A Miscellany

We've found a new Latin American restaurant right here in Moore!  It's wonderful!  Amazonia Latin Flavors is on 12th Street across Janeway from Parmele Park.  The food is SO good!  The people are nice, too!  We've already been twice.  Can't get dessert too often, or I'll have to exercise 2 hours a day just to break even!

 One Week Later: 
Just got back last night from my week in Austin, TX at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference.  My colleagues and I had a great time, and learned a LOT.  Now I have to sit down and digest all that good info into useful chunks that perhaps our library system can find useful.  Also have to fill out an expense report for the reimbursable things.  (Meals.)

Not this weekend, though.  Today I had laundry and yard work to do.  Tomorrow I will finish laundry and of course, go sing at church.  It is also the 20th anniversary of the  Murrah building bombing.My thoughts will be on what happened 20 years ago, not on the conference just past.  Monday is soon enough to go over my notes and get them typed up.

Looking chubby for some reason at TXLA2015

Some observations from my trip:

And through the grey cool damp
We climb
And find once again
That the sun still shines
In spite of turbulence
And pain
Hope shines forth
For all again.

Wrote it as we climbed above the clouds as we were leaving for Austin.  Funny though, it fits the story of our recovery from the bombing, too.  We have climbed past the dark and pain, and hope and light fill our city again.

It's nice when an airline can keep its cool and just reschedule you around weather delays.

Adventures are fun but I prefer my cozy nook and my books.

It's really hard to write legibly when there's turbulence.

Need to develop a "Captain Obvious" character for our library videos.

For me, flying seems to be a diuretic.  Alas.

It's cool when your celebrity friends acknowledge your tweets.

Twitter withdrawal:  It's a Thing.

I may be a fussbudget, I may just be.  But I'm organized!!

Scenes from a walk to the conference from the hotel.

Austin is weird, but it's a beautiful kind of weird.

Bluebonnets growing close to the sidewalk in downtown Austin.

My great adventure, wherein I was bitten or stung by some obstreperous insect or arachnid.

How the bite looked the night after.

Library people are the best people there are - helpful, friendly, and caring.  (Except when it's a race for the free book table.  Then all best are off!)

Jewelry vendors do very well at library conferences.  (Heavily female crowd, mostly far from home with no time to go shop away from the conference... and you are selling shiny things!)

Trying to write a coherent report on this conference is going to be like trying to force the ocean through a tiny little funnel.  It's not all going to fit!

Digital citizenship session

Tomorrow is the day I will try to wrap my head around the fact that it has been 20 years since the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in down town Oklahoma City, just two blocks away from the church we attend.  So much has happened since, we've all grown so much since then.
Monday is soon enough to write my conference notes.  Tomorrow is for the remembering of the bombing, and tonight is for relaxing.

Now Is The Summer Of Our Discontent

Now is the summer of our discontent
We end each workday aching and spent
The loud gales of noisy childhood
Pierce our eardrums, chill our blood
The endless parade of picture books
That need sorting and critical looks
To ensure no damage has been done
Them on their journey's run.

But also a summer of renewed hope
As yes, we struggle to cope
Though to find ourselves needed,
Our help and services pleaded,
Helping young ones make a new start
Does much to soften the heart.
And seeing a child excited to read
Makes us all very glad indeed.


Summer is our busy time at the library.  We are THE place for kids to go for activities, books, fun, movies, and a place to cool off and relax for a bit. 
It is a good and glorious thing that our library is so important to our community, especially to our children. They have a safe place to come to, a place to learn on their own, meet their friends, or just fool around on the Internet for a little while.
We are also a resource for the entire community.  We have business services, and all sorts of computer classes for adults, book clubs, teen activities, many community groups have meetings in our meeting rooms, we're the happening place in town. 
It's true all year, but especially hectic in Summer.  The kids set goals and read books, or are read to by their parents, and so we have a lot more traffic both of people and of books in and out of the building.  Also, we have many special programs during the summer, and on program days (like today was), things can be pretty loud for a library.  I made six new library cards today in my two hour desk shift, and replaced several lost ones.  Summer is also the time for lots of that.  Many fines were paid, and since this is Fine Forgiveness week, some people actually got NO FINES on their very overdue items.  (It's all good, we get our stuff back, and they save some money.  )

This summer I am finding myself discontented because I have been having trouble losing any more weight, and indeed I have gained a few pounds.  I have about 14 pounds left to my goal.  I find it harder to stick to my diet because I want to eat more sugar to have more energy.  I also find it harder to work out as much as I should some days because it is so HOT outside.  Today went better, but last year, it seemed easier, seemed like the weight came off faster and easier, too.  Maybe it's just because I'm older.  Harder to get the old metabolism going fast enough.  Who knows?  Whatever the reason, it's bumming me out.  And I STILL haven't made it to the Farmer's Market yet this year.  Must try to go this Thursday during my "dinner" break.  It is, most conveniently, right next door to the library, in the Community Center parking lot.

