i'm not clever enough at this point to think of a good title for this post.

This is so weird. I don't take sick days, let alone two in a row. I got a letter from the mayor last year for perfect attendance for crying out loud. This bites.

Okay, so here is my deal.

My new attitude in life is "it's all mental." I blame my high school basketball coach, he used to say it over and over in practice, but I've learned to live by it now.

If I feel like crap I power through and cover for anyone else, But when I have a fever and it's legitimately contageous, that's when I crash and burn.

Yesterday and today have been ridiculous.

Yesterday I was freezing, literally freezing, and had the heat on high.

It drove Carter nuts, he was sitting by the glass doors to stay cool.

Today I was burning up and opened the glass doors to let in the cool air.

I didn't eat anything yesterday - that's how I knew I was actually sick - today I force-fed myself ice-cream cake - how can anyone seriously say they force-fed themselves ice-cream cake? that sounds like an oxymoron - but now I just feel nauseous.

But see, that's my thing though.

Cause I'm nauseous all the time anyway.

So, how can I tell if it's a symptom of whatever the hell I have at this time, or if it's just the regular nausea thing that has turned into daily life?

Like, am I sick and nausea is a part of it? or am I just nauseous AND sick?

Did that make sense?

I don't think it did.

I can't even freakin' sit up at this point in time. I tried to shower but couldn't stand up long enough.

According to my mother I have what's going around the family and it takes a while to get through it. Oh, and she also told me I'm supposed to gargle saltwater - gross, that might legitimately make me throw up - but I passed on that.

So here's the deal for tomorrow.

I'm going to bed IMMEDIATELY after this post. If I wake up tomorrow and I have a fever or I can't stand up for longer than two minutes, as was the problem this morning and afternoon, then I'm going to the doctor. Or having my sister take me there, cause driving probably isn't a good idea.

If there is no fever, and I am able to walk around my apartment and stand for longer than two minutes, then I'm going to work.

I have Friday off, all I need to do is power through 8 hours on Thursday, come home and work on that presentation, and then I can crash for another entire day.

It's all mental, I can do that.

Yesterday I slept pretty much all day, when I wasn't texting the boyfriend or my mother. Today I spent on the couch, working through the DVR. Yeah. Too exhausted to even get up to put in a DVD. But I got through Castle, NCIS, The Voice, oohh, I forgot about Bones. Oh well, I'll save it for later.

Right now I am out. For like 11 hours, hopefully. Whenever I sleep I like alternate between being too cold and too hot. And cough up a lung. And Carter sits on me and stares at me - he has decided that if I'm home then I need to pay attention to him.

Or he's just mad I stole his spot.

Afterall, it is HIS apartment, I just stay here.

Or that's what he thinks at least.

Guess it depends on tomorrow. Wish me luck.

I'm out.

Say it ain't so, I will not go.

Turn the lights off, carry me home.

Exhausted and feeling like crap so I'll keep this short.

Finally saw "This Means War" - Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon and Chelsea Handler.


Slim Shady and I hit up the matinee, it was hilarious. Chris and Tom were great as allies and enemies, plus Reese is always funny, then you throw in Chelsea Handler...have you seen Chelsea Lately or read any of her books? She's hysterical!

"I think I'm going to hell."
"Don't worry, if you're going to hell I'll just come pick you up. Save me a drink."

Great addition to the cast, loved it! Might even have to check out her new show, I do enjoy Laura Prepon.

This Means War: the storyline was intriguing, there wasn't a down moment where I was checking my watch, there was a lot of great action sequences and comedic moments...

Survey says 8/10 on the Scale of Awesome. Will definitely want to see it again or at least buy it when it comes out.

I caved and bought "Tower Heist", the DVD comes with alternate endings so I'm intrigued about those. That movie was pretty funny and under-rated. "He was allergic to chocolate so I had to beat him." I left the movie crying cause I was laughing so hard at that line.

Duuuude. The Voice...rocks. Sad I missed the first season and totally curious as to what comes next after the blind auditions...and if it will be as good as the blind auditions, that's really unique.

Anybody watch Castle tonight? Apparently I totally missed last week's end to the two-part but it's on my DVR so I'll catch it.

Tonight's was uber-creepy with a fairy-tale twist. Had me flashing back to Women's Murder Club when they turned Kiss-Me-Not into Prince Charming...but then the creators left (or get kicked out that's debatable) taking the storyline with them and we ended up with Billy the serial killer, total let down. But it's okay. It was fixed. Show wasn't the same without the original creators and pretty sure that's why it ended.

Sorry. Ramble-nation over.

Anyway, Oldest Sister called the ending of Castle mid-way through the episode and I kept thinking "Reaper! Reaper! Reaper!" Which, if you've seen Criminal Minds you'll understand, and if you haven't...then you're missing out on some seriously good TV cause the Reaper episodes of CM were possibly the best, especially episode #100. Sad day.

So that was my day. A movie, some TV, and 2 hours of work in between. Yeah, I showed up at 4 and ended up writing an incident report before 4:30, it's never boring at the library.

Other than that...Squirt helped me pull some books for a new YA display, we're going simple and pulling books with green covers for March - thanks Fearless Leader - now I just gotta finish the sign, print it, and change some statuses.

Song of the night:

"All The Small Things" Blink 182 - Charlie's Angels style

"the chad...is stuck."
jammed to it on my ipod earlier today.
but everytime I hear it I visualize this...cause I've seen the movie that many times. actually, i've probably seen this more times than i've heard the regular song on the radio. i know, i'm a fan, get over it.

I was going to post the alumni vs. called worker/grade school tournament pictures on Facebook but I don't think I can make it.

I feel like crap. If you haven't noticed already. I'm freezing, shaking, coughing, sneezing, my nose won't stop running, my throat hurts and I'm getting a headache.

If it keeps up tomorrow I'm staying home. Which is saying something, cause usually I power through. My only problem with staying home - aside from missing work that I actually enjoy - is that tomorrow is Grams birthday, and I was planning on going there to celebrate with her and the Cool Aunt and eat some cake.

Maybe it's best if I stay home, don't want to get her sick.

This bites. Where's my fat cat? Somehow when I'm sick he knows not to bite me and just falls asleep in my lap.

I'm out, gonna take some ibuprofen before my head explodes in pain.

"We were in Greece, we danced, I was gay, and we were happy. I probably fathered your only daughter..."

So, the Oscars.

2012, big year for movies.

And of course, out of the nine up for best picture I've seen only one: "The Help".

Though hopefully by the end of the week we can make that two, I just got "Moneyball" through the library.

But still, that's PITIFUL!

I'm a movies and media junkie!

This whole working 40 hours a week thing is seriously killing my consistent-movie-going habit.

In case you weren't following my Facebook updates - Sketch and I had a running commentary and I posted pretty much anything and everything that came to mind within those 3 hours, - Here are my highlights:

-Good Commercials:
-Is it just me or do the shows "GCB", "Scandal", and "Missing" look extremely good and funny? I enjoy Kristin Chenoweth and Kerry Washington so I'll be adding those to my DVR. Plus Ashley Judd as a badass CIA Agent? I'm intrigued.
PS - I was informed that GCB stands for "Good Christian Bitches" in case you were wondering as I was. The series itself is based off of a book - I'm sorry I'm a Library Service Associate get used to it - by Kim Gatlin. They titled the TV show "Good Christian Bitches" after the book, then changed it to "Good Christian Belles" and then changed it again to just "GCB".

