Oh how I hate flurries!

Doesn't it always seem that bad news travels in a pack? I've certainly seem my share of personal (i.e. family) bad news, but when I broaden the scope, here's what I see scattered around:

• A dear friend whose doctor needs to have evil things done to him for ignoring her phone calls for weeks until she showed up in his exam room in early-stage organ failure because of medication he prescribed! [this brings up ghosts from my childhood and freaks me way the fuck out in very abnormal ways]
• Someone who is hospitalized tonight because of a fall a couple of days ago.
• A coworker who's father died just under a month ago.
• My sister needs a tuneup in her brain electrodes, but there are some issues there. Long story. Of course.
• Another friend who's mother died about 10 days before mine.
• And a couple of others' whose parents are at the stage my mom was at about 5 months ago.
• People forgetting the whole "innocent till proven guilty in a court of law" thing. Accusation doesn't equal fact.
• Ongoing medical issues with another friend who has, essentially, had a headache since November. Every day. Can you imagine dealing with a three-year-old 24/7 with a headache? Yeah. Doctors have no idea. Doctors suck.
• Gout in another family member. Though that's easing due to--of all things!--cherries.
• Stupid men involving themselves in extramarital situations and having their lives destroyed over it (not to mention the lives of their wives and families). Guys: KEEP YOUR DICK IN YOUR PANTS, and your pants zipped/glued shut!
• The legal maneuvering over my mom's broken leg is still hanging fire in our family. See footnote here.
• The economy is hitting home in libraries across the country. Ohio is slashing and burning its way through their astoundingly fabulous libraries. Our city is sending ominous links via email to articles about other communities' belt-tightening as we approach the budget planning sessions for 2010-11.
• Schedule Nazi just doesn't seem to understand that some of us never want to see her again.
• PTF pissed me off this week in a way that he hasn't achieved for months. Possibly over a year, in fact. Over something insanely stupid. Of course. What else is new?
• [whinge] I work Tuesday-Friday this week. I'm going to ALA on Saturday--just for the exhibits--all day. I work Sunday; Sundays S U C K! And then I work Monday-Thursday next week. So basically I'm working 7/7-16 every day.[/whinge] The problem is exacerbated by the feeling like I'm at work for 7 or so hours daily and get virtually no cataloging done. Since that's the part of my job I love the most, I'm getting whinier and whinier about it, not to mention behind-er.
• Our super-wonderful senior shelvers will be leaving for college in 5 weeks or so. WAAAAAHHHH!!! Am so sad about this. For me; not for them, of course.

There's also the fact that the new director, while starting to get her legs under her as far as the job goes, is still needing a LOT of information regularly. And we've undertaken to make some rather ginormous changes in some of of our major work procedures...there's a lot of stress. I like change. These will be good changes when they are all in place and understood...but it's hard.

This is the sort of mood where I probably could use a large glass of wine (or two), but I'm too afraid of using alcohol as a crutch (family history + ) so I probably won't. But the inside of my skin itches from all this drama and angst and things to think about that I don't even know where to start. Gah.

Vagaries of cataloging

Legal: Myrmecophaga -- Juvenile literature.
NOT legal: Anteater -- Juvenile literature.

Legal: Killer whale -- Juvenile literature.
NOT legal: Orca -- Juvenile literature.

{eyeroll}

Not-bullets

1. Hey, it's poetry month! Hence the poems that have posted the past two days (oh, how I love post-dating!).



2. My Bloglines front page says I have "63 updated feeds" which include 367 unread posts. I also have 172 saved posts. I think this means I am officially buried.



3. I am caught up in tweets and Fb, though. Short Attention Span rules the day!



4. I am not loving Fb's 'update'. Just discovered that you can't do "less of/more of" individuals. People are either in your news feed, or not. That explains why I get RSS'd updates in Bloglines for Stephanie, Kyle, Kevin, et al., but never see 'em on Facebook; in the old incarnation they were "less of" but now they are invisible. Guess I'll create a 'group' of them so I can find them periodically. Stupid. How is this an upgrade, Fb??



