Cathy the Librarian

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.

If you’re around Rochester, you should take the time to check out Central Library’s newest exhibit. Its art all done by staff members throughout the Monroe County Library System. Check out the article here on the MCLS website. What a great idea! It lets people see another aspect of staff that doesn’t have to do with books. I must admit that I am mad that a certain boss of mine didn’t let me know about it until about a week before so that I didn’t have enough time to get it together. Oh, well. Maybe it’ll be so popular that they’ll do it again and I’ll have time to submit something. Hopefully someone will take the time to put pictures of everything on the library website. Then more people will get to see the art!

Maybe in the future, they could have a staff art competition in a couple different areas (photography, yarn craft, jewelry, painting…) and have patrons judge the art. They could make the winners “staff member of the month” and have some prizes or special things for them. How cute would that be?

My mind was just reeling after the NYLA conference. It was almost too much to take in. At first, I wasn’t so sure if I was taking any of it in, although now I think I may have just been in information overload. That, and driving overload (600 miles in four days. Egads!)

Thursday I went to a special day long continuing ed program called “Get with the YA Program“. It was a real eye opener… mostly because if I had a population of a quarter of a million and staff dedicated to helping me specifically and oodles of money, I could do so much more. As it is, I serve a population of 15,000, have a total staff of about 12, and a programming budget that is shameful. Kevin King, from the Kalamazoo Public Library came to talk to us about the four s’s: Support, Staff, Space, and a Stash of cash. The presentation gave me a lot to think about. I realize that I need to work on my time management and organization skills. When this is accomplished, I need to write a couple of grants that give me lots of money so that the teens and I can create zines to distribute throughout town. We’d need lots of cash for a digital camera, scanner, laptop, collating printer/copier and lots and lots of paper…. actually the zine idea came from Zahra Baird, who works at the Chappaqua Public Library. I also realized that I need to take a more active step in working with the schools and in the community. I need to work with social groups and people in power to get what I want. Kevin explained that one of the more important things about being a librarian is to be able to communicate well with others, to work well in a group and to be a good listener. He talked about how teens brains are literally made up differently than the adult brain. They think and act differently, because that’s the way their brain works. Luckily, I think I still have a little of that teen brain left so that I can talk to them pretty easily.
Kevin gave me lots of ideas for programming… now I just have to get going on them! One of the easiest things, I thought, would be to start programs for “tweens”. I’ve found that people all define tween very differently. One program I went to determined that tweens are kids in 3 – 5 grade. I thought, “ah-roo?” Umm, I don’t think so.

According to a Business Week article:

A tween is vaguely defined as a prepubescent between the ages of 8 to 14, 9 to 12, or 8 to 12, depending on whom you believe. (Some industries, such as the wireless sector, categorize the age as an unbelievable 6 to 12 years old, prompting one to ponder, “in between” what?) Regardless of the exact age definition, most agree that the breaking point of a “child” becoming a “tween” is by the American fifth grade (approximately ten years old), when he/she rejects more childlike images and associations and aspires to be more like a teen.

I would like to think of tweens as people in (5th?) 6th grade to 8th grade. I know that 8th graders would like to think that they are teens, but middle schoolers and high schoolers are SO different, maturity wise.

I think the idea that a SIX YEAR OLD is a tween is ridiculous. However, if you take a look at some of those Halloween costume ads, maybe it isn’t (I’m being sarcastic, BTW.)  Some of these costumes try and tart up little kids. Its disgusting. Why can’t we let little kids be little kids? Why can’t they just have fun doing little kids things?

Anyway. I would like to start doing some “tween only” programs, similar in style to what I do for the kids and teens. Once a week, all month long, I’d do a program for tweens only. I thought I could call it “Tweensdays”. Goofy, I know. So sue me… no don’t. I have to save up for my girls-only cruise (WOO HOO!) in January.

Welp. Its after midnight and I’m tired. I have so much more on my mind that I want to tell you!

A couple highlights:

• YSS wanting to recruit me for committee work, and a local librarian trying to push me into their clutches :0
• Even more NYLA fun… such as winning a set of diseases!
• Calling the police on the teens because they are out of control, scare the kids and adults (and even some of the other teens) and having them swear at me so that I have to go all alpha dog on them. And belief me, I can if I need to. I know ghetto neck and I’m not afraid to use it.
• Grants grants grants. I have so many ideas for grants my head may explode.
• Jack mishaps in Wegmans. Blood, screaming and a mommy trying to stay calm and she looks frantically for daddy.
• DDR madness at the Kyle household and CALVES OF STEEL!

