it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift...

Today was horribly horribly depressing as it was Big Brother's last day of work.

I totally almost cried when Info-Man came and gave him a hug at the end of the day.

I think he did too.

So, attempting not to dwell on the depressing and focus on the awesome I can't hold back anymore.

I know I said I'd cool it on the Voice until I picked my team, but now the blind auditions are done and I have my team picked.

Last year I did a top ten list, but this year they have teams of 16 instead of 12 so it's been expanded to top 20.

Which I'm sure is ridiculous but I couldn't cut it any lower. It was originally much much higher.

Okay, you will all be so proud of my holding back-ness because my number one is obviously Cassadee Pope and when I saw her I totally screamed and went all crazy fangirls.

Carter was less than enthused.

You know who that is right?

You realize how often I rambled about Hey Monday on here especially right?

I can list you at least 5 posts, literally 5 posts with them tagged. Go here: http://ckmylifeinclosedcaptions.blogspot.com/search/label/hey%20monday

And that's only the ones they're tagged in, there are more that showed up when I searched for that link. More like 20.

I literally heard one of their songs and bought all their albums. This was way before "Don't Wanna Dance" became popular, just so you know.

Anyway, so Cassadee Pope is clearly my number one cause she was their lead singer for the duration they stayed together, went on tour with Fall Out Boy and all that.

But here's the whole list, color-coded to match each coach - green is Blake, silver is Cee-Lo, red is Adam and purple is X-tina.

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

If you haven't already.

Cassadee Pope

Trevin Hunte

Nicole Nelson

Aquile

Avery Wilson

Bryan Keith
Brandon Mahone

Michelle Brooks-Thompson

Adriana Louise

Collin Mcloughlin

Terisa Griffin

Suzanna Choffel

Nelly’s Echo

Melanie Martinez

Gracia Harrison

Celica Westbrook

Mycle Wastman

Mackenzie Bourg

2Steel Girls

Joe Kirkman

This week's will probably be video heavy so I'll keep the rest of this short.


Torn - Cassadee Pope

and then bought it on itunes immediately.

i love that adam, xtina and blake all went simulaneously.

Listen - Trevin Hunte

awesome. that's all. just awesome. he's only 18.

Hallelujah - Nicole Nelson

she was great. i love it, they call her the vermont bohemian.

I'll stick with three for now.

I'm out!

i've seen trouble all my days.

So,

What makes someone a great teacher?

How about the fact that you can email them at like 10:30 PM with a major technology homework issue and they'll talk you through things step by step all the way until you figure it out at 11:30 PM.

And they don't make fun of you.

And they don't talk down to you.

Did I mention that the Library Goddess's staff is fantastic?

Almost as fantastic as she is herself?

But as she is pure awesomeness, so it's really not fair trying to compare people to her.

So, let's move on.

Today. Woke up early-ish, stopped for coffee, got to open the home branch with Space Cadet, there was much banter it was highly amusing. After that it was some public service work, then an early lunch and a trip down the street to man - or woman - the library desk at an ethnic festival. I was basically there for like an hour before we started tearing down but I got some cool pens.

Flashbacks to home and garden shows back home as "the Teacher and the Failed Librarian".

Home and Garden Show conversations
They're happening across the nation
You'll be amazed at the valuable information
Here's our own translation.

Long story, go here: You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd

Anyway, so was there for an hour, came back to the work branch and collaborated with our Local Linguist - she works in a room dedicated to all things Nebraska authors - Cather, Aldrich, Eiseley, Kava, Kooser, etc.

I think I've rambled to you about the scavenger hunt. If not here's the short version, my kids don't know that this room exists so I'm coming up with a scavenger hunt and hiding clues in specific books that they'll need to solve to get to the next book and trying to use as many library resources as possible so they're using the catalog to find fiction and nonfiction, use the microfilm readers to print off a specific article, find information through a database from the website, find something in the music library and then we'll end up in Nebraska central.

Some of the questions are amusing, like "what time is shown on the clock in this portrait" and in order to find it they'll have to talk to the Local Linguist. She's in and is excited. I'm excited, which is why I'm planning it now even though it's not until January because I know I'll just put it off and then end up dreading it cause it'll be crammed.

And if I'm not excited then the teens won't be excited which will make the whole thing lame. So it'll be good.

After that I headed home to do some homework which of course wasn't working. It's all web design stuff and my computer didn't like the software so I have to use different stuff than the other people are using which is where I got lost, but now we're good.

But I'm exhausted and stressed about it so I'm going to crash for the night and work some more on it tomorrow.

Thankfully it's not due until next week, however class is on Saturday so I should work on it enough that I'll be able to understand what they're talking about.

It's amusing, I know I'm like complete tech genius, but I am a tech person and whenever there are computer issues Big Brother seems to search me out, then calls me "college" and tells me to fix it.

So I know semi-what I'm doing.

But with this class I feel completely in over my head.

