Cathy the Librarian

I’m glad that I decided to buy the Rice Krispies and strawberry marshmallows this past time I went grocery shopping. They were delicious!

I’ve had the worst turnout for my story times. In fact my best story time turnout was 14, which included parents, and someone else had actually done it for me, because I had to work at the first tech camp in my library system. Just so you know what a tech camp might entail, I talked about DDR and Guitar Hero and encouraged libraries to make it a part of their own libraries. Anyway, I’ve had terrible time trying to get people to go to my story times. Then to make matters worse, I read this article.

Okay, so maybe Webster is “a little bit” bigger than Hilton (2000 census – Webster 37,926 Parma 14,822). But still! Then of course, I could decide not to have story time next spring. But what would happen then? People would complain, just like they complain that I don’t have story time all year round. Ugh. I love doing story time, even if there are only two adorable little kids that I read to, but its sometimes distressing with all the preparation I have to put into each story time session I do.

Then I made the mistake of trying to do an educational program for Columbus Day. I called it “Discovering Dewey Decimal”. I had three kids, all in one family. My one homeschooling family that comes to all my programs. I was quite proud of the program I had put together; a tour of the library, with me asking questions the whole time. Then I had the kids go through a bunch of Jack’s clothes, toys, books and food and organize them into categories and sub categories. I think the kids really enjoyed this, and it made it easier for them to understand how dewey decimal is organized. After that I had them do a dewey decimal treasure hunt. I guess all that was important was that the people that were there had a good time.

If you look at the D&C’s website, Hilton has been getting quite a bit of publicity. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been all good. The town and village are fighting over where the library should be. Many residents want to keep it in the village. Everyone has a position and they’re all being very loud about it. Personally, I don’t care where it is, I just want there to be more space so I don’t have to continually shift books, so that I can have more programming, so that the teens have their own space with their own computers that they can feel more comfortable and adults don’t yell at me about the “hooligans”. Part of the reason people want the library in the village is so that the students can walk right to the library after school, however once they get to the library people complain because they are in the library and taking over the computers and being noisy. Recently, due to all the newspaper press, people have been coming up to me daily to tell me that we better not move out of the village. I’d love not to move out of the village, but someone better give us space to build a nice cozy (but big) library. Parma keeps growing, even if some people would rather not admit it. We need to have a library that is big enough to provide the services that a larger community expects.

Another fun topic. A patron complained that we did not monitor what movies kids/teens take out, because we should not allow them to take out PG-13 or R rated movies. Now we have forms parents have to fill out before kids/teens take out movies and we put stickers on their cards to show what rating they can take out. But that’s not good enough. According to a certain member of the community, the murders in Rochester are comparable to the atrocities going on in the public library… the filth and violence we allow people to check out is deplorable… I guess we shouldn’t have the Passion of the Christ, Schindler’s List, or Saving Private Ryan. Those are all R rated movies. Shame shame on us. I’m a mother first and then a librarian, and I am OUTRAGED that they would compare us to the atrocities going on recently. I do not encourage kids to check out these kind of films. In fact, should you look at our kids collection, we have every single Elmo, Dora and Veggie Tale movie in existence. However, I have ONE child. Not 5,000. I am not going to monitor what everyone else’s child is taking out. Not only is that not my job, its also illegal. There is this thing called Intellectual Freedom. I think its important to let parents do their job. They need to take responsibility for their children’s well being. This is not to say that I don’t care what happens to these kids. If someone was trying to rape a kid, I would do what I could to stop it. However I don’t think its my place to tell kids what they can/can’t check out. I’d be pissed off if someone told my kid they couldn’t check something out. That’s why I went through the hours of labor. So when he gets home with it, I could yell at him and tell him he’s grounded. Also parents all have different limits for their kids. Some parents are okay with sex but not violence. Some are okay with swearing but not sex. Some are okay with the horror movies but realistic violence. Some don’t want their kids watching any of it. What are we supposed to do? Get rid of the DVDs? But what about the huge percentage of people that come to the library just to get movies? What are we saying to them?

I am sure that there is going to be LOTS of arguments and bloodshed over the next few months over these two topics, and the library will not go anywhere, and the boss lady will stress out more and more until they push her over the deep end. I don’t want to see that… wait maybe I’ll video tape it and put it on youtube. 🙂

Irondequoit may have it even worse though. Poor things. Our prayers go out to you… wait I shouldn’t pray should I? I’m evil and corrupt and the spawn of satan, or something like that.

Irondequoit Libraries Top Ten List

We were only gone a week, but I feel so out of it. Plus I only gave myself one day to recuperate from the changes: time, weather and reality. We got back home last night at about 9:30 pm. I’m really glad that I tried to clean up the house a little before leaving, because even with that, it looks like a mini hurricane came through the house. Papers, clothes and toys are flying everywhere and I can’t tell if I’m awake or sleeping.
Luckily, I don’t have any programs going on Monday, so I can prepare for the onslaught of September: back to school, story times and after school kids. You’d be surprised (or not), we actually get more kids in the library during the school year than over the summer. We are so close to all the neighborhood schools that right after school gets out, they come streaming in to the library in droves. I think it may be because many of the kids live outside the village so that its not as easy to get to the library during the summer.

