Be Prepared and Let it Roll Off Your Back...

 are the mottos I am trying to implement in my life. I want to be prepared for what comes my way, but I also want to make sure I'm not so uptight that I can't let things just roll off my back. Anyways, I guess I'm falling into the trap of writing a wrap up of the year on my blog...Oh well.

2011 was a pretty good year! I'm going to sum it up with some bullet points.

• I moved out of the condo that my parents own and into my own apartment. I'm paying my own way on almost EVERYTHING (except my cell phone) and it's the most freeing/grownup/awesome/lame/stressful feelings ever. 
• I live in a city that I LOVE. I'm close to family and friends and close to at least one of my works.
• I started two new jobs. One that I LOVE and the other one not so much. The job that I love has opened my eyes to a different sort of librarianship that I might be interested in pursuing and the other job is an open door that will hopefully allow me to grow in that organization. Fingers crossed.
• Even though I'm working like crazy I spent more time trying to say "yes" this year. When and if people asked me to go out I really tried to say "yes" and follow through. It allowed me to be more social and I'm really grateful for that. 
• I read 61 books. That's more than a book a week. I didn't hit my goal but there is always next year. 
• I spent more time with my family this year than I have a in a while. My sister, my brothers, my cousin!,  my nieces and nephews, my parents... I love them all so SO much and I am so grateful that I live closer to everyone now and can see them more often.

Things that I want to accomplish in 2012

• I want to cook more. Actually I want to learn to cook, I'm not very good at it and would like to cook at least 3 nights a week. 
• I want to learn to play the banjo. 
• I want to travel somewhere.
• I want to make sure that I am prepared for an emergency. This includes making up kits for both my house and car and making sure that my parents are also prepared. :) 
• I want to pay down my credit cards. I have 3 major cards that I have debt on and I  would like to pay down at least one this year. 
• I want to build up my savings to have at least 3 months worth of expenses put away (I know they say more, but this is what I can afford). 
• I want to take a summer class.
• I want to become financially set to take more than one class in the Fall. 

This entry is mostly for my own records, but I really like that I'm becoming more focused and aware of my finances. I feel so grown up!

I hope everyone has a happy, safe, and fun new years eve!

Happy New Year!!!

Poop at the Library

We've been dealing with poop at the library. I know, I know, you're all wondering why a hallowed institution such as the library would be dealing with feces, but we deal with it more often than one would think.

Our main issue right now is that our bathroom drains are backing up and sewage is spilling out onto the floor in the public AND the staff bathrooms. Now I could give a flying hoot about the public bathrooms but the staff ones? I like working in a place where there is a functioning toilet. And running water. It's the little things you know?

Anyways so our bathrooms have been shut intermittently for the past few weeks because every time they "fix" the bathrooms, they magically become "unfixed" soon after and the RAW SEWAGE comes back. Lather, rinse, repeat.

It's gross. It's yucky and it's times like these where I'm am STOKED I am not in charge. :)

Now the plumbers tell us that the culprit is the massive amounts of toilet paper/paper towels/newspapers/soda cans that are being flushed down. This makes us librarians (or in my case, librarian-in-training) suspicious of all of our patrons. We are carefully eyeing each and every person who enters the facilities to see if they look like a paper towel flusher or not. Needless to say, we came up with a plethora of suspects, but NUMERO UNO on our list was....

PURPLE SHIRT MAN

He's older, he lives out of his car and we think that perhaps he is not able to afford diapers and is not making them out of newspapers and/or paper towels. Which is sad, but NOT OK. He was very eager for our bathrooms to reopen and once we had identified him as our culprit I'll admit I took a little glee in denying him access to our bathrooms (note: there are public restrooms in the next building over from ours, we were directing people there). BWHAHAHAHAHAH.

But, unfortunately, the problems still persisted even though our bathrooms were closed. The plumbers came to fix the bathrooms, they fixed them, and the next morning they would be backed up again. This was perplexing because no one was using the bathrooms between the time they were "fixed" and the time that they backed up. So, we librarians (or librarian-in-training), put on our Sherlock Holmes hats again and started looking for clues as to the next likely subject....

THE JANITORS!!!

We've been having some issues with our janitors. They break things. Lots of things. Our goose, our vacuum.. it's been an on going issue. So when we had to call the plumbers (and the facilities guys) back out to our branch to fix the problem AGAIN, we mentioned our next likely suspect to them and they decided to snake the janitors sink. And what do you think they found? Rags. Cleaning rags, down the drain. It  was the janitors the whole time. We felt kind of guilty about suspecting PURPLE SHIRT MAN. But we got over it quickly.

So, in summary, don't let cleaning rags go down the drain. It backs up the sewer lines. Also, I learned what an "oven mitt" refers to. I was horrified and will now be using the phrase "pot holder" because "oven mitt" now has a negative connotation to it.

Dear Blog

It's been... well a long time since my last confession. I've been a busy little library worker. But I know, no excuses right?