Which is why I'm grateful for awesome teachers like the ones I have. They're great.

Alright, that's all I got for the night. Let me find some catchy tunes, pass them on, and then bail for the night.

hmmm....turning it on shuffle.

nope that one is suck-ish.

nope, that one is more suck-ish.


Man of Constant Sorrow - Tonic Sol Fa

love these guys, saw them live at choralfest senior year.

aka select choir mashup with other national select choirs.

we are the krt - knights of the round table

i was a high soprano with Beej and KT

here's another from shuffle, cause i like this video better than the actual one.

They - Jem

big surprise there.

4 years later and it's still rockin'.


alright, crashing now.

bang she shot you, karma tastes so...

Joe Studley calling in sick means me at the home branch all day, jamming out with my big brother coworker.

He's a cool guy so the day flew by fairly quickly.

Was amusing to go back to old habits, though he got the bookdrop I still went straight to routine with the holds list/expired/cancelled/counting money/checking in delivery/etc.

Hit up Arby's for lunch, that rocked.

And basically just jammed around all day.

Though for some reason I'm exhausted, which makes no sense cause while the work branch is constantly busy, the home branch is more relaxed. So it doesn't make sense.

Maybe it's a state of mind thing. Zenned out.

I'm tired.

And waking up early tomorrow morning so will probably konk out within the next few minutes.

Clips of the night were basically from - you know how you can go on youtube to find one video and you end up finding like eight you weren't planning to find?

It's like a train of thought thing like, "hey, i'm gonna look for culps seminar videos."


"it's really inspiring that all of you decided to attend this mandatory drug awareness assembly..."

"i love will ferrell and ana gasteyer, let's do a search for the perfect cheer." "oh my god, why has no one uploaded videos of the perfect cheer?" "i bet i can find some amateurs."





"oh my god, if you could hear them speak they are dead on!" "those were some killer moves. let's look for some videos on breakdancing."





"oh my god that's ridiculously cool. let's find something else ridiculously cool." "who's ridiculously cool and her music is stuck in my head? kelly clarkson of course."




"well that was....interesting." "what's the name of that song from her new CD?" "oh, that's right." "wow, his cover is really cool, let's post that version."

"I Forgive You" Kelly Clarkson cover by Ben Mallare


"very impressive. almost better than the original." "who else has a killer voice?" "oh yeah..."

"Bang Bang Bang" Christina Perri


"oh my god, she's fantastic live. i wanna go." "you know who else is great live?"



"speaking of having a new hairstyle and outfit practically every time she walks through a door..."



"though when i hear gaga i think of this"



"oh my god, i love sue sylvester. she needs a 'best of' video." "bet i could find one."



"aww, she's so cool. i want one. a sue sylvester that is. guess i should attempt to be more badass in the future." "speaking of badasses..."

there were more, but i'm cutting myself and you off.

cause we need a break.

WE WERE ON A BREAK!!



okay now i'm done.

gotta sleep.

like now.

early morning + long day tomorrow.

OUT!

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 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...

"C'est la vie" say the old folks

It goes to show you never can tell.

My day rocked.


One of those days when I looked up at the clock and went, it's 4:00 already?

Which is good, because the day began when I walked out, saw my car covered in snow and went, WHAT?!

You know, this whole winter in Nebraska thing is messed up. Today was normal weather for a winter in Nebraska. But it felt abnormal.

Like I walked out, saw the car and was confused.

Who gets confused about snow in winter?

Someone who's getting used to this whole 50 degrees in December and January thing.

I was sad there was no snow to sled over winter break, but then I started digging the nice weather.

Although, if this is nice weather in winter, what is summer going to be like?

Maybe this whole global warming thing really is taking over.

AHHHH!!

We're toast!!!

Or we're going to be TOASTED!!

I don't know. Shut me up now.

I've been watching too many episodes of 2 Broke Girls.

I caught back up, oh my god, Jennifer Coolidge as the crazy neighbor - FANTASTIC! I love her. She highly amuses me.

She's all over the place! Even The Closer - "I entered your picture in the ugly contest and you won the grand prize!!"

Though my favorite is still her Friends guest appearance. "If you don't want to get me on my mobile, then don't call me on my mobile!"

Aww, Friends. That was a great show. I think I reference it at least once a week.

I'd do it more often but whenever I do reference it either people don't get it or they think I'm crazy. Or both.

Just depends on who I'm around, Slim Shady can usually pick it up pretty quickly.

My siblings are fans as well, not as much as me and miss Regina Falange of course. We play the trivia game, though we haven't lately. Bet she could actually beat me, I'm out of practice.

ANYWAY, my day was good, flew by pretty quickly, made plans for the weekend - other than working.

Plus, there were girl scout cookies on my desk this morning, SCORE!
Thanks Queen of the Known Universe, totally made my day!

Chuck's Greatest

"School Days"

hail hail rock and roll

"No Particular Place To Go"

love this one.

hmmm.... similarities....but it's his music, so i guess that's allowed.

one more and I'm out.

