puck...puck...puck...i should probably move...yep, good plan.

Souvenir for a lucky fan.



Only stung for a second, though now I have a nice red mark on my side. Luckily I was wearing a lot of layers.

The lady in front of me ducked to save her beer.

Priorities.

And the boyfriend didn't even do anything to defend me, geez. Just leaned away. I'm feeling the love.

That pretty much sums up my week. Birthday included.

I spent it sick on the couch.

I'll get there. Let's start with Valentine's Day.

So I'm at the home branch, and the boyfriend is playing it totally cool. It's Valentine's Day, okay whatever. So I was all, okay whatever, and then suddenly he shows up with flowers.



Totally had me fooled.

Hockey game that night - we lost (and we lost tonight too, I'm starting to think this jersey is bad luck). But Brandon Bollig was there to drop the puck.



He's kind of a big deal now to Lincoln since he's the first Stars player to win the Stanley Cup.

We were laughing because the chicks next to us - who also have season tickets - were all decked out, like the works with makeup plus the Blackhawks jersey and they were all excited to get their picture taken with him.

Okay, so that was Valentine's Day, lots of fun, minus the loss to rival team. Then I went home for the holiday weekend and I started feeling sick Monday - it's been going around work for a couple weeks now.

I texted Queen of the Known Universe asking what her first symptoms were and went, crap cause they matched.

She told me to hit the road before it got worse so I headed back.

I already had Tuesday morning off so I could go get my license renewed but when I woke up Tuesday morning I was legit miserable.

Headache, fever, sore throat, achy, exhausted, all that. BUT I had to get it renewed or I won't be able to go to Vegas.

So I'm like sitting there in a ball in the corner and the lady behind the counter was like...are you okay?

No. But I'll survive.

So I got in removed and that was the last time I left my apartment before this morning (Friday).

Then Wednesday was my birthday so I'm like, I have to do something. This sucks. So I watched the original Star Wars trilogy on Blu Ray. With commentary. I love Carrie Fisher.

I was gonna start from number one but then I remembered I hate number three so I just went with the originals.

Yes, I'm a big fat nerd, get used to it.

But that's all the energy I had. It was that and the Olympics. Go USA. Been watching a lot of hockey, sad day that both our teams lost to Canada.

Thursday I was a little better but I was already scheduled to be off so I spent that day on the couch too.

Somehow, I was gone a week but only took 2 days of vacation. Just worked out that way with the holiday and then the day off.

Today was my first day back in a week and, since I obviously didn't finish the prep for my booktalk, Queen of the Known Universe covered for me and gave one of her own.

Felt she owed it to me since she was the one that probably got me sick anyway.

Take that.

Weight off my shoulders, for serious.

I did also miss out on the Strategic Plan meeting which I was told was "epic". Though "epic" to a group of librarians is probably something else entirely to outsiders.

Again, big fat nerds. Get used to it.

And speaking of big fat nerds, I got my diploma today.

Now I just need a frame so I can hang it up and look all important.

According to Second Sister it makes me kind of a big deal.

Again, big fat nerds. Get used to it.

And that's all I got. On to the music.

Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot


i first heard this on the blacklist - yes, i know, big fat nerd - and it was a lot more dark but i love it.

Acapella - Karmin & Mike Tompkins


0:34....and you thought i couldn't find another version to post. nebraska pride. i know, the obsession never ends. but check this out, it's epic.

that's Mike Tompkins, everything he does is all him acapella. I've posted his stuff a lot on here, but if you haven't seen anything else by him watch this:

Harder Better Faster Stronger cover


it is also epic. possibly moreso.

though this one is also catchy.

Trouble/As Long As You Love Me


he's on tour with Karmin and the Jonas Brothers. I'd go see them...if it weren't for the Jonas Brothers.

Stick it in your pointy ear.

Okay first up, watch this:



If you haven't already.

Craziness.

Today was good. Slept in, went to church then out to eat with Oldest Sister and family. Watched Bubby play some basketball, did a ton of Xmas shopping - almost done, not really - then headed out to see the boyfriend for dinner and a movie.

Star Wars 6. Classic.

The boyfriend thinks it's weird I get my groceries at Target. But it's one-stop shopping! Where do you get yours? Don't say. HyVee. I have yet to run into any helpful smiles in those aisle. Or at least the one in my neighborhood. And I can never find anything. In Target I know exactly where everything is.

Actually proud of myself for being productive with the shopping. Finished with Mom, Squirt, and most of Second Sister and brother's families. Others I have no clue where to start. But I'll keep looking.

In honor of Star Wars tonight's music selections are some of my favorite parodies.

Yes 2 of which are Weird Al, but who does parodies better than Weird Al?

The Saga Begins


awesome.


Yoda


amusing.


Call Me Maybe


EPIC.

Obi-Wan's "maybe" gets me every time.

I guess technically a parody but I'm going with it.

Mahna Mahna

My Day In Five Words

1. Cereal
2. Hamburger
3. Jars
4. Homework
5. Camp


1. So in the mornings I put cereal in a ziplock bag and eat it in the car on the way to work. This morning it fell and spilled all over my car floor. Under my feet where I have to push the peddles so it kept getting all squashed and made it worse. I should have known today would be off.

2. Had a hamburger for lunch. Security guard was jealous. Am excited they're doing daily specials at the place across the street. Makes having only a half hour lunch much easier. And now that my Chinese joint next door is closed - sad day - I actually have someplace to go on days that aren't Thursday. Which is when they used to only do specials.

3. We had our final teen Summer Reading event today at the work branch. Did some jar decorating - painting them and making lanterns out of them. For the paint stuff we put stickers on the jar then painted over them. Then when we pulled the stickers off it revealed the design below. And then the paper lanterns was cool, we took super thin paper and drew designs on it. Then pasted it around the outside so when you stick a light in it the design shines through. Actually had about 11 participate, 1 girl I'd never met before who goes to a different branch normally and then a family that came about 10 minutes before we were about to pack up. Calling it a victory.

4. Homework sucks. But at least tonight I was productive about it. Got done with the "ripped from the headlines" essay about Fifty Shades of Grey. Oh yeah, forum for this one, would you include it in your library? Sadly, even though I would never read it because of its topic and the fact that it's horribly written - or so I've been told by everyone who's read more than a page of it - I did include it in my fake library because my fake library is a public library and not including it in our collection because of its topic would be like saying "we only include items that we agree with, if you want to read that you'll have to go somewhere else". And we can't do that cause we are a public library. Key word being public. As in it's our job to help each and every member of that public that comes in.

Sorry.

Still on the library writing kick.

After that essay came the Peer Review assignment. You know how we have to write up an encyclopedia entry for our final assignment? The one right before that is to edit someone else's. I picked the Dead Sea Scrolls entry.

Oh my god. I know I have grammar issues, but this was like, the person didn't even hit spellcheck.

Awful.

So that was frustrating cause I had to transfer all that into a "what they should fix" entry plus check out every one of the references to make sure they were correct.

Blah.

But it's done and submitted. Now all that's left is the actual encyclopedia entry which I have mostly done and then the source list.

And I think I'm getting this whole Chicago Style thing down. Or I guess I'll know if I've got it down after the essay is graded.

I'm still clueless as to why she picked Chicago when the entire Master's program up until this point has been APA.

So I learn Chicago for a 1 credit course and then go back to APA for my final 3 credit class.

But then I'll be done!! And can't complain about homework anymore!

Well, my homework anyway, but now the boyfriend is thinking about going back to school.

Which I am in full support of! I think it's great and it's a smart idea. However, I'm not so fond of the part where I will not see him at all for 12 months.

But we'll figure it out when the time comes.

5. Ah the joys of Camp J. I would be even more joyful about it if all the applications came in before the July 1st deadline and that the adults would realize that it's a kids camp meant for kids not for them so they shouldn't complain about their assignments.

But that would just be too much.

Anyway, after a half hour vent session to Obi-Wan we have come up with a plan. Though Pastor will be the one to put the plan in motion. I'll expand on that after this weekend's meeting.

