Must be the moon

Mood: Fair
Hair: Probably fine, but flat
Eyes: OK right now
Listening to: Mike Rowe autopsying a shark

Publishers are insane. Or perhaps it's the fault of Cataloging-in-Publication institutions. I'm not sure. An hour of my day today was spent discussing by email what date to use as the publication date in a bib record: copyright or pre-publication (i.e., guess) date. Just precisely HOW can you say a book was "published" in 2007, but not copyrighted until 2008? 'Course, we had a stellar example show up in the middle of this discussion of exactly the reverse: a series of children's books "published" in 2008, but copyrighted in 2006.

In the interest of being informative, if you want to open a public library in an area already served by public libraries...there are some rules. You can't just plonk out a handwritten sign in front of any old crap-ass building and call yourself a library. "Let's put on a show!" is only cute if you're a kid. Grow up.

When OCLC/Connexion doesn't work, it's a problem. Last week I actually had pared two full carts of books down to one full cart. I'm not back up to two full carts again, since Friday. And Connexion picked this morning to crash.

Oh, and I live in an area that makes rural areas and small towns look bad. A sequel to "Deliverance" could be filmed here, but they'd have to import smarter and more attractive rubes.

I had a headache most of the day, too.

Some days it doesn't pay to get up outta bed.

---

Urban Word:

HTF: How the fuck.

One wonders, some days when surveying the panoply of humankind, HTF we ever could consider ourselves The Most Intelligent Species on Earth.

Ranty

OK, I've just read yet another cranky librarian posting about last month's meeting in Anaheim.* I'm so tired of this. One thing that pisses me off more about it is that there is clearly NO financial UNDERSTANDING for why we (librarians) hold meetings in warm venues in summer and in cold weather venues in winter.

Here's a hint: CO$T! It's ALL about money. My guess--and it is a guess--is that it runs several thousands of dollars less to book Anaheim (or Miami) in summer and Chicago (or Minneapolis) in winter. The hotels are also cheaper, and they are more willing to do deals on prices just to fill the rooms and get something. So are tourist things, if that's your thing, and restaurants and airlines. This means--listen up--it costs less for us to attend than it would if we went someplace Neato and Coolio like St. Louis in January or Boston in June.

And why Anaheim instead of L.A.? Hello? Go read paragraph #2. It's cheaper.

Why do I know this? Because I know people who work in the for-profit world. As much as that annoys me sometimes--huh--they have to justify the money they spend, and I will tell you all that there are times when they look at government (i.e. that would be us, kiddies) and are appalled at how clueless and retarded we are. So, chalk one up to ALA for saving money. ALA gets kudos for being financially responsibile on this count at least from me.

I was in Anaheim last month, across the street from Disney. I hate Disney. I'm not ridiculous about it--for instance, I don't hate it the way I hate terrorists or liver-and-onions--because I didn't feel compelled to partake in ANYthing Disney while I was there. I didn't eat, shop, ride, or enjoy ANYthing related to Disney, except 5 minutes of fireworks one night, in spite of practically marinating in Disneyfied air.

Guess what: I don't go to conferences to a) drink, b) eat gourmet food, c) have spa treatment, d) tour the vicinity, e) bitch about my host (i.e that would be Anaheim, kiddies). I go to LEARN. I go to enjoy some networking, to get excited about my job, to find out what might be coming down the pike, to meet some interesting people that I otherwise would not (and I assure you, I am NOT talking about the people doing most of the talking, though I did speak to Tim Spalding in the LibraryThing booth and congratulate him for being an instigator), to see an old place in new light or a new place period, and to get the FUCK away from work for a change of scenery!

So, Anaheim was hot, and there was a lot of concrete. So, I am out of shape. So, I am not thin. So, somehow--though I'm beginning to wonder if I imagined it--I hiked the distance to and from my cheap-ass motel (bar- and restaurant-free, mind you) and the conference site. I rode the shuttle bus precisely once, just to see how that worked. I walked 6-plus hours one day on concrete in exhibit halls and never once tried to steal anything that I "thought" was free but wasn't. I probably put three times more mileage on my feet in California than I do in the average month in 'real life.' And you know what? I could have gone several more days doing the same thing! It fucking was not that bad. Frankly, I felt crappier when I was on vacation in London four years ago walking (duh!) concrete streets and marble museum floors for a week.

The people who are bitching on their blogs about how AWFUL it was in Disn...er, Anaheim have a tone to their commentary that is very curious to me. It is the sound of cheerleaders talking down the Ugly Chick. It is the sound of Heather dismissing Martha Dumptruck. It is NOT the sound of a group of people I hope represent libraries or librarians now, nor do I hope these are the future leaders of the profession. I hope that librarians aren't a bunch of spoiled, whiny, and unbearably rude brats. I hope this because, while I was never Martha Dumptruck or the Ugly Chick in high school, one of the reasons I love the movie "Heathers" is because I enjoy watching a 100% pure bitch drink drain cleaner. It's very...cleansing.