"You Never Can Tell"

this is my favorite. i blame this on work big brother, we were talking pulp fiction today. and 2 broke girls.


10 days until Sketch and Edit's Excellent Adventure!

I've got the moves like Jagger.

Dear Blogspot,

Today I rocked it.

Got to use my new coffee machine this morning, well, my parents' old one cause they got a new one, but it's NEW TO ME so I'm calling it new. Anyway, it has a timer so it was ready when I woke up, awesomeness. Grabbed some fruit and hit the road.

Opened up first floor, finished up the YA project, worked at the desks, answered reference phone calls, restocked the displays, did supply rounds, wrote up a book recommendation, checked in 6 carts in an hour, then stopped by the home library after work to see Space Cadet and my Trainee.

Was good to have the Space Cadets reunited. I haven't seen her since I worked there. Like, as in the last time we worked together. Which has probably been months, since I was just down to Tuesday and Thursday nights for a while - neither of them with her.

Anyway, I walked in wearing my "Tundra hat" - present from the Cool Aunt that Slim Shady says makes me look like I'm headed for a tundra, i like it - and Space Cadet did the best doubletake ever. It was nice. Walking passed with a cart as I walk in the door, looks over, keeps walking, stops walking and looks again. HI!

We talked ipods, family, cooking, library stuff.

She enjoys that someone bought me a subscription to a cooking magazine, and claims it wasn't her. I still have no idea who did it, but once I do it's on.

I miss my home branch.

It's a completely different atmosphere there. I got to know my coworkers there a lot more than my current work branch ones just because it's slower there so you talk more. Plus they have longer hours.

And I'm getting to know my current ones, they're fantastic as well.

I draw mazes for Slim Shady on my breaks. We go out for movies and food.

Fearless Leader likes my Firefly t-shirts. We talk blogs, books, movies, and dating.

Info-Man and me talk Huskers and recommendations.

John Boy teaches me all about comics, I'm learning people.

Mentor tells me all about the joys of working with teens, and shows me the ropes to talking over teen programs.

The Reference Queen always checks in to make sure I know how to do things, aka processes that I wasn't exactly trained to do but am still doing them because no one else is.

Queen of the Known Universe always makes me laugh, we talk Criminal Minds, Big Bang Theory, and crazy people.

Super Librarian Status always gives me good philosophies for life, such as "it's not possible to drink all the liquor in town, i've tried it."

Big Brother always watches out for creepers staring at me and gives me excuses to leave the desk when one approaches.

Girlscout and I talk derby, food, library everything and somehow she's always hard at work in the staff room whenever I go in there.

Superwoman is always watching out for me, period.

The New Guy and I joke about anything that's going on at the time.

The New Girl seems to always ask me questions about processes instead of other people, I'm flattered.

Cabin Fever who I joke with about writing a book about life experiences entitled "What Was I Thinking: The Hindsight Bias" and told me to tell creepers I talk to snakes so they're scared away.

The Aides and myself always joke around and talk about starting an Aides Union - as I used to be one and now I'm an advocate.

So yes, I do like my new coworkers. But I miss the old ones as well.

Sensei who I talked The Closer, Criminal Minds, NCIS, really any TV show.

Glee-Loving Boss who calls me to tell me that Temperature Tuesdays have started at Runza.

Queen of Awesome who lets me hold Maximus Awesomus, aka the Spawn of Awesome. And goes out for sushi and drinks.

Joe Studley who I can talk to about anything, and who does impressions just to cheer me up.

Space Cadet who's always teasing me about cooking. We talk about my tech-nerd-ness and her no-tech-ness. And occasionally yell out "you want an e-reader!" for no reason.

Trainee who I actually occasionally get to see since she's doing now what I was doing before, except I was an aide at the home branch and an LSA at the work branch. She's that in reverse. We talk sports, life, crazy people, etc.

Yes, I like my coworkers. All of them. That's why it's hard to leave. That's why I don't plan on leaving anytime soon.

I'm actually looking forward to inservice day so I get to jam with everyone at the same time.

What was I talking about before this whole rambling things got started?

Oh right.

Today.

I think we're finally off vacation-mode since we're fully functional.

Or seem to be.

Today was just weird reference-wise, I had this phone call asking for an address and everywhere I looked gave me different information. At first the addresses were different, then the middle initials were different, then the phone numbers were different, then she wanted to talk to someone else cause apparently I wasn't helpful. Though she didn't say that, she just said is there anyone else there. Info-man to the rescue. He told her the same things that I did and she listened to him!! Seriously? Then she called back!

Anyway, aside from that I rocked it. Though technically I rocked that since he just said the same things that I said. Maybe I need to sound more experienced. Or authoritative. Or something. Distinguished.

I'll work on that.

