Neo Sol Librarian

First, I apologize if the thoughts here seem incoherent. My emotions are raw today. One of the reasons I've stuck around with the library for so long is because it can be a bubble from the outside world. We as public servants run the atmosphere of our buildings. You have some libraries with great lively vibes. You have some that seem like mausoleums, quiet, revenant and protective of the information within. And some that seem like graveyards, long forgotten by the community, but still maintained if for nothing but face value. And sometimes those bubbles block out what happens in the real world. You even see it with patrons of the library. A person facing housing insecurity finding air conditioning on a hot day. An elderly person having a tech 1-on-1 so they can pay their bills via their phone. And even anyone coming into a library and checking out a book expects to have their perspective twisted and tickled in some way to imagine a world that is not a current reality. And as som...

If you've known me for over the last decade, you know probably two things for sure: 1) That dude is trans and 2) That dude that is trans also loves craft beer. (and if you know one and not the other, we probably have a very surface relationship, which is cool). And really, I love(d) craft beer (still trying to work through my feelings on it). Craft beer is still beer, but with better ingredients, more attention to details in taste, and usually brewed locally and on a smaller scale than your national beers (Coors, Buds, etc). I've had some of the craziest things coming out just my local breweries. Key lime pies, midnight cocoa, ceviche, margaritas. Gummy bears, pecan pies, even a pickle one once (which wasn't good at all. Wouldn't suggest spending your money on any of them. And I'm pretty sure they get sales so consumers can say "I had a pickle beer". Just like I did.) But beyond the beer aspect of it, the main reason I fell in love with craft beer was be...

My aunt died by suicide. And being in a black family, you take that shit to the grave. I was very young when the funeral took place. I remember it being an extraordinary event because all of my Dad's brothers were present. I didn't know my Aunt Sharon at all. If I ever met her, I was too young to remember. I remember it being a very "hush" funeral. I don't recall if there was even a sermon. But what I do remember is that it was one of the few times that I saw my Dad cry. My Dad's very light hearted (bordering on aloof). Even as kids, nothing really phased him. But I remember seeing my Dad hang his head in this stifling (as I write this, I remember it being hot as hell in this church. Is the Devil himself in here?) and he cried. He cried as if defeated. Much later in life I learned what actually happened to my Aunt Sharon (I guess someone went to the grave the day I found out the full story). I'm going to try to paint a picture for you of her: Sharon Dav...

So I was today years old when I learned that the cannabis plant can change whole sexes when under stress. It's true!  And when I was watching the episode of Bong Appetit on Hulu  that mentioned this tidbit (along with some really great advice for cooking with cannabis) I was empowered as a transman. Weird right? I know. Let me explain. Apparently, my entire family had smoked flower at some point throughout their lives without me knowing for a majority of my life. And as I was in my oblivious early adulthood state, I had my internal battle with cannabis like a crazy. I remember smoking flower in high school with a friend at their house. Thank God I didn't get high that night because I think it would have turned me off to it altogether. It was the wrong group of white people in the middle of bumfuck South Carolina. After that, I didn't really touch it again until college. And even in college, marijuana was something that simply wasn't accessible to me. I was broke in a n...

Hello World Wide Web, Zuri here again. Was looking back at some of my past post (both drafts and published. Plan to post those draft today, because today they seem important). Sitting here in 2020, a few years from my previous post (let's face it, it's been ages), so much has changed again. I was going to write about it, but it's a lot to process right now, so I will go with a trusty bullet list: I got married to my best friend. And while I've experienced some of the best moments of our lives with Kezia, marriage has been rough. A tug of war of compromise and a new and scary world of self discovery that I wasn't prepared for. But everyday (particularly during my 50 days of quarantine) I get up and think of Kezia and wonder how we can make our lives even better.  Yoga has allowed me to find a lot of peace I was seeking with my own body. I started following Yoga with Adriene  about a year ago and now when I don't start my day out with yoga, I don't feel ...