I gotta get out of bed...

No, this post is not about laziness. In fact, quite the opposite. I am seeing a new side of myself emerge lately. I'm not sure why or how or where it came from but it's both good and frustrating. I feel myself more and more drawn to community service. I have always enjoyed volunteering at odd jobs here and there but lately my passion for service has gone way beyond the extracurricular activity level.

During the hurricane Katrina disaster, I am constantly thinking of what am I going to do? What am I going to do? How do I help this situation? In an ideal world, it would just be a part of life that with any nationwide disaster, all focus needs to be on helping the situation at hand and everything else (like work) needs to take a backseat. But this is not the case. Ultimately I think that's fine because our southern friends do not just need a bunch of random people hanging out waiting to be told what to do. They need trained workers, skilled in these types of situations.

But here's the thing. What I have been focusing on is not the people or the evacuation. Yes, that is a terrible, horrible situation and I have sympathy for everyone involved. But what I cannot stop thinking about is all the animals that may have been abandoned in those homes; all the strays; all the animal shelters that can't just evacuate 50 dogs and 300 cats on a greyhound bus. I just can't stop thinking about it. Once again, back to an ideal world, I would be able to head down there to help in any way I possibly could to keep the surviving animals okay. But I can't. What can I do? I can send money. That is NOTHING to sneeze at. I know from volunteering with non-profits that donations sometimes make a world of difference, regardless of size. But this will not lessen my need to DO something.

I am reminded of an Indigo Girls song in this situation:

"Clearing webs from a hovel
A blistered hand on the handle of a shovel
I've been digging too deep, I always do

I see my face on the surface
I look a lot like Narcissus
A dark abyss of an emptiness standing on the edge of a drowning blue

I look behind my ears for the green
Even my sweat smells clean
The glare off the white hurts my eyes

I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands
Not just my head I'll think myself into jail

Now I know a refuge never grows
from a chin in a hand and a thoughtful pose
You gotta tend the earth if you want a rose."

All I can focus on right now is what I can do locally and donate to those who are able to physically be in the areas that need it most. I'm contacting local animal rescue foundations, humane societies and animal shelters. Gotta start somewhere.

Another fantastic example of "stuff on my cat" 

There just aren't words. The more time goes by, the bigger a kick I get out of this site... 

Have you ever had one of THOSE days?

Yeah, well, I'm having one of those days. I'm not going to go into many details. Suffice it to say that...well...I can't really go into any details in order to protect the innocent. Work schmerk. Is that okay? I think I just woke up on the wrong side of the liberry. It was a day where it felt like me against the world.

I had a really nice weekend, though. It was somewhat colored with the funeral of a close family friend but it was a lovely ceremony and I was very happy to be there for the family. It was also great to spend some QT with Aunt Kathy and Grankie! (While we all are great travelers, we may need to take a class or two on navigation). Then again, we were dealing with construction, traffic and frozen ham sandwiches. Grankie had her hands full. :)

I am looking forward quite a bit to this upcoming weekend. What do I have planned, you might ask. NOTHING!! I have virtually every week in September taken up with traveling, visiting family, conferences, etc. so I'm looking forward to a weekend when I get to take care of everything I have neglected to do around my apartment. Believe you me, I can't wait for everything I have planned on my weekends, but I can't forget to do things like vacuum (especially with a cat AND dog), organize, pay bills, lounge, read, etc. If I don't plan for them, I probably won't do them.

Wow, I just realized how boring this post has become. It's pretty remarkable. Maybe I should explore this option of life as a sweet potato after all.

My life is so hard... 

My twin cousins with my new twin cousins! Ah! 

Today was a seemingly big day!

The library got a brand spankin' new photocopier today! There's not too much else to say about that, but it's great and it allowed me to re-arrange the remaining space which opened up the room quite a bit!

I'm really excited for tomorrow. I am attending a professional development course through the Greater Cincinnati Library Consortium for most of the day. It'll be from 10-4 and it's called the "Reference Resource Review." I know I've found myself in the right profession when that makes my eyebrows raise and causes me to read on. To many my guess is that would be an immediate "turn the page!" moment. But I think it'll be a wonderful networking and learning opportunity and I am very much looking forward to it.

I also found out that through this consortium and because I am a professional librarian, I get 50% discount off tickets to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concerts! (Try saying that 3 times fast...I have a hard time with getting it out once). Through learning this, I also learned about a chorus in Cincinnati that I might audition for. It depends on whether or not they are even auditioning new members or not but I really like the idea of being in a chorus again. I absolutely loved being involved with the Bloomington Chamber Singers and the Louisville Chorus (not to mention Joyful Noise Chorus!). My love for singing in a large chorus is second only to singing as part of a small ensemble (duet, trio, etc.).

