I'm sitting here, ready for work a few minutes early, drinking coffee and eating fruit (yum and double yum) and so I thought I'd write this long overdue post that has been bopping around my head for a while. Here is life according to me.

• Most importantly, two weeks ago (July 28) was my six month anniversary of arriving in Alaska. This week was my six month anniversary of working at my job. I will have a longer post about that later. The first six months in almost any government job is probationary. I passed my six month review (with flying colors), am not getting fired and sent back to Kansas, and got my raise (step increase as they like to say). All very cool things.
  
• At the Deaf retreat, there was a misprint on the schedule that advertised "s'mores with delicious heresy bars" instead of Hershey's bars. It cracked me up, especially since we were at a church event, so thus it becomes a blog post.
  
• For years and years and years, I've dreamed of learning to make stained glass. There was a place on my drive home that taught classes and I never signed up. I was looking through the parks and rec activities guide and I spotted a stained glass class that began in August. The time was right, the price was right, I was ecstatic. I called to sign up, and the parks and rec office had no idea what I was talking about. They finally asked what page I was looking at in the guide. I told them, and that was when I realized I was reading the Summer 2007 guide. (Silly library that throws nothing away.) I was unbelievably bummed. I'd been looking forward to this since May. The instructor's number is listed in the guide, so I called her to see if she had any other, private, classes starting soon. Low and behold, she does. There's a class starting same day of the week/time in September, and the price is up only $5. I signed up through her rather than waiting for the parks and rec guide and I'm in! I'm back to being REALLY excited about it. I'll post pictures of any of my completed works.
  
• That frantic scrambling noise you hear? In my stained glass class, I get to use glass cutters, lead sodder, and perhaps a soddering flame thingy. So that noise you hear, is my parents frantically alerting the church prayer lists to start praying for me. I'll post pictures of any injuries.
  
• This week at work, I'm trying a new program, it's an "I'm Ready for Kindergarten" program for new Kindergarteners. We're not teaching skills, we're just celebrating this milestone. Next week school starts. I have no idea how many people to expect at this thing. Could be 7 or could be 70 and neither would surprise me. I'm doing it twice, once in the evening for working parents, once during the day. In the last week, a number of people have made a point of telling me they're coming to it, so I'm getting really excited. Also at work I'm starting a book club for early elementary. That was one of my favorite things about my last job, so it is fun.
  
• In crafty news, I am working on a cool hidden cat scarf, a crocheted sock monkey, a blanket from a kit from the craft store that is made of different blocks of colors, and I'm turning a pair of pants into a skirt. I have that all torn apart and pinned together. But I'm getting the idea from a pattern I saw in a book I don't have in my hands right now. I'm going to wait for the book before I do the final sewing.
  
• Bought my tickets to Vegas. Only three months. So excited!
  
• I gave my cat actual catnip for the first time. I'd only given her toys with catnip in it before. She loves it. She eats it, then rolls on that part of the floor, and then just hangs out there for a while. She always ignored the fresh catnip plant I had in the window in KC, but loves the dried stuff. Go figure.
  

On Tuesday, the voters approved the library's bond. This means we have money to repair our leaky roof, and money to leverage the grants and donations we could only have with matching funds. When I road up on the elevator yesterday morning with the director, she was practically walking on air. There are other donations and partnerships in the works that will be fantastic. It's going to be great at the library. The voters also approved ALL of the bonds, the school bonds, the road bonds, police, fire, all of it. Last year the library bond and a lot of others failed. This is a huge thing. People in Alaska don't pay sales taxes or state income taxes, all we pay our property taxes. So all of this is in property taxes and boy do people complain about it. Some of the comments and blogs on the newspaper's site were incredible. You get paid to live in the state, it won't hurt to pay a teensy bit back for quality of life issues.

Anyway, moving on. In some ways, a library is a library. There are children and storytimes and creepy patrons. In the last week and a half I've had WAY more than my share of creepy patrons. The teenage boy (that I suspect had aspbergers) who followed me around grinning and rubbing his crotch. A couple of creepy, leer-ers. And then the cake topper. The one guy who told me that he liked the way my sweater "accented [my] breasts". That one will leave you feeling creepy, and gross, and dirty all day long. My perfectly normal, not tight, not low cut sweater. Bleck. It's part of the territory with public service that some people will believe that means they are free to say whatever to you. It shouldn't shock me anymore. But that last guy was the one who was the most direct thing ever said to me. Just gross.

