Eternal sunshine of my spotless mind

I stayed up the other nite and started the final book of the Twilight series. I was all excited. It started off very promising and I loved the different perspectives. I think she writes better from the male point of view... strange, huh? I have to say that the ending was one of the bigger disappointments in life. It reminded me of watching Episode 1 of the Star Wars series. I was so looking forward to it. It was like being in a car race and then getting a flat tire 100 feet away from the finish line. Ugh.

Oh, well. On to the next book...

My mood: great --less than 2 weeks away from Harry Potter and good news from Sis!!!!!

More about Breaking Dawn: Spoilers, so skip this if you don't wanna know what's going on.
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First of all, I was against Bella turning, so I actually liked the fact that she had to be changed. Loved the nitemares of demon babies and then ending up w/ a sweetie. Loved her special gift and her ability to use it. The whole Jacob imprinting thing just made me laugh. Too funny and yet kind of gross. My favorite book was Jacob's point of view. Glad to see him finally taking charge and no longer suffering. I guess I hated the ending because I was expecting a full bloodbath, no survivors, everyone hacked into pieces (like Harry Potter), but we got nothing. What was the point? And where did Alice suddenly come from? It was weird, like she got bored writing it or was too scared to kill off any main characters. The ending was too Disney for me.

Posted by Cora at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So the Gov is talking furlough. Very severe, a loss of 36 days of pay. We'll see if she can pull it off. That combined w/the extra $200 in medical will completely wipe out any savings I was going to put away for CP's college fund. Ah, well... we can always hope for brilliance and scholarships.

My mood: exhausted

Posted by Cora at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have spent a good part of my free time yesterday reading the entire online draft 4 of Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun, which is Twilight through the eyes of Edward. Though the book only covers part of the story, it is just fascinating to me and far better than the first book. I wonder if it is because she’s a better writer (with 5 books under her belt) or if it’s because it’s a better story. Bella’s story was full of girlish teen angst. Edward’s story is full of his thoughts and gives us a glimpse into his world and his family – the struggles they suffer due to their “vegetarian” lifestyle and his inner “teen” turmoil about the possibilities of loving a human being and her imminent penchant for trouble.

I am obsessed with the story. Great.

I am waiting for my copy of Eclipse to get back to the library. I have shown Edward-like restraint in not abusing my powers and buying another copy for the library. Sis has broken down and purchased all 4 books. Alas, I have suffered through the deaths of so many wonderful books thanks to the lovely book-killing climate called tropical paradise and cannot bear to watch another book yellow and die. Perhaps I could find a vampire to make them immortal. Ha ha ha.

Hot Link: Stephenie Meyer Midnight Sun

My mood: loopy (from lack of sleep and waking up early to make the requested spam musubi for cutie pie’s lunch) and irritated (that I have to go to work and my book will probably not be in. Aaargh!)

Posted by Cora at 06:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been resisting the pull of the Twilight series due to my strong loyalty to the Whedonverse of Buffy and Angel. After that love story, how can any other compare? Well, since there is no more B&A, I have to settle for B&E a.k.a. Bella and Edward. A watery, yet strangely addicting vampire / human love story. I kept telling myself that I would read the first so that I would find out what all the fuss was about, but I never did. Then the movie came out and I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie. Then I figured I would wait until it came out on DVD and when it did I reserved it twice at the library. Anyway, I had run out of other things to read, so I finally started it. I kept comparing it to Buffy even though I know it's a totally different story, I gotta tell ya, I loved it. I put the second and third books on hold and finished New Moon this weekend. Watched the Twilight movie later on that night. Now I'm scrambling on the internet for info on the next movie and am anxious to start reading book 3.

Trini asked me how I liked the movie since she hasn't seen it yet. I loved the casting of the Cullen family, except for Edward. I loved Robert as Cedric, but Robert as Edward, I'm not quite convinced. The rest of the family is great. I am also not fond of Bella. Maybe after the new movie I'll change my mind. My favorite scene of the whole movie is the baseball game. And, yes, they left out a whole lot of details, but I expected as much so it wasn't disappointing this time (compared to the first Harry Potter movie).

