Archive for the ‘General Chatter’ Category

What does one use a blog for nowadays?

Wednesday, November 30th, 2022

I haven’t used a blog in a long time, but I sent a survey out to library parents, asking them what kinds of technology programs they would like and one of the things they said was blogs. They also mentioned creative writing, which I tried, but no one came to, but we won’t discuss that.

So, I thought to myself, I need to bring back my blog and make another attempt. What does one write about in blogs? Usually they focus on one thing or another, and don’t traipse around, willy nilly, but my brain doesn’t focus on one thing or another. It floats around without much focus…. so. Maybe some things you should know about me, should you fall into my blog.

1. I’m a children’s librarian in Rochester NY. I love doing storytimes and celebrating reading to them. I also like doing programs where the kids are totally invested in it. Whether that be crafts, or Minecraft, or whatever.

2. I can’t focus long enough to finish a book very often. I have LOTS of books that I’ve started, but it takes a very good book for me to finish it. Thank goodness for Libby where I have a list of books that I’ve checked out and how far I’ve gotten into them.

3. I like writing poetry and sometimes short stories. I’m not good by any means, but I like writing. It makes me think differently, which is fun.

4. I love running, even though I’m not what one would look at and say “wow, she’s a runner”. Still, I mostly enjoy it and I LOVE the people I run with.

5. I love making crafts. Unfortunately, I get obsessed with a craft, then stop after a few weeks. My most recent obsession was wire wrapping. Before that it was goddess bracelets.

6. I love my family. They’re a bunch of very silly, very unique people and they make my days much easier to handle…. for the most point. Sometimes there are days they drive me bonkers, but that’s all families.

Well… there you go. These are the things I’m likely to write about. At least I’ll try. It’ll probably be like my crafts, where I get obsessed for a while, then give up.

life will be changing soon for us, yet again

Monday, April 13th, 2009

FHEW! I thought this message had been deleted. Luckily it was not so.

In a little less than a month life will be changing drastically, and hopefully for the better for all of us. Its so amazing all these things that you plan on doing, all the things you plan on accomplishing and then suddenly months have gone by and you wonder where they went… well I guess I know where they went. They went into a new job, helping plan a state-wide conference, being pregnant, getting stuck in the Facebook monstrosity and having a four-year-old that, for some reason, wants to spend time with and do things with mommy. Jeepers.

The whole pregnancy has been going really well. Even less trouble than I had with Jack. No swelling, no low fluid levels, she’s very active, healthy heart (we had a special heart ultrasound done due to family issues) and the twenty week ultrasound didn’t show anything that we should be scared of… Its been a pretty awesome pregnancy. I’ve been tired, having to pee a lot and wake up a lot at night, but that’s to be expected. Its fascinating watching her move around in there, and while that’s one of the more annoying things this pregnancy, I’m also going to miss it. Its so amazing to think that there’s this living thing growing inside me and moving around to get comfortable… without any luck I’m guessing because she moves ALL THE TIME.

Its been so hard though because while on the one hand, this pregnancy has been going really well, on the other hand, after two miscarriages I just want to be done and holding a healthy baby girl. I can’t bear to have something be wrong. I can’t imagine how women do it. Miscarriage after miscarriage. Seeing other women who are pregnant or have little healthy babies. Its so agonizing.

I’ve been lucky though. In my new job the women are so wonderful and they always seem to have an eye on me, making sure that I’m okay. That really means the world to me, because I was so afraid to leave my previous job for exactly that reason. I worked in a job that was so much more. It was also a family where they looked out for each other. Luckily, I have that here too.

Unfortunately, I have to work up until the contractions. I only have 24 days of vacation I can use, so I need to make them all count. Its a pain, but its so worth it. I want to be able to spend as much time as I can with her the first few weeks. They change and grow so much that all the beautiful little baby stuff disappears quickly… not that I don’t love the four year old boy stuff too.

That’s going to be another big thing to get used to too. Jack is getting so independent. He’s quite articulate, he’s potty trained, he sleeps through the night, he can play by himself. She’s going to be so dependent on us. Its going to be like starting from scratch.

Uh oh. So much for Jack sleeping through the night. He just woke up. Time to go and cuddle my little guy.

New Year’s blabitty blahs.

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

My sister made me post some new year’s resolutions and I really have been planning on posting on my blog at some point these last FOUR MONTHS. Yee gads. Has it been that long? Sam and I were IMing back and forth on Facebook and she made me come up with a list that I promised to post on my blog. This has been Samantha approved.

This was my original one, that was going to be my only one, but she made me come up with some others:
survive until 2010

Here are some others that sprung to mind:
yell at Jeff less
… some people may say that this is the most impossible thing on my list… but those people know Jeff. 🙂
try and be more patient
more organized
write in my blog more than four times a year
… I REALLY want to work on this one
eat healthier
… I REALLY should work on this one
go out and play with Jack more
… this would be good for both of us
walk more

write a book
This is one that I would really like to do, which is why I was an English major, who started out as a journalism major. I wanted to write, but my mom thought I wouldn’t make any money just as a writer, so that I should go into journalism. I thought it was okay until the second semester when I realized that this is exactly what I didn’t want to do.

