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June 29, 2011

Bad Mommy...

Thinking about the mommies at the gym made me remember that I forgot to post about what one of those mommies (I shall call her "Bad Mommy #1" from hence forward) did last week.

On "Sarah's" last day a little boy started screaming and crying in the middle of the department with no shoes on. "Sarah" walked up to him and kept saying "Little boy where is your mother?!?!" (Not a question a scared two-year-old is going to answer). I noticed what was going on and walked up to them, I instantly recognized the child as "Bad Mommy #1's" son. So I calmly said his name and asked him where his mommy was (Me knowing his name seemed to calmed him down a bit). At this point our Department Head noticed what was going on and ran over to us and the flustered child. Just as she was about to run out of the room to look for his mother she swooped in on her cell phone like a bat out of hell and ushered her child along like nothing had happened. She apparently thought it was a good idea to leave her child alone while she went to the bathroom and make a phone call.

Oh, did my Department Head ream her out. She yelled at her for leaving her child unattended, for him not wearing shoes, for her not wearing shoes, for talking on her cell phone in the library, etc. It was great. She totally deserved it. She always walks into the library like she's the shit and that no one is better than her, so it was nice to see her get torn a new one.

June 28, 2011

Spotted: Librarian At The Gym...

Earlier today (Before I hurt my knee, obviously) I went to the gym with Erin and I was forced to interact with multiple mommies. I had two of the most annoying patrons we have at the library walk up to me at separate times asking me if I had just join the gym, blah blah blah...

Really?! Why do these people think I want to talk to them outside of the library, especially when I'm trying to walk uphill on a treadmill?!?! It reminded me of last summer and the patron on the beach -- I don't remember if I posted this or not, but last summer I was on the beach with Erin, Justin, etc. and I was stopped by a woman who was like "You work at the library!!" while I was in my bathing suit about to jump into the water. It wasn't cool, nor were the events of today.

Library PSA: Bob Newhart...

Damn Knee...

About twenty minutes before I was supposed to be at work my right knee decided it hated me and my knee cap popped out of its socket. I called the library, said I was going to be late, wrapped my knee up in an bandage, elevated it for a bit and headed into work. Which sucked because when I got into work I found out that I was going to be stuck alone with "Julia" for several hours.

"Julia" did not make my day any easier. She didn't help anyone and I ended up limping around the library trying to find materials for all of the patrons. It was so irritating, I wanted to scream at her but God knows that is what she wants. Eventually "Emily" came in and saved the day, she is currently running around with the patrons so I don't hurt myself any further.

Library Articles...

Library Technology: Helping Job Seekers
ALA Annual 2011: New eBook Service Launched
Are School Librarians Expendable?
Public Libraries Fight To Stay Relevant In Digital Age
In Lean Times, Schools Squeeze Out Librarians

June 27, 2011

Library PSA: Jaleel White...

Sorry For The Crappy Photos...

I feel like I need to apologize for the current photos I've been posting. They look like garbage because I broke my 18mm-55mm lens for my DSLR and had to send it in to be repaired. So, for the next week or so I'll be posting not so stellar photos. Sorry.

Summer Reading Club Bulletin Boards...

I just realized that I hadn't post pictures of the bulletin boards that I did for the Summer Reading Club. So, here they are...

As you can see these are a portion of what I spent my time doing throughout the course of my seven day work week from June 12th through the 18th.

I worked on these for hours and at the time I was hoping that everyone would like them. Since they've been up I've gotten nothing but positive feedback from my coworkers, as well as patrons and I'm so glad because I put so much effort into decorating for this club.

Library PSA: Patrick Duffy...

Work Week Woes...

So unfortunately for the next week at work I'm sans my Department Head because she is on vacation. This is sucks because "Julia" has been plotting against me with "Aubrey" for a God knows how long and I'm stuck alone with her during various portions of the week.

My Department Head thinks that while she is gone that "Julia" is going to try to do something to get a rise out of me or God knows what else. So she has Head Clerk watching out for me, she begged me to keep a low profile and plant myself at the reference desk, etc. I'm seriously not looking forward to this week and I hope that I'll make it out alive. Wish me luck.

