What is the What is going on?

Snowman in my courtyard...yes it is snowing right now.

Well, as I stated, I am truly enjoying the book. It is so wonderful. I am now up to the point of feeling like I am reading a biography. There are so many precise dates and times and people inserted within the text. Don't get me wrong...that is a good thing. Biographies are a lot of fun to read...especially if they are colorful.

At this point, Valentino is still tied up on the floor and cannot move. His mouth is still taped and he is still enclosed within a "fort" Michael put around him. Michael begins to search the house and there is nothing Valentino can do about it but listen and hope he is not looking at pictures of sentimental value, ie, Tabitha, Valentino's Sudanese girlfriend. As Michael is snooping, Valentino tells the story of more travel, death and injury. As he finishes, a key moves around in the door. Valentino is sure it is Achor Achor his roommate. Alas, it is not...it is Tonya there with a van and ready to take the rest of his stuff. She and Michael soon depart.

Valentino decides it is time to make noise...and a lot of it. He is sure someone is going to hear him. He silently addresses his downstairs neighbors as his Christian neighbors (they have tried to proselytize many times...he does not mind though because he became a Christian in Sudan). The main story he wants to tell is of slavery and how the people were given to Arabs as slaves. He speaks of Deng's death and he talks about the host of the Sudanese Lost Boys in America, Mary Williams.

Mary Williams is the daughter of Jane Fonda. She wanted to make life better for the Sudanese Lost Boys and set up a foundation to collect money, sponsors and anything else that could be donated for the Lost Boys and Girls from Sudan. He speaks of Phil Mays, his sponsor, and of all the Tuesdays he spent telling his story in the playroom of the house.

He and Phil Mays hit it off very well. Mays contributed a lot of money to the foundation and helped Valentino with school, car, transit, jobs and anything else. He brought him into his home and his family welcomed Valentino. Valentino loved going to his mansion because it was unlike anything he had ever seen.

This all diverts into speaking of how the Sudanese Lost Boys became restless and ungrateful toward Mary Williams despite her efforts. They complained about everything. If one got one thing, they all thought they should have it. They all said they were from the same place and deserved equal treatment. They basically ran her to the ground without thanking her for everything she had done. She gave the foundation up eventually and it lost all support.

During the time, a Hollywood producer/director wanted to tell the story of the Sudanese struggle. He wanted to make a movie...but this also stirred craziness. Everyone thought their story should be shared. Who is going to benefit from this? Why can I not tell my story? Do you think it is fair? Basically, they just beat him into the ground, too. It makes me sad to read this because here we are in America trying to give them as much as we can for comfort and they are ungrateful and want more, more, more. Valentino is very embarrassed by this behaviour.

No one has still heard Valentino.

Also...as a side...here is the story of What is the What? in a nutshell. Valentino's father tells of the creation in the beginning. Of course, as Dr. Mufuka, my Zimbabwean world history professor at Lander always said, life on Africa was the beginning. God created Africa first and everyone comes from there...not gonna dispute. So...when God created Sudan first (in the version of his father), He gave the Sudanese all they could ever need: the means for survival, each other and cattle. They were able to use the cattle for food, milk and other usages. In time, God told them they could keep the cattle or take the What. Well, no one knew what the What might be. They did not want to lose the cattle to find out the What was trickery representing greed, so they decided to stick with cattle. God was happy and everyone got along fine. According to his father, the Arabs got the What and lost out from it. Well...back to Valentino now...as he is marching in all of these groups of boys, one finally says I think this is the "what." He simply means they apparently did something wrong to God and got what was coming.

Right now, I am about to read about how the Sudanese cross the Nile.

So, no blog would be complete without some Barnes and Noble.

Yesterday, we had a Special Storytime. It was based on books by Laura Numeroff. So, I read If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, If You Give a Pig a Party and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The purpose of the storytime was to have Mouse come and visit...and he did...Veronica in a suit. You don't tell the kids it is a costume character...they will shite themselves. You have to tell them the mouse is real and that 5 foot tall mice wearing bookbags really do exist. Because that is not as scary to know as the fact that it is just a costume character. So, when I finally started reading If You Give a Mouse A Cookie, I called Julie and said You can bring Mouse out now so everyone can see him and hug him! The kids were sooooooo excited. Oh, to be young.