On to the fun bits of my vacation! When we weren’t at DisneyLand, we spent all of our time with our friends Robin and Aaron. Spending time with them makes me wish that I lived in California (sorry mom). They are so full of energy and fun. Plus its so easy to just sit, talk and enjoy being in their presence. There are also two big reasons to like them so much:

1. Aaron’s favorite Muppet is Pepe, the King Prawn
2. Robin’s favorite author is Charles de Lint (and he’s one of my favorites)

There are, of course, other reasons to love them such as, their unending kindness, their spiritedness, their huge collection of books, Robin’s unfaltering sense of what is right, their adorable boxer named Barkley, their two amazing kids… but my fingers might start to hurt soon and we don’t want that. 🙂
Some of the highlights of our trip:
The spa. This was definitely the highlight of my trip (sorry Disneyland). Robin and I went in and relaxed in the jacuzzi for a while, took showers to cool off, then went in the sauna. I had never been in one, and while I knew that it was going to be hot, I really hadn’t expected it to be that hot. Afterwards we showered again and went our separate ways for our swedish massages. I had only had one massage before but it really made me realize why people like them so much. My only problem was not telling the woman to lay off the small of my back soon enough, and I ended up with a little bruise. Other than that, it was very relaxing. I was surprised, because I expected that my back would be my favorite part of the experience, but it was actually my hands, feet and scalp/hair that were the most relaxing.
After that we each had an aromatherapy immersion wrap. At first I wasn’t sure what to expect, but what they do is rub you all over with scented oil and then wrap you up like a present. It was so lovely and relaxing that I fell asleep. I think I may have even started snoring a little (doh)! Afterwards, I almost wanted to hug the lady that did the wrap… but I didn’t. 🙂 We did the sauna thing again and then feeling light and refreshed, went on to face the world. Absolutely wonderful. Now I have to find some place in Rochester that does that stuff.
Then we went to DisneyLand for a couple days (with the terrible 115 degree heat), came back and hung out with Robin and Aaron for a couple more days (with the beautiful cloudless sunny days) and then came back on Saturday night. Of course, our first full day back in Rochester, its cloudy, drizzley and bleak. How typical. Blegh.

Off to bed so I can go to work refreshed and full of vigor (not)! 🙂

And its hot hot hot! Right now we’re in Sherman Oaks, California. It was supposed to be about 110. Luckily we’re in wonderful company. We’re at our friends’ place right now. Aaron does car reviews for about.com. They have a great dog named Barkley. Jack LOVES her, but Barkley is pretty old, so she’s too tired to play much. Tomorrow, I get to go to a spa with Robin (Aaron’s wife) and get a massage! Yay! Then at some point we’re going to Disneyland. I was supposed to listen to all the details, but I sort of faded out at some point. Sorry Jeff.

On a separate note, I just sent my resume to the B&L Library, downtown. They have a new opening for teen librarian in their new teen center. The job description sounds like it was written specifically for me, so I’m really excited… however it would be a big change. I’m so used to working in teeny tiny libraries, so I think it would be really different. I enjoy quite a bit of freedom in my current library that I might not get if I took the position in Central. Still, I’m really interested in finding out what the job will really be like… I will of course keep all of you posted… unlike how I’ve done in the past. (Yes, shameful, I know) Off to drink yummy California wine!

I have what I like to call “Teen Tuesdays” at my library. Every Tuesday there is a program just for teens. They don’t have to remember a whole bunch of days during the month. All they need to know is that if its a Tuesday and its 3:30, the room is theirs. Today they came in extra early, so I decided to open up the room early. We all went in there (I think there were about twenty of them) at about 1:45 and they were crazy! At 3:30, I was exhausted, so I sent them away. I should be amazed at what comes out of their mouths, but then I remember what I was like as a teenager… I think I’m glad that they are comfortable around me, but then again, do they respect me as an adult? What kinds of boundaries do I need to set, besides the obvious ones? I must say that I’m glad I can get so many enthusiastic teens in the library on a Tuesday afternoon in the summer, and I’m glad that they like me. Of course they just have so much energy, that it gets emotionally exhausting… is that possible?
Anyway, I’m glad to be back in the blogsphere. I need to do this more often. Of course I say that a lot, don’t I?

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Monday I decided to go to the doctor’s to get checked out for the spotting. Once I got to the office at around 3 pm, I started bleeding a lot more. After waiting almost two hours, I finally got to see the doctor. By that time I was having pretty awful cramps and the bleeding got really heavy. The doctor said that it was most likely a miscarriage, but she wanted me to go to the hospital for an ultrasound to make sure.  By the time I left (Jeff came to pick me up, the sweetie) it was 5:45 pm.

We got to Strong, and they got us in pretty quickly. The bleeding just seemed to get heavier and heavier. They put an IV on me and drew some blood. One of the people doing it was a student, and it hurt quite a bit. Jeff watched my face, and my expression was too much for him to handle, so he almost passed out. Poor guy. Throughout the whole thing Jeff was really good to me.

