Stay-cation!

In the space of a day Mentee has been brought in and run away again. She is a lost child, adrift in a world of drugs and prostitution. Her son is going to be recommended for a permanent home, which sounds like adoption, but I think there might be more hoops to jump through for that. I think my brother and his wife would be the perfect choice for the beautiful boy--they have already adopted one child and I think another would be a blessing for them. He isn't mine to give away though and I am sure that the red tape is boundless.

****

I am officially on vacation! For two weeks! And I am getting paid for the entire thing! Can I use any more exclamation points??? Probably! My plans are to go window shopping downtown, get my hair did up pritty, see friends and relatives and probably do some marathon canning and baking. I got some craigslist skis today for cheapo and will get to use them on Monday, skiing with some of my Dad Family.

Today was my last day at work before vacation. I had a lot of stange experiences with patrons. I had to tell the same person 10 different rules they were breaking, one at a time. Then there were comments from the peanut gallery when I had to ask a man to keep his large frame backpack with him and when I asked another man to respect others when using his cell phone. Other patrons came out and said "yeah" and "you better shut up" when I was talking to these two--I told them I had it under control. Later, a patron I know well came up and told me that someone else at the computers had said I was "mean" after I asked another woman to keep her belongings with her. Well, I tried to be polite. Can't make everyone happy I guess.

On the other hand, I had a pretty darn good yearly review and a teen I know from the Interagency School came in and brought me the CD she made of her own music! Sorry, more exclamation marks. I got excited there for a moment because I hadn't seen her for a while and I was sure she had forgotten who I was. Turns out I lost her to another branch. But she came in today and brought me this CD and when I got home and listened to it I was blown away. It was so good. We had a great conversation and I recommended a book to her that we had just gotten on promoting your band. It was probably the most teen librarian moment I have had in forever--a great way to end the work day and to start vacation.

Chaos in Libraryland

I hinted at the changes that might be coming for my job and while I still don't know exactly what they will be, they definitely will be.

Right now they are working on a re-organization of managers and what, for the sake of space, I will call assistant managers, although there are several job classes in actuality. After they figure out where all those people will go, they will move the rest of us around. I highly doubt my branches will be my branches any more. It makes me sad to think about. I love my coworkers and my buildings and (most of) my patrons. My schedule will also be different, but I am not terribly worried about that, since we will be open fewer hours and I don't forsee a lot of hardship there.

Since we still don't know any specifics, many of us are anxious, even though we know it will turn out ok in the end. Rumors and speculation are flying all over, which isn't conducive to doing your job. My mental state is all over the place. We likely won't find out our fates until around January 2nd--that is just before the 30 day limit admin has to notify us of changes.

On the upside, Comixtravaganza is happening this year. There will be some things happening at Central and South Park--I will link to them later on, the calendar isn't updated yet. We are having the draw-a-thon at the University Library on January 23rd, starting at 2pm. Matthew Southworth is going to hold a drawing workshop before hand (here is a review of Stumptown by him and Greg Rucka). Zanadu Comics is helping sponsor (Thank You Perry!), so the awesome Sean is coming to hand out door prizes, help judge and hand out the winning prizes. I am excited that I get to have this last hurrah before the changes hit.

Wearing different hats

I am feeling more alive today, although I am trading the being tired and grumpy for stomach upset. I won't beleaguer you today with my whining, just know why I am still not quite myself.

I need a costume for Saturday. There is a costume party a bunch of friends are giving and they are REALLY into the dressing up thing. I have dressed up in the past and had some fun with it, but lost my momentum over the years. Last year I didn't even bother.

I looked through my costume box (doesn't everyone have one of these?) and found that I really have 2 choices, both of which will require the aquisition of some accessories. I can be a pirate BORING! or a steam punk. The second one is cool, but I am not sure that it is recognizable. I hate it when people ask: So what are you, anyway? Are there any recognizable steam punk characters besides Agatha Heterodyne from Girl Genius? Maybe Nausicaa or Sheeta from Castle in the Sky. But none of those lend to good costumes. Maybe I will just make a sign to wear that says "What? You don't know?" and leave it at that.