Here's to Summer, a time that actually means more work for me, but a time that also allows us to spend more time in our gardens, relaxing and watching the birds and squirrels and rabbits that come by to visit our yard. 

Sandwiched In Between Everything Else...

Here we go again.  Trying to write while on the Customer Service Desk.  It is a Saturday morning, we have three birthday parties scheduled in the meeting rooms.  So far, two groups have shown up. Hope the other one either doesn't show, or realizes they only have the room for the MORNING, someone else is there at noon.
Such drama in the library.  Meeting rooms are usually the largest source of drama.  Either they thought they booked something they didn't book, or they need one thing after another.  On rare occasions, they break the rules and put candles on a birthday cake.  THEN the smoke alarms go off, we have to evacuate the ENTIRE building, the fire department shows up, and all the folks who were using our free internet access get REALLY peeved.  Thank God that hasn't happened on one of my days lately.  Better not happen today, it is frippin' COLD outside.
 (At least we don't have any Vashta Nerada (deadly shadow creatures from Doctor Who) in OUR library.  If we did, I know a few customers who would have disappeared LONG ago...)

We may have a ghost in the library, though.  We think it is female, and a young person.  Most who have heard anything from it have heard sounds of giggling, or of children playing.  I think it is a happy and friendly presence, because I sense nothing at all that makes me uneasy in this place, and I have been known to feel things in other places that have had less benevolent spirits reported in them, even before I'd heard stories.  One old house that my Grandfather was caretaker of, there was something in that house.  There was a presence that was not threatening, but there was another that made me uneasy.  I was in there alone once during a thunderstorm, and I really couldn't get outside fast enough, never mind the rain and lightening.   There have been other places where I just had to get out of the building, there was an oppressive, unpleasant atmosphere.  (Thankfully, the last that affected me that way was recently torn down.)    It doesn't happen often.  Only VERY rarely.

Is it evil to think of getting a weeping angel figure and putting it in a coworkers cubicle?  Even if they are a serious Doctor Who fan?  They might think it was funny.  Honestly.  They might.

Our library system here is one of the best institutions to work for that I have ever experienced.  My coworkers are all fun to be with and the whole system feels like an extended family.  The ethic of service to our customers throughout the system makes it easy to do what we need to do to connect our customers to the materials and information they want.  Then again, I always have felt that those of us in education, like the library or public schools, are people with a holy calling, not a desire to make money.  (Because you certainly don't make a lot of money working in the public sector in a field related to education.)  That dedication to purpose is what makes working together feel so effortless sometimes.  I come to work and actually have a good time.  Because I am having a good time, I get a lot done.  When I get going on checkins, I can usually clear a large tub full of items and get them sorted in about an hour.  This depends on how many phone calls we get.  (Meeting room bookings can be time consuming.) 
Our customers also tend to be very nice people.  Everybody has a bad day once in a while, but most folks who come in here are glad to be here, and they are pleasant.  There are the regulars, whom we usually know by name, and they know us, and ask after staff they haven't seen for awhile.  This big, impersonal looking suburb is really such a small town at heart.  (Heck, the whole state of Oklahoma feels that way sometimes.  As frustrated as I get with the politics here, I love these people, and I love this place.  It has wormed its way into my jaded, Southern California bred heart.)

It is really quiet at the desk this morning.  (Can you tell?)  It is one of those very rare days when it is actually kind of quiet in the library itself.  The only sounds I hear are the hand dryers in the bathrooms and the annoying music from the children's game computers.  The occasional throat clearing or murmuring of a question and answer.  I hear someone moving things on shelves, and a kiddo playing with the puzzles.  Of course, the automatic doors out front are opening and closing a lot, but they do that whenever something triggers the sensor.
Biggest hallelujah  moment of the day so far?  The alarm shut off for me on the first attempt! Yay!  I didn't have to explain myself to an alarm company rep for once! 

Second hallelujah moment of the day came when I found something a patron had called and said they left in a book.  The patron actually remembered which book, and it was one our branch owns, rather than one from one of the other branches.  Went to the book on the shelf, and there were her papers, right where she left them.  Called her back, and she came and picked them up.  Nice when things work out like that.  
Worst moment of the day didn't come until I was almost home.  Big Nasty Stinking Freight train was blocking 12th Street again.  Had to wait so long, the car actually got warm.  (House is less than a 5 minute drive from the library, providing trains and traffic lights are in my favor.)  Usually, the heater doesn't start blowing hot air until I get to my own driveway.
Now I have been home for about an hour and ten minutes, and it is time to contemplate food.  (And possibly drink.)    That is all for today, I think.