Can we just get over ourselves and our liberal, white-bread, white-ass snobbery and gain some understanding of what the FUCK we were supposed to be there for?! And if you whiners can't figure out the last bit, at least stop griping about the carbon footprint of the conferences, the fact that California is notoriously based on driving instead of walking, the inanity of Disney, the perception that ALA is run by "Boomer Deadwood" and therefore toe-dally SUX!, and the lack of crunchy Trader-Joe-approved food. Use that energy to make your workplace better in a positive way.

I dunno. Maybe y'all just need to get laid. Or get stuffed. But please, for the love of Mike, shut up! It's enough to make this liberal-but-not-crunchy post-Boomer want to throw up a little on your self-righteousness. I remember being young and perfectly sure of the stupidity, hypocrisy, inanity, whatever-ity of The Oldies. Some of them annoy me still, now. But, what do you remember? Watching Ursula beat up on Ariel? Yeah. OK.

And what are you doing about it? Oh. Yeah. Working on that Second Life avatar that will change the world while simultaneously making a new LOLcat. Great. Let me know how all that works out for you. I'm sure you'll blog about it. Just remember: the people in Anaheim that you are talking trash about are PEOPLE who can READ your BLOG and be OFFENDED about how UNPLEASANT some LIBRARIANS are being about the place they LIVE. How would you feel if they were talking your hometown down that way?

And yes, believe it or not, I do get the irony. Because, you know what? Irony has been around...awhile.

---

Word Spy Word:

kindergarchy: n. Rule or domination by children; the belief that children's needs and preferences take precedence over those of their parents or other adults.

Do I really need to explain why I chose the word kindergarchy to end this post? OK, here's the thing: I'm not against people younger than me. I just don't want the good-hearted ones I know to be overrun by the Asshats with Attitude, a.k.a. Kindergarchs.

---

* No, I'm not about to link to any of them. If you haven't read any of them, and care to, go Google 'em all up.

FYI and stuff and more than

Mood: mmm...okay, I guess
Hair: clean, styled...takin' names
Eyes: meh
Listening to: The Blowers (it's freakin' COLD in here and I forgot my new shawl. Again.

So, this is directed at the librarians who may be reading. I just left a semi-snarky anonymous comment on the latest very snarky post by The Annoyed Librarian (that phrase, in pink, is of course as redundant as can be), which is about the ALA conference. Apparently, she was at a different venue from the one I attended. Entirely. 100%. Note that I'm not linking. She's not particularly hard to find, but I've discovered that Pure Snark gets to be Purely Tiresome quickly. On the other hand, my comment is not obviously snarky, so at least I haven't descended to her level. Hah. (oh, the irony) And see my previous post re pomposity.

Oh, well. Just sayin'. If you haven't got anything nice to say, shaddup. So I am. Goodbye.

---

Urban Word:

Shituation: n.: a bad situation, 2.: a dramatic, usually negative happening resulting in utter shit in one's life.

Houston, we have yet another shituation in the family. But since I don't want to talk about it--yet--I'm taking out my frustration on other annoyances in my life.

Pffftttttt.....

Drive Time

Up this morning at 3:20 (yes, a.m.), out of the house by 3:55 on my way to a meeting on the other side of the state.

There are a surprising number of people on the road at that time. Really.

Anyway. Met up with a colleague partway there, in the city where she lives, and then we carpooled the remaining 3 hours, enjoyed most of the time spent at the meeting. Lots of good food for thought--if you like thinking about libraries and technology. Well worth the time. We were done by mid-afternoon, eventually found the car (when we parked we just followed all the other librarian-looking people rather than actually paying attention to where we were going), and drove back to our meeting place and thence home. We only got lost twice. And that was just cuz I missed exits. I'm a dope. All-told, over 8 hours in the car, for a 6-hour meeting.

Weird? Yup. Fun? Bolshoyst da. I have a little crush on one the presenters, but I'll get over that at some point. We cats had a lot of extra-fabu conversation in the car.

And tomorrow, back to the trenches.

---

Urban Word:

googleganger: Similar to that of a doppleganger, it is another individual with the same name as you whose records and/or stories are mixed in with your own when you Google yourself.

The unfortunate thing about having a relatively common name is that when Googling the aforementioned crush-subject, lots of really weird googlegangers showed up along with the person I was trying to stalk online.

Calm

We are a bit becalmed here. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not necessarily a good thing either. It just is.