****

Lots going on in Libraryland. I am taking on more responsibilities while trying to be more organized and lessen others so that I don't get overwhelmed. It is working so far. I am redesigning and taking over updates on my Instruction Committee intranet site. That will only be a lot of work at the beginning. I have done two branch sites already, but the editing interface is pretty different for the committee site. I have been playing with that and learning about the difference between publishing pages and team pages. I have made a few small changes to start with and plan to make more sweeping ones when I have hang of things.

I am also "weeding" our Flickr account. Our paid subscription is up and we aren't going to renew. The free option only shows the most recent 200 pictures, so I will be choosing the "best" and deleting the rest so that the good ones show up on the blog.

Missing My Coffee

Day 4 back at work and day 5 on a detox diet. The hardest thing has been no wheat products. If you know me, you know that I love to make scones and bread. Not really worth it without good flour--no offense to you that can't have it, I am sure I would make do with some gluten free substitute if I had to. But it is only a short while--and getting shorter as we speak.

Not just because time keeps movin' on, but also because I don't feel like going for a month, or two weeks even. I am thinking that a week is good enough. My digestive track reset itself right away, and actually wasn't too bad the week before. I think I just have to remember to eat at the right times, eat better portions, eat more whole foods. Baking at home is a good way to do that. Gotta stop grabbing the odd pastry with my coffee when I treat myself. Cut back on the rushing around and stay home more. I am not sure I will ever get the hang of that last one.

****

Work has been great. Wallingford is beautiful! I will take some pictures next week and add them to flickr. Everything is streamlined and new. We have 2 self check out computers that actually work and a staff only computer at the desk, which is streamlining delivery. The librarian's desk is way across the room, but it is good that I can see half the room and the circ staff can see the other half, so no shenanigans! We wave at each other every now and then, or dial the I/C and tell each other when we want our breaks. As the day goes on, I find more reasons to go hang out by the circ desk.

In the more general sense of my job, I feel change coming. Not sure what yet, but something.

****

Dr. T and I found some cabinets that work very well. They are behemoth in size and are challenging for putting things in that you might want to find again, like food, or dvds, which is what we are using them for. I am sure we will figure it out though. Hopefully Dr. T will be able to get The Boy's bed uncovered by the time we get home tonight.

A Furlough is NOT a Vacation

That is what our sign read on Monday as employees gathered in front of the Central Library to inform the citizens of Seattle of the impact of budget cuts on services. Mayor Nickels was there along with our City Librarian, Susan Hildreth and a camera crew. I was a little disappointed with the number of us that turned out--only 30-40 people came. There were speeches, I shook Mayor Nickels hand twice. I for one am sad he is leaving office. I feel he has done a good job getting things done in this city and put priority on services that need it. He has always been an advocate for the library.

I had several people come to the volunteer day I organized after and Dr. T and Sister R came along to help as well. We washed down and scraped old paint off the outside of UDYC, then painted part of the building and the hand rails. It was sunny in the afternoon so it got a little hot out there towards the end. We did a lot of talking about work as we painted. If only we were in charge, everything would be perfect ;)

On Tuesday, Dr. T, my Dad and I went out to the Olympic Peninsula to go hiking. First we stopped at SolDuc hot springs to pick up my bathing suit that I left there two weeks before. I had called ahead and they were saving it for me. I told them I would be coming to pick it up. But of course they didn't have it when I got there and digging through their bins of loaner suits, I found my bottoms. No top. Sigh. I was a little disgruntled and it was anti climatic because I had been sure after I left it there they would never find it. Their organization seems a little lacking. The only thing they said was "who did you talk to?" I don't remember but I am not sure I would say if I did. They seemed more interested in getting someone in trouble than helping me find my bathing suit.

Luckily the hike was about as perfect as it could get. We saw a lot of colorful fungi, the day was just sunny enough to bring out the green in the rain forest and the falls were beautiful. On the way back we picked huckleberries, which we ate in pancakes this morning, yum. We stopped in Port Townsend on the way back and had dinner at Silverwater Cafe. The food was wonderful and a great ending to the day. We took the ferry back to Edmonds and got home at around 10pm. It was a really full day.

Yesterday was spent putting more things away. We got a nice table off Craigslist on Sunday and we had to make room for it. The result is that you can actually get into the kitchen now.

Family that Plays Together...

I started a post last week and realized it was all whiney, so I deleted it. And that's all I have for excuses.