-100 year Titanic sinking anniverary is coming up in April so I was excited to see they're bringing the movie back to theaters, in 3D no less, that should be interesting.

-I lost count of how many Ellen JCP commercials came on, but I laughed at all of them.

-You should thank yourself for being awesome, Jeff Bridges. He narrated a Hyundai Oscar-themed commercial, thanking people.

Funny Presenters:
-Billy Crystal is classic, as always. I like that they included a clip from "When Harry Met Sally" in one of the montages. "I'll have what she's having." He always knew what to say when introducing the presenters, Natalie Portman included. "...and a murderous ballerina..." yes Billy, that's exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up.

-I really enjoyed the cheesy documentary commentary by Gwyneth and Robert Downey Jr., though I'm a big fan of each of them so having them reunited again was fantastic and I approve.

-How much leg does one really need to show while presenting an award for Best Adapted Screenplay? Really Angelina?
Though I did love IMMENSELY the Descendant's writer who did an impersonation of her stance. That was fantastic.
Maybe it's just because I'm Team Aniston. Even if I did enjoy "Mr. and Mrs. Smith". "Baby you couldn't find the button with both hands and a map."
Actually I like her much better with Justin Theroux anyway. SEAMUS!! "I'm gonna teach you and your friends about pain..."

I'm well aware you have no idea what I'm talking about, google it.

-Emma Stone's enthusiastic presentation and diss of Ben Stiller's past presentations. I remember the Avatar year, that was fantastic. Though what really made it great was when she started singing, invited Jonah Hill to dance with her and he totally turned her down. Burn.

-Sandra Bullock was glamorous as ever, but every time I saw her all I could think about was her on the Red Carpet talking to what's-her-name about the night being full of "sexy times" and then posing.

-Colin Firth's best actress addresses were fantastic.
"We were in Greece, we danced, I was gay, and we were happy. I probably fathered your only daughter..." to Meryl Streep
and then
about how Michelle Williams inspired him to be a better actor as he matured, "We can leave aside the fact that you were 12 and I was 35."

-Though my favorite highlight of the entire night has got to be the "Scorsese Shot" by Melissa McCarthy and Rose Byrne. Where they downed half a bottle of what looked like vodka. "Scorsese!!" It was ironic since Scuba Steve asked if there was some sort of Oscar's Drinking Game going on with our commentary just minutes before the shot happened.
Another thing I noticed with that one, I really enjoy when actor's speak and they have accents, but they're such good actors that you didn't know previously they had accents to begin with?! Like Rose Byrne, dude. I stopped typing when she spoke as it totally threw me off. Love it.

Miscellaneous:
-Don't you feel bad for that one acrobat that totally flew too far on that sitting in a circle and flipping around thing? But it was good, the rest was pretty impressive.

-After posting about the "The Shore" taking home the live action short film category, I followed it with the comment "crabs crabs crabs" since there was a crab in the preview. It's kind of a family inside joke about my nephew being scared of crabs when he was younger.
Anyway, so I said
"crabs crabs crabs"
and Sketch followed with
"I picked that movie! I was going to say I got that one but that would be awkward after your comment..."

-Love that Bret McKenzie won for best original song, "Flight of the Conchords" rocks.

-Bring on the dramatic music. I was sad they didn't throw in more dramatic music to kick people off the stage early from their speeches. Not that many were super long, but this year it was more like they just cut the mikes instead. Bummer.
Speeches to me are always so awkward, especially when more than one person goes to make a speech for the same award. It's like is it over? Nope, here's another person. Stop the applause! Cut the music! They're still going!

-Loved!! Christopher Guest's gang doing the screening review, that was FANTASTIC! In case you're not aware (and severely culture-deprived) the group of people who were commenting on "The Wizard of Oz" are all part of Christopher Guest's crew of actors that he puts all together in many movies such as "Waiting for Guffman", "Best in Show", "A Mighty Wind" and "For Your Consideration", though they were missing primo members Jane Lynch and Parker Posey.


While I was surprised by the amount of victories by "Hugo", I was glad that "The Artist" totally dominated on the awards front. It deserves it for being a pioneer and old-fashioned at the same time.

Since "The Help" was really the only movie I've saw out of the many mentioned - aside from "HP-7B", "Bridesmaids", and the Swedish version of "TGWTDT" - I appreciated Octavia Spencer taking the Best Supporting Actress category.
I enjoyed her speech as well, "I'm sorry, I'm freakin' out!"

Aside from "The Artist" I'm also adding "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "Albert Nobbs", "Hugo", and "My Week With Marilyn" (all based on books), to my list of movies-to-see.

I really have no desire to see "The Descendants" as it sounds completely depressing, and while I'm sure their adapted screenplay was great I'm still confused as to why "The Help" wasn't in that category. As it's based off a novel...

Meryl Streep's win for Best Actress was well-deserved, especially after being nominated more than anyone else in the history of the Oscars.


Songs of the night:

Both Oscar-themed as the nominees were hoping both of these titles happened:

"Say My Name" Destiny's Child

from back before it was just beyonce...go here: My Life in Closed Captions: "What's a Bieber?" - extended clips and a world of... for my full-fledge ramble-nation on that topic.

yes, a ramble-nation.

"Have Mercy" The Judds live in 1986

love them. i'm impressed that wynonna is able to make hand gestures and play guitar all at the same time.


And that was the Oscars. Other than that today the day was pretty much an average Sunday, though they let Slim Shady and I work together for the majority of the day which is like apocalypse 13 cause they never let us work together.

After work I stopped by the home library to drop stuff off for the Queen of Awesome and talk to Space Cadet as I never get to see them anymore, let alone at the same time.

Finished my homework, sent it in, and now I'm off to bed. Get to sleep in tomorrow morning, I'm THRILLED! Then I'm meeting up with Slim Shady for lunch and a movie - gonna see "This Means War", woohoo! before going in to work for 2 hours.

"What's grad school? Is that like college for old people?"

a kid so lovingly asked me yesterday at the tournament.

No son, that's like school for crazy people.

Cause we go back voluntarily.

So there's gotta be something going on in our headspace.

Especially when it involves getting together with classmates and working on homework until 1AM.

But we're halfway there! I'm gonna pick up takeout and we'll finish tomorrow night after work.

Which is good, as it's due tomorrow night.

Then we'll be done for another couple days. Before we have other assignments to move on to.

Like presentations.

Should start on that, huh?

Eh, I've got a week to come up with something.

It's only like a 3 minute speech, I'll come up with a powerpoint and wing it. But that's for a later date.

Today was pretty good. I got to jam all day with Space Cadet!

Remember how we have random debates and pick up useless information?

Famous debates include:
-Who would win in a fight, a sea cow or a snow leopard? My Life in Closed Captions: I guess I'll go on home, it's late. There'll be to...

-the volume level of my headphones, also in the above post,

-and of course my hair color was always subject to debate. My Life in Closed Captions: To dye, or not to dye? That is the question.

My favorite useless information so far is probably that in 1865, in the war between Uruguay and Brazil, one of Uruguay's ships ran out of cannon balls so they fired chunks of stale Dutch cheese out of the cannons. One of them dismasted an enemy ship and killed two sailors.

Add these to the list:

-Giant panda bears are actually considered to be part of the raccoon family, not the bear family.

-During WW2 the US Air Force captured millions of bats, and planned to make them carry tiny bombs, fly into buildings and explode. But the war ended before that could happen.

-A pound of feathers actually weighs more than a pound of gold, but it has something to do with how much is in a pound - they have different measurement units.

