Off To Nashville, TN

What To Do...

Today I attended a meeting with one of the Clerks held by the Nassau County Police Department at Adelphi University called Active Shooter Briefing (It was about what to do if someone came into a building and started shooting up the place) and boy it was a downer.

We were bombarded with information on how to deal with various aspects of having an active shooter within a building, photos and videos from past tragedies, etc. It was all very informative but I don't think that I was the right person to send seeing as I am not a person in a position to make decisions on what our library should do in terms of having some sort of plan to deal with the issue.


Honestly the whole thing just brought back memories of being in college and worrying about what to do if there was a shooter because they showed pictures and talked a a lot about what happened at Virginia Tech. I was away at Binghamon when the Virginia Tech massacre occurred and I distinctly remember sitting around talking with my friends about what would happen if someone went crazy in our building and decided to shoot up the place. Unfortunately the answer was we'd be screwed because we lived on the third floor of a building and there was only one exit we could possibly get to. It really is just as scary to think about now as it was in April 2007.

On top of that now all I can think about is how unsafe our library is if something was to happen here because the advice of lock your doors and take cover in the back somewhere really doesn't work in our building. So I'm interested in knowing what one would do in a building like ours and what kind of plan should be put in place. I guess I'll have to wait until the follow up meeting (Which I think my Director and Assistant Director should attend) and find out.

Another Morning Meeting...

I spent my morning at another meeting, this one was about picture books. It wasn't my cup of tea because I hate listening to people analyze picture books, but I got to see "Emily" for the first time since before the storm so it was worth sucking it up.

I really enjoyed being able to talk to my Department Head, "Emily" and "Marie" even if it was about books (We also talked a little shit about "Julia" because she cut and dyed her hair to look like "Amy's" hair and she looks like crap more so than normal). 

After the meeting was done I was trying to get the ladies (Minus "Julia" of course) to go out to lunch with me but they all had things to do. We all are attending another meeting on Wednesday morning so we all might go out for lunch then. I hope we do, it would be nice.

Meetings & Being Ignored In Queens...

Yesterday I went to another meeting for work and I had the pleasure of listening to JP Porcaro the President of ALA's Games and Gaming Round Table speak about gaming and comics in libraries. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed listening to him because he was funny as hell (Which I told him after he finished speaking), passionate about gaming and comic, etc. I had a great time listening to what he had to say about the topic.

Before JP started talking the president of the division holding the meeting was talking about having people join the executive board and how she knew there were individuals that weren't already involved that would be amazing assests to the board and she says "I'm talking about you   Insert My Full Name Here  " All of my coworkers that were at the meeting look at me in awe that I got called out for being awesome in front of all of these other librarians in the county. I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty awesome especially since "Julia" was at the meeting and I'm sure it killed her to hear me being sought out.

After the meeting was over I drove over to Erin's and we headed out to Queens because our friend was off. When we got there we were surprised to see that her daughter was home, apparently she had a half day because of parent-teacher conferences that day (We thought we were going to have child-free time for at least an hour or two). So the four of us had lunch and then we were ignored for a good chunk of the afternoon because there was homework to be done, phone calls and the actual attendance of a parent-teacher conference (Which caused us to have to babysit).

When she got back we ordered dinner from a local pizza place (Which took forever and they put chicken on our pasta. Why does Queens want me to eat chicken so badly?!?!!!) and we got suckered into putting together her daughters trundle bed. When we were do building and eating we busted out the wine ice cream and made adult floats. Shortly after finishing those we headed back home because someone was tired and wanted to go to bed. 

It wasn't the most exciting trip to Queens, but whatever. I still had a decent day.

Morning Meeting...

This morning I got to attend a meeting for work. It wasn't the most riveting of meeting (It was just the monthly county children's meeting) but it was nice to do something library related and see my Department Head, whom I haven't seen since before the hurricane hit. Yay for keeping busy with work-like things!

I Pay Taxes. I Pay You Salary...

