Archive for June, 2006

Summer Reading Begins

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

If I didn’t like the kids and teens so much, I’d have to say that I CANNOT wait until September. Fortunately, I do like them, so I’m safe.

I’ve been trying to get them to sign up for summer reading, and its like pulling teeth. One five year old even started crying and sobbing out loud. “Mommy, don’t make me!”, over and over. I felt terrible. So then I started telling her about the books she could read, like “Winchell Cuts the Cheese”, “Magdelina Catelina Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name”, “Walter the Farting Dog”, “Stinky Smelly Feet” and “The Truth about Poop”. By the time she left, she was laughing out loud, and her mom looked slightly green.

I don’t know why kids dread reading so much. I try and put out great fun and COMPLETELY uneducational books out there for them, but they still don’t want to read.

What DOES get them to read however, is the giant candy bars and slices of pizza the size of their heads that I’m giving away as prizes.

I have TONS of programs for the kids and teens.

For the kids:

Throughout the Summer

Kids Reading Program
June 26th through August 4th
Two groups: for ages 4 – 8 and 9 – 12
Come in and sign up!

Kids Knit (or crochet)
beginning July 6 at 4 pm
Every other Thursday, grades 4 – 8
No experience is necessary!

Afternoon Movies for kids
beginning July 3 at 1 pm
G rated movie every other Monday through July 31
Bring snacks, your favorite blanket and stuffed animal

Elementary Book Group
4th Friday in July & August @ 12 pm
Attention kids in grades 3 – 6, join us for pizza and discussion!
Sign up so we have enough pizza for you.
July – read an adventure of your choosing
August – read a fantasy of your choosing

Special Programs

Injest with Nels Cremean
July 5 at 2 pm for all ages
“In Jest,” blends clean comedy, flying objects, acts of balance, absurd theatrics, and assorted fruits and vegetables.

Opening Week

Animal Draw with Mary Beth Dolan!
J
une 29 at 2 pm, Ages 5 and up and limited to 25 kids.
A funny class for younger artists!
Learn how to draw the faces and bodies of several kinds of animals.
This program includes a cool take-home workbook.

Princesses and Princes Tea Party
June 30 at 12 pm, for all ages. Space is limited.
Let us know if you have any food allergies.
Join us for a special tea party with dainty sandwiches and peppermint tea!
Make sure to bring your own tea cup.
The librarian will be in her nicest dress, and you should too!

Pirate Week

Pirate Story Time
July 11 at 10:30 – 11:00 am for ages 3 – 5
Get ready to join a group of scurvy pirates on the ship
S.S. Reads-a-lot for lots of swashbuckling fun!

Pirate Craft
July 12 at 1 pm for ages 5 and up
Heave ho and a bottle of glue is all you need to make this craft.
Space is limited, so sign up in advance!

Pirate Movie
July 13 at 1 pm
There be pirates in this G rated movie!
Bring snacks, your favorite blanket and stuffed animal.

Treasure Hunt for Kids
July 14 between 10:30 – 4:30 pm
How well do you know your library?

Princess (but Princes are welcome too) Week

Princess Story Time
July 25 at 10:30 – 11 am for ages 3 – 5
By Royal Proclamation, you are invited to listen
to wonderful stories about princesses and princes.

Princess Craft
July 26 at 1 pm ages 5 and up
You’ll be making something so fabulous; you’ll have to wear sunglasses to look at it, but don’t worry guys we’ve got you covered too.
Space is limited, so sign up in advance!

Princess Movie
July 13 at 1 pm
Which princess do you think it could be in this G rated film?
Bring snacks, your favorite blanket and find out!

Princess Ball
July 28 at 2 pm for ALL AGES!
Party on down in you’re most glamorous duds and don’t forget all your jewels!

Closing Week

Act Like a Pirate Day
August 9 all day long!
Come in any time that day, dress like a pirate, see the pirates at the library and learn how to talk like a pirate! ARR!