-"July" was named after Julius Caesar by Mark Antony.

-Lewis P. Toppel invented a coughing cigarette box back in 1972 so that when you opened the pack a hacking noise came out to defer people from smoking.


There are more, but I'll spare you.

We are truly Sleep-Deprived Space Cadets.

AND NOW people can officially say we're not the brightest bulbs in the bunch cause it took us until about 1PM to realize, "hey, it's kinda dark in here."

Yep. Two banks of lights directly above the desk were out half the day.

Brilliance at work there, but nobody noticed.

It didn't affect them anyway, it was just above the desk.

We pulled it off. Though she turned it on shortly after. No fun.

Quote of the night:

Sketch: "Is lesson planning while drinking wrong?"
Edit: "Depends on what you're planning. Religion yes, art no."
Sketch: "Are you saying my art looks like I've been drinking? ... Jesus MADE the booze at the party!"

Clips of the night:

So, on shuffle tonight I got hit with "Bye Bye Bye" by N'Sync and all I could think of was this.

2009 Jabbawockeez at halftime of CIT

ah, college memories. that was my english partner.

CIT as in Concordia Invitational Tournament - basketball - and they had a talent show to determine who would compete during the halftime of the championship game.

The baseball boys got beat out by these guys:

2009 CUNE football team dancing to Womanizer and Single Ladies

i especially like number 4, he gets pretty into it.

And I'm out. Big day tomorrow - sleep then work then homework tomorrow. Plus I'm totally missing Grams' birthday party, though technically her birthday isn't until the 28th. I'll stop by then.

It was amusing, I was there last year on her birthday - it was myself, the Cool Aunt, Kyle and Grams. The Cool Aunt has some serious cake-cutting skills, even if they don't involve straight lines.

"The guy in stripes is not on your team."

So, grade school basketball tournament was today at my high school.

I went out there in the morning and jammed out all day watching Bubby and Squirt kick some butt. They won 2 out of 3. Bubby was a rebounding machine, and Squirt volleyball spiked the ball out of a chick's hands when she went up to shoot, it was hysterical.

No foul, it was all ball. I told Juwanna she would have been proud.

So, after all that joy came what we were all waiting for

the Called Worker vs. Alumni annual basketball game.

They used to have it every year, but for some reason it's been 9 years since the last time and they've brought it back. Our guess was that they finally have enough young and agile faculty so they have a fighting chance.

The "Called Workers" are basically - we're Lutheran, I went to a Lutheran high school, and to be a teacher at a Lutheran school you go through the whole education program, get your degree and then you get what is called a "call" to go somewhere. You can get sent all over the place.

So the "Called Workers" were basically faculty at the high school and surrounding grade schools that came to the tournament today. Lots of teachers.

vs. the Alumni, or Alum-Knights if you will.

The final score speaks for itself.

Domination.

You know what's sad about those 96 points? At least 40 of them were all from one guy. Loberger is a three-point machine. It's ridiculous, he hit at least 10. AT LEAST.

Juwanna scored 7, hit a 3 from the top of the key. That's my roommate, the star point guard. Still holds half the records on the board and we graduated in 2006.

I didn't play as I'm not the "athlete" I was or wasn't a long long time ago. I got softball, that's all I need. So I took a lot of pictures, they'll hit Facebook later this weekend.

Things I learned tonight from the surrounding crowd:

-The lady behind me doing commentary was fantastic, and even snarkier than myself. Plus she was alumni, so that rocked. She wanted to steal the buzzer. I told her she should hit it twice every time there was an airball. Like "AIR"...."BALL!!!"

She said she's throw in a "Nice"..."Pass!!" for all of the crappy ones as well.

-"The guy in stripes is not on your team." no matter how many times you try to throw the ball to him. I'm talking to you faculty.

-When a ball rolls around the rim and falls out it's called a "carnival roll". No explanation was given.


So, after the game came the celebration. Hit up the one and only bar in town.

Since I still have that whole nauseous all the time thing going for me I didn't drink a lot, which actually made for an interesting experience.

Usually when you're drinking the same amount of alcohol as the people around you you don't notice things like when you start getting louder, or start singing, or making fun of the people at the bar far too loudly.

Though they were questionable.

It was definitely a night to remember as we were joined by our high school basketball coaches. It was only right to end the night with them as we were back at our old stomping grounds.

I talked the boyfriend into joining us, and though high school was not his favorite place in life - by far - he loves me. So he came. Said I was worth it and bought me a drink.

After debating hot celebrities, talking reality TV - Swamp People and Teen Mom (which makes me laugh so hard cause they're obsessed), singing some Beastie Boys, and watching Juwanna dominate her boyfriend in an arm-wrestling competition we called it a night and headed home.

Now I'm exhausted and I work all day tomorrow.

Though I'm stoked! Far more stoked than the average sane normal person should be stoked to go in on a Saturday. But I get to work with SPACE CADET!!

Do you know how long it's been since I've worked with Space Cadet?!?!

Like September...maybe October. Ridiculous.

The only time I see her is when I'm off and stop by on my way home, as we close at 6 and they're there until 8.

So I'm stoked.

And now I'm out. Turn on some Chuck and konk out.

"Fight For Your Right" The Beastie Boys

that's a serious amount of pie.

Laughed as she came to my cradle, Know this child will be able.

Watching Chuck and doing homework.

Though doing more watching than I am writing.

I printed off a master sheet with the tag numbers and then blanks after them. I can fill in the info between and after the games tomorrow.

Going to the grade school basketball tournament at my old high school.

After the tournament comes the annual Alumni vs. Called Worker game, though it's been like 9 years since they last had it. It's like the event of the season, the alumni take on the teachers, it's fantastic.

Alumni's gonna dominate.

No idea who's coming or playing, but we're still gonna dominate. Which reminds me, I need to take my camera.

Today was a day, got to train our newest employee. She's the new supervisor and we're thrilled to have her. I'll have to come up with a new nickname. Well, two, since the New Girl is now no longer the newest girl.

Merchant-fest

Is that a thing? I feels like a thing.

"Wonder"

love 3:15-3:40, literally listen to that part of the song over and over

"Jealousy"


"One Fine Day"

zenned out.

long day tomorrow, i'm out.

Oh Henry, Have you got something to tell me?

You know what I love even more than B-Movies?

The previews for B-Movies that precede the B-Movie you're about to watch.

You watch them and are like, yeah, I could watch that.

Then you watch the movies and you're like no. Just no.

I often see previews for The Poseidon Adventure while watching other B-Movies.

When I found out there was a version with Adam Baldwin I was all over it.

Plus, you know with the recent cruise ship thing I thought it might be interesting.

So, finally got around to watching it tonight.

I am never going on a cruise. Ever.

I do not care how much you pay me, I will never go on a cruise.

Oh my god.

So the movie. Right.

There are so many thoughts running through my head that I don't know where to start.

First off, apparently in the original it's a storm that turns them over. In this one it's terrorists.

Why they've decided to attack this ship is never really explained. And if it is it's in a different language. Like I said, B-Movie.

So they disguise bombs as beer kegs and blow holes in the bottom of the ship from the inside. The thing flips and a group of survivors tries to climb from the ballroom to the bottom of the ship - which is now the top of the ship - to climb through the hole in the sinking ship to get out.