Actually excited about this weekend. Going to a Camp J friend's wedding. We used to go to grade school together but she was a few years younger than me. She and Meg were my lifeguards for years and years and now Meg is getting married in November as well. Neither ChickenFro nor Boomer is coming to camp this year so I was forced to find new lifeguards. I'm glad at least one of my teens has training for it.

But the wedding should be fun. The boyfriend is coming along. I didn't even have to ask really, I just subtly mentioned it like half a dozen times and then he said he would go. Score one for the home team.


So today was pretty stressful but now it's over so I'm off to sleep. Need to finish up these final assignments by the end of this week so I can focus all of next week on camp.

Skits. Nametags. T-shirts. Packing. All that.


Clip of the Day:



just cause it's awesome.

timing is perfect on clips.

and i haven't posted it in like a year. aren't you proud?

yes i'm a nerd.

and she's off.

"This wand is about as useful as a Kardashian library card."

Got to jam with Sensei this morning, well afternoon I guess it was.

We had a magician come to perform for Summer Reading at the home branch. Sensei and I counted kids and stamped and stickered and all that for their Summer Reading Booklets.

Though we did sneak in during the act.

The guy was pretty good.

I'm still trying to figure out how he made a hammer disappear.

Or blocks change numbers.

Here he is performing some other tricks.



He is highly entertaining.

I saw him last year as well, go here: "it's gonna be awesome, awesome, it's not 2 in the morning, hey!"

Still trying to figure out how that quarter trick.

Anyway, the whole show all I'm thinking is Burt Wonderstone.



Have I given that a Scale of Awesome rating yet?

The boyfriend and I watched it a couple weeks ago.

It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Scale of Awesome says 7/10.

Normally I'm not into the stupid funny stuff but this had legit funny stuff mixed in.

Kind of like The Rocker.

That was the major highlight of the workday.

After work I went out to see the boyfriend.

We watched The Paperboy.



Holy crap Batman, that was a depressing movie.

Not only was it depressing it was god-awful.

Scale of Awesome says 2/10.

So we followed it up with the first 45 minutes of the last Batman movie.

Cause it was on.

Tempted to watch the rest but I need to sleep so I'm refusing.

Speaking of sleep, I should be doing that now.

Work tomorrow then homework all night.

Gotta get it done so I can work on camp stuff...

Then they'll both be done at the same time and I'll have some peace!!!

Until mid-August.

Then I'm screwed.

Music:

So I posted this video last year - it's the Star Wars movies cut up so that they sing Call Me Maybe.



Anyway, the guy created a new one for Lord of the Rings.



not as good as his Star Wars one, but it's a start.

And if you don't like that give this a try:



the boyfriend sent it to me and I find it highly entertaining.

in what speech did he say "swag"??

Can't Touch This


I think that one is my favorite.

but i've got friends that love me and they know just where i stand

Website for class is done!!

It's due at 10:00 AM, and it is currently 3:30 AM on the dot.

Yes, this post will say it's 11:50 PM but it says that often and every time it does I'm full of crap.

Just throwing that out there.

Anyway, I'm super pumped cause I'm finished with this giant giant giant website assignment for Info Tech class and as soon as this is posted there will be much victory dancing before I literally fall over and sleep.

Or die.

Either is possible at this point. I'm barely sitting up as it is.

But I'll come up with the energy to victory dance.

There's always energy stored somewhere for a victory dance.

I've been doing a lot of dancing lately, at work especially.

Which I didn't notice until it was pointed out to me.

Like literally, BossLady was talking about this culture event thing that I was supposed to go help out at and we were set up in a corner and she was like, "but you're big on gestures and dancing so you'll draw them in."

I went, I have no idea what you're talking about.

I do not.

At least, not that often.

But yes, apparently I do.

I blame my family.

Isn't that what most people do when accused of being quirky?

They blame their family because they're the only people who can't run screaming in the other direction?

They're stuck with you for life.

Anyway, Everts women do a lot of broad hand gestures.

Broad hand gestures and shrieks for joy when we win a card game/drink an adult beverage/arrive at a destination without getting lost/embarrass the children present - we get kicked out of churches and pizza joints but we go out in style.

Oh, don't give me that look, it wasn't me that got kicked out of the church. Though I did laugh about it when I was informed.

I don't remember where I was or where I was going so I'll start over.

Well, not over but yeah, whatever. You get it.

Did I mention I'm half asleep at this point. It's like once I hit submit all the energy just floated away.

But like I said, victory dancing will bring it back and last for probably about 5 seconds before I pass out and wake up on the living room floor.

Remind me to set my alarm, can't be late for the dentist.

Blah, dentists.

I'm sure there will be more on that tomorrow after the appointment.

I don't remember where their office is located, I'll have to look it up.

Think I've repressed it that much that I don't even know how to get there.

Nah, he wasn't awful I'm just hoping they don't do that gum measuring thing every time I go in and that was only cause it was my first time there.

Cause that was suck-ish.

And I haven't cut down on the sugar or pop or started flossing which makes me an awful person, I'm sure.

But I can't live without Diet Dr. Pepper. Every year I want Santa to bring me a lifetime supply but he never does. Maybe that will change if I start flossing.

I had a bunch of stuff to say about today but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.

Other than the fact I had to text Queen of the Known Universe cause I left my Star Wars thermos somewhere in the building and I didn't want someone walking off with it. You hit a button and Han Solo talks. He predicts me day. Like I'll ask, "what's today look like for us, Han?" and he'll reply "I've got a bad feeling about this..."

and then I groan and take a sip of the coffee/tea/whatever hot liquid seems to be inside it at the time.

Not the reason she gave me her number, but the real reason is more of a long story that will remain unexplained cause I don't want either of us to get yelled at.

Ha.


3:45 AM

Holy crap I need sleep.


Maybe if I fall asleep in the dentist chair I won't notice all the horrible things taking place.

Alright, going to bed now.

I leave you with this.

Song You Know But Forgot You Knew It

Enjoy.


Who I Am - Jessica Andrews



it's all a part of me, and that's who i am.

"Politics is the art of postponing a decision until they are no longer relevant"

Watched "Red Tails" with the boyfriend tonight.

It was incredibly cheesy. 

Even for George Lucas. 

And I say that in the nicest possible way, I'm a Star Wars nerd. 

But even that has moments of cheesiness. 

It was interesting because if you closed your eyes you could still hear Star Wars.... if that makes sense, I don't know there was a lot of shooting and flying vehicles and all that.

Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard did fairly well, but they weren't in it all that much. 

I like Daniela Ruah from NCIS:LA so it was interesting seeing her in a non-English-speaking role. 

And I mean it was a good story, it was, it's just that okay *SPOILER ALERT* like none of them died. 

Until the end. 

But they were rookie pilots pulling crazy stunts against experienced ones with better planes.

Even the one whose plane leaked gas and caught fire when it crash-landed survived. 

He was like, "wait, is one of them really going to die?" 

Nope. 

Eventually yes, but even the dialogue was cheesy. There were a lot of moments when I stopped watching and was like, really?

Scale of Awesome says about 4/10. There were some good lines, and they meant well, so I've got to give them something, you know?

They just didn't pull it off. 

So that was a bit disappointing, but at least I got to see the boyfriend since he was gone this weekend and he'll be gone again this upcoming weekend.

Now I'm back to delayed olympics - US women's basketball just beat China, and US women's volleyball is currently up one set to Turkey.

Work was better today, I didn't screw up as often as yesterday so that's a bonus. Made a lot of progress on a booklist that got back-burnered because of camp and other library-related stuff, mostly Summer Reading. But now that's okay, well it's supposed to be over but apparently we're still handing out prizes until like Winter.

Which is fine, I don't want to turn kids away, I'm all about kids in the library, but now things have slowed down enough that I can focus on the fact that TAB is starting soon and that I'm still completely unprepared. Hopefully Thursday will help, we're getting together for TAM, which I've learned stands for "Thursday Afternoon Meeting".

Though it usually says "TAM Meeting" on the schedule so kind of kills that whole abbreviation thing with redundancy.

