Cathy the Librarian

The quote is from the Mickey Mouse song, although what it has to do with my post, I do not know.
Anyway, long time no see.

Lots has been going on.

1) School has started. THANK GAWD! I love those teens, but they were so bored, they were driving me mad. Leaving butts all over the library, throwing food and paint at the building, beating each other up. You get the idea. I really try to stand up for them and listen to them, but sometimes its REALLY hard.

2) I went to Webster for a staff exchange day. It was so great! I love that Adrienne (kids librarian) gets to lie on the floor of her office to look at books and prepare for story time. One of my co-workers said I could do that, but I’d get rolled over or stepped on. The library is gi-normous! You need to call people to talk to them, not just holler or twirl your seat around. There are three people at the Reference desk (we don’t even have a reference desk). Everything is bright and clean. Adrienne has her own story time room, and TONS of crafty stuff. She has a dedicated staff just for children’s services, plus there are two (ish) teen librarians. Sigh. It was a lot of fun and interesting.

On the other hand, I REALLY like where I’m working. Everyone is really close, there is no reference desk (which is good because it gives me more ordering/programming time, but bad because I don’t have much reference desk experience), everyone knows eachother. They like me (they really like me).

This does lead me to some other things I’d like to talk about:

3) Sometimes I feel VERY overwhelmed, like I’m definately taking on too much. There is a class for librarians on managing stress. I may try to take that. Maybe they will teach me how to meditate…  Unfortunately, this is completely my fault, because I added all the new programs. The only one that was in place as a yearly continuing program was story time. I sometimes feel that I have too much on my plate and it makes me frazzled. Double unfortunately, I want to make everyone (except myself, it seems) happy. I’m a people pleaser, or try to be. I have a couple big projects that I’m doing now that have a deadline. Plus there are other little projects that I have taken on, never mind ordering books and programming. Especially the story times. I’ve been wanting to explore new ways to do story time. Which leads me to story time.

4) I love story times. I put out surveys to see when people want story times, I advertise within the library and one of my coworkers puts notices in the newspapers. I HEAVE fliers at them. Everyone calls asking about story time. Begging for story time.

Four kids signed up for the 3 – 5 years and four kids for the 1 – 2 years. I asked one woman with small kids and she said “We don’t do story time.” Well fine. Neither do I. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll give it a couple of weeks.

I also did a drop in, evening story time. EVERYONE was begging me! “Why in God’s name, don’t you do an evening drop in story time? We don’t want to sign up. We work, and we want it at night.” So, I do it and how many people show up? ONE. And the only reason she showed up is because one of my co-workers drove her to the library (she was her granddaughter). Sigh.

Finally.

I have been having more dizzy spells again. I keep trying to forget about them, mostly because I’m really scared. Of course that’s probably the last thing I should be doing.

These spells are strange. Someone will say something that’ll get me thinking and suddenly the dizzy spell will come on. I don’t know if its because I shouldn’t be thinking too hard, or what. I get a dry throat flushed in my face and I get sweaty. Plus of course the dizziness. Jeff says I should be keeping track of them… and not like the time I said that I was going to keep track of everything I bought and post it here. Maybe next year. Anyway, I’m going to call my mom and then the doctor next week. Jeff’s orders.

I guess that’s it.

Oh, wait. I want to get a custom made earring known as a twister from Primitive Impressions. I’ve seen them and they look really interesting. However, they need to be custom made because they’ll be going through all the holes in my left ear and the holes in my left ear are a little different from the holes in someone else’s ear. Curious, and interesting. We shall see. Got to talk to the hubby, although I’ve mostly convinced myself. The only thing that’s holding me back is the PSP. I’m going to get one so I can play Loco Roco, show pictures/video and listen to MP3s. Fun!

Now I’m off to Slumberland.

The quote is from the Mickey Mouse song, although what it has to do with my post, I do not know.
Anyway, long time no see.

Lots has been going on.

1) School has started. THANK GAWD! I love those teens, but they were so bored, they were driving me mad. Leaving butts all over the library, throwing food and paint at the building, beating each other up. You get the idea. I really try to stand up for them and listen to them, but sometimes its REALLY hard.

2) I went to Webster for a staff exchange day. It was so great! I love that Adrienne (kids librarian) gets to lie on the floor of her office to look at books and prepare for story time. One of my co-workers said I could do that, but I’d get rolled over or stepped on. The library is gi-normous! You need to call people to talk to them, not just holler or twirl your seat around. There are three people at the Reference desk (we don’t even have a reference desk). Everything is bright and clean. Adrienne has her own story time room, and TONS of crafty stuff. She has a dedicated staff just for children’s services, plus there are two (ish) teen librarians. Sigh. It was a lot of fun and interesting.