My mood: sugar high from leftover cotton candy

Posted by Cora at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Tues, Dec 9, my Cutie Pie was scheduled to have storytime w/my favorite children's librarian at his preschool. Now, she is only doing storytime because I asked her to do it and she loves Cutie Pie (not thrilled with this name, thinking it's gonna change again). On Mon, Dec 8, his stomach was sore at nite and he proceeded to vomit everything he ate onto everything in sight. He even was sick in his sleep. He woke up on Dec 9 and SAID he was fine. I, being overly optimistic, decided he was fine and able to go to school to see Auntie Nina do her Christmas storytime. Everything is going well. We get in the car and near Craig's Bakery (or the former site of...) he says to me "Mommy I don't feel good." I say "Okay, hold on we'll go home." Next thing you know... Bleah. All over the back of my car. YUCK!!!!! Words cannot describe the grossness of it all. Fortunately, he managed to get most of it all over himself. So I get him out of the car and into the bath and there's NO WAY he's gonna go to school now. Tantrum begins.

Auntie Nina calls me immediately after the program and asks "Is he sick?!" I tell her the whole gross story. She's devastated and says that he should come to the regularly scheduled storytime on Thursday and skip school because he missed it. I agree that it might be a good idea. He seems cool with the plan.

On Thurs, Dec 11 we awoke to a storm. Not just a storm. A bad storm. Electricity cuts out at the library at 6:30 a.m. and cuts out at home at 7:00 a.m. I am again, overly optimistic (or stupid) and we get into the car. I have to take him with me because no one else is home and I am convinced that his school will just close anyway since most of the public schools were shutting down (they did close the school). I figure the power would come back on and he could watch storytime and then Grandpa could pick him up afterwards. WRONG. Not only did we not get power back on at the library, but Auntie Nina lives where the water was high enough that she couldn't leave her street. So guess what? Storytime is cancelled and we ended up shutting down the library because the school campus closed and pools of water were beginning to form in our parking lot. He cried AGAIN.

Auntie Nina says we HAVE to do a storytime. So she did a special (unadvertised) Christmas program for my Cutie Pie, Trini's kids, and Heavenly (who happened to be in the library w/her Aunty at the time). He was thrilled. I was too.

My mood: exhausted-- I've got so many things to do before Christmas I don't even know where to begin...

Posted by Cora at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am fascinated by this book. It's a children's book in our collection, brand new. Here's a some cool info from the book (short version):

Solar system in a grocery bag:
1 large yellow grapefruit
1 box of salt
1 box of granulated raw sugar
1 cherry tomato
1 sm green grape
2 sm frozen peas
1 box baking soda
1 orange
3 rolls gauze bandage 25 feet long

Sun = a grapefruit (distances are from grapefruit)
Mercury = grain of salt 18 ft away
Venus = grain of raw sugar 34 ft away
Earth = grain of raw sugar 50 ft away
Mars = grain of salt 75 ft away
Ceres = speck of dust 150 ft away
Jupiter = cherry tomato 240 ft away
Saturn = green grape 420 ft away
Uranus = frozen pea 300 yards away
Neptune = frozen pea 470 yards away
Pluto = speck of baking soda 465-600 yards away
Eris = speck of dust 600-1050 yards away
Comet = tie 3 rolls of gauze together to make 70 ft long (size of great comet of 1843) distance from grapefruit not given
Proxima Centauri = orange 2400 MILES away (nearest star to our Sun)

My tiny little brain cannot even begin to imagine the depths of our universe or others nearby...

My mood: small, but happy to have a weekend upon me!

Posted by Cora at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Journal of mortifying moments: Cute. Therapist suggests a journal to help her understand why her relationship is failing. Her mortifying moments are a bit over the top, but pretty funny.

Last summer (of you and me): Sister drama. Very east coast, very touching. Characters were very well liked and I really wanted to get to the end of the book to find out the fate of the characters. Author wrote Sisterhood of the traveling pants series.

Heaven looks a lot like the mall: Teen read about a girl who is in a coma and flashes back through various events in her life. Enjoyable and I liked the format-- sort of like mini short stories.