Well here my excuses anyways. In September I started a job as a Library Media Tech in a high school library. I work 5 days a week there in the mornings (and ugh it's early but I'm...handling it). Other than the early hours. I. LOVE. IT! It's not very library-ish. I mostly am the media specialist's assistant and I make a lot of copies but I'm learning a lot of technical things and how a high school library runs. I handle a lot of textbooks and the laptops and if technical things go down I learn how to fix them. But I really love the environment and my boss is wicked cool. :) He's very interested in e-books and implementing new technology in the media center which I am ALL FOR!

I also picked up another job as a page for another local public library system. Yes, that's right. Three jobs. It totals out to about 60 hours a week working. I'm busy. But I'm loving it. Well, the page job is okay. I started out my library career as a page and while I don't mind the physical work, and I enjoy being in the stacks all day. It's killing my knee. I have a bad knee from lots of crazy sports playing in my youth and I'm pretty stiff all the time now. :( But I do see it as an opportunity to get my foot in the door in another library system so that's great.

I'm still in school. I'll be finishing my core classes this semester. FINALLY! The core classes are just what they sound like, classes that are designed to give you a foundation in library history and work. But since I have a lot of library experience I find them a bit redundant so I'm happy to be done with them. The class I'm currently in is a library management class and the main project is to create a strategic plan. It was a BIG. PROJECT. But I enjoyed doing it because it wasn't something that I had ever done before and I enjoy learning. Because I'm a nerd. Yup.

I'm hoping to post more regularly on here. But with my busy schedule I might not. I did manage to finish 2 books this week. Heat Rises by Richard Castle and The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen.

Heat Rises was a fluff piece that I really enjoyed. I like Castle the TV show and I think it's a great marketing tool to actually release books the books that Castle writes in the show. They are pretty well written.











The Silent Girl is the latest in the Rizzoli and Isles series, which I started after watching the TV show. I like the characters on the show but I like them more in the books, but the show is only in it's 2nd season so hopefully they will grow a bit more. I really liked this last book because I really enjoyed the Chinese imagery, legends, and I DID NOT see who the murderer was from the beginning (always a plus when I can make it through almost the entire book without guessing the ending.)





What have you been reading lately?

Why I'm kind of obsessed with Julie Halpern!

I really like this cover! It reminds me of my dirndl that I bought in Austria.

Have you read anything by Julie Halpern? I have! I first read her book Into the Wild Nerd Yonder last December and I think I read it within 4 hours. I could. not. put. it. down. It was that good. I even wrote her a fan letter saying how awesome I thought she was. It was very fangirlish but I was really excited about her book and then I found out that she was a librarian and it made me squeel with glee. Seriously. There was actual squeeling going on. AND THEN she wrote me back, and it was awesome and I felt very much like I felt when I meet famous people, even though I didn't really meet her.



Anyways! Since December I've been following her blog and commenting on it sometimes and found out that not only does she like The Monkees (!!!), she also interned on The Adventures of Pete and Pete which you all should know is a very awesome show that I own the DVDs of because it's part of my childhood and I cling to my childhood like Linus to his blanket. Seriously. A few months ago her new book came out, Don't Stop Now, and she held a contest where she was giving away a signed copy of her book. I entered it and I WON!!! I love winning stuff. It's fun :)

Look! It's me! With my book! It's even signed too!

Anyways I finished Don't Stop Now in a night. It was great. It's about two friends who take an unexpected and unplanned road trip quest. It made me yearn for those days right after high school where I felt invincible. It made me want to go on a road trip at least, I've never been on one with friends. I mean, I've been places with my family and I've been places by myself but I've never gone with a boyfriend or my best friend... hmm I'll have to change that soon. I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but I really enjoyed the relationship between the two main characters. I think that most young people can relate to wading that murky water between friends and maybe something more. Heck, I still wade that water. But I like the ribbon of confidence that is woven throughout the book, the message, "don't stop now". In my mind, it's kind of like "just do it" or "just go for it", which I think a lot of people don't really do. We think too much. I think too much about things and then you lose the moment. I don't want to lose moments anymore. Anyways, you should check out Julie Halpern's books. They are funny and witty and she has a real knack for depicting realistic teenage characters. :)
  

Why I don't even bother to see scary movies anymore...

I promise that this post has at least some literary content. A tiny bit, but it's there.

So you may have noticed that Daniel Radcliffe aka Harry Potter is going to be in a new movie, "The Woman in Black". This is causing me much distress because as much as I want to support Daniel Radcliffe because he portrayed my beloved Harry Potter, I have serious issues with this film, the play that the film was based on and the book that the play was based on. It basically comes down to the fact that it scares the crap out of me.

