YAY for Milia's Birthday!

Well, one more year of your thirties, hon. Enjoy! And we need to go to the Green Room when you, erm, are available.

We went to John and Regan's for Thanksgiving. John is a crackhead - he had been up since 5:30 buttering the effing turkey and was totally beside himself at it's alleged glory. As soon as the last person put their fork down, he slapped his hands together and said, "Let's go do the dishes!!!" Damn. It's been so warm here, nearly 60 degrees - but we all know that won't last much longer. I am working, working, working. Feh. I'm planning another trip to either England or Ireland next spring which I'm excited about. Anais, regarding your match.com profile - LINK PLEASE!

I have another copy of Ninety Three...to donate to the Fletcher Free Library for their holiday drive, yay!

Below is another recipient of the book, my nephew Jackson.

Milia has been making the local news lately, albeit anonymously....

COTS workers unhappy
Published: Saturday, November 11, 2006
By John Briggs Free Press Staff Writer

Staff workers at COTS, The Committee on Temporary Shelter, complaining they have been shut out of the agency's policy decisions and cowed into silence, have gone public with their complaints and announced they intend to become members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. "A significant crisis is brewing at COTS," said state Rep. Mark Larson. "The workers are quite prepared to go out on strike."Larson, Rabbi Joshua Chasan of Ohavi Zedek Synagogue and City Councilor Tim Ashe became aware of the discontent at COTS after workers asked their help in mediating between workers and the non-profit independent agency's board. Harold Kaplan, a 15-year worker at COTS, said workers want to communicate regularly and directly with the COTS board, rather than only through Executive Director Rita Markley, "and we want our voice to be respected and protected." A veteran worker was rebuffed by Markley after making a similar request during an August retreat for COTS management and staff, Kaplan and COTS case manager Emily Casey said. The worker was fired and escorted out of the COTS offices. "That was the straw that broke the camel's back," Kaplan said.Markley said the worker in question was not fired in retribution for her remarks during the retreat, but was laid off to make room for a new fund-raiser. COTS, which had revenues and expenses of approximately $1.9 million last year, was formed in 1982 to provide shelter and other help to Burlington's homeless. Its 16-person board plans to make the unionization demands the main topic of its meeting Thursday morning. Markley said the meeting will be closed to the public. Markley said she first learned of the workers' intent to unionize on Oct. 20, the day after the COTS board approved a new budget that included pay raises for the workers. "The next day, the board and I were notified the staff were forming a union," she said. "We were completely stunned. There was not a glimmer of this until we got a call from Rabbi Chasan. No, 'Hey, Can we talk?' We're doing our best to assess the situation and make the best decision for COTS and the people we serve." Kaplan and Casey said Markley became aware of worker unhappiness no later than the August retreat because she refused to allow discussion of the complaints during the retreat. Chasan said he and Larson met with members of the executive committee of the COTS board at the end of October and recommended that the board voluntarily agree to have the UEW represent the workers. He and Larson told the board it "would be a terrible mistake" to fight unionization because it would divert COTS from its mission, divide the larger community and cost money COTS doesn't have to spare. Casey and Kaplan said 80 percent of the full- and part-time workers at COTS already have joined the UEW. Their grievances, they said, include poor communication at the agency, with Markley the prime communicator to the board and the public and from the board to workers. They also said the agency needs a formalized grievance policy to ensure rules are applied consistently. "If they say, 'No, we're not going to recognize the union,' we're not going to go on working like this," Casey said.

And in Seven Days...

Go Milia!

Updates.

Hope you are all doing well. It's that hellish time of year when it gets dark at about 4 PM, and the leaves flutter their way to a silent death. This is the worst time for me, because I know that between now and December 21, it's a spiral to the shortest day of the year. Feh.

Grandma Charron passed away. She was 95 and lived a long, healthy life. She had an aneurysm and died about 11 hours later, which was a blessing. That's my last grandma, or grandpa.

My brother John and his wife are expecting a baby in the spring, which is exciting. I can only hope for a girl, as I'm SICK of all the boys in this family. Another feh.

The Michelle Gardner-Quinn thing has settled down. There will probably never be any resolution to where she was killed, but CSI people were crawling at the two houses on the corner of South Union and Spruce Street for 3 days (Mrs. Jarret's and the Hydes', for you old school Burlington-ers). The "suspect" was working construction at both houses and they must have picked up her scent in that area. Blech.

Go see "Borat". It is deeply offensive, obnoxious, and pee-your-pants hilarious. NICE!