5. Today I am meeting someone with whom I may be spending a great deal of time in the future, someone who may strongly influence my external happiness meter. Hope that goes well.



6. This weekend is crazy busy: local mission trip on Saturday (more on that, perhaps, later). On Sunday I'm playing in the bell choir at church which will be followed immediately by an Easter Egg hunt for the little kids. The youth group is going to hide the eggs, so as soon as worship is over, I have to go into supervision mode. Whee.



7. My mom's health is stable. That's all. I have not bought plane tickets. Not...quite...yet.



8. Found a shirt this morning in my closet I had forgotten about. It was with the summer shirts, but it's a long-sleeved T. Why, yes: I am wearing it today, as a matter of fact!



9. I'm nearly caught up in cataloging new materials at work, but suddenly feel absolutely swamped in projects. Graphic Novels, biogs, gifted videos and manga, calling STOOPUD publishers to cancel subscriptions (Dun&Bradsteet, you SUCK!) original cataloging, typos, fairy tales...the floodgates have opened.



10. Our system database manager at work needs to be punched in the face. This has nothing to do with anything else in this post. He just does. On principle.



11. Sparky has reverted to 100% teenager. Glad he's normal. Wish he'd pull his head out a little more often though.



12. The sun is out. This is a good thing, yo.

Snippets

• My current Fb status:

#@&$ skinny kids' books ... Hate. Them.

• An email I sent today:

Here is one of those s.h. that I hate….there isn’t one for Mardi Gras in LCSH. We’re supposed to use "Carnival." I’ve updated the Google Doc and imported the Authority Record so we have X-refs. I only see a handful of incorrect headings in [our catalog] right now. Can everyone check and fix those they own?

• A Fb conversation (private) with a subject heading that contains the words "bl0w j0b" has 34 discrete messages between me and a BFF (female). Only the first one or two messages have to do with the act in the heading (ahem). This one certainly doesn't:

I am neither Celine Dion's husband (have I mentioned that my dad likes the way she "sings"?) nor Woody Allen {gag} {shudder} {barf}.

I knew. I was just teasing you, in direct violation of a direct order from Doc L. (which is, creepily, my dad's nickname. {gag} {shudder} {barf}.)

• As I was swearing at the children's librarian in my head about buying all the picture books from my childhood 30 years ago (instead of NEW BOOKS!), the song "Drop Down Dead" (The Housemartins) came on. I'd post the lyrics, but there is an internet ban on all Housemartin lyrics. For some reason.

• And one of our neighbors passed away yesterday.

• All in all not a fabulous morning. I have an hour on the Reference desk this afternoon. That should be fun. {choke}

Four hours of work

(a.k.a. what is NOT going on my weekly report to the boss about my time usage)