Anyway, I'm going to flail to the fellow leaders of TAB - aka other branch leaders - and ask them for advice on activities and meetings. I have lots of tips from Mentor but she's encouraged me to talk to others as well so learn about their different approaches.

So I can find one that works for me, basically.

But they're good kids and actually show up for meetings and participate so I'm grateful.

Alright, enough about that, I'm gonna crash. Starving actually, just realize I haven't eaten anything since that polish dog at lunch. Should probably work on that, popsicles or something. That's basically all that's in my fridge since I emptied it out before camp and haven't went shopping since.

I think there's some icecream cake in there from my birthday, should probably toss that.

Which just reminds me that I'm old.

Well, older than I was February 18th, I don't know where I'm going with this. Gonna get food and watch some more olympics before I crash.

Song of the day:


"Pontoon" Little Big Town

too catchy for its own good.

3 days in a row with legitimate pre-11:50 times, what's wrong with this picture?

Where do you think you're going, baby?

Sometimes I forget that people I know read this thing.

Don't worry, it won't happen again.

Today was great.

Literally great.

Had a lot of fun, especially with the awesome females in the building. Not that my male coworkers weren't fun, there was just a lot of random female bonding throughout the day.

Mostly about frustration.

Um, see I'm in charge of supplies and BossLady had me order some of those drawer organizer things with the compartments. And they came in and we have three of them. So we went to install the first one and realized that it was too big to fit in the drawer.

Even though we measured before we ordered them. I guess the edges were too thick.

I wanted to go grab the mallet that's in the cabinet and just make them fit but she refused.

Boo.

Instead she found a way to get rid of the back side of the drawer so it would fit.

Unfortunately, in order to take that side off we'd need a philip's head screwdriver which according to the Little Shelver Boy didn't exist in the building as he had looked previously.

But we were on a mission, and I had to find one - mostly because he told me we wouldn't - so we searched the headquarters of Buildings and Grounds. When we had a Buildings and Grounds crew. Which now we don't so it's like the former headquarters. And it's like a tool junkies dream. Except it's a pit so BossLady and I are thinking about cleaning it out.

Cause that would be fun.

Yes, we're weird like that.

Anyway, so we searched the place high and low - literally - and it's seriously a tool shop. It's storage for shelves and pretty much everything electric, but there was a not a single phillip's head screwdriver in the entire room.

Rooms.

So, as I wouldn't admit defeat, I ran - well road - upstairs to the fantastic people on the third floor and asked if they had any.

And they did!

Saved me.

They do that a lot.

I go up there probably twice daily flailing mostly about supplies, but a lot of Summer Reading stuff as well.

Anyway, so I grabbed a couple, brought them down, BossLady took off the back part and it still wouldn't fit cause there were like brackets. And you can't take off the brackets cause you need them to hold the metal things.

Then, as fate would have it, at that exact moment one of my flailees - aka the magician - walks by, and she knew about the organizers cause she's my supply supervisor who I order everything through and she's like "you pull and i'll push" and they barely got it to fit, then smashed it in and claimed victory.

I was sad I couldn't use the mallet but hey, it works.

And now we get to do two more tomorrow morning.

Cause just the one took an hour.

Also tomorrow my fate is decided, sort of, as they're going over my evaluation with me.

So I probably shouldn't talk about it now.

Though it wasn't bad, but still should probably wait on that.

After that whole escapade came the awesomeness that is Fearless Leader and me figuring out damages stuff.
Cause there's a process and we're changing things. I'll get to that more later.

Anyway, she's leaving so she's passing off all her smarts to me. Tricks of the trade. I will seriously miss that woman, she's great. And we're all crying inside, even the ones upstairs who don't work with her on a regular basis.

But we're making booze cakes again before she leaves so we're sending her out in style.

After work it was more camp stuff. 4 phone calls in 2 hours, plus a bunch of emails and crap! I still gotta upload that graphic, woops. Do that when I post this.

I'm trying to assemble some skits, I kind of have working numbers now since camp is like, holy crap soon, anyway I always put them off until last minute and I have enough crap to deal with once I'm there so I need to get at least half done by the end of the week.

People are requesting the repeat of Tankety-Tank-Tank since apparently enough years have passed and what's funny is that the 5th graders that did it previously are teen helper age now. And since I have one of them in a cabin with 5th graders and it's the kid that played Zammerman I was thinking about having their cabin do it and he can show him how it's done.

7th and 8th graders will sing HeeHaw so as soon as I get the verses down that just leaves me with 7 skits to write and I can come up with those.

I hope.

At the moment I'm a bit blocked, but it's a work in progress.

Anyway, I should crash as it is almost midnight and I need to be semi-conscious tomorrow as it's sort of a big day with the BossLady and Superwoman.

Alright, watch this.

I'm serious.

Watch this.

I found it at noon and it had 2,000 some hits, right now it's at like 3 million.

Someone took clips from all the Star Wars movies and clipped them so it sings "Call Me Maybe" by what's her name. Carly Rae Jepsen. yeah.

It's freakin' awesome.

They showed it to George Lucas and he loved it. 



i'm sorry, but i just laugh everytime Obi-Wan says "maybe"

tone of voice.

won't be able to watch it the same way again.

love the random creature shots when they couldn't find matching lyrics.

"it's a trap!"

Notes from the blender

So I'm a magnet.

For creepers.

This week has been no exception.

A guy came up to me at the desk with a "psychology question" for a class he's taking.

First it was "if someone asked you if you wanted to hang out would you say yes, no, or maybe?"

To which I didn't answer.

So then he changed it to, "do you like music?"

To which I said "sure".

And then he came at me with, "so if someone asked you if you wanted to hang out and listen to music, would you say yes, no, or maybe?"

I said it would depend on the relationship I had with that person.

"Well, you're both single." and that's when he got the ring.

Basically, when I get hit on I hold up my left hand, aka the one with the fake wedding ring, and they back off.

There's a reason I wear it every day.

And this way I'm not technically lying, they just assume I'm taken and they back off.

But it's not like this is irregular, it happens quite frequently.

But I'm too nice, so lately I've been shutting them off entirely.

I don't need another "likes ass or jazz" fiasco mentioned here: This Magnet Moment

Anyway, so I showed him the ring and he kept talking! So I looked over at John Boy who then turned to Queen of the Known Universe and she came to my rescue calling me away from the desk and saying something about going to the basement for a YA question.

So I did and ended up in cataloging talking to the New Girl and grabbing a YA item just in case I went back up there and he was still at the desk. That way I could claim the item was re-cataloged and fixed or something to that matter, but he was gone by the time I got back there.

She and I save each other frequently, though the most memorable was when this guy nearly invited himself over to my house for November so she walked out into the stacks and called the extension and told me I needed to go to the basement and get something. So I left the desk and she came back to it. Then, as I hung out in the stacks, I noticed he wasn't leaving her alone. So I called her extension with my cellphone claiming I needed her in the basement. Then we basically ended up hiding out in the stacks waiting for him to leave the desk.

Which he actually stood at for about five more minutes.

Then there was another guy who was like 30, living with his brother and said he was ready to settle down and get married.

I told him I don't date patrons.

He attempted to find a way to work around it.

Didn't work.

Speaking of the Queen of the Known Universe, she ties for first in the Quote of the Day selection.
-"I don't want to cougar him." turned it into a verb, i like it.

When our library director, aka my boss's boss's boss, is notified about a change coming from the mayer's office she responds with "what the hell are you thinking?"

What else...

Tomorrow is "meet the parents" night.

His dad's birthday party, should be interesting.

I'll keep you posted.

Have tomorrow off to run errands, clean my apartment, but most importantly sleep in.

So don't call me before noon.

I'm out. Exhausted.


American Pie - Don McLean

but something touched me deep inside the day the music died.

he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye, saying soon i'm gonna be a jedi, soon i'm gonna be a jedi.

if you haven't already heard this next version you are seriously missing out on life. check it out.


Star Wars Epic Saga - Weird Al



PS - I checked out the book that I got from cataloging. "Notes from the Blender" which reminds me of my newest obsession.

Blackberries.

Addicted.