On the other hand, I REALLY like where I’m working. Everyone is really close, there is no reference desk (which is good because it gives me more ordering/programming time, but bad because I don’t have much reference desk experience), everyone knows eachother. They like me (they really like me).

This does lead me to some other things I’d like to talk about:

3) Sometimes I feel VERY overwhelmed, like I’m definately taking on too much. There is a class for librarians on managing stress. I may try to take that. Maybe they will teach me how to meditate…  Unfortunately, this is completely my fault, because I added all the new programs. The only one that was in place as a yearly continuing program was story time. I sometimes feel that I have too much on my plate and it makes me frazzled. Double unfortunately, I want to make everyone (except myself, it seems) happy. I’m a people pleaser, or try to be. I have a couple big projects that I’m doing now that have a deadline. Plus there are other little projects that I have taken on, never mind ordering books and programming. Especially the story times. I’ve been wanting to explore new ways to do story time. Which leads me to story time.

4) I love story times. I put out surveys to see when people want story times, I advertise within the library and one of my coworkers puts notices in the newspapers. I HEAVE fliers at them. Everyone calls asking about story time. Begging for story time.

Four kids signed up for the 3 – 5 years and four kids for the 1 – 2 years. I asked one woman with small kids and she said “We don’t do story time.” Well fine. Neither do I. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll give it a couple of weeks.

I also did a drop in, evening story time. EVERYONE was begging me! “Why in God’s name, don’t you do an evening drop in story time? We don’t want to sign up. We work, and we want it at night.” So, I do it and how many people show up? ONE. And the only reason she showed up is because one of my co-workers drove her to the library (she was her granddaughter). Sigh.

Finally.

I have been having more dizzy spells again. I keep trying to forget about them, mostly because I’m really scared. Of course that’s probably the last thing I should be doing.

These spells are strange. Someone will say something that’ll get me thinking and suddenly the dizzy spell will come on. I don’t know if its because I shouldn’t be thinking too hard, or what. I get a dry throat flushed in my face and I get sweaty. Plus of course the dizziness. Jeff says I should be keeping track of them… and not like the time I said that I was going to keep track of everything I bought and post it here. Maybe next year. Anyway, I’m going to call my mom and then the doctor next week. Jeff’s orders.

I guess that’s it.

Oh, wait. I want to get a custom made earring known as a twister from Primitive Impressions. I’ve seen them and they look really interesting. However, they need to be custom made because they’ll be going through all the holes in my left ear and the holes in my left ear are a little different from the holes in someone else’s ear. Curious, and interesting. We shall see. Got to talk to the hubby, although I’ve mostly convinced myself. The only thing that’s holding me back is the PSP. I’m going to get one so I can play Loco Roco, show pictures/video and listen to MP3s. Fun!

Now I’m off to Slumberland.

When I was a kid, we would go to the state fair every year, and I would always be amazed and awed at how aaaa…. awesome (?) it was. Then I went this year.

It was dirty and crowded. They sold tons of crappy things that would break soon after getting them home, or looked good when you bought it, but kept you wondering why you bought it when you got it home such as:

1) a print of Mary (the mother of Jesus, you know) looking down lovingy upon Pope John Paul II. My mom said that she was going to buy one to put above her bed, and I told her that she’d never get laid again (did I actually say that? umm yes I did)

2) those t-shirts that people will spray paint your name, Jesus, or the Tweety bird upon for all to see

3) dolls of giant snakes, giant teddy bears, and giant Stewies (from the Family Guy) I actually saw someone holding their child because they had a Stewie in a stroller. I remember getting one of these dolls somehow, and they are the cheapest things you could imagine. Nevermind, where are you going to put these things… in your infants bedroom? They’ll have nightmares for years.

4) Masks like the one seen in Nacho Libre. I kid you not. What scared me more, was the fact that people were actually looking at them.

The list goes on and on of the crap to spend your money on… cheap jewelry, sunglasses, makeup… Those cloths that suck up all liquids and your cash in a second, those shredders for vegetables… blah blah blah. People were eating it up.

I spent my money on:

1) one piece of beef jerky for Jack

2) donating a dollar and my signature to Planned Parenthood – plus two free buttons: Got Choice? and Don’t like abortion, don’t have one

3) buying a gay pride rubber bracelet – I love the rainbow and I love doing what I can to support homosexuals struggling for equality. I also got a free sticker for Jack, a pin and a temporary tattoo. My sister had her pin on and some guy tried to hand her a pamphlet of “literature”. He took one look at her pin and took it back. Yippee! Less crap to throw away when we get home!