End of the Summer Reading Pizza Party
August 11
For all kids who participated in the program!
Pizza and games at 12 pm
Accordion Pat at 1 pm

For the Teens:

Reading Competition

June 26th through August 4th
Compete against Brockport, Hamlin and Ogden

End of the summer Pizza Party

August 10 at 6:00 pm
For all teens who competed. The pizza party will be held at the winning library. It better be ours!

Writing Group

beginning June 29 at 4 pm
Come in every other Thursday through August 24th and share in the joy of writing with other teens!

Teen Movies

beginning June 26th at 1 pm
Every other Monday until August 7th, we will show a PG or PG-13 rated movie. Bring your snacks and get comfy!

Book Discussion Group

1st Friday of the month at 12 pm
July – Jennifer Government by Max Barry
August – Homebody by Orson Scott Card
September – Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian

Dance Dance Revolution

1st and 3rd Tuesday each month at 4 pm
July 18th
– Special DDR Competition

Anime Group

2nd Tuesday of every month at 4 pm
July 11th
– Special Japanese Surprise

Game Group

4th Tuesday of every month at 4 pm
July 25th
– Play Skallywags with the creator, Chris Pallace

Yu Gi OH! Group

EVERY Wednesday at 4 pm
July 5 through August 23
Join other teens that play Yu Gi Oh for fun. This is NOT a tournament, and we do not play for keeps. Plus you could teach the librarian a thing or two about the game!

So you see why I look forward to the fall. Granted I have all these fab-u programs going on all summer, but most of this is going to be put on by little old me. There’s only four times this summer I’ve paid other people to do stuff, all because:

  1. I can’t draw
  2. I can’t ride a unicycle
  3. I didn’t create the game Skallywags
  4. I can’t play the accordian (although my husband and I own one… but neither of us can play)

Okay so I complain. I really shouldn’t because I put all of this on myself. I want to do the programs myself, really. Then I get to really interact with the kids/teens and they get to know me. Plus I can do more programs because I spend a lot less money on them.

Oh well, I guess they’ll just have to cart my remains away in a wheelbarrow at the end of the summer.

Of course in the words of Monty Python, who sum it up best in their movie , Monty Python and the Holy Grail: (BTW, I know its long, but its funny)

The Dead Collector: Bring out yer dead.
[a man puts a body on the cart]
Large Man with Dead Body: Here’s one.
The Dead Collector: That’ll be ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not dead.
The Dead Collector: What?
Large Man with Dead Body: Nothing. There’s your ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not dead.
The Dead Collector: ‘Ere, he says he’s not dead.
Large Man with Dead Body: Yes he is.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not.
The Dead Collector: He isn’t.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, he will be soon, he’s very ill.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m getting better.
Large Man with Dead Body: No you’re not, you’ll be stone dead in a moment.
The Dead Collector: Well, I can’t take him like that. It’s against regulations.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I don’t want to go on the cart.
Large Man with Dead Body: Oh, don’t be such a baby.
The Dead Collector: I can’t take him.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I feel fine.
Large Man with Dead Body: Oh, do me a favor.
The Dead Collector: I can’t.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, can you hang around for a couple of minutes? He won’t be long.
The Dead Collector: I promised I’d be at the Robinsons’. They’ve lost nine today.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, when’s your next round?
The Dead Collector: Thursday.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I think I’ll go for a walk.
Large Man with Dead Body: You’re not fooling anyone, you know. Isn’t there anything you could do?
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I feel happy. I feel happy.
[the Dead Collector glances up and down the street furtively, then silences the Body with his a whack of his club]
Large Man with Dead Body: Ah, thank you very much.
The Dead Collector: Not at all. See you on Thursday.
Large Man with Dead Body: Right.

Tomorrow (hopefully): A rant about teens who hang outside the library in order to:

  1. write graffiti on the walls
  2. set fires next to the library
  3. smoke (god only knows what)
  4. make babies in the alley between the library and the next building

Who’s the most awesome librarian around?

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

Me!

I can check out what sites link to me, and I just noticed that the School Library Journal website has linked to me! Well if that doesn’t encourage me to update my blog more often, I don’t know what will.

48 hour book challenge… Done!

Monday, June 19th, 2006

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!

New Year’s Resolution

Friday, June 16th, 2006

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!