In July of 2007 I went on a 3 week study abroad trip to Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland. It was extremely fun, I had been to England, Wales, and Scotland before but never to Ireland and that was the main reason I wanted to go on the trip. My grandmother's father was from Ireland and the story goes that his brother died on the Titanic come over to America (I later found this to be false, I was doing some genealogical work and the records and names didn't match up, apparently my uncle had found this out too but neglected to tell my mother). Anyways, I feel a strong connection to Ireland, wanted to go, and so I did. It was amazing, one of the best trips of my life and I think about going back every single day.

 

 

 

This is me at the Rock of Cashel.

Anyways, after Ireland we crossed the Irish Sea and traveled around a bit and ended out stay in London. That was where I saw the dreaded play. I didn't have very many shows on my list to see whilst in London, so when the professor asked if I had anything in particular I said "We Will Rock You" (the Queen musical) and whatever else. It was impossible to get tickets to Equus (with Richard Griffiths and a naked Dan Radcliffe) so I didn't really care what I saw. She got me tickets to "The Woman in Black".

A group of us went out to dinner and then took the tube to the theater. I'm very glad that it was a group of us because I went to see "We Will Rock You" by myself and I would not have been able to make it through the entire play if I was by myself. Basically the play is about an older man who has written a play of his life which he takes to a younger actor to see about having it performed. It's kind of a play within a play that way. Anyways they go about acting out the script which tells the story of a young lawyer having to deal with the estate of an old woman who had passed away. He travels to a town that is haunted by the Woman in Black, a spectre that brings bad luck and death to all who see here. I won't go to much into the tale, you can read the plot summary if you like on wikipedia. It's a very accurate description. As someone who was heavily involved in theater in high school I'm pretty knowledgeable and aware of how things are done on stage. I know that it's fake and there is a crew member or some sort of machinery that is causing a  rocking chair to move or doors to slam. I know that it's a P.A. system that magnifies the Woman in Black's scream. I know it's all fake. I. KNOW. THESE. THINGS. And yet it still scared the crap out of me. So much so that I jumped out of my seat and grabbed the guy next to me's leg and broke skin. With my non-existent nails that I constantly bite, I broke the skin! There is a twist at the end that really freaked me out (see the wikipedia article) and I think it was the twist that allowed me to stay freaked out by this play for the rest of the trip and now that I'm at home.

I'm still afraid of this play. If I wake up in the middle of the night and I'm disoriented? I think of the Woman in Black. If I'm alone at night and it's late and I hear weird noises? I think of the Woman in Black. It still haunts me. Logically I can look at that and say, "Wow, what a great piece of theater, to still have me thinking about it about 4 years", but honestly, I kind of just want to forget about it.

Now the movie is coming out. I know that the play is different from the book, and I think the movie is going to be more like the book than the play but I'm still afraid to see it. The only thing that I can think that might make me feel better about it, is that the play within the play scenario and the twist at the end really bothered me the most. I hope the movie doesn't have those elements, because then I might be able to not be scared out of my mind for the next 4 years.

Here is the trailer for "The Woman in Black". What do you think? Are you going to see it?

Why?

Creepy/crazy guy: Are you going to be working here long?

Teenage Librarian: Tonight?

C/CG: No, for a long time.. you're not going to quit?

TL: Uh.. no.

C/CG: Could you come here and look at my computer?

TL: Sure. *gets up, goes around desk and looks at his computer*

C/CG: Why is it requiring me to enter a cell phone number?

C/CG has clicked on one of those ads that says that if they click there, and enter their number, they will get a free $500 gift card to whatever. You all know those ads, right? The super scammy looking ones? Yea. That's what he clicked. 

TL: It's part of their requirements. In order to receive whatever they are giving out, they are requiring you to enter your cell phone number.

I don't think most people understand how much of my job I spend reading directions to people. Seriously, they ask me why their e-mail isn't coming up. When it says on the page PASSWORD ENTERED INCORRECTLY!!! and then I tell them that it seems like their password was entered incorrectly. And then they ask what should they do if they forgot their password and I tell them to click on the link that says "Forgot your password?" and then they do and I have to read each and every prompt to them. Because apparently if you walk into a library you can't read. /digression

C/CG: Well,  I'm currently in between cell phone numbers. Could I enter yours?

TL: No

C/CG: Why not?

TL: Because it's my cell phone number and it would be inappropriate.

C/CG: But it's $500!

TL: No. Sorry *walks away*

Seriously? What would inspire people to think that this would be okay? I would NEVER ask some stranger that. EVER! Ugh. People.

I had a dream when I was in high school, that I attended the Punk Rock Academy

Did I mention that my best friend is moving back to town? No? Well, she is! I'm very excited Carolyn and I have been friends for a very long time. She moved up to Berkeley a few years ago to attend school (at UC Berkeley, she's a smart one!) and now she's moving back to town and since I moved back to Orange County, we're going to be living only 15 minutes apart. YAY! 

Me in the Ramones shirt and Carolyn showing off our Mole Cupcakes

Carolyn and I go way back, officially meeting in my freshman(her sophomore) year. We were quite the duo, if I may say so myself. 

We were both involved in theater.

This is us stage managing. Obviously.