• Kicked two feet of snow out of the way of the distance (outdoor) bookdrop so that I could open and empty it. They didn't plow the lane to drive up to it, and piled snow in front of the door. Idiots. I hate the bookdrop more than any other part of my job. And what did I retrieve? Three of our items and 10 donated trashy paperbacks.
• Found out that the labels we use to indicate that an item is new had a typo. The whole batch is ruined. Nice.
• Realized I forgot my lunch at home.
• Got drawn into a rant by CT. Sigh.
• Was attacked by my eye. Called doctor for a referral to my eye doctor. Called my eye doctor for appointment.
• Ate a Tootsie Roll
• Another staff member asked me about an email I forwarded to her yesterday about filling holds from other libraries. I explained: politics. Turf. Grr.
• Looked for new labels to replace the stupid ones. Considered redesigning. Decided against it.
• General email stuff.
• Ranted to Beast via Meebo about my eye and other stuff.
• Realized my eyes feel just fine again right now (well, right then).
• Redid most of a document I worked on last week because I'd done it all backwards. My boss checked it over and was still confused, because I'd REDONE part of it backwards. But the colors are pretty. (and it's fixed now)
• Talked to Box Lady about Large Print books.
• Forwarded document to our system tech, and waited for the stupid questions to ensue.
• Cataloged 8 DVDs. One of them is The Jazz Singer. It arrived with about 15 postcard-type things, 4 or 5 booklets that reprint a bunch of period reviews and such, and a reproduction of a telegram. In other words, a bunch of JUNK. Grumbled to people about that.
• Ate another Tootsie Roll.
• Put in Rx eyedrops. Sting, a little itchiness, but generally still fine.
• Received reply from tech. Only one really retarded question. Since he cc'd to my boss, she came down from her office and dared me to call him a dork in my reply. I said I would. We answered his other questions, and I (naturally) explained the obvious to him without using the words "dork" "asshat" "blind" "fool" or "kill." Am quite proud of myself, and I'm getting an AWESOME-funny new password so it's ok. So far he hasn't answered me back. But he will. I've complete faith in him. [Update 3:20--yup, I was right, and now my blood pressure is sky high. He is a fucktard.]
• Ate another Tootsie Roll (so much for that "not eating junk" thing...)
• Discussed the budget cuts that must be made this year, and the rest of the impact the dismal economy is causing. Havoc, much? Oh, it's only just begun, my friends.
• Ranted briefly at Beast some more.
• General email. One of the lists I'm on is having a long discussion under the subject "turkey parthenogenesis." Cracked up. Catalogers are weird.
• Realized I haven't eaten lunch.
• Realized I'm cold. My hands are ice blocks as I type this. Quite unusual--the library is normally warm in the winter.

I'm going to lunch. Maybe I'll catalog 8 more things this afternoon. That'll help. I've got about 250 things to go before I'm all caught up. ha ha ha ha ha {choke}

Show-and-Tell

Hey, folks, I have a real question for all you actual and would-be Reference librarians.

What is another way of saying "Show and Tell", the kind that kids do at school? No snarky commentary on what we adults have done to the concept since second grade.

The Library of Congress does not use this as a "legal" subject heading (except in s.h. for children). So what the heck are we supposed to use instead? I can't think of anything except "school presentations" but that's not really right (and it's not legal anyway).

This is so basic that I know I'm not the first cataloger to wonder how to handle this. However, no one I've asked can come up with anything really useful, and then we got into the corruption of the word "sharing" in this context....

[And now those of you who wonder what I do all day know the truth about just how BORING my job can be sometimes. Not to mention PICKY!]

Mirabile dictu*

Mood: Fabulous!
Hair: Braided while wet, so staying put for a change
Eyes: Generally very good
Listening to: "Smalltown" (Chumbawumba) -- when the computer isn't being stupid

My cataloging cart is CLEAR!! The only things on it are weird things I'm waiting to do when my brain is fully functional.

Today, I'll round out the day working on one or two of the projects that have been hanging fire for months/weeks/days.

---

Urban Word:

Doom Buggy: 1. A car that is wrecked, totaled or not drivable.
2. A very old car that needs a lot of servicing.
3. A car that is a lemon.
4. Any car that either looks like it will, or has fallen completely apart while someone was driving it

I'm beginning to think that my little pick-em-up is morphing into a doom buggy. Everything is breaking this year. Boo.

---

* for the non-Catholic/non-Latin savvy

I think I missed the memo

Mood: OK
Hair: Keeping my neck VERY warm tonight
Eyes: Sore, but feeling better than they have in awhile
Listening to: Some random football game Beast turned on (the NFL network): Colts/Vikes. I dunno.

Where was it posted? Because it really does seem like "Let's Be As Dumb As Possible Week."

1. Saturday and Sunday were crazy-busy at work, due to the computers being psycho.
2. Then there was the email I posted yesterday.
3. Sarah Palin--every day something new. I can't even bear to read about her. This does NOT make me anti-woman. It makes me pro-humanity (and moose)!
4. People monkeying with their meds, because they are so much smarter than doctors--and then wondering why they are having medical problems.
5. The same person who wrote yesterday's email sent ANOTHER stupid one to the wrong person...long story.