I just realize that I totally forgot to write about what happened to me on Tuesday. So, I had to cover the Adult Reference desk for an hour while all of the adult librarians had a meeting. Everything was going awesome until 10 minutes before I had to get off of the desk. I get a phone call from a little old lady asking me for a person's phone number (She tells me their name, address, etc). I tell her politely that I'm not allowed to look up other patron's information for her. She goes off on me "The other librarians do it for me all the time! I pay taxes thus I pay your salary! You need to look this number up for me!" I tell her she needs to hold and I buzz up to where all the adult librarians are having their meeting and tell them I have a rude person on the phone. My Director sends down one of the adult librarians to deal with the phone call.

Apparently since 411 isn't free anymore the Adult Reference desk gets tons of phone calls inquiring about various phone numbers, I am a youth services librarian thus I don't know this crap. So if someone calls inquiring about another patron's phone number we apparently can give it to the individual calling if the person's number is in the phone book, if not they are out of luck. I didn't know this...

Aside from all of that, the woman didn't have to be rude to me. I hate people who have the nerve to tell me they pay my salary. Don't ever, no matter how mad you are, tell a librarian you pay their salary because they will want to punch you in the throat.

Photo An Hour...

9:00am - My first cup of coffee this fine morning.

10:00am - Print out of the directions to get to a lunch meeting on the island.

11:00am - Driving to the meeting.

12:00pm - The lunch they served at the meeting.

1:00pm - Coffee and dessert!

2:00pm - Books I won at the meeting.

3:00pm - Had to get gas.

4:00pm - The bag I ordered from a local shop & it came in!

5:00pm - Wine time!

6:00pm - Going through my friend's jewelry and finding matching pieces.

7:00pm - Organizing DVDs to pack away for the move.

Full Staff Meeting...

Even though I wasn't actually scheduled to to work until 1:00pm I had to wake up early to attend a full staff meeting at 9:30am. It wasn't very interesting. We had to listen to our Director talk about our upcoming budget vote, various changes to patron records, not sexually harassing each other (Prompting me to pretend to grab "Derek's" junk), etc.

The only interesting thing that occurred was that "Julia" fell asleep in the middle of the meeting (Surprise surprise!) and obviously I drew the attention of everyone around me to this. I bitched to my Department Head about it because "Julia" had the nerve to take a break after the meeting and she actually did something about it! She called her out for it and told her how unprofessional she is! As you can probably guess I was in my glory when I found out.

Meetings & Cupcake Baking...

I spent all of two hours at work today because the first half of the day I was in a meeting (Which was really boring, but "Marie" was there to keep me company) and I some how got my Department Head to agree to let me leave work early (At 3:30pm instead of 5:00pm) to bake cupcakes in ice cream cones for a program that I'm having tomorrow. So basically I got to enjoy myself a nice lazy day today because I really didn't do anything in the two hours I was actually in the library.

Seeing that today was so peaceful I'm guessing there is going to be chaos tomorrow during my Thanksgiving food craft. We'll see...

Bridesmaid Meeting...

Myself, Erin, one of the other bridesmaids and Phil (He obviously isn't a bridesmaid, but he is doing a reading at the wedding) met to have a little meeting about various topics pertaining to our friend's upcoming wedding in Las Vegas (It's in January). We discussed monetary issues, the bachelorette party, our dresses, gifts, etc. It was a successful meeting and we worked out issues that we were having, as well as had a nice dinner and dessert -- It was especially nice because the bridesmaid that I hate didn't show up and I didn't have to deal with her annoying ass.

Now all I have to do is sit down with Justin and figure out what he'd like to do so we can book our flight and hotel because I feel like this wedding is just going to creep up on us. I'll keep you updated on all the pre and post wedding chaos.

Outreach In The Park...

Today I ended up being sent to a local park to represent the library at an event with other community groups that deal with children -- It was an outreachy type thing. It was a pretty dull event with the exception of "Bad Mommy #1" being there and her son pulling down his pants in some random section of the park and peeing against a wall -- She obviously wasn't paying attention to him, so she had no idea what he was doing.