In the meantime,

"Moves Like Jagger" Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera

dig it. my niece - the youngest one, she's like two - sings this. "got the moves like jagger, got the moves like jagger, got the moves like jagger..." i taped it and put it as my ringtone. hilarious.

We'll see if I'll still have moves like Jagger tomorrow.

Here's the Red Green philosophy for the day:
The faster you go the more you miss. As you get older you're gonna realize that we're all pretty much heading for a brick wall. The question is, how hard do you wanna hit it?


OUT!

Come All Together For You

Geez, you show up to work in matching socks and everyone goes crazy.

The last time I dressed up dressed up and I quote:
SLS: You look nice.
Me: Laundry day.
true dat, ran out of clean jeans.

And, to be fair, they haven't seen me there in almost weeks. Not for a full day at least. Tomorrow is another one of those few hours there and few hours at the other one days. But it's anything but boring.

So when I walk through the almost empty library at 3:25 and hear "Hey Hollywood!" I take it in stride. He used to call me "College". Still does when there are computer issues and he needs me to fix something. Even though we have a whole Virtual Services division for that. Again, I take it in stride. I can usually fix the problem anyway.

I was actually productive today. Shocker, I know. Shelved all morning, came home and took a nap - which is sort of productive...when you can't sleep the night before - ate lunch/supper, headed downtown, went back to work, registered for classes, watched NCIS on DVR, and now blogging here so that I can write my paper for class and submit it online before I crash and burn from the long day.

Sophie's Choice was made. Now it's all up to The Powers That Be. At this point I have nothing to lose.


Songs of the Day: Zenned-out zone

"Go On" Jack Johnson

definitely one of my favorite artists

"Boy With The Blues" Oasis

love it.

that's all she wrote...


EDIT:
Quote of the Day:
Second Sister: "U didnt even know it was february? U can at least pretend u knew the month! Goodness sakes we need to see each other more if this is where we stand. That is all there is to it. If i deliver this child on ur bday it will have to be ur favorite. That would be for certain."

now that's all she wrote.

I've never heard silence quite this loud.

JANSEN!
I love it. It's like "Towanda" minus the bubblewrap.

Have you ever had one of those days where you're so sore that doing something as simple as walking up a flight of stairs makes you want to writhe in pain? That was me today. And I worked 9-6. It wasn't a total epic fail though, I shelved and got a lot done this morning, then worked at the desk basically all day. Work Big Brother found this pair of paper glasses and said he'd pay me a dollar if I wore them for the rest of the night. And since there was only 10 minutes left in the day he owes me a buck. I rocked them.

Oh, my, god. So people know me now. Which sucks. I liked blending in. Even when I had red hair they still had no idea who I was. Today I called a branch looking for a hold that was supposed to be picked up at one I'm at but she accidentally sent it to be picked up somewhere else and the dude who answered was very nice and helpful and after he found her hold and put it to be sent over he's like, "oh and you have a hold." "for Martin?" "no, you." Um. what? I didn't tell him my last name, just my first and he made the connection. Although I have no idea what hold he was talking about for anything being held there for me. I'd never been there before the Food Drive. Which is what brought this all on in the first place. I sent out so many mass emails that I'd be surprised if everyone didn't know my name by now. Or at least that my name exists in the system. Man.


Have you ever watched a fictional show that has like magic or supernatural stuff in it and then switched over to a regular mystery show and just feel like at any point they're going to whip out some magical weapon or discover some artifact that is causing someone to kill all these people? or is that just me after watching a marathon of Warehouse 13 online. Caught up. Stoked about H.G. huzzah!

Can't believe camp is over already. Well, sort of. Now it's all the after camp meetings plus send out mailing stuff and feeback, burning picture cd's and sending them to all campers, checking budget, paying for everything we owe. yikes.
I was really proud of the kids and how they pulled off the skits. Here are a few, as promised.
3rd Grade Boys - Keeps Running
*Half of boys stand with arms up as trees, other half are birds that fly across the stage the counselors run through the trees 'til the end*
"This is the story of Camp Jefferson.
Every year starts out the same. During spring, the trees get greener and the birds come back north for the spring." *trees stand up with leaves and birds fly across*
"Then in the fall, the birds start their long journey south for the winter." *birds fly back across*
"And the trees start to change color." *trees spin around*
"In the winter, the trees have lost all their leaves" *drop leaves but keep arms up*
"Then in the summer Camp Jefferson takes place and the whole process repeats its self. Yep, Camp J is just like any other camp. And, just like any other camp, the sap keeps on running through the trees."


The 3rd Grade Girls sold brains, 1 was extrememly expensive because "It's the brain of a counselor, it's never been used!" sorry Emily.

4th Grade Boys had a firing squad - the boys about to be fired at would yell out a diversion, point behind them and the others would turn around and look while the original boy escaped. "Ready, Aim..." "Tornado!" turn. "Ready, Aim..." "Hurricane!" turn. last one wasn't so smart "Ready, aim..." "FIRE!" and then yeah, got shot with a water gun.

