Happy Working Song, Whistle While You Work, Etc.

Cleaning is very gratifying work.

Sure, a lot of the time I don't feel like it. But it can be very peaceful and calming. If I'm stressed, or I have to work through something in my head, I clean. If I've been sitting around for a while and need to bounce up and move around, I clean. And obviously, if something needs to be cleaned, I clean.

As a girl and as an introvert, I think a lot. Too much. At any given moment you'd find me overthinking, analyzing, evaluating, worrying, obsessing, processing, etc. It helps to have something physical to do while I'm thinking. This would also account for exercise, playing with rubber bands, cracking my knuckles, stuff like that. So why not do something useful while I'm thinking, like cleaning?

It feels good to make something clean. I work and I see the benefits of my work. Just me and my brush. Or cloth. Or elbow grease.

Cleaning is also a good opportunity to sing. Loudly. With or without accompanying music. Helpful songs may include the working songs from Enchanted or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But if you have helpful woodland creatures who would like to assist, you might want to rethink that plan.

Seriously? You don't need deer licking the plates before a bunny dries them with her tail. And then the squirrels pop them back in the cupboard? I don't think so. Highly unsanitary. I recommend old-fashioned soap and water.

Why are you still here? Get out there and clean something!

When the Wind Blows

Whew. So last week was kind of crazy. I pushed the blog off to the side a bit. Hopefully you were not too lost without it. Well, we're back in business!

The weather has been weird lately. I mean, it's been weird all winter but especially weird now. Rain that smells like spring, birds singing, slushy snowstorms, strong winds...

The strong winds have been not fun. Safe and sound indoors, I still worry about the wind getting me. I know it can't, but it just blows with such gusto!

And in the middle of the night, I'm not awake enough to be rational about it. I'll hear it blowing and it's like the wind is calling to me, daring me to come outside.

Whooooosssshhhhhh, but we'd have so much fun!

I doubt it.

Come on, don't you hear that awesome banging and thumping! That's what I could do with you if you step out onto your porch!

Seriously? You're hurling the trash cans around again? I'm going to have to wander down the street looking for them?

Whooooosssshhhhhh, I'm going to smash your windows and won't that be awesome?

*Gets scared, puts pillow on head, tells head to think logically and calm down*

Whooooooooosssssssshhhhhhhhh

*Imagines entire house being swept up and whisked away, along with cows and telephone poles*

Oh, these wintry springish nights.

Speaking of strong winds, have you seen The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore? It just won an Oscar last night for best animated short film! Check it out below.



By the way, did you watch the Academy Awards last night? I did until I fell asleep! I must see The Artist. I must!

Presidents and Such

Happy Belated Presidents' Day!

Let's just address the elephant in the room of this holiday: punctuation. To me it makes sense to include all the presidents, as in, this is their day, as in, Presidents' Day. But I've also seen it as President's Day. And Presidents Day.

And then the word presidents doesn't look real any more because I've looked at it so many times on Google.

I didn't blog on Monday because I was off from work (yay government holidays!) and spent the day with a friend. And I just never got around to it...

So, the presidents...do you have a favorite? How much do you really know about them? What's the weirdest story you heard about a president?

All I could think about on Presidents' Day was William Taft. And there's only one thing I know about him - that he had to install a special big bathtub because he was, well, big. I also heard he got stuck in a bathtub, but apparently that's a myth. Happy Presidents' Day!

At some point in high school I memorized all the presidents, in order. I'm sure everyone's done that at some point. It seemed like a pretty big deal at the time. Some of those guys didn't sound familiar at all. But it was neat to learn about them.

Apparently, Presidents' Day is in February because of Washington and Lincoln's birthdays also being in that month. And my birthday, btw. Yep, special month.

Whether you learned something about presidents, got off work, went to a Presidents' Day sale, or just let the day slip by uncelebrated... hope you had a great Monday! And Tuesday! And good luck with Wednesday!

