Three armed cops and a writer makes four. You're under arrest so get on the floor.

You would have been proud of my reference skills today.

Chick came into the library asking about a book she read as a kid.

Here is the description that I got: "this guy moves to town and paints it red and then everyone gets mad so he paints it something else."

Um.

Okay.

NoveList was a bust so I tried Google.

20 minutes later I found it on Amazon.

The Great Blueness and Other Predicaments by Arnold Lobel.

Boom, reference training.


After that it was all about Homemade Book Board Games.

My teens rocked it.

A bunch of TAB kids along with a potential new member who seemed to fit right in.

I worked more on my Harry Potter themed Monopoly style board.

One of my kids made a Harry Potter Apples to Apples which she called "Broomsticks to Broomsticks".

Other books covered included: The Secret Garden, Warm Bodies and Game of Thrones, along with Twilight and a couple others that I can't remember.

My adult volunteer who came to help made one based on Russian folk tales.


After work I came out to the farmhouse. Stopping by the Dorm-mom's fireworks stand for more strobes and  flying fish.

Second-to-youngest niece was here. Playing with the outdoor cats. Mom found a dead bird.

And a not-so-dead-one.

"Are you sure that's not another cat?"
"It has tail feathers and a beak."

We moved inside and decided Candyland was safer.



Aside from that the day sucked.

When you start wearing sunglasses to hide the fact that you just broke down or that you're about to again that's when you know there's something definitely wrong.

But that seems to be the theme lately.

I'm hoping tomorrow will be better.

It is the 4th after all.

My favorite of all the holidays.

Got the fireworks stash to prove it.

Parade in the morning - driving the T-Bird - after that it's all fireworks all day.

Huzzah.


And that's all I got.

Song of the day cause I'm watching the episode:



actually found the full version online:



those guys combined are actually pretty good.

though my favorite part was Beckett playing it on guitar in the end.



by all means. please come in.


and i'm out. happy fourth.

Thought he was gluten-free but all that I got was bread.

Kind of a rough day.

Getting only four hours of sleep didn't help things.

Add to that the fact that I felt like crap so I was pretty much a walking zombie.

Superwoman kept trying to send me home.

I would have called in sick but I had a volunteer coming in for training in the morning and I didn't want to dump that on some poor unsuspecting soul.

And then I realized that the Book Board Game event is TOMORROW and full on panic set in.

Similar to Library Golf but not as extreme.

As that was kind of an extreme event.

This is more laid back.

And I'm thinking like 10 people will attend, which is fine by me.

I almost finished my example today.

By "almost" I mean my comrade and I had fun coming up with game spaces for Harry Potter and finding online pictures to cut out and use as game pieces.

And then an hour and a half later the board was completed.

Now I have to do the currency and cards.

Though instead of chance and community chest I'm going with:
Portkey - cause you're going to be moving either forward or backward depending on if you set a python loose on your cousin or you won the house cup,
and then Spells and Potions - which can lead to you loaning money to the person next to you while being under the imperious curse or getting money for saving your friends because of your clever use of gillyweed.

etc. etc.

It's Harry Potter-based if you couldn't figure that out by yourselves.

I'm having far too much fun with this assignment.

Which makes up for the current assignment I'm taking a break from.

Ugh.

I hate takehome tests.

Especially when they're not actually tests but more like 3 term papers combined into one that's due Friday.

Ugh.

I have two of the three done, now all that's left is the first one. Which should be the easiest but seems to be the hardest.

As is true for most grad school assignments for the perfectionists out there.

But I have to do them tonight because tomorrow is the 3rd and then it's the 4th and those days will involve traveling and fireworks and therefore no homework will be done.

And I don't want to put it all off until Friday night - even though it isn't due until midnight.

Cause that would be irresponsible librarianship.

Or so I'm told.

Is that even a word?

I'm making it one.


Anyway, sadly the homework and board game weren't the most stressful part of today, it was actually that whole future thing that I avoid.

Juwanna and I use to refer to it as the "f" word cause I hated thinking about it.

However, today I was confronted with it as I talked with Superwoman.

Basically the thing is that I work 40 hours a week.

And in the fall I need to do a 90 hour practicum.

At a location that's open the same time as the library I work at and is closed on the weekends.

So I'll have to use vacation time to do my practicum.

90 hours of it.

Which I do not have when you combine it with things like camp - which I will never ever give up, you'll have to pry that from my cold dead hands - and then comprehensive exams which I will also be taking in the fall.

