Cathy the Librarian

I need to make a horrible confession… at least it seems horrible for a children’s librarian to admit this. I HATE the Harry Potter books. I finally started the Prisoner of Azkaban. I’m listening to the cds in my car, but I just can’t get through it. I turn it on and listen for about five minutes before I have to turn it off again. Harry Potter is such an annoying boy. I actually think he might be the most annoying character in the whole book. There is just something about him that makes me cringe.

More about my hatred of this “adorable” little boy later.

Yes I am still alive… you know, I thought that I would be updating this all the time and using this instead of a journal, but life is so crazy sometimes and you spend most of your day in front of a computer, why spend your night in front of a computer (although this does not seem to be an issue for my husband, he spends all day in front of computers and loves it).

I find it highly amusing that I am giving a presentation to other librarians about blogs, and I haven’t updated this site in half a year and my blog for teens in over a month. I am really slipping. I guess this is one of the fortunate things about blogs. No one knows your name… well my name really is Cathy, but really let’s not get picky. No one can call you and complain, and I’m sure hardly anyone ever looks here (especially since I haven’t updated this in half a year… urg) so I’m doing good.

Onto the subject that takes up most of my life right now (besides preparing for summer reading so I’m ready when I get back to work).

Baby update:

I am having a boy on March 27 2004 (or somewhere roundabout that date). Trying to register for baby stuff is a nightmare. I don’t know how people do this. There is so much stuff and you turn a corner and BAM more of the same stuff, only slightly different. How do you know which one is the best pacifer? Which blanket will keep them warmer and soak up the most barf? Which glider can you sit in for an hour and feed your kid without your butt falling asleep? How many pacifers and sheets and washclothes and bottles and onesies do I need? HOW DO I DO ALL THIS WITHOUT LOSING MY MIND??

Everyone at the library is really great. I think that’s one of the great things about the field. Its mostly women, and since I’m only twenty-five, they’re mostly my mom’s age, they understand all the gross things that are happening to me, and they want to take care of me. Plus, being a children’s librarian is twice as nice because you work with a lot of moms who have lots of young kids and have just been through the process recently. Granted, most people want to give you advice or sometimes pat your belly (grrrr), but on the whole, the experience hasn’t been so bad… well except for all the crazy nasty things my body has been doing.

Recently, I have been swelling up. My feet look like ham hocks, my fingers like little sausages, and I feel like hell. I have a cold (can’t take any medications) I’m tired (found out I’m anemic) and I can’t remember my name (in fact I can remember anything most days).

My storytimes are done for the summer! Finally. Thank god, because I am so tired. Fortunately, the kids really liked it, but I was ready for a break… Now on to the Summer Reading Program! This is the first year (ever, possibly) that the library is doing the state summer reading program. This year it is called Read White and Blue which I think is pretty silly, but I want to be involved in what the rest of NYS is doing. Call me crazy, but I don’t want to be the odd (wo)man out. So here it goes. It should be fun. The kids are going to travel (with little paper cars) around the USA and visit weird places. they’ll get prizes along the way and entries into a grand prize drawing.
My personal life isn’t anything to shout about (boring) but at least I’m keeping busy at my job.

I guess this is going to be a recurring theme in my posts. I haven’t written in this blog in so long because I’ve been trying to work on the two blogs that I started for my library. It’s frustrating trying to come up with new and interesting things to say to kids, because you want them to keep coming back. Plus I’ve been trying to finish up story time. Only two more weeks left! Not that I’m excited or anything…

I also invited the high school seniors portfolio class to paint a mural in the children’s area. It’s starting to look so cool!

On a non-library note, I finally convinced my husband that we need to add on to our little family. So now all the work begins!

I will encourage myself to write in this more often, but sometimes I forget how crazy life gets. Blegh

Hi! It’s been a long time. I was upset at my blog. The skin wasn’t working the way I wanted to, and everytime I would look at it, I would get more and more discouraged. Plus the chatter box (or whatever) was acting up and then the Weather Pixie stopped working! Then I wouldn’t want anything to do with the thing, so I stopped posting for a while. I revamped the blog and took out all the superfluious elements of the blog. I was a little upset getting rid of the stuff, but I didn’t really need it… and anyway, I’m back now!

Story times are better. I’m more “stern” with some of the kids, but then I don’t try to let it bother me if they misbehave. I also encourage the parents to stay with their children sometimes if they get too excited. That works sometimes.