4th Grade Girls did Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. literally. They were all piano keys except the musician which was the one going around and hitting them on the head. Every time she hit one they would sing the next note in the song. We did it all the way through and I told the last one to be way off key so they musician lifted up her arms, smacked her on the forehead, shook her, then stomped away and after that she finally did it right.

5th grade boys were in a contagious disease ward. every time another one came in they'd get their symptoms as well. then a pregnant boy walks in and they all ran.

5th grade girls had the Scary Monster skit where one of my favorite girls - I've known her since she was like tiny tiny cause her mom used to be my counselor and she would bring her along. Anyway, she was under a sheet and people would come, look under the sheet, see her, scream and faint, until the last girl came and instead the monster jumped up and ran. Cause she was ever scarier than the monster.

6th grade boys fought over tracks - they're beaver tracks, no they're deer tracks, no they're beaver tracks, no they're deer tracks. turns out they're train tracks so you're dead because you don't look up in time and you get run over by the camp jefferson express

6th grade girls did Pencils for Sale in which there's a russian chick who only knows the following words "Pencils for sale" "3 for 50 cents" "yellow" "if you don't someone else will." not a good variety of english when someone comes by and doesn't want to buy pencils. it ends with "i'm gonna punch you in the face!" "if you don't someone else will." kablam!

7th and 8th grade boys did the HeeHaw skit with the 8th grade girls - I'll get there.
The 7th grade girls were a giant group so I had to divide them up. Group A got to do a continuation of last year's Rapunzal skit. Told you I'd bring her back. It's the later years. And I kill her off. Sort of.

7th Grade Girls group A - "She appears to be dead"

Witch: So, you thought you could escape the tower, Rapunzal, but no. I have found you and for your punishment you get the curse. Fall down on the ground and appear to be dead! MWHAHAHA! *girl falls down, 2 girls come to rescue*
Girl 1: You gotta call for an ambulance. She appears to be dead!
Chick: 911 what’s your emergency?
Girl 2 calls: Please, please you have to send an ambulance! There’s a girl here and she appears to be dead!
Chick: Who is she? What happened?
Girl 2: I don’t know, everything was fine then an evil witch cast a spell on her and she fell over and appears to be dead!
Chick: Where are you?
Girl 2: The sign says Montgomery and Westchester.
Chick: What did you say? You’re breaking up.
Girl 1: What’s wrong?
Girl 2: I’m breaking up. Blast this cellphone service!
Chick: Repeat what you said. Where are you?
Girl 2: Montgomery and Westchester.
Chick: Where?!
Girl 2: Montgomery and Westchester!!!
Chick: Westchester and what? I still can’t understand you! Try spelling it.
Girl 1: We’ve got to do something! She appears to be dead!
Girl 2: Uh, it’s M..O….T…G … hold on a minute. Let’s drag her over to King and Elm!

so that's the later years. maybe next year we'll cover Rapunzel the middle years.

Group B did this one:
Airplane Disaster
Four campers are sitting on chairs, one pretending to be an airplane pilot, and the others are the passengers.
Pilot: "The plane is too heavy - we can't land!"
1: "I'll throw out the drink cart!" (Throws a gatorade cooler out an imaginary window)
Pilot: "We're still too heavy to land!"
2: "I'll chuck out this packet of peanuts" (Throws peanuts out)
Pilot: We're still too heavy, throw something else out!"
3: “I’ll throw Cassie out!”
4: “What?! Not again!” *thrown out* “AHHHHH!!! This stinks!”
Pilot: “What’d you do for?”
3: “hehehehehe” evil laugh
Pilot: “Almost there, just one more thing!”
2 Pretends to throw something out and says: "Done."
Pilot: "What did you throw out that time?"
2: "A Grenade"
Pilot: "I don't think you should have done that. Oh, well, at least we can land now. Prepare to land. Everybody ready? 1.2.3. Jump!" *they all jump*
Pilot and passengers land the plane and start walking away.
They pass Camper 1, who is holding her head and the gatorade cooler.
Pilot: "What happened to you?"
Camper 1: "I was walking along and this drink cart fell out of the sky and hit me in the head!"
They pass Camper 2, who is holding her head and eating peanuts.
Pilot: "What happened to you?"
Camper 2: "I was walking along and this packet of peanuts fell out of the sky and hit me in the head!"
They pass Camper 3, who’s sitting in shock staring at passenger #4.
Pilot: What happened?!
Camper 3: “I was just sitting here, eating a banana when suddenly this chick just falls right in front of me. It’s rainin’ women!”
They pass Camper 4, who is laughing.
Pilot: "What happened to you?"
Camper 4: "I farted and the bathroom I was standing in blew up!"


And then there was the highlight of all highlights aka the 7/8th boys and 8th girls. These are the verses I used this year. I found them online - some lyrics, some youtube videos. next year i'll have to write more.