Well waddaya know! I've got some stuff to say after all. :)

Weird, strange dog

Levi is really really weird. I have a folding chair sitting out because it's what I do some lifting of weights in (don't get too impressed...I don't do it very religiously). Tonight when I was lazily watching TV, I also watched Levi climb up on said chair, stand there and whine. I still don't know why exactly he was whining but I'm pretty sure he got over it. Now he's sneezing uncontrollably. And I thought I was a mess...

This always happens...I start to write an entry and then realize that nothing happens and I have nothing to talk about except my minor injuries and slightly abnormal pets. Oh well...maybe tomorrow...

The reason I don't cook:

It was a wonderful weekend. Kevin came to visit and we were having a wonderful time. The only time I try to cook is for someone else. Believe it or not, I actually enjoy cooking for other people. Everything was planned out. I decided to make raspberry chicken and a big fresh salad. The chicken was going well; just stir up some spices and raspberry vinegar, pour on the chicken, and broil it in the oven. I was working on the salad, chop chop chop. Halfway through the cucumber, I cut my thumb. It wasn't anything major, but had it been just a tad more voracious, I would not have a tip on my left thumb. Gross! The salad turned out okay but the chicken...well...here's the deal: everytime I cook, I pick out a recipe with chicken thinking "chicken's not that hard, I can deal with that." And it never fails, the chicken turns into cardboard, sandpaper, beach towels, pick your extremely dry item. Can someone please tell me how in the world to cook chicken in the oven without it getting so dry?? This becomes more and more of a mystery as time goes on.

Other then that, the weekend was really nice. We saw "Wedding Crashers" today, it was pretty good. I'd give it 2.75 stars. Very funny, I love both Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, plus there's a cameo with Will Ferrel, who I also love.. However, it's definitely a rental.

Well I thought I had some more to say, but apparantely I don't. Have a wonderful wonderful week to all who read this!

But...but...wait a minute...that's not fair! That's a sign for the public library!! :) 

GrandMama Kaye and baby Lucy...awwww..... 

Cutest family ever!! 

Dex and Jax...welcome to the family!! 

Sassy the Mighty Exaggerator

No real reason for the subject heading, I just freestyled it earlier and it stuck. Ha!

Two things I hope I never get used to while living in Florence:

1. Watching the bottom of an airplane fly over my head.
2. Canadian geese (they're so cute and dangerously sure of themselves)

One thing I hope I do get used to while living in Florence (because it drives me crazy right now):
1. People pronouncing "Cincinnati" as "Cincinnatuh" I mean, what's the deal with that anyway?

A book was stolen from the library the other day. I know it often happens but it still was somehow quite shocking. Perhaps it was an honest mistaken. Perhaps it wasn't. Either way, I hope I get the book back. It was a really good one...I should know...I picked it out! :)

Oh my gosh, could you GET any cuter?? 

Revenge of the bugs

I apologize for my delay in posting. Thanks for the reminder Aunt KJ! :) It's easy to forget about every once in a while.

So I was sitting at my desk yesterday at the end of work when a student was asking me a question. She glanced down at my arm, her eyes opened wide and she said, "what happened?!" I hadn't noticed anything until I looked down and saw a large red welt. It was then that I actually physically felt it. I have no idea what bit/stung me, or when but goodness it must've been really mad! Today at work people kept making remarks about the big red bump on my arm. Every once in a while, the nursing faculty ask for volunteers to help students with learning simple procedures. Today there was the chance to get my blood pressure taken. I went to have it done and she could do the arm that was closest because she was so freaked out by my arm. Ha! We ended up finding a better location and I have really healthy blood pressure. Yay for me!

Everything's fine at this point. It's still swollen but the resident family FloHo physicians said that if it's still bad tomorrow, they'd look at it. I'm sure it'll be gone by then. I had forgotten why I hate bugs so much. It's because they bite and sting me. You know how some people seem to get bitten more than others? Well that's me. When I was in college, my junior year I lived in a large house with 4 other girls (mistake #1). One of the girls decided to bring a dog home from the shelter (mistake #2). One of the other girls decided to bring home a mattress from the street (mistake #3). Needless to say, we had a major flea infestation. And who got bit from head to toe? Who woke up every night scratching relentlessly at little teeny bumps ALL OVER?? You guessed it. Me. My blood or skin must be like chocolate pudding or ice cream or really good steak to bugs. Maybe they put out some sort of newsletter tracking those of us who taste the best. Oh man, can you believe what would happen to the world if bugs were able to publish?

Here's a really good phoned in reference call:

Caller: "Yeah. Do y'all have a liberry over thar?"
Me: "Yes ma'am. This is the library and I am the librarian."
Caller: "Yeah. Well do y'all have any French students?"
Me: (pause) "Well, I don't think so, but I'd have to check to be sure."

Priceless. I love my job!