Friday was our last day of the second season (Season Three, coming to you at the top of next year). Many of us lingered around the office, sitting near our boxes of things, as nobody knows who will be back or when that would be. “We should be skipping out of here,” Irwin said. “And yet.”

And yet.

“I guess combat really does bond people,” he said.

“This is why soldiers re-enlist.”

I went to sleep that night at 11:15 and slept until 12:30 yesterday afternoon. I was awake long enough to finish a book and watch a movie, and then I fell asleep again, from 3:15 until 7:30. I slept through my phone ringing. I crashed hard. Last night we had a few friends over for a rousing game of Celebrity, and then I went to sleep around three. I woke up today close to noon. I can’t stop sleeping. And at the risk of sounding like a big baby, when I’m not sleeping, I’m crying. Or I’m sitting very still, right in front of a fan, trying not to melt in this incredibly warm house.

This happened before, last December.

I went and bought a pair of shoes today, because apparently that’s what girls do when they need something to cheer them up.

I don’t think it worked.

But it’s better than getting the shingles.

Here’s what does cheer me up:

[readermail]A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to HCLS. I have never been so happy to write thank you notes in my life. I have also been so moved by everyone’s comments.

– Celia Barrett, Gulfport Library[/readermail]

[readermail]
In honor of my mother, who is an elementary school librarian (and for that matter, my father, who patiently read “Wings on Things” approximately a bazillion times with me when I was first learning to read), I went the children’s book route. Plus, I could pick books I loved that way.

So, to the Saucier Library:
Zella, Zack, and Zodiac by Bill Peet. (I must confess, I don’t specifically remember this book too clearly, but more Bill Peet is always good.)
and
Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen. (This is one of those books that I read when I was younger, and that really stuck with me.)

And to the Biloxi Library:
Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones. (One of the books I read so many times growing up that my copy is in tatters.)

Thanks to Glark and Pamie and everyone at Twop. Not only do y’all entertain me, and provide some justification for my occasionally obsessive tv habits, you also keep offering me the chance to be a slightly better person, and that’s always a plus.

— Tenebrae[/readermail]

[readermail]I’m with a children’s educational publishing house, Peace Hill Press. We just sent 28 hardback copies of our flagship series, The Story of the World.

–Charlie [/readermail]

[readermail]Hi – I’m new to the bookdrive and I just had to help out.

I may live at the bottom of the planet, Perth, Australia (as seen on the last season of The Amazing Race!). But as soon as I spotted Wives and Daughters and Walk the Line (both DVD’s) I knew that I had to buy them for the Pass Christian Library.

I know every bit helps and knowing that someone on the otherside of the world is watching two movies that I love, means the world to me.

–Caroline[/readermail]

I just read Speak and fell in love, so I’m flattered this woman found her way to our part of the Internet:

[readermail]
We were tipped to your site by a bookseller in Haverford, PA. We gave American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler, and Jimmy Zangwow’s Out-of-This-World Moon-Pie Adventure, by Toni DiTerlizzi.

I’ve posted a link to your kind adventure on my LJ. Thanks for being so awesome.

–Laurie Halse Anderson[/readermail]

[readermail]I applied for a promotion and I promised myself that if I got the promotion I’d give once more because of all the good karma.

As thanks the Biloxi Library is getting:

-Conrad’s Fate
-Minerva Louise and The Red Truck
-Taps: A Novel
-The Life of Samuel Johnson
-Ghosts of Medgar Evers, The : A Tale of Race, Murder, Mississippi, and Hollywood
-Victorian Children of Natchez
-The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
-Jenny Giraffe’s Mardi Gras Ride
-My Mississippi

— arubagirl[readermail]

[readermail]Unfortunately, being a broke recent college graduate means I can’t do as much as I would like, but I did buy the Biloxi Library a copy of The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch, because 1) I loved it when I was a little girl and 2) children have to have books. I don’t know what I would have done without my public library when I was a child, and it breaks my heart to think of the kids in Mississippi with nothing to read.

— Colleen H.[/readermail]

I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you guys are continuing to give books and materials, sending money, and spreading the word about the Dewey Donation System. 1300 books/cds/dvds is quite impressive, but nowhere near the over 43,000 titles they lost to Katrina. If you haven’t had a chance to donate something to Harrison County yet, I hope you find it in your heart to send a book or two.

So now that I won’t be working sixty hours a week at an office, I’ll be able to update more frequently. Just let me get a little more sleep first, because something inside of me is broken.