Happy 2015!

Read to your heart's content...everyday of the year!!

I didn't mean to embarrass you...

An elderly man asked me to help him download books onto his new iPad. I told him I would if he would come to the second floor where I was scheduled that afternoon. He never came to get the help. A few days later, I saw him at a corner table, his back was to the wall, I was looking out the window very near where he was sitting. I asked how he was getting along on his new iPad. He said fine. But, I didn't just leave it there. I asked him if he managed to figure out how to download books yet, this time he said no, but he would figure it out eventually. I kept pressing. I can help you anytime, I say, just ask, may I see your new iPad? I wanted a closer look at it, it looked smaller than most iPads I had seen. By this time, he has shut the lid on the iPad. And he said ... in a quiet voice, "I was looking at dirty pictures and I didn't want you to see. And I didn't know how to get out of it." Then he gathered his things and left, but before he left, he said, "I'm very embarrassed"....

My day...

A friend asked me what my typical day is like. Well, to be honest, no day is like the day before, never typical, never the same. Here's a sample, I hope it doesn't bore you. Today:

• Ordered books in for the Mystery Book Club, they need 15 copies.
• Helped someone get their laptop connected to our wireless. She couldn't log in, all she needed to do was reboot her computer.
• Had homemade vegan birthday cake made for one of our librarians. The cake was made by a staff member, Fresh Orange Cake, icing made with coconut oil.  Yum yum yummy cake!!  Her B-day is actually another day, but she's taking her b-day off and won't be here. Lucky us that we got to share the cake with her.
• Read tons of emails.
• Sent tons more emails.
• Helped a young man make copies on the copy machine. He didn't know how to work it.
• Helped a lady on the copy machine. She said it didn't work, but it did work, it didn't like her nickels.
• Helped a lady log in to our computers. She kept typing her card number in wrong.
• Talked to the custodian about the squirrel that got electrocuted on a power line the other day and blew out our power for about 45 minutes. And I was off that day and missed all the excitement!
• Ordered travel guides for a lady planning a trip to Ireland. All our books were out.
• Let a girl use the phone to make a call because she left her cell phone in the car. Not sure why she couldn't just walk out to the parking lot and get her phone.
• Helped a lady get to a website so she could apply for a job. The website wasn't connecting using Internet Explorer, but it connected just fine using Mozilla Firefox. Not sure why that happens.
• An older lady told me about an article she read in the newspaper about a book, about a child who died and went to heaven and came back to tell about it. She was laughing hysterically about it, she said it was such a crock. Then I told her I had read that book. It's called Heaven is for Real . She stopped talking, looked at me with a serious look on her face and asked, "WHY would you read that?"
• It's almost 3:00pm...3 more hours to go...and I'm so drowsy today...

Have I bored you yet...??

Happy 2012! (a little late)

These were my 2012 Resolutions for work that I wrote down way back in January, but I never published until just now. So far I'm doing pretty well except for one.

1. Blog more frequently.
2. Read more books than ever.
3. Be nicer to the nice customers.
4. Be nice to the mean customers.
5. Learn more about whatever tickles my fancy.

I am a reader....

What's that??

I love learning new words. I had a chance to help someone on the phone learn a new word today. She said she had been listening to the local classical music station and the DJ ( does Classical Radio have DJ's?) played a piece by Delius (who?) and that the piece was transcribed by an amenuences. She didn't know the word, and she wasn't sure how to spell it, nor how to pronounce it really. So, the two of us tried to spell it the best we could based on what she heard on the radio. Turns out the word was Amanuensis: one employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript (\ə-ˌman-yə-ˈwen(t)-səs\).  But that brings up something in my mind. I'm glad the radio DJ used an unfamiliar word in this instance. So many times TV and Newspaper talk down to us. How many times have I heard that the newspaper is written on a fifth grade level. In this case, the radio DJ challenged the listener to explore and look into what was being said. Both of us, the caller and me, learned something new today. This is why I love my job!

Awwww....out of the mouths of babes.....