I would like to learn my ukulele.
This is one that I really want to do. I have the ukulele, I have the instruction manuals and the DVDs. Now all I need is the sticktoitiveness. Is this likely to happen? I doubt it, but that’s what you do with new year’s resolutions. Think big.

Floss and brush more.
This really shouldn’t even be a resolution. I should just be flossing regularly and brushing two to three times a day. But I don’t. It could happen though… I’d like to think it could.

scary scary… or in otherwords, I’m getting OLD!

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

While in college I was working at a public library in the city. In that public library in the city there was a lady working there… okay so there were quite a few ladies working there, but bear with me. That lady had two kids. One was a girl who was about 8 years old and one was a boy who was about 12 years old. Now the girl is off to college and the boy is practically a man with chest hair and everything who’s graduating from college and going off to do important things. Eek. I feel very very old, but old in a good way, I guess. 🙂

Of course, I see it all the time in the library, I’ve only been there about five years and yet already people are growing up before my very eyes. Its absolutely petrifying.

Now I’m off to email their mom who I haven’t seen in a million years.

BTW, that was a great story, wasn’t it? I’ll try and do better when its not past my bedtime and I haven’t imbibed a little. 🙂

The Work Christmas Party was…

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

at my house. Eek! I think everyone had a good time, although everyone got lost trying to get to my house. A couple of them said, “You have to drive all this way? Jeepers!” (I added the jeepers part because it sounded cool). Luckily I think everyone crowded into two or three cars so that everyone got lost as a group instead of everyone wandering around Henrietta for days.

Everyone brought yummy appetizers and cookies (to share and bring home). Then we had ($10) secret santas. I was given this, which was obviously NOT $10. Luckily, I got the person that got me, and she wasn’t at the party, so I still have her present. It still won’t be absolutely as wonderful as what she got me, but since there is no way I’m leaving the house today, I’m going to make her something nice. I bought her some earrings (which I probably could have made myself, but oh well) and a little wooden cross from One World Goods (that I was going to add some beads to) and a bunch of plastic bangles from a store in Brockport. I thought they were cute! Here’s what I got:

Expresso yumminess

GOOD GRIEF!

I told Sally that I would bring it to work, but she wouldn’t let me. She didn’t want all her staff coked up on caffeine. 🙂 Of course, she can’t even handle her hot chocolate without getting all crazy.

After using it, I figured its probably better if I don’t bring it to work. It took me about an hour and a half to make one cappuccino and a huge mess. I guess the first time shouldn’t count though. I’ll get better with practice. I should probably practice a lot, so I can get really good and invite everyone over. I could be your barista for the evening. IMHO, a cappuccino party would be a lot yummier than a “drinking” party. I could get rid of the hard liquor on my counter and replace it with peppermint and caramel syrups like in coffee bars. What does that say about me?

So anywho. I think I’ll take what I have and add some beads to the cross to make it a little nicer. Still not as cool as what she got me, but oh well.

On another crafting front, a couple of posts ago, I had mentioned that I was going to make bookbags for all the kids. That was a HUGE disaster. I had no idea what I was doing. I put aside the whole day to go to my mom’s house and use her sewing machine. The directions I used didn’t make any sense to me, but I couldn’t ask my mom for help because everyone had gone out for a walk. Then I broke the sewing machine. For some reason, the thread would come out in a bunch, and before I knew it there was tons of thread everywhere. My mom tried to help me, but it still did it. By 4:30 I was fed up.

Beh.

So I decided that I would use felt and tote bags I have lying around and applique something on them. I still have some sticky back iron on adhesive (I know there’s a fancy word for it, but I can’t remember) so it shouldn’t be too hard. Famous last words. I know. We shall see. At least I’ll be fully caffeinated.

A little music obsession of mine

Friday, December 7th, 2007

I just (a couple of months ago now) got a new mp3 player, and my husband tossed a bunch of stuff on the player. One of the things he put on was the soundtrack to Kill Bill 2. The Kill Bill soundtracks have a lot of neat music on them, however I’ve become absolutely OBSESSED with one song in particular recently. Its called Tu Mira and its by Lole Y Manuel. Now I need to listen to more flamenco music. What an untapped treasure! Its sad and bouncy at the same time. I’ll have to put them into Pandora, which is an interesting take on internet radio. You plug in an artist or song that you like and it finds similar music that you might like. If you like it, you give it a thumbs up. If not, thumbs down. Sometimes it has interesting choices and I can’t really see the connection, but ah well. No one is perfect.

Ack. Its midnight. Time for bed.

Soap!

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

You wouldn’t believe this, smelling my kitchen sometimes and considering where I work (libraries can be notoriously stinky) , but I’m addicted to smell. About a week ago, my friend Adrienne went to Chicago for a blog conference. When she got back, she brought me some soap. It smelled great, but I didn’t realize HOW great until I got back home and used it for the first time. The whole room smells great now! She got the soap from Lush. What a great friend she is… now I need to go to Chicago!