We start our work furlough on Monday. The entire library system is closed from Aug 31-Sept 6, then also closed Monday Sept 7th for labor day. No pay, so I have been working on saving some money up and I think everything will be ok. Except for the speeding ticket I got on my way back from Spokane. And the doctors bills I have from my wellness and hearing check up (it costs a ton to go to the doctor these days, even with insurance!) Oops, there I am whining again.

Last night I went to see Tacocat with my dad's family. We went to the Funhouse which was a weird kind of treat. There is a basketball court in the back, so we played Horse and two on two with the monorail going by in the background and music pumping (do you say pumping in punk speak? Shows I am not a punk...) out the door. I played a lame game of horse, but made it up a bit during the two on two. I am a bit sore today from all that jumping around.

Tacocat was pretty good, but Used Kids did a longer set and weren't as much fun to listen to. The music was mostly a wash, but at least it was only a $5 cover and we had a great time otherwise.

Ask and you shall receive!

It works out sometimes. My boss called today and offered me a 2-6 on Friday. Sold! And during the conversation I fit in that there is a family dinner on Wednesday night and since I am an extra body couldn't I work the early shift? Yes?! Score!

To celebrate I went to VV to drop off some undesirables in the fight to get the house more livable (isn't this how you celebrate? No? Well aren't you weird) and I got a cool jar to make brandy in. I still need several more, but this one will be pretty and multi-functional.

In the picture, you can see my pretty new jar, my new sunglasses and the darned sun tea jar I decided to use for the peach brandy. It is leaking like a mother. My sis is saving me a big jar from her work, which will work much better. My latest attempt to stop the leak was to put plastic wrap around the nozzle and try to push it into the seal with dental floss. We shall see. The new jar will house cherry brandy. I hope it all works or what a waste of good fruit!

But then, since I have 20 lbs of cherries, a pound or so won't be missed. I spent a couple of hours last night watching a movie and pitting cherries, and now the creases around my fingernails are black. It is fading already, but since I have a ton more to go you might catch me purple handed yet.

Almost Crazy, Almost There...

Once again, too long between posts.

Planning wedding showers and bachelorette parties is time consuming! I am done with everything (crossing my fingers) except food. Usually I go all out with cooking and yumminess, but I have to work. My 4 hour shift this Friday miraculously turned into an 8 hour and I get to work on Saturday too, and suddenly I have little time for shopping, let alone cooking. Amazon Fresh, take me away! Maybe the miracle will reverse itself. Wish me luck.

The 4th was fun, although we saw few fireworks. We went down to some of Dr. T's friends' for a bbq. The food was amazing--some had been on the bbq for 2 days! Yum, so good. We stopped at the dollar store on the way home and had fun scouring the aisles for useless and useful times, the first to poke fun at the second to make use of. That place looked like a mob had hit though; there was stuff all over the floor in all the aisles. What amazed me was the freezer section. Red Baron Pizza....

Today was wonderful! I met up with a friend and walked down to Fremont. We perused the Sunday Market, I got some new sunglasses--let me tell you about this in a moment--and had thai for lunch. We also stopped in a couple of really cute boutiques and I think I got someone a very sweet something. That's all I can say...

Sunglasses...I have been holding onto a pair for YEARS that were non-prescription for gods knows why, until I could finally use them now that I have contacts. YEARS. I have been using them for several months and aside from a scratch, they have been great. I wear them biking even. Well, not anymore. I accidentally set off the alarm at work the other day, partially due to my bike gloved fingers refusing to press the right buttons and my bike being unmanageable in the scuffle to turn the alarm off. Somehow (or just my usual me-ness) I set the sunglasses down in the water fountain and left them there. I didn't notice until it was time to leave. And of course they were gone. I wouldn't even have known where I left them except that a co-worker mentioned having seen them there. I hope some &*^%$ person is enjoying the hell out of them.

The Boy's basketball camp was successful--if successful means "kicked his ass everyday and made him want to go back for more." He came home and his ass was in bed except for dinner--but then he got up every morning, got himself ready and caught the bus to SPU on time. It is the most responsible I have seen him in...well...ever. He had good stories about his games and his teams got a couple of awards: 3 on 3 champions and Shooting league champions. This one might be a keeper.