I'm trying to keep the rantiness to a minimum. I'm trying to find the positive spin on things. It helps that I'm going on a (work-related) road trip on Friday, and that I am only working four hours tomorrow--and in the process of working that out, I have maneuvered a "screw you" move on Schedule Nazi. See what happens when you take so much comp-time? You lose. Bitch.

[There are reasons I'm particularly blunt about her right now. I'm not going into them. It's just more of the same shit.]

The road trip will entail 8 hours on the road and a 6-hour meeting. It doesn't sound fun, but it will be spent in good company, and that is worth a lot more than sleep.

Another positive thing is that I emailed a friend with whom I haven't 'talked' in months. It's not like we don't work less than 1/4 mile away from each other.... However, we are both so swamped with end-of-the-school-year (and family) stuff that setting a time to get together is proving to be a challenge. We're into July at this point.

Speaking of school.... Well, I'll just say that a) kids are stupid, and b) sending kids to public schools nowadays is a bit scarier than it was in the 70s and 80s. I'll go into detail, perhaps, this weekend. It's not about Sparky, though.

My family (of origin) sux, by the way. I've about reached my last nerve with them. Just...go 'way. This is probably the healthiest feeling I've had about them in awhile. I don't feel particularly guilty about feeling this way, though I do feel badly about Mom.

Monday night, we watched Dirty Jobs; last night we watched Deadliest Catch; tonight we're watching Survivorman and Mythbusters. Network TV? Only on Thursdays.

I caught up my reading lists last night while watching people fight on crab boats. It took awhile; I'd let it slide for quite a awhile.

And who knew--those feathers Native Americans wore in their hair? Served a purpose besides vanity and decor. I *heart* Les Stroud.

---

Urban Word:

refrigerator blindness: Selective loss of visual acuity in association with common foraging of the refrigerator [or freezer]. Predominantly seen in children and males.

Ten minutes ago, Sparky stood in front of the fridge and asked if there were anymore bagels in the freezer up here. A severe case of refrigerator blindess has obviously hit him.

Is it over?

The meeting wasn't all that bad this morning. I corrected a typo on one of his slides, a slide he has used in presentations all over the place at least 10 times. There was another typo later. Clearly the dude doesn't believe in SpellCheck--a man after my own heart, no? :-)

Stacie, my masseuse--how grandiose!!--hurt me today. Hurt me bad, for the purpose of doing me good. She worked on about 100 square inches of real estate on my upper back. I had to keep telling her to stop while I breathed out some of the pain. In the end, however, I can now turn my head, tip my head, nod my head...without pain. The pain I am feeling is more deep muscle soreness, like I actually did something for a change, rather than OMGWTF--I AM ATLAS!!

Then I came home, started laundry, cleaned, talked to Beast on the phone, watched last night's shows, tidied a little, mopped the kitchen/back hall/bathroom, finished the laundry, faffed about on teh 'tubes (including moving around and deleting several feeds in Bloglines--I'm down to 125. Hi Amy!), called Jenny...y'know, life. The good stuff. Yes, mopping = good stuff. I've lost my mind! I ate dinner too, by the way: fish. Yum.

Still need to put away about 2.5 weeks' worth of laundry tonight, finish the convo with Jen, and take a bath. The wind is whipping around outside, rain is falling, and I think there's a tornado watch for another few minutes. I love the smell of ozone. It's warm enough that I had to put on shorts, and I can hear people sitting in their garage across the street talking. Because the window, she be open.

N.B. : Regarding yesterday's rant about courtesy...before publishing the post, I deleted the line I had originally included that explained that I checked my site stats before writing it. If you have visited here anytime in the past month (or more), you are not involved. What I should have known about you guys (gals?) is that those of you who would take it to heart are those to whom I would cut miles of slack right now because of the shit in your personal lives. I'm sorry if I caused any of my good and true friends any angst. You all know who you are, dahlinks. Mwah.

Dear God, I've turned into Billy Crystal!

I'm going to go do that laundry thing, because I'm sure as soon as I start it, I'll be interrupted by a phone call, a good phone call.

---

Urban Word:

ice maker: The opposite of ice breaker. Something you do that makes it super awkward, right after meeting someone.

Doesn't it seem as if some weeks everything that comes out of your mouth when speaking in a group of people is an icemaker? Or is that just me?

School

Went to school tonight on Honors Level and AP classes. They've changed the focus on how to sign up for them. Instead of requiring a teacher's signature (i.e. permission), anyone can sign up for them, with just a parent's request (i.e. permission).

So Sparky is signed up for Honors Chemistry, Algebra II, and English next year.