[Edited: The corker today were a couple of emails, which I excerpted and edited, and published here. I have taken them down because…well, I didn’t ask for permission and the last thing I need is for her to stumble across them and “out” me. If you didn’t see the post, I will be happy to forward it to you if you email me at P*s*a*l*m*2*3 @gmail. Leave out the asterisks. Or IM me in the meebo window.

Trust me: it’s boring librarian stuff but it totally infuriated me.]


I can't wait till tomorrow. The stupidity just keeps growing.

---

Urban Word:

phuket thailand: a word [sic] used to express absolute astonishment!

Phuket Thailand, life is pissing me off this week!

Work

Mood: Tahred (see below)
Hair: Hot
Eyes: Fuckin' Awesome!
Listening to: Fireplace popping; don't ask me...

Here are my hours this week:

• Saturday -- 11 hours (MY choice, I hasten to add--I was only scheduled for 8)
• Sunday -- recovery, no work (just 4 hours of church-related stuff)
• Monday -- I don't think I worked; Beast was home for the day...I ran a couple of errands
• Tuesday -- 6 hours (most spent sorting my GIANT collection of not-yet-in-OCLC material; original cataloging ahoy!)
• Wednesday -- 7 hours, plus a trip to the post office to return some reference items that the publishers want back...which Sparky helped me lug in and I had to pay $6.25 to ship
• Thursday (today) -- 8.5 hours
• Friday -- 11 hours (2 hour meeting in the a.m., longer-than-usual-on-Friday workday, 2-plus out FOL program in the evening)

That seems to bring the total to 43.5 hours.

I'm supposed to work about 32 hours in a normal week, because I really am part-time. When I work a Sunday, it's up to 35, and some weeks I just work extra. And it's a little unfair to include last Saturday and this Friday because I flip-flop those days every week. However, this week is L-O-N-G. The good news: tomorrow's meeting is about organizing, which we as a staff DESPERATELY need. Tomorrow night's program is a treasure hunt for which I spent 2 hours creating clues this afternoon.

My cart, by the way, is full and overflowing again. sigh And those bottom-shelf books.... MAJOR sigh

I'm going to bed now.

Today's Weird Title

Fun with Fiber

It's NOT sponsored by Metamucil, as I thought it might be when I saw the title on the spine.

I'm tired. Schedule Nazi is retarded--to quote a teenage friend--and I'm tired of dealing with the fallout of her inability to read the schedule and her constant "Comp Time." She comps more than that she works.

Grrr-woof, I think I need some fun with fiber.

N.b.

When cataloging materials, be aware:

VIBURNUM

is not the same word as

VIBRATOR.

Book covers

They crack me up.
The back cover reads:
They came from the sock drawer.Gotta love a book with a sense of humor, though some of the critters herein are a leeetle creepy.

The creepy factor was made up for with this cover.
This could be enough to make me take up bicycling and even bicycle repair.

(Down, Beast: relax!)

Yet another reason I'm glad to have a son:

I've never had to fake enthusiasm for a series like this one, which is introduced on the website with these words: "Princess Ellie is pony-mad!" In America and Canada, she pony-crazed, however.

I like horses fine. I know girls who loooooooooooooooove horses. They aren't pony-crazed, however. That sounds like something you'd want to get a shot to avoid.

Any horsey-girls, or parents of horsey-girls, wanna chime in?

[and look at all that damn PINK!!]

Mood: my face hurts, and therefore so does my mood
Hair: feh...well, ok, it's clean and curled, but it hurts too
Listening to: nothing because noise makes things worse; so do noisy colors...like pink

Perhaps work is not the best location for me right now?