4) I didn’t buy this, but I got some literature on the NYS retirement system. “Its never too late to prepare for your future.” However it is deathly boring. I also got a Hillary Clinton postcard. I don’t know how I feel about her, but I’m going to let her know how I feel about the issues. I went to the pork booth and got pork crayons. Okay so they weren’t made of pork, but I thought it would be funny if they were.

5) Ice Cream. I had to pick the ice cream that was at the very end of the bucket, and so while everyone else got these HUGE scoops of ice cream, I had to share a little dinky thing with Jack. Oh well, its less weight that I have to think about.

6) Korean food – Yakisoba. It was YUMMY, and I think Jack liked it too. Upon looking it up, turns out its Japanese, but I guess since they had sushi there too, maybe it was a Japanese/Korean fast food joint. Still yummy.

7) Leather purse. I don’t care if I have 35 purses already. It was cute.

8) Coffee. I had to drive there and back, so I thought I should keep my strength up. It was funny, I was in line, and the guy in front of me thought I was his wife. Before turning around, he asked me if I wanted a muffin. So I said sure! Then he turned around and said oops, but smiled. I got my coffee, and was putting creamer in it, when he showed up again, and asked me if I got my muffin. I asked him if he had gotten it for me. His wife and my sister both looked pretty confused, and us, amuzed.

Jack had a great time looking at all the people and flirting with the ladies. Since he had a good time, I guess it was worth it, but I wasn’t bowled over by it. The animals were pretty interesting, but having no idea what the difference was between a good cow and a great cow, after seeing a couple of them, I was done (especially with the smell). The bunnies were pretty neat too, but they smell even worse than the chickens (which was awful).

It was fun spending time with the family, but I’d never need to do it on my own… although I guess its not something you do on your own anyway.

Hope you’ve had a good Labor Day. Now I have to prepare for my story times. Ehh gads. This is for another post, but somehow I just can’t come up with any ideas for my 1 – 2 year olds. Of course, I might be cancelling them because only two signed of for the 1 – 2 year olds and two for the 3 – 5 year olds. WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT THIS???!!! Its not like I bite them or yell at them. Urrgh. Oh well, I might have some free time this fall. I’ll post more later.

When I was a kid, we would go to the state fair every year, and I would always be amazed and awed at how aaaa…. awesome (?) it was. Then I went this year.

It was dirty and crowded. They sold tons of crappy things that would break soon after getting them home, or looked good when you bought it, but kept you wondering why you bought it when you got it home such as:

1) a print of Mary (the mother of Jesus, you know) looking down lovingy upon Pope John Paul II. My mom said that she was going to buy one to put above her bed, and I told her that she’d never get laid again (did I actually say that? umm yes I did)

2) those t-shirts that people will spray paint your name, Jesus, or the Tweety bird upon for all to see

3) dolls of giant snakes, giant teddy bears, and giant Stewies (from the Family Guy) I actually saw someone holding their child because they had a Stewie in a stroller. I remember getting one of these dolls somehow, and they are the cheapest things you could imagine. Nevermind, where are you going to put these things… in your infants bedroom? They’ll have nightmares for years.

4) Masks like the one seen in Nacho Libre. I kid you not. What scared me more, was the fact that people were actually looking at them.

The list goes on and on of the crap to spend your money on… cheap jewelry, sunglasses, makeup… Those cloths that suck up all liquids and your cash in a second, those shredders for vegetables… blah blah blah. People were eating it up.

I spent my money on:

1) one piece of beef jerky for Jack

2) donating a dollar and my signature to Planned Parenthood – plus two free buttons: Got Choice? and Don’t like abortion, don’t have one

3) buying a gay pride rubber bracelet – I love the rainbow and I love doing what I can to support homosexuals struggling for equality. I also got a free sticker for Jack, a pin and a temporary tattoo. My sister had her pin on and some guy tried to hand her a pamphlet of “literature”. He took one look at her pin and took it back. Yippee! Less crap to throw away when we get home!

4) I didn’t buy this, but I got some literature on the NYS retirement system. “Its never too late to prepare for your future.” However it is deathly boring. I also got a Hillary Clinton postcard. I don’t know how I feel about her, but I’m going to let her know how I feel about the issues. I went to the pork booth and got pork crayons. Okay so they weren’t made of pork, but I thought it would be funny if they were.