I see Amy!!

Wheeeee!

Boo.

Hey, I miss you all too! We are like pieces of a puzzle, is what I think. We all just fit together and get each other, and how rare is that? It's a beautiful, special thing.

In Vermont news, it is goddamned.freezing.here. Seriously, as of next week we might as well move into caves, as it will be dark when we go to work, dark when we come home...yay! Nothing like a little seasonal affective disorder to make the world seem bright. I'll just use the flourescent lights over my cube at work to keep me positive...oh, wait. That won't do at all.

I re-invited Jen to blog, and hope she joins in. I am planning on sending an email to Linda soon, this weekend. I feel the need to tread lightly in that area, because her life is such a mystery to me, and I don't want to misspeak or assume things. Like I wish for all of us, I hope she is healthy and happy, and that she is living true - whatever that might mean for her.'

Hey, I'm doing NaNoWriMo starting next week, if anyone is interested to join. The idea is to write 50,000 words of a novel from November 1st to November 30th. Let's see what kind of utter shite I can come up with!

A Girl Went Missing

A week ago this past Friday, a UVM student named Michelle went downtown and hung out with her friends at the bars. She headed up Main Street at 2:30 AM, walking with a man she had approached so she could use his cell phone, as her battery had run out. The security camera hanging from Perrywinkel's Jewelers (which used to be Bard Home Design) recorded images of them walking together, chatting - no signs of distress or struggle. It was a walk we have all taken dozens of times - hundreds of times.

The next night, Michelle didn't show up to go for dinner wth her parents, who were visiting for Parents' Weekend. They reported her missing, and so began a week of searching, waiting, praying and worrying. With each passing day the odds that she would somehow turn up alive became less likely, and on Friday the 13th, the fears were realized when her body was found alongside Huntington Gorge in Richmond.

Michelle was just like all of us when we were 21 - well, she was cooler than me, but...the thought that a young woman went downtown and didn't make it home is so unreal to me. It's a horrible tragedy, a terrible loss of life and the end of whatever lingering innocence existed in Burlington.

From the Washington Post:

Student in Vermont Was Outgoing and Lover of Outdoors
Autopsy Pending on Arlington Native
By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post Staff WriterSunday, October 15, 2006; C06
As a college student, Michelle Gardner-Quinn bounced around. She attended American University, Antioch College, the University of Virginia, Hampshire College and Goucher College outside of Baltimore. It was only this fall that she transferred to the University of Vermont and figured out how to merge her love of environmental studies and Latin America with her love for the outdoors and hiking, skiing, camping and snowboarding.
Six weeks after arriving in Burlington, she disappeared. After her body was found Friday off a rural road near the university, friends and family who knew her growing up in Arlington struggled to make sense of their loss. They knew the 21-year-old as more than a missing young woman whose face had been plastered for the past week on television screens and newspapers across the country.
"She had just come into her own, knowing what she wanted to do," Yasmine Rassam, her older half sister, said yesterday. "She was just really, really happy."
Burlington police disclosed few developments in the case yesterday, as an autopsy report was pending. Police were questioning Brian Rooney, 36, a construction worker who is in custody on unrelated sexual assault charges. He was observed on a video camera, police said, walking with Gardner-Quinn before she disappeared Oct. 7.
Gardner-Quinn, a senior at the university, was last seen in the early hours that Saturday walking back to the dormitories after celebrating a friend's birthday. Police believe she borrowed Rooney's cellphone to call friends because the battery in hers had died. She was not seen alive again. Those details of her case are known.
Friends said the world should know more. That she played the cello. That she loved nature, photography and travel. That she spent hour upon hour last summer sitting in a swamp in Brazil to survey giant otters. That she was never happier.
Gardner-Quinn, they said, was good enough to play select soccer. She swam on a team, worked as a lifeguard at the neighborhood pool for years, and was known for her jokes and crazy antics. She sang in her church and high school choirs, her clear, earthy alto a thing of beauty.
Her life, people said, made a difference.
Ian Willson, 22, was in a rut a few years ago. He said he would not now be in college without her push. "To me, she was one of the most inspirational people I've ever met," he said. She was independent, funny and "eccentric in an awesome way," he said. "She made friends wherever she went. Easily."
Gardner-Quinn's family remained in Burlington yesterday, awaiting autopsy results. Her parents had been waiting to meet her for dinner on a parents' weekend that Saturday and reported her missing when she did not show up. They had spent the next week hoping that their daughter would be found alive.
Rassam, 39, a lawyer and human rights activist, said remembering Gardner-Quinn's life helped keep crushing grief at bay.
"My sister was just a joy to everyone she was around, that she touched," Rassam said.
She grew up in a beautiful, wooded area of North Arlington. Her favorite place to go as a child was the woods near her home. Those woods and the family's garden instilled in her a love of nature. As she grew older, Rassam and friends said, that love became a passion, particularly as she learned about global climate change, rain forest depletion and other threats to the natural world.
Rassam said she remembers coming back from the Peace Corps and sharing stories and photographs with the young Gardner-Quinn. From then on, Gardner-Quinn wanted to travel, too.
On her MySpace account on the Web, which she last checked the morning before she disappeared, Gardner-Quinn's motto was "squares are unhealthy." Her favorite things, she wrote, were "green things. clouds and stars. music. life. learning and relearning. exploring." She described herself this way: "Can I travel with you?"
Already, she'd traveled to Europe with her parents and visited Rassam when she was studying in Cambridge, England. In her college years, she also spent a semester in Costa Rica, living with a poor family and studying and writing about the environment and poverty. She'd spent an intensive three weeks in South Africa and another semester in Brazil.
She was driven, friends said, followed her own inner compass and was incredibly bright. She met Willson, whom she later dated, at a summer camp for gifted children. In Arlington, she thrived at H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program, a school where students choose their own classes and guidance counselors and call teachers and the principal by their first names.
Gardner-Quinn set her MySpace account to the music of an alternative group called "13 & God." On her page, the group sings about a vision of a girl as a ghost, blowing up globes and setting them on clouds. "Without an atmosphere there is no chance at life and with no chance at life . . . I don't exist."
"Even though she's gone, we feel like she's with us," Rassam said. "She's always going to be with us."

