"Do you want to plant a seed? Of course you do, they're awesome."

Kickoff party today.

Holy crap man.

171 kids in 2 hours packed into a single area.

Mass hysteria.

And most of the hysteria was coming from me and had been all day when my Mentor went home sick.

And you knew it was bad for her to go home because she's been in charge of this thing for years.

Since my supervisor that was gonna help out wasn't part of the planning process Superwoman turns and says, "well, you're coordinator."

Of a massive Summer Reading Event with screaming tiny children and all that.

No pressure.

Luckily I had a rockstar crew.

My TAB kids, of course, who picked out the activities, then there was one of my adult volunteers - who's fantastic - as well as Superwoman, my other supervisor, two interns, an aide and about 5 various Summer Reading volunteers.

It rocked.

After I had stopped, you know, panicking.

Some of the fun activities that the kids did was fishing for bookmarks with magnet fishing poles, getting tattoos, making carrot hats, digging for glow-in-the-dark insects, making personalized license plates, and planting seeds.

Yes, planting seeds.

In paper towels and water and put in a ziplock bag.

Modeled after our mock ones that are still hanging in the window and have started growing.

And carrot hats.

Which are basically dunce caps with green streamers.

That we of course had to wear.

Along with another coworker who's in the library program with me - I shall call her my Comrade.

Superwoman took a picture and sent it to the Library Goddess.

So, Kickoff Party: Completed.

Success.

Next up: Library Golf.

That's gonna be an even bigger ball of stress.

After work met up with the boyfriend's family to celebrate three birthdays - his dad's, his brother's and his future brother-in-law's.

Had pasta, took half of it home, will probably eat the rest later tonight.

Why are leftovers always the best after midnight?

And that was my day.

In a nutshell.

Songs of the day:

Yes, more Songs You Know But Forgot You Knew Them

Time Marches On - Tracy Lawrence



This Ain't No Thinkin' Thing - Trace Adkins


what happened to good country music?

"I'm being beaten up by a guy called Rupert?"

Question of the day: How many people drown when lifeguards run to them in slow motion?

Joking.

Been watching too much Wipeout.

Okay, sad fact.

It's 11:30 and I'm totally dead tired.

I'm not gonna make it 'til midnight.

Not that I'm aiming to, I'm just usually up til 1 or 2.

Cause I get distracted and then remember I have all this stuff to do - like post - and it's like midnight when I get to it.

Which explains why this morning was awful.

Fell asleep last night around 3.

I don't even know why, I just couldn't get comfortable.

My back is still messed up.

The boyfriend gave me a massage and it's still out of whack.

Should probably do something about it but don't have the time.

Cause tomorrow is the kickoff party!!

I'm gonna die.

Holy crap, I'm nervous.

Like last year, I helped, but I wasn't in charge.

This year I came up with the list of activities for the kids to choose from, I cleared everything with the bosses, shopped for all the supplies, collaborated with outside sponsors, put everything together, came up with the flyers, and now I'm freaked that I'm missing something.

Though that's what my mentor's around for, she and I went over everything in the afternoon.

Quote of the day:
"Such a random combination for a closet, you've got coats, a laptop, and buckets of sand?"

Aside from all that planning chaos the second floor still looks like a crime scene.

Here's our computer lab currently.



The tape is appropriate, but it's a process.

Basically what's going on is we're getting new computers with a grant so our old computers are getting moved to the back corner where the biographies used to be for a computer classes/staff training lab. The new ones are gonna go where the old ones were, except without the raised floors and fishbowl walls.

However, the new computers aren't in yet.

So in the meantime the patrons are using our staff lab over in the back corner, but still have to sign in in the regular spot.

And the staff lab has the walls up around it.

But I think they're different walls than before.

Or there are less of them or something, I don't know.

It looks a lot smaller than it did.

Like I said it's a process.

A very long and delayed process that started about 2 years ago with Fearless Leader in charge.

Aaannd now she's been gone for over a year.

So that was my workday. Along with some more training.

Tonight the boyfriend came up - yes more storms and rain, that's what like 5 days in a row now?

Or is it 6?

We watched Lockout.



Scale of Awesome says 6/10.

I do like Guy Pearce.

And it was nice seeing him as the good guy after seeing him go all psycho crazy on Iron Man 3.

It had its moments but that trailer is completely misleading.

Snow actually gets betrayed by his own team and gets forced to go on this mission or he'll be stuck in that prison.

As opposed to the trailer saying people recommended him for it.

