Man, today was a good day. My Lord of the Rings page a day calendar pretty much summed up the way I feel about Valentine's Day:



I went to my volunteer job, which is always a mood elevator. I spent the morning chatting to Katy, the other library tech, and cataloguing paperbacks. I then spent my lunch hour reading Something Rotten, which is fantastically fantastic [you heard me!] and just keeps getting better.

And then, during the afternoon recess, I saw Dimitry come in. That kid is great.

Of couse, the other kids don't recognize that, they just see him as the class weirdo-geek. Every time it's his turn in the library during recess, he slips in quietly and reads. We discuss Lemony Snicket, and I give him any books that have come in that he's requested.

I read John Bellairs' The House With the Clock in it's Walls last week for my children's lit author paper, and I knew Dimitry would love the books. So today, when he came it, I handed him the book he'd been waiting for, plus a John Bellairs book. I told him that I'd read his books when I was younger, and so had my brother when he was Dimitry's age. I told him to take a look, and his face lit up like a Christmas tree.

Or, more apt for the school, a menorah.

Maybe it's because I'm on the verge of PMS, or maybe it's because Dimitry reminds me of me at that age. Whatever it was, it made my heart ache with happiness to see him smile like that.