The sweetest thing happened today! OMG I was so touched. One of the ladies who brings a young child to my storytime came up to me at the reference desk today. She said she wanted to introduce me to the child's Mama. All this time I didn't know that the lady was the grandma! She's such a young looking grandma that I thought *she* was the Mama! Anyway, the Mama said she wanted to meet me. She had to find out who I was because every night her child says a prayer for Mama and for Daddy (about 4 times for Daddy), for Grandma, etc etc and for Miss *Storyteller*<----insert my name here. Awwwwwww....

Also, another grandma came up to me after storytime this week to tell me that her granddaughter always reads books to her dolls like this, "The book title is blah blah blah and the illustrator is blah blah blah..." Just like Miss *Storyteller <---insert my name here, does.
Awwwwww....

And just what did you mean by that???

I got so defensive today, this customer really managed to get my hackles got up. The customer had been looking through the catalog and then he said: I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS LIBERRY HAS NO BOOKS ON THIS TOPIC (viewing the fall colors in the mountains)! I say: NONE?? He says: NOT A ONE. He says: BARNES AND NOBLE HAS HUNDREDS OF BOOKS ON THIS TOPIC. I say: ARE YOU SURE? He says: YES, OF COURSE, THEY HAVE TONS AND TONS OF BOOKS ON THIS TOPIC. So I don't go look in Barnes & Noble website to see if what he says is true, I go to Amazon website to see...There is only ONE book listed on his topic. ONE!!! If Amazon has ONE book on a topic, how in the world can Barnes & Noble have HUNDREDS??? I took him over to the section where we have hiking books and day trips around our state and he browsed there for a bit. After all that, he did check out a nice little stack of liberry books. I guess we aren't so bad after all.

Later on I did look on Barnes & Noble's website to see what they had on this topic and I didn't see any at all!

"Rough day at the office, dear?..."

I haven't checked, but today feels like one of those full moon days. Is there a full moon tonight? It's one of those days when nothing goes smoothly, when people snap at you for no reason, there's been

non-stop computer problems, so many people wanting help with their documents, their email, their resumes...It has just been one hell of a day and I can't wait till I can go home.

The day the power went off...

"DON'T JUMP!"

The power went off at 2:00 on a hot summer day last week. Poof! in the dark, the whole neighborhood went black. Traffic lights were out. Air conditioner stopped. Computers went dark. Our phones went dead. Then we discovered two people were stuck in the elevator!! Since our phones didn't work, we all pulled out our cell phones. I yelled thru the elevator doors for them to find that emergency phone in the elevator, "It's dark", they said. "Where is it?" When they finally found the phone, they said they couldn't see the buttons to dial it. All this time I've always thought that the phone would automatically dial security, or the police, or at the very least, the fire department. But noooooooo, it didn't connect to anyone. One of us called liberry security, someone else called the power company, then someone else called the fire department to come get those folks out of the elevator. Those poor people! They were both in their 80's. By now, they are telling us thru the door that it was getting hot inside the elevator and they are beginning to panic. I waited outside the liberry watching for the firefighters to come, it seemed like it took them forever! Those poor people! By the time the FD arrives, somehow those two old people have already gotten the elevator doors open! I'll never know how they did that. And we can see that the elevator is stuck between two floors, about 5 feet up from the main floor. OMG they were trying to jump out of the elevator! Don't Jump!! Let the firefighter help you out! Did the FD use any of their fancy dancy firefighter equipment, a ladder or something? noooooooooo They grabbed a liberry chair, pulled it up to the elevator so that the elderly couple could step on the arm, then the seat, then the floor....Whew....About one hour later, around 3:00, the power is restored.

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.

OOooo la la part 2

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Huh?

Ok, so, we have a gentleman who calls regularly (once or twice a week?) for specific information from a specific website (he knows the URL), and from a specific place on the website (he knows exactly where on the page this info is located). He says, "Please go to U.S. National Debt Clock at http://www.usdebtclock.org/, look toward the middle of the page, under the section that starts with US Gross Domestic Product, then look for Gross Debt to GDP Ratio." "Yes?" I say, "I'm there." "What are those numbers for the Gross Debt to GDP Ratio?" OMG....how do you quote numbers that are going up by the second? I tell him the numbers, and I also sy to him, "The numbers are changing by the second as we speak." I don't know why I bother telling him this, he obviously already knows this. He thanks me politely, then hangs up. It makes me wonder what in the world does he do with that information?