We both loved Disneyland!

This is us on Splash Mountain, granted not in high school. This was a few years ago. 

We just had a lot in common. Our parents, our musical tastes, we just meshed well together. Carolyn was/is more outgoing and has a ton of friends. I don't and am more shy in situations until I feel everyone out. It was the perfect fit.  We used to hit up Disneyland every weekend and just walk around, ride the rides, people watch and it was fabulous. Our parents were even totally cool about it and mine would drive us and hers would pick us up. When I finally got my license, I would drive us around town and we'd do stupid stuff like play music loud, hang out at parks and at Hammer's(a friend) house.

I remember one time we were in line at the Carl's Jr, and then decided that we didn't want Carl's Jr but instead In-n-Out. I backed out of the curved drive thru lane. It sucked, but it's a silly memory I have. I also remember going to her Nana's house for teas, or her aunt's house for a Christmas tea and getting to try on this really awesome vintage hats. I remember stupid stuff like, we ditched our last class of the day to go to Planned Parenthood, or we drove up to LA to meet her friend Sam. I remember spending Halloween at her house watching Rosemary's Baby, or being bummed out because her boyfriend couldn't pick us up and drive us around (I was the ULTIMATE 3rd wheel in high school). We had sleepovers at my house with our boyfriends, or at my boyfriends house with her and her boyfriend. We went to homecoming together, and I went to her Disneyland grad night with her. It was just fun fun fun.

Carolyn graduated and went on to OCC and got really involved in theater there. She introduced me to my exboyfriend and then the dark time happened. Exboyfriend was recently back from Iraq and had "issues", and naively I thought that I wanted to be with him more than my best friend and so when he had issues with Carolyn, I had issues with Carolyn and we stopped talking for about a year.

I don't remember what brought us back together, I remember seeing her at the Ryan Dallas Cook memorial but I don't remember the specific event where we hung out again. Maybe she does.

It doesn't really matter in a lot of ways, we got back together, we're friends now and it's all good. But I still feel guilty about leaving my best friend for a guy. It was stupid. It is stupid, but it's the past.

But basically this post is about how much I miss my best friend and how glad I am she's coming home. Sometimes it's hard to not have your best friend around. We have so much history and know each other so well that when we DO get to hang out, it's like we never missed each other, but I am really happy she'll be closer.  It's nice to have someone to talk to who knows your whole history. :)

I will leave you with this. Carolyn introduced me to the movie Rock and Roll High School. I'll never forget it!

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

It's weird to think that 10 years ago, September, I started high school. I remember having my first real "boyfriend" the summer before high school and deciding to dye and cut my hair and have him freak out. I remember deciding that I wanted to join the wrestling team and to do theater. I remember being freaked out because it was HIGH SCHOOL!!!

Me and some friends at the end of my freshman year. I'm the one with purple hair.

I also remember feeling like I didn't have a group. I didn't know who to hang out with. In 7th grade I hung out with the 8th graders, who all went on to high school and left me alone. In 8th grade I hung out with a few kids but they started getting into drugs and other things that I didn't want to be a part of. When I started 9th grade I wasn't sure where I fit in and I hated that feeling. Luckily I had the drama kids and I found Carolyn relatively soon after that but still.. it was scary.

Thirteen Reasons Why  is getting a lot of press lately, mostly because it deals with some really difficult subject matter. Suicide. While I'll admit it was difficult to read, I found it to be really thought-provoking. Basically, it Asher writes a story of a girl who commits suicide and then sends narrative tapes to people who are on her list, people who she felt treated her wrongly or contributed to her ultimate demise. I think the difficult thing abotu this book was realizing that our actions have an effect on others. Our teasing, our jokes, our laughter can really hurt others even if we don't mean it to. But the opposite is the same as well, our smiles, our hugs, our encouragement can bring people up, even if we don't realize it.

Reading Thirteen Reasons Why made me more aware of my actions and feelings towards others. I remember my first week of high school sitting in the gym with my P.E. class (which I was only in for a week before I switched to wrestling). There was a kid in my P.E. class who looked so sad and so down and so alone and I was afraid of him. I was afraid that he was going to be a kid who did something bad. I talked about how I remember Columbine and I'm sorry to say that I thought he would be a kid like that. He just gave off that vibe to me. So I was nice to him, I smiled at him, and I made sure that every time I saw him in the hall I said hello. If he was going to blow up my school, I sure as hell wanted to be on his good side. Now, of course, that sounds horrible to say, my motives were totally whack! But I know that the kid appreciated my kindness, he told me so in our senior year. Anyways, enough about me.  Thirteen Reasons Why is a good book, if anything maybe it will make kids think a bit more about their actions and words and how they affect others.

The King of Zor he called for a war...

Have I ever told you about my love for the Monkees? That's right.. that 60's made for TV band, I love them! I've seen their members in concert 14 times. Which, when you think about it, is a lot considering their TV show was on from 1966-1968 and I wasn't born until 1987.