The Stranger Said Boo

There is a ton of controversy going around the library right now, for several reasons. Our central branch had a re-structure of employees. They moved people around, changed managers, moved managers out to branches, combined or split apart departments, etc. None of this really affects us out in the Branches, so we are bystanders in this and can't really understand what they are going through down there. Some people seem fine with it, while others hate it vehemently.

We also have some system wide changes coming up, as you may have seen in the news. The Seattle Times, The PI Book Blog and KUOW all covered our proposed changes to the Code of Conduct. These are basically rules which patrons should observe while using the library to ensure privacy, safety and well being for all present and the changes will make these rules clear as well as the consequences for breaking them. There has been a lot of support for the changes, both by staff and the public, although there are those who feel that the rules affect certain populations more than others.

Yesterday, The Stranger decided to take that stance in an article that was actually about something else. I suppose it helps make their case that we are a homeless and immigrant hating organization. This article exposes (through leaked material by one of my coworkers) that administration is planning to change some of our circulation policies, such as reducing check outs and holds to 50 and 25 respectively, from 100 items, and adding a fee for interlibrary loans. This is not expected to make the library a ton of money, and one goal is to make people think more about the actions they take. A lot of interlibrary loans are not even picked up from the library to be checked out, as are many holds. Interlibrary loans cost an average of $15 (some cost nothing more than their transportation and staff time, others I have heard of cost $150 just to borrow from another system) and holds that sit of the shelf and are not checked out also cost money and time.

The article is inflammatory and at times incorrect. The quotes from Nancy Pearl and King County Library System are good and constructive, but anything that came from Seattle Public tends to be overly emotional and finger pointing. I don't propose that these are the best choices for SPL to make for our system and our patrons and I hope more thought will go into them before they are finalized. So far, I haven't been able to find any other news agency (giving The Stranger the benefit of the doubt about being one) covering this story, but I hope one comes out soon. We need more balance in our lives right now.

Update: The library has posted this explanation of the changes as a news release.

All the Little Pieces

Less exciting goings ons this week. Lots of work, going to schools and booktalking/talking up the summer reading program--I love getting teens to talk to me. And let me just say that 6/7th grades are THE BEST because they aren't old enough to be too cool yet. But they are old enough to read the books I love. There you go.

My manager has returned to us, which is most awesome. The interim manager was great, but it meant that I had two of them for almost a year, which made some things challenging. It could have been much worse, but is already better. Sunshine!

Today I am having buffet sushi with my friend then a little mall excursion. My Crave boss has invited me to a bbq where I know only her, but it has been long enough since I have seen her that it sounds like a go too. Dr. T and I are supposed to fit making beer in there as well. This time will be an amber.

Yesterday was the weirdest. We just had about every personality type you could imagine in the library. I was glad to go home. We had secret identity man, Man beading in the children's area--got mad when I told him he had to move and threw pastries, Grumpy old guy that has to be waited on and to top the cake, Entitled woman who comes in right at closing, takes some time to pick out a dvd, then informs us she needs some special help. I WILL GIVE YOU SOME SPECIAL HELP! Ok, better now.

I unwound at Circus Contraption's The Show to End All Shows. It was wonderful and dark, funny and very very entertaining. I would recommend it, except that their last show EVER is today. CC is breaking up. It was grand and they will be missed.

Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday

So much keeps happening, I just can't keep up!

Dr. T graduated from Medical School over the weekend. There was much celebrating. His mother and brother came, as did his dad and some friends of the family. We all met up at the convocation, then everyone came to my place for a bbq. It definitely had a different feel from when I have a party, but that is probably because I don't know these folks as well, although they are all really nice. We did some sight seeing with Dr. T's mom and brother--hit the Seattle Center, the Ballard Locks and stopped in at the Fremont Sunday Market. It was a good time and I am so proud of my baby. Good job Dr. T!

On Sunday we also said farewell to our interim manager, who was with us for almost a year. We had a little picnic at the local park and talked around the circle. It was a nice evening, even if it was a little cool. The Boy had to miss all of the outings besides the graduation ceremony due to homework avoidance.

