Wanderings…

Nothing is in place.

Everyone needs something.

There is a glitch to even the simplest tasks.

Why on earth do I work so hard in June – when September is chaos – no matter what?

I just can’t wait till the end of next week, when the library schedule will be ready, the magazines will be checked in and I have time to sort all my jobs.  I used to have 2 piles marked with my “urgent”, and “ignore” paperweights.    I am going for color coded folders this year:

Red folder: Urgent (sell by date about to expire)

Yellow folder: Important – no due date – but needs to be done to make the library a better place

Green folder: I’ll get to it when hell freezes over, or just before I retire.  Whichever comes first.

Well – that’s my public whine for the year.  It will be better tomorrow

Just got back from a week camping with my son Jason and his family. 7 days communing with nature – and using every excuse possible to eat out instead of cooking over a smoky fire. I “forgot” the pots and pans. This worked so well that I plan to “forget” them permanently in the future.

We went to Ithaca and hiked several gorge trails and visited an interactive science museum. Did a lot of swimming and read 2 books – “Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow and “The Reserve” by Russell Banks. I need more thinking time about both of them…

The best part of family vacations is – family. I LOVE having adult children. It is so great to see that all those family vacations with the kids fighting and whining in the back seat have resulted in well-adjusted adults who value family time and are passing on the joys of family vacations to our granddaughter. She hardly whined at all – and since she is an only child, she had no one to fight with.

My best moment…. Laughing with my son until the tears rolled and my face hurt. He and I share the same rather skewed sense of humor. At the end of one of the gorge trails, we were sitting on a bench with a memorial plaque. The plaque contained the name of a husband and wife with a Polish last name, followed by the phrase “What a Country” and was signed “Love, Your Children”.

I said to Jason – “This is what I want instead of a headstone when I die – a nice bench like this with a beautiful view and a plaque.”

Jason’s reply? “Great idea Mom – we can inscribe it “Fart Here!”

I just lost it. I’m laughing as I type. Between screams of laughter, we decided to clean up the inscription a little. We settled upon a much more poetic version: “Sit ye here and fart awhile”. It has a certain ring to it – don’t you think?

Anyway – reluctantly we decided that we should probably find something altogether more solemn and respectable. I know – boring. But Jason has promised that he will put the bit about farting on the back of the bench as a little reward for anyone industrious enough to look beyond the surface.

So … if you see a little bench somewhere with a pretty, inspirational phrase – be sure to look a little further to see if there is a less polite message hiding out somewhere.

Yesterday our “lunch bunch” decorated the library work room for an end of the year “last lunch in the library” party. It was lots of fun….. and even more fun when they surprised me with a cake and yelled “Happy Birthday”. Cake and presents all around for the birthday girl AND the graduating senior “lunch bunchers”. This particular “senior” is STILL not ready to graduate.

Thanks everybody!

I ran across Wiki Woes at Green and Gray Librarian, via a post on Library Stuff.

After making a staff presentation on Blogs, RSS & Wikis the “Green & Gray Librarian” said:

I think the presentation was mostly me talking to the walls. I know a few members of the staff were interested, but I think the rest will simply dismiss it as useless information.

I just LOVE this response from Aaron.

Those librarians will care about technological trends and how they affect their jobs in a few years – when the first generation raised on WiFi and high speed internet and web-enabled toilet seats reaches college age. Since these kids have never been told that the web is anything other than the Final Authority On Everything, they will see absolutely no use for a library – mostly because the very same librarians who couldn’t be bothered to listen to you never took the time to explain to them why the library is necessary. Then it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the librarians will all become redundant and lose their jobs.

Who knows what evil lurks?

Here is how I stack up according to a survey found via Alice In Infoland:

***You are 20% Evil***

You are good. So good, that you make evil people squirm. Just remember, you may need to turn to the dark side to get what you want!

I tried my best to answer all the survey questions honestly. Really. I dug around the old memory bank to remember all my evil actions. But – my memory is just not what it used to be. So – sue me!

My work-study student calls me “Evil Old Woman” as a term of endearment. Does that count? Here are some signs he made for me. I keep turning the good side out – but he keeps switching it to the evil side. I will miss that young man…..

So…. How Evil Are You? Take the test – if you dare.