Adam Baldwin plays the Sea Marshall of awesomeness and yes quite like all of his other characters aka John Casey, the man they call Jayne, the list goes on, he's gruff and rude and kicks peoples' butts
then you've got
C. Thomas Howell as the injured doctor - that one I had trouble with as he's a serial killer in Criminal Minds, freakin' Foyet
Rutger Hauer plays the priest - he's in a lot of stuff but if you're like me you'll know him as Lothos from the original Buffy movie
and Amber Sainsbury who you may know if you've seen 30 Days of Night - my only problem with her is that she looks fifteen, but not only is she over 21 but she's a doctor!
Steve Guttenberg as Richard Clarke, the dad who has an affair while his family is on board. You know what? I loved him in The Big Green and yell out "we love you deputy dog!" quite frequently, but in this movie I could not stand him.

Hm. The Big Green. Another candidate for ILL.

Where was I?

The dramatic speeches and the cheating on the wife, maybe it was the character but I literally wanted to slap him.

And I wanted his homewrecking mistress to die.

Which she did, so that worked out well.

Anyway, there are about 15 people in the group starting out but it ends up with like 11, sad day especially cause I liked one of them and screamed when she died, but the rest of the time I was just like, really? Another speech?

I see why you were a made-for-tv movie.

Like, Guttenberg, mid-catwalk while the ship is literally burning beneath his feet decides to turn around and address his family.

Mid-catwalk.

Fire is literally feet below him.

I think I will take this moment to apologize for all of my faults, then turn around and suddenly become frozen in fear.

And half an hour later I'll make it to the other side.

Anyway, four hours later the movie's over and I'm still sitting here going...huh.

Cause really, what is the appropriate reaction to have after watching a B-Movie?

They always give me pause.

But I like B-Movies. They rock. You should check out Cosmo's War of the Planets, actually that's more like a D-Movie, but we watch it every year at teen camp nonetheless. The cheesier the better.

I'm giving it about a 4/10 on the Scale of Awesome, but that makes it about 4/5 on the scale of B-Movies, so that's rockin' man.

If you like ships, and overdramatic speeches and water and all that crap this may be the cheesy movie for you.

Just make sure you have homework to do while you're watching it.

Or have Facebook available. Apparently people find my commentary humorous.

I still want an underwater flashlight. I'll figure out something to do with it, I'm sure.

In other news, saw my carpool buddy at work today. It was actually really funny because we both froze at the same time, then reacted.

It was one of those, I know you, but not in this context, kind of moments.

But it reminded me that I have a huge assignment thing due this weekend and need to get started on it.

I'll save it for tomorrow night.

And Friday.

Cause it will take both.

I think I understand it.

I mean, I know I don't, but I think I can fake it.

It's cataloging man.

If I follow the book, and the examples online....I should be...screwed.

Eh, I'll figure it out.

"Oh Henry" The Civil Wars

so i had an "oh my god you're an idiot" moment today.

realized that the joy williams in the civil wars is joy williams.

as in THE joy williams.

the singer of "one of those days".

which may mean nothing to you, but oh my god i sing that song almost weekly.

even posted about it in like november. My Life in Closed Captions: It's just been one of those, one of those days...

no idea they were the same person.

to be fair she sounds completely different as the civil wars are folk music and that was pop.

it was a serious moment though. i literally sing that song weekly. because, as mentioned in yesterday's post, i'm a magnet for stalkers and trouble and really anything that goes wrong in the library. and it's often "one of those days".

But tomorrow is a new day.

And a food day, huzzah!

So I'm out, exhausted, gonna have to watch some sort of comedy to get that cheesy-drama-scary-mass-of-whatever-you-want-to-label-it out of my head.

Bring on John Casey and the Buy More crew.

"Here's a warning, Happy Birthday."

You know what's even better than getting pulled over?

Getting pulled over while all your family is there to witness it.

Both your parents and all of your siblings.

On your birthday.

Yeah.

That was fun.

Apparently going 35 in a 25 is illegal.

I made it all the way to the driveway when he pulled me over.

"So it's your birthday huh?"
"Yep. And my niece's baptism. Hence all the cars."
"Well, here's a warning. Happy birthday."

He thought I wasn't familiar with the area and didn't realize it was 25 and not 35.

I didn't mention I lived there for four years.

But I SWEAR that road is 35.

Or at least it used to be when I lived there.

Whatever.

It was a warning.

I can live with that.

Might have it framed.

I never get warnings.

It's not like I speed a lot.

Or get pulled over a lot.

Just lately.

Should work on that.

So birthdays.

Yeah.

My niece got baptized, that was cool. Hung out with the family most of the afternoon. Helped Favorite Sister-In-Law with some homework. Kind of my niche apparently, technology-based assignments.

Last time I helped her make a really kickass powerpoint.

This time it's something about tracks and links and all that.

Seemed pretty cool.

After that I jammed with Bubby at their house since Squirt had a tournament in Omaha and both parentals went to watch.

We ordered pizza, ate ice-cream cake and watched movies.

He's so funny.

Bubby: "It's your birthday, so I'm paying for the pizza."
Me: "No you're not. You're twelve. I'm putting it on my card."
Bubby: "I'm gonna put money in your wallet."
Me: "You don't know where my wallet is."
Bubby: "I'm gonna hide money in your car."
Me: "Yeah, I'll find it 2 months later and be like, twelve bucks, what?"

Goof.

My family rocks.

Got a vacuum.

And a blender.

And some dishes, cookware, and clothes.

Stoked.

And really curious about the blender.

I broke my last one.

Wasn't technically my fault.

Stupid dishwasher.

That thing hates me.

As do most of my appliances.

Or at least that's my excuse for not using them.

But the dishwasher needs a name.

Like, in college, we had this really annoying heater/air conditioner thing that everyone called "The whale" or Moby or whatever, cause it was like super loud and obnoxious and turned on and off at odd hours.

I think I called it Roberta.

Don't ask.

Anyway, it was obnoxious, and somehow having names for things that are obnoxious makes life easier.

Cause if they do something wrong you have something to yell and blame it on.

Like, "Shut up Roberta, I'm trying to sleep!"

or

"Damnit, Thomas, why don't you work?" which I yell quite frequently at my navigational system.

As in Cindy Thomas.

Not as in Tom-Tom.

And yes that's a Women's Murder Club reference.

Just had to clear that up.

Not that I want to yell at Cindy Thomas.

She rocks.

And she can find out secrets and scandals and all that, she's a good reporter.

So I called my nav system Thomas cause she can get me out of jams.

Though now, since I haven't updated her in forever, she gets me into more jams than she gets me out of.

Apparently I had to clear that up as well.

Moving on.

Dishwasher.

I think I'm gonna call it...

Lucille?

Hmmm....

Yeah.

Lucille.

Lucille the dishwashing machine.

Works.

No, I have no explanation for that name either.

Lucille is evil and she hates me.

Or maybe I'm just using too much soap.

More to come on that later.

You know what?

I love teachers.

I do.

About 80% of my friends and family are, or were at some point, teachers.

Both of my parents were teachers.

But the thing about teachers? Is that they know exactly what to say.

All the time.

That can make them very obnoxious patrons.

Like, if they have fines over the limit and they can't check out.

Today I got hit with, "So, as a taxpaying citizen, you're saying that I'm not allowed to check out books."

Snap.

It's not me saying it personally, it's the system that won't let you check out.

But they don't get that it's the system, they think it's me.

Um.

Supervisor?

Can I just say how glad I am, in those instances, that I am physically the lowest on the totem pole of desk workers.

Well, I guess second-lowest now.

But there are so many people above me that I can pass that off to, it's fantastic!

Not so fantastic for them, but still.

Great for me!