Avengers and Other Librarians

I'm always looking for a good librarian blog. I already follow a few greats, and I just found another one. It's called Librarian Avengers, and here's an excerpt:

Ok, sure. We’ve all got our little preconceived notions about who librarians are and what they do.
Many people think of librarians as diminutive civil servants, scuttling about “Sssh-ing” people and stamping things. Well, think again buster.

Librarians have degrees. They go to graduate school for Information Science and become masters of data systems and human/computer interaction. Librarians can catalog anything from an onion to a dog’s ear. They could catalog you.

Librarians wield unfathomable power. With a flip of the wrist they can hide your dissertation behind piles of old Field and Stream magazines. They can find data for your term paper that you never knew existed. They may even point you toward new and appropriate subject headings.

People become librarians because they know too much. Their knowledge extends beyond mere categories. They cannot be confined to disciplines. Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule. And they will kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.

Pure awesomeness.

Other library-related blogs I like to keep an eye on are:

A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette: "Chairs, Pushing In - Librarians should militantly enforce the 'pushing in' of recently vacated public chairs in their libraries. As you make your rounds through the library, forcefully bump the chairs against the tables as a passive aggressive warning of your quiet rage for any future potential violators."

GreenBeanTeenQueen: A YA librarian's thoughts on book and movie news, library-related issues, teen programming, etc.

Librarian in Black: Ridiculously knowledgeable librarian who informs me of the big library issues. Wouldn't ever want to get on her bad side.

Love the Liberry: Spells library the irritating way some people still pronounce it, but gives intriguing true stories from the front lines like "Books and Bonbons - Two middle aged women were at the reference desk. The first woman requested a Charlaine Harris book. The second woman chimed in to say that she should request the whole series. The first woman said-I like reading them in order. Ordering all of them at once is like having too many bonbons at the same time."

Unshelved: Library comic strips. Need I say more?

Happy Friday!

Using Random Things as Bookmarks

Yup, that's what I do.

Ticket stubs, receipts, bills, cards, letters, candy wrappers...nothing is safe!

This gets tricky when I am reading seven books at the same time.

Where is my grocery list? Which book did I leave it in? Oh, I forgot about this book, *starts reading*.

I want to be a good library user and not bend books' spines. It's always good to use bookmarks. The trouble is, when I actually have a real bookmark, it-well, actually I don't know what happens to them. They disappear and I grab a coupon instead.



Oh, and on a sort-of-related note, don't be the patron that leaves millions of tiny scraps of paper in books to mark pages that, guess what, no one else needs marked except you. Or I get to pull them out FOR you.

Happy reading!

Strolling Through the Library

I occasionally patrol the library.

I guess I picked up the habit from working at my college library. Every hour we worked, the library staff had to walk around and count how many students were using the library. While walking around we would push in chairs, pick up books, and generally tidy up. Also, I considered it my personal duty to break up couples "studying" in the back.

So I kind of still keep up that habit at the public library. Every once in a while, if things are slow at the desk, I'll stroll around the library.

I do this for a couple reasons. First, it's just generally good to know who's around. If we find a DVD case in the bookdrop without the DVD, I might know if the patron's still around in the library. Or if someone calls looking for someone (which happens more often than you might think), I might know where that patron is. And generally I think it's a good idea to keep an eye on who's at the library in case there's some kind of issue.



Also, I like to pick up books scattered around and push in chairs. When people are browsing, they tend to leave a trail. Which is MUCH better than them shelving them in the wrong place, by the way. So I'll scoop up all the books hanging around, trying to carry as many as I can in one trip. Because I like to carry things...And I definitely have a thing about keeping chairs pushed in. How hard is it, people?

Finally, I like to walk around just to walk around. Stretch my legs. Get the blood flowing. I walk around a lot during the day in short spurts, but sometimes I just like to stride purposefully around the whole library. Good for the heart!

Hope you all have a great weekend! Stay healthy, stay warm, and visit your local public library. :)

Faves

Hey heeeeyyyy!