GIRLS 1. Remember when you went out hunting for possum? -- You said you’d get one and wouldn’t be long. -- That’s ten years ago and I’m sitting here waiting -- beginning to wonder if something went wrong.
Where Oh Where are you tonight? Why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and thought I found true love. You met another and *pbbb* you was gone.

BOYS 2. Down here on the farm the weather is messy -- lying around with nothing to do -- when you went away you took my cow Bessie -- I miss her darling more than I miss you.
Where Oh Where are you tonight? Why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and thought I found true love. You met another and *pbbb* you was gone.

GIRLS 3. Pardon me dear if my words seem bitter -- There’s no defense for my broken dreams. -- I didn’t know I married a quitter -- my life is coming apart at the seams.
Where Oh Where are you tonight? Why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and thought I found true love. You met another and *pbbb* you was gone.

BOYS 4. Remember you phoned me a-sobbin' and cryin' -- The dog bit your maw, and drug her around -- You said she looked pale and thought she was dying -- I said "Don't worry, I'll buy a new hound."
Where Oh Where are you tonight? Why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and thought I found true love. You met another and *pbbb* you was gone.

GIRLS 5. The noises you made at our supper table -- Your habits, my dear, were surely absurd -- But how many times do I have to tell you -- Soup is a dish to be seen and not heard
Where Oh Where are you tonight? Why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and thought I found true love. You met another and *pbbb* you was gone.

BOYS 6. You took out your false teeth, your wig and your glasses – You were just scattered all over the place. – I wanted to kiss you and hug you so tightly – I guess I would have if I’d found your face
Where Oh Where are you tonight? Why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and thought I found true love. You met another and *pbbb* you was gone.


Still working on uploading that video. I'll have plenty of pics to go with it once I get Jim's camera and all the pictures downloaded.

Other than camp life is good. Busy with work. Oh, quote of the day. My mom, who now reads this blog, read yesterday's massive post and all she had to say was, "didn't know you liked Justin Timberlake." I cracked up. Apparently actual people read this thing. which is a little nervewracking since I'm a nerd but I'll go with it.

"Story of Us" Taylor Swift



Completely stoked for Saturday. Tee it up for tuition is gonna rock. This is how we golf.
"Oh Oh Oh" Golf Boys

Song and dance included. And if it's a bad hit we say "there was no woohoo in your backswing." And Pastor is hysterical. "Woohoo with you. And also with you." Our orange t-shirts came in and they are super super bright. Apparently. I haven't seen them yet, they got sent to Nic at the school. I'll get mine Friday night. Huzzah!



I feel like there was so much more than I'm forgetting. Oh well, I'll post more tomorrow.

Wake me when it's in the yard.

I stick true to my grandma’s philosophy on storms. We live in Tornado Alley for Christ’s sake. If we went to the basement every time there was a storm warning we’d never leave! Everyone would be freaking out about the tornados and the wind and the hail and Grandma would just go to bed. “Wake me when it’s in the yard.” Sounds good to me.
So, after hanging at Subway, eating icecream with some of the family we finally decided to just drive back through the storm warnings and the hail and the rain. Oldest sister followed me - M has school tomorrow and I have to work so staying there wasn’t an option.
And I don’t listen to the radio so for all I know we could have been driving straight into storm central. It could have been like a “That 70’s Show” moment. Have you seen the one where Eric has to go pick up Donna at the radio station and he puts in a cassette tape while he’s driving? Meanwhile, you can see the tornado in the background like tearing up houses and stuff. He’s just totally dancing and singing the whole time. Then when he gets there Donna makes a big deal out of him coming to get her and driving through it and he totally freaks out because he’s scared of tornados.

What a day, seriously. Worked 9-1 - staff meeting, backroom, backroom, public service. Got yelled at by an Aide, nicknamed by a supervisor - “big brother” and I are now the “Gruesome Twosome”. I told you we ask a lot of questions, she probably wants to run and hide when we come downstairs, then basically took off as soon as I could to head out for practice.
Practice was good, they were into it, I could hear them, they sang the right words, only needed to be cued a few times. We were like, they’re gonna pull this off! Like shocked. Sent them home and came back for supper in the basement. Lots of parents and family came so that was cool. Then upstairs to the classroom where we hung out, talked things over with them and all that, walked down to the stage together. Start like right away. I’m barely in the door when the first song starts. Song goes great, I’m thinking, alright this is going to work.
After the song…okay, imagine 14 kids wanting to be anywhere else. Now put them all together on a stage, staring off into space, whispering back and forth, arms crossed, messing with their clothes, it was like - people could have slept through it. Seriously. But, there were only a few times they needed to be cued so they were paying attention. Somewhat. I don’t know if it was nerves because of the audience or if they were just tired of it but I could not get any eye contact. Usually, I do motions and dance in the back and distract them so that they’re looking up and smiling and stuff - no, no one would look at me. It was crazy.
But it’s done, and I waved and it’s done. Back to having free time. HA! More time for homework maybe.