Mostly though my library is fantastic. One thing that I'm learning about Alaska that I really love is how international of a community Anchorage is. After storytime, when the kids line up for their stamps (hand) and to say thank you, a good portion of the children will say "danke" or thank you in Russian or an Asian language. And we have lots of English and Irish accents around. It's fun to be surrounded by so many representatives of different cultures. I'm also learning bits and pieces about Alaskan culture I'll share with you as I can.

It was light until almost 9:30 last night. Incredible. And as of yesterday, the Royals were 2 and 0! Our undefeated streak continues! (As a Royals fan, I will take my streak wherever I can get it.)

Yesterday (Monday) was my first day at my new job. When I left for work it was -14 (Fahrenheit). that is very cold. My hands hurt within a few minutes of me being outside, even with gloves. It hurts to breathe. I had to keep reminding myself that I wanted this, I wanted to move here. When I hear all the Alaskans talk about how it is too cold to be out doing this, then I feel better. Or at least I feel like less of a wimp. Apparently they have one or two super cold snaps like this a winter but then they pass. I'm hopeful that this passes soon. I'd love to get out and explore more, but it is just so cold. And gas mileage is awful because the engine is too cold.

The first half of the first day of work was mainly just orientations and such. As I met all my new coworkers they all greeted me enthusiastically. It seems like it will be a great place to work. I've been really blessed and enjoyed the last couple of places I've worked too. Everyone knew who I was and for the most part that I had driven the Alaska highway (also known as the Alcan) to get up here, in January. They were all amazed at this. Really amazed. (I know there were no other people, it was us and the big rigs, the trucks that weren't big rigs were construction guys working on the road.) When all the Alaskans and other Notherners are amazed that you're making this trip, then it may not be the wisest idea. My boss was wondering if she should have been more warning when she talked to me before I drove it. However there wasn't really any other good way to get there. And we did it. It was sketchy at times, but it worked out okay.

I observed storytimes today. It's funny how you can have exact same rhyme and everyone does it from a little bit to a lot differently. Also today was -15 when I went to work and -1 when I came home. Brrr.... Beautiful sun, beautiful mountains, you would have no idea how cold it was outside.

As described here, I've been fighting this awful cold. Sunday night I took the Nyquil that had no expiration date on the bottle but was from the same cold (I think) as the expired prescription stuff. Monday night I purchased a new bottle of Nyquil Cough (and Dayquil, it was a bundle and I wanted both). New bottle has an expiration date two years out. However by Monday night (after purchasing before using otc stuff) I'm feeling unbelievably awful. The end result of all this coughing is how much it hurts to breathe. My chest just feels like it is being squeezed and the inside feels like it has been rubbed with sand paper a couple hundred times. As an asthmatic (now thankfully in remission but who went through awful times in childhood), I understand well the difference between not being able to breathe and hurting when you breathe. I was in the latter stage, though I did pull out a peak flow meter just to check. That's when I made a doctor's appointment.

By the way, this is a very bad time to get sick (though there never is a really good time to get sick). Monday - Bible Study (not skippable - I'd missed too many already); Tuesday - book club (for work), storytime, Junior League thing; Wednesday - big deal Junior League meeting, gave a workshop to a group of parents for work; Thursday - storytime, other stuff; Friday - big deal program at work. Oh well. A lot of that requires me talking which is getting hard with the cough tearing up my throat. On my Wednesday presentation, the lucky participants got to listen to an hour and a half of me sounding like an old woman who'd been chain smoking for years. Thursday's storytime was one of the worst I've ever done - I had no energy and my voice was awful, hardly carried and little inflection. I ended up leaving early on Thursday and just sleeping. Woke up long enough for CSI and went back to sleep.

My tuesday morning doctor's appointment conflicts with a Junior League thing, but I let it go and went to the doctor. My doctor is kinda funny. He knows me well enough, been treating me since I was a child, but he always does this options thing. He outlines like four possible choices in terms of medicine, treatments, etc, and then he stares at you. He never really expresses which he thinks would be best, sometimes a little bit of an opinion, but often he just outlines options. He says "this is more agressive" and hints that it might be better if you hold off on x option until you give other options a chance to work. I really appreciate that he is keeping me so informed and letting me have so much control over my own medical treatment. But he's the doctor, I wish he would show a little bit more about which he thinks is the best. Anyway I get more of the prescription cough syrup.

For the record, the prescription cough syrup has a one year expiration date, while the brand new nyquil has a two year date. Therefore if the Nyquil and the prescription stuff are from the same cold, as I believe they are, and the prescription stuff only expired in May, my old bottle of Nyquil was fine. However it was also almost empty, so it was good it was replaced. Thank you to everyone who voted on the previous poll though.