On Monday I had a driving marathon. It was a real test for Lady Gray, but she ran like a champ. I guess if she can get me to Nevada and back, she can get me all over the Puget Sound. I took The Boy to school in BFD in the morning, had about a half hour at home before I drove to Shelton to take my mentee to a bbq in Auburn. I dropped her and Little D off at the bbq, then ran some errands. She reminded me that she was a teenager when it was time to go home. She tried to talk me into leaving her there. To her credit, when I showed up at 6, she was ready to go and didn't argue at all. We had some good talking on the way back.

Rode to work this morning. Actually, to Roosevelt HS where I met 4 other librarians in an attempt to woo high schoolers into coming to Summer Reading programs--FREE BOOKS! You know you want one!

Too much time has passed

Facebook has taken over my online life--or more accurately a game called Mafia Wars. I am just getting over the hump of this addiction, where you can admit you have a problem and start pulling away. Plus the game just isn't as fun as it was a few days ago. Still fun, but not quite as fun. So I am here, making an effort to be away from the other tab open on my browser--I didn't say I was cured. I won't tell you about the game itself, because then you will either think that I am weak for being addicted to such a silly game or you will go play it yourself, get addicted and blame me....

So much has happened in non-online life the last couple of weeks. I rode my bike about 90 miles last month, and hope to continue that. The Boy, Dr. T and I went to Spokane over labor day, spent time with family and did wedding errands--I am sure you saw my shoes. The weather was gorgeous and the only thing I can complain about is not having enough time with my niece. She is so darling, but she doesn't really remember me and gets shy. I was hoping to get reaquainted with her over that weekend, but it turned out to be a little too busy. Sister M and her fiance were there, though and it was wonderful to see them and Papa P, my step dad for most of my childhood.

This weekend, well, I worked Saturday. But it was a good day. I like being at my small branch in the summer. It is really sunny in there, my co-workers rock and there are lots of goodies close by. Molly Moon's Ice Cream, Bella Cosa Foods and now Archie McPhee as of yesterday. I went to Bella Cosa and bought yummy cheese and salumi salami for my bbq/game night the next day. On Sunday I got the whole house sparkley then had family and friends over for a bbq, then later had more friends over for games. It turned out to be another beautiful day and all of my best friends made it--except Sister M, who living in Nevada is given a pass ;) Oh yeah, and it was my birthday.

In libraryland I have been setting up school visits for summer reading and book talks: my older teen list and my tween list; and scheduling Danger: Books! presentations for the fall. Soon, the Summer Reading Program will take over my life. This is the fan badge for the teen program, although they all look pretty much the same:

Get yours here.

cutest bike riding librarian

This could be any of 4 of us at work. Exciting, eh? Lately life has just been work, biking, and dvd's at home. I did go see a friend's band last week at The Comet Tavern. On a Wednesday. And I couldn't sleep after so I was sleep deprived and got sick for a day or two.

Oh yeah! And The Boy had his birthday! He is 15, can you believe it? I am having a hard time with it myself. I took him and a couple of friends to Gameworks on Saturday, then they went to the movie theater next door and I picked them up after. They saw Wolverine: Origins. I want to see that too, but I didn't want to cramp their style. It was the first time the 3 of them hung out together and really seemed to enjoy it.

And, even though I haven't been writing here, I have been writing over there.

It's Raining It's Pouring

Not sure why this rain is so tenacious. It must have been raining all night. I woke up early this morning, fumbling to the bathroom with all intents to go back to bed (I still might), when I step off the carpet into water. Splash, tepid wetness on my feet, between my toes, waking me up... It wasn't so bad, easily cleaned with a mop and I unclogged the drain outside the door to let the backed up water swirl down. Then I went to the computer to check the weather forecast (rain) and thought I heard water pouring in the storage room, where there should be no water to be poured. By the time I got in there with the flashlight, the sound was gone. There was a lonely puddle of water on the floor, again, not too bad. So I moved a couple boxes out of the way and called the landlords. I think it is coming in some vent pipes and leaking out of the furnace somewhere. I could hear gurgling (much like pouring) when the furnace turned on. That's a lot of rain.

This weekend was both lame and great. Lame because I had to work all weekend with The Boy here. Great because we had my Dad family over for dinner, minus Dad--Sorry! It was a beer tasting party. Dr. T and I made beer from the set up that two of my sibs gave me for xmas. The Dunkel Weissen was pretty tasty. Now we have to decide what to make next. Dinner turned out yummy too, even if it was an hour later than I thought it would be. We split into various entertainments and whiled the time away. Wii was played, others chopped things in the kitchen. I showed my sister's my p-patch and they were soon drawn away to the more interesting things growing in the more established plots. We packed the visit up fairly early as The Boy had school in the morning and Sister U still had studying that night.