Got a blender from Second Sister for my birthday. I'm hooked. Started making a lot of fruit smoothies with random fruit, pineapple, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, rasberries, all that. I like it. And it's healthy, so THERE!

Don't wake up in a road side ditch.

Things I learned today:

-In Duluth, Minnesota it is illegal to allow animals to sleep in a bakery.

-In Idaho, you may not fish on a camel's back.

-All of the earth's continents are wider at the north than in the south - and nobody knows why.

-A group of frogs is called an army.

-90% of women who walk into a department store immediately turn to the right.

(those may be complete crap, just FYI)

-No matter how well-planned out things may seem, they can still go sideways.

The last one was especially true for today. They've finished the majority of the painting which means that books go back on the wall along the outside - or the car manuals at least cause that's their new permanent location.

When they took them down they attempted to keep them in order on the shelves and then line up the shelves so that it would be easier to put them back up....but the plan failed a bit.

Mostly because the lines they were put in were a bit out of order. But whatever, two hours later they were fixed and up.

The movers were seriously impressive, the Awesome Aide and I sat back and watched as these muscle-bound guys picked up the shelves with the books still on them and carried them around the room, then lifted them over their head and installed them.

And these are heavy books.

Dude.

Anyway, as well-planned as it was, since they weren't putting them back in the same section as they took them down it turned into a bit of a mess.

But we got it.

One of the dudes said if something goes wrong they'd have my back.

So Chet's Moving Service has got my back.

Made me feel special, haha.

But there was a lot of re-shelving things and organizing today which made me realize all this new supplies stuff I need to order, blah. I'm behind, but that'll be my goal for tomorrow: order conquer, tape, baskets, batteries....there was more but I'm blanking. Good thing I wrote it down.

Aside from the constant running all over the place was the constant heat which didn't help things but we're in Nebraska so we're used to it, anyway we found ways to distract ourselves, talking about the big game and our favorite commercials which is a frequent topic between myself and The New Guy.

Here are some of our favorites:

Make 7-Up Yours!

i love orlando jones and this is fantastic.

Don't Wake Up in a Road Side Ditch

"when people think you're tough people want to see how tough..."
it's just so random!!! i love it! and all the other variations, but this is the best.

Darth Vader and a Volkswagen

love it.

ALL ABOARD!!!! The 5G Train!

"i dunno, kinda looks like a girl"

That's Brisk, Baby!

too funny.

okay, there's no way i can not post these.

I want a Golden Darthy!!

"...well that blows..."

That kid's got game

"and the babes start snickerdoodling and then you go on lots of dates!"

gonna have to show those to my brother, fantastic.

Song of the night:

Because Jordis is in my top 5 for The Voice and she rocked it tonight, here's her blind audition

"Maybe I'm Amazed" Jordis Unga

dig it.

All the songs make sense.

If you watch Castle then you get that reference.

If not...you'll figure it out.

So, the boy who doesn't do Valentine's or flowers turned me into a complete girl today in front of my coworkers.

Was in the back room, working on the First Aid Crusade, when Fearless Leader walks into the room with flowers. I move, so she can get passed me, thinking they were for Girlscout or somebody, and she just keeps looking at me.

The boyfriend sent me flowers.

Nice flowers.

Very nice flowers.

At work.

And apparently I turned completely red, which they highly enjoyed because I don't do that often.

Or ever.

In front of them.

Cause, you know, I'm just the goofy kid of the bunch, that they turn to if they're looking for a movie reference or a song is stuck in their head and they don't know what it is.

Or when there's a computer problem and instead of calling down to our very capable tech people, Big Brother calls me College and asks me to fix it.

Which I do.

So it's okay, but still amusing.

Anyway, so yes, flowers at work. He's turning me into a girl. First spiders and now this. I'm sure Amos would love this.

After work I called Favorite Sister-In-Law as she had computer questions, see this apparently is supposed to be my area, and I said we'd figure it out this weekend.

This weekend will be awesome, not only because it's my birthday - which I don't like massively massively celebrate, kinda like how I don't celebrate Valentine's but still show up with candy and Fearless Leader said I looked like a giddy kid, which I did cause Fun Dip rocks! And yeah!

Okay, I know that I'm young, but I'm not that young. How do people not know what Fun Dip is? It originated in like the '40s, of course it went by a different name, but still, it existed! And people ate it!

So then today I give them to people my age and they were stoked! Saying they haven't had it in years, and then anyone over 30 was like, what the?

SERIOUSLY?!

Okay. Now I'm feeling young.

Which is good.

Cause next week I'll be feeling old.

Old - Oh right, I was mid-statement, sorry. Got caught up in a sugar high apparently.

So, not only is this weekend my birthday, but also my newest niece Tessa Jo is getting baptized. Which means lots of fun family stuff so I'm stoked.

Still have no idea what I'm doing for the birthday or any of that. I'm assuming we'll do some sort of thing at some point. Since I'm with family on Sunday I could jam with friends on Monday. Cause we're closed. Three day weekend, woohoo!

But I can't focus on that. Cause first I gotta finish that tech-services paper. Though I can't really do that until the chick gets back to me.

So that's my procrastination excuse, she hasn't gotten back to me yet.

So I can't write the paper until she gets back to me.

See, if I repeat it enough times I forget that I could actually start with the stuff I already know and then fill in the rest when she sends it to me.

Then I would actually be semi-done and not so freaked about it.

But that's this week.

That paper and editing.

And then Saturday is the Barnes and Noble Buy where we take the teens to pick out books they want in the collection. That should be fun.

So, the joy of tonight - well and today - was that Slim Shady brought me this recipe for this easy meal, and she taped it to my locker.

Guess where it is now?

Still taped to my locker.

BUT! I have this awesome app on my ipod about How To Cook Everything and yep, found something on Lemon Chicken and Noodles. So I got all the stuff and by the time I made it back to my apartment - the bag boy dropped my cheesecake thing so he had to go get me another and then we didn't get to it anyway - the boyfriend was already here.

He did the majority of the work on the meal, but he did used to work in fast food so he had the advantage.

And I use that term loosely, neither of us are so great, but he did pretty well.

And it turned out pretty good, and edible, and my apartment is still standing, and nothing got burnt. It's exciting!

All-in-all I'd call it a win.

Plus he didn't give me crap about Star Wars Episode Two being the "romantic one" which it is, but didn't exactly dawn on me until he said it.

So now it's back to me and Carter, and I'm exhausted.

Long day today and another one tomorrow.

"Americano" Lady Gaga

sometimes i worry that my boyfriend is a bigger fan of lady gaga than i am.

like how he sings it when he cooks.

just saying.

And you, young Skywalker, we shall watch your career with great interest.

I'm starting to worry about my cat's affections.

As of lately, he seems to like the boyfriend more than me.

For instance, the boyfriend and I went to see Star Wars Episode One in 3D tonight, then came back here, where he laid on him, who was laying on the couch.

Physically laid on him.

Didn't even acknowledge me.

After he left Carter came and sat by me.

It's like settling for second best or something.

Granted he still sleeps on top of me, so I have the edge there.

But seriously, starting to worry he will be the favorite.

Which is not cool, when I'm the one feeding him, and cleaning up after him, paying for him to be shaved.

Mom - or Grandma as I call her when she comes to visit, she just loves that let me tell you being a grandma to a cat - says he looks fatter now that he's shaved.

Which he doesn't.

Yes, he's fat, but without the fur he's lost like ten pounds.

I think he knows I'm writing about him.

He's giving me weird looks.

Saying he likes the boyfriend better than me. The boyfriend doesn't write about him on a blog.

Speaking of the boyfriend, so yes we saw Star Wars in 3D and it was fantastic.



The sad thing about me though is that I've seen that movie so many times that I could almost quote it start to finish - not quite as bad as the mummy or returns since i can quote them without turning on the TV. Anyway, I haven't seen the first one in literally years so it was awesome seeing it on the big screen. The 3D was super cool, made all the effects even bigger.

Though I was surprised cause there was barely anyone in the theater.

Oh well, more for me.

Stoked for the second one.