After sleeping for almost fourteen hours yesterday, I am beginning to feel better. I am still coughing, my head still hurts, and I'm still a little trembly, but not nearly as bad as I was. As my boss pointed out, this is the best I've looked in a week. I've got a huge major presenter coming for my program tonight, and then I'm going to go sleep the weekend away. Well not actually, I'm hosting the junior league dinner club tomorrow so I need to grab wine and clean my house, but other than that I get to sleep. And rest. And heal. Thank heavens. Other than pulling out dishes and such for dinner club, I should maybe think of a centerpiece idea. Except if you put food dishes there on the table, you have very little room for centerpieces, so I'll just do something fun with candles.

My library children's desk checks out board games for in-library use. There are some kids (some of our drop off, stay all day kids) who are playing Life on a table near me. (Remember that board game, you had a small car that represented your journey and little figurines in it as you went around, got married, had kids, etc.) Well I overheard this remark as they got to the part of the game that involved having children:

"No, don't put your baby in like that. Don't do like Britney Spears did!"

See? Britney as role model, teaching important parenting lessons. Do not put your baby in the front seat, on your lap, as you cruise in a car.

[x-posted to amused libraries]

Thanks to the marvelous Stephanie, I now am sharing some photos with you all from our massive Harry Potter event.

( me dressed up )

I've been busy as every children's librarian is with summer reading stuff, but this is a special summer. And now our world is all about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We're planning a massive event. Currently I'm re-reading/listening to the books so I'll be all prepped for the new book. So the books are in my car talking to me (okay only one of them does that) and on bedside table, in my bag, etc. And of course I'm helping to plan this event for our library.
( read to see how huge this party will be, and understand why I'm so busy and obsessed lately )
My costume is pretty cool. I'm Hermione (kinda grownup). I've already got the hair afterall. Knee length gray skirt (had trouble ordering a school girl skirt), gray sweater vest, short sleeved white shirt, Gryffindor tie, black graduation robe. I'll try to post pictures.

It's going to be an amazing, incredible party. But it is also totally consuming my life and that of many of my coworkers. We've been planning for months. An event this size is so much to pull off, I had no idea. Our entire workroom is overflowing with party supplies as is the entryway to my house. It feels like every other word out of my mouth is HP related. There are huge standups counting down the days til the book all over our department. And of course it is all over the news. I'm going to see the movie on Thursday, all I'm reading are the books. It's like a new lifestyle, one that is all Harry Potter, all the time. It's insane, but it is also a ton of fun. This is truly a once in a life time event and we want to make it that special, wonderful, magical thing.

It's a testament to how much I love my job and this event that I'm not even a little burnt out yet. 10 days! (well to the book, 9 days to the event)

Just so y'all know. I'm not dead. I haven't updated in quite a while, but I'm not dead. Just very very very busy. Far too busy to update or read at work. And either busy in the evenings or completely tired of sitting in front of a computer. I've made it through most of your entires, commenting here and there. Just no updates on my life at all. I know what sadness this has been for y'all. I got on IM last night and had multiple people (3) tell me that they'd not seen me on in quite a while. Maybe it is my old age (birthday in three weeks!) that is causing me to shy away from the technology. Or just stress and business. Here in a nutshell list is what is going on with me.

• School Visits - I've talked to almost two thousand kids in school visits in the last couple of weeks to get them ready for our summer reading club.
  
  
• Summer Reading - summer is our busiest time at the public library children's department. Tons of programming, summer reading reward programs, kids here all day, kids out of school, it's just generally nuts.
  
  
• Memorial Day Weekend - that was fun. I went to Celebration at the Station with huckleberrycake for great music (symphony), fireworks, cannons. Had a picnic, and a not too good bottle of wine that I injured myself opening. Usually I'm much better at picking wines. Plus the concert was Patriotic music and included some pretty nice memorials to vets and others in the armed forces. It is always nice to remember that it is a holiday about more than just BBQ and a monday off. I drove past the cemetary near my house and there were lots of decorated graves. My mom and grandma always called it "decoration day" (a southern/oklahoma thing) and made a big deal of putting flowers and flags (for vets) on the graves. When we went to Oklahoma to do it in years past, all the graves were decorated and there would be tons of people out at the cemetary.
  
