Eyes bright, chins up, smiles on. I'm talking to you Katniss.

Took library teens to see Catching Fire.



17 of them to be exact.

And got paid for it.

Best job ever.

With 2 other adult who "sacrificed" their Saturday afternoon to see it with us. Then we went back to the library after for food and games. We made homemade bows and arrows out of popsicle sticks, dental floss and q-tips - go here - played Catching Fire trivia for bragging rights - Gere won, then ate our fancy cupcakes. Half of which were gluten and soy free. And were actually pretty good.

As for the movie it was an experiment for me.

Remember how I'm a nerd?

I read Hunger Games back in college before it was popular and loved it so I was so excited about the movie but because they cut so much out - I mean, they had to it would have been hours and hours and hours long - I was sad. Anyway I was curious if I would like the movie more if I hadn't read the book and didn't notice that stuff was being cut out so I decided to test it and not read Catching Fire before seeing the movie. And it worked, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time not knowing what to expect.

Though now with that cliffhanger I'm going to read Catching Fire and Mockingjay ASAP.

I'm glad Mockingjay is being made into 2, even though that means we'll have to wait even longer. But they can include more stuff if there are 2 of them.

I'm a nerd. I'm sorry.

Anyway, the movie was great.

Scale of Awesome says 8/10.

I loved Effie in this one, she felt like a real person now instead of just a sideshow.

There were bits of humor to break up all the darkness which was good.



I really do think they have the perfect cast. Did anyone else watch Josh host SNL?

He was pretty good. The show wasn't great, but he wasn't bad.

After the movie and the afterparty I went out to eat with Second Sister and her husband. The boyfriend met us - ate half my meal but I was stuffed from the snacks that afternoon - and then we went to see Elton John perform at the new arena.

It was EPIC.

We parked like 8 blocks away to avoid mass hysteria so the walking in the freezing cold part wasn't fun but the rest of the night was awesome. He played like 27 songs - most of which were greatest hits but he also included a lot of his new stuff and a lot of his not-so-mainstream stuff.

Which was good, to mix it up.

The boyfriend predicted he'd sing Crocodile Rock last and was right.

I hate it when he's right like that, I don't know how he does it. Process of elimination I guess, it had to be something upbeat and something that everyone knew. Still, ugh.

We weren't the only ones that went, it seemed like half my workplace was there. And a bunch of family - both sides present. I was texting back and forth with everyone and waiving and then someone else would text and I'd be like, crap, who am I supposed to be waiving at?

It rocked, he played all my favorites so I was happy. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the night.







The rest are on Facebook if you're interested.

We did have to laugh though because there was this woman in the front row that was slightly inebriated...okay, more than slightly, she was having a really good time...anyway, she kept like pointing on every major beat. And not just like pointing with her finger, she put her whole body into it. And then she was dancing and all that.

And she was right in his sight line so you know that's what he took away from the show.

Anyway, we were laughing and pointing along with her.

So woman in the turquoise shirt, whoever you are, thanks for that.

Best part was after the show when talking with Second Sister we were like, "there was this woman in the front-" "in the turquoise shirt?!" "yes!" and then today at work I brought it up to the New Guy who also noticed her dancing and was laughing about it as well. I'll have to ask Superwoman, Library Judge, and the Cool Aunt if they noticed her as they were there as well.

She should go on tour with him.



So that was yesterday. Today was work - slow but alright. And tomorrow I'm off so I'm in celebration mode. Gonna sleep in and attempt some homework. Only 2 more assignments and 1 more day of the internship left before I get my Master's.

Pure madness.

Songs of the weekend: My favorites from last night

Tiny Dancer



Sad Songs Say So Much



I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues



Bennie and the Jets



Rocket Man



Crocodile Rock


our section was so offkey - not me! - but it was so much fun...


He threw in so much improv before and after, it was awesome. He's crazy talented.

Looking forward to seeing Cher in May. Huzzah.


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

"Any last advice?" "Stay alive."

and i think it's gonna be a long long time.

and it feels so good to hurt so bad and suffer just enough to sing the blues...

Just lyrics, don't worry. Love that song, see below.

Alright, assignments are announced so now I'm allowed to freak aloud.

Or, in writing.

Well, I guess aloud as well, but there will be none of that.

I can handle this.

Totally.

I can totally handle this.

Totally.

Ha.

Alright, new responsibilities include Supplies which is basically a job in itself. Not so much at the home branch, but the work branch, geez. You know how many printers and copiers and stockpiles of supplies are in a 4 story building?

At least most of the units fend for themselves so it's not like every room needs to be supplied. Just mostly floors one and two. And a little in the basement.

I can handle that.

But add to that I got backup to Fearless Leader in Damages.

Again, fine.

I was already doing that anyway at the home branch. There is about double the amount of items to worry about from there to here, but it's still the same process. Mostly. Except here we can just run down to the basement to TPD and retrieve a part that was missing instead of sending it over through delivery and wait for it to be processed.

Whatever, those are cake compared to this next one.

Okay, how do I explain this really without the nervous ramblings. I'll save those for later.

Pretty much the Young Adult Librarian for the work branch. Except without the title.

They gave me the Young Adult Section and TAB.

aka Teen Advisory Board.

Which is filled with teenagers.

Who plan events.

Like a prom.

At the library.

Yes, a prom.

At the library.

No pressure.