He is not.

He says it's the "romantic one".

Just for that I'll make him watch it on Valentine's.

We discussed that as well. What are you expected to do on Valentine's if you've just started dating? We'll figure it out.

Apparently it's my job to come up with something. We're both so horribly indecisive that it's almost a battle.

Fine.

I'll think of something.

I guess I owe him anyway.

He kills spiders for me.

Which is ridiculous.

Apparently the second I get a boyfriend I turn into a total girl.

As I was cleaning I ran into a spider's nest thing and I didn't want to like grab it and anger them. Then I was gonna vacuum it, but my vacuum isn't very good and I didn't want to wake up to a bunch of ticked off spiders.

So he got rid of it.

My hero.

Now it's time for some more Chuck.

Though I'm tempted to turn on SW Episode 2 - cause you know you have to watch them in order. One New Years or Christmas or whatever the heck it was, I'm pretty sure it was New Years, P Squared and I watched all of them (that were out), but this is back when the second was just released in the theaters. We started with 4 then 5 then 6 and started over with 1 and saw 2 in the theater. It rocked.

We usually stick with series on New Years. Bourne. Pirates. Hot in Cleveland.

Where was I? Oh right, Chuck. Yeah, I'm mid-season two which of course is when all my DVD holds are coming in at work - cause everything arrives at one time. That's what you learn, even if you put holds on completely different items at completely different times. They will all come in at once.

Chuck.

Right.

So yeah, heading back to Chuck for the night. Long day tomorrow.

Today was actually pretty good. Though I've learned that during class I seem to understand everything, but the second I get to my apartment and start the homework it's like wait what? Why was that a 0 and not a 1 again?

Apparently, cataloging is a lot like scrapbooking.

Or that's what the boyfriend says jokingly.

No.

Cataloging is nothing like scrapbooking.

And it has absolutely nothing to do with scrapbooking.

Cataloging is data and code and patterns. Scrapbooking is fancy paper with pictures and graphics. Scrapbooking is much prettier than the string of code you have to plug in to create an entry in a catalog.

Though I'm sure to some people that's beautiful as well.

Not me.

But perhaps one day I'll get there.

When I do, someone please cut me off.

"Give Me One Reason" Tracy Chapman

it appears to be a night of old favorites. though this one has yet to leave my system. right up there with aaliyah's "are you that somebody" and almost anything from RENT.


Alright, Carter and I are out for the night. Have a good one.

"and there ain't no more to say"

And I'm not leaving 'til you're leaving

Have you ever noticed that the second you go from "single" to "taken" is when all the decent guys start coming out of hiding?

Like, when you're single, every freakin' creeper is hitting on you, yet the second you're taken and not looking for a sane one, that's when they all appear?

Not that I'm interested in anyone else, I'm happy being taken as I am very taken with them.

I just find it ironic.

But maybe it's just a quirk of the library. You know how many creepers roam those aisles?

So I've made some more progress on that to-do-list.

Finished the MARC records, interviewed professionals for my paper, scanned all my camp music.

As the list is massive, I'm just going to focus on this week.

-Read the rest of the articles, write up the notes for the assignment and post it

-E-mail the contacts that weren't at the interview and ask about the general collection, send thank you's to the rest

-Format the scanned camp music, it's a mess, but they're uploaded

-Go over my friend's stories that I got like a month ago, cause apparently being busy all the time makes me a really crappy editor.

And I wanna get all of that done before the weekend, possible plans for Friday night, plus I'm going out with the Cool Aunt on Saturday, have class on Sunday, and next week is Valentine's Day - which thank god he feels the same way I do about the hallmark holiday, we'll pass - plus my birthday.

Yikes.

No major plans for that, but I should probably figure something out soon. Would be cool to do something with old high school friends who are now in town. Or maybe go out with the family.

I will have hopefully seen Star Wars in 3D by then, I'm a nerd, get used to it and yes he's as into Star Wars as my family is, so we're good there.

Alright, there were many quotes of the day, though none of them beats this one:

Coworker: "So I picked up the poop..."
Me: "You know, if I didn't know what you were talking about that would have made for a really awkward conversation starer."


"When I Get You Alone" Robin Thicke

the original.

And I'm out for the night.

good god...piranhas...

"Would it help if I got out and pushed?"

Shameless Star Wars reference.

But I did.

Guess how many cars left the parking lot this morning.

Zero.

Guess how many attempted.

One.

Guess who was around when that happened.

Me.

Great way to meet the neighbors.

One chick gets stuck trying to get out, another chick waits for her to get unstuck cause she's blocked in.

Then she decided to stay so she wanted to go back to where she was parked before.

Basically I pushed and she hit the accelerator, and when that didn't work after about ten minutes we MacGyver'd it. Used the floor mats as traction, AND IT WORKED!

So take that!

But yeah, after that neither of them ended up going to work anyway!

Oh well, it was amusing.

My car was buried.

And they plowed the snow right behind our cars, so there was no way out.

I was split shift, Superwoman said stay home, but I was gonna try to go to the home branch in the afternoon.

But then they lost power.

So, nevermind.

Guess what I spent my day off doing?

Working on my to-do-list.

Shocker, right?!

Added to the group MARC records that I've been putting off, printed off all the material I need to read, read the chapter, took some notes, scanned ALL of my camp songs and uploaded them...now I just need to format them.

Yeah, PS-my new scanner rocks.

Seriously.

But you have no idea how many freaking songs are in that book.

Plus there are more that I don't have and Liz does.

Or I probably have them somewhere buried in my camp stuff.

Which is like tubs worth of stuff.

So those are uploaded - and I've been putting that off since August.

I did laundry and dishes...

What else?

Oh yeah, so ever since that whole pushing the car thing this morning I had the line "Would it help if I got out and pushed?" stuck in my head. Carrie Fisher's voice and all.

So I watched the original trilogy.

In the background, while I was scanning all that music, but it was fantastic as ever.

Though there were a lot more "search your feelings" remarks than I remembered.

Now I've moved on to The Replacements.

"Kick ass, Falco!"

I forgot how good the soundtrack was. Gonna have to look for that on iTunes.

Just got a call from my brother-in-law, he dug out my car for me.

Awww, I love my family. They rock. Though I'm pretty sure my mom asked him to do it.

And yeah, that was my day.

"Cold As Ice" Foreigner

sorry, it was either this or Let It Snow and as more snow is probably a bad idea...

and just because I can

"Don't Bring Me Down" Electric Light Orchestra

i'll tell you once more before i get off the floor, don't bring me down.

Tomorrow I'm totally going to work, don't care about the weather. Cause if I get stuck here again I might go crazy.

It's like, if I'm not sick, and I don't go to work, then I need to be doing something productive.

You know?

I just felt bad cause I couldn't get there.

But I did make a lot of progress on projects I've been putting off.

Next up, prepare for the interview on Monday.

It's a technical services kind of interview for class, where we go through the whole cataloging process with someone who does it for a living. I'm heading to the commission, figured they know what they're doing - cause I'm not supposed to interview someone I work with.

But they gave us a rubric so I won't be completely lost on what to ask...hopefully.

Anyway, I'm gonna crash.

I didn't nap the entire day.

Holy toast, right?

It's okay. Carter made up for me.

Wonder if that's his routine on a regular basis.

Probably.

But at least he's not tearing apart my apartment.

"I Will Survive" The Replacements

love the behind the scenes thoughts on that.

Troll the ancient yuletide, Carol!

Alright, so it's official.

Library Fever has spread even farther in our family.

Squirt is officially a volunteer at the work branch.

It was amusing because when I asked people if they had met her they commented on the red highlights. Yes, I take full credit for those. Especially since Oldest Sister blames them on me.

I can't help it if I'm just that awesome that people want to be like me.

She has inherited a lot from me though, besides the red hair. She's got the snark, the blog, and the tom-boyishness (from time to time when she's not wearing spandex to play volleyball or screaming about snakes in the grass while playing soccer), and now she's got the library.

Could be a foot in the door kind of thing. If she likes it maybe she'd want to be an Aide. But that's far far in the future.