And then...then we took a friend home who mentioned that there was a math quiz tomorrow. (REALLY?) Once we arrived home, I quizzed Sparky on Chapter 8. I have nofuckingclue what to do with sines/cosines/tangents. He does. He's officially smarter than me now, in math. Ack.

Plus, all of this got me out of a Session meeting at church.

Life is pretty good, all in all.

...aack!

Mood: Irritated but amused
Hair: See post headline (scraped into a pony)
Listening to: the house settling, and the refrigerator humming

Sparky's first words to me--after "Good morning"--this morning at 7 when I rolled out of bed at last were, "You do know you have a staff meeting this morning at 8, right?"

Shit.

(Thanks, God, for the people around me keeping track of my schedule.)

MEMO

TO: PTF
FROM: Cat.
DATE: 9/13/07

F.Y.I. :
I'm aware that I was being annoying yesterday and freaking out a bit over the OCLC billing discussion. But consider your reaction as your Free Pass. If you ever -- E V E R -- yell during a meeting again like you did yesterday, I will call you on it. And, if that shouting is E V E R directed at me again, I will feed your ponytail to your ponies. Slowly. After starving them for a week first.

Thank you for your attention to this. Addressing this from your side of the table would be appreciated. A bit of a shock, frankly, but appreciated nevertheless.

Failing that, see you (and your library's l^ngf!sh) at next month's meeting.

[Edited, 9:45 p.m.: This was a 5-second moment in a two-hour meeting, the vast majority of which was fine, if not giddily cheerful. It's just that this guy thinks he's King o' the World, has no clue how abrasive he is, and always needs to tell us morons how to do things 'right.' It gets old.]

STOP! Just stop, already!

I bagged work yesterday. My throat was still sore and scratchy and I just felt lousy, so I took Sparky to school with all his project stuff--after listening to him run through the speech one more time. He says he thinks he did "all right." We'll see.

I took a long nap yesterday afternoon and felt well enough to go to the Session meeting at 7, with a detour to the grocery store on the way (which isn't really on the way). Last night was an experiment in typing the minutes directly into the laptop and I think it was pretty much a success. Why haven't I been doing this before?? I'm effectively DONE for the month, though I should take an hour to tidy up the layout before I email it, and I have a couple of calls to make regarding member transfers to do as well.

The down-side of the meeting? I left church at 10 last night. The meeting lasted nearly 3 hours! That's just nucking futs! Someone needs to rein in the pastor; he has a tendency to ramble and get distracted. Towards the end, I finally gave up on trying to track everything and logged into our youth group's gmail account and started a new blog for us. I did the layout and title, picked colors and font, and added a photo, all during the discussion of ... something random that was summed up in the minutes in 4 lines. My lack of attention was totally not fair, but I was really just trying not to instigate any more distractions at that point.

To be fair, one of the things we needed to talk about was the complaint we're taking to court so that we can have full access to our (new) property. Long, really contentious (no kidding!) story there. I don't like being in the position of filing a lawsuit as a church--the perception that tends to create is not one I think furthers the cause of the Church (Church Universal, if you will), but we've tried every other avenue for resolving the situation. You can't reason with people if they won't even come to the table.

Today, Sparky has a delayed start of the school day. I'm having a very slow start, but will try to get to work at least for a few hours. This afternoon is my eye doctor visit, the one with all the whistles and bells (or drops and tests, really), the one that gives me a headache and leaves me slightly nauseous every time. I have to call this morning and make sure the referral was faxed through. Again, nothing like waiting till the last minute....

This truly feels like a hump day.

Meeting

I used to love meetings. That was when I didn't get out of the house much, wasn't working too many hours, and spent my day chasing a toddler around and trying not to die of boredom.

Then Last Year happened. Meeting after meeting from hell, 95% of which were work-related. I seem to have misplaced my enthusiasm for meetings.

I had one at church last night that was...good, but rather discouraging...? No, not discouraging, just too much heavy-stuff-deferred, and that annoys me. It also went on rather longer than it needed to. But in the end, it was about kids, and talking about kids makes me happy, so it was ok.

Returned to an overly warm house that smelled of fish and garlic (guess what dinner was!) and couldn't face taking a bath. That's quite unusual.

After a phone call yesterday, I had what I think might qualify as a major anxiety attack over the changes that are coming in July. Thank goodness for friends who can talk me out of the deep end of the pool without even realizing how terrified I am of drowning!

Today, I drive to the second-biggest city in the state for another fun-filled catalogers' meeting, during which we will discuss some of this anxiety-producing stuff and MAYBE I'll be relieved and positive about the situation again. In any case, I anticipate a long meeting. Oh, shit, I just realized that I'm up to chair this damn committee starting...soon (next month?).