Ugh! Just so darn cute!

 See! There they are in all their 60's glory. I can tell you from this picture that it was taken after the 1st season of the show. Why can I say that, you ask? Well, because Micky's hair is longer. They made him straighten it in the first season, but in the second he was allowed to go all hippie and grow it longer and curlier.

In the Summer of 1997 Nick at Nite added The Monkees to their block party summer. It didn't last long and half-way through the summer it was replaced with Green Acres, but that's okay. It didn't matter I was hooked. I went online (AOL!!!) and found a whole wealth of knowledge about the Monkees and a ton of Monkees fans. Including some that would tea. I already explained what teaing was here, and also how I met my best friend, Carolyn, online while teaing. I remember finding out via her AOL profile that she lived in the same city as me and while chatting we realized that she was friends with my soccer coach's daughter. I remember being at practice and her coming to visit but I was at practice and we never met.

In November of 1997 the Monkees gave a concert at the Universal Ampitheater in Los Angeles. It was my first concert and my mom took me. We had 4th row seats, off to the left, but it was so awesome. I was one of the youngest people there but it didn't matter. This was the tour right after their 30th anniversary tour and album which they did with Mike Nesmith (the guy in the green hat), unfortunately Mike hasn't toured with them since that album so I've never seem him perform live.

Just pretend Mike isn't there. He's the one on the left.

I then saw Davy Jones in the Summer of 1998 with Peter Noone (from Herman's Hermits) and Bobby Sherman at the OC Fair. I saw both shows. I remember going with my friend Marissa and going straight to the fair from girl scout camp. Dedication I tell you!!

After that it was a while before I saw any of the Monkees live again.  I saw and met them in 2001 in Arizona. My parents drove me there to see them and participated in a charity auction that allowed me to meet them and get a signed guitar. I'll have to get up to my parent's house soon and take a picture of it.

Carolyn and I finally met in high school at auditions for a theater production. We bonded over the Monkees, the Ramones, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Slayer, The Velvet Underground, The Beach Boys, The Who and more.

Davy and Micky played a few shows while I was in high school and Carolyn and I went. We were only supposed to go to the early show because we had class the next day but we were having such a good time that the people at the venue invited us to stay and watch the second show. Our parents were cool enough to let us stay and we had a blast.

They even played at the Grove of Anaheim and filmed a concert DVD at that show. Carolyn's dad was even seen in the DVD. Which come to think of it.. I don't think I own! I must fix that. :)

Davy and Micky also played 6 shows over three days at Disney's California Adventure  in 2002. I went to every show and got to the park as soon as it opened in order to get good seats. Carolyn and her family met me for some of the shows, and I think my mom even came to one.

The marquee at the Greek

Mommy and me!

And finally my mom and I went to a show last week, for their 45th anniversary tour. It was a blast. They played for 2.5 hours and played songs that I didn't think they would play live. It was great, they still got it. The show was filled with fans of all ages and every seemed to be having a blast. I wouldn't consider myself a huge Monkees fan anymore, but I still love them a lot (much to the annoyance of my older brothers). They were/are fun, zany, silly music and it's part of my childhood. It connects me to my best friend and they were my first real "obsession" (if only it got better as I got older, my obsessions have just gotten weirder).

Hey hey we're the Monkees!

The First Rule of Book Club is...

About a month and a half ago my friend Dawn posted on Facebook that she wanted to start a book club. Being the librarian in training that I am, I was extremely excited and of course signed up. I also forced my co-worker ASL (who has been featured in stories before) to join with me. We all have a weird connection.

I've known Dawn for almost my whole life, she's my older sister's best friend. Well, maybe not my whole life, I think they met when they were freshmen in high school, so they were 14, and I am 8 years younger than my sister..... so I've known Dawn since I was 6 years old. Wow! Anyways, Dawn actually knows ASL because she went to elementary school and high school with her. So ASL, Dawn, and my sister (Tina), all went ot high school togehter and graduated the same year. I was working with ASL and finally realized that they all graduated together and everyone is now all reconnected yay!

So back to the book club, we decided to read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. You'll see it on my list over there ---->.  None of us really enjoyed the book, but we did have a great time chatting and eating all the yummy food that was brought, but the centerpiece if you will was a lemon cake! (Hah bet you didn't figure that was coming). Dawn made it was it was really tasty, my favorite part was the frosting. I love frosting. :)

I can't wait to get together with these girls later this month. Oh! And the best part? Dawn's adorable baby Peanut. He's literally my favorite baby, if I ever have kids I want one in this model. For reals.

All photos graciously stolen from Dawn. Go look at her cute kid.

Thoughts? Opinions? My little secret..

I'm concerned that I won't hit my 100 books in 2011 mark. I was going full steam ahead there for a while and now I've seemed to plateaued a bit. It's not that I'm not reading. I am reading! I'm just not reading books, perse.

