My job as glorified office supplies clerk.
I spend most of my time refilling the stapler at the Ref desk. There are two statements (not questions, mind you) that come out of students when they are stapling something. the first one is "This one is out of staples." the other statement is... nothing. They try the empty stapler, say nothing and then use the electric stapler about a foot away. It leaves me wondering which one of these situations bothers me most. The fact that I am here to supply everyone with staples (and highlighters and binder clips and index cards)or the fact that I am sitting here, waiting, hoping for a question and getting nothing. Hrmph.

I had a comment from Lulalu about people in the bathroom talking on cell phones. This happens to me on an almost daily basis. I try to flush the toilet as much as possible and make it impossible for them to carry on a conversation. Sometimes the coversations are extremely loud and juicy and gossipy and I am kind of curious, but not enough to quit flushing and such. I do think that the folks who are actually using the toilet and talking on the phone are the winners in this weird wacky contest.

Other than strange, typical library stuff, things are progressing along nicely. For those of you that do not know yet, M and I are going to have a little butterbean in early July! Butterbean is our word for baby if you couldn't figure that out. OUr parents are excited, my mother has gone crazy over the whole thing, but I think in the end it will work out well. We are not going to find out the gender so don't ask!

I am working on marketing events for the library. The best one I have come up with so far is something based on this little gem:



Just replace the word Playboy with Library and you get the idea. Unfortunately this will be wihtout an appearance by Sammy Davis jr. :( Sid Caesar is still around though...

I'm heading off to Seatlle tomorrow for ACRL. Wish you all were going to be there!

Wow this weather is crazy! It started snowing on my way to work around 1145AM. It is still snowing as of 745M. I dread driving in this mess, but hopefully in another hour most everyone else will be home and I can drive slowly and carefully over the river and through the woods.

The week is strangely dragging and flying by at the same time. I have a hard time believing it is Thursday when it seems like yesterday we celebrated the Chinese New Year in Wicker Park. I even got myself all gussied up in a fine blouse and made it into the official pics thanks to drunken photo-taking. This party used to take place in Minneapolis so I thought it only appropriate to share my fave news story of the week regarding the Mall of America. Shark on shark cannibalism that didn't really look like the little fellow was very alive.
As many of you might have guessed, I love and fear sharks at the same time. I am fascinated by them and yet live in constant fear of meeting my doom a la Captain Quint. My favorite movie is not some girly love fest, but in fact "Jaws." I think I either watched this movie too many times as a youngster or my run in with a school of fish while body boarding in my teens. Either way I don't want to end up like little Shark 54 there!

I am also participating in this three weekend long activity at the synagogue with the Sisterhood where we are making prayer shawls. These are called tallit or tallis to anyone unfamiliar with them. Most of the time it is only men that wear these shawls. Since we go to an egalitarian synagogue the wome ncan make pretty things to wear too! I am the youngest one in the group by maybe 15 years. I am the only one with no children. My fingernails were painted the same color as one of the 13 year olds at the luncheon last week. She did not accept me in the teenager group either. This is an interesting site about tallit if you are curious. I really dig the fact that on a site about tallit there is a big add for single muslim dot com.

I had a weird dream that I was on some European tour that involved a large bus and lots of sleep overs in hostels. Also tagging along was this guy: Mathieu Amalric If you saw Munich you might remember him and now he's the new James Bond villian, how will I ever be able to choose between good and evil??? Too sexy, too sexy. Just leave it to me to have dreams about semi-obscure French actors. (he's not obscure in France of course, but in the US a little less well-known). Now I need to find a way to get downtown to see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

We are having a helluva storm in the Chicago area today. I'm at work watching the lightening. Hope everyone is safe and dry. I want to go home soon! Or least to go to Ulta to buy this:



I feel like I'm reverting to my Middle School self. Yay me!
On another rain note, the crustaceans on the Black Pearl have probably been washed away. Here is what she looks like on a clean day:


This is a stock photo. She is prettier by far!

With a winter storm warning in effect my mind harkens back to Florida. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about that. Not that living in Florida was that great. I had a horrible turn as a sportbike girl and got my tongue pierced. Most of my friends except for maybe two (yep two) worked with me in the libary so I wasn't much for getting out and about. Good thing is I'm still friends with these two folks. For now I am slowly making more friends. Most of them are still library-related.
I have tried to get into stamping and I even joined the Sisterhood at the synagogue. I went to a lovely luncheon in the fall where the speaker talked about finances for women over 50. Didn't really apply to me. At the same lunch, one woman actually asked me why I had even bothered to join the synagogue since I didn't have kids. These are the people that give organized religion a bad name. Because apparently they have nothing to offer if I don't have rugrats. I was disheartened that someone would think that way.
Of course, the stamping group is really not that different. (To be fair I've been to two separate stamping groups and one was far more diverse than the other.) Most of my stamping experience again revolves around people asking if I have children and when I answer in the negative they really don't have anything to say to me. This all is shocking to me since most of my friends have 1 or less children and I do not consider them odd. In fact, most of my friends aren't even married. So where did all these women with 3 kids come from? I don't even want to talk about the fact that most of them don't work and then complain that their husband gives them an allowance.
I feel like I live in the Twilight Zone or that I'm surrounded by haggard looking Stepford Wives who don't know how to dress. Aren't there any simpatico people in the 'burbs? Where are the young cool couples? They can't all live in Chicago. . . can they?