9 Months of Expectations, 3 Months of Disappointment

Where do I even begin?? I guess the start is a logical place to begin.

Here is my journey thus far...

*Thursday*
I arrive at the University of Maryland after taking 2 flights, a bus, 2 metro rails and a cab. I have never been more excited to stop traveling. I meet up with my awesome roommate Lisa, and we discover happy hour at Applebees.

*Friday* Lisa and I trek across campus for our first day of pre-departure orientation. We meet the group there are 13 students, 2 translators, and a group leader. We immediately get the shit scared out of us by a guest speaker who insists that we will: be robbed of all our possessions, get roofied by aggressive men who, best case scenario, just want to date rape us, and be followed by government officials and turned into sleeper agents for the KGB. The entire class immediately regrets signing up on the trip. After orientation, we have hours to kill so Matt, Lisa, and I eat at a local diner, smoke hookah,and watch the weather channel.

*Saturday*
We sweat our way towards our last day of orientation (thank you Maryland for 80% humidity) and the professor convinces us that Russia is not as sinister as our guest speaker made it out to be. After it's over we have nothing left to do, so Lisa and I get our nails done and eat dinner. I then find out my study abroad friend from Ireland is still living in DC so we take the metro and go visit him, he shows us a few bars and then we stumble back to Maryland to go to bed and finally get ready for the big day of traveling.

 *Sunday*
A shuttle picks us up at the hotel and takes Matt (who is also from Indiana I might add!), Lisa, and I to the Dulles airport nearly an hour away. We get their several hours early and kill time till the rest of the group arrives. Then we take a nearly 8 hour hop across the atlantic and arrive at Copenhagen. From their we head on another plane and arrive at st. Petersburg! More tomm. gotta run, sorry for the typos, writing this on my nook is hard!

My Letter to the Editor

I wrote a letter to the editor in favor of the library and have already received to seething responses. Since you have to be a member of the Daily Journal to access it online I'm copying and pasting it and putting it here. Below that I'm including the first two rebuttals and my responses to them. Enjoy!


Letter: Voters missed chance to improve community

To the editor:
I, for one, congratulate the Johnson County library board for trying to move forward with the Franklin library plan.
After conducting numerous studies and surveys over many years, they, along with many, believed that the residents of Franklin were ready to move forward on the building of a much-needed new library.
Unfortunately for us, the majority of Franklin backpedaled when they realized that a new library would mean a slight increase in taxes. How shameful and cowardly.
Libraries have proved time and again to have a powerful return on investment for communities, but the 74 percent sure showed us that Franklin is not ready to look toward the future.

I would love to know how many of the residents opposed to the library members are actually card-holding members of the library. My guess is that most aren’t and because of their campaign, a vital part of the community is in jeopardy.
I hope that the library can come up with some sort of solution (imagine if the 74 percent weren’t allowed to use library resources — heck, that would sure save us money).
I implore everyone to use the library and see what a positive impact it has on our lives and on the community. We all need to work together and find a way to enlarge and improve our library and not hinder what small resources it has now.
As Eleanor Crumblehulme stated, “Cutting libraries in a recession is like cutting hospitals in a plague.”
Erin Cataldi
Franklin

Todd Jeffcoat's Response:

No one backpedaled.  The community was very clear in their message up to and including the vote.  The problem was that the library administration did not want to listen - thus wasting our time and money on their pet project.

I carry a library card.  I used to use it often.  I live minutes away from the Franklin Branch.  The circulation manager, the building manager, and the adult services manager are rude and unhelpful.  I no longer use the library system because of that fact.

I also used to work for the Franklin branch, for almost 9 years.  The building manager and the adult services manager...well...let's say I don't believe they correctly followed policy or procedure. I also believe, based on my long experience with them, that serving the public was not a high priority with them.  That's a big reason, I believe, that the public voted against them. That's why I voted against the referendum - because the people who would use the money would misspend it (in my ever-so-humble opinion).

Nothing was 'cut' from the library, Ms. Cataldi.  They still have the resources they had before the referendum.

Your statement "imagine if the 74 percent weren’t allowed to use library resources — heck, that would sure save us money" smacks of segregation, class warfare, and the years of private libraries used by only the privileged few.  If that is indeed your solution, I wish you well, but there's a reason they don't exist - they don't work.

For every one of you who voted for the referendum, there were 3 that voted against.  I guess you missed the point of why the referendum failed. That's your loss, and it's sad.

Jackie Brockman's Response:

 I do not believe anyone backpeddled!Everyone I talked to before the election was very straight forward about their feelings on this and the percentage should show that.If a new library is needed then let those that actually use it help pay for it, I have not been in the library since the internet came along!Does anyone realize what $30,000,000 would do for the fire and EMS services in this county and that is something everyone needs!