Speaking of, duuude. Have you ever read a book or watched a movie that you’re so into that when you turn it off or put it down you have to re-adjust to life as you were living it before the experience? This is one of those books. A book that makes me ignore the music that’s blaring in my headphones so I don’t even hear it because I’m so focused on what happens next. So it doesn’t matter that the play could have gone better. Much better. Because now I get to finish the book. Damn you Library Goddess. You and your good taste in literature. I’m toast for this class. I’m not going to have any time to do anything else but read Young Adult novels. But this one…makes that totally worth it. I’ll give you a Scale of Awesome when I’m done with it. 100 pages left, actually less than that, I could barely put it down before the play. I was late to the beginning of the potluck - which is fine because it’s a potluck so you come and go - because I couldn’t put it down.

Currently, I just feel like an emotional wreck. Completely exhausted. Work was awesome - til I got yelled at - but after that it was good again, the practice was good I was excited for that, then I went home and read so I was totally zombie mode for that zoning out everything but the book, then I started to get a headache at supper, but I got to see my mentor and hang out with some friends so I ignored it, the play was just an experience - something to scrapbook let’s go with that - I totally started crying during one of the songs not because it was good or bad just because of the melody and the lyrics which makes me a cheese ball but it didn’t matter, because no one was looking up at me anyway! HA! After the play was the awards, Nic is always good with that kind of stuff, then they started taking down the set decorations, we headed to get ice cream, I almost puked in the bathroom - when I have a headache for a long time I get nauseous. Ask Oldest sister, she’s got a fun experience involving me in a mall parking lot after seeing “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” with its shaking camera and my going in with a headache. And I love that movie! “Baby, you couldn’t find the button with both hands and a map” but now when I see it all I can think of is a bucket and a parking lot. After the ice cream it was the drama of sitting around waiting for the storms to move on. Which they didn’t so we drove through them. Then I was debating which was worse for my car - driving through the hail and the pressure of it against a moving car, or for it to be in a parking lot like a sitting duck with no where to hide. Which do you think would do more damage? I guess I’ll see what it looks like tomorrow. Then, driving back with Oldest Sister was amusing because for some reason, even though she’s older and has 4 wheel drive, I was the leader, or maybe those are the reasons why she wanted to follow me - who knows - so we were like waving when we got into town and I was going to turn so we were in the lane next to each other and then this other car was between us - pretty sure we weirded them out. But whatever. Now I’m finally back at my apartment, writing this, will post it, then read my book until I fall asleep like last night - I woke up with my book and my big fat cat in my lap. And like, he’s a big cat. So I don’t know how I didn’t wake up when he jumped on me, but I was out. Like out.

Now this is really long so post, then read, then sleep, then work, then finalize homework then get ready for class. Huzzah!

Song for the night - because it’s the same song, well kind of.

“Smells like Teen Spirit” - Nirvana

Here we are now, Entertain us.
Ah, the mosh pit. There were plenty of you at Warped. “She tried to crowd surf and the tide went out.”

Or the Moulin Rouge version

Outside it may be raining, but in here it’s entertaining!

Way passed bananas...

and closing in on the Twilight Zone.

Oh the joys at work. We are up and running. Hooray! But that means checking in everything that we couldn't when we were down - which was multiple days - and learning all the new procedures as the day went on. I'm pretty sure I drove my supervisor nuts with all my questions. But they put me and my 'big brother' coworker in charge of the holds. And teaching the aides how to do them. And it's just funny, because I was teaching one of my favorites - he's hysterical and super smart - and he was asking all these questions that I had no idea the answers to! But with some help from a supervisor we figured it out. At 5 I basically ran for my life. And tomorrow I get to do it all again! This time at both branches, huzzah! But now I know what I'm doing - partially - so it's okay.

Quotes of the day:
-"This shirt is older than you are!"
my coworker, who I like to think is the ultimate true librarian, was wearing a 'barcode blues' shirt today which was something they got printed when we switched over to barcodes on books instead of cards in the back. and it was dated 1987.

-"Do I get a cute nickname?"
i think i busted out laughing at this question because he just doesn't seem like the kind of guy who uses the word 'cute' but yes, he needs a cute nickname. Oldest sister brought to my attention tonight that I am much like my dad in that respect - giving everyone nicknames - mine from him is Dude. I have no idea where that came from, I think that's cause I used to say it a lot. I'd share my siblings' but they'd kill me.

-"So is everyone driving you bananas with all their questions?"
-"Oh, I'm way passed bananas..."
This woman is totally my hero. She has been able to talk me through almost all of my questions on the new system - and the ones she can't are questions of her own. And she does all of this voluntarily which makes her even more awesome. I don't think I would be able to manage all this pressure but she seems to be doing it quite well. I think she would be the Sky in our Dirt system mentioned here: My Life in Closed Captions: "Cause even after three text messages, four missed... and in many previous posts.

