Kids never learn!

Several bikes were stolen from the liberry in recent weeks. Today, one of the kids whose bike was stolen, saw it chained to the liberry bike rack. He and his buddies tracked down the alleged thief in the liberry who I will call "Clueless". Something is definitely wrong with Clueless but I can't begin to tell you what that is. By the time I heard about the bike and the thievery, Clueless had already tagged the men's restroom and had a stern lecture by our custodian AND had cleaned up the tagging under the watchful eye of our custodian. But the thing that really ticked me off was the boys who owned the stolen bike. They watched Clueless like little hawks, not letting him out of their sight. Some of our staff had even called liberry security to come out to our liberry (30 min. drive) to handle the situation. But honestly? By the time the liberry security arrived, the boys had confronted Clueless, gotten the lock combination from Clueless, and had ridden their bike home. Later in the day, the same boys rode their bike back to our liberry, had deposited their bikes at the front door of the liberry, UNLOCKED! oooohhhhh I was so mad at them! Our liberry staff had already spent way too much work time with them trying to get their bike back from Clueless. I couldn't believe that they would not lock the bikes up after all the drama! I told them not to expect any help from liberry staff next time if their bikes got stolen again. If it gets stolen in the future, they get no sympathy from me, not one drop...

RIP

Mr. P. passed away a week or so ago. When Mrs. P. told me, she was in tears. Mr. P. was from Colombia. And he used to talk with me in Spanish so I could practice. He would say to me, "Un placer verte". It means, "A pleasure to see you." I never forgot that simple little phrase, I say it alot now. He was often so drunk when he came into the liberry he would stagger and at those times I worried for his safety and others on the street. One time in the liberry, during one of his inebriated states, he kissed me! I was shocked! Obviously I was close enough to him, but not that close! As I remember it, we were standing at the computers, I must have been helping him or something and WHAMO he caught me by surprise and just planted one on my cheek, very close to but not on my mouth! Needless to say, I quickly moved away from him and made damn sure I was never that close to him again! One other time, he told me a story about growing up in Colombia and to this day I wonder if the story is true...I kinda believed him. He told me when he was a little boy, he managed to take a penguin home from the zoo, and he kept it in his bath tub, with ice until his mother made him take the penguin back. hmmmmmm.... Yeah, a little far-fetched, isn't it? I will miss him. By the way, I didn't tell Mrs. P. about the time he tried to kiss me in the liberry. RIP, Mr. P. Fue un placer conocerte.

The Girl who....

There was this sixth grade girl who was struggling on the liberry computers last fall trying to attach a written assignment to an email to send to the teacher. I helped as I often do with her flash drive, and the email and ultimately the attachment. But in talking with her further, she reveals that, even though she wrote the paper, it was not her homework and the teacher she was emailing was not her teacher. Her older brother, 8th grader, had paid her $20 to write this paper and turn it in to the teacher for him! I'm Shocked! Shocked, I tell you! I've seen mothers "type" papers for their kids, or come in the liberry to get books for their kid's assignments, but this was a first! I've never seen a baby sister do homework for a big brother! This same girl recently came back to the liberry to sign up for Summer Reading, but this time she needed to pick up a GED (Good Enough Diploma) study book for her older sister. She said her sister was too lazy to come to the liberry to get the book herself. It makes me wonder if the big sister will even bother to crack the book open...

Por amor al arte, parte 2

See Por amor al arte, parte 1, then read on....
Some comments written in the artist's guest book....

"Nice work! <3 the unique!"

"I love all of them! I like the one witha flag. i like the things." (written in child's handwriting)

"So beautiful"

"Very original-I Liked Them."

"I think their OK not the best." (written in childlike handwriting)

"Its so cool!"

"it rocks"

"I like8th<3"

"Very creative" (Child's handwriting)

"I Like the card ship"

"Loved the Red & Black - Japanese & the Deck of traveling Cards."

Hey (Artist's name here), Really like the work, especially to Japanese one."

"Awesome sculptures"

"Pretty awesome, dude !!"

"sick sculptures"

"It is stupendus!"

"I like these, I feel like they're really Huge. You should put a little person or a small car or trees to make them look colossal."

"NEAT!" "GREAT JOB"

"trippy! -in a good way"

"Great. to See. Awesome"

"Very smart and creative art work. Keep it up=)"

"Wonderful and refreshing! thank you!!"

"I was inspired to create after seeing your work."

"Totally interesting" (In child's handwriting)

See? Some like it, some don't. I made no changes in capitalizations, punctuations, grammar nor spelling - I copied it just as I saw it, even some of the smiley faces are duplicated, though not all. Thank goodness only 2 more days to go for this art show. I'm getting tired of moving the sculptures around every time we need the room for liberry programs. What if I broke one of them while moving them. OMG...You broke it, you own it...??? ARRRGHH Horrors! *cringe/shudder*

Are you kiddin' me?

The grocery store across the street from our liberry was robbed by gunpoint today!! OMG!! Cops from two counties everywhere! And to top it off, there's a little man running around yelling at people. He's not in any law enforcement uniform, he yelled inside our door "LOCK DOWN THE LIBERRY! THERE WAS AN ARMED ROBBERY ACROSS THE STREET! YOU NEED TO LOCK THE DOORS! DON'T LET ANYBODY IN! DON'T LET ANYBODY OUT! THIS IS A LOCKDOWN! I AM NOT A POLICE OFFICER BUT I HAVE WORKED SECURITY! THIS IS A LOCKDOWN!!" Later we heard he was arrested for Incitement. Needless to say, we DID NOT lock the liberry doors.

Por amor al arte, parte 1.....

We have a liberry patron who feels entitled to do whatever he wants to do just because he donated more than $5K to our liberry. He is an artist, he makes paintings and sculptures. How does the saying go? Art is in the eye of the beholder? No, that's not it. But you get my drift. Some folks like his stuff and some don't. I am one of those who don't. Anyway, our liberry manager gave him permission to have a mini art show to display his sculptures here, thankfully just for one week. But here's the kicker...if you work in a publik liberry, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about....it's summer people!!! School is out, it's summer reading time, too busy here to monopolize our meeting room with so-called art! People!! We got magic shows, jugglers, craft classes to have!! We need our own liberry space for what we gotta do! The liberry is not your own personal art gallery!! geez louise!

WTH?? You're cracking me up!

The following statement was found on a bright orange post-it note, stuck on the cover of a book called Breathing: "Did you know if you put chocolate in a place with a stronge odor that it will make the chocolate taste werd. So the point of this is dont sell chocolate to skunks the will demand a refund for bad tasting chocolate." It is verbatim, I did not change any mispellings or punctuations.