This weekend’s extravaganza

Thursday, June 15th, 2006

Okay, so maybe not extravaganza, but at least its sort of interesting. I read this blog called Momchops and she mentioned that we should do this 48 Hour Book Challenge so I took her up on it. This weekend, June 16 – 18, is the Book Challenge. I don’t have time to read normally (due to the 14 month old) but I am going to push myself to read something. Anything. I’m a librarian for goodness sake! Unfortunately, timing couldn’t be worse, because Sunday is Father’s Day, so I’ll have to spend a little time honoring the fathers in my life.

Right now here are the books that I have checked out on my card. You will notice that most are children’s and young adult books. There may be one adult book in there, but I doubt I will get time to read it.

Time out by Helen Cresswell
The ordinary princess by M. M. Kaye
Hope by LouAnn Gaeddert
Little Long-nose by Wilhelm Hauff
Falcon and the Charles Street Witch by Luli Gray
Jennifer Government by Maxx Barry
Abarat by Clive Barker
Snow flower and the secret fan : a novel by Lisa See
A dog’s life : the autobiography of a stray by Ann M Martin
The summer tree by Guy Gavriel Kay
Runaways (vol 2 & 3) by Brian K Vaughan
Teach yourself visually crocheting by Kim P. Werker

After the 48 hours are up, as per the rules of the challenge, I have to give descriptions/reviews of each book I finish.

As a side note, I’m going to post this on my kids and teens blogs and offer a prize to those who read and send me reviews of what they read. Of course I’m sure that nothing will come of it, but we’ll see.
Wish me luck!

Lots O’ Updates!

Saturday, June 10th, 2006

As I type this I am in Durham, North Carolina, in my sister’s very awesome new apartment. She is going to be starting research at the University Of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Physics Department. Since she is going to get her PhD, she also gets to be a student professor (ack). I was pretty nervous to be going south. I know, I know, I should be stereotyping people, but with all my anti-Bush stickers and all, I figured that people might not approve. So I scraped all my stickers off as soon as I could the night that we got here. Today we went out and about in Chapel Hill and to my suprise… ther were tons of John Kerry stickers on cars! Turns out, after we talked to a woman at the visitor’s bureau (who happens to be from Long Island!) that Chapel Hill is like a small haven for liberals in the south. She said that even the Mayor is gay! The area is beautiful and there are tons of shops and places to eat. It was warm, but there was a nice breeze. We didn’t get to explore the campus much, but what we did see was GORGEOUS!

Unfortunately, Sam was completely freaking out about being so far away from the rest of our family. My family is what you would call… homebodies. None of us has moved too far away. My mom and dad moved a couple of miles away from my mom’s mother, and about twenty minutes away from my dad’s (now deceased) mother. Jeff and I live ten minutes away from his parents and sister and twenty minutes away from my parents. We stay put. This is why I am SO proud of Sam for getting the courage to move and study here. She is an incredible young woman, and I am POSITIVE that she will go very far in the world.

ANYWAY, its 11 PM and I have to drive **KOFF*jeff*KOFF** early tomorrow, so I’m going to cut this short.

Very important however, is that I CAN DRIVE AGAIN!!! Double-yippee! It is very insane, and I know that everyone will think so, however the day that I learned I could drive again, I test drove a Mazda 5, and I will be picking up my new car on Tuesday. I love my Forester, but the Mazda had more seating, so I had to give in. I was tired of having three people (one of them in a car seat) squished in the back and unable to put seat belts on, Jack was completely safe and strapped in, but Jenny and I would be projected out of the car into the windshield and to our deaths.

Okay, I think that’s basically it, so I’m off to bed! Oh, I miss my son SO much, and I can’t wait to get back to Rochester so I can give him a big hug. I bet my parents can’t wait to give him up. I heard their pretty exhausted. Oh well. I am too.

GOOD NIGHT!