I’m not dead yet… I’m feeling better…

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

Okay, so I haven’t posted in a while. This is really pathetic. Unfortunately, for all the time I’ve been away… I can’t think of anything really wonderful to tell you about…

I’m on a committee to put together a list of scary books for kids. I don’t know why decided to do this. When I get home, I want to play with Jack. I don’t want to read a book… 🙂 So obviously, I’ve found myself behind in my reading. Gerr.

I also joined another committee. oops. However, I’m really really excited about this one. Its the Teen Book Festival committee. Guess what I’d get to do!? Well, actually I don’t know what exactly I’d do, but if it has to do with the teen book festival, it should be fun.

I’m trying to get pregnant…

I’m trying to crochet more. My current projects are a purse (surprise, surprise) and a doll for Jack. I’m trying to make a doll because I want to be able to show the kids in my group how to make one. I could use a pattern, but that wouldn’t be any fun.

Sam is in town, so we spent the past couple days hanging out. It was great to spend time with her. We went to Charlotte Beach. There are a lot of dirty dirty birds out there. The pigeon would be proud, I think. On the other hand, I was disgusted. The water was even worse. Bleh.

This weekend, the Kyle families are all going to Fairhaven for Memorial Day weekend. Should be fun. Hanging out with the little nieces and crocheting.

Man am I ever having writer’s block. This is terrible. Maybe writing everyday like Adrienne does (God bless her, I don’t know how she does it) would help me… or make me glad that I didn’t stick with my first career choice. Writer. Although it might be nice to write more short stories, and put them up here. I have written some short stories, but I haven’t put them out for the world to see. Maybe I’m just embarrassed.

What I need to do is stop playing tetris on my PSP, and dedicate more time to reading (scary stories), exercising (DDR) and writing.

Oh well. That’s for another day.

Next week… well really this week now

Sunday, April 15th, 2007

Wednesday is my 28th birthday! How special am I?

I visited the parental units yesterday, so they gave me my present early. They gave me the special 25th anniversary edition DVD of the Last Unicorn. I’m already on my second viewing… of course I’m not following it very clearly… I’m trying to prepare books for a book list committee I’m on. They also gave me some pac-man socks, which I’ll have to find a cute outfit for. Maybe I’ll save them for the trip I’m going on at the end of the week. Jenny gave me a DVD to help in teaching me how to play the ukulele. I fallen behind in my practicing, but I want to get back into it.

Yesterday we also visited people in Fairport that have an old upright piano from 1918 we are going to get for FREE! Some of the keys are broken and we’ll have to find a way to get it into the house, but its free! The guy played it for us, and it has a beautiful sound. While we were there, we met their two daughters, and I was such a librarian nerd. I started talking to them about some books that they should get out of the library. Of course I told them that they should read, Catalina Magdelina Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan is Her Name. Of course I had to show off my mad librarian skills and I told them to talk to Ms. B from Fairport and make sure she got them the book.

Thursday – Saturday I get to go to the YSS spring conference, or for those not in the know, the Youth Services Section of New York Library Association spring conference. I won a scholarship to go, which makes me very happy, since money’s been so tight the past couple of months. Plus, I get to go with Jenny! Yippee!

The conference is in White Plains, which is a little over 5 hours away. Fun times… especially since I’m going to be driving my car because it has:

1) less miles
2) a navigation system
3) sirius satellite radio
Unfortunately, it’s also a stick shift, which I love driving. However Jenny doesn’t know how to drive stick, so I’m driving the whole thing. poop.

Darn you Adrienne!

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

Non-Kid-Lit Blogs: A Rare Post of the Day

Adrienne tagged me on this meme that’s doing the rounds: Five Non-Kid-Lit Blogs We Read. She got tagged by MotherReader.
Okay. I can do this. Its my responsibility as a blogger to do this. I really can’t believe that this should be so hard since I’m on the internet EVERY DAY. Plus I get caught in the weird blog whirlpool. One blog after another swirling around me. I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot recently. There are so many good blogs out there and as I go into my blog trance, one flowing into the other, I lose track of time and space. Of course I also lose track of which blogs I really like. But like a trooper, I will push forward and take one for the team.

I also decided that I would put blogs that I actually read, not ones that would make me super cool… although I’ve decided that these are pretty cool. I mean my sister’s one of them, for gosh sake! Who’s cooler than that?

  1. My heart of Darkness – By day she’s a Physicist, by night a poet and all the time she’s my sister.
  2. Unshelved – Daily comic that guides me in my attempts at uber-librarian-dom, whatever that is.
  3. Alternative Teen Services – Teen Librarians of the world unite! I want to write articles for the blog, and they said I could. Of course that would mean that I should also write in my own occasionally.
  4. Momchops – I am a faithful reader, now if only she would post more often… of course I could say the same of myself. Feh, I have an excuse. I’m a very busy youth services librarian in a eetsy beetsy library. She’s just the assistant to the director of the Monroe County Library System.
  5. What Not to Crochet – Now that I like crocheting, I had to know what NOT to crochet… although the thong looked awful comfy.

Okay. Who’s turn is it now? Who actually reads my blog? Hmm. How about:

  1. Sam
  2. Patty
  3. Olivia – I don’t know that she actually reads my blog, but should she, TAG! Your it!