To Hug A Mockingbird

Monday, May 4th - The kids and I are here at my mom's house in lovely Greensboro, Georgia and one of the treats is that I get a bed and a room all to myself (I love reading in bed but I always feel bad interfering w/John's sleep because he usually falls asleep faster than I do). I've come prepared with "Jellicoe Road". So I'm reading and reading and reading, then Mom pops in at 12:30 on a bathroom trip and gives me this "are you sure it's a good idea to stay up this late reading?" look (hmmm, also something I don't get at home, for better or for worse!). So a half hour later, I begrudgingly put the book down. The bed is comfortable, the windows are open, the breeze is cool, and I am happily drifting off to sleep. Then, just a few minutes later, the resident mockingbird decides that NOW is a good time to show off the ten thousand different songs in his repertoire. Fortunately for him and for me, I am a great audience because I am very relaxed and in a very good mood. I lie there, laughing with delight at this dingbat bird who is singing in the pitch dark, apparently because he has a captive audience? I even pull out my camera and put it on video mode so I can capture the sound (out a dark window). But he goes on for an hour, and I cannot fall asleep. I COULD just close the windows but instead I decide that is an excuse to turn on the light and keep reading. Which I do, and finally finish the book about 2 hours later, 3:30am. Mr. Mockingbird (who I later learned via google is probably a young unmated male, as this is quite common for them) is still singing, but, as if on cue, finished up shortly thereafter.

What was particularly neat about this is that the book I was reading had a reference to "To Kill Mockingbird". Specifically (page 105):

Mr. Palmer: She calls her friend 'Mrs. Dubose.' That's all I know. Have you heard of her?
Taylor: Yes, I say sleepily. She lived in the same street as Jem and Scout Finch.

I, for one, did not remember who Mrs. Dubose was. By the end of the book, I knew. And knew that rereading "To Kill A Mockingbird" would be my next indulgence. Being in the South and discussing the segregation that still exists there, then reading a reference to the book would have been enough of a prompt, but being serenaded by a mockingbird that night was just too perfect!

The Library

Three cheers for the library. I know that we all have a special relationship with this radical institution--free books, story times, cuddly chairs, magazines, holds. It is one of my favorite places to be. The library and I have recently become reacquainted. 

Why hello there, library. I love you. 

When I was a kid we spent many, many hours in our tiny library in Holliston--my mom, my sister, and I. In college I worked at UVM's library, stacking books, working at the front desk and in periodicals. I would get lost in the stacks--inhaling the books and going from art to poetry to geography all in 3-hours time. I used to dream of spending the night there. 

Then we took a break from each other. 

But now we're back. The library is the place I go with my kids. We spend many, many hours there, my daughters and I. But sometimes it's just the two of us...on the computer. Ooo, I want to read that book. Hold. Hold. Hold. I find it absolutely thrilling when the holds come in. 

Here's to you, library. You just keep giving.