Which again are NOT TESTS, they're papers! 4 of them, basically dissertations and I have a week to finish them.

So why they call them exams I will never know.

Okay, technically it does evaluate your knowledge of the subject, but still!

They should just rename it "the week from hell" as my classmates so lovingly refer to it.

And from now on I'm sure I will too.


Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to do the practicum on Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons and make up for the missing 8 hours every week from mid-August through December 1st.

And I really don't want to be stuck working every Saturday to make up for it.

A girl needs her sanity where she can get it and being tied to a desk is not one of such places.


Anyway, the stress from all that made me overreact to stupid stuff and now I'm all headspace.

Which makes writing these papers even more difficult.

I'm thinking about quitting for the night and finishing question number one on Friday night.

Give me some time to think and confer with people about ideas.

Cause I'm stuck.

Yeah, let's go with that.



Alright, music and I'm out.

Let's do the fork in the garbage disposal!


sorry, i needed that.

on to the real music:

Acapella - Karmin (acoustic version)


yes, i know i posted the lyric video already, go here: You and me are through though, watch me hit it solo, I'mma do it acapella. but i really like the acoustic too.

looking forward to the real video that I assume will come out soon since the song is gonna be released end of this week.

huzzah for awesome nebraskans.

legitimate pre-midnight post, holy crap tag in use.

You do me wrong now, My love is strong now.

So if you thought that yesterday's post was awkward and ended suddenly, it was and it did.

But that's cause of the chaos that was currently going on in the apartment at that time.

Let me give you the whole story.

Okay, so, I don't know what time it was that I wrote that but it was far after midnight and I decided that I wanted popcorn so I put some in the microwave and hit the "popcorn" button.

Or so I thought.

Then I started posting and watching baseball and got all distracted and like 10 minutes later I'm like, is that popcorn done yet? I can still hear the microwave but it's not popping.

So I look up and HOLY CRAP.

Like billows of smoke coming from the kitchen.

I ran to stop the microwave, grabbed a towel and waved it in front of the smoke detector for like 5 minutes.

Meanwhile Carter is just sitting there staring at me going, what the hell did you do now, you idiot?

I turn on like every fan in the apartment and open the doors so the smoke will filter out then go back to fanning the smoke detector cause the last thing I want to do is set that off and then all the neighbors will wake up.

So, anyway, I can barely breathe and give up like 5 minutes later and Carter and I escape to the balcony which is where that post ended.

Right after it ended I thought I heard knocking on my apartment door, so thinking it was a neighbor coming to check if everything is okay I get up to go inside and run straight into the screen door.

Cause you know, forgot that I closed that.

By the time I get to the door the person is gone.

So then I freaked out like, what if they called fire and rescue?

Crap.

I have to change.

Can't have them showing up when I'm wearing this.

Cause you know, you're never supposed to wear anything you don't want emergency personnel to see.

Or anything that panics the cat.

Sometimes those two coincide.

So I change but it still smells like smoke so I slept with the balcony door open with the screen door closed.

Came home tonight and it still smelled like smoke so I made stir fry in order to cover it up.

And it worked.

And I didn't burn it.

Which is new.

So yes, I guessing you never knew anyone who lit popcorn on fire in a microwave.

Congratulations, now you can all say that you do.

It takes a special amount of skills to do that.

And burn soup.

And slice your foot open when you're making grilled cheese.

Choosing your foot over your grilled cheese as you hop to the bathroom blood trail dragging behind you.

Go here: Sketch and Edit Make Grilled Cheese

Based on a true story.

Just substitute my mother for Sketch, add in some worry for my health and subtract all those sarcastic remarks.

From then on Mom did all the making of grilled cheese sandwiches.

So you could say it was strategy move.


Anyway, I had all this stuff that I wanted to say about yesterday but it got cut short like how I love snarky Walmart employees who tell you not to combine the lighter fluid and donuts that you bought.

Well, the boyfriend bought.

And how UCLA dominated and won the College World Series! So my backup backup team dominated!

Actually would have been my first backup if I would have gone with my gut.

Oh well, still owe the Cool Aunt a round of jalapeno margaritas.

Speaking of the Cool Aunt we saw a preview - also yesterday - for House of Cards and I was like, what is this? It looks awesome! and then it said what it was called and I went, "oh, i have that checked out right now."

Cause the Cool Aunt recommended it and it just came in. But I had requested it purely on her recommendation without looking into it further.

I knew Kevin Spacey was in it.

And that she said to watch it.