5) Ice Cream. I had to pick the ice cream that was at the very end of the bucket, and so while everyone else got these HUGE scoops of ice cream, I had to share a little dinky thing with Jack. Oh well, its less weight that I have to think about.

6) Korean food – Yakisoba. It was YUMMY, and I think Jack liked it too. Upon looking it up, turns out its Japanese, but I guess since they had sushi there too, maybe it was a Japanese/Korean fast food joint. Still yummy.

7) Leather purse. I don’t care if I have 35 purses already. It was cute.

8) Coffee. I had to drive there and back, so I thought I should keep my strength up. 🙂 It was funny, I was in line, and the guy in front of me thought I was his wife. Before turning around, he asked me if I wanted a muffin. So I said sure! Then he turned around and said oops, but smiled. I got my coffee, and was putting creamer in it, when he showed up again, and asked me if I got my muffin. I asked him if he had gotten it for me. His wife and my sister both looked pretty confused, and us, amuzed.

Jack had a great time looking at all the people and flirting with the ladies. Since he had a good time, I guess it was worth it, but I wasn’t bowled over by it. The animals were pretty interesting, but having no idea what the difference was between a good cow and a great cow, after seeing a couple of them, I was done (especially with the smell). The bunnies were pretty neat too, but they smell even worse than the chickens (which was awful).

It was fun spending time with the family, but I’d never need to do it on my own… although I guess its not something you do on your own anyway.

Hope you’ve had a good Labor Day. Now I have to prepare for my story times. Ehh gads. This is for another post, but somehow I just can’t come up with any ideas for my 1 – 2 year olds. Of course, I might be cancelling them because only two signed of for the 1 – 2 year olds and two for the 3 – 5 year olds. WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT THIS???!!! Its not like I bite them or yell at them. Urrgh. Oh well, I might have some free time this fall. I’ll post more later.

I’ve always liked these Bancroft girls. They are so completely different. Really, you meet them and you really can’t believe that they are sisters, but they are and they are both really wonderful. I’m always sad when everyday life takes over and we can’t spend much time together.

I finally found a way to trap Clorinda into my snares. I showed her the felted bag that I made (yes I still need to post pictures) and she really wants to make one. Then she started seeing other things that are felted and she especially would like to try making felted beads. I’ve always wanted an excuse to make them, and now I have a double reason to make them, because I love any excuse to hang out with people like Clorinda. She is intelligent and quiet, yet she doesn’t mind talking about silly things too, like Walter the Farting Dog.

Yea felted beads!

My family is too simple. We are all getting really excited about going to the state fair in Syracuse, well except Jeff, since he doesn’t do fairs. My mom is super excited and my dad can’t wait to show Jack the pigs and goats. My sister Jenny hasn’t shown too much enthusiasm yet, but I think that its partly because it pales in comparison to Disney World, which is where we are all going to in January. I guess I can understand. i agree, although I think its fun to
experience new things with Jack. I think that if it was just my sister, my parents and I, that it would be okay, but by adding Jack, just makes it more special. I can’t wait to show him all the sculptures made out of cheese. Weee!

We watched a movie on Sunday. It was a very disurbing and terrifying movie called From Beyond. The lead in the movie was Jeffrey Combs, who was in Reanimator and lots of other terrible… ooops, I mean wonderful movies.

In this movie, he plays a scientist who’s helping a mad sadistic man and yet brilliant scientist. He believes that you can somehow stimulate the pineal gland (sixth sense) and somehow intensify your life. They get it to work and all hell breaks loose.

I won’t go into details, but Jeffrey Combs ends up having something that looks like a male phallis coming out of his forehead and he starts sucking brains  out of people’s eye sockets…

If you like horror and disgusting depravity you will definately like this movie.

Sigh. Summer is here and I can’t wait for fall. Not only is fall my favorite time of year, but the summer is way too hot.

Oh and there are kids and teens everywhere! They just don’t know what to do with themselves, so they make out in the back of the stacks (teens), race in between the shelves (kids), set fires and spray paint the building (teens), scream at the top of their lungs when their sister/brother beats them up (kids), and generally run amok (everybody).

There are also some good things though. Some of them are doing the summer reading program, and try to read as much as they can. When I called the kids/teens that won prizes on Friday, a couple of them started screaming for joy. On of the teens came to the library within five minutes of finding out, and one of the kids within the half hour. That makes me happy.

I have a teen writing group, and at my first meeting two teens showed up! That’s great considering I expected none. We talked about the things that we liked to write, and then we created a character. Each of us (including me) are going to write a story about the girl and then bring it to the group at our next meeting.

