zzzzzzz

I've been awake since 5:30 this morning. For those of you who know me well, you know this is completely unheard of as a general rule. I'm not a big morning person. It's true I did have to wake up a little extra early today in order to drop Lyra off for boarding as well as go to the doctor's. But still...5:30? Come ON!

But, there's a reason for the insanity! I awoke to find no dog in my bed. This is significant because Lyra never leaves the bed before I do, unless she's sick. So that was my first thought. Luckily that was not this issue this time. However, I did walk into the living room to find a very unfortunate situation. As I stated previously, I dropped Lyra off for boarding this morning since I'm leaving town for a couple of days. In order to drop her off, I have to pack up her food. To save time, I did this the night before and hung it from the coat rack, inside of one of my reusable grocery bags thinking this would keep it safe from the 2 smaller beasts. (I think you can see where this is going.) I walked into the living room to find the entire bag of food eaten (mostly by Lyra but also enjoyed by the cats), because Lyra had chewed through the both bags.

I hate dogs.

This

is almost as bad as

this

It's a tough call...

Best Books of 2008

In case you're interested, Library Journal published an article in its latest edition of the best books of 2008. (these are mostly adult fiction and non-fiction)

School Library Journal also posted the best children's and teen books of 2008. I have so much to read it's overwhelming. :)

Not to mention the best graphic novels of 2008 also from School Library Journal.

Sigh.

A very sad day

Indianapolis just lost two wonderful people.

I feel blessed to have known them, even for a very short time. I'm keeping the family in my thoughts.

The last resort for any library

Philadelphia Closing 11 Branches

from Library Journal, Dec 2008

In Indiana, a Consolidation Battle

from Library Journal, Dec 2008

This is when you know it's hard times.

My favorite Christmas pictures

From ASPCA

The Best Holiday Gift For Pets: Keep 'Em Safe From Accidental Poisoning

FYI...

Another fabulous weekend!

Overall it was a lovely weekend. I was glad to have at least a little downtime followed by some fantastic babysitting, knitting and then round one of the Fried Chicken Taste-Off. Three friends and myself all drove to Metamora, IN to check out the chicken at the Hearthstone Inn. It was deelish, but I still say the restaurant in Nashville will win this contest. However, it's to be determined. All in all it was a very fun day with lots of laughs and lots of carbs. We even talked about visiting regional and nationwide fried chicken places and coming up with some sort of system to rate said chicken. We would then share this information to the world via blog or some sort of book. But I'm not sure any of us like fried chicken THAT much, nor do we hope to gain 150 pounds. Then again, it is for prosperity....hmm...

On another note, Lyra is doing much better. Apparantely she has a parasite called Giardia. Gross. That is why we had to boil all of our drinking water during the Boundary Waters trip so many years ago...warm Tang. Mmmmm. She's on these giant horse pills and will have to get re-checked later on down the road. Such a little trooper. I was worried about Sammy on Sunday, he was acting listless which for him is WAY out of the ordinary. He perked up by the end of the day so I'm holding back on a vet check for now. I think he probably ate a pencil or my piano or something and now it's upsetting his fragile tummy. Such a weirdo.

Above picture is Lyra waiting ever so patiently (for about 2.5 seconds) for the vet to come into the room. Luckily strangers don't make her pee anymore. Phew!

Dear Library Patron Who Left the Half Eaten Chicken Wing On The Bookshelf,

GROSS.

Please don't do that again.

Sincerely,

Your Local Librarian

P.S. You made me throw up a little in my mouth.

and one more thing

To the person who just wanted to know who keeps checking out that one particular book, I will NOT tell you who it is, no matter how rudely you ask me. And no, I do not care that you are the author. It does not under any circumstance give you privileged information. Ever.

So go away.

And happy holidays.

um

Dear Patron Who Is Always Here,

1) Once again, no, I will NOT type your paper for you.

2) No, I will NOT help you find a girlfriend.

Sincerely,
Your Local Librarian

P.S. Ew.

A couple reminders

Dear Library Patrons,

1) PLEASE STOP MUMBLING. It's hard to answer questions I can't understand.

2) There IS, in fact, a difference between biographies and autobiographies. Trust me.

3) No, I cannot and will not type your paper for you.

