Old Skool

This past week I spoke at my old junior high (now a middle school). It was fantastic! I am hesitant to speak about such a personal book (Get Well Soon) to large groups, so the librarian there make it so I would speak to three small groups of about fifteen or so seventh and eighth graders. And to make it even better, every one of them read the book! I don’t know how she got them to do it. It made me feel like a crappy librarian, since I can barely get students to participate in book groups. But these kids were so smart and had tons of great questions. Being at the the school didn’t bring back too many memories, only because there were so many editions and renovations that it didn’t look anything like the old school. The second group of kids took me on a tour, and there I got to see some of the old spaces, like the sewing room and my locker hallway. I realized that this year would be my twentieth reunion from eighth grade graduation! That’s so forever ago! I wonder if the kids thought I was old. I mean, when you look at it that way, twenty years is a long time! Only one of my old teachers still works in the school, but I didn’t want to say hi because I knew she wouldn’t remember me, although she might say she did, and that would be all humiliating.

Sorry again for the lag in posts-- we're packing up my library this week for a big demolition, and I'm really having trouble focusing. I had such dreams last night about packing books. Stressful! Oh- but I did have this really weird dream that played out like a Twilight Zone episode, where I was on a trolley car with a bunch of people. I thought we were on our way to a bat mitzvah, but then it turned out that no one could ever get off the trolley! Then I figured it out that you had to think of your heart's desire to get off, and everyone eventually did get off. It was quite dramatic. I wonder what it means?