I think that’s it for now. I will try and cover all of these topics (and more) in the next couple of days. I can’t believe that so much has been going on! Eek!

Wow. Talk about amazing and crazy.

I was one of Svetlana’s helper bees. We had to make sure that she was comfortable and had enough water, that she knew where she was going, and that she didn’t get attacked by rabid teens. I knew that it would be a little crazy, since I do know how you guys are when we get a new manga, let alone meeting the artist! She was very easy going and put up with a lot more than I might have been able to. She even wore one of the teens’ hats for a second!

Here’s some images of the group of teens I worked with. They were CRAZY! One of the girl’s had a huge bag full of sugar: cookies, candy (including a gigantic bag of pixie sticks) and a 3 liter bottle of soda. However it was a lot of fun hanging out with them too.

They spent quite a bit of time singing songs… some of which I knew.

I think the mixture of sugar and adrenaline may have had an adverse affect on them.

They were all smiles the whole day, making it a lot of fun to work with them.

Yes that’s them in the corner, a big pile of blue t-shirts… we put out a red carpet for the authors, and when they came to Fairport High School in their HUGE limo…

and we all SCREAMED at the top of our lungs. By the end of the day I did’t have much of a voice left. It was SO much fun.

Here’s a picture of Lauren Myracle and Cecil Castellucci.

Unfortunately the lighting wasn’t always the best, so I didn’t get too many good pictures. Although I did get this great picture at the end with most of the volunteers in my group with Svetlana. Svetlana was quiet, but a lot of fun to talk to. She was very laid back, and knew all the manga and anime the teens were talking about and when they started singing some of the songs from the anime, she could sing along to quite a few of them.

All the authors were super nice. And they were all down to earth. Not at all like the scary stories you hear about actors. I listened to Tamora Pierce and Cecil Castellucci.

Tamora and her husband both spoke. They played off each other nicely. Bantering about in a fun lighthearted way. You could tell very quickly that they bounced a lot of ideas off each other. Tamora was full of stories and spoke in a very conversational way. I was so happy that she wasn’t scary or awful. Sometimes I worry that the authors I really like are actually mean or nasty. You can get your hopes up and then in a couple of sentences your joy at meeting an author/actor can be dashed.

Cecil read from her book, Queen of Cool. I could have listened to her all day. She read with such enthusiasm. Sometimes author readings can be up in the air. They could be great writers, but lousy when they read out loud. It was not at all like that with her. She talked about how being cool all depends upon perspective. You could be really cool in one group or situation and then totally not in another situation.

She also talked about her family life, and how we might think that it would be awesome to be the daughter/son of a rock star, but once in that situation it could be annoying or bothersome. Cecil was the daughter of two researchers. I thought that sounded really great, but she had a different perspective; the crazy hours, the expectations, her parents’ idea of fun.

The whole experience was exciting. I would be lying if I didn’t say I was exhausted by the end of the day, but it was well worth it, and I can’t wait until next year.

Yesterday I received a call from one of the local library board members. One of my coworkers answered the phone and didn’t get anything but the guys name. I immediately thought that he was trying to sell something so I was going to have her tell him that I was in a “meeting”. And don’t tell me you don’t do it, because I know you do. Anyway, she asked him what he was with, and he said that he was from the library. I had no idea why he would be calling me, and then I remembered that they wanted me to create a website for them. Ack. As I was trying to think of good ways to let him down, he started buttering me up about something, letting me know how some of the staff really like me, and that they’ve heard lots of good things about me. That’s when I started getting scared.

That’s when he dropped the bomb.

So what would you think about applying for the director’s position?

Egads.

He lets me know that there are quite a few board members who are interested in change. One of the board members is connected to the government. They understand that the location of the library has special difficulties, the main one being working with three different municipalities. He said that many of the people working at the library have been there for years and years, and they know what they’re doing.

I told him I would have to think about it. And boy have I been. It seems like it would be a really interesting opportunity. I am a little concerned though…

• Since people have been there years and years, they might not be as receptive to change.
• I’d also have to do budgeting, and I’d have to push for more money… I may need to take a workshop on budgeting. I may need to do that anyway.
• I’d be in charge, so when the “special” patrons come in, I’d be the one that people would call for.
• I’d have to do yearly reviews.
• I’d be the boss of people twice my age.
• I may have to lay people off (how often does that even happen?)
• I wouldn’t be able to chase kids with puppets (as often) or do programming with the teens, which means no more playing DDR or watching anime.

