Cathy the Librarian

I like crayons. I like them a lot. However, not all crayons are created equal. I do not mean to be a crayon snob or anything, but Crayola has, hands down, the best crayons. Their consistancy, their smell, the vibrancy of their colors. Although I must say I like these crayons as well however I am offended at how these people use crayons (not in a dirty way)… and on a serious note, I probably would like these Staedtler crayons as well, because I know they make really good erasers, so why wouldn’t they make good crayons?

BTW, about 30 minutes has passed by because I got trapped in the world of Flickr. You are evil! Evil I say!

When I was a kid, we would go to the state fair every year, and I would always be amazed and awed at how aaaa…. awesome (?) it was. Then I went this year.

It was dirty and crowded. They sold tons of crappy things that would break soon after getting them home, or looked good when you bought it, but kept you wondering why you bought it when you got it home such as:

1) a print of Mary (the mother of Jesus, you know) looking down lovingy upon Pope John Paul II. My mom said that she was going to buy one to put above her bed, and I told her that she’d never get laid again (did I actually say that? umm yes I did)

2) those t-shirts that people will spray paint your name, Jesus, or the Tweety bird upon for all to see

3) dolls of giant snakes, giant teddy bears, and giant Stewies (from the Family Guy) I actually saw someone holding their child because they had a Stewie in a stroller. I remember getting one of these dolls somehow, and they are the cheapest things you could imagine. Nevermind, where are you going to put these things… in your infants bedroom? They’ll have nightmares for years.

4) Masks like the one seen in Nacho Libre. I kid you not. What scared me more, was the fact that people were actually looking at them.

The list goes on and on of the crap to spend your money on… cheap jewelry, sunglasses, makeup… Those cloths that suck up all liquids and your cash in a second, those shredders for vegetables… blah blah blah. People were eating it up.

I spent my money on:

1) one piece of beef jerky for Jack

2) donating a dollar and my signature to Planned Parenthood – plus two free buttons: Got Choice? and Don’t like abortion, don’t have one

3) buying a gay pride rubber bracelet – I love the rainbow and I love doing what I can to support homosexuals struggling for equality. I also got a free sticker for Jack, a pin and a temporary tattoo. My sister had her pin on and some guy tried to hand her a pamphlet of “literature”. He took one look at her pin and took it back. Yippee! Less crap to throw away when we get home!

4) I didn’t buy this, but I got some literature on the NYS retirement system. “Its never too late to prepare for your future.” However it is deathly boring. I also got a Hillary Clinton postcard. I don’t know how I feel about her, but I’m going to let her know how I feel about the issues. I went to the pork booth and got pork crayons. Okay so they weren’t made of pork, but I thought it would be funny if they were.

5) Ice Cream. I had to pick the ice cream that was at the very end of the bucket, and so while everyone else got these HUGE scoops of ice cream, I had to share a little dinky thing with Jack. Oh well, its less weight that I have to think about.

6) Korean food – Yakisoba. It was YUMMY, and I think Jack liked it too. Upon looking it up, turns out its Japanese, but I guess since they had sushi there too, maybe it was a Japanese/Korean fast food joint. Still yummy.

7) Leather purse. I don’t care if I have 35 purses already. It was cute.

8) Coffee. I had to drive there and back, so I thought I should keep my strength up. It was funny, I was in line, and the guy in front of me thought I was his wife. Before turning around, he asked me if I wanted a muffin. So I said sure! Then he turned around and said oops, but smiled. I got my coffee, and was putting creamer in it, when he showed up again, and asked me if I got my muffin. I asked him if he had gotten it for me. His wife and my sister both looked pretty confused, and us, amuzed.

Jack had a great time looking at all the people and flirting with the ladies. Since he had a good time, I guess it was worth it, but I wasn’t bowled over by it. The animals were pretty interesting, but having no idea what the difference was between a good cow and a great cow, after seeing a couple of them, I was done (especially with the smell). The bunnies were pretty neat too, but they smell even worse than the chickens (which was awful).

It was fun spending time with the family, but I’d never need to do it on my own… although I guess its not something you do on your own anyway.

Hope you’ve had a good Labor Day. Now I have to prepare for my story times. Ehh gads. This is for another post, but somehow I just can’t come up with any ideas for my 1 – 2 year olds. Of course, I might be cancelling them because only two signed of for the 1 – 2 year olds and two for the 3 – 5 year olds. WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT THIS???!!! Its not like I bite them or yell at them. Urrgh. Oh well, I might have some free time this fall. I’ll post more later.

When I was a kid, we would go to the state fair every year, and I would always be amazed and awed at how aaaa…. awesome (?) it was. Then I went this year.