And they're supervisors for a reason, they can handle it.

I cannot.

Apparently.

Which sucks, as there's usually one of those instances once a week.

I'm a magnet, I swear.

But this one wasn't just me, there were multiple staff members around who thought the instance was a little over the top.

Whatever, it's done.

Like the warning for speeding.

It happens, you keep your head down and move on.

This is especially helpful in circumstances when you have stalkers.

Keep your head down and just keep moving.

Did I mention that today was a day?

I have this old lady stalker woman person chick that follows me around and talks to me about her personal life and it's really awkward, so usually when I see her my coworkers cover while I go and roam until she goes away.

She was in today, but got distracted in youth services.

It's okay, The New Girl shielded me with her sweater.

She too has people who ask random library questions in order to just speak with her.

I think we're too nice.

Maybe that's it.

I gotta be meaner.

Like stone-cold mean face or something.

Wordie says I have the glare down.

Like down pat. (is it down pact or down pat?)

I just don't use it.

Often.

Just on old boyfriends.

I know I'm rambling.

I haven't posted in two days.

Or checked Facebook.

People think I went underground or something.

Song of the day before I think of something else to ramble about.

Sometimes I like being ironic.

"Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" Song of the South

this song is the only thing satisfactual about that movie.

Did you know that the star - James Baskett - wasn't even able to attend the premiere because Atlanta - where Disney introduced it himself - was still segregated?

Ridiculous.

Sorry, I'll stop with all the rambling.

You know what is satisfactual?

The Civil Wars and their iTunes live album.

Had to download it, it's fantastic.

Totally jammed in the backroom to it today.

The backroom is great for escapes, by the way.

Alright, Carter and I are out before I can think up more tangents.

Wonderful feeling, Wonderful day.

You were wrong, I was right, You said goodbye, I said goodnight.

I feel obligated to stay up for another hour.

Even though it doesn't really count.

Cause 3:09PM is what counts.

But still.

So TAB kids at Barnes and Noble. We checked out the young adult area and they wrote down titles they wanted added to the collection. Then we got them snacks.

It was fun. They seemed to have fun, so that was good.

Now I just gotta compile the lists and send them to the supervisor in charge.

Got some cookbooks for me. Don't get your hopes up, not sure this motivation will last very long.

And a Hunger Games shirt.

And Frank.

He's a Zoltan Zolto.

Meet Frank.

Happy Birthday to me.

Carter doesn't like him.

We've established that already.

I finished my paper. Didn't take all that long since all my notes were typed up. But it's exciting cause now I'm done!!!

Well, for like a few days at least. Next up more MARC records. And a presentation to work on.

"It's All Been Done" Barenaked Ladies

Barenaked Ladies - Music - More Music Videos

that song never gets old.

"Barton Hollow" The Civil Wars live on Later with Jools Holland

yes i posted it recently, but that was the video. this is live. and they rock. either way.
this is Frank's favorite song. i've decided.

It seems like a Frank song.

Right?

Alright, need sustenance.

Haven't eaten anything all day.

Then back to Chuck. "He got clipped by a window sill. It's as pathetic as it sounds."

hey look it's passed midnight.

your moony face, so inaccessible, your inner mind, so inexpressible

Not much for today, just this.

Criminal Minds spoiler, don't read if you don't wanna know.

Paget leaving sucks.

I'm already way behind, if she's gone I don't have much motivation to keep watching it.

And who are they gonna replace her with, really? It's already such a male cast, even with Garcia and JJ. They'll need another strong female lead.

I get it though, CBS cuts her and AJ/JJ for budget stuff, but it was really to start a spinoff that everyone knew was gonna fail from the start, then they renew the contract for a year, forcing her to come back.

I'd get tired of the drama too, but she will be missed.

Maybe she'll go on to have another great sitcom.

Andy Richter Controls the Universe was highly amusing, it'd be great to see her go back to comedy.

Sorry. Ramblings.

Though I LOVE the radio edit, I'm kinda digging it live.

"I Hear The Bells" Mike Doughty

took me a year to figure out what song it was after hearing the refrain on Grey's.

nice voice crack and apology.

Big day tomorrow. Last day for 23, sad day.

Was a good year. I think. Yeah, definitely good. Yeah.

out

and my fingers are bejeweled with diamonds and gold, but that ain't gonna help me now.

Apparently 24 is not old.

That's what I was told today.

I'm aware it's not THAT old.

But for me, it's old...er...than I am now.

Or it is for the next few days at least.

And I'm starting to feel it.

Or maybe that's cause I'm still sick.

With whatever it is you want to call it.

My annual nausea-laden era.

This whole nauseous all the time thing sucks. Isn't three months enough? WHY CAN'T YOU GO AWAY?!

And don't tell me it's morning sickness.

I will kick your butt.

That's what the doctor said like 4 years ago.

And there have been no children.

So HA!

Just more nausea. Every year. Same time.

This is getting old fast.

And with it so am I.

Well, with that and grad school.

The chick got back to me today - after I called her and re-sent the e-mail from two different accounts.

She got them both.

This time.

And got back to me, so that's awesome.

What's not awesome is that now I have to write the paper, that I was so gladly putting off because she had yet to get back to me.

Now it's inevitable.

And I really need to finish it.

I started out tonight with such great intentions, really. Got all my stuff out, made supper, turned on some TV to watch while I ate.

THEN Carter fell asleep on my lap.

And you know, how can I disturb that?

So I kept watching, cause he was cute and cuddly and you know, not biting me.

Then I kept watching some more, but it was good cause now I'm finally caught up on NCIS.

Dude?! That 200th episode? I screamed on so many occasions that I'm surprised my neighbors didn't bust in! Freakin' Kate and Jenny, Fornell just made me laugh, and of course Franks, but Ari?!?! Dude. I wanted Gibbs to punch him.

I do have to question the whole Tony and Kate angle though, I thought they were more siblings and she was into Gibbs. Or that's how it seemed the first season.

I'm really curious how they filmed that as she doesn't look like Kate anymore with the blonde highlights. Medical Examiner in Boston. Or if they filmed it at all, technically that's the same outfit she wore in the plague episode. Did I mention I was a fan? Hmmm...

Then the most recent episode with the return of the elusive Wendy. I'm intrigued.

What was I saying?

Oh right, yes I wanted to be productive and I tried really hard, but then my cat fell asleep on me and it all went to crap.

Sorry.

I'll finish it tomorrow. I'm only 12-6, plus some minor errands.

Saturday is the Barnes and Noble Paperback Buy with the TAB kids, that should be interesting, but other than that I have the whole day so if it's not done by Friday night it'll be done by Saturday night. And posted by at least Sunday as that's a full-fledge day of family fun.

Or at least half-day, I still have no idea what or if we're doing anything for my birthday.

It's not a big deal as I don't really celebrate them, so I'm not gonna plan anything.

Just go with the flow, see if anyone wants to do anything on Monday. Since I have it OFF!

I love City Holidays, they rock.

Okay, songs for the night:

"Somebody to Love" Jefferson Airplane

i'm sorry, is she singing into a plug?

"Trouble" Pink

oh my god, jeremy renner in eye makeup. before he hit it big-time, that's nice.

"Big Girls Don't Cry" Franki Valli and the Four Seasons

i wonder why. especially with those moves and that unnaturally high voice.

What else before I crash and burn...

Today was good, Slim Shady took me out for lunch for my birthday. Jammed out there for a while. Was a good changeup from my usual soup and sandwich.