It's a mall world after all: Teen chick lit. Girl sees boyfriend's best friend cheating on her. Tries to tell her, then has to prove it. She could have her own journal of mortifying moments... Teen romance & mall humor. Fun.

Dance of death: Pendergast (super bad-ass FBI agent who's as cool as a cucumber) novel. I love this series. Now I get the whole Margo thing... Too bad I've been reading them out of order.

Currently reading: Wheel of Darkness, Candyshop War, Alchemyst

Posted by Cora at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks Mr. Phil for this link. Think I'll share my results:

815 American speeches in English
881 Classical Greek poetry
004 Data processing & computer science

Damn Sis for introducing me to Mafia Wars on FB.

My mood: hurray for weekend!

Posted by Cora at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So had our dreaded booksale again. We made just over $500. Not bad considering the dismal primary voting turnout. The last primary election we made almost $700. Would have done better if we had realized that the school would be deserted today because of some district meeting or workshop so there was no school. No school = no kids = no shoppers. Unfortunately, my homeless friend Charles decided to pop in and visit. He's sort of icky and likes to talk to me about how he went to some ivy league college. He's always talking about some great work of literature or somthing religious or political. I don't know why strange, smart, and icky people are drawn to me at the library. I should just tell him, that just because I'm a librarian doesn't mean I read Chaucer or Keats or even Frost (his current topic of the day). My current books are the Journal of mortifying moments and the Unofficial guide to Disneyland. I read trash people! And I'm proud of it. I also read children's books. My next books will be the Magician (bk 2 of the Alchemyst series).

Lobby door was broken, thankfully not because of little hoodlums, but just a broken push bar.

Aunty J called tonite and as we were talking she told me that my blog popped up when you do a search for my name. Yikes! So much for anonymity. Fixed that! Turns out my name popped up because I posted the news articles with my names in them. Yikes! That reminded me that I got a call last week from the Midweek asking about the funding for our new roof. So I quickly ran downstairs to grab the paper to make sure I didn't end up saying anything stupid. Phew. Not bad, but never great. I'm just not a spur-of-the-moment commentator. I need a few minutes to get witty. I blame that on my dad almost drowning me when I was little... just kidding.

My mood: headachy and itchy

Posted by Cora at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Friday, the 2nd grade teacher came in with her class. She borrowed a DK book on architecture (lots of great photos) and was showing some of the kids. One of the kids looks at a picture of the Eiffel Tower and says "I know where that is!" She was impressed and the kid says "Las Vegas." Then the kid says "And the lady with the book, she's in Las Vegas too."

Cute, and somehow scary (I do realize the kid's in 2nd grade).

My mood: better after a night of possible very mild food poisoning from dinner (spicy ahi?) at a tiny Japanese restaurant near the mall-- and yet it was delicious

Posted by Cora at 07:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week everyone was sick, I did ANOTHER story time.

Theme: Counting & Numbers

Books:
One hungry monster by Susan Heyboer O'Keefe

Little Quack's hide and seek by Lauren Thompson

If mom had three arms by Karen Kaufman Orloff

One duck stuck by Phyllis Root

Craft: Five fish in a bowl

A sure sign of success is when all of your story time books get checked out after story time. Yeah! Survived another story time...

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Happy Birthday My divine Miss M!

My mood: tired

Posted by Cora at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the summer reading program the theme was bug related. One of the prizes (which is his favorite) is a plastic bee. It's about 1-1/2 inches long and has clear plastic wings and most importantly it has a stinger.

He spent part of one evening stinging me, which promted me to put the bee on a time out for the rest of the evening. The bee came down off the refrigerator tonight along with the threat of additional time out for repeated stinging of mommy. So the bee happily came down and proceeded to sting the trains, sofa and cousin. The bee did not sting me once.

C-Man says "Mommy I'm not stinging you." Then he begins to shoot me with the bee's antennae accompanied by loud laser gun noises and spittle.

My mood: sore feet from retail therapy. Did not do much damage, which is sad but good for my bank.

Posted by Cora at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A better entry would have been Cats in the microwave, but fortunately, this is not an entry about manapua.

