Cathy the Librarian

Jack is sick, and I feel helpless. He coughs this terrible hacking cough and he’s much quieter than normal. At night I can hear him tossing in his sleep and then HACK HACK HACK he coughs. I don’t know what to do, and all I really want to do is cuddle him and make him all better. I haven’t decided if I should stay home to cuddle with him all day, or if I should just let my mom do it. I know that she’d be fine, since I’m sure that she cuddled me to make me better when I was little, but I’d rather it was me that was doing the cuddling. Oh well.

BTW, I knew that he was really sick when he didn’t really want to eat anything… well except blueberry cobbler, cookies, animal crackers and m&ms… hmm I wonder if he’s just playing with us.

Double BTW. Jack is getting really good at making the sign for more, and he uses it quite often. I think I have a really hungry baby. I’ll pretend its because he’s so tall.

I’ve always liked these Bancroft girls. They are so completely different. Really, you meet them and you really can’t believe that they are sisters, but they are and they are both really wonderful. I’m always sad when everyday life takes over and we can’t spend much time together.

I finally found a way to trap Clorinda into my snares. I showed her the felted bag that I made (yes I still need to post pictures) and she really wants to make one. Then she started seeing other things that are felted and she especially would like to try making felted beads. I’ve always wanted an excuse to make them, and now I have a double reason to make them, because I love any excuse to hang out with people like Clorinda. She is intelligent and quiet, yet she doesn’t mind talking about silly things too, like Walter the Farting Dog.

Yea felted beads!

I am in the process of listening to a couple of David Sedaris’ books on cd, as read by the author, and I love them! He has a wonderful way with the mundane things of everyday life and making them sound so crazy… although maybe they are crazy and I’m just insane in comparision. Whatever it is, I’m really in love with this guy. Its a shame that he’s gay and I’m married. Needless to say, you should all listen to his books. Really, I suggest NOT reading the books and listening to them instead. I think its a whole different experience, especially since he reads them himself. Just divine!

I finally had some time to read some new comic books! I read Grey Horses, Bumperboy loses His Marbles, The One I Love, Tarot Cafe, Salamander Dream, and the first volume of The Walking Dead. I loved Grey Horses and Salamander Dream. They were so sweet and refreshing, plus the author, Hope Larson, went to school at Rochester Institute of Technology! Her illustrations are quirky and flowy, which is very different from the manga or the super hero art. I must say that I’m glad people are expanding the subject matter of comic books. It makes it a lot more accessible to a wider variety of people. Good examples are Fashion Kitty and Baby Mouse. Pink illustrations, need I say more?

On the other hand, I’m reading the Walking Dead. Talk about your gore fest! I mean I understand that its zombies, but this is way violent, which helped in the decision to put older teen stickers on them. This is not to say that they aren’t good. They are really good. The author decided to go the more philosophical zombie route, a la George A. Romero. I think this was an excellent decision because its kept my attention a lot longer than a plain old slasher type zombie comic would.

I will keep you posted on how wonderful the Walking Dead series is, however I think I may continue to like it, if the first one and a half books are any proof.

My family is too simple. We are all getting really excited about going to the state fair in Syracuse, well except Jeff, since he doesn’t do fairs. My mom is super excited and my dad can’t wait to show Jack the pigs and goats. My sister Jenny hasn’t shown too much enthusiasm yet, but I think that its partly because it pales in comparison to Disney World, which is where we are all going to in January. I guess I can understand. i agree, although I think its fun to
experience new things with Jack. I think that if it was just my sister, my parents and I, that it would be okay, but by adding Jack, just makes it more special. I can’t wait to show him all the sculptures made out of cheese. Weee!

My boss, wonderful lady that she is, keeps telling me that I should do school visits. I have absolutely know idea what to do at one. I know that I might want to read a book to the younger kids and for everyone tell them who I am and let them know what wonderful books and programs we have. I think I’m supposed to do some book talking and then let everyone ask me questions like, “Did it hurt to get your nose pierced?” and “How many piercings do you have?” and “Why don’t you look like a librarian?” and “Why did you just read a book about a farting pig to a group of juniors in high school?”

As you can see I have no idea on how to go about this, so tips and hints are greatly appreciated. All I know is I am definately wearing my booger pin at all school visits!

I’ve been having problems with story times. For some reason, no one’s been coming. I don’t think I’m awful. I know I’m not the best, but I don’t think that’s a reason for no one to show up. I try my darndest! Maybe I should have a pro come in and critique my story time to give me tips.

Anyway, I do all this preparation to get a theme together, find coloring pages, create finger people, get myself all worked up and then… only five people will show up! Last spring I did two 3 – 5 year old story times and two 1 – 2 year old story times. Only one kid showed up to one of the 3 – 5 year old story times and I think I basically cancelled one of the 1 – 2 year old ones. Then people get mad because I don’t have enough story times! What can I do? I’m only one person doing the work of two (or sometimes 3 – 4) people! I love my job, but I can never seem to make people happy. I even put out surveys and put them on the kids blog, but even then only five people have filled them out, even though they’re only four questions long, and its just a check the box kind of survey. Jeeze!
This fall I decided to cut one of the 1 – 2 year old story times and I made one of the 3 – 5 year old ones an evening drop in story time. I guess we’ll just see how many kids show up.