On that note, I really need to go deal with my hair, my teeth, my lunch, and the drive to work. Sparky starts school an hour later than usual today, so I'm leaving before him. Beast is on his way home from D.C. as I type.

THERE IS TOO MUCH HAPPENING AT ONCE!

S T O P !!!

Please?

I'd really love to have a whole, focused thought about something, for a change.

Under Control

At the risk of another lecture...here's my week (as far as I know). I've already blown it once by missing a meeting.

SUNDAY 4/22:

Take Sparky to church for mentoring.
Meet with Youth Group to work through scripts for Youth Sunday (next week).
Asked by Session member whether I want to bring salad or dessert for Tuesday's meeting. Salad. In a bag.
Work 1-4 (really, 12:30-4:15).
Back to church to continue organizing Youth Sunday.
Home by 6:30.
Watch The Amazing Race. Live. For a change!

MONDAY 4/23:

My relaxing day....
Make a couple of phone calls for assorted things.
Shop with Amy. Lots of good girl-bonding time, and some hysteria as well.
[Sparky called upon arriving home from school and informed me that he had a concert. In three hours. So there goes my one evening at home this week.]
Finish whatever Amy & I were doing and head home.
Nearly fall asleep driving. In rush hour, stop-and-go traffic. Fifteen minutes from home.
Arrive safely; sit for twenty minutes because Beast is asleep in his chair, having been home less than an hour.
Beast wakes up and we head out to grab some dinner at Six Balls, where it is yokels-chew-with-their-mouths-open night. Yish.
Go to high school and try to figure out where to sit for the district-wide concert.
Actually pick the the best possible place to see Sparky for a change!
Head home, arriving by 8:30.

TUESDAY 4/24:

Up at 6 and into the shower; the plan is to leave by 7:15 at the latest.
Leave at 7:30. Oh well.
Receive email at 9:30 from person heading up the committee I'm on re the church website: we were supposed to all meet for breakfast this morning.
Ohwell-squared.
Send two "I'm too stupid to breathe with my mouth closed" emails to colleagues.
Set up WebDewey trial.
Catalog, etc. till 3:45.
Stop at store for salad, and dressing.
Arrive home and listen to voicemail.
Try NOT to participate in Sparky's attempt to schedule an interview with a forensic scientist at the sheriff's department.
Meme for half an hour.
Talk to Beast about the night's schedule (he's on his way back from the capital of the state just north of us).
Call pastor and leave voicemail.
Call pastor's house and confuse his wife (not that difficult, although she's a lovely woman).
Talk to pastor about Beast picking up all the confirmands and driving them home after the meeting.
Try to reset the date on Sparky's watch. It keeps returning to "TUE 28" for some reason. No clue.
Pile into truck with Sparky and drive to church.
Call Beast on the way and confirm that he can drive all the confirmands home.
Arrive at church. We have too much salad. I leave mine in the bags, in the fridge.
Dinner with confirmands. They are all voted into the membership of the church. They leave. With Beast.
Clean up dinner.
Sit down for the main part of the meeting at 7:40.
Meeting FINALLY ends at 9:45!
Pack up 4" thick notebook, large red leather satchel, plastic salad bowl, salad (dressing stays at church), and one leftover pizza box with some pizza and head to dark parking lot. In the rain. With no coat. In short sleeves. At 50 degrees Fahr.
I'm a dolt.
Home in time to say goodnight to Beast. Not sure he'll remember, but....I will.

WEDNESDAY 4/24:

Up at 5:30...or so.
Leave for Bible Study at 6:10.
Head to work, arriving by 8 at the latest.
Call head of dance committee and ask about need for pirate flags. Then call coworker who offered to make them and let her know the answer.
Find pirate map examples. Somewhere. Surely we'll have something in the library, right?
Write up some kind of intro for children's sermon part of Youth Service: paper airplanes, praying, wind, spirit...blahblahblah....
Talk to Miss W. about background checks for this summer's mission trip.
Pick up Sparky at school at 4.
Back to work till 5.
To church at 5:30 to rehearse for Youth Sunday, with cannon, and music, and paper airplanes.
Home by (hopefully) 7:30??

THURSDAY 4/25:

Up at 6:30 and shower.
Look for pictures of Sparky's childhood for dance.
Go by school and pick up paper for GIANT PIRATE MAP.
Take paper to ballet studio by 9:30 and figure out map. And flags. And pirate.
Grab lunch somewhere at 11:30.
To work by 12.
Pick up Sparky from school at 4. Bring him back to the library for Laptop Time.
Beast will pick him up at 6:30ish.
Work till 9.
Home. Sleep.