I did meeting random program providers and other local individuals that deal with children. One of the women in particular though for some reason that I would be interested in joining some Long Island group of young Latino professionals (I'm not...) and invited me to some events throughout the next few months.

I was stuck there for two hours before I had to go back to the library and work my night. I have mixed feelings on doing the event. It was nice to get out of the library, but it kinda also felt like a waste of my time. At least they only do it once a year, so I won't have to do it again until next summer.

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.

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.

Summer Staff Meeting...

We are currently in the middle of a staff meeting to discuss what programs we want to have over the course of the summer.

Ideas That Tweedledum & Tweedledee Came Up With:

• "Julia" wants to do a Nancy Drew Read-a-Thon, which I think is lame.
• "Amy" wants to teach various aged children about different artists and do crafts with them. This would be a good idea if she wasn't a craft retard.
• Tie-dye shirts
• Sand art bracelets
• Manga workshop -- This would be fine if they knew anything about manga, which they don't.

I find all of their ideas to be uninspiring so I came up with the best idea ever, ask "Mini Page" what kind of things she'd want to come into the library and do as crafts -- She is a younger teenagers and in the age group we are trying to target. As a result of this, she is currently on a computer looking up craft ideas. I'll let you know if she comes up with anything good.

Valentine's Day, House Parties, Etc...

Monday: As everyone knows was Valentine's Day. I spent my Valentine's Day working from 9:00am to 5:00pm -- Within those hours my passive aggressive side came out, I bought chocolate covered strawberries and gave one to everyone but "Sarah" because I really hate her.

After work I had dinner with my sister and her boyfriend, then the three of us went food shopping -- I was not a third wheel or anything, they had plans for Saturday instead of Valentine's Day. I know you're probably thinking why didnt' I hang out with my boyfriend, well I didn't hang out with Justin because it would have taken me an hour to get to his apartment, I would have had to go food shopping and then I would have had to cook dinner, I didn't wanna do all of this because I had to work a split shift the next day.

Tuesday: As I stated above, I worked a split shift. I went to a meeting in the morning with Lenni on Mobile Literacy and I worked with "Emily" in the evening. Nothing particularly interesting happened.

Wednesday: Was an annoying day at work. Within ten minutes of being in the library I wanted to tell several people to go to hell and leave for the day. Obviously I didn't, but I really wanted to. Instead I spent the first five hours of my day were spent running around in children's programs; setting up, taking photos of the children, doing circle times, cleaning up, etc. After the programs ended my day got better and work went quickly.

When I left work I went to dinner with Erin, then we met up with the boys to hang out. We went shopping and then we came back to my house to play video games. It was super amusing to watch my two best guy friends and my sister play Just Dance 2.

Thursday: Was another annoying work day. My Department Head was being nasty because she was figuring out statistics for the state report and there was just bad energy in the air.

One of the Processing Clerks sent down fifty books claiming that there were no record numbers for them and that they weren't in the OPAC. This was untrue, if the lazy Clerk in question would have searched the series title she would have found that there are indeed records for each of the books. I was going to send them back up to the clerical office but my Department Head made me find the records, print them out and then send the books back upstairs. I wanted to scream at her.

At one point my Department Head left for a while and in that time period one of the nasty Clerks called up and asked "Sarah" if we had a Page because the bookcart was full and they needed someone to bring it up and bring down an empty cart. She told them we didn't have a Page and the Clerk demanded someone come down for the cart, I refused to do it because I had just done a Clerk's job looking up the records so "Julia" went down to get it. After "Julia" brought the cart up we get another nasty call from the Clerk and she demanded an empty cart. I wanted to curse her out and yell at "Sarah" for thinking that "Julia" or I should have gotten the cart and not her -- I wanted to say "Bitch, I get paid too much money to be pushing carts around. Take your ass downstairs and get it."