Burlington Schools in the news

This was in the paper today - it's a pretty hot-button issue. They are still referencing the closing of Adams all those years ago. It's kind of a mess, because the bottom line is the yuppies don't want to send their kids to HO Wheeler, period. Take from that what you will.

Parents leave meeting with many questions
By Jill Fahy Free Press Staff Writer October 5, 2006

A public meeting held Wednesday on recommendations that would change the complexion of Burlington's six elementary schools drew a capacity crowd of more than 100 people. Most were wary parents from across the district with a slew of questions. The Burlington School Board chose Edmunds Middle School/Elementary School cafeteria as the site for the first of several forums to gather comments on three proposals aimed at better mixing low-income students with middle-income students from other districts: Consolidate into two types of elementary schools: kindergarten through second grade, and third through fifth grades.Redraw district neighborhoods. Create magnet schools, where some elementary schools would shift to specialized curricula.The recommendations are part of a report generated in the spring by the all-volunteer, board-appointed task force. The report argues that the district configuration of elementary schools is a barrier to student success, and that socioeconomic integration would dissolve that barrier. The School Board in September agreed with the task force's overall assertion. Meeting moderators, including district Superintendent Jeanne Collins, laid out the proposals and cited academic and social challenges faced by students who attend schools mainly in the Old North End, where poverty is the highest. Those in attendance were then invited to write their questions on slips of paper. Task force members attempted to address a few questions, such as how busing will fit into the scenarios and why change the complexion of some schools that are already fully socio-economically integrated, such as Champlain Elementary. The meeting grew tense when moderators said there would be no opportunity for an open dialogue. Most questions of the task force and board will be addressed at a later date. "Right now I feel mad," said Russell Beste, a Champlain parent. "I feel this is a big spin, where they say they want dialogue, but we've had no chance to express an opinion." Some parents said they are on board with the idea of socio-economic integration, but that the recommendations are only skeletons of ideas in need of fleshing out with cost estimates and impact scenarios. Karen Newman, an Edmunds Elementary School parent, said she agrees with the task force premise, but doubts the current slate of forums will help enlighten the public. "Whatever solution we come up with needs to be a solution by people who are well-informed and involved," Newman said. "People need more information to feel they're learning, not that they're being threatened." Kiernan Flynn, a parent of two Champlain students, echoed the sentiment of a number of parents who, while understanding the idea of socio-economic integration, are worried about how any of the recommendations could affect their own children. "The problem is that I also have to be the strongest advocate for my child," Flynn said. "How can I be sure my daughters are getting the best educations they can get?" Bruce MacDonald, another Champlain parent, said he is strongly opposed to sending his children somewhere other than his neighborhood school."I bike and walk my kids to school every day," MacDonald said. "The last thing I want to do is somehow be fragmenting my family." Superintendent Collins said all the questions and comments gathered from each forum will be reviewed by the School Board and incorporated into its final report, a date for which has not been decided. The rest of the public meetings are scheduled for this month.

