Down in the Sweet Valley

I slept in and didn't get out for today's volunteering at the Oaklyn Library until nearly 11:30. Once again, it was hazy, hot, and incredibly humid. It was too hot just walking the ten minutes from my apartment to the library.

I decided to take on a big project today. There's a special set of shelves for the many paperback kids' and teens' series the library has, but it's a mess. I started with the very long-running Sweet Valley High series. For those of you who didn't grow up in the 80s and 90s and/or aren't female, Sweet Valley High (and it's later spin-offs, Sweet Valley University and Sweet Valley Twins) is an extremely long-running series of melodramas about Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, a set of perfect blond teen girls in a California town, their older brother, and their endless multitude of friends and rounds of boyfriends.

I was about 8 when I first started reading this series. Yes, I know that's young for what's essentially a very long-running soap opera for teen girls, but they were some of the first chapter books I ever read. I've always been a really good reader, far ahead of the other kids in my classes. I read them for about two years before I finally lost interest. Unlike many of my interests, this isn't one I've been able to ever pick up again. The stories are pure, unadulterated corn. Name a soap opera disaster, and it's probably befallen the Wakefield twins or someone in their school - death, disease, (temporary) blindness, kidnapping, cults, Romeo and Juliet-esque love affairs, divorce, reconciliation, broken dreams. They also have an incredibly 80s sensibility, from the emphasis on many rich characters and how money cures all ills to some of the more Dynasty-like plotlines. There's also a very distinct lack of diversity. You don't see anything besides white kids until well into the 60th books.

On the other hand, I always did like the hard-working Elizabeth, who shares my fondness for writing and is usually rather sensible, compared to many of the ridiculous characters in this series. I wasn't as fond of her obnoxious, me-first twin Jessica, who gets her sister to pull some pretty outrageous stunts and tends to fight with her as much as they get along.

Rearranging the Sweet Valley High books made me realize just how bad of shape the paperback series mysteries were. Most of them were together...at least, the ones with more than two or three books. There were some series, like Horrible Harry and Rainbow Fairies, with only two or three books in a series. Others, like Pink Flamingos, were leftover from the girls' series fad of the 80s and early 90s and hadn't lasted for very long anyway. And there were multiple copies of more than half the Sweet Valley High books! I didn't even get them all done before I realized it was getting late and I wanted to have lunch.

I went for a short walk around the neighborhood next to the library. It was too hot for a long one. Stopped at Doria's Deli for a Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi, then went home for lunch. I made a big steak and green bean lunch and had a small dinner of an apple, blueberry light yogurt, and a granola bar.

I took two movies out of the Oaklyn Library. Scooby Doo: Abracadabra Doo was to make up for the other Scooby Doo movie I took out of Haddon Township that didn't work, and for some reason, Haddon Township hasn't gotten the live-action Disney Alice In Wonderland with Johnny Depp from this spring yet.

I did Abracadabra Doo during lunch. It was a cute tale of Velma's little sister Madelyn calling the gang to her new school for stage musicians...which, of course, is in a castle brought over from Scotland that's being terrorized by a griffin. While Daphne gets jealous of Fred eyeing one of the teachers, we discover that Madelyn has quite a crush on Shaggy. (I always knew that stoner had the heart of a gentleman. A cowardly gentleman, but a gentleman.) Nothing you haven't seen before, but kind of fun if you're into Scooby and fantasy.

I spent a few hours messing around online, then changed into my work clothes, had a very quick yogurt dinner, and rode to work. Work was no problem whatsoever. It was steady but not crazy until about 9, after which it died quickly. I spent the last 20 minutes doing returns.