Since the whole ending of Harry Potter thing happening and all of my emotions regarding it, I've been reading fanfic. Fanfic being short for fan fiction, which is fiction about characters that fans write. There is fanfic for anything and everything, movies, books, TV shows, you name it. And to be honest while I've never written fanfiction myself, I used to "tea" when I was younger. "Teaing" was like role-playing. Basically a group of people who log onto an AOL chatroom (remember those) and role play their favorite characters. It was like collaborative play writing. My "teas" of choice were the Monkees. Yes, that's right, the Monkees. You know, those zany guys from the 60's TV show? That weren't really a band but then became a band? I would role-play them with my friends online for hours on end. I did this starting when I was about 10 and ended when I was about 12. It was really fun, we were all Monkees fans and I had a group of people that were my "friends" from all over the country. In fact I met my best friend online "teaing". It was weird when we found out that we lived in the same city (it wasn't a very big city). And even weirder when we met in person my freshman year of high school (her sophomore year) at a drama audition. We've been friends ever since (minus a year...we call it the Dark Times).

Anyways, so no fanfic for me, but I do appreciate it because I think that it's a great way for them to express their love of the characters and worlds that they admire. And as long as no one is profiting from it then I see no harm. So back to me reading all the Harry Potter fanfic... I used to read other sorts (WWF/WWE, Monkees) but stopped for the longest time, but then I realized that it would allow me to continue to experience new dimensions to the Harry Potter world and I liked that idea.

But.. I must confess I've become a shipper. Specifically Hermione and Snape. It's weird, I know. But it's been a blast to have the characters I love so much have more life in them. It's fun to see different stories and alternate universes and non-canon characters and characterizations. So recently that's what I've been reading. Harry Potter fanfic. Some of these stories are over 100,000 words. They are books in and of themselves but can I count them to my list? They aren't published, they aren't professional, but I can spend hours reading them. And I do. All night long (I'm awake at night and asleep during the day.. it sucks).

So, do you read fanfic? Do you have an opinion on it? Tell me about it!

You know what bothers me?

Non-eletronic job applications. I don't see the point of them. At. All.

I've been applying for jobs for a good month and a half now, knowing that I will need to be doing SOMETHING by the time September comes around. I love my job at the public library but it is only 20 hours a week and I can't live on that pay check. So I need to be do something in addition to that job, so I've been applying and applying. All the jobs I'm going for are library related, as I don't really want to be doing anything else, obviously if it comes to it I can and will work somewhere else I just don't prefer it so I'm not really pushing myself in that direction yet.

Most of the jobs I'm applying for use the same electronic systems to recieve their applications. In fact all of the jobs except two. One is a private school (which I get), but they at least let me e-mail the application and information in. The second one is a huge community college district and yet they want me to print out the application (which is a pdf that I can type into thankgod!) and a whole bunch of other paperwork and MAIL it to them. In an envelope. By Mail. MAIL!!!! ugh. Who mails things these days? Why can't I fax it to them? Or e-mail it? It would make my life easier and I'm positive it would make their life easier. Who wants to actually have to go through all that paperwork? I mean if it's eletronic you can set a computer to find keywords or other things to weed it all out. I like that idea much better.

Anyway, this community college district has two openings open and of course I applied for one, and then the second one came up. And I didn't save or make a copy of my first application so now I have to re-type the entire thing. Ugh. Stupid paper applications...

The end.

I'm sure that my wide mass of followers has noticed that I haven't posted on here very much. Hahaha I don't even know who reads this but if you're reading this.. well thanks! :)

I've been busy. I moved, I'm unpacking (still), I went to a few concerts (MONKEES!!!), and the last Harry Potter movie came out. I have so many emotions about that book series that it's not even funny. And it's definitely difficult for me to put them into words but I am going to try.

I remember my mom telling me about this series of books that was beginning to become really popular, looking at the dates now I realize that it was in 1999. It was the summer after 6th grade and I devoured the first three books. I can remember being in my old house, staying up late in my bedroom reading and re-reading the books waiting for the 4th one to come out. I was hooked. Somehow, Rowling was able to take me away from my mundane life and transport me to a world where magic was real and children went to boarding schools to become witches and wizards and I wanted so badly for that world to be my reality.

The next memory I have is going to the Borders in Triangle Square for the midnight release of Goblet of Fire. It was released the night before I was leaving to go to Australia and my friends and I were having a sleep over. I remember there not being a whole bunch of people in the store, we were just waiting around until midnight when they could actually sell us the book. I read the entire book on the flight to Australia, which is a good, long flight.  That was in 2000.

I don't remember going to the midnight release for Order of the Phoenix. For Half-Blood Prince I went with some co-workers after my shift at Jamba Juice in 2005. It was one of the best times. There was a party at Barnes and Noble and I remember going home and reading the whole book straight through and crying. I was so mad and so sad and my world just totally turned upside down after the end of that book. I think it was then when I realized that I was really enamored with the series.