FRIDAY 4/26:

Up by 6:30.
Shovel off kitchen island after Sparky leaves for school and sort out all the paperwork.
Fill out class trip form and mail back. With money, I'm sure.
Fill out any other forms that have appeared this week. I'm sure some of them will require money too.
Figure out what's going on in the world.
Nap? Maybe? Please?
Grocery store?
Dinner?
Did I say something about sleep?

SATURDAY 4/27:

Up by 7.
Work 8-5.
Sparky and Beast on annual mission trip to Biggish City to the West, theoretically with some of the members of the Youth Group. All day.
Dinner.
Watch the taped Thursday night shows: Survivor and CSI.
Pretend that I will sleep just fine tonight.

SUNDAY 4/28:

Having slept about 20 seconds, up at 7 and shower.
Bring EVERYTHING we need for worship service to church at 9.
Meet and run through the plan once more. Realize we forgot....something.
Get coffee hour stuff ready.
Lights! Camera! Action!
....
Oh, thank you God it's over!!!!!!
Do coffee hour.
Clean up.
Go home and collapse.

Did I mention that I have to get Sparky to the sheriff's office on Monday sometime? And that the following Sunday is Confirmation and I haven't organized ANYTHING for it, much less invited anyone? Oh, and I left out that this Saturday is my niece's bridal shower and I'm pretty sure her gift won't arrive in time.

I need a 4 x 5' piece of paper to map out May. I think Sparky has 4 field trips, at least one more band thing--a parade, and maybe a concert--the dance, the HUGEANDSCARY school project for which he's interviewing the forensic dude and the presentation for that project in front of a panel of judges....speaking of which, I think I've volunteered to do that for someone at his school AND someone at the other middle school....and just general end-of-year mayhem. And then we leave for our Big Mission Trip right after school lets out for the year. And then back home to deal with the bridesmaid dress for the wedding that we haven't even planned our time for. AAAAAARGGHHHHHHHHH!

I can't wait for July 15! Post-school, post-mission, post-wedding. Post-sanity!

Management, Why I Don't Like Doing

Ugh. I went to a meeting of library directors yesterday to be sure my library's proxy vote could be 'legally' counted. Aside: ever noticed how some people really only enforce the legalities when things get testy, or when it suits them?

ANYway. Praise God I don't have to go to these meetings regularly. I said quietly to one of the directors (whom I'd just met) that it was like junior high all over again. Someone else overheard and suggested I was too old: more like "toy-truck-throwing age." Appalling. These are our leaders? I hasten to add that only four individuals were being schmucks...out of 16...and one was just being stupidly rulebound. Having just counted around the table, I also find it interesting that no one sat directly next to the chair or the secretary, instead pulling chairs to corners of the table.

I also never realized that you can see evil in people's lips. OK, not really, but one specific individual's mouth shape (not to mention the words issuing from that mouth) just looks...mean. "Mean" in all of the following senses:

1. offensive, selfish, or unaccommodating; nasty; malicious: a mean remark; He gets mean when he doesn't get his way. [the sentence is 100% accurate, by the way]
2. small-minded or ignoble: mean motives.
3. penurious, stingy, or miserly: a person who is mean about money.
4. inferior in grade, quality, or character: no mean reward.
5. low in status, rank, or dignity: mean servitors. [my color emphasis]
6. of little importance or consequence: mean little details.
...
10. troublesome or vicious; bad-tempered: a mean old horse.
11. Slang. skillful or impressive: He blows a mean trumpet. [my color emphasis, and do not assume I see this as admirable in this case!]

I love some of the synonyms listed, too:

contemptible, despicable. Mean, low, base, sordid, and vile all refer to ignoble characteristics worthy of dislike, contempt, or disgust. Mean suggests pettiness and small-mindedness: to take a mean advantage. Low suggests coarseness and vulgarity: low company. Base suggests selfish cowardice or moral depravity: base motives. Sordid suggests a wretched uncleanness, or sometimes an avariciousness without dignity or moral scruples: a sordid slum; sordid gain. Vile suggests disgusting foulness or repulsiveness: vile insinuation; a vile creature. 3. niggardly, close, tight, parsimonious, illiberal, ungenerous, selfish. See stingy. 5. common, humble; undignified, plebeian. 6. inconsequential, insignificant, petty, paltry, little, poor, wretched. 7. squalid, poor. [again, all color highlighting is mine]

Give me my stack of items to be added to the catalog, with their need of properly formatted 300 fields and so forth, and I'm a happy camper. As annoying as some of the stuff is with cataloging and classifying, at least there is no pettiness coming toward me! :-)

On the other hand, our youth group did a marvelous job last night feeding the church our traditional Ash Wednesday spaghetti dinner, and made enough to nearly cover the cost of renting the van to drive to our mission trip this summer. We had a lot of fun with the kids. I do like to hang around with teenagers. Does that make me insane? heh I was paid several nice compliments, both personally and organizationally, and so I came home tired, but upbeat ... and finished updating the official annual report for our church online. It was due at midnight. Nothing like waiting till the 11th hour, literally: I printed the final draft at 11:06 p.m.