Off Duty Librarian's Weekend...

This was the first full weekend I've had off in a few weeks and I had a lot of things to do in it. Here is what I did...

Saturday:
I slept in until about 10:00am, got up and proceeded to get ready for the various events I had to attend throughout the course of the day. Once I was dolled up I headed over to Justin's apartment so that we could get some lunch and then head over to his cousin's house for her graduation party.

The graduation party was painfully boring. Not one conversation had throughout the course of the party could make up for how much it sucked, there was no music or anything, etc. Even the fact that "Favorite Volunteer #2" was there could make up for how much that party blew, and he typically amuses me whenever he is around -- If you're wonder, he was there because they were each others prom dates.

After suffering through a brief period of time at the party (We only stayed two hours) we headed over to our friend's house so we could go into New York City and go to Eataly. As soon as we got to their house we were thrown into yet another family party. But unlike the other one it didn't suck. We hung around the house for about an hour before finally leaving.

Walking into Eataly we were all slapped in the face with total sensory overload. It was glorious. It was filled with so many things we didn't know where to go first or what to look at (I actually lost Justin on more than one occasion because there were so many places to go and tons of people there). Eventually we made our way to La Piazza after making a reservation to go to the rooftop bar Birreria. At La Piazza we waited around until we could sneak over to a table to sample various Italian meats, cheeses and wine -- It was all awesome. I obviously didn't eat the meat, but everyone else said it was great.

When we finished up our wine and cheese my friend mentioned gelato and Justin got super excited, so we headed over to the Gelateria and got the best gelato I've ever had (And I had gelato in Italy). We went and had espresso, bought some food to bring home and eventually we got a text message saying our table was ready at Birreria. By the time we got the text we were all full, but we had to head to the roof to check out the bar. The boys had a few drinks, my friend's girlfriend and I soaked up the atmosphere and then we eventually left.

If you have a chance to visit Eataly I would totally recommend it.


Sunday: Justin and I slept in, got up, blah blah blah... After doing various morning/afternoon routines we decided to take the food we bought the night before and have a picnic at one of the local parks. We went, had a nice lunch, went to the batting cages, etc. It was a fun afternoon.

After leaving the park we went to the cemetery where my grandparents are buried so that I could plant new flowers -- The flowers that I had planted in previous years were recently killed when they had to dig up a near by grave to bury someone, because they threw the dirt on my grandparent's grave. I planted the new flowers, had a conversation with my grandmother and headed over to visit some of Justin's relatives that are buried there also.

Eventually we headed back to Justin's apartment where I ended up passing out during the Mets game. When I woke up I decided to go home because I promised Erin and Nicole we all watch the season premiere of True Blood -- Which was awesome.

I did a lot more than I had been doing in previous weekends and I had a great time. Next weekend in Fourth of July weekend and I've got a bunch of things planned for that. I'll let you all know how that goes.

June 26, 2011

365 Days Of Pictures: Day 115...

June 25, 2011

365 Days Of Pictures: Day 114...

June 24, 2011

Sayonara "Sarah" & Wecome Back Nannies...

Today one of the nannies that comes in all the time confirmed that the reason that she and the other nannies stopped coming to the library for a while was because of "Sarah" and her rude behavior. She told me that they didn't feel comfortable being in the library because they were afraid "Sarah" was going to yell at them and the children.

When I told her that "Sarah" quit and would never be coming back she thanked God and said that she didn't understand how someone who hated children came to work with them (She called "Sarah" some colorful words too). Also said she was going to alert the others and let them know that it's safe for them to come back.

See, I wasn't the only person that hated her...

Library PSA...

June 23, 2011

Yes!...

Bye Bye Bye...


June 22, 2011

Word To The Wise...

Word to the wise, if you don't want people to find out that you are plotting against them do no leave documents open on public computers. That is all I'm going to say.

Caricature Of Oneself...