It was dirty and crowded. They sold tons of crappy things that would break soon after getting them home, or looked good when you bought it, but kept you wondering why you bought it when you got it home such as:

1) a print of Mary (the mother of Jesus, you know) looking down lovingy upon Pope John Paul II. My mom said that she was going to buy one to put above her bed, and I told her that she’d never get laid again (did I actually say that? umm yes I did)

2) those t-shirts that people will spray paint your name, Jesus, or the Tweety bird upon for all to see

3) dolls of giant snakes, giant teddy bears, and giant Stewies (from the Family Guy) I actually saw someone holding their child because they had a Stewie in a stroller. I remember getting one of these dolls somehow, and they are the cheapest things you could imagine. Nevermind, where are you going to put these things… in your infants bedroom? They’ll have nightmares for years.

4) Masks like the one seen in Nacho Libre. I kid you not. What scared me more, was the fact that people were actually looking at them.

The list goes on and on of the crap to spend your money on… cheap jewelry, sunglasses, makeup… Those cloths that suck up all liquids and your cash in a second, those shredders for vegetables… blah blah blah. People were eating it up.

I spent my money on:

1) one piece of beef jerky for Jack

2) donating a dollar and my signature to Planned Parenthood – plus two free buttons: Got Choice? and Don’t like abortion, don’t have one

3) buying a gay pride rubber bracelet – I love the rainbow and I love doing what I can to support homosexuals struggling for equality. I also got a free sticker for Jack, a pin and a temporary tattoo. My sister had her pin on and some guy tried to hand her a pamphlet of “literature”. He took one look at her pin and took it back. Yippee! Less crap to throw away when we get home!

4) I didn’t buy this, but I got some literature on the NYS retirement system. “Its never too late to prepare for your future.” However it is deathly boring. I also got a Hillary Clinton postcard. I don’t know how I feel about her, but I’m going to let her know how I feel about the issues. I went to the pork booth and got pork crayons. Okay so they weren’t made of pork, but I thought it would be funny if they were.

5) Ice Cream. I had to pick the ice cream that was at the very end of the bucket, and so while everyone else got these HUGE scoops of ice cream, I had to share a little dinky thing with Jack. Oh well, its less weight that I have to think about.

6) Korean food – Yakisoba. It was YUMMY, and I think Jack liked it too. Upon looking it up, turns out its Japanese, but I guess since they had sushi there too, maybe it was a Japanese/Korean fast food joint. Still yummy.

7) Leather purse. I don’t care if I have 35 purses already. It was cute.

8) Coffee. I had to drive there and back, so I thought I should keep my strength up. 🙂 It was funny, I was in line, and the guy in front of me thought I was his wife. Before turning around, he asked me if I wanted a muffin. So I said sure! Then he turned around and said oops, but smiled. I got my coffee, and was putting creamer in it, when he showed up again, and asked me if I got my muffin. I asked him if he had gotten it for me. His wife and my sister both looked pretty confused, and us, amuzed.

Jack had a great time looking at all the people and flirting with the ladies. Since he had a good time, I guess it was worth it, but I wasn’t bowled over by it. The animals were pretty interesting, but having no idea what the difference was between a good cow and a great cow, after seeing a couple of them, I was done (especially with the smell). The bunnies were pretty neat too, but they smell even worse than the chickens (which was awful).

It was fun spending time with the family, but I’d never need to do it on my own… although I guess its not something you do on your own anyway.

Hope you’ve had a good Labor Day. Now I have to prepare for my story times. Ehh gads. This is for another post, but somehow I just can’t come up with any ideas for my 1 – 2 year olds. Of course, I might be cancelling them because only two signed of for the 1 – 2 year olds and two for the 3 – 5 year olds. WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT THIS???!!! Its not like I bite them or yell at them. Urrgh. Oh well, I might have some free time this fall. I’ll post more later.

So it turns out Pluto is a liar. Everyone thought it was a planet, but in reality, it was just a big (but not too big) rock. I think it was decided that Pluto is not a planet because:

1) Its too small

2) Its orbit goes around Neptune’s, which I guess is a no-no for planets. We don’t want any kissing planets. They must only orbit around the sun or its a no go for planethood.

This makes me mad. Why couldn’t the nice little scientists keep everything nice and orderly, just like it was before. Next thing you know, they’re going to tell us that there’s another planet past the ex-planet, Pluto… doh! They have discovered another planet past Pluto, and it looks like its bigger!

Now I’m going to have to go through all my space books and chuck out anything that mentions Pluto. That should be easy. Luckily, some of the librarians had a discussion about it, and in the words of one of the librarians, “unless it has a chewy caramel center”, he’s still counting it as a planet. I think that’s a lot more reasonable than tossing all our books on space. Fhew, that would have been a lot more work than I was ready for.

Your job is now to go to the library and read books about our ex-planet planet, Pluto! If it has a chewy caramel center, it should make mouths happy!

So it turns out Pluto is a liar. Everyone thought it was a planet, but in reality, it was just a big (but not too big) rock. I think it was decided that Pluto is not a planet because:

1) Its too small

2) Its orbit goes around Neptune’s, which I guess is a no-no for planets. We don’t want any kissing planets. They must only orbit around the sun or its a no go for planethood.