But that was it.

So now I'm gonna watch it.

This weekend.

When I'm not working on that takehome test.


Today was good.

I like my job again, yay!

For a teen summer reading event we're making book board games so I'm making an example one and chose Harry Potter.

For which I get to read all the book summaries so I can remember all the places and people and all that to put on the game board.

It's a lot of fun.

Though I am artistically changed so the drawing part of it will be lax.

I also had another teen pick up an application form for TAB today. She seems pretty cool and very mature for her age.

She would make five new members in the past 3 months.

Huzzah!


On to the music.

A continuation of She and Him week plus an additional indie song.

Colors - April Smith and the Great Picture Show


Which I love, these guys are fantastic. You should really watch this one. If you hate it you can yell at me later.

back to She and Him

You Really Got a Hold On Me


love it.

Dream a Little Dream of Me


one of my favorite songs of all time and she does it justice.

Wouldn't It Be Nice


another classic.


stoked to see them tomorrow.

legitimate pre-midnight post, holy crap tag in use.

AND my homework is done.

AND i'm catching up on Major Crimes.

yeehaw.

Order Raisin Bran on a date, move ahead 3 spaces.

It's crazy to see that one post on here has gotten over 2000 hits in 7 months.

Ridiculous.

Second highest is only 500-something.

Both movie-related, gotta love it.

So, spent the night relaxing and finishing up the newsletter for tomorrow's meeting with the Library Goddess.

Originally I was going to go see the boyfriend but he is sick.

Which means, I'm sure, that I soon will be sick.

Which sucks cause I just got done being sick.

I'm just hoping it's either before or after this weekend, cause I'm not missing the benefit on Saturday.

The relaxation was good. Finishing up watching the Winter X Games, yeah I know, I'm way behind. But I got distracted by library DVDs and The Voice.

But can you blame me, really?

Oh, those of you who aren't fans probably can, but whatever.

You don't know what you're missing.

Felt super accomplished and old today.

Bought supplies for the teen summer reading programs for our library - in charge of setting them up and leading them and all that.

Makes me feel as if I almost have some aspect of power.

But that'll be gone by tomorrow I'm sure.

Going over supplies has gotten me excited again for our programs. Library Golf sounds especially exciting, but I'm hoping the others get attendance too. We're decorating jars and making board games based on our favorite books.

I did it in college with Pride and Prejudice, but I rambled to you about that already.

I'm stoked.

Gonna have to pick a book of my own to make an example board.

"Silver Linings Playbook" is probably a bad idea.

"Go to mental institution. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200." 

Though I do like "Order Raisin Bran on a date, move ahead 3 spaces."

Women's Murder Club is also probably a bad idea.

Even though it is my favorite book series.

Oh, how about "He's Just Not That Into You".

That might make for a fun game.

But not one I'd want to play with teenagers.

Hmmm...I'll put it up for debate, what book do you think would make for a cool board game?

And don't say "Hunger Games".

I love it, but I already have pictures of that to show the kids.

Anyway, I have templates for them to use, but they'll create their own boards, game pieces, dice, currency, rules and all that.

Should be fun.

Carter is already konked out next to me.

I was close to that before I started posting.

Need to crash soon since I have early morning meeting with the Library Goddess before work tomorrow.

Working on our last newsletter, sad day.

Can't believe I'll already be done with GA stuff in May.

Which means I'll have to break down and buy my own iPad.

Ugh.

Haha, you know, I didn't think I would use one until they gave me one.

And now I want one.

Quite handy.

Alright, what else from today?

Um, did more training for the new chick.

Who got Slim Shady's job.

And has yet to be nicknamed.

She came over from one of the branches and now her job is open.

Until like Friday.

So we'll see how that goes.

She's cool so far but it's hard to live up to Slim Shady.

Aaannd that's all I really remember about today. Summer Reading supply stuff, training, more training, oh got Amigos for lunch, that was good. Um, finished Murder in Suburbia season one....ummm....oh the cops showed up when we were closing. Some dude called the cops from our courtesy phone. Not because of anything we did, don't worry. He just needed to be picked up before he did something stupid. Made for an interesting walk to the parking lot with the cops there.

Had to not jaywalk in front of them.

Cause that would have been bad.

Not quite as bad as getting pulled over in your sister's driveway with family right behind you, but still bad.

Alright, on to the music.

More Voice Audition Highlights

I Kissed a Girl - Michelle Chamuel


"question eyebrows"
i love this chick, she's awesome. nerd power.