Yesterday we had a caricature artist come into our library for the kick off of our summer reading club. We had about twenty-five kids and their parents show up to have their pictures drawn and sign up for the club -- It doesn't sound like a lot but the last time we hired someone to do a kick off even hardly anyone showed up to have their faces painted. It was a nice time, the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and it wasn't too chaotic, which is always a good thing.

Towards the end of the artists time in the library there weren't really anymore children around so I had him draw a picture of me ("Emily" says it looks nothing like me), which I will have to post later because I haven't had a chance to scan it yet.


June 20, 2011

365 Days Of Pictures: Day 109...

Librarian In The City...

I was lucky enough to have this fine day off and I spent it in New York City with "Favorite Page #1" doing various things. We left Long Island early and headed into NYC to have scones and tea at Alice's Tea Cup (Chapter 2) for breakfast -- My personal recommendation is the buttermilk scone and almond tea, those are my favorite. After taking our sweet time in Alice's we walked up to 74th Street and into Central Park to go take pictures at the Alice in Wonderland statue. We were at the statue forever because there were mommies and nannies all over the place letting the kids play on the statue, not giving anyone a chance to take pictures near it.

Once we got a couple of pictures we walked through the park, looked at various things and continued to walk down 5th Avenue looking into the stores, shopping and just hanging out. By the time we hit Times Square we were both hungry again and headed over to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for some good ol' fashioned theme restaurant food.

When we were done eating we continued walking around. We headed to the Macaron Café so I could buy a ton of French macarons (because I love them so) and then we decided that it was time to head back to Long Island because it was already after 5:00pm, so we hopped on the LIRR and went home.

It was a great day and I had so much fun hanging out with "Favorite Page #1" in the City. I look forward to our next adventure.

June 19, 2011

Library Articles...

Volunteer Use 'Not Right Approach' To Spending Cuts
Library Acquires Leary Papers
Library Of Congress Will Get A Rare Map Of Flat World
Opinion: Why Do We Need Libraries?
Challenge To Library Closure Plan In Gloucestershire
Favorite Storytelling Queens Librarian Facing Ax As City Moves To Close Branches

365 Days Of Pictures: Day 108...

Father's Day...


I hope everyone is having a great Father's Day and that you spent it doing something fun, I know my dad and I did. I spent this fine Father's Day by bringing my dad to Citi Field to see the Mets play the Angels and then we went out for some Cuban food. It was a good day.

June 18, 2011

365 Days Of Pictures: Day 107...

June 17, 2011

Malnourishment...

In other "Sarah" related news, she is mad at me because I asked my Department Head in front of her if she wanted anything from one of the local pizzerias (Lenni and I were going out to lunch) but I didn't ask her. What the hell?!?!! Why would I ask her if she wanted something, we both don't like each other... Plus, why would I waste my energy carrying something to nourish her?

I really don't understand why there is so much food related drama in my department (I mean, I kinda do because everyone is a flipping fatty). Why do these bitches think that I have to ask them if they want something if I ask someone else? I am not a delivery service and I am not friends with them. They don't call around the building asking people if they wanna order food. Nor do they offer to pick something up for anyone else typically ("Amy" is the only one that kinda does this). So why should I?!?!!

I need to stop mentioning lunch in front of these women.

Library Gossip...

Apparently there is a rumor going around that I'm so mean that "Sarah" quit because of me. I mean I personally wish this was the case but it isn't and the person who heard this set whomever said it straight -- The person who told me about this won't say who was talking shit about me.

So the World knows, "Sarah" quit because she and her unemployed boyfriend are moving to Florida. It's this really odd situation, but we can't wait to be rid of her so we kinda don't care. "Marie" wants us to have a party the day after she leaves because she hates her more than I do. I look forward to it.

June 15, 2011

Craft Breakdown...

Apparently there was a cluster fuck of confusion going on in the department while I was on my dinner break yesterday. Our Department Head had left for the day without assigning someone to do the craft that we had going on. So "Julia" and "Amy" were left to figure this out on their own. They decided that "Julia" would do the craft, but apparently neither of them knew what the craft was supposed to be (It was a Father's Day craft) and they were running around trying to figure out what to do. At some point "Emily" realized what the two of them were trying to figure out and gave them the craft.