No one believes it when I tell them she's only 14. She's taller than me. She's also not allowed to stand next to me in pictures. Cause I feel short. Though I still call her Squirt. It's catching on, Slim Shady did as well.

But she's excited about her nametag - of all things - and she seemed to do pretty well with shelf-reading, so who knows.

I've got people watching out for her, favorite patron included. He was excited to meet her. I'm scared they will bond and swap stories. Maybe this was a bad idea.

All in all it was a fantastic day. Made a lot of progress on both ongoing projects aka YA section and supplies list. Though it took me half an hour just to list everything sitting on two shelves of one cabinet. And that's just one cabinet. This is gonna take forever. I'm making a spreadsheet, I figured that was the easiest way to figure out what we have and what we need. Plus I can send it out so others will know where to find things.

Aside from all that I hung out at Oldest Sister's house for a while, ate with them and then came back here to write. AND IT WORKED! I've been writing for almost two hours straight now. This whole apartment story is taking shape. No idea what I'll do with it when it's done, well, if it gets done. There's still a lot to do. Out of the 10 tenants all the stories have been started, but there is like one that's finished. And that's not even finished finished, it's just slightly finished. Cause it's at the end of a scene. So I could end it there, but people would kill me. They already attempted it in college when they wanted to know what happened next. Yes, I'm pilfering my college stuff. But only the good ones. It's amusing with the change of scenery to be thrown in since the apartment complex is in LA. Brings a whole new element to all of them.

Okay, so far I've got
Apartment 1: The Exotic Dancers Next Door, I blame this idea completely on a night out watching a friend's band with Superwoman, the awesomeness that is Barb and Slim Shady in which there literally were exotic dancers next door.

2: Sketch and Edit, which I have plenty of. Though I feel like I should reformat them so they'll fit in with the rest of the story. But then I can't cause they wouldn't be Sketch and Edit.
Though I really don't need to since each story is different in formatting, person, tense, and all that jazz. The only reason I'm tying them all together in the first place is because I'm making them all live in the same apartment building that gets mentioned at least once in each story and then I'll bring them together in the end when I either decide to burn down the building from the kid in apartment 7's mad science experiment, or when the tenants in 4 and 8 get married. But I'm still deciding on the end. Like I said, work in progress.

3: Kris's awkward 4th of July experience entitled "Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave", this is the one from college everyone wants me to add to. But it's hard as I like it the way it is. So did the prof, she said read the whole thing through because she was so into it, then had to go back and make comments.

4: Is a chick in love with the dude in apartment 8. They have their own balcony scene, it's a comedy go with it.

5: This is Lindsay, she breaks up a wedding, confusion ensues.

6: Jake lives here, he moved here from a rural town after, well, okay the only clue I'm giving you with this story is that it's entitled "One Headlight" turn on some Wallflowers and you'll figure it out. It's the only one of them so far that's completely emotional and not funny at all.

7: The insane teenager living with his mom. The first scene takes place at the shrink's office after he punched the lights out of the school bully.

8: The landscaper by day, waiter by night who has bad luck in love until he meets the upstairs neighbor in apartment 4. Balcony scene included.

9: Is Jax. He's an assassin. This is the sole story that's actually finished. And that's only because I can absolutely not add anything more to it's ending. If I do it will screw over the entire story. Inspiration for that one came after I got smashed by an idiot at an intersection, which is funny because the car crash scene is just a mere page compared to the rest of it. Anyway, so there was that but I also got it from a story we read in college about an office building, each person there had their own story - sound familiar? almost like an apartment complex, hmm - one of them was a serial killer. Everyone knew but he didn't kill any of them so they didn't care. Jax is a bit more discreet about it so they're not aware.

10: Thomas Family. Mom, Dad, Teenage Girl, Tween Boy. Teenage girl has a thing for a library boy. That's as far as I've gotten. But at least it's written down!

So yes, they're completely different stories about completely different people in completely different writing styles, and maybe it's a completely stupid idea but I'm up for the challenge. and it keeps me entertained.

But it's ongoing, so I'll keep you posted.

Alright, music rec's of the night, let's see. We went with sacred yesterday so let's throw in some silly. I live my life behind the tab. Sorry, obscure camp reference, I get those daily.
Speaking of obscure references, I quoted Caddyshack today and pretty sure no one had any idea what I was talking about.
Superwoman said I should help out with the TAB program at one of the branches in January and I said, "Oh, Das all I need! Tanks for nuthin' Danny Noonan!" and got nothing.
Not surprising, there's a lot of quotes that float around in my head throughout the day, I'm sure half of them are obscure enough to only be recognized by hard-core fans of either Friends, Charmed, or Just Shoot Me.

Moving on.

Christmas Music that Doesn't Suck: Day Six

"Sleigh Ride" She and Him

i cannot pimp this album any more, it's fantastic, buy it! or check it out! somewhere! this is one of the few songs in which he actually does vocals. and i'm not talking few on this album, i mean few period. it's usually just Zooey, which is fine as and she is fantastic, but it's cool to hear his voice as well.

"You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"

classic movie is the best, no offense to jim carrey, who's also fantastic but not as fantastic as boris karloff. i watch it every christmas and read the book, though i have them both memorized.
oh my god, just saw this and loved it. You're a Mean One, Emperor Palpatine and the dark side really does wonders for your complexion.

"Jingle Bell Rock" Brenda Lee

while Bobby Helms version is good as well, I like this one better. or i could have posted the Mean Girls version, but that just makes me laugh.

"Deck the Rooftop" Glee Cast

so, if you were ever in a dire place in life when you couldn't choose between "up on the housetop" and "deck the halls" you could simply turn on this mashup.


OUT!

If You Seek Then You Shall Find

Maturity: A stoic response to endless reality. -Carrie Fisher

My hero...or one of the many. I finally got "Wishful Drinking" on DVD from the library. It's basically a taped standup act based on her biography book of the same title. "Wishful Drinking". Clever.

I liked it, but I listened to the book on CD so I knew most of what she was going to talk about. What's funny though is that I was able to quote it AND the book as well as I listened to them even though I'd never heard/seen them before.

I blame this clip. There are a lot of direct quotes. And yes, I've watched it that many times.

"Because there is no underwear in space"

"that chick, the new girl who plays my mother, Queen Armadillo or whatever her name is..."
I still die of laughter.

If you like that then you'd like her book, well books. She writes fiction as well. They're quite popular actually. One even got made into a movie with Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.

The funny part about that is that it was based on real life experiences, and her actual mother - Debbie Reynolds - auditioned for the mother role and got beat out by Shirley MacLaine. Even though it was essentially her.

The book/DVD talks a lot about family, marriage, mood swings, fame and circles back to family. I enjoy it because she's able to relay all the bad things that happened in her life and turn them into comedy.

Plus there are Star Wars anecdotes and I'm all about those.

Scale of Awesome says 7/10. It excludes a lot that's in the book, but then includes stuff that's not in it as well. I was just hoping there would be more in there. But I guess since it's an HBO thing she only has so much time. But the DVD does include deleted scenes and an exclusive interview with Debbie Reynolds. Who lives next door to Carrie. I find that amusing.


Songs of the night: mellowed out.

"Dreamer" Elizaveta

no idea about the mask, but he does have some sweet dance moves.

speaking of fairy tales and serendipitous encounters i taped Once Upon A Time tonight on ABC, stoked to watch that on the DVR. will do that next before i crash.

"Ghost Towns" Radical Face

love the piano and guitar


Alright, plans for tomorrow: Homework. Gotta read a book and draw up some blueprints. I'm stoked to knock out that back wall and expand. Gonna add on a computer lab and a study room. Plus some couches. Maybe some vending machines. People always ask about those.

And at some point I need to go pick up a jersey for Squirt. And get pop. Seriously, wish #1 on my list is a never-ending supply of Diet Dr. Pepper. I can live without food, but the second I run out of that I run to the store.

I could wash my car in the rain, change my new guitar strings...

In light of yesterday's shocking I-don't-hate-onions discovery I switched up my lunch today. Ordered a Turkey and Swiss with Cheetos as opposed to my usual Chicken Salad with Cheetos. And, gonna say...totally through off my entire lunch period. Not cool.