My Response (again...)

To Miss Brockman,

First off, it was not going to be $30,000,000 it was only going to be $25,000,000 but no one seems to get past the fact that the total project cost is not the amount that people would be taxed on. Private donations were also not factored in.

Second off, major loss on your part Miss Brockman for not using the library. You may have firemen to keep your house and property safe, but you aren't doing your intellectual side any favors by not utilizing one of the best resources in town. The internet only provides so much. Google can bring you back 1 million answers, but a librarian can bring you back the right one. Everyone needs a library as much as they need proper EMS and fire services.


To Mr. Jeffcoat, 
Many people did in fact backpedal, I'm not talking about in the past few months, but in the past few YEARS. I honestly don't even want to respond to your condescending rebuttal. I'm sorry you haven't had a great library experience but shutting out the library isn't the way to handle things. The referendum failed because people only saw dollar signs and refused to look at the benefits of the project. Correct me if I'm wrong but out of that 74% you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually knew any of the members on the board were or carried a library card. 

I personally have a great experience at the library, the staff is phenomenal, and I have never once seen them mistreat a patron or do anything but go above and beyond. It might be your bitterness and cynicism towards the library that makes your experiences sub par. I encourage you to use the library before the people of Franklin hold another referendum to disband the library in order to save their pocketbooks.

2 Reviews for the Price of One

So I was in reading mode and I knocked out a young adult novel and a graphic novel in one day, rather then write two blog posts I'll just combine them both on here. Enjoy! Oh, and I leave for my study abroad trip tomorrow so I won't be posting any book reviews for a few weeks, possibly just trip updates. Wish me luck!

Phew, what a read. I was hesitant to read this book at first. I think I assumed that it was going to be like all the other teen paranormal romance or something and I have never been happier to be proved wrong.

"Born Wicked" is the first in the Cahill Witch Chronicles Series and I know I'm going to have to read the others when they're published. The book ends in such a cliffhanger that it'a maddening and you have to, HAVE to, know more!

The story follows Cate, the oldest of three sisters who has cared for and raised her younger sisters since the untimely death of their mother some years before. There's only one complication. They're witches just like their mother was, but they can't let anyone know. The Brotherhood hunts witches and in order to stay together and stay safe, they must keep their magical abilities cloaked and hidden from everyone, no one can be trusted with their secret. Things start to get tricky however, when Cate's childhood friend, Paul, comes home from the university and wants to marry her and a governess from the sisterhood moves into the house. Cate has less than six weeks to decide if she'll marry or join the sisterhood, if she can't make a decision the Brotherhood will for her. Cate tries to make the best of the situation and decide what will be best for her and her two younger sisters but the choices are few and the outcome unpredictable.

I LOVED this book, really and truly. I really identified with Cate (although thankfully I'm no witch... I'm sure some people may  argue with that statement though, lol) and the unfairness of her life. I sympathized being an oldest child and I understood her frustration towards her sisters when they acted out and refused to take her seriously. The characters are very well developed and believable, you're sure to have a favorite or two by the end of the book. A must read, full of suspense, intrigue, and plot twists more crooked that a witch's nose.

I received this book for free from GoodRead's giveaway in return for my honest, unbiased opinion.

I didn't hate this book, but I didn't love it either. For a graphic novel, it is merely so so.


The story follows a young woman, Chase, who has a condition that sucks the life out of the men that love her. She doesn't mean to but she leaves a trail of bodies in her wake. She needs love in order to survive, but the longer she stays with a man the more they age until she has sucked every last bit of life out of them. Chase goes on the run when her boyfriend of nearly a year dies (because of her love) and the authorities think that she was responsible for it (yes). The Man, a real life super hero who is more like Chase than either of them could imagine, starts to track her down, what will happen when the authorities catch up with her?

Like I said so so, but some of the graphics were really amazing. Which is probably the only reason I'm hanging onto this and not selling it back to Half Price Books where I bought it.

Dream Lake

Having just read the first book in Lisa Kleypas' Friday Harbor Trilogy last week, I was eager to continue the series. So eager in fact, that I read this book in half a day. Fun, fast, easy, and romantic, not necessarily something you would re-read but a nice way to pass the time and put you in a better mood.

Unlike the last novel the story focuses on Zoe, Lucy's friend and minor character in "Rainshadow Road." Zoe's grandmother takes a turn for the worst and Zoe wants to bring her to the island as soon as possible to care for her personally. In order to do that she has to restore her grandmother's long neglected cottage so she has a safe place to care for her grandmother. Enter Alex Nolan, Sam's youngest, unruly and alcoholic brother. Having recently gone through a divorce that emptied his bank account, Alex is hard pressed for money and he renovates Zoe's cottage to get some cash and get away from booze. Things get interesting when a ghost starts following Alex around, the ghost remembers nothing of his former life but relies on Alex to help him remember. They form an unlikely duo and the ghost helps Alex rid himself of his drinking addiction and realize what a catch Zoe is.