It doesn't end there, the geniuses couldn't find the key that opens our supply cabinet -- I was on my desk because I was going in and out of it today getting things to work on my decorations for the reading club. So they were freaking out trying to figure out how to do the craft, blah, blah, blah... "Emily" handed "Julia" some of the glue from the stash hidden under her desk, some markers and told "Julia" to deal with what she had. "Amy" obviously had to call our Department Head to inform her about what was going on and to try to get her help. She was no having it and told her they had to figure it out on their own.

I came back from my break after all of this happens. "Emily" tells me and I inform her that I have tons of paint and brushes under my desk, and that if they had called up into the staff room for me it all could have been avoided.

Moral of the story, I know where everything is and the two of them suck.

My Stalker Knows What My Car Looks Like...

I forgot to post about this the other day, but I had another run in with "Stalker #1". I was leaving work on Monday, I got into my car which was parked on the street next to a bike rack, I was about to start it and guess who knocks on my passenger side window. I had to lean over the seat to roll down the window (Yes, I have crank down windows. Please stop mocking me) to see what the hell he wanted. He starts asking me what my name is again, asking me if I was leaving to go on my dinner break, etc. I restated my name (It's on my name badge), I told him I was done for the day and that I had somewhere to go. He continues to question me. I told him I really had to go, said bye and drove away. All I could think of while I was driving away was "Great, now he knows what kind of car I drive... Shit! Shit! Shit!"

Why do I have to deal with these people?!?!!?!!

1985 Doritos® Commercial...

Library Articles...

Communities Stand Behind Librarians Facing Layoffs
When Government and Business Get It Really Right -- Together

IDK...

I still honestly have no idea what is going on in terms of the texts I got before I went to work yesterday, aside from the fact that it isn't our Director being a pain. That is all I was told. I'll have to do a bit of snooping tomorrow because I didn't get any done today. I'll eventually find out, I always do.

June 14, 2011

Dress Code Warnings...

I'm not even at work yet and I'm getting text messages from various individuals at work saying things like "Be very careful what you wear to work today..." or "Dress code stuff is going on blah blah blah..." I wanna know what is going on before I get in but no one is giving me any straight answers.

I'm annoyed by all of this. I have to spend my work day/night hanging up paper and decorating, so I was going to go in dressed as lax as I possible could. Now I'll have to bring a change of clothing with me so I can change to decorate their flipping library.

I'll keep you up-to-date on what is going on throughout the course of the day.

June 13, 2011

Decorating Diversion...

I spent the majority of today making decorations for our upcoming reading club -- Once I put together all of my bulletin boards I'll take pictures and post them for you to see, I promise.

Towards the middle of the day "Sarah" had the nerve to come up to me with an attitude, asking me when I was going to look through the books that "Mini Page" pulled the other day off of the dusty books list. She was so snippy, asking me things like "Are you by any chance going to do these before I leave today... How about before the end of the week..." I told her I'd get to them eventually and that I needed to finish what I was working on. When I was done working on the decoration in front of me, I did it.

She is such a piece of work. I put a lot of effort into making decorations, so the fact that she came up to me the way she did and implied that I was BSing or whatever she thought I was doing made me so angry. The department doesn't just magically look the way it does, I do all of that decorating. I work hard to make the department look welcoming and fun. What the hell does she do? She doesn't do shit. She sits around reading her damn books, calling her boyfriend and doing crap for her daughter's stupid wedding. I cannot wait until she is finally gone next week.

June 10, 2011

Trash Folder Finder...

"Julia" once again proved she is an idiot. She walks into the office asking me if I had my flier for a meeting being offered because she lost hers and she can't find her trash folder on Gmail to print it from the e-mail she got from the listserv. My Department Head started questioning her about not being able to find her trash folder and told her to open her Gmail account so she could help her try to find it. As she is opening Gmail she is saying that she tried for an hour to find her trash folder and couldn't find it. I walked up behind her once she had it open, clicked two things, told her there is was and walked away. She just looked at me stuttering that she looked all over for it. When I sat back down at my desk my Department Head asked me if I showed her how to do it, I said "Hell no, that costs extra. You guys don't pay me enough to teach the staff how to use their e-mail accounts." She just looked at me and sighed.

