How lucky am I?

Today while at work, Den surprised me at wrok with ballons and a stuffed monkey since he likes to monkey around (his pun, not mine). I was completely surprised considering that Valentine's Day is still at least two weeks away and my birthday isn't until April. He said he did it "just because." Is that sweet or what? Of course being that I'm on a haiku roll lately, I wrote a poem reflecting my feelings for what he's done:

My husband is sweet
Surprised me at work with gift
How lucky am I?

Was it something I said?

This semester, I'm taking my usual combination of one online class and one class in Gadsden. One the first night of the online class, each student says where they're from, where they work, etc. and the proceeds as usual. Pretty much the only way you'll meet someone from your online class in person is if you have a group project and live in the same area. That being said, imagine my surprise when I came into work and was told that one of my online classmates had called and was coming to look for information as well as meet me. I was both surprise and excited about the idea of meeting an online classmate in person.

The next day, the classmate arrives at the library and we meet and talk for a while. She is worried because we have to projects, one dealing with reading five books in a particular genre (I got chick lit) and doing three booktalks and the second project deals with a service offered to Adults in the public library (I got Reader's Advisory). She was given historical fiction and Reference to work with and was having no luck finding books in her genre or on her service. She then asked me how far I was in the program and I told her (second semester, taking my third and fourth classes) and if I work full-time or part-time (full-time). After I looked up some books that seemed to interest her, (she only wanted books from the main library not sent from branches since she lives far away), we said good-bye and said we'd see each other Thursday night online in class.

Last night, my teacher told the class that the classmate I had spoken to decided to drop the class and wait until next semester to start the MLIS program. I feel so awful. Although I remember a student saying that this was their first semester and class, I had no idea it was her. I'm sure she felt overwhelmed by all the stuff the teacher wanted from us.

Den said that the answers I gave her made it seem like I'm the shit, I’m on top of things, and that's what scared her away. I don't care...I don't like feeling as if I'm the direct cause of someone postponing their graduate school career. Then again, if an 18-20 page paper and booktalks made her head for the hills, maybe she should reevaluate whether or not this is something she really wants to do.

R.I.P. Helen Lee (1951-2008)

A co-worker of mine, Helen Lee, passed away this week at the age of 56. She was a wonderful person as well as an exceptional librarian. I have had opportunity to work with her daughter Annie and you couldn't have known two nicer people.Annie loved her mother dearly and Helen loved Annie equally which was always demonstrated when you saw them together.

When I heard that Helen was running in the Cotton Row Marathon, it inspired me to take up running. Although I'm not a competitive runner, knowing that at age 50+ she was athletic and active made me want to get active too. All of my memories of Helen are of how strong she was, whether it was shown through running the Madison Public Library or in how loyal she was to her family and friends.

Helen, you will definitely be missed and God Bless you.

Here's a haiku im memory of Helen:

Helen, you will be missed
Your strength and poise was superb
It was an honor

Work haiku take two

I have no problem helping high schools kids but I do get extremely annoyed when the kids come in a large group and the groups are loud and unruly. I also find it ironic when there is a large group (around 7-10) and one teacher comes in the rule over them. At any rate, here's a poem I came up with to express my angst.

High school kids are dumb
Why must your group be so loud?
Turn your volume down

A work related haiku

Why is it that right after I help a patron by getting their library card number for them so they can use the computer, I turn around and get mooned? WTF!!! Okay, maybe mooned in not the right word but what else do you call seeing someone's barely covered butt and then watching them try to up pull their pants but not quite doing it fast enough? What is wrong with people? Anyway, in honor of this mooning mofo as well as other mofos like him, I have created a haiku. Enjoy!

Full moon out today?
Sir, please put your ass away
We all know crack's wack.

A Haiku for my SLIS sisters

In memory of a fun and memorable weekend of LS 501:Intro. to Library and Info. Science class in Gadsden filled with profanity ladden worksheets and cheesetastic 1980's videos, I created a haiku to reflect the good times had while having lunch at the Grind.

He promised warm cheese straws
However, no straws ever came
I am so saddened

Lucky.....yeah, if you say so

Today as I was talking with a co-worker, she was telling me about how her teenage son is having growth spurts and said she hoped he'd end up as tall as I am. What?

I am always confused by people who tell me how lucky I am to be tall. I don't feel particularly lucky...I just happened to get good genes when it comes to height. It just happened that my tall dad (6'1) and short mom (5'6) mom made me and I grew to be 5'11. I don't feel unusually special because I'm taller than a lot of people, as a matter of fact growing up, and my height was a real pain in the butt. I was the tallest person in the 5th grade (even taller than my teacher) and there's always the stereotype that because you're tall, you're good at basketball. Well I tried playing basketball and I sucked at it. I did however get a trophy but I think it was more for being on the team than any outstanding playing ability.