Yesterday I went to see my mentee. I brought her some baby clothes and we chatted for a little over an hour. I keep wanting to take her out to do things, but her baby is still pretty young. She looked a lot healthier and happier this time around. The baby was darling. He is starting to fill out a little and he has the straightest, shiniest black hair you have ever seen on anyone.

I think that now I am going back to bed.

Dancing Around (The Subject)

So I am back, and I made it through 4 full days of work without going insane. It was difficult, but I did it. This was the first vacation I have had where I wasn't even tempted to check work email. I barely even thought about work. It was awesome. And nothing exploded while I was gone. I had the Google Maps class last night and it went swimmingly. People even showed up! The only bad thing was that I forgot to do a survey. Again. You would think those would be first on my brain, but somehow I always think "I should have had a survey" hours later when I contemplate the various ways that people could have found out about the program. You know what would have fixed this wondering???? A SURVEY!

And I am done with Twitter. I tried it, it bored me. It was nice to be able to update from the road without a computer, but in reality, I just don't have time for that horsepucky.

When I got back from vacation I had one day left to do with as I pleased--after I took The Boy up to school in BFD way early in the morning. What did I do with that day? Well, after my 4 hour nap, I read in the sun for an hour, sipping an iced coffee I made with my own spresso maker, the spent a couple of hours getting the p-patch ready. Weeded and fertilized and watered. Tomorrow I will go back and plant some corn, green onions, collards (we'll see which plantings win, inside or outside), then maybe I will get some volunteer time in--we have to do 8 hrs a year, which isn't very much unless you start in June and have to be done in October.

Before I left for vacation, I took pictures of a certain business of ill repute that was closed around a year ago and recently sprouted amazing amounts of graffiti. Please excuse me for feeling pride in something that I only took a picture of:



I told Dr. T that I was going to clean tonight, but now I just feel like curling up with my book. I don't even feel like eating dinner.

Economy and Green Things

Article and video with Susan Hildreth, the new City Librarian talking about the upcoming budget cuts and the increase in usage of the library in the last year. Also, today she sent an email to staff saying that she and the library board and directors will be giving back the 4.5% cost of living raise they received. You will remember that the Mayor and other city executives will be doing the same.

It brings a tear to my eye to think of the higher ups being selfless this way. Too bad AIG contractors couldn't do the same. We still haven't heard what the proposed budget cuts are, but I am sure these proclaimations of self sacrifice by administration is somewhat to soften the blow. Better a 4.5% pay cut than losing one's job, for sure.

I started planting indoors for my garden. With the weather so unpredictable, I want to make sure the last frost is done before I move planting outdoors. So far I am starting tomatoes, green beans, collard greens and pumpkins with plans for corn, lettuce and herbs. We are doing an herb garden at the house this year and I will plant the veggies at the p-patch. The strawberries over there are still doing well and the irises are coming back nicely. They were so beautiful last year.

Now That's Impressive

We have had a little bit of pressure here at work lately since the mayor mandated a 3% budget reduction for all city departments receiving money from the general fund (including the library). We have all been wondering where the cuts will ultimately come from and the speculations have run wild.

Today the mayor announced salary freezes for senior city executives and a 7 day furlow in the few city departments where salary freezes will not be put into affect. This includes the mayor, and gives back a 4.5% cost of living increase that went into effect in January. He's got my vote. ;)

In other news, I got an e-mail today from KCLS that I could re-apply to their hiring pool and increase my "score." I am almost thinking about doing it for the interviewing experience.

No woman cann't help to getting laid with you

Now there's some good english. It appears that I am an object used to lay women with. Yikes. And this email came from "me". Love these email scams, they just keep getting better. I didn't open this one for fear that my computer would self destruct, that is just the subject line.

I am home sick again today and I feel like my head weighs 100 lbs. Mostly right behind my nose. You can imagine my mouth open so I can breath and my head keeps bobbing forward with the imagined? weight in the front of my face. Drugs make me weird, so I have been trying to only use them at night aside from the usual ibuprofen.