"Julia" has asked me to teach her how to forward e-mails and now this? This bitch is constantly taking college level computer courses, which I'm guessing she fails because how can you take course about various programs and not be able to find your trash folder?!?!!! Someone needs to take this woman out back and put her out of her misery.

365 Days Of Pictures: Day 99...


Blistering Barnicles...

I'm sitting at work right now and I kinda feel like crap because last night Phil & I thought it would be a good idea to play a drinking game while watching The Adventures of Tintin. We decided that every time Captain Haddock said either "Blistering barnicles" or "Thundering typhoons" that we'd take a half shot of vodka. We ended up taking 6 full shots before we ran out of vodka and by the end of the two episodes we ended up owing 12 more full shots.

Since I've been at work I've had 9 TUMS®, over a liter of Coke® and two slices of pizza to combat what the vodka (and orange juice that I used as a chaser) did to my stomach. I feel a little bit better, but I'm not going to drink on a work night again for a while.

June 9, 2011

365 Days Of Pictures: Day 98...

June 8, 2011

More Sad News...

In addition to the dress code bull shit, I was informed today that "Sarah" will be sticking around an extra week before she is gone for good. So I have to deal with this bitch for another week. She'll really be gone on June 23rd. So sad...

Dress Code Drama...

I should probably start this off by introducing you to a staff member that I've been avoiding writing about because she is the cause of the majority of my problems within the library and the idea of her frustrates me more than anyone else on the staff -- Yeah, she is that bad... I shall call her "Aubrey" because it sounds like a bitchy name.

"Aubrey" and I used to share my current job as Librarian Trainee, as well as a position as a Processing Clerk. She basically spent the whole time we split our jobs trying to get me fired and fighting with my Department Head and our Director about it -- She didn't enjoy sharing her job with a 23 year-old. About a year and a half into us splitting jobs she messed up enough so that they could demoted her from the Librarian Trainee position and it was eventually given solely to me -- It took them months after they did this to promote me, which was super annoying. Her presence in the library is the only reason I have to do everything the difficult way -- No one wants to give her a reason to do anything evil because she is truly capable of doing some evil shit.

As you can probably guess, she caused the chaos that shook the library up this fine June day. Apparently she came in dressed in a very questionable outfit -- I heard she was wearing an oversized t-shirt and spandexy knee length short thingies, I didn't actually see her so I can only go by what I was told. Our Director commented on whatever she was wearing and a thirty minute screaming match followed -- He isn't always very tactful, so God knows what he said to her and/or how he said it. From what I was told by our Head Clerk they screamed at each other, she took her short thingies off waved them in the air in front of our Director screaming that they were pantyhose and eventually Head Clerk got them to chill out.

Our story doesn't end here... After screaming and being worked up by "Aubrey" our Director typed out a memo stating that the dress code policy that the board adopted in December was officially in place as of tomorrow. He stormed around the building making comments about what people had on as he handed out the memos. This shook the staff up. They were all complaining about various things on the list, getting upset trying to figure out if what they were currently wearing was appropriate or not, etc.

"Aubrey" is always causing problems. I don't understand how someone could be so insubordinate and not get into any real trouble and/or fired. I hope the Director can finally fire her after she pulled this crap.

June 7, 2011

T Minus 8 Days...


Slacking "Sarah"...

I swear that "Sarah"does less and less work now that her days at the library are growing shorter. Today I was left alone with her in the department while our Department Head went to the Adult Librarian's meeting and "Julia" went to cover their reference desk. The minute I sat down at one of the computers at our desk she walked into the office, sat at her desk and began to read a book. She didn't come out of the office the whole time I was out on the desk -- Which was for over an hour. But the minute our Department Head came back she was out at the reference desk pretending to do shit while we all know she was really looking at random crap on the internet. I cannot wait for this bitch to be gone.