So, here are three stories accumulated from yesterday and today. All deal with misfits:

1) Yesterday a 3-4 year old was at an 8X8 spinner rack; these are the racks you see that hold Spongebob books and Bernstein Bear books. It only means one of two things if a brat that age is getting near a spinner:

1. They are going to spin it as hard as they can and make all of the books fly out all over the floor.
2. They are going to pull 50 of them out and put them all over the section
3. ACTUALLY THREE THINGS: they will do both of the above.

So, to prevent the situation from happening, I walked to the spinner she was sitting next to. I stood right next to her as her mom was not looking and as she was about to turn it to look at books, I don't care about her intentions, I stuck my boot up in it so she couldn't turn it. She looked at me like WTF? Her eyes got really big and she kept looking at my shoe and then me. I just continued to look at her and smile and shake my head. She tried to turn and looked at me again. NO sympathy from me. Then she started the eh, eh, eh sounds. That made me jam it in there even more. I just looked at her and laughed. When her mom finally came to supervise her, I took my foot out and acted like I was helping her. Stupid kid.

Misfits numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5 all combined in one. This gaggle of dumbasses was a dad and three children. I knew they were there before I even saw them this morning. Elmo and other books were laying on the Trade Book floor before the entrance of the Children's Department. I can see the devastation they leave before I ever see them and just know it is them. So when I walked in, after picking that shit up, it didn't surprise me they were in there and that about 15 books were on the floor. Then, I began finding Easter books in the Picturebook Wall and board books in the Disney stuff. I was getting pissed. The dad was letting them throw books everywhere, as usual. This is not the normal nanny devastation of leaving a few Cosmos, Elles and Glamours lying around...this is a five alarm emergency. This family requires much recovery of books. I walked over to the treehouse and strewn around them were 47, I repeat 47 books laying on the floor. I watched the dad earlier just pulling tons of books off the shelves. The dad? Really? He is worse than the kids. No regard. He just pulls books off and puts them on the floor for his wobbly legged bratass 11 month old. Then she stands on them. And then his three year old throws trains everywhere and his ten year old leaves RPG manuals all over the place. He also leaves books of all kinds on every shelf and coffee cups everywhere. What a douche. Well, then I walk around the section and pick up I think 38 more books he and his brats have strewn. The last thing to happen which was the straw that broke the camel's back: He handed Princess tubby legs a Cookie Monster plush...she threw it...he didn't pick it up...he then handed her a Curious George plush...same thing happened on both accounts. I was pissed and fortunately the hand of God came to the Children's Department just in time. He was holding her and looking away from me. She was facing me and her pacifier popped out of her mouth. Revenge was swift. Using the shoe that stepped in dog shit, I kicked the pacifier across the section right in front of her. She was not old enough to tell him and there were no witnesses. He noticed it was not in her mouth and looked on the floor for it...he saw it...picked it up (which amazed me because I didn't think he could bend his lower back or extend his arms to pick anything up) and put it in her mouth. Thank you.

And last but not least...the Queen of the Damned:

Fabiola and I were setting up a Hunger Games pre-order endcap for Suzanne Collins' final installment, Mockingjay which comes out August 24 (SO EXCITED). As we were setting it up, a little girl approached us. She looked at Fabiola and then me and said I need books with dead bodies. Uh, excuse us? I need book with dead bodies in it. We told her there were no books in the section with dead bodies. She stated I don't care if they are animal or human dead bodies. I need books with dead bodies. Fabi said We don't have books for children with dead bodies. Little girl states I am not a child, I just turned 5 (and of course held up three fingers). I told her there were no books with dead bodies. Well, just then mom comes walking up. What is she asking you guys for? I told her Books with dead bodies. The mom turned to the girl and said Sweetie, today we aren't going to buy forensics books. We already have enough of them. Let's find something fun in the children's section. OK. This is demented. Why is a mom buying her child books from the True Crime/Sociology section? Oh dear.

Well, it is about time to get off of this. We are experiencing more snow. 10 inches will fall tonight. Gross. I have to be at Gap at 6AM for shipment and at Barnes at 4PM for my shift tomorrow. LONG DAY. Have a wonderful night!

:)