Wilki-noying

I just have to say that I checked out the Wilkipedia entry on BHS and I felt compelled to edit it to state that it is the ONLY school in North America (and perhaps the free world) that has a seahorse for a mascot. However, the stupid edit feature would NOT let me edit the descriptive tag line (which contained the only seahorse reference).

I also don't know why the BHS drama program is so highly touted ("hilarious takes on classic theatre"? sold out performances???) unless things have changed a LOT since Shyla Nelson belted out all those hits in "George M," "Oklahoma" and other jewels of classic, um, theatre. Hilarious is not the word that springs to mind, but that could just be me.

Milia, that sucks about your job, though may I be the first to say that when one door closes, another opens. I wouldn't have found the courage to try and make a go of this if the legal profession hadn't robbed me of my sanity and my patience... despite the fact that I pretty much knew I wanted to do this since I was about 8. Follow your bliss, I say. The money, hopefully, will follow. Or so they tell me... I'm still kind of waiting.

So glad you chicks like my books! Post an Amazon review, OK? Please??? My mom can't write them all!

I Like When Maria Touches Me.

Just wanted to put that out there. Anyhow, I think I should say that Deirdre and her family, while crazy, are happy. There's just a lot of manufactured drama that gives me agita, but that's the way they seem to like things.

I am not sure how to make things more navigateable (is that a word??), if anyone has any suggestions feel free to let me know! I can make everyone an admin and then everyone could change everything whenever they come on. Now that would be fun! I did add the link to BHS's Wikipedia entry, because we are going to have to do some work on that, and also a webcam for Burlington that you may or may not enjoy. I went into work today which SUCKED. Actually, it really wasn't that bad; I just hate having a job that I need to go into on the weekends. It's not like I'm a fucking doctor or something that would require life-saving skills and, well, intelligence. Feh. Let's just say I went to every gas and sip between here and North Ferrisburgh to buy Powerball tickets.

Full disclosure

I know most of you probably could give a shiite about various children's book authors (obscure and not-so-obscure), so I hope you'll forgive that aspect of the post I put on this blog AND my own website one. I know it is lame to put the same thing both places, but perhaps less lame than not posting at all (I hope). Thanks to all you guys for buying my new book, giving it to kiddos you know and demanding it at bookstores... it actually means a whole lot to me! Do me one more favor and write an Amazon review and I'll die happy. Not that I'm dying or anything soon. I hope.

Love on ya' (Bowie) - boy, those Oread quotes just keep on giving, don't they? - and Don't Stop Believing (I agree, Kate). xo, Rickera

ps = Oh, by the way, guess who one of those old friends who showed up at my NYC readings was? Ursula Owre! No joke. With her cute parents and two cute kids. Major points will be awarded to her. Her hair, btw, was symmetrical and she looked great. Not particularly Japanese, but great.

S'WONDERful

I just got back from a WONDERful weekend in NYC. The cap's represent the fact that part of what made it so very divine was that I read and signed books at Books of Wonder, which is one of my favorite places on the planet. I mean, what could be better? Incredible selection, big browsing space, great displays, knowledgable staff and, if that's not enough, cupcakes.

PLUS I got to rub elbows with such greats - old and new - as:

• Jim Trelease (who put down my child's school the minute he met me, but what the hey)
• Amy Schwartz (A TEENY TINY BABY, BEA AND MR. JONES, and many more)
• Sergio Ruzzier (THE ROOM OF WONDERS, plus illustrations for Emily Jenkins' spot-on & super-funny LOVE YOU WHEN YOU WHINE)
• David Gavril (shout out to my fellow Hampshire alum! and author/ill. of PENELOPE NUTHATCH AND THE BIG SURPRISE)
• Leonard Marcus (I cannot put his DEAR GENIUS down! Plus now I need WAYS OF TELLING real bad!!) and
• K.J. Dell'Antonia (shout out to my fellow alum of the Manhattan Criminal Courts - no, that does not mean that KJ and I did time together, though I guess we kind of did, in a manner of speaking - and big props for puttin CHICKEN BEDTIME IS REALLY EARLY in READING WITH BABIES TODDLERS AND TWOS without realizing we knew each other from our former lives!). I also got to meet
• Emily Jenkins, whose TOYS GO OUT is emerging as her finest work of many fine works. Plus she was really nice, which always works for me.
  