Accomplishment

Mood: Glad I'm home
Hair: It was curled 8 hours ago, but that was 8 hours ago
Listening to: Sparky playing his uncle's 20-year-old guitar...moving chord to chord...it actually sounds pretty good (better than I ever did)

Today at work:

• Staff meeting: finding/using lexile scores, handling damaged material from other libraries, budget stuff
• Email stuff...miscellaneous weirdness and I'm so behind on my listservs that I want to cry
• Behind...ditto...library RSS feeds
• My eyes are not handling extended periods of close work: every night this week, I've been unable to see (clearly) 10 yards in front of me by bedtime. So, I'm trying to get up and walk around and look out windows and so forth every hour or so for five minutes.
• Cataloged all ten seasons of Stargate SG-1 (which I linked to before, when it first arrived), individually, including the special features...sorta
• Cataloged all nine seasons of Seinfeld (which has a book with it, so it's a fucking NIGHTmare), individually, including the book...sorta
• Cataloged 5 music CDs
• Admired the cleanliness of C.T.'s desk {eyeroll}
• Tried to come up with some way to 'repurpose' the nifty Stargate packaging--it's a shame to just throw it out since we have to put eveything into plastic security cases
• Talked to Program Queen and Schedule Nazi about...weddings? WTF
• Answer one reference question during which I wanted to drop an entire unabridged dictionary on a mom's face. I loathe homeschoolers!
• Came home almost two hours early because of the weather.

So, between the lines...I didn't do much today. My eyes are killing me, however. Whinge.

Get to work

I guess I'll catalog Continuations (i.e. Chiltons and travel books) since they all fell off the cart onto the floor when I turned the cart around just now.

Cheap carts = no heavy books

For real?

First it was "Love American Style" DVDs. Today, I'm cataloging "McHale's Navy." Dear God, we have actually (ahem) found the bottom of the barrel. "Car 54, Where Are You?" will surely be next.

Meanwhile: no "Emergency!" No "MASH." No "Star Trek" even!!

Sigh.

Just lots and lots of skinny books. Six cart-shelves full of skinny books. And CDs. And DVDs. What I wouldn't give for something more than 1/4" thick to catalog.

Mood: tired, distracted, edgy
Hair: clean, blown-out, curled
Listening to: T.I. "What You Know" (yes, rap; deal, ok) and Pat Monahan "Pirate on the Run" (nice)

Ugh

This subtitle is NOT a mental picture I EVER needed to see:
I need some brain soap now...

Life goes on

Back to work, a year older.

Beast went to the Packer game Sunday and then left on a business trip yesterday morning. Apparently, his gift to me included his absence! (hiya, babe) Yes, he does read this.

Actually, I got an autographed book from a local(ish) author, a Brett Favre jersey, and a new bedroom, so I'm fairly pleased.

Five-and-a-half days' off school for Sparky is about four too long.

Five days' off work is about two too short for me. On the other hand, I'm back to having two carts full of books that arrived while I was gone. {{Shrug}} Good to be needed.

So here I am diving in: Sculpting Her Body Perfect, the local high school yearbook from 1999 (donated), America in Space, and a stack of test-taking books (GRE, GED, SAT, etc.), ahoy!

My job = interesting

This just arrived:Every season of StarGate SG-1. VERY cool packaging.

NOT very library-friendly (this week's nomination for Understatement of the Year). How am I going to process this into the collection??

Never a dull moment around here.




Also, it's really #*@!)&$ing warm in my cube today!

Resolution?

Another meeting last night. Not sure anything really came of it--ok, yes, there was some movement.

It's cooler outside, and the first song today seems to be tonally tuned into the coming of winter ("Nothing Without You" Vienna Tang). Lovely but sad.

Bible study this morning was a particularly difficult passage.

The first stack of titles I'll be cataloging today:

Golf Rules & Etiquette
Kick Boxing
Queer Images
Cuentos Fríos
Peripheral Neuropathy
The Perfect Stage Crew
100 Questions and Answers about Infertility

Still have not talked to Katherine (suddenly their answering machine isn't picking up).

Her sister Elizabeth seems to be going off the deep end about the idiocy of today's college students. Do all people working in academia find the students this awful?

I chair a library meeting today, first time in a couple of years doing that.

Time to work.