In addition to those things I had the worst storytime in forever. I had twelve children and not enough crafts because the person who did the storytime failed to inform me that more pieces needed to be cut out. Aside from those things I had a child in the class that I took in to be nice because she had missed her class the day before for the older kids and she keep being annoying. Also, everyone had to use the bathroom, I stopped class at least five times to call children's parents in to take them out of the room.

Life after work was much better. Justin, Phil and a few other people came over to my house to hangout with my sister and I. We played video games, had dinner and drank a bit. It was an excellent ending to a blah day.

Friday: Work was peaceful -- My Department Head and "Sarah" were both off. "Julia" and "Amy" almost acted like normal humans, with the exception of "Julia" farting in the middle of the Youth Services Department and then saying "Pretend like you didn't hear that... Did you hear that?" -- I just rolled my eyes and walked away from her. Aside from that the day was wonderful.

After work my sister and I scrambled to clean up our house before people came over for our party -- Seeing as our parents went to Miami right after we got back from Aruba we thought it would be a great idea to have a house party. About ten people came over and we had a great time. We drank, ate and played the game from Inglorious Bastards (2009) -- For those of you that haven't seen the movie they play a game at a bar where they have the names of famous people/characters on their foreheads and they have to guess who they are by asking yes or no questions, it was a great party game. I actually figured out who I was after two questions -- I was Hitler thanks to Phil.

Some Of The Names Used

• OJ Simpson
• Sally Struthers
• Miss Piggy
• Charlie Sheen
• Scary Spice
• Michael J. Fox
• Tiger Woods
• Mickey Mouse
• Zac Efron
• Liza Minnelli
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Hitler
• Sailor Moon
• Marilyn Manson
• Godzilla

Saturday: I spent the day in New York City with Justin. We started off the day by going to the Coffee and Tea Festival NYC at 7 West. We have actually never attended the festival before, so we didn't know what to expect. It was an event that was open to the public but it was definitely geared more towards people within the coffee and tea businesses. We really didn't mind, we walked around, tried various coffees, teas and desserts, got some swag, etc. It was a nice random thing to do for the day.

The festival ran from 11:00am to 5:00pm. We basically did everything that we could in about two hours, so we decided to hang out in the city for the rest of the day. We went to Bryant Park, had lunch at Connolly's Pub & Restaurant, walked through Times Square and picked up French macarons at the Macaron Café.

Ten Hour Day...

I worked for ten hours today. In those ten hours I attended two meetings at a library over an hour away from my house (I woke up at 6:30am in order to be ready when my Department Head picked me up at 7:30am), I dealt with a mob of teens who behaved so badly a patron actually complained to the Director and he called the cops on them, I had to try and help several clueless children who didn't know anything about what they wanted, etc. Thankfully working for an extra three hours today means that I get to leave early on Friday. I can't wait for Friday, unless the Snow Gods answer my prayers and make it snow so much we're closed tomorrow. We shall see...

Tattoos & Yogurt...

Yesterday I started off my day by going to a mock Newbery Award meeting where a bunch of librarians sat around drinking coffee, defending eight selected titles, having group discussions and then voting on their favorite titles. It was super boring. I hate mock award meeting and I unfortunately have to go to another one on Wednesday.

After the meeting and a lunch break I headed back to the library for a couple of hours of work, which were relatively dull. With the exception of a tween telling our security that she was going to stab him in the head.

When I was free from the library is when all of the fun happened last night. I started off by having dinner at a diner with Phil and Erin. Then the three of us accompanied Maria to get two tattoos (I know getting a tattoo is on my "No Regrets" list but I'm working on that happening at the end of the month) on each of her wrists -- One is a Gemini symbol and the other I can unfortunately not tell you, but it's a Chinese character.

After watching her getting tatted up we drove to go get some Red Mango®. On the way there we saw a little dog without an owner, so we flipped around to go save it. We picked it up to take it somewhere safe and as we were a woman ran up to us saying it was her dog and thanking us. We proceed to get some Red Mango® and then we ended up driving around aimlessly for hours talking and carrying on. It was an excellent evening that I should be having a repeat of on Wednesday when the four of us head on our next adventure.