I have a lot to do at work. My valentine's display is still up in the teen area and I need to finalize my summer reading programs. I have to change one date because of my sister's wedding. Which leads me to a somewhat amusing/embarrassing tale--to me anyway.

When I was looking at the vacation calendar to see if I could get the week off leading up to and including the weekend of the wedding, there was a note above the date that said "closed." I blame my cold addled brain that I thought that meant the library was closed, although I couldn't see any rational reason why. So I emailed the person that takes care of the calendar and ultimately approves vacation requests to find out. He, of course, emails me back to say that it meant "Maxed Out" and that he would change it to say so. I almost left it at that, but for some reason decided to email him back, joking about weddings planned at the last minute. He replied that a concession could be made for one day. I jumped on it, included my managers in the email requesting the week off sans Sunday, which I might get off anyway. He approved it right away.

Opps. Backwards. I am supposed to email my managers first and they send it to the vacation manager. I totally jumped them and did I feel dumb. Caught up in the moment with my excitement to get the day off and I was just starting this darn cold, I just wasn't thinking straight.

I hope that is the last dumb thing I do for a while. I also hope I am back at work tomorrow. I still feel like I have potential to do idiotic things in a situation where I need to use my brain, so it is probably good that I am at home.

Speaking of idiotic things to do while sick--how about ording things online? Amazon Fresh has come to my neighborhood! I totally want to order my groceries online!

Blame it on the Fever

Wow, 8 days without a post. That is a long time for me, and a lot has happened.

I had a program where we basically had a party in the meeting room. There were video games, board games, crafts and snacks. Everything was really popular and I had almost 30 people come. It was a lot of fun.

Went to Chop Suey to see the Bird and the Bee and they were great. One of the band members has another band, who opened, called Obi the Best, and I got their cd. Sister R and I went and met a few library friends.

I also went to Spokane for my niece's first birthday. She is such a sweetie. There were almost 40 people there, which attests to how well loved my brother, his wife and daughter are by their community.

Sister M got engaged last week, which is really exciting. We spent most of the rest of the weekend looking at wedding venues and dresses. It was fun to see her transformed into such a beautiful creature--not that she isn't anyway, but there is something different about putting on a wedding dress. Especially when you find the "right one."

Now I am sick. I went to work the last couple of days, but today really kicked my butt. I feel like there is a mass pressing into my head in the right side. Pressure is building... I just finished Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica and I don't know how I am going to wait for season 5.

Romance! Get some here!

Last week was a bit of a setback, as I had to take two days off sick. The thing that has gotten neglected most is my work plan, which I was mostly done with, but now I have to update with my smaller branch's plan. Shouldn't take too long, but I am always worried I will leave something out, and I can't REALLY be sure that my managers would catch it if I did. They both have a crazy lot on their plates lately.

Next weekend is the evil day of love. Dr. T, The Boy and I will be in Spokane for Niecy's first birthday. It is hard to believe it has been that long. Sister M and her man will be there. They just got engaged over the weekend, their one year anniversary. I am really happy for them. They are good people, to the core. The Boy was really happy to hear it too. The mad texting was pretty fun for a bit. Sister M asked me to be her maid of honor and I am totally honored. She has other friends, but we have become really tight these last...11 years. Ever since she nannied The Boy through his 3rd summer. BFF's! I am really excited for them both.

Oh yeah, so Dr. T, Sister M and her man, Brother M and his wife and I are having a triple date on V-day. I don't think I have even gone on a double date since I was 18. I am not 100% on that. There might have been a double date somewhere. My memory is as faulty as my hearing--ask anyone close to me. We are going out to dinner. Dr. T and I have a hotel, and I think I am going to bring the champagne I bought for New Years that we never drank. A romantic night in Spokane. Who would have thought?

Physical Therapy (feels like it should be a proper noun) is somewhat kicking my butt. Remembering to do the exercises twice a day shouldn't be that hard, but is proving to be anyway (See comment about memory above). I have managed to get most of them in, but they are making me achy, which makes me a bit cranky. I actually went to turn the hot tub up to use it today and found...no water :( I did notice that Landlord A had left on her climbing across the country odyssey. I guess she took the water with her. Sigh.