This makes me mad. Why couldn’t the nice little scientists keep everything nice and orderly, just like it was before. Next thing you know, they’re going to tell us that there’s another planet past the ex-planet, Pluto… doh! They have discovered another planet past Pluto, and it looks like its bigger!

Now I’m going to have to go through all my space books and chuck out anything that mentions Pluto. That should be easy. Luckily, some of the librarians had a discussion about it, and in the words of one of the librarians, “unless it has a chewy caramel center”, he’s still counting it as a planet. I think that’s a lot more reasonable than tossing all our books on space. Fhew, that would have been a lot more work than I was ready for.

Your job is now to go to the library and read books about our ex-planet planet, Pluto! If it has a chewy caramel center, it should make mouths happy!

so much depends
upona red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

Let me set the mood.

I somehow mentioned that I would put on DDR programs at other libraries for $100. I’ve gotten quite a few requests, which is nice because we are going to Disneyworld in January and it would be nice to have some extra money. Plus I’d like to buy an mp3 player with a hard drive so that I can 1) listen to my whole collection of cds 2) listen to audio books, and 3) have pictures of Jack at the ready.

So there it is, I am given $100 to go around from library to library and make a fool of myself and let the teens play DDR.

Today I went to Fairport. If you remember past posts, I applied for a job at Fairport. I really really wanted this job. And I didn’t get it. Therefor I really wanted to make those people at Fairport jealous. Really jealous. I wanted them to think I was this super-cool, put together librarian that knew what she was doing. My husband and I had figured out what the best settings were and how to set everything up. If it had been a PS2, there would be no problems, however I was using a PS1 that belongs to my sister, and I’m still not completely sure of the settings.

I spent about 30 minutes working out the settings, and then a couple of times in between players. I saw that Betsy stopped in once, and some of the other librarians stopped in a couple of times. I tried to give off a cool/laid back vibe, but I’m not sure how well I did.

I did meet a woman from the Pioneer system, (who I didn’t know was going to watch the program) that wanted to get ideas for bringing DDR to her library system. She asked me quite a few questions and I eventually gave her my business card. That was pretty neat.

I’m not too sure what Stephanie thinks of me, I guess I’m pretty consumed with making a good impression on other librarians. I really work on being involved with and well liked by other librarians.

Well, even though I felt like an ass, I know that the teens had a really good time. I think Stephanie’s going to get one for Fairport. Quite a few of the teens even said that if she buys one, they would come back every day! I would say that was a hit with the teens.

Beginning to fall asleep at the laptop. Time to go to bed. Good nighty-night.

so much depends
upona red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

Let me set the mood.

I somehow mentioned that I would put on DDR programs at other libraries for $100. I’ve gotten quite a few requests, which is nice because we are going to Disneyworld in January and it would be nice to have some extra money. Plus I’d like to buy an mp3 player with a hard drive so that I can 1) listen to my whole collection of cds 2) listen to audio books, and 3) have pictures of Jack at the ready.

So there it is, I am given $100 to go around from library to library and make a fool of myself and let the teens play DDR.

Today I went to Fairport. If you remember past posts, I applied for a job at Fairport. I really really wanted this job. And I didn’t get it. Therefor I really wanted to make those people at Fairport jealous. Really jealous. I wanted them to think I was this super-cool, put together librarian that knew what she was doing. My husband and I had figured out what the best settings were and how to set everything up. If it had been a PS2, there would be no problems, however I was using a PS1 that belongs to my sister, and I’m still not completely sure of the settings.

I spent about 30 minutes working out the settings, and then a couple of times in between players. I saw that Betsy stopped in once, and some of the other librarians stopped in a couple of times. I tried to give off a cool/laid back vibe, but I’m not sure how well I did.

I did meet a woman from the Pioneer system, (who I didn’t know was going to watch the program) that wanted to get ideas for bringing DDR to her library system. She asked me quite a few questions and I eventually gave her my business card. That was pretty neat.

I’m not too sure what Stephanie thinks of me, I guess I’m pretty consumed with making a good impression on other librarians. I really work on being involved with and well liked by other librarians.

Well, even though I felt like an ass, I know that the teens had a really good time. I think Stephanie’s going to get one for Fairport. Quite a few of the teens even said that if she buys one, they would come back every day! I would say that was a hit with the teens.

Beginning to fall asleep at the laptop. Time to go to bed. Good nighty-night.

I received a letter in the mail today letting me know that the author for a book on getting teens to read, highlighted my blog for teens! I don’t remember the title of the book and the letter is, of course on my desk at work. I will post the title (and the ISBN) so that you can buy it if you want. I emailed all the teen librarians in my system almost immediately, because I was so excited. Chris, who is the teen services woman for Brockport emailed me back to let me know that I would have to sign her minutes of the meeting. Of course, I should have let her know that if she bought a couple of the book, I would sign that too.
Sally said that she bets a bunch of librarians got the letter so that they would buy the book… rrr… but she says that she’s still happy for me (and the library.)

Needless to say, the Parma Library will be getting a copy soon.