So I watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, and by that I mean I watched the commercials. They were what I paid the most attention to, anyway.

I had to post my top 3 here, though there were lots more I enjoyed. What were your favorites?







Awesomeness.

Singing, Sneezing, Super Bowl

So yesterday was my birthday.

I celebrated by going to church, having a bad cold, watching the Super Bowl, and getting a lot I repeat a LOT of chocolate. This seems telling...

So yay for a birthday filled with chocolate! My friends and family know me so well. Actually, complete strangers could probably tell how much I love chocolate by how much I talk about it/eat it in front of them. The Super Bowl party I went to included a chocolate fountain *swoon*. Can you think of anything better than dipping potato chips and strawberries into liquidy chocolately delight?

It was kind of a bummer that I was sick, though. I started sneezing on Saturday, and then yesterday got all stuffed. Usually, I'm sneezing because of book dust or something. Now, my nose is just tickly all the time. I'm feeling pretty drowsy too, so no gym today. I had kind of a hard time taking deep breaths on the machines yesterday, and I don't feel like I have to put myself through that again today. And on the day after my birthday, too!

Hope you all had a great weekend, whether you watched the Super Bowl or not. As for me, I had my eyes glued to the screen practically the whole time, and yet still managed to miss the promised second Hunger Games trailer. Did I miss it, or did they not show it? Luckily I saw it online a few days ago. Otherwise my birthday would've ended in a fit of tears and pouting.

And that sounds like a previous birthday, quite a few years ago. Musical chairs, anyone?

You Know You're a Librarian If...

• You ever feel the need to create a book display themed around whatever's currently going on in your life.
• You sometimes just want to *shush* people.
• You like to open a book and smell it.
• You hate eBooks on principle. But you pretend to like them and, in fact, promote them.
• You find yourself strangely drawn to pictures of cats.
• You think the world's problems would be solved if everyone would just get a library card already.
• You get excited when someone desperately needs your help because you love a good challenge.
• You follow movie and book news like some people follow sports.
• You have too many things to read already. But you keep adding to your pile because you don't want to hurt any of the books' feelings.
• You have to keep defending your profession to people who don't think it's real or think it's not going to last.
• You give people free things.
• You know how to be resourceful with what you have.
• You wear a lot of hats. You are a storyteller. A negotiator. A researcher, a teacher, a technician.
• Your idea of a fun evening is going home and putting on pajama pants and making tea.

Perhaps to be continued one day...

Death and _______

Taxes. That's right.

It's time to complain about taxes. No, not about paying them. Or filling out the forms and turning them in on time.

This is the library version. Let me share with you some facts about the library and tax forms this year.

1. The IRS did not send us forms.
2. They did send us instruction books and a binder full of reproducible forms.
3. People get frustrated about the lack of free forms, as in "the olden days."
4. Librarians are standing there, trying to answer questions.
5. People get frustrated with the librarians.

How is this fair? Since when did we become the spokespeople for the IRS? I know you're mad about your taxes, old people, but we are not the problem! Sorry you don't want to go online to print them out, but it's time to face the facts. The internet is not just a fad.

Now to be fair, some people are very grateful for anything we can give them. But others seem to be of the opinion that we the library staff are witholding tax forms from them out of spite. And also making them pay to make copies of the reproducible tax forms.

"I'm already paying taxes, I'm not paying that!"

What, 10 cents? For paper and ink? Fine, we don't NEED your dime!

It's usually best to just nod sympathetically and blame the IRS. "Yes, I know it's stupid. I understand you feel you've been treated unfairly. Ten cents, please."

And the people who try to ask us tax-related questions? Sure, ask away! We'll just look at you like, seriously? We know a lot of things, but we are not responsible for filling out your tax forms. It's so flattering that you think we can advise you, though.

Oh well, 'tis the season. I'm prepared to see lots of new people come wandering in this time of year. "You don't even have to ask, attractive guy. I know you're not here to use the library, since guys like you usually don't. This way to the tax forms."

Sigh.