Newburyport Public Library -- Reading Room

Yet another room of the Newburyport Public Library!  This is the gorgeous and very comfy Reading Room.

These are the two seating areas, as well as the new books (far end of second picture), the large print (the collection parallel to the fireplaces), and the magazines and newspapers.

The room has two fireplaces!  Two!

A word about this room.  Each morning when the library doors are unlocked, there is a group of older gentlemen who race to the reading room for the papers.  It is one of the funniest things I've ever seen!  I was told (though didn't see it myself) that one time there were almost fisticuffs over a paper.

The Tragi-Comedy of Shannon Schinagl: Part 2

Saturday!

I went down to the first floor to head to the basement to get my laundry, but the lovely woman I was staying with had already done that for me.  I met her in the kitchen where I learned that her sweet dog, Trudy, had gotten skunked.  That was the smell.

Apparently this woman had gotten up in the middle of the night and went downstairs for a drink of water.  She thought she might as well let Trudy out while she was down there.  But she knew the minute she opened the door.  Trudy raced down the steps and moments later, the stink bomb went off.  This poor woman spent the rest of the night washing Trudy using every method the internet could provide.  By morning, Trudy smelled pretty good.  The rest of the house, however, was still skunked.

This is Trudy.  Sweet, silly, skunked Trudy.

Skunked or not, my Mom and I began packing to move to the pet-friendly Red Roof Inn in anticipation of Sterling's arrival.  As we spent the morning packing (I had been in this house for two weeks), I limped around doing what needed to be done.  As the morning went on, my foot began hurting worse and worse.  We decided we would stop by the local CVS to get a bandage and see if I could rent crutches.  Bandage yes, crutches no.

We were only a few blocks from Newburyport's very own hospital, so we decided to quickly stop by.  We knew it was just a sprain, but we wanted to make sure, and perhaps I could get some crutches out of it.

So we stopped by, and wouldn't you know it, but some sort of Mud Run was that morning, and the ER was filled with muddy racers with various sprains, breaks and ailments.  If we had realized the whole process would take almost five hours, we probably wouldn't have stayed.

As it was, we did stay.  We watched the Olympics, chatted with a couple who wondered if the husband's ankle was broken (he didn't think so), and were generally happy we weren't muddy.

Here, I would like to put a word in for Mike, the x-ray technician who x-rayed my foot.  He was the funniest medical professional I have ever met, and had the best bedside manner a person could have!  You are the best, Mike!

We finally got in to see the doctor, and...my foot was broken.  I was in shock.   How on earth was I going to have a broken foot when I hadn't even started my third week of work and was about to move into a third-story walk-up?  However, I was also strangely calm.  I had (have) so much going on with this move that I've kind of decided to just roll with the punches.  What else can I do?  So they bandaged my foot, told me to ice it four times a day, and gave me a hard shoe to wear until I could see the orthopedic surgeon, hopefully on Monday.

By the way, the husband mentioned above?  His ankle was broken.  A bad day for both of us.

Toward the end of our hospital visit, I received the first of my Sterling-related phone calls.  Sterling had been staying in the boarding facility of her vet: Elliott Bay Animal Hospital.  Saturday she was being picked up by my very good friends, Danielle and Killy.  (Those of you who know Sterling know they must be very good friends indeed.)  A piece of information had somehow fallen by the wayside, and the vet didn't know that Sterling was supposed to be drugged to the gills before her flight.  She was calling me to confirm and to discuss her concerns.  After a conversation, I made what I considered a perilous decision not to sedate her.  To be clear, this decision was not perilous for me, but for every other person who would need to interact with Sterling until I picked her up from Logan International Airport.

We left the hospital and headed to the hotel.  This Red Roof Inn was fine except for the very difficult fact that every single ice machine was broken, and I needed to ice my foot four times a day.  It did have a little fridge, so after my poor, beleaguered Mom went out and bought some ice, we kept it in the fridge.  It lasted long enough.

That evening, I received the second of my Sterling-related calls.  Danielle and Killy were at the airport, and Alaska Airlines decided Sterling's carrier wouldn't work because the screws holding the top and bottom together were plastic.  Really, Alaska?  Really?  Dani suggested zip ties, but no.  They're good enough for violent criminals, but not for Sterling.  So I ended up buying a $60 carrier from the airline.  The funny news was that Sterling was one of three cats there, yowling and howling together.  I wish I could have seen that!  Anyway, Sterling was officially on her way.

The next morning, my Mom and I headed out to Logan.  Poor Sterling.  Her carrier was sitting next to a carrier full of German shepherd puppies that were going nuts.  The minute she saw us, she started meowing with a wild look in her eyes.  I'm pretty sure she was saying, "What the *%#&?  Get me away from these &@#!$% puppies!  And what the *%&# is going on anyway?"

We took her back to the hotel, where she sniffed everything, ate (this is Sterling we're talking about -- nothing interferes with a meal!), and hid under the bed.