Finally on Friday, I had a princess/knight tea party. This was fabulous! Everyone got dressed up, including our one knight and looked great. I even got dressed up in my wedding crinoline, a deep purple bride’s maid dress I had, and a realistic wig (since my hair is too short to be a princess’). I announced all the princesses (and knight) as they came into the room. Our youngest was a year and a half and our oldest was eight. Everyone had a blast. Some of them even tried the tea. I asked everyone to bring a tea cup and most did. We ate little sandwiches and little cookies, and we did a couple of crafts. Some of the girls had so much fun, they gave me a hug at the end. I know this will be the highlight of my summer. It was the cutest thing I’ve ever done.

I FINISHED three books:

Runaways (2 & 3)
Little Long Nose

I read, but did not finish:

Abarat
The Summer Tree
A Dogs Life
The Ordinary Princess
Jennifer Government

I love the Runaways series, and you can read my review here.

I also loved Little Long Nose. The book itself was in a compact format perfect for a pocket. The illustrations were gorgeous although tiny. The plot was neat and made me glad that I still read children’s books.

The book is about a young boy who helps his mom at her vegetable stand. He will help people bring the vegetables to their houses and in turn will give him eggs, flowers or whatever they can manage.

An old woman comes by, checking out the herbs and vegetables and complaining loudly. The young boy yells at her for her opinions and also makes fun of her appearance. She tells him that he will regret his words, and makes him carry six huge cabbages to her house. He takes them in and she offers him some delicious soup, which he greedily eats. After that things get pretty crazy, and not in a good way.

I’m listening to Jennifer Government, and its the next book for my teen book discussion group. It’s VERY interesting. Its a futuristic book where large companies have taken over and people are basically “owned” by the company they work for. If you work for Nike, your name would become, Cathy Nike. Since I work for a government agency, my name would be, Cathy Government. The USA is the most powerful nation in the world, but the government is nearly powerless. In order to do anything, you need money. Lots and lots of money.

The Summer Tree and Abarat are both fantasy, which I must say, I’m quite partial to. I actually read The Summer Tree years ago, but its one of those books that you remember vaguely and want to read again.

The Summer Tree is a alternative universe kind of fantasy, in which some college students are transported to a magical world of kings and umm.. magic. They find themselves in a world in turmoil, and learn that they each have their own purpose to set the world right.

Abarat is about a teenager that is unhappy with her life in a hog farm dominated town. She’s tired of the desolate area, tired of the smell, and tired of being lonely. She goes off into the desert to find something interesting, and gets more than she bargained for. She helps a strange skinny man, and an ocean appears, taking her to unusual places.

A Dog’s Life is a book as seen from the perspective of a dog that grew up wild and travels in order to find a place that she can call home. The book is well-written and you truly feel like the dog is talking to you. I’ve had it for a while now, and I am amazed that I haven’t finished it yet, because I really do like it.

Unlike all the others, which I have almost finished, I have only read about one chapter of The Ordinary Princess, so I don’t think its really fair to you to even talk about it.

I really enjoyed the weekend, and even though I didn’t get to read as much as I hoped, my family knew that I was taking on this challenge, and they would call me and make sure that I was actually reading like I was supposed to. What a supportive family I have!

I’m making a few really really late new year’s resolutions.

I’m going to:
1) try and update this blog more often
2) practice yoga more often
3) DDR more often
4) read more often
5) watch less tv
6) get more organized at work, so that Sally isn’t embarrassed of me
7) learn how to play the guitar (darn you Jason!)
8) learn how to do string tricks (double darn to you Adrienne!)=
9) take more courses at RRLC
10) make new year’s resolutions when I’m supposed to… at the beginning of the year!

I guess I’ve just been in a funk recently. Over the past two days, I’ve deleted about 500-600 books, and there are still more left to delete. I’ve felt really disorganized at work, and I’ve been falling behind on keeping track of my spending. I’m really awful at keeping records, which is appalling. I’m more the freespirited kind of person that goes around with the chicken puppet and the stickers making kids smile. Its really shameful. If they teach courses about time/money management at RRLC, I’ll have to take them. Immediately. Plus, I’ve been thinking about having another kid, and I’m no lightweight anymore. I need to lay off the fancy coffees. Too many calories. Double plus, a librarian that doesn’t have time to read, is like a firefighter with no time to fight fires. Can’t be allowed.
Wow. Time to go to bed. I’m getting too old for this.

BTW. I love driving my new car!