  
• At the beginning of the month was Jane Austen's (my cat not the author) birthday. She's two! And she still had a lot of kitten play in her. I got her a laser pointer (which is fun to torture her with) and some catnip bubbles. The bubbles are super strong and will actually bounce on carpeting! They fascinate Jane Austen who will circle them, approach carefully, sniff, gradually bat, and then when they disappear (pop), it completely confuses her. She'll look all over the place trying figure out where it went. Eventually she looks up at me and meows until I blow another one for her.
  
  
• I've gotten really into crocheting. I do a decent amount of crafts (scrapbooking, card making, cross stitching, crocheting, etc) and tend to go in phases. For a long time it was scrapping/cardmaking almost entirely. I've sort of burnt out for a while so now I am crocheting. I finished this whole afghan. That is huge for me as I've never finished a project that big before. I've got finished scrapbooks, lots of cards, and tons of half-finished cross-stitches. I'm working on crocheting a bag right now, it's about half done (and only in a couple of weeks). Crocheting is the perfect thing to do in front of the tv or a movie and requires less concentration than cross-stitching and less creativity that scrapping. That is the perfect thing for my stress level right now. Though my fingers do kinda start to cramp.
  
  
• Heroes ended an amazing first season. Seriously when do the DVDs come out? It beautifully set up their second season. The thing that will tide me over is that same week, So You Think You Can Dance? started up again. (I fell in love with the show last summer, Go Benji!). This is the part where I lose all credibility for making fun of American Idol fans.
  

There's lots more I could talk about, including my newfound love of gardening. But I think I will save it for more updates. Hopefully before another fortnight has passed I will update again.

Also fortnight (def: how long it has been since my last post, more traditional definition: two weeks, fourteen days) is one of my favorite words. I need to use it more often.

Really honest, I mean to post, I log on, read everyone's entries, reply, and then run out of time. So this time I'm posting first! Here are things that are rambling around my world in no particular order from the last few weeks. They are a scattered offering of the things I've been meaning to post.

• I have a cold, I hate having a cold. Bleck.
  
  
• The other day I made homemade play dough for my storytime kids to use during craft time. This way they can take it home and we don't worry about reclaiming the libraries valuable expensive brand name play doh. I have an awesome recipe and everyone wanted it (thanks Mom!). When I was making it at home, I made a huge mess and dropped some on the floor. My cat ran over, sniffed it, and ate it. She even licked her little kitty lips. She remained on alert the rest of the time for any dropped bits she could eat. Jane Austen cat even hissed when I took a piece away from her. She never hisses at me. She must really like the stuff (which is like pure salt).
  
  
• I find it irritating when people start a sentence in their subject email or put an entire sentence up there and then put nothing in the body (as that was there whole message) or continue the thought without repeating the subject. I tend to not connect the subject always entirely and I have to go back and re-read it because I'm confused.
  
  
• I missed church on Sunday because of my cold. I missed two weeks ago because of travelling. I think I missed the week in between but I can't recall why. Perhaps I went, I must have, I almost always do. I'm in danger of becoming a heathen.
  
  
• I got a postcard from bbjore in Iraq. That was totally awesome!
  
  
• I subscribe to Christianity Today for my church's library but had it sent to my house. March's issue showed up with an interview with Katherine Paterson, and a few other children's lit bits. I may have to keep it for a bit longer.
  
  
• For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge scifi geek. I've been working my way through the Star Trek: Voyager series on DVD. That was the only series I watched consistently when it was new on TV. Somehow though I missed most of the 5th and 6th seasons as I didn't remember most of those episodes. I liked it quite a bit. Now that I'm almost done (down to 7th and final season) I've started Battlestar Galactica. I'm getting these DVDs from the library. I may take recommendations in a couple of months for what I should do next: Babylon 5, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Star Trek: Next Generation, something else I'm not thinking of? Edited to add, I meant to include Farscape and Stargate on the list. I've already started (first two eps) of Stargate. Thanks for the reminders
  
  
• Warm weather is finally upon us again and I'm happy to be wearing nicer warmer clothes.
  

There's more but that is all I have for right now. Look an update!

Things I think you should know or that are popping around my head:

Daylight Savings Time - For the first time this year, the length of daylight savings time will be extended. We'll change our clocks (spring forward) on the second Sunday in March (March 11th - next weekend!) and change them back (fall back) on the first Sunday in November (November 2nd).


I leave town tomorrow very very early for a librarian symposium in California. I'm very excited and I'm not at all ready. So far I got my hair cut (trimmed and thinned) and went to the ATM. I still need to do laundry, transport the cat to my parents, pack, file away a few things, etc. Still this is the first time I've gotten to go to a major librarian event and I couldn't be more thrilled.