Yes, I order the same thing every day, but at least I vary the ice cream flavor. I set goals, thinking if I shelve all the carts in the morning I deserve ice cream or if I finish a list, answer a difficult question that I wouldn't have been able to when I first started, get thanked by a patron....really any excuse that seems worthy enough to deserve ice cream. Then I get it with my lunch. Today I finished the Young Adult Weed List so I got Cookie Dough and it was awesome. So awesome that I almost forgot how much the sandwich sucked.

Not like it sucked cause it was bad. It was good. I'm just apparently not a Turkey and Swiss kind of person. I'm gonna stick with my Chicken Salad for now. It's dependable and tasty. If I don't think about what's in it. I hate mayo. And miracle whip. So that just doesn't exist in this sandwich. Don't tell me otherwise or I will hate you for eternity. This sandwich is serious business man.

Except Obi-Wan made me order something else when we went out to eat during post-camp stuff even though Chicken Salad was on the menu. So I had some sort of something that had melted cheese on it and yeah, again, not the same. I'm not a fan of melted cheese. Pretty sure I gave you the "I like cheese but I don't like cheese" speech already. If you missed it go here: My Life in Closed Captions: New Shoes, the Cheese Speech, Warped Tour and MXPX...

We went out to eat at basically the only place to eat in G-Town. Well that and the Dairy Delite which is closed for the season. There's also a barbeque joint but I don't know the hours. But this is the place that my mother basically lived off of when dad was in the hospital and we lived amongst the white walls and sterile equipment. Where else are you gonna go when you can't go home? So, of course they have their usual orders as well. Second Sister included with her to-go cup.

It's not that I'm not a variety kind of person. I like...you know...sometimes theres... Okay so I'm not a variety kind of person. Except for when it comes to media. Movies, Music, TV - I'm into it all. There. Saved my sanity. I'm all about the variety. Ha. Just not when it involves food. Which sounds weird cause I'll try almost anything. Almost. I just like my usuals when I can get them.

Anyway, so I'm done with my first assignment. Queen of the Known Universe was very helpful in this matter with tips and all that. I love my coworkers. QofA brought me farm animal crazy bands this morning - I'm wearing a yellow duck one, it's awesome. But Mission Statement is written, revised, and submitted. Due tomorrow night. Done tonight. Now I gotta read some of the text and get ready for next week's assignment.

Despite the sandwich mishap it was a good day. Mom brought me cookies - na, na, na, na-na...we do a lot of na-na'ing in our family - gave some to smart people and got a point, huzzah! I'm at 136. Gaining on Space Cadet slowly but surely.

Also, got to jam with the security guard for a while. Seemed everyone was losing all sorts of things today, cellphone covers, backpacks, lanyards, stomach contents...

Oh yeah. Real deal. It was disgusting. I was at the front desk and all the sudden we heard this like heaving. Like serious serious heaving coming from the restrooms. I look up at the guard who's looking at me with her eyebrows raised. Then I hear "Hey, you work here. Go check it out," come from one of our usuals who sits in the same chair every day reading a book. I smile, look at the guard and and make a head nod in the direction of the bathroom. I was her backup. It was awesome. And gross at the same time. But the bathroom dude had it covered. He was sober - which is unusual for someone who's heaving in our bathrooms - but the heat was apparently in the 100s so it took him out. Way way out.

Aaannnd on that note, I'm gonna hit you with some music before I go way way out to the world of sleep. I'm exhausted. Maybe it's all the variety.


Sometimes when I have no idea what to recommend for music I put my ipod on shuffle saying, "Okay, whatever song plays is going on there." And then I hit it and the song sucks. Or the intro is too boring. Or the rare occasion where I've already posted it - did I mention variety? - And I end up hitting skip like 8 times before a decent song arises. This was one of those songs.

"Better Things to Do" Terri Clark

like dance in canyons and drive in circles around you...
did you ever have an ex that whenever they took the time to actually contact you you knew that they were at that time fighting with their current girlfriend? and you didn't even have to check facebook to see if that was actually the case? this is my theme song when it comes to those moments.

"I Gotta Go" Robert Earl Keen

if you hurry you can grab it for free off itunes. love it.


i'm sorry that this has turned into some sort of country week. first it was Patty Loveless and Mary Chapin Carpenter. then The Judds. then the Dixie Chicks. now this. to be fair i did throw in some Cake. it's all about the ipod man. blame the shuffle.


here. watch this. it fixes everything.
"Mahna Mahna" Cake


go for it uncle steve. you know you want to. it's just that awesome. star wars plus cake plus the muppets. and it matches up with the beat. diggin' it.


OUT!

This Issue Is Not For Checkout

Okay, so weirdest thing ever. I shelve the morning away, run my errands, feed my cat, start a project then come back to work where my coworker finds the youth section to be like a disaster area. All the stuff was all turned backwards, stuff was on its side - and it wasn't like a normal little kid invasion where there's stuff all over the floor. Literally all the VHS tapes in that area were turned backwards, a bunch of the CD Roms, and the books on display were all on their backs. So weird. Space Cadet and I were just weirded out. I took pictures and sent them to Superwoman, not knowing what else to do. What would you do? Like, I don't even know how that happened. It's just too weird.

I love working with Space Cadet. It's kind of a competition as to who can say the words "Space Cadet" first. It's amusing. "It's da Space Cadet!!" is usually my opening line.

Anyway, remember how I'm a nerd? I got these Star Wars crossword puzzles, cause I'm a nerd. And started one. Dude. I suck at puzzles. I used to have all these Star Wars puzzles like framed on my wall and I was like, dude, only 300 pieces I can do this. But no, I'm missing my sister-in-law who totally rocked at helping me. I was a kid so 1000 pieces was a little out of reach. I figured I could rock it, but nope. I'm stuck on a 300 piece one, I haven't even started the 500 piece one. But it's a bunch of faces. I can name the most of them but making them fit together is like more than I can handle. Maybe I'm distracted. SVU is on, I look up every 5 seconds.

OH MY GOD, why would you hold on to a dead body for 14 years? Wouldn't that be like disgusting? Even if you stuffed it in a trunk? That's just gross. Sorry, I've been watching too much SVU. Even Carter's grossed out. Sittin' in front of me turned away from the TV.
"Do you propose to try your case right here, Miss Cabot?"
"No, I'm just merely using rhetoric to prove my point."
"One of your more endearing qualities."

Anyway, Star Wars puzzle: Take one. I suck. Even Carter knows it. He just stares at me. I gave up. He's not easy to do puzzles around. Or wrap presents. He has to lay in the middle of everything. Like, you lay out all the wrapping paper and he lays in the middle of it before you can stick the present on it. And he doesn't move. I think he got that from Junior. He used to do it too. It was worse when they were together. You'd lay out wrapping paper and Junior would lay on that. So you'd go get more paper, lay that out and Carter would lay on that. Then Junior would be jealous cause you weren't using his paper so he would growl at Carter, who would jump at him, then I'd have to separate them and by the time I was done catching them both - individually - and putting them both in the basement, I'd lost all energy to wrap up the freakin' presents anyway.

OOOHHHHH, Cabot's in contempt. Behind bars. Busted.

Where was I? Puzzles right. I'm a nerd. Did I mention that?
Space Cadet: "Don't you have a cardtable?"
I told her they were a phase. Which is true. By tomorrow they'll probably be kicked in a corner or something. What are these doing in my living room? What was I thinking? You're such a nerd. Yes, I talk to myself. In both 1st and 3rd person.

Got new shoes today. They're black and awesome. I put some new laces in them. Hopefully they'll last longer than my last ones. Which are still totally comfortable. And totally backwards. They broke from the outside in, instead of me dragging my feet and breaking the backs. This time I would step on the backs to take them off and ripped one in half.

Quote of the day: "Well, isn't that just kick you in the crotch, spit on your neck fantastic," (Friends, Rachel).