Even so, I think it would be neat to have the oppurtunity to create good changes, to have an open ear and open mind for the staff that may not get heard too often. I really like people of all ages, which is why I became a librarian. Honestly, the books were really secondary. Sure, I like getting people excited about reading, but what I really like is when people come in and they are happy to see me, when I can make a difference in their day, when someone comes in a little grumpy and I can make them smile. That is why I became a librarian. I like interacting with people.

Sally said that there probably won’t be as much of that if I’m director. I won’t have as much time to interact with the public. I won’t be able to attack the kids with puppets, talk to the teens about manga, or chat up some of the older people. I did talk to Patty from Ogden, and she told me to go for it. She said as director, since I’m in charge, I can do what I want. I can hold an occasional story time or attack the kids. She told me that people like it when the director gets directly involved with the public.

My sister was a little on the fence about the whole thing. She claims that I don’t like making decisions (I have no idea where she got that idea!) and she let me know that I really want to work with teens… all of which is true.

It would also be nice to make more money. Right now I’m on the very low end of 30, and the library director’s position would bring me up to 45. On the other hand, I think I had about 5 or 6 weeks of vacation (because you can carry over 2 weeks) plus I get 12 sick days. This new position would only give me three weeks and 10 sick days. Plus I have absolutely no idea what the health insurance is like. All of these are quite possibly even more important than salary when you have a little guy at home.

Plus, my sister was supposed to do a directed study at my library… 120 hours of free labor.

I don’t know I don’t know.

This morning I asked my co-worker if she was going to shop for the day after Thanksgiving sales. She said no, and then she proceeded to say that she wasn’t going to shop at Walmart on Friday or Saturday. When I asked why, she said that Walmart was going to give 5% of their profits to the Gays. Boy did that give me a wake up call:

1. go Walmart! I thought you suck, but now you suck a little less
2. it made me think of my co-worker in a different light. A not happy light.

Then, when I got home, I found an article on Snopes, which stated that its sort-of true. They are donating 5% of the online sales of sales initiated through the web site of the Washington DC Community Center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People. Well tons of people will know to do that! (She says very sarcastically!) Even though I hate everything that Walmart stands for, I may have to buy something…

Okay, so maybe I just don’t care to think about all those sad individuals that think that being a homosexual is a dirty, unnatural, sin. I sort of like staying ignorant about that. Although, I guess the people that hate gays want to do the same thing. But since I’m right, I can stay ignorant, right? 🙂

Of course, I still understand that part of my duty as a librarian is to:

1. purchase materials for all types of patrons in the community even if I don’t agree with their beliefs
2. not criticize or think poorly of people who view things differently from me

But it seems like its one thing when its a strange patron who just wants to check out books and its completely another when its a co-worker that you really like (not in that way though, because it would be dirty 🙂 ). It sort of broke my heart to hear her say that she basically hates homosexuals… especially in Rochester. I mean we aren’t the mecca of homosexuality, but I thought Rochester seemed pretty progressive and open. Of course, this may be my sad delusional ideals protecting me again.

I’m positive that this topic is one of those “deadly sins likely to not get you another job ever again” topics, but I guess I wouldn’t really want to work in a place that wouldn’t hire me for my beliefs on this subject. I completely honor the fact that she hates homosexuals even if from the bottom of my heart I know she’s wrong, and I would treat a patron the same way. Try and be as pleasant as possible, but pity them just the same. So if my future employer couldn’t honor me in the same way, well then pphhtttt to you.

I really had to get that off my back. Oh and I still hate Walmart. I like Target much better, although I’m sure they have some dirty secrets hiding in there… just looked on Snopes. There’s an article about “banning” the term Christmas, banning the Salvation Army and carrying vibrators & not donating to veterans.

If you don’t get a chance to read the articles they:

1. DO NOT ban the cashiers from saying “Christmas”, however they didn’t use the term Christmas in any of their advertisements in 2005 until they were pressured to start using it again… although I didn’t see Christmas mentioned on their website. I do applaud them for trying to keep in mind that NOT EVERYONE CELEBRATES CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA!!! Well that was until certain groups pressured them enough.
2. DO ban the Salvation Army from soliciting, but that’s because they don’t let anyone solicit at the door. We all know that when you let one person do something, more will follow. Good for Target sticking to their guns.
3. DO NOT sell vibrators.
4. DO donate TONS of money to all different causes, including veterans. In one part of the article, it was claimed that Target only donates to Gay and Lesbian causes, but that’s not true either.

So I can still like Target. Thank goodness. I may even go there this weekend!… but not on Friday. No shopping on Friday, except maybe to Leaf and Bean.
On a happy note, I got my poi-ple ukulele tonight, and it sounds and look bea-u-ti-FUL!