A word about Sterling's behavior at Dani and Killy's.  She was good!  I was so shocked!  Relieved, but shocked!  They put her in the bathroom for the four or five hours they had until it was time to leave for the airport.  She used her litter box (!) and hid behind the toilet.  She even let Dani pet her!  And in the car, as they were switching her from carrier to carrier, and Dani was taping a puppy pee pad to the bottom of the new carrier, Sterling let Killy hold her!  Wow.  They truly have the magic touch.

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Will Sterling keep behaving?

Will Shannon survive her broken foot?

Read on to find out!

The Tragi-Comedy of Shannon Schinagl: Part 1

Last Friday I was out of underwear.  Half of this story was caused by simply needing underwear.  For those of you who know about my obsession with toilets, poop and underwear, this probably seems appropriate.  But really, this is a bit much.

I was still staying with a kind lady here in Newburyport until the floors and painting in my new home were done.  I gathered up my laundry and started down into the basement.

The stairs are old and steep, and toward the bottom there is a small landing, and the stairs turn 90 degrees.  The bottom stair going down toward the landing is a board.  A 2x8.  Laying flat.  Holding my laundry, I didn't see the board, and I was already turning my foot to go down the rest of the stairs.  I stepped on the side of the board and completely twisted my foot.  I shook it off, limped over to the washer, and assumed it would just get better if I walked on it.

When I got upstairs, took off my shoe, and really looked at it, the outer side of my left foot was beginning to swell.  My Mom and I decided I had sprained it, so we put ice on it.  I went to bed assuming it would be almost completely healed by morning.

Now, in the middle of the night I woke to an incredibly strong and awful smell.  My Mom woke, too, and we decided it smelled like someone was frying a ton of onions, but burning them.  Of course, we couldn't figure out why someone would be poorly frying onions in bulk in the middle of a Friday night, but who knows?  Maybe it's a hangover cure.

When we woke up the next morning, Saturday, the smell was the first thing we experienced.  My Mom decided it now smelled like burning rubber, and I don't mean car racing!  It smelled like someone had piled up a hundred tires and lit them on fire.  Granted, that's illegal, and it doesn't seem like something the good people of Newburyport would do, but we couldn't figure out what else it could be.

My ankle still hurt, and it was a bit more swollen, but I decided that was just because I hadn't iced it during the night.  I had things to do and places to go, and really couldn't be bothered.

We had to get to the pet-friendly Red Roof Inn, because Sterling was arriving on Sunday!

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What is wrong with Shannon's foot, and will it get better?

What on earth is that smell?

And will Sterling arrive intact?

Read on to find out!

Newburyport Public Library Foyer

This is the Newburyport Public Library foyer.  Below is the view of the children's room entrance off of the foyer.

This is a shot of the beautiful circulation desk and the stairs to the second floor.

Spelling Pet Peeve

I hate silly store spellings.    All of the "Ye Olde..." blah, blah blah stores that were founded in 1985, and the "K"'s that replace "C"'s, like "Kozy Korner" or something, drive me insane.  It is not cute.  It is poor spelling.

Right around the corner from the library is this:

What is going on here?  If this is actually a word, someone tell me.  I just looked it up in Merriam-Webster's and the Oxford English Dictionary, and this word is not in either.  If you're not in the OED, you simply aren't a word.

Is this salon better because it starts with two letter "A"s?  Every time I see it, in my head I say "ahhhhhqua."

Argh!  Why, why, why?  Why is this better?  The owner could still have made the first "A" all swirly and pretty.  What is gained by the second "A"?

I am going to have to start walking other routes simply to avoid this sign and keep from getting too pissed off and disturbed.

Small Town Life -- Example #3

I went to Starbucks today (need to keep my sister employed!) and sitting outside, on the sidewalk, were two empty strollers.  Nice strollers.  Just sitting there.

Now, the owners didn't go so far as to leave their babies on the sidewalk (apparently it's safe enough to do that in Reykjavic, Iceland), but they left the strollers with all of the baby/stroller stuff in them!

I meant to take a picture.  Sorry.

Look Ma, No Kitchen!

I thought I'd share some pictures of my new home while it's being renovated.

This is a picture of my desk, which is currently the garbage can of home improvement!

Believe it or not, this is the kitchen!  You may have guessed from the very last kitchen-y item: the fridge.

There are two doors from the living room into my bedroom.  No need for that, but there IS need for more uninterrupted wall space!  So this door is turning into a wall.

My bedroom, with a shot of the dormer (which will be my office) and the newly sanded floors, soon to be stained!

My awesome loft!  Right now it has a ladder, but we are installing a pull-down ladder instead, like the kind that go to an attic.

These are my inside stairs down to the rest of the building/house.  There's a gorgeous skylight to provide illumination.  You also see the bedroom door that is NOT turning into a wall.

My also-under-construction bathroom.

Like the deck, the bathtub is also temporarily posing as a garbage can.

And...the house!  That very top window you see on the front of the house is the window in the dormer in my bedroom.

Now, don't you all want to come visit to see how it turns out?  I'll let you sleep in the loft...