Other highlights of my visit were mostly culinary (soup dumplings - yes, I'm old and out of it, okay? I eat foods that were fads a decade ago, and I say things like "shout out" which no one says anymore - cupcakes, and excellent popcorn at Film Forum (where I'd sit through pretty much any movie for the popcorn).

Plus I got to see many dear family members and friends, including my charming hostess, the lovely Ms. Kenna Kay. Some old friends came and surprised me at my readings (and brought kids I've heard about but never had the pleasure of meeting), which was extra nice!

And my own kids stayed home. Which can be a nice thing too (absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that).

One last bit of news: When I got home, I learned that Neal Pollack's new website (for which I've been asked to contribute a column) will be up and running soon! The website is offsprung.com and the working title for my column is Pajamazon. As in, "if you want to hear bedtime stories, get yer freaking pajamazon!" It will be a column about kids and kids' books and it will include the contributions of my own darling kids, assuming they don't lose all their stories goofing around when they are supposed to be getting ready for bed.

O Canada

This weekend I went to Canada to be physically and mentally abused by Deirdre's children, some Belgian people and a woman with severe B.O. at the local marche. Binney's sister got married in Mansonville, on Lake Memphremagog. It was a lovely locale, but of course we left Burlington at 10:15 PM on Thursday night and the girls were completely out of their trees. All I know is Deirdre nearly drove off the road near St. Albans due to a veining-out screamfest. The oldest and youngest were both crying, but the middle one didn't start crying until Deirdre dropped the F bomb. She also told Johannah (10) that she would not be dominating this weekend and J shreiked back, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS BUT I AM NOT DOING THAT!!" That was a great ride.

Once in Canada we all stumbled in to bed, me sharing a dormer-type setup with the kids, who were forced to wear pull-ups and sleep on garbage bags due to a tendency to wet the bed. Another highlight - the sound of children tossing and turning on trash bags.

Eileen, Deirdre's sister, joined us the next night in full-Britney mode. She's 8 months pregnant and sports tube dresses, cowboy boots and popped-out varicose veins. While in the shower she read the body wash bottle, which was written in french, of course (gel pour la douche) and yelled "Am I supposed to douche with this??" So. Many.Things.Wrong. The next night was wedding reception time and I settled in to the
nice house while the party raged 200 yards below. Binney's sister had spent a year abroad in Belgium and her best friend from that time attended, and I was only too happy to watch her 18 month old daughter. The child was adorable and well-behaved, outside of the whole doesn't speak or understand English bit. I said the following things to her, ad naseum: "Ou est Sara?" "Va a dormir?" (I think that one was a Spanish/French hybrid) and "Belle Jolie Sara!" Ai caramba. Her mom said "she cough? So she take this?" as she gestured to a bottle of Tussin-like liquid. Then her husband arrived and said "That is for, you know, the ass?" Um, no I don't know, pal. "The Tussin?" "No, no, no. You know, how you say..." "A thermometer?" At this point all I can think is: Dude, it doesn't matter what all the item is, I'll not be putting anything in your child's ass, ok? "A suppository?" "OUI!" That is it." Argh. Turned out they hadn't packed it, or perhaps I chose not to acknowledge its existence.

Eileen made it up to the house shortly afterwards and I recounted the story to her. She shook her head, snorted and said "Those Belgiums." She's also threatening to name her unborn child Lourdes.

It just keeps getting better here in Vermont, girls!

Guess What I Just Ordered?

That's right! Very excited to distribute them to the various children I know. Congratulations, Erica!

Don't Stop Believin'

Sorry about the problems - what can I say. I went to BHS.

It's Labor Day and I'm happy to not be at work, of course. The big news is that the Dog Team Tavern burned down, with the owner inside. Well, they said there was a body inside but never confirmed it was him - then his family ran his obituary. Too bad. No more relish wheels or sticky buns.

And the other big happening right now is the Fair! Oh, how I loved the fair when I was a kid. Bracelet Day! I remember walking out of there with a roach clip ("It's a barrette!") and Journey's Escape album, which, let's face it, is one of the all time greatest.

Hope all is well! If you want a different template, let me know. None of them are speaking to me, frankly.

Hello Chicks!

I'm very impressed that you got this up and running! Now what?

Testing one two three.