Worked on some Summer Reading Event stuff after that, plus I'm still working on my Hunger Games Read-Alike, if you have titles send them my way.

Though I have like 40. I'm weeding through and only keeping the good ones.

And the Spunky Old Ladies display is still rocking it on first floor. I'm quite proud of that one actually.

Alright, fading fast. Carter and I are out!

and that's what everyone's talking about.

So I was so excited because at about 5:59 I realized that tonight I had absolutely nothing planned.

The first night in forever that it was just me and my cat and I didn't have to freak about homework or cleaning.

I didn't even know what to do with myself.

I debated watching my DVR'd stuff, cause it's building up. Like NCIS I'm 5 behind, the Closer I still haven't made it anywhere near the end. Even 2 Broke Girls I'm missing.

I think the only show I've kept up with is Castle. And that's mostly because after I drive Squirt home for the night I hang there a while and we watch it there.

So, I decided instead to check Facebook. Because I've been told I need to put a picture up of the boyfriend or they will Facebook stalk me and find one.

Done.

But then I had all these other pictures that I hadn't even thought of posting cause they're on my phone, not my computer. Like 136 pictures, I forgot how long the new Facebook takes to upload things.

Like 2 hours later I'm finally done with it and ready to crash.

But they're awesome.

I'm thinking about making a "Best Of" album for high school and college. Camp. Old stuff.

Should be fun.

For the moment I'm gonna crash. We had the African American read-in today, news channel came and filmed it. It's weird that that's becoming normal. I'm small-town Nebraska and that never made the news.

Wait, I take it back, it did once when our cops went on strike. The mayor had a "do not pull over" list of people and they didn't like it. So they just stopped. Had to bring in the state troopers.

Anyway, there were a lot of readers and people watching and all that. Was super cool. One guy sang the African American national anthem.

Aside from that the usual running up the stairs 100 times. I should start wearing one of those things that counts your steps. A pedometer? Wore one once in college for a class. Ashley and I teamed up for a scavenger hunt for health class. Was awesome.

So, exhausted. Gonna need to start going to bed sooner. Which means I should start now.

Quotes of the week:
Girlscout: "That really skeeves me out."
Boss's Boss's Boss and I were very intrigued by this term and have decided to start using it.

Me: "She says she didn't get my e-mail. Maybe it went to her spam folder."
Trainee: "Did you title it 20% Viagra?"
Me: "Yes! Maybe that's why it didn't show up."
we keep getting all these spam emails, it's amusing but annoying.

"Girlfriend" Avril Lavigne

love the video, it still cracks me up.

though, now when i hear the song, all i can sing is this version

"Mash-up Girlfriend" DJ Lobsterdust

UNK vs Avril Lavigne vs Toni Basil

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.

Does your mother know?

Just another Manic Monday.

Though I was fairly productive, made more progress on the First Aid Crusade, now I just have to order what's missing.

Stocked more of my Spunky Old Ladies Month display. It's highly amusing because everytime I come back to work more people have added to it. It's nice that they actually are excited about this one. Not that they aren't for my others in the past, but this one is unique.

But next time I'm going to have to top it, and that's gonna take some work.

So, tomorrow.

Valentine's Day.

We've figured out that we're not big Valentine's Day people cause we never really have someone to celebrate it with.

This year will be different.

Aaannd since it's my choice....

No idea.

I was totally stumped.

So I asked the master of all wisdom.

Wordie.

"What would you want to do for Valentine's Day if you were a 24 year old guy?"
"Go to a movie."
"We do that all the time."
"Then stay in and make dinner and watch a movie."

Interesting.

Though neither of us can cook.

So therein lies the fun.

It's a challenge.

Cause I like my apartment and don't want it burnt to a crisp.

But I'll have an easy recipe, we just need to buy ingredients and all that.

Anyway, since it's my turn - cause we're incredibly indecisive and somebody needs to step up or we're doomed from the start - I say make dinner and watch a movie.

Star Wars Episode Two, since we just watched the first one on Sunday.

Yes, he'll probably curse me for it as it is what he calls the "romantic one" but isn't that what Valentine's Day is about?

And. If he doesn't like it. He can fix it next week. Cause then it will be his turn.

Take that.

Moving on.

Music Rec's

"Does Your Mother Know" ABBA

oh my god, this is going to drive me nuts. There's an actress, she's blonde, she was in one of my shows - there are so many of them that i have no idea which one - but she looks exactly like Agnetha Fältskog, exact replica of her in the video.

This is gonna drive me nuts.

I think it was NCIS.

I feel like it was NCIS. I don't think it was Grey's. or Criminal Minds. Gotta be NCIS or Castle. Not Chuck.

She was married. Maybe. Or not.

I don't remember, what I do remember is that she was completely straight-laced career driven chick but she was ticked off about something.

Like I said, gonna drive me nuts.

Any help here would be hot.

Back to the song, you could also go with this version: Christine Baranski in Mamma Mia the hungarian makes me laugh. Probably the most amusing moment of the movie. But Christine Baranski is just fantastic in everything. Chicago, Cybil - which actually led to her being cast for this part, they actually based her character in this movie on her character from Cybil.

Quote of the day:

Me: "No, it's a drunk/sober thing."
I can't tell you what it means or why it was said, but I like it so I'm posting it.

You know, sometimes I forget that people actually read this thing. Then when I go to tell a story and they already know all about it, it totally throws me off.

A girl has to have some secrets.

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"

"I was in an ice cream haze and I couldn't see!"

New strategy for stealing the check from the Cool Aunt.

Feed her ice cream and hide her glasses.

It worked!

But only cause Mom made me do it, long story.

Today rocked.

Slept in, woke up around eleven, jammed out with cat and watched Chuck.

Then headed over to get some jalapeno margaritas!! with the Cool Aunt and my mom.

Since it was my birthday - well, it's almost my birthday - we got fried ice cream for desert, it was fantastic and I highly recommend it.

And I got another duck, I'm STOKED!!

See, this is why I love the Cool Aunt, well not the only reason I love the Cool Aunt, cause you know she's cool, but sometimes she buys me presents for random reasons and I find it highly entertaining.

I get my winter hats from her, "The man they call Jayne" hat last year, plus my new "tundra" hat. Then, ever since high school graduation I've been getting rubber ducks. They're all over my apartment and car. It's highly amusing. And who could forget the fun socks? Cause really, how can one live in life without fun socks.

Regular socks are boring.

In addition to my duck and socks and lots of candy I got some Husker shirts - cause you can never have enough Husker shirts, I decided that last week when I cleaned out my closet - and then Mom got me some fun socks and clothes as well.

Plus she bought lunch. And brought me soup. And took my tax stuff. So she rocks.

After the awesomeness that was fajitas and jalapeno margaritas, I headed back and freakin' cleaned my apartment.

See, there's a difference between cleaning your apartment and freakin' cleaning your apartment.

Cleaning your apartment involves throwing things in your closet so that they're not visible.

Freakin' cleaning your apartment involves brooms, mops, and dustrags.

Did the whole thing, bathroom and kitchen included.

Now it's all bright and shiny.

Though I need more lightbulbs, cause apparently they've all decided to die at once.

Which I guess makes some sort of sense as I installed them all at the same time originally.

Anyway, so the apartment is clean!! Except, for the freakin' foosball table. You know why the foosball table isn't clean? Cause there's freakin' curtains on it!

I've decided that that's what I want for my birthday.

Someone to hang up the curtains that have been sitting on the foosball table for months. They've been there so long that I don't even remember how long ago I got them.