My cat, Jane Austen, is a cuddle kitty. I got her when I was in grad school and most of the time I was at home I had my laptop on my lap. Thus she got used to curling up against me. She also curls up around my legs when we sleep. Very rarely did she climb into my lap which I now realize was because it was very rarely free. After grad school, I get to spend more time just being with no laptop, and she has cheerfully reasserted her rightful place as the occupier of my lap.


My book club met on Monday. This is just for fun, through the Junior League, and has nothing to do with the library. (I also lead one for children as part of my job and it met on Tuesday). I love this book club, most of the women are older leaguers and higher up in the ranks. They're just fun neat women. This month we read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. We've decided to do a classic every other month. I never made it through Wuthering Heights before. Once I tried to read it because it was supposed to be such a great romance (about sophomore or junior year of high school) and once a year or two later I was assigned it. Never made it through, read the book notes and got an A on the test if I recall. Very few books did I not read in their entirety. And I still haven't made it through. I really did try. The problem (and all the ladies agreed) is that the characters are just so unbelievably unlikable. You don't want Catherine and Heathcliff together, you don't root for them, they're not nice people. I didn't like them and I wasn't really sure why they liked each other. Despite only one woman who forced herself through it (the rest of us made it about halfway through and then did notes), we had a great discussion. I like Jane Austen (obviously), I like the other Bronte sisters (loved Jane Eyre), but I just don't like Wuthering Heights.

There is a chemical plant burning in Kansas City not too far from my library. We can see the plume of smoke rising and the sky is blackened. Five schools around the site have been evacuated. The health department said on the news that they are taking readings to be sure that the air is safe; it is. As a precaution, as soon as they (library building people) realized it was a chemical fire, all outside air sources for the ventillation system were cut. (I guess we're on recycled air?) I'm not allowing myself to go down the fun, scary, and tempting world of psycho-somatic symptoms. It is possible that I will drop dead any moment now though. I'll miss y'all. I'm quite brave about the whole thing if I do say so myself.

Also, here's an interesting article:
Is Jane Austen the new "it" girl? Discuss amongst yourself. Perhaps a good topic for discussion at my memorial service.

I still have a cold and I still feel wretched. If it were possible for my head to have exploded from sinus pressure, I believe it would have.

Here at the library, I am exposed to ridiculous amount of germs. Sure you have coworkers, but just those coworkers and whatever second hand germs they have from children and spouses. I work with the great masses of humanity. Actually, I specialize in children. Children are wonderful as carriers of love and as carriers of germs. I'm constantly hugged and presented with new surprises. Below is an example of a typical exchange that I just had.

Young boy: I found this book in the bathroom.
Me: eyes book warily, fortunately it's just a travel guide to Japan and not something more salacious as I've found in the past uhm, okay, thank you
Young boy: I got some blood on it, but I wiped it off mostly
Me: oh, well, thank you
looks closer at book, no visible blood, I take the book, place it beside me, and discreetly reach for the purell

This is why I am sick.

We'd been having a mostly mild winter. Now we've got winter storms again. And it's not a lot of fun

I love it when kids in the library do something they know is wrong and look at me to see if I noticed. I smile and wave back at them. It freaks them out.

My dad broke his arm. They gave him a camoflauge cast which is just perfect for him. He hunts a lot. He also tends to wear his camoflauge (I have no idea if that is the correct spelling) t-shirts a lot because they are comfortable. Daddy is fashion coordinating his accessories. Also it is funny that he broke his arm because usually it is Mom or I. He thinks we shouldn't take so much amusement in it. He fell off the back porch due to ice. I am very glad he wasn't hurt much worse.

I saw a fox the other day. It was running across a street near where I work. I work in a library in a very metropolitan part of the city. Kansas City is pretty sprawling for a mid-sized (to large) city. I live in the suburbs on the Kansas side and tend to think of everything on the Missouri side as "downtown" since it is all much more urban than my suburb. However I've been informed that I really work mid-town. That isn't the point. The point is that this is a very urban area to see a fox. The little fox (beautiful red fox) ran safely across the seven lanes of traffic in the intersection. This particular road is part of the boulevard system and as such has a huge median. The median areas are basically parks, there is a lot of grass, some parts have swing sets and jungle gyms, tennis courts, and for much of it a large creek goes through the middle of all of this. Later I saw the fox drinking from the creek. Glad he made it okay.