Cat story #1: Aunty M has a cat named Ditto. Last weekend when she had some family over, her sister-in-law said that her neighbor has a Myspace account and that there's a picture of Aunty M's cat on her web page. The caption is "Me and my cat RUFUS." So they all went on Myspace and checked out the neighbor's space and sure enough there's Ditto a.k.a. Rufus with the neighbor all cuddly and cute. FUNNY! The neighbor does know that the cat belongs to Aunty M and she knows his name is Ditto.

Cat story #2: Nina has a cat, Newt. One day she's looking for her cat outside and is calling him. She hears a tiny meow and looks up to find her cat staring at her from inside the neighbor's 2nd floor room. She went next door to talk to her neighbor and let her know her cat was in their house and to apologize. The neighbor said she knows and that Newt comes to visit them every day through the cat door.

Microwave (no cat in this section): My tech is wonderful, but clumsy. Last week she set the microwave on fire. Rather, she set the laulau on fire inside the microwave. Somehow she set the timer on 30 minutes and left the microwave on. After about 5 minutes there was smoke. Apparently the laulau ignited from the middle and when she retrieved it and doused it in the sink it was smoking like a meteorite and had melted the bottom of her rubbermaid container. The entire library (it's not that big) stank of burnt laulau. We had to open the one window in the staffroom and the front doors to air out the building. Our microwave still smells like smoke.

My mood: exhausted and looking forward to the weekend.

Posted by Cora at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, I was reading a book called the Companies we keep 2. The first book of the series was okay, it focused on actual companies in Hawaii. This one is more interesting for me. It had tidbits about Hawaii's past that I didn't know about. Fascinating and I highly recommend it. Anyway, in the back there's a section with Hawaii trivia questions. One of them was about Rap Replinger and his comedy routines. I was impressed with myself because I got most of them right. Woohoo. It makes me want to dig out my CD Poi dog with crabs and listen to it. Let's face it, Rap Reiplinger was a genius. The CD brings back memories of my childhood. I think we spent many evenings listening to a cassette at home. And for a little bit of trivia about my family... did you know that my bro's name came from my suggestion after listening to skit the Young kanakas? A-Ha! Well, there was also a boy from my class with the same name too.

So one of my more brilliant moments as a librarian occurred this afternoon. We were discussing one of the questions in the book about one of his skits (Room service) and I decide that I need to know the answer. I search the collection for the CD, but it's out. Then I try one of the other CDs to see if it's on the "best of," but am horrified to find that it isn't. Then I do a stupid internet search. As I am doing this, the thought occurs to me that below the title of the quiz is a little sentence that says "Answers on page 235 (or whatever page it's on)" DUH! What can I say? I'm enthusiastic about my job...

Posted by Cora at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pardon me, I need to vent...

The most annoying thing about ADA is that the people who are protected by it are people that are most NOT deserving of it. I am constantly appalled by the use of the "ADA card" by persons that this Act is supposed to protect. We all got a little information at our meeting on Wednesday (because someone was contacted by a lawyer of an ADA client for a possible violation), that just makes me want to find a really wealthy man and marry him so that I can quit my day job...

The ADA defines a service animal as any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. If they meet this definition, animals are considered service animals under the ADA regardless of whether they have been licensed or certified by a state or local government.

At our meeting we were told:

- we could not ask if the animal was a service animal, but could only ask the person if the animal was a pet and if they say yes then we can ask them to take the animal outside. Better yet, they tell us that we should not even ask if the animal is quiet and not bothering anyone. In other words, ignore the rule

- we cannot kick out a person with a smelly service animal, although our rules say we can kick out a smelly person for disruptive behavior -- apparently odor is disruptive when it's on a human, but not an animal--- oh, wait, I forgot the "ADA card" trumps all. Ooh I raise my hand and ask: "Wait, what if the ADA person is smelly?" Response: "Don't even go there."

- if a person comes in with animal allergies and there is a service animal in the facility, we are to inform the poor allergic patron that they need to either remove themselves from the vicinity of the animal or choose to return at another time. Trump again.

- we are not required to provide care or food or a special location for the animal. What? You mean I don't need to keep Alpo in the library??? Wait, I think there might be a change coming...