And now I'm off to think about what I'm doing today besides going to work at noon. No more library meetings for awhile, thank God!!

Stuff and nonsense

I want a Doberman. But only for today. Anyone have one I can borrow? Preferably one that looks and acts ferocious, but is actually a real baby.

In unrelated news, last night was Sparky's high school orientation. God help us all, he's going to high school next year! And boy have things changed since I was in school! It's like college, only more hormonal. Except at my college, learning Chinese was not an option. Chinese! Wow.

He says he's excited. I know I had a hard time getting to sleep last night.

However, today is Meeting Day. You can send the Doberman at lunchtime; I won't need him (her) until 1:00.

Things about which I'm trying NOT to panic

• Spaghetti Dinner on Wednesday
• Background check for Beast and me for mission trip
• Finishing Clerk of Session report (due Weds. 2/21, rec'd. from pastor...yesterday)
• Dealing with the whole clique 'thing' in Youth Group
• Figuring out D's confirmation mentoring plan
• Tickets for March conference
• Final count and check for mission trip
• Notes from weekend Session meetings
• RUM trip--is that youth Sunday? How will this work? What are we doing for Youth Sunday??
• Packing and moving the church
• Sparky's confirmation

I really want to crawl into bed--where it's warm--and sleep. Would that be ok?

Training Day

Yes, another gag-filled (oh, sorry: "FUN-filled") day spent in a semi-darkened room with annoying people learning to use a crap product. I say that advisedly since several of the most interesting and useful functions will be inaccessible to us morons at the bottom of the food chain. Today is How to Catalog Good By Making Twice as Much Work as Necessary for Yourself. Because that's the way the software works. Don't get me started; I just don't understand the necessity of THREE layers of records for each item!

Ibuprofen, ahoy!

Meeting Hell

This is part of a summation I just received of yesterday's consortium meeting (to which, Thank GOD!, I was not invited):

The budget, which included over half a million dollars for staff to run [The New Software], was dealt with in 5 minutes. They then argued about the logo for an hour. Typical.

We have a logo. Why can't they just use what we've got?

Because these people can't handle big-picture stuff; it's much more manageable to argue over how many tufts of grass should be in a drawing. Is it any wonder the smart people are trying like hell to Get Out??

It's enough to make my head hurt.

Bullets

• The sorting of baby stuff is done. Now Katherine and Alan need to work out exactly what should be returned.



• His mother called me last night and I didn't lose my temper. Thank God for voice-only phones! And a mute button, though I didn't need to use it last night.



• It took me 15 minutes to fully wake up in the living room this morning. Gaaahhhh, I don't want to do anything but go back to bed. I think I'll be ok, but I'm T-I-R-E-D.



• How do cats know I'm allergic to them?!?



• I had a very weird dream about work, during which MAS was leading a meeting of Our-Part-of-the-Consortium's catalogers, minus those who don't need to come anymore and those who are too afraid of Brownie to return. During the meeting we were told that only water was allowed at meetings and absolutely no food. She came and picked up Amy's banana peel as an example. At the end of the meeting, I discovered she had brought her dog, and I sort of went ballistic about the fact that I'm allergic to them (the words "I could die!" were part of the conversation--hyperbole much?) and it didn't seem fair to ban soda and coffee but have a dog in the room. I also remember saying under my breath, "This is bullshit." The dream ended with her leaving, and me tearing up the folders we'd been given during the meeting, and my notes.
  
  I wish I could say that this is far-fetched. Symbolic, yes; far-fetched, no. Sigh.



• Beast is driving all over the frozen north for the rest of the week doing sales calls. Pray for no snow, though his rental this week is an SUV.



• Talked to a good friend last night for the first time in months. Her marriage is a nightmare, has been for several years. However, new depths have been reached, and she has decisions to make that just suck. There aren't really any good choices available. Mostly, her husband needs to be taken to the woodshed and soundly spanked.



• Marie and Jan (sister and bro-in-law) are back home safe and sound.



• I gave blood yesterday, and for the first time ever, I beat Beast, finishing in less time than him! Small victories....



• Session meeting tonight. I need to rewrite the minutes. Yuck.



• We had an ambulance across the street one night last week. They left with the wife. We are worried that he beat her up. I don't know if she's ever come back. I hate winter; no one's outside to "run into" and ask what's going on.