I live in the suburbs which have more green spaces. I see deer everywhere. It always makes me laugh because they seem to come out at night even though they're not really nocturnal animals. I see them grazing on the football fields by the high school a lot. Also a couple of months ago, two of them ran out in front of me (at about 2am) on a regular street. I hit the horn, hit the brakes, and worried about hitting the deer. One ran back into the woods, one veered and missed me by inches. Scared years off my life. They can seriously damage your car.

I love children's lit. Actually a school is considering starting a new all online MA in children's lit. It interests and intrigues me. And then I remember the stress I've been through in the last two years of grad school and try to keep myself far away from that. If I ever got a PhD I am pretty sure I would want it in children's lit not library science. The only problem is that my undergrad is in English-Linguistics. I took some lit classes but managed (by design) to miss all of the critical theory. This would be a huge weakness in any masters or phd program in lit, even children's lit.

***********************************************************
"My family pleaded with me to forget literature and do something sensible, such as find some sort of useful work." -Lloyd Alexander

We'll get to New Year's in a moment. It's back to work and (almost) business as usual. The end of the holidays is always a bit of a let down and also a bit of a relief. It's an escape from junk food, and heavy sweets, and constant family togetherness, and a heightened sense of excitement that leaves you drained and dazed. I love the holidays, but in a way I love their end as well.

Tuesday was nuts at work because the kids were still out of school. We were just so busy I was ready to cry by the end of the day.

Wednesday we nice. I did the baby storytime, as mentioned previously. We had Bible Study as we do every Wednesday night (well almost every one, every now and then we cancel). I can't remember if I've talked about this Bible study. It is the young (20's and 30's) singles group from my church. Or at least it is in theory. In reality only about five or six people make it on a regular basis. Our church is big on Wednesday night church and there are lots of classes and such at the church, this is what the singles group does. Every now and then an elder or preacher comes to check on us. For about a year, it was just me and four or five guys. Now Heather comes regularly, and Emily has started to as well. This is good as they are much less likely to try and evaluate my worth in cows if there are other girls there. (We've got this running joke about how many cows I am worth, I believe with the masters degree I'm up to 18 or 19 cows should any of you be curious as to what it would take to buy me in marraige from my father*.)

Thursday (yesterday), I had meetings all day so I was out of the library. Well, I was out of my library, but I was in other libraries. There was a children's librarians meeting for the staff of my system. We planned and swapped ideas for summer reading. Then lunch (tried and failed to get mom to join me) and a meeting of city wide children's librarians to talk about what our favorite picture books were for the last year. I rather like all day in meetings with children's librarians. I love the public, and I love my job, and I love never knowing who is going to come up to me next and what they may ask. However it can be tiring, and draining, and you risk burnout. For me a day of meetings is a day with no time on the desk. (I don't spend all day on the desk, but I spend a lot of it there.) It's like a little mini-vacation. Plus I love hanging out with other children's librarians. They're goofy in the same way that I am goofy. It was fun. And the last meeting was at a library in my part of the city, in the system I used to work for, so I saw a lot of old friends, and ended my day earlier and got to skip my long commute.

However one of the great things about my job is how much I get to move around. I'm up and bouncing and dancing during storytime. I'm up and playing games with my book club kids. I pop up and down to walk people to books, show them around the library, run hither and yon. I don't sit at the desk for too terribly long. This is good for me. I'm apparently fairly active. Sitting all day at meetings, while it is a nice break, also leaves me with a lot of energy. I was bouncing off the walls yesterday evening. That evening went to dinner (mmm Chinese) with Darren and got to watch the pilot episode of Stargate. I've seen the movie, though apparently not recently enough to remember the plot points very much, and one or two random episodes of the series. I liked the movie because I like scifi and because the main character was a linguist. I'm fairly easy (in terms of movies and tv). If the main character is a linguist or librarian, I'm predisposed to like it. This also explains my love of The Mummy movies. They're on TNT about twice a month and I usually watch 10minutes to half an hour of them if I catch them. They're fabulous (and the source of this icon as she makes a wonderful drunken defense of librarianship).