- we may exclude any service animal, when that animal's behavior poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others. For example, any service animal that displays vicious behavior towards other guests or customers may be excluded. You may not make assumptions, however, about how a particular animal is likely to behave based on your past experience with other animals. Each situation must be considered individually. So if someone comes in with their therapy boa constrictor I'm supposed to ignore it until it growls or bites someone...

- etc....

Don't get me wrong, I am really not some heartless bitch. I am all for protecting the rights of ALL people. My irritation to this whole thing is since when are one person's rights more important than another's? It's like getting an ADA immunity card. I'm covered by ADA, so the rules don't apply to me... and the most irritating thing about it is when disabled people purposely pull out the "ADA card" and trump your stupid rules and then give you that smug your-silly-human-rules-don't-apply-to-me smile.

I guess you could compare this with smoking. I give a big hurray for our no smoking laws because I find smoking repulsive, but I think the laws state that you can only smoke in your home in the closet with a special vent that sucks up the fumes so that the mice don't get cancer, only you. I was always of the theory that if I don't like the smell or want to get cancer, I should stay away from someone smoking, but if they want to smoke, it's their right.

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Speaking of rights... I was reading an article in the U.S. News & World Report. In Japan, if you're too fat, the government thinks that your a health risk and they can force you to exercise and eat healthier.

There’s now a national law in Japan that requires companies and local governments to measure the waistlines of those between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. The government’s waistline limits are 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women. If they also have a weight-related illness and don’t lose weight after three months, they’ll get some special education on dieting. Companies and local governments that don’t reach specific targets will be fined.

I wonder how that law would go over in the good old obese U.S.A.?

My mood: wondering why I'm up so early on a Saturday morning...

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Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!

Posted by Cora at 05:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To say I hate her is to put it mildly. I detest, abhor, and loathe her. She frequents 3 libraries on my side. My co-workers often refer to her as Jabba the Hutt. When she compliments me I feel like I've been slimed. I feel dirty. I want her to take it back.

She has launched many complaints against the library, our policies, our staff, etc. Her newest complaint is that she's disabled and needs the library to fix or repair "her" chair so that she can use the computer to work on her court papers (she's suing the state-- ironic, since she's using state property to do her legal work), thankfully this new scheme to get her way is not aimed in my direction, but a neighbor library. The chair is perfectly usable (by normal-sized people), but because of her vastness, the chair sinks when she sits on it. She's threatening to sue. I told the boss there that they should sue her for breaking state property. Ha, ha.

At another location, one of our librarians just lost her husband (he passed away last week). She was working when Jabba asked for an extension of her computer time. The librarian told her no because there were other people waiting to use the computers. Jabba started to complain and go on and on and on. The librarian was a little sensitive and explained to her that her husband just passed away last week. Jabba said "Well at least you had a husband. I've never been married." WTF! I can't believe that she said that to her. The poor librarian started sobbing. I was outraged when I heard the story. Fortunately, she didn't slither into my library or I'd probably say something that would get us sued.

My mood: headachy thinking about the situation & trying to focus on my holiday.

Posted by Cora at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I first got to my branch, I told them that there were 2 things that I would never do:
1. Storytime
2. Plastic clear (which I know I'm spellng wrong, I think it starts with a K)

About 2 weeks ago, I spent the morning putting those stupid plastic sleeves on the hardcover books with jackets. It was incredibly tedious and I am not good at it and hated every minute of it, but the books are starting to pile up in the back and they needed to get out.

Today, I did storytime. Now, let me tell you about storytime at my library. It is legendary. People come from my hometown and even as far as 2 towns away to have my children's librarian tell storytime. She is that good. Our storytime brings in about 40-50 people average every week. Which, for us is huge. So my children's librarian is on vacation and our tech is supposed to do it. Guess what? She called in sick today. So I hauled my feverished, but Tylenoled child to Auntie M's and dragged my ass to the library to do a fr*ckin' storytime. Because I can't say no to 40-50 people. So I get there and frantically try to throw something together. The theme was the letter "T" and here were my books:

Tacky the penguin / Helen Lester. (Tacky)

Scoot! / Cathryn Falwell. (Turtles)

The three little fish and the big bad shark / Ken Geist. (Three)

Smash! Mash! Crash! There goes the trash! / Barbara Odanaka. (Trash)

Goodnight train / June Sobel. (Train)

I SANG the opening song, I did the story about the rainbow boxes, I read some books, I SANG the turtle song, I read some more books, I SANG the closing song, and we did some train coloring pages. I SANG in public. That hasn't happened since elementary school. Must not have been too bad, no one left and I'm still alive. One grandma (a regular who hasn't been to storytime before) said she'll bring her grandson every week-- she came with his skills trainers. I told her I wasn't the regular storytime person and she said "Really? I couldn't tell." That was a nice.