• I need to stop the self-destructive behaviors I've picked back up: eating nothing but sugar, and biting my fingernails down to the quick. The sugar messes up my GI tract badly, and my fingers hurt. They also look fugly.

But mostly right now what I need to do is get ready to leave for work. Oh yippee.

It snowed. Finally

So that, plus the fact that I finally made it to DinnerbyDesign, is the news from yesterday.

Today I have training. So of course, in anticipation of a fun day of yawning, I was awake before 5 this morning. D'oh.

The day really begins around 7:45 when I pile in the car and head west for an hour for this:

The [New Software Company] C!rculat!on Tra!n!ng Course is designed to provide participants with a basic understanding of the capabilities of the Circulation software and an overview of navigating those functions in the client. The new Java version of will be used for this class.

Topics include registering and modifying users, using lookup options for checkouts, charging and discharging materials and bills.

Due to the number of topics presented in C!rculat!on 1 and C!rculat!on 2, it is suggested that you take these classes on different days if possible.

It will be led by the famous To Be Announced, and lasts until 1:00. We then get about 90 minutes to eat lunch (or commit harikiri) and then return at 2:30 for:

[New Software Company] C!rculat!on Tra!n!ng Course is designed to provide participants with a basic understanding of the capabilities of the Circulation software and an overview of navigating those functions in the client. The new Java version of will be used for this class.

Topics include placing holds, managing user holds, receiving items in transit, and special circulation functions.

Due to the number of topics presented in C!rculat!on 1 and C!rculat!on 2, it is suggested that you take these classes on different days if possible.

At least the second session ends after only 2-1/2 hours.

As for the suggestion of doing this over two different days, I was told this in person; the class coordinator tried to strong-arm me into changing my schedule. I finally asked her if she knew how long it takes to get to this training site from my library. No (of course not--she's clueless about everything). Yeah, so I told her I'm NOT driving 2 hours on two different days for this! I'm already due to be driving this route 3 times over the next couple of weeks, so unless she's willing to pay my mileage, I think she should stay the FUCK out of my scheduling. I think I was slightly more diplomatic. She stopped nagging.

I'll be stopping for caffeine and sugar on the way, and I will have a large bottle of Tylenol to hand as well.

[New Software Company] sux.

P.S. WHY can't we call checking books in "checking books in" rather than "discharging"? Ick.

Body-Slam

Yesterday was a "meeting" via video similar to the one in November after which we all got yelled at like small, and very stupid, delinquents. I brought Sudokus, I sat in the back, I made an effort to ignore the stupidity, and--in spite of hearing someone ask, in effect, "What is this connection (i.e. Connexion) of which you speak?"--I made no loud references to the sizes of people's brains.

I woke up with a headache that never quite left. Amy tried to loosen up my shoulders before the meeting...because she's a good person, not because I asked her to do this...but it just wasn't happening. Afterwards, we had a good lunch/talk that skated all over the conversational map.

At 2:15, headache unabated, and on my 5th and 6th Tylenol of the day, I drove back to work. The last stretch was awful: propping my eyes open with intent, rolling the window down and turning up the CD player to ear-breaking volume, just to keep from driving into a ditch so that I could take a long nap.

Then I arrived back at work 90 minutes late because the meeting ran over and I had to stop for gas, and so forth....to find that someone else had bagged their afternoon shift, and Schedule Nazi had been looking for me. Call my cell? Hah--why do that?? They called home and talked to my sister instead. She said Schedule Nazi sounded dubious re my presence (or lack of) in the house.

Arrived home to find dinner nearly ready--YAY! crock pot--and family having not burned down the house or anything else. We ate and then my sister and I started to head to DinnerbyDesign...and I couldn't find my wallet. Cancelled DbD, called restaurant where I at lunch (which entailed cold-starting my laptop because the net was frozen and everything else I clicked on was taking minutes to respond--I eventually called the library and asked them for the phone number). No one had turned in my wallet. In total panic-mode, I go through my work-bag once more and then check behind the seats in the truck once more...and find it. It had slid way under the seat on the passenger side.

Cried. Sparky hugged me hard, patted me on the back and kept telling me it was ok, it would be fine. Cried harder. [Am tearing up now...]

I cried a lot between 4 and 8 yesterday.

Beast gave me an abbreviated shoulder rub which magically alleviated my headache, but I am tired, drained, and can actually feel the armor my emotions are wearing.

To top yesterday--hard to do, yes?--this morning I've awakened with yet another headache...and I think I've got a cold coming on. I'm throwing back the Vit. C in hopes of breaking it before it really takes hold. I work all day. Fridays suck because I'm on service desks for half the day so none of my real work gets done.

Tomorrow = funeral.