. we learned that she recently had experimental surgery that moved her stomach to her throat. we learned that she had run this large bed and breakfast on her own since her husband's death 6 years prior. and we learned that she was raising a family in san francisco in the 60's.

she and her husband eventually decided to leave the city. they were devastated. they loved san francisco and wanted to raise their children there, but the city had changed, and not for the better. mary told us how hard it was to leave, and how hard it was to see the kids whose lives were degrading before them. she told of seeing kids on the street, suffering from malnutrition and overdoses. she told a story we hadn't heard.

tonight i learned that when north beach, home of the beatnik hipsters, became commercialized, young hip folks moved to where the rents were low in haight ashbury. these folks shared the same values as the counterculture hipsters, but wore bright clothing and preferred rock n' roll to jazz. people called them jr. grade hipsters--hippies, for short.

bookmobile in the news

today i found an article in the north coast journal about the bookmobile tour.

it was our second-to-last day on the road, and our third stop of the day. we were beat, and we were demo'ing how to make books to adults drinking beers (hell, WE were drinking beers!) at a wi-fi fund raiser for the humboldt county library.

whilst all of this was transpiring, a friendly journalist stopped by to pick our exhaustion-drained brains on what we were doing with a tricked out bookmobile parked on the lawn near a beer tent.

she captured some of it in her story.

for pics of the tour, check out this out.

caught on film in orland, california

still on the road and still visiting libraries daily. my bookmobile buddy shinjoung just created a film of our experience at orland free library.

check it out!

i have no shame

so... today was our first day off, which meant waking up after 8:00 and tooling around weaverville, ca. before setting off for the day, my hair made a rare appearance in a fluffy and voluminous state. my buddy james decided to catch it on film.

disclaimer: i'm a dork.

a very dark video of bookmobile troubleshooting

the first night on our trip, we experienced some technical difficulties. shinjoung captured it on film, but it was so dark (james was wearing a headlamp), you can't see much.

we were hanging out in the parking lot of the foothills motel while people drove by, staring at our vehicle and our pile of technology. we thought the whole thing was pretty funny, and lucky for us, shinjoung caught it on film. see what you think.

Purple haze over Plumas County, CA

Well, maybe pink, or even salmon-colored.

When I popped my trunk this morning, ash floated around me, sliding off my car. A fire was moving in our direction, but there was no real sign of it... yet.

By the time we were packing up the bookmobile, the skies were an ominous color, thick with sooty clouds. The sky was reminiscent of an threatening tornado, or a variety of impending doom. The ash and thickening smoke also began to coat our lungs, and caused my head to ache. The fire was about 35 miles away, and according to a fire services official, there were 1000 people dedicated to fighting this fire. As we drove in the opposite direction, we continued to skirt around the growing ash clouds, and by the time we reached Nevada City, the sun was a bright pink, and the sky resembled dusk, yet the ash had subsided, as did my headache.

i'll be somewhere else for a bit.

i've been pretty busy and having a bunch of fun preparing for a trip. a cool trip. a super rad magic bus trip!

here's the deal. i work on a project that helps libraries maintain and support their public computers. in a nutshell, we talk to librarians all the time and share their stories, tips, and techniques on our web site, in articles, and in free guides you can download from our site. so many times there's someone out there who has figured out a practical way around an issue, and we try to capture those moments and share them with public libraries--and with everyone. right now, we're focusing on the most rural and isolated libraries--often the most underserved and underfunded.

another local non-profit and new kind of library, the internet archive, also supports public libraries by scanning and making available for free books in the public domain. the organization has a bookmobile they use to raise awareness of the public domain, and to show how books are made. this bookmobile doesn't have books inside, but can download and MAKE books in minutes. this bookmobile hasn't seen much action lately.

until now.

to promote and support the libraries that are doing the hard work in rural northern california, we're taking the bookmobile on the road for the next two weeks, talking with librarians and staff members and sharing the incredible work each library is doing to keep public computers available and access to information free. each day, we'll arrive at a library in the bookmobile, demonstrate how books are made, and print and distribute free books filled with practical tips and techniques from public libraries along with free books from the public domain. cool.

keep up with my travels and check out the photos!