My mood: hot, vog-filled and tired

Posted by Cora at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rereading one of my favorite strips...

Posted by Cora at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I rarely read the comic strip section of the paper since the ending of my beloved Bloom County and Peanuts. Someone told me about this a few weeks ago and it really made my day. Oh, Hill, just give up already... please.

Booksale tomorrow. Crap.

a slacker at heart
extra day of work ahead
weekend invaded

My mood: not thrilled, but still looking forward to my condensed weekend

Posted by Cora at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Work has been tough.
- Had a bunch of DAGS guys come by to change my lights (no Mr. DAGS because he's not an electrician), take pictures, and look over the building for a retrofit.
- Had a PO for a safe guy to come to work on our safe. It's been so long since we last used it (several months) that the person who usually opens the safe forgot the combination. I have the only printed copy of the combination and I couldn't find it. The safe guy waited around for about 10 minutes, then left for lunch. He said he would call back and see if we could find the combination. If not it would cost an extra $100 to drill it open. Of course, 5-minutes after he left, I found the combination. It was sitting right on the corner of my computer desk upside down.
- Spent an entire day at the bookstore w/my children's librarian and spent $1600. We bought 124 books. Doesn’t seem like much, especially with the 30% discount we get.
- Had a patron yell at me. He said I had a bad attitude, told me that I probably thought my sh*t didn't stink and then asked me what I was looking at. I actually thought he was going to hit me, but he didn't. The weird thing was, I don't even know what I did...
- Drove to Kapolei to be on an interview panel (Richard lied. He once tried to convince me to work there and told me it takes only 20 minutes to get to Kapolei from Auntie M's. It took me 40 minutes. Of course he weaves in and out of traffic in his bitty sports car and drives like a maniac, so I guess it would take him half the time). Had a nice lunch with some colleagues.

I'm glad tomorrow is Friday. I at least get to spend it shopping. Need to finish off my book buying for the year (online) and hopefully no one will come to yell at me. I don't think I can take much more driving, drama, and stress.

I think I need to do my taxes this weekend. Crapmonkey.

Tonight, after a very cardio Kathy class, we (Kathy, Annie, Sandy, Dan, KK, and I) took a field trip to visit Aaron at his new store location. He's quite the entrepreneur with 2 locations -one at Windward Mall and the second opening up last week at Ala Moana. We’re all proud of him. I tried the apple that was coated with Oreo cookies, milk chocolate, peanut butter chips and gummy worms (not my first choice, but I figured I could bring the leftovers home for C-Man to enjoy). It was sweet, but so good. I used to LOVE caramel apples. I won’t buy them from the carnival anymore. Once, Ex and I went to the Punahou carnival (when we lived next door) and bought one to take home. When I got home and looked at it in the light, I think we dumped it because it was so gross. The apple wasn’t even washed and you could see dirt in the core area. Yuck.

Am in the mood to bake. Think I will make cookies this weekend (if I have time). Am inspired by the new cookbooks I bought.

Hot link: Drool at the Swirl site.

My mood: sleepy, in pain, and a little ill from the late night dessert

Posted by Cora at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's my work day:

Spent the day trying to get out requisitions for purchase orders. Need to find book trucks, someone to fix our safe, and miscellaneous other things. Half the morning on the phone, faxing, etc.