Songs of the day: Hey Monday - the underrated pop band of awesomeness - I found them a while ago...before Glee took one of their least...um... let's say, least best? Is that a phrase? Least best. Not the best one of their releases... and made the Warblers do it at Regionals. Not sure why they picked that. "Fall Into Me" has basically the same message and is better written, music-wise.

"I Don't Wanna Dance"

their most well-known release

"Fall Into Me"

song mentioned earlier.

Love it. If you like them check out Stacy Clark. Similar in style and lyrics. I'll post hers tomorrow.

Out for the night.

**Invisible Milk Jug Dance!**Invisible Milk Jug Dance!**

So we decided to leave tomorrow morning instead of tonight which means I actually have time to pack and sleep and shower and all that. Which is good, cause I kept putting it off. Like, I'll pack last night! Nope, do it in the morning. Then I woke up this morning and I'm like nope, I'll do it after work. It's after work...so I should pack. Cause I'm definitely not going to do it tomorrow morning!

Today was one of those. As much as I wanted to go to bed early last night it didn't happen. And I tried to post but it wouldn't let me so you're getting today's and yesterday's. But I separated them to prevent confusion.

My brain was fried by 5. Unfortunately I worked until 6! But we sent out all the food drive stuff and she sent out emails to all the staff giving them a heads up since it starts tomorrow! Then it'll be game time! Well, next week it'll be game time! When we start the competition between branches for loose change. We're sending empty milkjugs to all the branches and seeing who can fill it with the most loose change by the end of the donation period. Maybe they'll get into it and maybe they won't. We'll see. But we still need the milk jugs and Fearless Leader aka my partner for this whole thing said she was going to get some tonight and I was supposed to continually remind her about it so she wouldn't forget. And, her brain was fried around the same time I was, and, because I'm kind of a goofy person I came up with this invisible milk jug dance and continued to do it around her until she would smile. And now I'm texting her the title of this post over and over until I get confirmation.


So the wedding is Saturday but we're leaving tomorrow and everyone at work was teasing me all day about the need for pictures because I'll be in a dress and cowboy boots. Apparently I need to bring back pictures. And I was like um, no. But now Superwoman and Boss's Boss's Boss are saying it as well. So I'm toast. Boss's Boss's Boss told me today she had faith in me. I felt special. And Superwoman says I'm doing good. So the day was good up until my brain was fried. After that it was just a lot of dancing. Which I guess was fun too.


Songs tonight since I'm feeling goofy and dancy:

"Mahna Mahna" Cake - Star Wars Version

love how the sound effects match up with the clips. super cool.
this song is also in my head a lot at work, but it's mostly the original muppets version.

aka this.

mostly when i'm shelving in the kid's section.



"Tonight Tonight" Hot Chelle Rae

the second appearance of the summer song. good jam out material. plus i like the video. even though it makes the lead guitarist look more like the lead singer than the actual lead singer.
i enjoy the zach tattoo. that's fantastic.


Alright, gonna finish packing then turn on some Closer and konk out.

This is my last post for a couple of days, hope you guys have a good weekend and if I don't post behind then a Happy 4th of July!!


PS - Just got confirmation on the milk jugs. I can officially stop dancing. Well, at least for the next few hours, once the wedding reception starts who knows...

"Cause even after three text messages, four missed calls you still..."

So, I have this doppelganger.
"Get a dictionary"

Which is handy if something bad happens and you need someone to blame it on. But also kind of sucks when people think you're them when you're actually not. Anyway, if you think you know me from pre-2010 and you aren't from my hometown, a member of my family, classmate or campmate then you probably don't. This makes things like parking garages awkward. No I don't know you. No I didn't go to that high school. While my short-term memory is crap (ask my non-school friends) my long-term actually doesn't suck.
I'm totally serious about this, and I know I have one because my high school classmate lived in the same dorm as her in college. She rides a bike which clearly screams Not me! since I haven't ridden a bike since Dad decided to steal my tire and use it as a turn-the-wheel game at the home and garden show like 8 years ago. Actually, I think he used the tire because I wasn't riding the bike, but I like my version better. I went away to high school! And college! When was I supposed to ride a bike? Plus, bikes, on gravel? Not as fun.

And yes that NCIS clip was necessary, I could have posted the entire episode "Doppelganger" from when Kate was still around but I figured that would be too long. It's a fantastic episode but this is from season three, when Jenny was alive and had long hair.


So, I'm watching Star Wars episode 5. Last night the Wordsmith and me ordered pizza and watched episode 4 - mostly because I wanted to watch out for the anecdotes Carrie Fisher talked about in her autobiography. So I have yet to watch Country Strong - "Gwyneth" word count = 1 "Those t-shirts would be so Gwyneth!" - Also because I can't remember how Leia figures out she and Luke are siblings. I'm a nerd but not like a total crazy obsessed nerd. I remember how Luke finds out he's Vader's son - duh - but not about Leia and Luke. I just remember her kissing him in beginning episode 5. Was she like, "That was so bad, he must be my brother." Which reminds me - I was at the dentist a couple months ago and the dentist was like, "So (insert brother's name) is your husband?" I believe my exact words were, "Um, gross." "Brother. Got it." My sister-in-law goes to a different dentist so I guess since we have the same last name it would sort of make sense? Gross.


More quotes from yesterday and today:
-"Bring your favorite painkiller." Sensei about the day we switch over to the new system. She's bringing donuts. I said I'd bring juice. It's going to be a long day.

-"Let's call him Bob."
-"It would more likely be Ug. Unless he was a pirate. Then he'd be Arg the Pirate Caveman." Conversation with fellow Star Wars fan I shall call him "Master" about inspiration. Everyone is inspired by someone else, unless of course you are a caveman who had no one before you to be inspired by.

-"What about Space Cadet #1 and Space Cadet #2?"
-"It should say Dirt and Subdirt."
-"Yes!" Bringing back the Dirt System! mentioned here My Life in Closed Captions: What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all ab... Basically, I have no power so I'm below dirt. Subdirt. LA2's (aka Space Cadet, Queen of Awesome and Joe Studley) are Dirt. Glee-loving boss is Grass. Sensei is Trees (although she would prefer a flowery shrub). Superwoman is the clouds. Assistant BBB is the Moon. And Boss's Boss's Boss is the Sun.
Anyway, we were talking about the names on the back of our matching t-shirts for inservice day. I still think it would be awesome. Totally Gwyneth! WC=2


Never Shout Never - "CheaterCheaterBestFriendEater"


Ram Jam - "Black Betty"

In celebration of awesome classic music for 69 cents on itunes. Hooray! I especially like the guy next to the drums whose only job it seems is to clap and dance like an idiot.

Ha! there's this episode of Ace of Cakes where they're talking about the Millennium Falcon inside the asteroid. "If you think you're in a giant worm, shoot the ground!" That's where I'm at now. And, okay, some time between episode 3 and episode 5 Yoda went bonkers.

It's just a jump to the left...

And a step to the riiiiiiiiight.

Split shift + play practice + listening to Carrie Fisher's autobiography = a full day.

Quotes of the day:
-"I just have basically too much personality for one person but not enough for two."
"Wishful Drinking" is the title of her autobiography, it's fantastic. I listened to the audio version which she reads and I totally recommend.
-"Ultimately, who's gonna give a medal to someone with a big stupid red dot in their eye? I don't care how much force is with him."
Her on Mark Hamill's bursted blood vessel in the final scene of SW4.


Play practice was kind of a mess. We have a new girl which means Hooray! I don't have to learn lines anymore! But I still have to write a song and work on that commercial. Or maybe they'll want to write their own commercial. That might be fun for them. But we are super late with everything. We don't have blocking, they're still in their books, we're still skipping half the songs and yeah, we have less than a month until performance. May 12th. So that's what like 3 weeks and change. Yikes.

Carrie Fisher roasts George Lucas

She includes parts of this in her autobiography. It was funny cause I was kind of quoting it along with her - yes I posted this during favorites week get over it. It's fantastic.

Now I'm starving. Don't think I've eaten anything today so I should probably work on that before I konk out. Early day tomorrow with training and all that.

"Because there was no underwear in space!"