During April recess I’m going to have a Kids Disco! Everyone gets to dress up in 70’s clothes (including me) and we’re going to dance like its 1974! I’m also going to start a Chess Group during the week off, and see if the high schoolers want to keep doing it. I think it would be a lot of fun. I hope I can encourage them to see how much fun it’s going to be.

I just joined a list on Topica called Next Generation Librarian (or something like that). I hope it will help me to connect to other librarians my age.

Well I guess I won’t go on too much. There really isn’t too much to say anyway (that’s pretty pathetic, considering I haven’t written in over a month!) I do think I should say… YEAH I’M A NEW AUNT AGAIN!!! Her name is Rachel Paige, and she is 7lb, 4oz. She’s very cute and red and I already love her to death. I guess I can wait and enjoy life as a free woman a little longer, especially if I’m going to get cute nieces like the two I now have!

Well I survived another day with the six year olds. I think doing a craft helps alot. I just need to keep finding crafts for them to do. After story time, my boss told me to go have a drink. I didn’t, but its so cool to have a boss that understands.

I just discovered the joys of Oriental Trading Company…
They have so many kits for poor librarians that needs programs, but don’t have any money. I’ve already planned about five or six programs (in my mind).

On a non-library note, my sister told me to visit this knitting blog:
It makes me so happy to see other people my age that love yarn too. I try to crochet or knit and I love both, but all I can make are scarves or blankets. I think I need to take a class… I started to look at other knitting blogs, and boy does it make me jealous when I see how talented other people are. I’ll get over it though. For example there is a woman in Japan that knits, and she does a lot of stuff in miniature. It’s incredible!

Oh well. Life goes on.

So Tuesday I had my Anime discussion group. Boy talk about weird times. There were six people at the meeting (not including myself), which I was quite happy with, considering that I didn’t expect anyone. There were two boys that I think may have been in sixth grade. Their sisters: one in eighth grade and one in ninth grade. A boy who I think was a junior in high school but he could have been a very dirty thirty-year-old. And a girl in college who was probably a freshman. Pretty interesting. They didn’t stop talking once, which was wonderful for me because my knowledge of anime was exhausted in five minutes. They even said that they wanted to meet more than once a month! (I was impressed, but I’m already burnt out at month nine, so I changed the subject pretty quickly). Overall I was very pleased, however I have to find a way to make it last more than a couple months.

On a cheery note. The weather in upstate New York has been dismal. The temperature has been below zero and the snow has been blowing all over the road making conditions pretty horrid. Unfortunately its not bad enough to close the library, but I was able to cancel the story time for 6 – 7 year olds, with the scary child in it! One week free of scary boy! One disappointing side effect is my fingers and toes feel like they were going to fall off. Oh well we can’t have everything.

My boss decided at the spur of the moment to check out the library’s policy on maternity leave. After one year, I can get 12 weeks unpaid leave. So she gave me her blessing to be fruitful and multiple! I’m not happy about the unpaid part, but I can’t expect everything. She just said that before I give birth I need to make sure that I have someone to cover story time because she won’t do it. I guess I can handle that. 🙂

Just thought you guys should know…

My goddamn rock solid ghetto shiznit name is Ass Machine Kool.
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Anyway. I had to take a stuffed dinosaur away from a kid yesterday because he was hitting other kids with the thing and then he started to hit his head into the wall and a few times he ran out of the story time room. I had everything organized and planned. I think my first stupid thing to do was starting 5 minutes late. About five kids all came in 5 minutes late and totally disturbed any sense of peace there was. Then one of the kids had to go pee and I was afraid that everyone else was going to have to go pee. Luckily this didn’t happen. However just as I had all the kids sitting down (for the most part) and coloring pictures, the power went out in the library. The power went out in the story time room… where there are NO windows! Somehow all the kids got out. I do like being a librarian? What’s going to happen when I’m a mother!?! Jeeze.

I have an Anime discussion group today. My first. And there was a big write up in one of the local papers. So now I have another thing to worry about, since I’ve been reading the stuff, but I really am not an expert, so I hope the kids aren’t expecting much. 🙁

And tomorrow is my dreaded 6 – 7 year old story time. I heard that the woman I had trouble with has been kicked out of other libraries and other story times and that she has a habit of suing places she’s renting. My lucky day! Oh well. I figure I’ll read a few longer books and then do a craft (we’ll be making paper pizzas this time). Wish me luck!