I need a zen moment of clarity

Friday, June 2nd, 2006

This morning I had a dizzy spell of some sort. I don’t think it was your run of the mill dizzy spell, but I don’t want it to be something more than just regular dizziness. I sort of felt the blood drain out of my face and while it wasn’t like the aura visions that I had been before my seizure, it wasn’t like a regular feeling of dizziness. Of course, I tried to make it go away, because I didn’t want anything to be wrong. Unfortunately, I don’t really know exactly what happened.
If you are one of the five people that read my blog, you will understand my concern. If you just happened to stumble upon my blog and are wondering “What the hell is she going on about?” let me explain.

January 1st of this year, I was enjoying dinner with my hubby, my second set of parents (err… in-laws) and my son. All of a sudden, my mother-in-law noticed my face had gone all funny. I then started shaking and doing all sorts of strange things. Of course, I heard all of this second hand because I wasn’t there at the time. That’s right, I don’t remember a thing. It was like my brain just went on a mini vacation.. in a blender. What I had was a grand-mal seizure. (I did NOT lose bladder control thank god).

I went to see the neurologist and as we talked, I realized that for the past year, my brain had been working itself up to the seizure. I was having seizure auras, which caused me to have a strange sense of deja vu. I would have these at the strangest times, sitting eating dinner, at the end of the summer reading program pizza party, typing on the computer, going to the loo. There really didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason. All I understood was that they were happening too much and freaking me out. Unfortunately I didn’t realize until after the seizure what was going on.

The doctor then told me that there really weren’t any outside factors that had caused my seizure. Turns out (as my mom finally decided to tell me the day before) that my father and his mom both had seizures. Therefor I can blame it all on genetics. Which doesn’t really make me feel any better, but I know why it happened.

So now I’m on medicine called Lamictal (which also treats bipolar disorder). They slowly increased it, and at one point I was taking 200 mg (?) a day, but then I broke out in a rash, which if it goes on too long, can send you to the hospital. So then I had to start all over slowly. There are quite a few side effects, and I’m pretty sure that I have a couple of them: dizziness, headaches, blurry vision. Before the seizure, I actually had very few headaches. Now my head never feels like its screwed on just right. I sort of feel like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Stuff just keeps falling out of me. Plus I’m pretty paranoid about every strange feeling going on in my brain. Of course I don’t usually want to tell anyone about it because I don’t want to cause trouble, and I really hate being a burden, since of course:
I can’t drive. I can’t drive until I’ve been on the medicine for six months. If I hadn’t gone on the medicine, I’d have to wait a year before I could drive. Granted, I don’t want to have a seizure while in the car, because I could kill someone. I also hate being such a burden on people.

Next Wednesday I have an appointment with the Neurologist. On the one hand, I don’t want to tell her that I had a strange dizzy spell. But, on the other hand, I don’t want to have another seizure. I don’t want anything to be wrong with me, if we’re going to be honest, but since its too late for that, I just want to be healthy enough to enjoy being with my son and husband. Plus I’d like to start in on making another baby, and I don’t want to be a wreck for that. My neurologist says that its okay to have babies while on lamictal, but upon looking at side effects and such, its not very comforting. I’d like to have one more kid, but I don’t want him/her to have health problems because of me.

My mind has been pretty crazy lately, but it feels good to get all this out. I really wish that I could be “normal” in any sense of the word, but it looks as though I’m destined to something different.

Oh dear, and I have to be at work tomorrow. I was going to try and get there at nine in the morning, but now I’m thinking that I’ll just take some cataloges home and go through them for an hour after work… a librarian and her cataloges are never parted, although I wish we were, because I’m afraid a stack of them are going to cave in on me and kill me.

And now for something completely different! One of my co-workers has been crocheting purses. If you know ANYTHING about me, you know that I absolutely LOVE purses. I love these purses that she’s been making, and I know for a fact that she sells them, but for some reason, she won’t sell them to her co-workers. She’s just evil!
I tried to find a pattern that looked similar, and this is the closest I could find – here or here or here or here or here or here or here or here plus directions on how to make it here. Well anyway, you get the picture. If you google buttonhole bag, you get pages and pages, and they’re all cute.

Hmm. For a minute it made me forget how sucky it is to have had a seizure. I love bags. (Don’t tease Jeff. I know you’re going to read this. You just don’t understand. You’re a guy.)