Sincerely,

Your Local Librarian

It's capital ol' chap

Patron: [walks up frantically to the reference desk apparantely unaware that I'm on the phone with a patron as well as helping 3 people at the desk] Help! Everything I'm typing is in capitals! What do I do?

Me: [realizing I can't walk over to help her since I'm ON THE PHONE (helping another patron), I lift up my keyboard, point to the caps lock button] Make sure you push this button and see this green light? When you push it, the light should go off. You should be fine after that. Let me know if you have other problems.

Patron: [walks back to her computer] Thanks hon.

Me: [continue to help the 8 million people in front of me assuming the caps lock woman is taken care of]

Patron: [returns to counter] Everything is still capital!

Me: [finding a moment to walk away from the desk to assist this person at her computer] Okay let me see what's going on. [look at the keyboard, the caps lock button is off] You should be fine, go ahead and try typing something.

Patron: [types the number 3 and the number zero] See?

Me: Well numbers will always appear the same, regardless of if the caps lock button is on or off.

Patron: Oh! You mean numbers are always capital?

Me: ...yes. Yes, they are.

Such an exciting day!

I am thinking...

YES WE CAN!

It is so amazing to be a part of this election this year. I have never been more motivated or excited to vote in my few years of participating in the democratic process. It's odd, it seems as if everyone is in a pretty jovial mood right now. People were being courteous, thoughtful, friendly and generally smiley. I'm going to enjoy it while it's here for no matter what, somebody will be disappointed and perhaps downright mad by tomorrow morning.

If you haven't already, GO VOTE!!

Happy Halloween!

Last weekend I headed back to northern KY to see some old friends and celebrate a bday! It was wonderful and fantastic because she decided she wanted to celebrate her bday by playing laser tag...in Halloween costumes! So I rocked the Rosie the Riveter costume pretty well if I do say so myself. It was an absolute blast and so nice to see everyone.

As far as work...it's work. Sometimes I wonder why I thought librarianship was a good career choice. Other times I love it. It's hard to say what the day will bring. I don't have too much else to report right now.

A note to all library users

PLEASE do NOT reshelve books, dvds, cds or any other items. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!! I BEG you!

Secondly, PLEASE do not refer to your librarian as "hey." It's just not very nice.

Thank you for your time. Have a nice day.

UPDATE: Also, I do NOT respond well to "pssst"-ing. Or snapping. I am not a waiter (although waiters also do not deserve disrespect).

In general: PLEASE STOP BEING A TOTAL JERK.

Most of you are very nice, very polite very considerate patrons and I enjoy seeing you everyday. To the others, go take a class in manners.

I'm having way too much fun with this camera

Fun with the camera

Pics from the ribbon cutting ceremony

Camping

My friends Bill, Vince (and his dog Spencer) and I took a trip to Hoosier National Forest this past weekend for a short camping trip. It was absolutely wonderful and I wish I was still there! Here are a few great pics.

So much to say

I've got too much really to put into one post. Let's see, where do I even start? I'm living in Indianapolis now and LOVING it! This town really is my home and I felt comfortable the moment I moved in. I'm slowly learning my way around and getting to know everything that's here in the city. There's so much! But best of all, I'm a mere 20 minutes from N/R/L/L!!! It has been so much fun spending time with them and they've been gracious enough to feed me the wonderful food they cook! Thanks guys!! It's also been great to be closer to MK/DB, they came down to see the library and take me out to lunch which was wonderful.

The bad thing is that I was really really sick for a while there and I'm still getting over it. I was hit with a monumentally awful cold for a couple of weeks and even had to miss a day of work my first week on the job! I lost my voice and had horrible coughing fits. It was pretty embarrassing to say the least and I still have the occasional fit here and there. Somewhere along the way I either severely strained a muscle or possibly bruised a rib from coughing so violently. It's slowly...very slowly...getting better but I'm still in horrible pain when I have to cough or breathe in deeply. The pain is similar to what it would feel like if someone were sticking a hot knitting needle into my chest and swirling things around a little bit...at least I imagine. :)

So aside from the drama that is my physical condition, things are going swimmingly! I've had lots of visitors and already taken my first fall camping trip! (next post with pics) I'm also including some recent fun pics from my new camera. The first few are from N&R's front yard. I arrived at their house before they got back from running errands so I decided to experiment. I think they turned out pretty well! The others are just goofy pics.