The ghost aspect of the story sounds cheesy, but surprisingly it's not. I love how this story subtly ties in with "Rainshadow Road," I would highly recommend that they are read in order to get the full effect. I eagerly await the third installment, "Crystal Cove," which will be released in February of next year.

I received this book for free from GoodReads Giveaways in return for my unbiased honest opinion.

And the Bride Wore Blue

This book was literally a breeze to get through. Mona Hodgson (www.monahodgson.com) continues her Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek series with this third installment. 

The story follows young Vivian Sinclair as she moves from Maine to the "wild west" to join her three older married sisters. On the train ride over, bandits break onto the train and steal the cash box, but not before Vivian accidentally trips one of them. Her accidental heroics lead her to meet charming young Sheriff, Carter, who is immediately impressed with her sass and charm. Although she begins to develop feelings for him, she tries to avoid him by working hard at finding a job designing gowns. She "soiled" herself in Maine and doesn't think that she will ever find joy in family life like her sisters because no man will take a tainted woman (a secret that haunts her). The story grows more intriguing as the bandits bring havoc to the normally quiet town and Vivian is forced to take a job that no real lady would ever consider. Will Vivian ever forgive herself and move on? Will Carter ever catch the bandits and the girl? Read on to find out!

The story (like many historical Christian romances" was slightly predictable, that being said it wasn't a bad read. It was fast and easy (like Vivian? haha, I couldn't resist)and will be a perfect beach read. 

"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review."

Are You LISTENING to Me?!

So I got a "job" as a freelance audio-book reviewer for "The Library Journal" and I received my first audio-book in the mail 4 days ago. I said surprise me with a suspense/thriller and I got David Baldacci's, "The Innocent." I was all excited until I realized it was 10 discs long and 12 hours and 15 mins. I could have read the whole damn book in 3 or 4 hours! Woof. So after 4 grueling days of listening I finally got it finished. Audio-books would be great for road trips and stuff but it's hard to fit into a normal schedule. I painted my nails, attempted to write a letter (but then I stopped concentrating on listening), cleaned the basement, and laid on the sofa staring wistfully at the radio. It's tough work doing all that listening! I'm hoping the next audio-book they send me is a lighter, shorter listen. Gosh I'm a cry-baby. 

"The Library Journal" has very specific standards and word counts so here is the review I submitted to them (Also, I don't have the copyright to it anymore... I think. So that's my disclaimer, lol. I'll let you all know if it get's published in their magazine anytime soon!).

Baldacci, David. The Innocent. 10 CDs. 12 hr., 15 min. AudioGo. 2011. ISBN 9781611131680. $89.99.

David Baldacci’s (http://davidbaldacci.com/) twenty-fourth novel introduces agent Will Robie into his best-selling world of crime and suspense. Will Robie, an assassin for the US government, finds himself fleeing from his own agency after a seemingly routine mission goes badly. While on the run he forms an unlikely alliance with a fourteen year old girl whose parents have been brutally murdered. Together they try to stay one step ahead of the people trying to kill them and attempt to put together the pieces of the nasty entanglement they find themselves in. The action is fast and non-stop and the narration by Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy is crisp and realistic.  They switch between characters with ease and keep perfect pace with the ever quickening plot. Of interest to Connelly and Grisham fans. – Erin Cataldi, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN.

Breathtaking Beach Read

I was due for a light-hearted sappy romance and this definitely fit the bill. I've never actually read anything by Lisa Kleypas so this was my first foray into her brilliant realm of romance and I wasn't disappointed. Romance novels aren't on the top of my list to read but every once in a while you just gotta give in.

"Rainshadow Road" follows glass-maker Lucy as her life starts to spiral out of control. Her boyfriend of two years breaks up with her and announces that he's been sleeping with her sister, Alice (a character you love to hate!). Lucy is heartbroken and turns to her stained glass art and two best friends. When she finally "stumbles" into good looking Sam Nolan, a vineyard owning islander, she backs away and hides because she can't take anymore heartbreak, even though he is really interested in her.

The story is beautifully crafted with well rounded characters who are admirable while still being realistic by having faults. The scenery jumps alive on the page and I would pay money to see some of the stained glass that Lisa Kleypas so beautifully brings to life.

A good quick read perfect for the upcoming beach season. This is the first novel in the Friday Harbor Trilogy  so there will be good reading all summer long!

I received this book for free from GoodReads Giveaways in return for my unbiased honest opinion.