Langral: I don't like hurting you, Snow. 
Snow: Is that why you're having him do it? 
Langral: I can have Rupert bludgeon you all night. 
Snow: I'm being beaten up by a guy called Rupert?

Snow: Ok, see here on the map? 
Emilie Warnock: Yeah. 
Snow: That's where the pod is. You get in it, you fly away. The good guys will come and get you, ok? 
Emilie Warnock: On my own? 
Snow: You're a big girl, right? Here's an apple and a gun. Don't talk to strangers, shoot them.

And that was my night.

Now I'm gonna fall asleep watching some Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Cause it's taking over my DVR.

Marathons are good, except when you get behind on watching them. Then it's just an overload.

Song of the day:

Someone That You're With - Nickelback

bet that video took a long time to put together.

yeah, yeah, i know, it's a Nickelback song and they're awful.

but i like this one and used to listen to it all the time in high school.

besides, he's married to Avril Lavigne so he can't be that bad...right?

*cough* right.

out at 11:59, holy crap tag in use.

Bat Goggles man, they're all the rage.

I made it through the kickoff party!!

Still alive and breathing and functional and not like crying in a corner.

Today rocked, for serious man.

Morning flew by pretty quickly, but that's mostly because I was all over the place and freaking out the whole time. After lunch Mentor and I prepped for the kickoff itself, setting up tables and supplies, but she's a pro so she had the gameplan.

Some of our TAB kids came early to help set up, cause they're awesome like that.

The theme this year is "Dream Big" so our tables were stargazing, gold coin toss, paper lanterns, edible campfires, sparkling stars, bat tattoos and then of course registration and Bat Goggles.

Never in my life have I seen people so excited about wearing bats on their heads.

But they rocked.

So, I subtly said to Superwoman, hey, you should get the staff to wear these.

And I swear BossLady wanted my head on the platter.

Cause Superwoman was all over it.

So I took a picture of the two of us with them on, it rocks.

Actually I took a lot of pictures, but I'm not in this weekend so I won't get them uploaded and sent to our webmaster until Monday.

Which is probably bad, but they have some posted already from other people.

Especially the ones with Runza Rex.

Oh yeah, Runza Rex was there.

If you're not from Nebraska you probably have no idea what I'm referring to.

Here.




That's Runza Rex.

And some random little girl.

With a doll.

Anyway, yes, he's a giant dinosaur that is the mascot for a restaurant called Runza that's only in Nebraska.

So we had this giant mascot in the corner and people taking pictures with him. And I made the TAB kids take pictures with him, they were thrilled.

Actually they didn't seem to mind it so much, I took a lot of them helping out the kids, and we took a group picture at the end. It was like the ultimate passing of the baton when Mentor took the picture instead of being in it.

Which I don't like, I don't do well with batons. I've refused to take it from Liz for how many years at Camp J now? Nope, she will forever be the Britney Spears to my, whoever I am. I don't know, we just always laugh because her microphone looks like Britney's.

Though Mentor's been training me to take the baton on this one since January.

Which I think I can handle. We're not meeting again until September so I'll have primo time to plan.

First up when we meet again is decorating the YA area with some colorful art. Feels like the only white wall in the building and they want to make it stand out. I'm thinking sketches and paintings and all that. Got it cleared with the Boss, but I'll figure out specifics later.

So anyway, Bat Goggles, yes, they rocked. And the staff present loved them. Except for BossLady, but she pulled them off pretty well. Maybe I'll pull them out on Monday when I go back. Maybe that'll keep the creepers away. They'll think I'm creepy and be drawn to someone else for the day.

What else? Oh yeah, Squirt had a volleyball tournament so she had to leave the party early. I stopped by for her last couple games, they dominated. Don't think they lost a set all night. She rocks, glad she's playing with some good girls this time. This is with the high schoolers, she's playing with a bunch of JV-ers. But the high school she's going to has a Varsity, JV, Reserve and Freshman team. So pretty sure she's got a good chance of making it.

Tomorrow is Children's Lit with the Library Goddess so I should crash soon. Gotta stop for coffee on the way there, that's what I'm the favorite. And probably why she's making me her grad assistant. She does have a serious coffee addiction.

The tattoos covering my arms will probably stand out, but whatever. I think they're cool.

"Oh Happy Day" Sister Act 2

stuck in my head constantly. probably the best part of the movie. aside from the end concert. love the sequel, perhaps more than the original. though both are good. they should bring it back for a third round. she could be at a college this time. they did turn it into a musical, they could do anything.

though now when i hear that song i think of this as well. Mike and Molly - Oh Happy Day
i so love victoria.

"he taught me, he taught me HO-OW!"