Tomorrow is the big day

Well folks, tomorrow is the big day.

I always have tried to keep this blog very positive - which is why I'll never write about fights with the school district, disappointments from people who I thought I could count on, money issues, hearing for the ten billionth time "why don't you talk to me after you've done a library..."

But I'll be a little more honest with the blog tonight. Today was one of those days that make you go crazy, the day when you feel like no one's giving you a break, everyone wants something but no one will help you a little, the traffic won't stop, there's no food in the house, your credit card got stolen, your car got hit, there are no parking spots.

I was driving down Broad Street in a fit of total road rage - not the best road on which to have road rage in Philadelphia. Many thanks to Ryan Seacrest for playing some jamming tunes. I needed them.

And then I got to the library. Panic: what needs to be done, can I do it right now, sh*t I never bought a rug!, why is the floor still a mess?, WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT THESE COLUMNS?

Because apparently 12 months isn't long enough to finish a library.

So I started painting the columns. It's 4PM the day before our grand opening and I thought, "Yes, I should paint the columns."

So there I am, no one else in the library, painting. the. columns.

Actually, there were people. The principal had gotten the district's maintenance crew to come out and clean. So it was me, standing on a table and painting while they cleaned. Also, I'll tell you something - I had no idea what they were talking about, it was like code. "We need the green packs, thats the M3, where's the 104." Huh?

And I thought, I might get sued by some union now - I'm probably not allowed to stand on tables and paint in a school district school. Note: this sentence may have to be taken out.

But they didn't seem to mind me, in fact they were kind of amused by my color choices for the dang columns.

You want to know what the funny thing about standing on tables and painting columns is? People come and talk to you.

There was talk about tomorrow, about the future of the library, the future of Rowen. About the 20 years the Rowen community hasn't had a school library.

And I got it: my library therapy. 

So while I'll always feel like I didn't do enough, didn't raise enough money, didn't make it perfect enough, the library is wonderful and I'm happy with how it turned out, and happier still that the kids will have some semblance of a functional library space.

Happy too that I followed through as well as I could with the resources I had. It's not perfect, but nothing is.

So, tonight, my wish for you all is that you find something that makes you go total bonkers, question why you're doing it, makes you feel stressedoverwhelmedcrazy, makes other people say "are you nuts?", but gives you a sense of the things that you can do if you just put one foot forward and... don't over-think.




And now what to do about a rug?