Wow. You turn around and half a month goes by! I can’t believe I haven’t posted since the middle of October!

Since then I have…

• Officially gotten my teen blog reviewed on VOYA

• Found out that my sister WILL be doing a special school project at my library for 120 hours! Which I am very excited about, because I already have tons of stuff I want her to help me do. The three most important things I want her to help with are:

1. Summer Reading (for teens) – she wants to be a teen librarian, so I figured that I wouldn’t even bother having her try to help plan summer reading for the kids
2. Help write a grant with me. Yep. I’m going to try it again. I want to talk to Ogden, Brockport and Hamlin and work with the teen librarians at each library and create a homeschooling grant similar to the one that I’m doing with Webster, Chili and Greece. We’d make educational kits, have programs, and create displays. I’ll have to ask the other librarians if they actually want to do it before I start thinking about it too much.
3. Marketing – Find ways to market to the teens and their parents. Sally and I have had LOTS of talks about how librarians are TERRIBLE about promoting themselves. We aren’t letting people know how important libraries are and how many services we provide. I’m hoping that my sister and I can come up with interesting and creative ways to promote our services.

• I went to NYLA and went to quite a few programs. There didn’t seem to be too many librarians from Monroe County, but I did meet a lot of other very nice librarians. One of the librarians even asked me if I would be willing to relocate to Albany to be their teen librarian. But I knew that my mother wouldn’t let me do that, because she thought my commute would be too long. Of course I wouldn’t be able to MOVE to Albany because then she wouldn’t be able to see Jack anymore. I’ll talk about NYLA more in a separate post because there’s quite a bit to talk about.

• I was asked to speak about comic books by the Wayne School district. They want me to speak for an hour on elementary graphic novels- (roughly K-5). They want me to bring examples to share, lists for people to take with them and sharing of basic information about graphic novels (how to read them, what makes a graphic novel a graphic novel, what to look out for, artwork etc.). The audience would primarily be school library media specialists from the region with some administrators mixed in. She also asked me if I charged any fees. I think that it would be pretty cool to get paid for speaking, especially since its an hour away and I would be speaking for an hour. However I have absolutely NO idea how much I would ask them for. I’m pretty sure that I could find a way to talk for a whole hour about comic books.

• Tonight I had my weekly Yugioh group, which usually goes fine. The teens are usually so good that I haven’t always even been in the room. Tonight they were quite animated. Two of the teens were chasing each other around and hitting each other in the way teens beat each other up when they “like” each other. Then the youngest one in the group, a ten year-old boy, started getting involved and hitting the teen guy. I thought things had calmed down so that I felt the room for a couple of minutes. I heard things get loud again, and in the couple minutes I was gone, the kid hit/kicked the teens in the testicles and the teen lifted him up and pushed him aside. The kid fell on the floor and started crying. I got back in there, he was crying and then before I could talk to him, he ran out of the room and out of the library. I’m a little afraid that when I get to work tomorrow, I have an angry note on my desk from the kid’s mom and she wants me fired. I guess it would be nice to be a stay at home mom. I’d just have to get rid of my car and I wouldn’t be able to buy more bags or shoes.

• Oh and Halloween. I got Jack orange pants and a black shirt with skeletons on it. We handed out candy to the three kids and fifteen teenagers that came to the door. We had about 8 guys that dressed up as ladies. Very interesting. Jack had fun answering the door and eating candy.

I am involved in this program through my library system. We have to read this blog, which seems like homework to me. This is profoundly so for me, because

1) one of the top dogs wants to use some of my work blogs for demonstration purposes (or something of that sort), which means I will have to update a lot more regularly than I am finding possible recently, which ALSO means that I might be updating these blogs at home.

2) we have to read articles, which if you had read before still holds true for this. I will end up reading a lot of this at home.

There really is not enough time in the day! I do not know how people are able to keep everything straight. I have so much on my plate now, which is why I was stressing a couple of days ago, and continue to do so now. I know I will get everything done because I ♥love♥ my job, but until then I will be out of my mind. This comes with being alone in what you do and not having anyone you can really delegate jobs to. Poop.

Luckily many of the things that the Institute wants to encourage the libraries to do, we already have implemented in Parma, thanks to me(huzzah!): blogs, flickr, playstation programs, myspace… I was thinking of using Yahoo IM, but our library has it blocked. Of course, one needs time to keep up with all these things, and as a keeper of six? (graphic novels, visiting artists, teens, kids, professional, and this one) blogs, life can get a little out of hand.

Sleep is also very important, so good night!

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.