I'll try to stay up to date on posting, I'm sure there will be some decent stories to share.

Sicky from sickville

Yup, that's me. I'm still quite sick. It's going through the normal course of things I think, it's now in my sinuses and throat but still is really getting on my nerves. I'm going to start drugging it up today. I was avoiding it. Not sure why, I just don't like to take a lot of drugs when I'm sick unless it's something like antibiotics. Part of it is that once the drugs wear off I usually feel worse than I did before I took them. As a friend of mine said, I have to be careful and not make myself sicker.

I got a call at my desk yesterday saying "Sally, there's a patron here who would like to speak with you." Yikes!! It was an account issue, something I couldn't do anything about because I'm not even trained on the circulation system yet. It was frustrating not to be able to help her but I think she was understanding. I'm sure there's more of that to come.

Everyone has been so welcoming and helpful since I've arrived, it's been wonderful. Luckily they have been very understanding about my awful cold as well. Apparently it was passed around the branch before I got there so they are all very sympathetic. The branch I work at is filled with wonderful staff and I feel very lucky to be a part of the team!

That's all for now. Back to my stuffy head life.

Another update

Here's a picture of Sammy with his whiskers covered in butter. (and a couple more cute pics)

So far...so sick

Okay, it's about time for the update. The move went...well. About as well as can be expected. I had one major glitch which threw everything off schedule but all in all it went well. And a HUGE GINORMOUS THANK YOU to N, R and MK/DB!!! You all are the GREATEST for putting in the extra mile for me!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

I had a week off more or less and I'm so glad I did because I would've been totally overwhelmed if I started my new job last week. The week was still filled with finding grocery stores, meetings for work, getting the odds and ends taken care of, not to mention unpacking. My new place is really cute, I like it quite a bit. It's on the first floor which is the best for my situation. As of this very second, Lyra is running around the apartment at top speeds chasing after the cats and generally getting into trouble. I would've made some enemies real quick in this place had I taken a second floor apt. Speaking of animals, they're all doing well. Monkey's taken the longest to get adjusted but he's fine now.

I had my first day at work today. It went really well. Spent the first half in benefits orientation then went over to the branch to get adjusted, meet people and that sort of thing. I'm exhausted now because not only am I totally overwhelmed, I'm also sick. I got hit with the dreaded cold over the weekend and I'm feeling about the same today. I haven't had a voice most of the day and also a very painful cough. NOT fun. But as always, it could be worse!! I did, however, make my first managerial decision today! One of my new staff came up to me and said the other branches have adopted a policy of wearing jeans on Friday and Saturday, can we do the same? She said she asked my supervisor first before I started and my supervisor said it's up to me. So I said, as long as the jeans aren't ratty looking I think it's a great idea! Yeah!! Go team!!

I have had a BLAST hanging out with N, R and the L's!! It is so fantastic being close to them and spending more time with them!!

That's all that fit to print as of now, I'll try to keep things up to date!

Music area

More updates to come, but here's my new music area in the new place.

Expect the unexpected

I've had some challenging moves, but this one is turning out to be quite challenging, at least so far (knock on wood). The two main issues that have significantly slowed me down are as follows:

1) Lyra became extremely ill last weekend forcing me to stay home and keep her calm instead of doing my loads and loads of laundry and packing. She's absolutely fine now but I was quite worried for a while.

2) My power is out courtesy of Ike. I went out and bought a ton of votive candles so I can pack tonight. Not cool.

Yikes!

Packing it up

I'm in the long and insane process that is packing right now. I've made some progress though you'd never be able to tell by setting foot in my apartment. It is an absolute disaster zone right now and I'll be glad when it's next Sunday and I'll be starting to settle in my new place.

I called N&R one night while I was packing to ask "how do I pack wrapping paper?" Essentially they both said "well, that's very conscientious of you but it's probably not worth the hassle." Then I spoke with my friend R and he gave me the fabulous idea of wrapping all my packed up boxes in wrapping paper. Then when I'm moving in I would be excited about opening all my new presents from...me to me! Oooh, what's this one? *shake shake shake* It might be a...box of socks and music books! Yay!! Happy move in day!!

Too cute to pass up

I had a sweet, sweet moment with my Sammy boy last night and did my best to capture it on film. Love this cat!