Shortly before Christmas, my ipod broke. It kept flashing a screen with an icon and a web address. I went to said web address and it had a couple of icons. I clicked on the one on my poor little nano and followed the suggested steps for repair. No luck whatsoever. I kept procrastinating taking it to the apple store (busy time of the year). Made it in the Friday between Xmas and New Years, but they were too busy to see me at the genuis bar and the one guy couldn't do anything. I finally made it in Tuesday. They're looking at my ipod, it's not fixable. They look up my warranty, and it was exactly one year to the day since I had purchased the ipod. So I got it replaced, but barely. They had to wait for a shipment (since I have an old style nano and they can't give me a new style one), so I picked it up today. Yay! I'll take it home and this weekend I'll fill it up with songs again. Also today I did a school visit for older kids. I always talk about a few books (book talk - like a commercial for a book) and ask them about what they're reading. The sixth graders are okay, but they're not what rules my world and why I love doing this particular school. It is the best fifth grade class. I just love them, they're so engaged and with it. Fabulous. We ended up in a talk about the dangers of a national identity card (or actually in the case of the book one of the kids was reading in which there is a tattoo barcode everyone has to get) and McCarthyism. Marvelous!

*So now that you know that I am worth 18 or 19 cows, if you need my father's contact information let me know. And if you can't come up with that many cows and want to make up the rest in guns and ammunition, daddy would probably like that too.

It's black friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. Normally I love this day. I'm out there very early, all day long. It's a marathon not a sprint. My family, most especially my mother, and I really get into it. And we get most of our Xmas shopping done.

However...

Not this year. Not at all. I have to work today. Bleck. My boss said I could come in late so long as I was on time to do storytime. I was out late last night, and didn't feel like fighting early bird sale crowds and working all day (I could do one or the other but not both). huckleberryckae picked up a couple of things for me because she's super sweet. Instead I scheduled an appointment with the dell service technician who replaced the LCD screen on my laptop that went out Monday. He came to my house (really my parents' house since I'm dog sitting) and fixed it. Then I went to the post office, the bank (both of which are hard during a normal week when I work) and then to work. This morning was quiet, only 2 people at my storytime. But now, since around noon, it is incredibly busy. Everyone is sick of their family, their kids, etc., and they all want to drown their sorrows in internet surfing. And the computers and the network are slow as molasses. It is so awful. People keep yelling at me because they're not logging on, loading, staying logged on, etc. I can't fix them at all. But people keep yelling at me. Normally I shrug it off (this isn't that uncommon of an occurrence), but it is a much higher volume of really unhappy people today. My stomach is upset, my equilibrium is off, I'm upset.

Stupid computers.

Maybe I'll stop by a store on my way home. I like shopping. But right now I don't even know if I want to deal with it. I could go home and engage in furball therapy. (That is when you play with your pets until their unconditional love and good mood makes you feel better about yourself, the world, and people in general.)

Well first off, Happy Halloween!

Now why have I been so busy this month? Well October was just a rather busy month. During the week, I work, as usual. But I didn't just work this month, I also took a class. I graduated with my MLS in August and some of my friends were already taking bets on how long before I ended up back in school. It's either because I like to learn or I like to better myself or I like to punish myself. One or more of those. There's a reason this journal is called Masochistic Perfectionism. In my job, if I accumulate Continuing Education units, I can advance a class level (read more money for me). I have two years to accumulate x units. I took an online CE class over the month of October. It covered recent developments in Children's Literature and was only online discussion, no tests, no papers. But a massive reading list. And that took up many of my evenings in October. So even if you saw me online and I seemed distant that was why.

The thing that has kept me busy in the last two weeks is a grant related work project. We got a grant to do parent and caregiver education workshops. Those tend to get scheduled in the evenings when people are free. And that occupies my evenings to a certain extent. To a big certain extent. I have another one this week. But yay for accumulating comp time.

And Junior League has kept me busy. This month is our book drive. That's my committee/placement for the year. So I've been going to meetings, sortings (where we sort the books we receive) and such. Last year we collected around 100,000 books that were distributed to needy kids and to agencies around the metro area. I went to a sorting that was all League members and it was cool. It was an evening, everyone came from work, changed and dug in. We were moving stuff around in a filthy warehouse and no one complained. This is a "society" women type organization (like you see mocked on Gilmore Girls), but it is mainly professional women. And we're not afraid of some hard/dirty work. One of the greatest uses of those books is to homeless and battered women's shelters. So that when the parents are doing intake things, there are books for the kids to look at. Those are the at-risk kids who need it. It's a great drive, a great service to the community, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

That's what has kept my weekdays busy. My weekends were busy too. First weekend was music weekend (10/1ish) with seeing a band in Topeka and the Rolling Stones*, second weekend was actually relaxing, shopping, cleaning, etc, third weekend was a Branson trip* (10/14ish), fourth weekend I worked and it was the Holiday Mart* (10/21ish), and you get the idea.
*update coming soon, probably

Here's looking forward to a calm November.