For the last book I went with friends and my boss at the time. I was working in libraries at that point and was surrounded by people who loved the books and characters as much as I did. It was so heartbreaking to know that this was the end. I remember having to drive all the way back to my house  (a good 1 1/2 hour drive from the book store I went to) and just wanting to pull over and read. When I started it, within the first 50 pages I was tearing up, I don't think I ever stopped. It was so hard to read about my "friends and family" fighting a "war". It was so difficult to see them die. It was so heart-breaking to know that it was over.

But it wasn't. There were the movies and I loved the movies. I remember going to midnight showings with my ska friends. I remember going to midnight showings with my friends from high school and my junior year boyfriend (that must have been Prisoner of Azkaban). I remember going with my senior year boyfriend (Goblet of Fire) and with my best friend and her boyfriend (Half-Blood Prince). I remember going to see a showing with people from work at Jamba Juice and people from Suburban Legends one year (must have been Chamber of Secrets). I remember going to this last one...I'm going to remember crying and sitting with friends and knowing that all the people around me understood why I was crying and didn't judge.

And now the movies are over. Harry Potter is over. But is it really? I know that I haven't explained why I'm so attached to these characters and these books. I don't even understand it myself. All I can say is that 12 years ago I started reading a book and I felt a connection. A connection with the words, a connection with the world, and a connection with friends. The story may be over, but my love for it won't be. I think it says a lot for me to feel as in love with the books as I was when I was 12 when I'm 24 now. That's half my lifetime that I've been a part of this world and friends with these characters. Some people may laugh and some people may not understand it. Some people may not think the writing is great or the stories are bad, but I don't care and you know what? Neither do my fellow Harry Potter fans. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,  Snape has a conversation with Lily Evans and as lame as I feel quoting it, I feel that it really sums up Harry Potter for the fans.

"...It is real, isn't it?"

"It's real for us," said Snape. "Not for her..."

Harry Potter and it's world is real. It's real for us, for the fans, for me.

And just so you know, "it's real for us" is a tattoo I have in the works. People may judge me and say it's stupid. But honestly, I don't really care. Harry Potter has been part of my life for so long and for that I think it's worth a tattoo. Even if I end up hating Harry Potter (doubtful but possible) I can't deny that I spent a good portion of my life loving those books.

Aloha

So I'm back from Hawaii. It was seriously one of the best vacations I've had. Why do you ask? Well, I did absolutely nothing. I just read and slept and read some more. It was great.

Now you may ask why I don't just do that at home.. well have you ever tried to do that at home? It's quite difficult. Every time I take a nap or sit and read or do nothing I feel guilty. There is always so much to do that I never really relax until I take off somewhere.

I ended up reading 8 books. I'm quite happy about this. Even though I didn't reach my 50 books by June 1st goal, I'm still plowing through and I really believe that I'll be able to make it to 100 by the end of the year.

I'm getting ready to move. I literally CAN. NOT. WAIT. to move. I really feel positive about this whole situation and the direction my life is moving in. Now if only I could get a second job and I'd be set!

Counting down the days

I feel like I'm back in school again. Well, technically I'm still in school, but I feel like I'm back in K-12 school again. I have exactly 5 days left in my position as a library media specialist. I work today, Wednesday, and Thursday and then I'm off for a week because on Friday I'm jetting off to Hawaii and then I work the Monday and Tuesday when I return and then I'M DONE!

I'm slightly excited by this because it means I don't have to get up at 4 in the morning to drive to work. I'm slightly sad by this because it means I don't have a second job (although working at school, the district allows me to take part of my paycheck each month and save it so I can get paid over the summer, SUPER SMART IDEA!!!).

Recently I've been applying for new jobs (in addition to my one as a library assistant at the public library), so far I haven't heard anything. I just turned in applications and I'm sure there are tons of people applying but this makes me nervous none-the-less. I would be very happy to know that when I come back from Hawaii or when the school year starts next year I'll have a second income. It would certainly take the stress off me a bit.

Speaking of stress, I'm a little stressed about the job situation BECAUSE I AM MOVING!!! I'm going to be moving to the town that my public library job is in. In fact, I'll be moving 1 block up and 2 blocks over from my job which means I can walk to work. I've never had a job where I could walk to work. In fact over the past 4 years all my jobs have been at least a 30mile/30 minute drive one way. That's right, AT LEAST 30 minutes away.

You can understand why I am so excited about this situation. Plus I'll be moving closer to my family and friends and since I only moved away to go to college (and honestly I live about 70 miles away from where I grew up) nobody wants to come visit me. So I'm really excited to be back closer to them. At least in the same county. WOOT!

So, in recap. I'm kind of sad, happy, and nervous all at the same time and I can't wait for summer vacation to begin. :)

I seriously never do this

but I figured what the heck. A blog that I read, Oh Happy Day is giving away a trip to Paris. I WOULD LOVE TO GO TO PARIS! You probably would too. So check it out http://ohhappyday.com/2011/06/goes-to-paris

<3 The teenage librarian

No words.