Can I just say how much I'm loving having a mentor on this one? She's fantastic! Youth librarian and has been doing this for years, and although I'm sure she'd love to dump it all on me, she's graciously sticking with me for a few months until I'm alright to take over.

Aaannd, along with all that goes with joining the Youth Services crew, aka getting the emails and going to the meetings.

Today was some prime real estate in that department. Never did I ever realize how important something such as a start date is.

Summer Reading Program.

Does it start the day after school ends, or do we wait until June 1st like always?

Kids come in the day after wanting to start.

Do we tell them to wait a week and come back on the 1st?

It's always been June 1st to July 31st.

Super easy to remember that way.

But do you really want to tell a kid to come back next week because we're not ready for them?

That was the debate today. It got heated enough to be interestingly humorous.

I sat back in awe.

I knew librarians were passionate and anti-stereotype, but this was a whole new experience there.

Apparently that's serious business.

And it is. I'm sure there will be more heated opinions when it's brought up again.

But there's time for that later. Today was pretty cool, getting to meet people involved in the whole process and listening to them promote picture books.

And "volunteering" (I use that word loosely as it was more like my mentor and Girlscout aka my two supervisors in this thing pointing to me when they asked for one) to help out with some stuff.

It was a cool changeup from the norm.

I'm looking forward to the challenge actually.

I don't want to shake things up though, things run pretty smoothly as they are.

I do, however, want to take stock of supplies and come up with some sort of spreadsheet of everything and where it's stored. Cause that would be a good thing to have. But I'll get to that later.

My current project is the YA area, aka going through and weeding older books because we're out of space. So I get to do that while I pull every book from the shelf, scan it and change the status, meanwhile watching the last checked out date and how many circ stats it has so I can weed properly.

That'll take me a few days purely because I'm still working at the desks and the lab through the day. I only get to work on those projects and assignments when I'm "off-desk" or scheduled to check-in in the back if there's nothing to check-in.

Gonna be a wild ride.

But like I said, I'm stoked for the challenge.

I think I can handle it.

I'm sure there will be some bumps in the road. A lot of freak out moments.

But I've got some great people to look up to in these areas so I'm not too worried.

At this moment anyway.

Ask me in about a month when things are in full swing.

So that was my day.

At work.

There was more after.

Headed out to Barnes and Noble to support Squirt and Bubby as they sang and played piano there. It was a fundraiser of sorts where part of the proceeds went to the school and all that. Kind of a cool deal. So I got a lot of Christmas shopping done.

Although I'm still clueless on a few people.

I'm gonna look for some more stuff tomorrow when I go grocery shopping.

Originally I was gonna go to the farm tonight but the roads suck again, and with my luck on the roads lately I'm putting nothing to chance in that category.

So, I'll sacrifice all that by sleeping in and watching some more Leverage. I'm caving and gonna start season three tonight.

Season two will get here, eventually.

Freakin' snow.

While some of us are living it up in Hawaii!!! Yeah, enjoy your beaches and drinks with the umbrellas in them. The rest of us will jam here in the snow. Just bring me back something nice.


Alright, Alphabet Rec's before I overload you. What am I up to? S? right cause there was some Run Joey Run-ning last night.

Let me see what I got.

Sad Songs (Say So Much) - Elton John

listened to a lot of his music growing up. he's quite the character in this video...
i think this is my favorite of his although he has a lot of great ones. he even did a duet with Eminem of all people on a music awards show. that was interesting.

Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

i love this video and the random skeletons that parade through it.

Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club live

i've posted the radio version of this multiple times, but i just found this one and loved it. there are two video videos of this song, one whose graphics will make you dizzy and the other in which they walk through places like a forest and the desert. and there's a lot of underwater camera work. and spinning. which i guess could make you dizzy as well. so i'll give you this one. it's a fantastic group, they're not american so you probably haven't heard of them. i find them delightful.

Alright, there were too many good ones, I feel like I should do a S part one and part two...or three.
So you'll get some honorable mentions. Or maybe I'll just go through the alphabet backwards after the 12 days of Xmas thing.
Who knows.
We'll stick with the honorable mentions for now.

-Safety Dance - Men Without Hats i just always found this one amusing, and loved the remake on glee
-Second Chance - Shinedown this one was the first song that came on the radio on my way to my first real day of real work. driving from my sister's to the home library. very memorable and ironic for the lyrics
-The Shoop Shoop Song - Cher there's a lot of karaoking to this one
-Short Skirt, Long Jacket - Cake aka the themesong to Chuck, but I love it
-Signed Sealed Delivered - Stevie Wonder another classic jam song
-Since You've Been Gone - Theory of the Deadman was my first music rec on here and I still love it.
-Someone To Watch Over Me - Ella Fitzgerald Mak made me sing this one for voice lessons.
-Something To Talk About - Bonnie Raitt, just always had a thing for this song, no idea why. but it makes me laugh.
-Strangers Like Me - Everlife the original version is good but i like this one better
-Strawberry Wine - Deana Carter this one comes with a long story and some good inside jokes, mostly revolving around Jess and me singing it on camera - yes much like our remake of "Leave Get Out" by JoJo, except there was no remake, just a different interpretation. Which I would totally post but similar to the other video, she'd kill me.

Alright. Big day tomorrow of sleeping in and Christmas shopping.

Plus I should probably do some paperwork I've been putting off as well.

OUT!