Loca - Monique Abbadie


this chick is badass. that was one of shakira's, if you didn't figure that out from her look of shock in the beginning, or singing and dancing along.
"but my resume is sparkling." "oh really?"
"wow, that was all you got?" "yes adam, i don't wanna waste everybody's time, she's picking shakira, now shut up!"
"all in favor that she pick shakira raise your hand."

Colder Weather - Warren Stone


that's a first.


out!

pre-midnight post, holy crap tag in use.

we're not broken just bent, and we can learn to love again.

I hate those stupid rambling kid commercials about the more and faster is better.

I have no idea what product they're for but I hate it already.

Ugh.

Side note, sorry, on in the background.

Hi!

So today was good. Very busy. Had 3/4 of the afternoon off desk and I still feel like I'm behind on Summer Reading stuff.

Finally got our dates nailed down for our Teen Summer Reading Events.

This year my teens are going with:
Jar Decorating - basically you put tape and stickers on a jar and then you paint the whole thing and peel the tape/stickers off to reveal the design to go with the "Beneath the Surface" theme and then also we're making paper lanterns with the jars so we have super thin paper that you draw on and then tape it around the jar, put a light in the jar and it makes a sweet nightlight.
Homemade Book Board Games - so the teens bring their favorite book to the library and we'll help them make a board game about it. So like with the Hunger Games they could do a Monopoly setup with the Capitol as Boardwalk. I did this in college with Pride and Prejudice - "Marry Mr. Collins, lose next turn" "Punch Miss Bingley in the face, move ahead three spaces" etc. - But we'll get them set up with templates for boards and then teach them how to make game pieces and all that.
Library Golf - this is the big one and it's the first event because that's the best time of year for my TAB kids to be able to help out. So we'll be starting off with a bang. As for logistics we will start on 4th floor with a couple of holes up there, ride the elevator down to 2nd (passed admin), around the nonfiction and music sections, down the back stairs and then through adult fiction and youth services.

I'm hoping the golf is especially popular just because of all the work that will go into it by the teens. Designing the holes and all that. I've been getting tips from a friend of Infoman's - things like using old mousepads to tee off of or using real golf balls instead of pingpong balls because they're easier to aim, etc.

The funny thing about the whole thing is that the mock booklets for Teen Summer Reading were sent out to the Teen Experience crew (which is basically the TAB leaders and some supervisors) to make sure the descriptions were spelled correctly and like 5 minutes after they were sent I got an email from one of the branch managers asking if she could help out with the golf.

This is after Girlscout asked if she could caddie.

And our Boss's Boss's Boss's Assistant gave me her stamp of approval today as well.

So if the teens are half as interested as the library employees are then we should be good.

I'm stoked.

I told her the more supervisors I can have on board the better as I'm still getting some apprehensive vibes.

We'll see how it goes and if it's awful then we'll learn from that and move on.

So that was the majority of my day, I finished the signs for the events - minus the kickoff party - and came up with supply lists. Anyone know where I can get 9 putters for like 3 hours on a June Wednesday afternoon?

There's a lot of golfers on staff maybe I can borrow them.

Anyway, so that was work. After work I met up with the boyfriend. We took some pictures around the train station - one of his favorite hobbies. He focused on the trains while I went more for the signs.

As in I saw the sign.



And it did open up my eyes cause I saw the sign.

Or sign, sign, everywhere a sign.



Blocking out the scenery breakin' my mind.

That one needs more words. Or be smaller. Cause it's awkward.

Quote of the night:
Boyfriend singing: I hope you're having fun, Man on the run...
Me: Band. 
Boyfriend: Band on the run...

Okay, you have to watch this.


Sorry, on Facebook - multitasking - and ran across a "whaaat?" meme, stupid addictive memes, so of course I had to search it and came across that.

Still laughing uncontrollably at 0:01 and 2:10-2:13.

Anyway, after pictures we went out to dinner with his mom and brother. Pizza at Old Chicago - gotta love it.

And now I'm back and ready to crash.

Though I'm debating staying up to do some editing, awesome writer friend sent me some updates to one of my favorites of hers and I'm dying to see them.

But that means I'll get hooked and not sleep and then tomorrow I'll be miserable.

Okay, it's 12 now. I need to be out by 1. That's the deal, no later.

We're good, music and I'm off to edit.

P!nk - Just Give Me a Reason feat. Nate Ruess



yes, that is the Fun. dude.

too catchy, love the melody.

out!