The bedroom ones are up, it's just the living room ones we had problems with as they didn't fit over the blinds. Now they should. Or I think they should, but perhaps not. Who knows? I don't, clearly, as they are still sitting on my foosball table.

Aaannd rant over. Moving on.

Class tomorrow so I should pack before I'm lights out. Gonna turn on some Chuck and konk out.

I love Chuck. There's actual character depth, you know? It's not just all about the action and explosions and all that. It's funny and you get real live characters. Plus Adam Baldwin. Granted Sarah is probably my favorite as she is badass, plus Chuck is you know, normal. But Casey seriously just makes me laugh. Adam Baldwin is quickly rising to the top of my hilarious badass actors.

Speaking of the man they call Jayne,

Song of the night:

"The Hero of Canton" Adam Baldwin

that's my hat. except mine is black with colors, instead of orange.

If you haven't seen Firefly you're really missing out. Space Cowboys and Nathan Fillion, how can you go wrong? This is where Adam Baldwin really shines, too funny. He plays the muscle - similar to his character on Chuck - and he's highly amusing too. Plus he has great shirts - of which I own half - and an awesome hat.

The show was great, but of course short-lived, as most of the great ones are. Yet there was such a big protest when it went off the air that a movie was made a few years later and the cult following still continues.


"this landing is gonna get pretty interesting."
"define interesting."
"oh god, oh god, we're all gonna die?"

plus Castle references it all the time.

And she's off! To watch Adam Baldwin kick some rogue-spy butt.

The First Aid Crusade

It's FRIDAY!! I feel like jumping up and down and singing Katy Perry.

Actually I really don't, but I mean I could.

You know, I could.

But I won't.

Cause it would freak out my cat.

But maybe I should, just to see if it would freak out my cat.

But no, I'll pass. My headache finally went away and I don't wanna get it back.

"Quelling a rebellion with a fork."

That's nice.

So I'm hooked back on Chuck.

Just in time since I have like four other series checked out. I always get distracted by one of my own in this situation, then they stockpile and I return half of them cause I'm like, "why was i interested in that in the first place?"

But now that Chuck is over I can finally catch up. Don't tell me what happens, I'm a season behind! Same with Leverage.

Anyway, the day flew by pretty quickly, as they all have lately. I hope it stays that way. Like that I keep enjoying my job. I don't want to get all the way through the program and then get bored with it.

Not that I will. Cause there's something new every day.

Did some fun supplies stuff today. Basically, once a year I go through all the first-aid kits, yes all of them, there are many many multiples - like one every 30 feet, and make sure they have everything on the list and it's not expired.

I'm calling it my First Aid Crusade. Got four down and probably that many more to go, but I'm having all these flashbacks from First Aid class in college and thinking I should get re-certified cause pretty sure that's going to expire soon.

That class was cool. Jammed in the back with Melanie, made sarcastic comments on all the retro videos and people faking injuries. Things taped to body parts so it looks like they're impaled.

"Is the scene safe?"

What are you supposed to do if the answer is no? Just stare at the guy who has a branch sticking out of his leg?

"Oh, it was a horrible skiing accident. I really should have watched out for trees."

You're a brilliant one there George. (Please tell me you get that.)

or

"I think you're dehydrated. Maybe you should sit down."

Dude, he's sweating compulsively, his face is red and he can't breathe, of course he shouldn't be standing!

Back to the Crusade.

The reference workroom had a serious amount of rubbing alcohol, which I thought was funny. It's like a stockpile or something. And like 3 handfulls of antibiotic cream, which none of the other kits had. Then 5 eye patches but no eye wash. I had to share the wealth a bit.

So that was supplies, I also cleaned all the computer monitors on the first floor, that was gross and made me want to sanitize everything. I'm scared to do the keyboards, that will be grosser.

It was one of those random jump from task to task days, cause aside from all that I was still compiling ideas for my booklist and working at all the desks.

Aaannd after work I got all my homework stuff done!!

Woohoo! Finished the paper, posted it, added more to the MARC stuff, e-mailed the prof, sent my thank you letter's and an e-mail to the one that wasn't there, attempted to figure out my summer class schedule, but as it isn't up yet I asked the Library Goddess instead. She knows everything library anyway, that's why I call her the Library Goddess.

Now I can sleep properly. And get stoked for margaritas and fajitas with the Cool Aunt tomorrow.

Which is good, I need a changeup. I've been eating a lot of fruit lately as it is overflowing in my fridge. Like literally, you can open the door and on the left is liquor cause I rarely drink it so it builds up, and on the right is fruit. I got pears, apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, more apples, clementines. It's a stockpile.

Everything today is a stockpile, apparently. I think I just enjoy using that word.

Stockpile.

Stockpile.

STOCKPILE!

Word of the day.

But Mexican sounds good, especially the jalapeno margaritas.

With all my rambling and noun-age you're probably thinking that I'm drinking one right now so I'll move on.

Is noun-age a word?

I'm making it one.

Song for the day:

"Have It All" Jeremy Kay

yes, i've posted this before but that was back in november. and i love it. so just go with it.

cause it's worth listening to.

Sleeping in tomorrow, woohoo! Off for the weekend. Lunch with the Cool Aunt and Madre, then more sleep or Downton Abbey maybe. But most likely Chuck. Yeah Chuck.

"Sometimes the nerd gets the girl." awwww, so true Chuck.

OUT!

Dark Lady laughed and danced and lit the candles one by one.

For some reason today was exhausting.

Which is weird, because nothing that big happened.

There was a staff meeting in the morning - we're integrating the oversized nonfiction in with the regular sized nonfiction - something that all the other libraries have already done or didn't divide up in the first place.

Basically, they wouldn't fit on the normal shelves, so they were shelved seperately. But, since it was obnoxious to look in two places for the same subject, we're adjusting the shelves and putting them together.

Should be interesting, but the main part of that is: are they all going to fit in the one room? and if not what are we moving out of the room, etc. Glad I'm not part of that whole process. Granted they asked for our opinions this morning, but still, totally glad I'm public service and not at supervisory level. That doesn't sound like a fun thing to figure out.

What is funny though is that when I went in to interview initially for an aide position - this was back in May of 2010 - they were already talking about the integration, here it is 2012 and they're just getting around to the measuring.

But it takes planning. And technically everything got pushed back when we changed operating systems.

Now I'm just wondering, if they're planning to build a new library...what year is that gonna be done?

But I love my job. And I'll leave that to the pros and stick to the desks. Today I was actually at the desks all day, which is new. Lately either they're tired of me or they don't think I'm getting enough done while off-desk cause I'm rarely scheduled for public service. That's my theory anyway.

I miss the desk.

So today was good.

Even though currently I feel like the walking dead and all I want to do is sleep.

Which is why this is going to stay short.

I got some more homework done, I've officially read everything I need to read. Now I just have to write the paper, post it online, e-mail the prof with some questions, e-mail the people that weren't at the interview, and send out the thank-you's to the ones that were.

But like I said, walking dead and fading fast.

After that I gotta edit the stories and format the camp music, then next week I'll focus more on the interview paper and whatever else homework assignment is due. There are a lot in February.

Since I have Saturday off and my only real plan is lunch with the Cool Aunt I might be doing a lot of that stuff on Saturday night.

Today? What happened today? I'm thinking. Something really funny happened, I remember laughing at something. I don't remember what it was.