Another downside of being tall comes when you're starting to date. Although some girls dream about finding a guy who's tall, dark, and handsome, how many guy look for a girl whose tall, lighter, and beautiful? Not saying they aren't out there, I'm just saying that when I did go out with a guy, I was mostly drawn to guys slightly shorter than me. Why? I have no idea. Even my husband is slightly shorter than me and he likes to joke that he got with me "to knock out the short gene in his family). I guess I can see where he's coming from considering that his mom is 4'9 and his dad is 5'9.

I guess we’ve all say this sort of thing one time or another; see something in someone else we wish we had or were able to obtain and expressed how lucky they are. Then again I suppose I'm guilty of doing the same thing too; I often tell my best friend how lucky she is to be able to eat whatever she wants and not gain weight. The main lesson in doing this: the very thing you envy about someone else may be something that they view as a burden, a problem, or something that needs to be fixed.

California Screamin (thank God the nightmare is over)

Den and I are finally back from California and I'm so glad to be back. Although these trips are supposed to be vacation, they never are and we end up doing stuff for his mom or having to divide our time between his family members. This trip, we ended up installing doorknobs, overseeing facets being installed by plumbers, doing data entry for her church's website, and replacing light bulbs at his mom's house. I've already been told that when we come out in the spring or summer, we're going to be pulling up the shag carpet throughout the house and putting in a new bedroom suite. As you can see, I have a lot to look forward to. While this may seem like a lot of work, at this point, I'd much rather be doing this that the other option which is hanging out with Den's sister, D. the Disneyfreak.

D. (I don't know if I mentioned this or not) is Den's big sis and she has an unhealthy relationship with Disneyland. The reason I say her relationship is unhealthy is because every conversation has Disneyland in it, her and her husband have gone to Disneyland without their 11 year old son to punish him for bad behavior, she has used work and sick days to go to Disneyland, and she goes on vmk (virtual magic kingdom) religiously. I realize that she may view Disneyland as a coping mechanism because her life is crappy right now, however that is now reason to suck everyone else into your Disneyland obsession. We spent New Years at Disneyland although no one wanted to go but D. and had to listen while they (her and her hubby) complained about being there ( we were there from 7:00am-11:00pm New Year's Day). Another thing that irritated me was how many times D. had to check vmk. She constantly checked the site to play with her character then logged on with Den's character and played with that one too. When in a room full of people, she chooses to immerse herself in her virtual world and not engage in real life interaction. Even when we finally got to Disneyland, her favorite place in the world and the whole reason why she's on vmk in the first place what does she do? She logs on to vmk to let her online friends know shMe and Den are finally back from California and I'm so glad to be back.Although these trips are supposed to be vacation, they never are and we end up doing stuff for his mom or having to divide our time between his family members. This trip, we ended up installing door knobs, overseeing facets being installed by plumbers, doing data entry for her church's website, and replacing light bulbs at his mom's house. I've already been told that when we come out in the spring or summer, we're going to be pulling up the shag carpet throughout the house and putting in a new bedroom suite. As you can see, I have a lot to look forward to. While this may seem like a lot of work, at this point, I'd much rather be doing this that the other option which is hanging out with Den's sister, D. the Disneyfreak.

D. (I don't know if I mentioned this or not) is Den's big sis and she has an unhealthy relationship with Dinseyland. The reason I say her realtionship is unhealthy is because every conversation has Disneyland in it, her and her husband have gone to Dinseyland without their 11 year old son to punish him for bad behavior,she has used work and sick days to go to Disneyland, and she goes on vmk (virtual magic kingdom) religiously. I realize that she may view Dineyland as a coping mechanism because her life is crappy right now, however that is now reason to suck everyone else into your Disneyland obsession. We spent New Years at Disneyland although no one wanted to go but D. and had to listen while they (her and her hubby) complained about being there ( we were there from 7:00am-11:00pm New Year's Day). Another thing that irritated me was how many times D. had to check vmk. She constantly checked the site to play with her character then logged on with Den's character and played with that one too. When in a room full of people, she chooses to immerse herself in her virtual world and not engage in real life interaction. Even when we finally got to Dinseyland, her favorite place in the world and the whole reason why she's on vmk in the first place what does she do? She logs on to vmk to let her online friends know she's there. She even celebrated New Years online at a vmk party with her virtual friends.

I understand that people like things....there's nothing wrong with that but there is a point when you cross the line from enjoyment to obsession and I feel she definitely crossed that line there.