They're putting in carpet in my library. I really liked the unfinished concrete floors, so did a lot of people. They were cool, unique, hip, urban, etc. They were also very loud when people wear clanky shoes (like I do) or wheeled book carts. It would have doubled the price to have the installation done during off hours. Libraries can't just toss money around like that. So they're doing the installation now. Problem is the glue is smelling up the whole place. I brought my lunch, but I didn't eat it. I went across the street to the cafe for a salad because I had to get out of the library and get some fresh air. This helped mildly. Something about the ventillation of our building and I swear all the fumes come rushing back to us. I have a headache (excederin didn't help) that is killing me, I'm nauseous and icky feeling. Of course I have cramps and so I started off not at full power. The people up front and in the workroom aren't as affected as us back here. We think it is the way the building air flow works. My coworker just went home. I am covering a program, but we'll see how I am doing in an hour if I stay or go. Only a few hours to five. Maybe I can tough it out. Maybe. The one woman and I are feeling it the worst because we've had the most desk time in the last two days. (This is day two of carpet installation). If work makes me sick, do I have to use sick time? (I'll never argue it, I have plenty of sick leave, I'll just use it.)

In semi-related news, I went to the doctor for an annual check up yesterday. They took my weight and height. Weight wise I lost some over the last 14 months (I was a little behind annual), not a huge amount, but some. It is good that I didn't gain or even stay the same. The last fourteen months were some of the toughest of my life busy-wise with the full time work and school and I didn't always make it to the gym, actually I was pretty bad about it. The fact that I did lose weight indicates a general change in eating habits, and if I start to add in a better control of food and more structured exercise habit, it should really start to help. I've gotten life to a controlled routine now where such things are possible and I transferred my gym membership to the gym I drive by on my way home from work and it seems to have worked as far as I feel guilty just driving by so I stop and workout. Plus they have a kickboxing class that starts just about as I get there when I get off from work. I haven't gone yet because I'm not sure I'm ready, but I will soon I hope. It looks fun.

Also at the doctor they took my height. I jokingly said, "How tall am I?" And the nurse repled: 5'6". I was shocked. My reaction went a little like this: "I'm not 5'6", I'm 5'7". I've always been 5'7" or at shortest 5'6 3/4". My sister is the one who is 5'6" and I am 5'7". Can you measure me again please?" The nurse was laughing pretty hard at this point, but she remeasured me. This time I stood up straight and tipped up my chin. I tend to slump pretty badly. I am 5'7". I guess what mom said about posture all those years is true.

I had a simply amazing weekend. This is part one, because one event deserves it's own entry.

Friday, I went to a lunch for my mother celebrating 20 years at her company. Congratulations Mom! It was nice (yummy bbq). My father will have been at his company 20 years in November. I think having parents who have been at the same jobs for as long as I can remember has really affected the way I look at work and company loyalty.

Saturday I slept in a little bit. Than I ran errands which is always so much fun. My shoes are really starting to kill me. I can only get away with wearing some of my heels on days I know I'll be sitting most of the day (no storytime, no presentation, no plans to go down to the plaza) and it almost always works out that I end up walking more than planned. I love the ballet flats that are in this year. I popped into a shoe store, but I didn't buy anything. I couldn't find anything I liked well enough to justify spending the money. And I kept being drawn to ballet styled heels. Grrr... I should try again.

Saturday evening, Adam and I drove to Topeka to see some of his friends play in a band. They were pretty good, mostly the first group. It was loud (even for live music). It was really cool to see Adam in his element with his friends. I had a great deal of fun, lots of people watching and music.

Sunday was the church library book sale and my turn at librarian duty. I only bought one book, one I'd read, and it is like new, so I'm pumped.

The real excitement is yet to come!

Half an hour before this morning's scheduled toddler storytime, a patron approached me to ask, "Did you know that you have a pipe leaking?"

Yes, I did, and I decided that it is much more fun to risk dirty standing water around a bunch of children and books than deal with it. (Of course I realize that "Did you know..." is one of those constructs we use in Western society to politely tell someone something, but it seemed silly this morning).

( read the rest of the adventure )

I think we're back on track, bathroom has been re-opened, windows are clean, construction guys are at lunch, leak is fixed, dirty water gone, and I am ready to face the rest of the day. Or go to lunch.

If you live near me, see me on a regular basis, etc., please save toilet paper rolls for me. (I have already asked many of you to do this.) I use them for crafts at the library.

Thank you