Here I am pictured in front of one of my old haunts, Brook Hollow Public Library in San Antonio, Texas. In the original version of this picture, which my wife snapped Saturday, I appear bald head, bald knees, in shorts. Fortunately, ChatGPT was able to clean up my pic, putting me on a bench that says “Read books,” and put my brand new Boston Scally cap on my head in an outfit (blazer, shirt, and brown shoes) I probably wouldn’t be caught dead wearing outside of…well, prob a coffin. 😉

I am often reminded that libraries and the librarian was my safe space when I moved from Panama to the United States. The culture shock was real and I didn’t have the words then to name the feeling of isolation (and bullying that came with that in sixth – seventh grade), but reading about American culture through fiction helped me survive. In the time before Internet, I learned to outline and organize my notes from paper encyclopedias so I could write essays later. Doing that again and again prepared me for success in life.

The book I’m holding in the picture is one of ten I picked up at Brook Hollow Public Library Saturday (my father’s day treat), that I gave a donation for. The rest of the stack includes another Robin Cook book, Contagion, as well as a mix of James Rollins, sci-fi, and other titles that caught my eye.

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I hope you’ll join me at the Librarian Conference June 23-25. I’m presenting on one of those days (I forget which) and showing off something I’ve spent about five hours prepping just yesterday (you know, never listen to those wild ideas on a Friday that say, “Wouldn’t it be cool if you…?”).

So, I’m going to decompress reading a few paper books. And, maybe spend some time on a stepper. I should have asked ChatGPT to slim me up a little.

😉