I’ve added new programs and made some existing programs available to more age groups. We now have a drawing group and a permanant yugioh group. I hope that if I do a lot of regular programs instead of merely special programs that the kids will know to be at the library at a certain time and I can get to know more of the kids. We shall see.

I love the kids, teens and summer reading, but boy am I glad summer reading is over! I have to have enough enthusiasm for everyone. Trying to get some people to read, is like trying to pull teeth. Big fat teeth that have roots so deep that they are attached to their toe nails. Who is the big meanie that mad reading so freaking horrible. I’d like to pull a big book shelf full of… anvils right on top of their head.

I was actually able to convince about 300 people to sign up for summer reading, but no matter how many times I mentioned that they could win slices of pizza as big as their head or king chocolate bars, most of the kids didn’t go much farther than signing up. I used all sorts of ways to entice them: the food, prizes… I showed them books about poop for gods sake! Sometimes I feel its hopeless. However I will continue to buy comic books and books about poop, farts and boogers, because I am convinced that some day there will be hordes of children running into the library… not to use the internet to go on their myspace account or to play runescape, but to read all the wonderful books I buy for them.

Okay so its not all that bad. The kids that do participate read tons, but its sad that there are so few kids that see the joy of a book. I partially blame the parents. If kids don’t see parents reading, and if their parents don’t read to them, why should they bother reading? Kids want to do what their parents do. I should know by the way, because my 16 month old son tried to help me clean the toilet by grabbing the toilet brush. EEEEWWWW!

I had two end of the summer parties, one on Thursday for the teens and one on Friday for the kids. The one on Thursday was at Brockport. We had a reading competition between Brockport, Ogden, Hamlin and us at Hilton. Brockport and Ogden read over 2000 hours and even Hamlin read over a 1000. We read 750. PATHETIC! So we had the party at Brockport and two of my teens showed up. It really is sad, but it gave me a chance to share my exhuberance with other teens.

It also gave me a chance to meet the new children’s librarian at Brockport, who just graduated from University at Buffalo. She is super sweet, and I think that I will check on her to make sure that she’s doing well. Right now Brockport is having some staffing issues, and I hope that it doesn’t work on her nerves. I think that her enthusiasm is something that more librarians (besides a select few of us) need to have.

Friday we had our kids’ party. There were about 50 kids and we ate pizza and bagels and I gave them treasures. After they stuffed themselves, we had a very cute lady, Accordian Pat, who came and… played the accordian! That’s right,  I bet you’d never have guessed it! Even some of the parents danced, so I think she was a hit.

Needless to say, I’m exhausted, but happy. Now I get to start all my planning for Fall programs. Yippee!

I don’t usually post this many times in one day, heck I don’t usually post this many times in one week! However this morning I received a call that warranted a post. I actually posted this on another blog, so I’m sorry Adrienne, if you read this, you can stop reading now.

I got a call on the phone from one of those telemarketers and she immediately asked to speak to my mommy. That’s right, not my mom or my mother, but my mommy. She should have just asked to speak to the head of the household or something to save us all our dignity, but that would have been too easy, and I would have one less post.
Then I proceeded to tell her that I AM the mommy. Unless I imagined everything, I was pretty sure that I was pregnant and in labor for hours… usually people that call their mom, mommy haven’t had the experience of childbirth…
Wait! I call my mom mommy.
Damn!
Nevermind.
Anyway, I still have the right to be pretty preturbed. And I was.

BTW, I checked to see that I was spelling preturbed right (which I’m still not so sure of) and the first entry was for the urban dictionary which stated:

someone who is a biatch after being pissed off

“Ms. Hammy was preturbed after I abruptly threw my bumblebee project at her in science class.”

Double BTW The original post spelled science wrong but I decided to change it.

So anyway, after all that she wanted me to take a TWENTY MINUTE survery on grocery stores. In any other circumstance I would have been intrigued, since I have a crazy desire to take surveys… it makes me feel like I make a difference or something. But the lady ruined it for me so I told her no. Besides, I was watching my SON and a cartoon that I just adore on Nickelodeon called Avatar: the Last Airbender. My husband of course says I’m insane and act like a kid, but maybe that’s part of the appeal. 🙂

ten years is such a long time
and has gone by so quickly
it was only yesterday, wasn’t it?
I was flirting
you were shocked
my parents were concerned
and my sisters with their questions

so unusual and so perfect
Marx Brothers movies
Quake matches
and apple pie

I have grown into a woman
with you by my side
and yet
I still feel 17 years old
and silly
when you waggle those eyes

when did we become adults?
how have these ten years
come upon us
suddenly
unexpectedly
like wild fire
catching and burning
everything in sight