Eventually we got in for the ultrasound. They said that there really wasn’t anything in there except for some clots, and that by the look of it, there probably hadn’t been a baby there anyway. What probably happened is that my body absorbed the baby much earlier and my body still thought I was pregnant.

Finally we checked out at about midnight. Just as we were leaving, I started feeling dizzy and sweaty so I sat down. I started feeling worse, so I went up to Jeff and then I passed out in his arms. I came to pretty quick, but I realized that I hadn’t eaten in about 11 hours.  They brought me back in, I had some icky cookies and some orange juice, and after a couple minutes, I felt better. We went out and Jeff got me a roast beef sandwich, and the new medicine I needed to take.  We eventually got home at 12:45 am.

Early on I felt horrible. Eventually I started feeling better and by the ultrasound, I was ready to move on. However now I’m starting to feel very melancholy, and I just want to sleep.  At first, I wasn’t sure whether or not to post this, but I think I really needed to write things down and get things off my chest. It helped a little, but I still feel a little sad. I might be pretty useless for the next couple days, I think.

Thanks for everyone’s prayers. It really feels good to know that when I really need people, they are there for me. I love all of you. 🙂

Have they all gone mad? I started this post before Friday when the bleeding started, and I’m even more furious now… which I wouldn’t think possible, but it is. I’m having trouble with my pregnancy and I would love this kid to pieces, and then there are other people that… well… I suggest having tissues with you. Or something to punch.

Mom tapes a pacifier to child’s mouth

Three year old dies in car accident, due to not being in a car seat — what’s worse is that after the accident, the family all posted weird rip messages to the baby on myspace.

Parents leave child is stroller while on Disney ride.

Vegan parents feed baby herbal tea, flax seed oil, fruit juices and soy drinks

Mother Microwaves Newborn in Microwave – this is on Snopes, so you have to go through the fiction stories to get to the true ones at the bottom.

Boy kept in closet for days on end, and dies in closet

Okay, so Jeff will yell at me for posting about this, and Sam will be mad at me for not calling her, and maybe this post will suddenly disappear out of embarrassed, but I need to get it out.

Friday after work, I went to pick up Jack at my mom’s house. I went to use the bathroom, and there was blood. I called the doctor (and the doctor said) no more jumping on the bed, or lifting anything or cleaning the house (yeh, like that’ll happen) or moving around too much. He didn’t really go into any details, just said if it gets worse, call the doctor on Monday, and then he hung up. (Without even saying good-bye)

I have continued to bleed since then. I’ve talked to a couple people about it, and they each knew someone who’s bled throughout their pregnancy, including my mom (Sam, you trouble maker). This doesn’t really make me feel much better, even though I know it should. I’m usually highly emotional anyway, so this just aggravates the emotional side of me. I know, logically, that I shouldn’t worry too much and that I should take it easy, but I can’t help it! Plus I keep thinking, was it the DDR? I know I’ve had coffee, not every day, but… Am I not drinking enough water? Was I getting too worked up about summer reading going well? Am I carrying my 38 pound two year old around too much? Could it be the Lamicital (for my seizures), which they say is okay, but do they really know?

So now I have to just hang around, not doing much. I missed the Corn Hill Arts Festival, which would have been hot and a lot of walking. Plus I’m worried now that the doctor won’t let me go to California. Of course, what’s more important, the health of your child or a couple hundred bucks. I’m actually already out about $450 because I was supposed to go on a cruise for the first time IN JANUARY which is when I’m due. 🙁

Well at least I’m mostly healthy. Jack and Jeff are healthy. Hopefully my little (girl) is still healthy too.

I wrote this one for someone special that’s going through some hard times. She’s been really down and calling me constantly, which is okay, because I hope that talking to me helps. I love her a lot and I hope she’s not annoyed at me…

she is lost
in thoughts she cannot
control

she is frightened
to open her eyes and see
the future

she is concerned
for those who have already
left her behind

she is reminded
that in order to be happy
she must let go

she is strong
yet she doesn’t know that
her greatest strength
is her mind

she is afraid
that maybe she’s already
moved on and forgotten
that

she didn’t want to let go

Check out this news article.

I was out to breakfast this morning, with the ladies in my life and Jack. Jenny had been watching the news and they had a spot about a group of gay people who were attacked early in the morning. They called the police, and then the police came, let the attackers go, attacked the gays and then brought some of them to jail.

Does this really happen here?  I thought we were supposed to be a gay friendly city. Maybe its just because I surround myself with gay friendly people. It really makes me sick just thinking about it. What’s worse, is that more immediate action should have been taken, and it wasn’t.  I am ashamed of the police department for allowing this to happen. If it had me in that situation, and if the police who came didn’t like women, would that be allowed to happen? I thought the police were supposed to keep everyone safe. Obviously not, I guess.

Well, here’s one librarian that wants to see that justice is done swiftly.  Goodnight. 🙁