So the school year is coming to an end and I'm kind of sad about it. I'm going to miss my kids next year, and they all seem to know that I'm not coming back. I've told them that I'm moving and that's the truth. My goal is to move back to my home city/county by the end of summer. It'd be the best since I'd be close to my other job (as in not a 30-45 minute commute) and close to my family (which is nice since I have a crazy brother who has high drama). What's a real bummer is that I'm bascially going to be missing the whole last week of school because of furloughs. Where will I be spending my furloughs you ask? Hawaii. But I'm still kind of bummed to miss seeing my kids and signing yearbooks.

Speaking of yearbooks I ordered one. I'm glad I did so I can remember my year at this school. It was fun and I'm glad I did it, even if it did require me to wake up really early to get to work (HELLO 4AM!).

I'm excited to hit up Hawaii too, this will be my first real vacation with my new iPad. I've loaded a bunch of books on it and have already started reading some. I think I'm going to enjoy having an ebook reader!

Now for a little gem I was asked yesterday.

Middle school aged boy (probably 8th grade or so) came up to me and asked if I had books on the Civil War and the proceeded to ask if I knew what the Civil War was. I told him that I did, indeed, know what the Civil War was and pointed him in the direction of our books on the subject. But seriously? Do people not know what the Civil War was? REALLY?! Ugh.

Dealing with Crazy today

Today I had two of my more paranoid patrons to deal with.

Crazy1 is totally paranoid. He thinks that people are messing with his computer or that people who sit across from him at the library computers are controlling his computer. It's crazy. He's also in the middle of lawsuit against his landlord who he believes has broken into his apartment, stolen his stuff, and tapped his phone and internet. He then believes that his lawsuit against his landlord was thrown out because the judge was a member of his former church which he was excommunicated from for being gay. Oh, did I mention he is an author? Anyways in what I believe to be  uncharacteristic for Crazy1, he has decided to create a facebook account. I am honestly surprised at this but hey what the heck. So he's set up his facebook account and he doesn't understand how facebook works. So I'm helping him out by trying to explain the difference between his profile and his author page. He wants to join groups and then invite all those members to be his friends. I'm trying to explain to him that he can't really do that. One, you don't really have access to a group or page's members and two, people don't usually want to friend you if they don't know you. He kept going on and on about how his page doesn't have any personal information on it and it's just fine and I'm trying to explain to him why it's not fine and how people don't want to share THEIR personal information with him. It would be easier for him to try to promote his page and let people "like" his page rather than friend him on facebook. Le sigh. I don't know if he gets it. But I'm regretting letting him know that I have facebook knowledge. All my coworkers were smart and feigned ignorance. Smart smart smart people!!!

Crazy2 is this guy that has been coming in for the past year or so. He is always doing research on the computers and is accessing databases and ejournals from a school in Alabama. That's fine and great and all. But he also is extremely paranoid. Today he came up to me and told me that last Fall he had us send in a request to our IT department about a virus that was preventing him from accessing certain journals via his school's library. I was very skeptical about this situation but he was adament that our IT department fixed it. I had him show me how he accessed his journals and sure enough there was an issue where the page did not load after a certain point. I even replicated the problem on my computer at the reference desk. But the thing is, the guy wouldn't listen to me. I tried to explain to him that, I'm pretty technically savvy and it honestly seems like a connection problem with the libraries site. In fact there was even a warning at the top of the page that users were having issues with the school's private network. A network that allowed remote access. Some how he thinks this is a virus and it's computer warfare and that our IT guys since we're in CA and have a heavy military presence will have the knowledge and capability to fix this issue. I tried to reiterate that it honestly seems like an issue with thier network and that he should contact that school and see if they are having issues, but he thinks that we can solve this issue. Or at least our IT guys can.

The thing is, the guy claims he is a PhD. And in fact I can see that he has had some very scientific papers published. But he is convinced that his issues are caused by computer viruses and computer warfare. He is convinced that our network goes down because we are being attacked by viruses and terrorists. In reality our network goes down because our system is pretty antiquated.

Oh the library <3

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

When I was in 6th grade Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and 1 teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. I can specifically remember watching the TV in school that day in Mrs. Hamud's 6th grade class. I don't know why we were allowed to watch it. It was on in the background but I can vividly remember watching it. I remember going home that day and watching the coverage at home and seeing the students running from the school. I remember seeing the SWAT guys. And I remember the ongoing coverage after the shooting, the Trenchcoat Mafia, the fact that they listened to Marilyn Manson, and how violence in music and the media might have caused them to do this horrible thing. 

Mockingbird is the story of an autistic girl who loses her brother to a school shooting. She's trying to navigate her life as an autistic person who doesn't like change and has trouble with seeing emotions in others when a beloved family member is taken from her. Although her brother's death is devastating, it allows Caitlin to progress as a person. Her search for closure ends up bringing her more than just closure but the ability to recognize emotions and empathy for others.