Oh, yes I do. I was talking with my Trainee about the computer lab - there are like these privacy protection covers over the screen so that you can't see what the person next to you is viewing. I call them dashboards, even though they're not really a dashboard. But then again, what is the definition of a dashboard really? Right now being half asleep that sounds like the weirdest term in the world. Anyway, she laughed, so I was like what do you call them? And we came up with a whole list of what they could be called.

And then, similar to right now, I couldn't think of a term I wanted to use and was like "what's the name of that big blue thing that blocks off the restroom?" and she replied "a gift from god?" I was actually going for partition or divider - as something like that is normally used as - but gift from god works too.

It did turn out to be one today, as I was walking by the restrooms on my way to lunch.

Me: "You know what's really disturbing?"
Slim Shady: "What's that?"
Me: "Seeing a guy walking out of the restroom and still buttoning his fly."

So it was a gift from god, cause I could have seen even more of that if it weren't for the partition.


"Dark Lady" Cher

hmm...outfit inspiration for gaga?

i have no explanation for choosing this song tonight...other than because it sounded like fun.

Okay, falling asleep, I'm out for the night. I'll figure out the rest of the homework stuff tomorrow. Too tired to be logistical or rational or is logistical actually a word? Cause that looks weird.

"Words taste like peaches."

And we're back to Chuck, I'll turn that on and crash.

OUT!

and I'm on my way to believing.

Not much to say for today.

Found my new breakfast spot. Coffee and donut all for under 2 bucks. Total excitement when I'm used to paying 6.

Worked all day, made some progress on the booklist, and got to use the bigass slicer.

No, seriously, it's like this giant mechanical blade, that yes they trusted me with. I told them if they heard screams to come on the run.

But I kept all my limbs. Mostly because you have to hold down two buttons for it to run, aka both hands are away from the blade.

Me: "If I lose a limb will I lose points?"
Superwoman: "You will be so deep down in the hole..."

She won't give me points anymore man. Even for getting a letter from the mayor. And that's like the ultimate, right? I'm gonna be stuck at 141.5 forever.

Unless I lose a limb, apparently.

"The Only Exception" Paramore

i love it, hardcore paramore fans sent in valentines and they used them in the video, awesome.

Staff meeting tomorrow so I should probably crash. Exhausted, and still haven't finished my homework. Oh well, I've got tomorrow.

OUT!

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...

They say she just went crazy, screaming out his name

Let's start off with the interview this morning.

The class assignment is to interview a technical services professional about their cataloging process from start to finish.

A as in 1.

So imagine my surprise when I show up this morning and am led directly to the conference room.

Holy toast.

And the funny thing is that two more people who were going to be there couldn't make it this morning.

So there were supposed to be more.

But it was fantastic! The multiple perspectives were really helpful, cause each person had their own specialty and responsibilities. And I actually got a lot of my questions answered so that was great.

Totally nervous asking actual professionals - as in more than one at once - and me being all para-professional, student and lowly...a little intimidating.

But they were great, and didn't make me feel like a complete idiot.

I think I actually surprised my prof cause I had a bunch of questions about circulation that she didn't have answers to. So she took me to one of the experts, I met a lot of people today, haha. That one and I bonded over weird reference questions. I've had my share.

But I'm actually genuinely interested in their operation because they're freaking right down the street from us!

I mean, I knew they existed, cause they're kind of a big deal, but I did not know that they existed within a 3 block radius of us until this morning.

Yeah.

Totally had to call Superwoman this morning, freaking out cause I had no idea where I was going and didn't want to be late. Walked right passed it. I freakin' Mapquested it and everything.

And I used to park in that parking garage all the time! Freakin' walked passed that building all the time!!

It's giant.

But it's an archive.

So it's supposed to be giant.

Anyway, it was good having more people there because then there was more information and explanation, I really appreciated that. I got passed the intimidation fairly quickly - it wasn't like I was completely unprepared. I had all my questions laid out.

I think I took like three pages worth of notes.

Which is good.

Cause it's like a three page paper.

I just have to put them in order and format it and all that. It'll be gold.

Also stopped by my carpool buddy's office, knew she'd give me crap if I was there and didn't even say hi. She has her own fancy shmancy office and everything, jealous man.

After that I came home and attempted to take a nap.

But I was too wired so I started Downton Abbey instead.

It's highly amusing, I enjoy Maggie Smith very much. She is everything that I thought she would be.

The went into work for two hours and got started on my newest booklist - The Hunger Games read-a-likes, I'm thinking Survivor-ish fiction, Suzanne Collins got her inspiration from flipping channels between Survivor and the war coverage.

I've found a few already, Ship Breaker is one of them, go here: My Life in Closed Captions: don't it always seem to go that you don't know wha... but that's just the start.

Squirt came in today for her volunteer stuff, so I dropped her off after picking up some Subway for us for supper. We jammed at the house and watched Star Trek (movie) - does watching that make anyone else want to start the original series? - and Castle. Duuuude...fantastic episode. Did not see that coming. Love how they mixed in the cast with the 1947 storyline. Super cool.

And that was today.

"Beaches of Cheyenne" Garth Brooks

cheesy slideshow.
someone please tell me why this was stuck in my head all day. out of nowhere.

"Zip-Lock" Lit

and keep it in my pocket, keep it in my pocket...replacements soundtrack, gonna rock.

Now I'm off to crash, full day tomorrow. And after the full day I'm gonna e-mail the people that weren't at the interview this morning and ask some questions about cataloging the general collection, start the paper, then get back to my editing for my friend, woohoo!

Kickstart my heart, give it a start

Not that impressed with the commmercials this year.

Granted I did miss half the game.

Cause yes, I made it to work!

The parking lot was plowed and my awesome brother in law dug out my car. It was the only one dug out this morning, which rocked.

I'll catch the rest of the commercials online tomorrow.

Work flew by pretty fast, though it wasn't all that busy. I sent in a bunch of recommendations, and Info-man set me up for another booklist, we're thinking Hunger Games - so similar storylines, themes, characters, etc. Should be fun and good timing as the movie is coming out soon.

After that is was watching the superbowl with the boyfriend. I went Patriots by 7 and asked my coworkers what they thought, which was interesting because no one seemed to care at all.

Oh well, it was a good game.

And I had fun texting back and forth with a friend as she was cheering for the giants.

Yeah, live it up.

The Voice is actually a pretty good show, I'm stoked. I like Adam Levine and Christina, and Cee-Lo seems cool, Blake Shelton seemed really strict as he hardly voted for anyone. I might have to add that to my DVR. Not that I get time to watch any of those anyway.

Tomorrow I'm headed to the commission for a class assignment - interview a tech services professional.

My prof works there, set me up for who I should talk to and all that. So that rocks, cause she knows what I need to know.

The fatal flaw with that though is that she knows what I need to know, so it's a blessing and a curse, cause it'll be a high pressure paper.

She knows what they'll say and the process there. So I tried mapping out my questions and all that. Little nervous.

Oh well. I'm a good writer.

Or I pretend to be.

I can't be completely awful, after all you're still reading this.

Now I just gotta figure out how to get there.

I'm gonna crash, I'll hit you with some music and sign off.

"Kickstart My Heart" Mötley Crüe

was on the gran tourismo video game for ps2 and i got hooked, hey, we gotta start somewhere. love it. actually liked that commercial, purely for the song.

had to copy and paste the band name, i feel like peanut from jeff dunham, it's not on the keyboard!

"Give Me Three Steps" Lynyrd Skynyrd

not as widely known, but an awesome jam and dance song.

jef-f dun ham....dot com!

"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.