Songs for the night
"Idiot Boyfriend" Jimmy Fallon

since people were digging the troll doll's post, here you go. i think this was the only other 'song' on the CD other than the Hammertime thing where he sang a bunch of 80s songs over a background of Can't Touch This.

"Need You Know" Glee

slowing it down a bit before I head off to bed. love this version.


think i'm gonna eat some frozen fruit, put on a movie and crash. have a good one.

Hello Koha!

And Ziva, my first official post from my shiny red laptop. Although it's not actually all that shiny anymore. I've had it since like I don't even remember, like 2 years ago and all I've used it for is camp stuff. Forms, schedules, website, pictures, etc. Now I have all my files transferred over - music included, that took the longest - all that's left is to hook up my ipod and it will be official. Except it can only be synced to one computer at a time and if I switch it to here it deletes everything. Which is fine because I have everything on here now. But it like deletes my playlists too. Which bites, because I have a lot of them. I know, my life is so rough. *I can hear my sister's voice saying that to her dog...or cat...who's dumb as a post...* I'll figure it out.

Okay, first day with Koha, our new fancy system at work. Yeehaw? Well, so far we're only on its offline component since not everything has transitioned from the other system. So I got to spend the day staring at barcodes. No names, no titles, just barcodes. Oh, and I hit "enter" a lot. That was exciting.
Plus sent out the motherload of all explanation emails. But no one else was doing it. I mean, Superwoman set us up with some basic guidelines but then she left and all this other stuff came up. So I man-ed up. Or Woman-ed up. Let's go with that. Female solidarity and all that crap we say when we're playing softball. "Back up! Their women can hit!" my favorite quote from another team's pitcher.

Anyway, I basically came up with detailed instructions about what to do with all the stuff that was incoming to our branch and outgoing and all that while we can't check anything in or process any holds. Then sent it to the whole branch - but just the one, not all the staff at all the branches, that would be horrifying. I did that once about a missing item and am still spazzed out.
After all that joy I spent the rest of the afternoon in the backroom organizing the delivery, packing up donations and avoiding that dude that is trying to find a loophole on getting me to date him. Mentioned here: My Life in Closed Captions: This Magnet Moment... I don't date patrons! Well, not anymore. Just say no. That's what "big brother" coworker says. So I told him no, I don't date patrons. Now he's looking for a loophole. So, while he tries to find that, I'll continue to avoid him. Which is why this afternoon, after I separated all the delivery on to carts, I decided it was time to pack up the donations. And it worked!...until I ran out of tape. It was funny, because I really wanted to get through them all because we're going to need the space, so I scavenged the supply cabinets and found ducttape! But then I ran out of that too. Which sucked. So half the donations are boxed up and the rest are still on the shelf.
I had avoided him all afternoon until I ran out of tape - the second time - but as I was emailing Space Cadet, as she is in charge of supplies, I could see him coming to the desk out of the corner of my eye.
He comes to the side of the desk,
I get up,
go to the other desk,
open a drawer,
look for an imaginary object,
don't find one,
see him coming to that desk out of the corner of my eye,
also see Joe Studley approaching on my other side,
I turn around and head back to the original desk when I hear,
"Can I help you?" Not the person he was wanting to talk to but it'll do.
Aww, Joe Studley. My hero. He's the lead singer in our work band, btw - "Joe Studley and the Lost in Transit". Mentioned here: My Life in Closed Captions: Joe Studley and the Lost in Transit

Aside from barcodes, emails, delivery, donations and avoidance I don't think there was much else. Oh wait, I forgot. Barf chips and Face Aerobics. That pretty much sums up my day. Haha. I found the "barf chips", as someone had labeled the deodorizer stuff, when I was searching for tape - the first time - and the Face Aerobics was a VHS tape part of the donations. I didn't know there was such a thing as Face Aerobics. But apparently there were all the rage in the exercise scene. Back when VHS was still a viable format. I'm joking. I don't know anything about exercise trends. But I do own a bicycle. That counts right? Nevermind that it only has one wheel. Which is more of a long story. That I think I've told you already as well. My Life in Closed Captions: "Cause even after three text messages, four missed... Yep. Definitely told you before.
Crime-ony. Have I seriously been blogging since November? I'm going to run out of amusing anecdotes here soon. Next it will be all, "this one time, at the library..." That was my best American Pie impression.

I'm going to hit you with a music rec (or 2) before I crash and burn. Songs for the day, aka the ones blaring in my headphones while I boxed donations in the back, are older. Not like old but older.

Coldplay "Yellow"

and yes, second sister, i am currently singing jimmy fallon's troll doll lyrics.
I actually like Coldplay. I think this was their first major hit that put them on the board. Definitely worth listening to.

The Beatles "I Saw Her Standing There" performed live in '64

"How could I dance with her mother when I saw her standing there...." WHAT?! You mean those aren't the words?! Kidding. I sing it like that anyway, it's more amusing that way.


Out!