Photos From Gettysburg...


June 6, 2011

The Countdown Begins...

In 'Bye Bye Bitch' I mentioned that "Sarah" put in notice that she would no longer be working here come mid-June. The day is almost here! Her last official day is June 15th and as you can all guess, I'm counting down the days.

Library Articles...

Prisons Must By Law Have Libraries - So Why Don't Schools?
NYPL's Anti Prom: A Prom for Students Who Don’t Want One
Library For The Performing Arts Plans Coward Exhibition
Digital Islamic Library Debuts
New Worcester Library's 'Green' Cooling System Work Begins
Learning To Read On Zero Dollars A Day

Weekend Getaway...

This past weekend I went on a little road trip with my mother and my sister to Gettysburg, PA. We left early Saturday morning and drove from Long Island to Gettysburg -- It took longer than it should have because we got stuck in traffic for an hour and a half in New Jersey.

As soon as we got in we had to rush to get to our Segway tour appointment -- We booked a guided tour of the West Battlefield through SegTours.com. When we got to the place we had to be trained on how to use the Segways before we could go on our tour. After about thirty minutes of practice we set out. We spent two and a half hours riding around to various spots in Gettysburg and learning about what happened during those three days in July.

Once the tour was over we headed over to our hotel to bring our stuff up to our room and then we had a quick dinner before heading into town. We wandered around East Cemetery Hill for awhile and other various places before heading over to the Jennie Wade House for a haunted tour.

While on the tour my mother and I did not experience anything paranormal, but my sister claims to have. She said that from the minute she walked into the house she had a headache, which she said didn't go away until we left the grounds -- Apparently the house is haunted by several children that once lived in the orphanage across the street and one of them is fond of women with long curly hair (which my sister has plenty of) and they sometimes fuss around with the women's hair. I may not have had any experiences, but hopefully the legend that if you stick your ring finger through the bullet hole in the door that killed Jennie Wade you'll be married and/or engaged within a year is true because I molested the hell out of that hole with my finger. If it isn't I still have some neat pictures to show from it. After the tour was done it was after midnight so we went back to the hotel to go to bed.

The next morning we woke up early to go to the Soldiers National Museum, Evergreen Cemetery and the Gettysburg National Cemetery -- They were all really interesting places to visit. Once we were done with all of that we decided to drive to Hershey, PA to stop at Hershey's Chocolate World before going back home. While there we made our own candy bars, took the free tour, got free samples and bought lots of candy from the store.

Overall I had a great weekend with my mother and my sister, plus I got to check one of the items from my "No Regrets List" off.
Twenty-Six Things To Do By March 3rd 2012:
  1. Have A Scavenger Hunt In NYC
  2. Get Thrown Out of a Nightclub (#6) *
  3. Learn How To Properly Make French Macarons
  4. Drink Only Water for a Month *
  5. Do Something that Scares You (#69) *
  6. Go Ghost Hunting in Gettysburg, PA
  7. Buy a Princess Dress (#35) *
  8. Love Your Body (#25) *
  9. Become Certified To Scuba Dive
  10. Learn a Foreign Language (#80) *
  11. Go to a Shooting Range *
  12. Visit The Library Of Congress
  13. Finish Unfinished Business (#14) *
  14. Take & Post A Picture Everday For The Year
  15. Go Inside the Statue of Liberty *
  16. Learn to Walk in Three Inch Stilettos (#30) *
  17. Go Wine Tasting *
  18. See A Movie At A Drive-In Theater
  19. Swim With Sharks (#47) *
  20. Learn to Drive Stick Shift *
  21. Visit The Cemeteries In New Orleans
  22. Indulge in a Great Work of Literature (#88) *
  23. Go Ghost Hunting in England (#59) *
  24. Take A Hot Air Balloon Ride
  25. Learn to Get a Good Night’s Sleep (#99) *
  26. Write A Children’s Book
* These items were things I did not get done on my original list (2010-2011)

June 5, 2011