Around noon, a guy comes into the library. He looks young to me (I thought he was a teenager or maybe 20) and asks about getting a library card and wants to know how he can get a job working in the library. I look at him, he's obviously high on some illegal substance and not someone I would hire in my library even if I had an opening. Anyway, turns out that he already has a library card registered so can't get a new card w/o paying for it. He says some obscenities, rips his application in half and chucks in the trash and leaves. Oh, did I mention that he just got out of prison (I get that a lot, why is it that when people come out of prison, they feel the need to brag about it?). Anyway, one of our regular patrons (a homeless guy) checks outside and discovers that his bike is gone. He didn't lock it up, but never does. Two little kids say that a guy got on the bike and took off. Needless to say, today was career day on campus so there were lots of cops around, but they were doing keiki ID, so we had to call 911 and have 4 other officers dispatched to take the police report. Our brilliant ex-con (who pitched his unused application with his name, address and telephone number into the trash in the public area) I think is out of luck. Hopefully our homeless (and now bikeless) patron will get his bike back before brilliant ex-con can sell it or dump it...

So the cops ask my tech and I for a description of the guy. She remembers him with a light colored (not sure what color) t-shirt. I remember him with a white tank top. Hmmm. She says he was built. I thought he was skinny. She remembers brown board shorts. I remember red board shorts. Did we see the same guy???? Oh, she says the thing she remembers most about him is that he was definitely wearing light blue underwear. HUH??? Apparently when I was not around he stood up, bent over and his shorts fell down. She said she was sitting behind the counter looking at his butt. Why do I always miss the good stuff?

Did I mention that one of the police officers was hot? But he's got a son who reads Stephen King books (he bought a few books from our continuous book sale) and I'm assuming a wife. I didn't notice his ring finger, so I guess that's a sign that I wasn't that interested anyway.

I can't remember how I spent the rest of the work day. Hmmm. Must not have been as exciting.

Hot Links:
Just some general tips for the general public
Librarian Dress Up
Ten reasons to be/not to be a librarian

My mood: on a natural weekend high. Frustration with Macy's has diminished, but not completely -- and they just sent me a new Platinum Macy's card

Posted by Cora at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I read the Secret by Rhonda Byrne. In it she talks about the universe being magnetic, people's frequencies and vibrations and all that new agey crap. I think there's a vibe in the universe for the owner of the now defunct sugar company in the town where I work. Last week the 5x-great granddaughter of the founder came in doing research on the company. I helped her find some cool stuff. Today a prof called on the phone doing research on Queen Kap. The queen apparently stayed at the main home of this sugar company owner (who is descendent of Hawaiian royalty). The prof thinks she lived in the home in the 1980's and is trying to determine if the home she stayed in is the plantation home of the owner. I couldn't figure out exactly where the home was, because they don't say. I suggested that she try to find the address of the home and check out the tax map key to see when the house was built. Dunno if that will work, but I also suggested the archives, the Hawn Hist Soc, Bishop Mus, the main library or UH.

I've been looking up some cool Hawaiiana stuff for the locals. One man was trying to find a picture of the old electric buses from the 1940's so he could paint a picture of it for his friend who was a bus driver back then. Lots of genealogy questions and questions about old Hawaii. I like helping the elder patrons because they're just a little loopy and tell the most fascinating stories.

And they think I'm so fabulous.

I have a cool job.

Happy belated birthday to Darren (hmmm, lots of librarian birthdays in March... coincidence too?)

My mood: great

Posted by Cora at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm back and alive.

In the library world, part of my job is reader's advisory. This means I'm supposed to read so that I can recommend stuff to people. Been reading trash again. In addition to endless self-help books, I have also been reading the following treasures:

How to be cool (Johanna Edwards) - Fun chick-lit about a former fattie turned beauty. Recommended it to one of my patrons (not the one who wants quality literature).
Later, at the bar (Rebecca Barry) - Strange novel told in short stories about a bunch of regulars who hang out in a bar in a small town. Kind of engrossing once you get into it.
Love in the time of cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) - yes, I'm still reading this one... I told my therapist that I try reading to get to sleep, mostly classics or self-help books. This is one of the books I use to get to sleep.
The next big thing (Johanna Edwards) - same author who writes about young large women who want to be thin. This one's about a girl who joins the cast of a reality show Fat to Fabulous. Not as good as the first one I read.
Children learn what they live: parenting to inspire values (Dorothy Law Nolte) - I like this one. Sort of like the commandments for parenting.
The secret (Rhonda Byrne) - I figure I should read this, it's self-helpy, very popular in the library, and full of crap
Men, love and sex: the complete user's guide for women (David Zinczenko) - from the editor of the men's version of Cosmo: Men's Health magazine. I know it's full of self-reported (thus highly inflated) statistical crap, but it's kind of fun to read. Who knows, I might find something useful in it.
The right questions: ten essential questions to guide you to an extraordinary life (Debbie Ford) - Kind of inspiring. Can't get into it right now.
Shortcut through therapy (Richard Carlson) - got this one from Nina. She thinks I need it.
Best of the bake-off cookies and bars (Pillsbury) - Lots of stuff I want to make.
The Ghirardelli chocolate cookbook - Definitely going to take the recipe for individual chocolate lava cakes (yum), black and white macaroons (for when sis comes again), chocolate dessert cups, and the triple chocolate truffle cake.

Another part of reader's advisory is to also be well versed in the media world (people can never remember names of movies so they describe them to you in detail and tell you who's in them and you get to figure it out like a mystery), so I get to read People magazine (without feeling embarassed) and watch movies. This weekend I took home Beowulf and Stardust. C-Man and I tried to watch Beowulf, but he got too scared in the first 10 minutes (Okay, I knew he would, but he insisted that he wanted to watch it with me), so I turned it off and haven't gotten back to it yet (we ended up watching Little Einsteins My big, huge adventure). I suppose I should have put in Stardust instead, but there's a witch in it and he's scared of witches too. I should have brought home Meet the Robinsons or another cartoony one.

Posted by Cora at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today a woman came into the library. She was haole, looked like she's from the neighboring town where I live. She's read the Kite Runner and the Road and other works of literature and she's looking for more. My tech and I suggested Alexander McCall Smith, Philippa Gregory, Amy Tan, Beloved, Memory Keeper's Daughter, Pillars of the Earth, etc. I suggested any of the Oprah books. She says "I don't want Oprah, I want quality literature. How about a Pulitzer prize winner?" So I begin searching and find that we only have Middlesex (also an Oprah book) but it's out. We have no other Pulitzer books in my library. Not that it's a big surprise, we don't have a lot of people into snobby "literature" here. I put a couple on hold for her and suggested that she go to the "other" library for more choices. My readers like romance, mystery, thrillers and bestsellers so that's what I got. I suggested One hundred years of solitude by Garcia Marquez. I get it for her, she sees the Oprah sticker on it a wrinkles her nose. I then point out that he is a Nobel prize winning author and suddenly she's interested in it. What a SNOB. I wanted to tell her that I know someone who thinks that all literature after 1600 is rubbish and then I wanted to get a Nora Roberts books and shove it down her throat. She ended up leaving with the No.1 ladies detective agency (after discovering the author was British!), One hundred years of solitude, the Great Gatsby and the Alchemist. Hopefully she'll go to the "other" library and leave us alone.

Today was deserving of the Harry & David dark chocolate bing cherries, so they're finally opened (thank sis).

My mood: happy (according to C-Man)

Posted by Cora at 07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm in the paper again! At least this time I sound intelligent. Of course, they spelled my name wrong and I'm not a front page headline. Cool, I seem to be in the paper at least once a year. Here is this year's article:

Hawaii libraries face challenges ahead

Continue reading "Quotable me" »

Posted by Cora at 08:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the horrendous article from last year...

Homes, roads from Makiki to Kane'ohe inundated

You can't see it on the article, but the headline in huge bold letters said...

"LIKE THE SKY WAS FALLING"

I have a child, so that's my excuse.

Continue reading "Quotable me, pt.2" »

Posted by Cora at 08:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Although I have been on this Earth for all of 37 years, I don't feel much older than a teenager. Okay, a teenager with a child, bills, and various ailments of adulthood.

Today, I went to the Big Island to teach a workshop on Publisher for various library people. I went to the airport in my teachery ensemble, complete with chartreuse handbag, long black pants, loud clacky shoes and a top that no teenager would be caught dead in. Not in my normal element of jeans and Gapish tops. It is one of the few occassions in my life when I actually felt like an adult, sitting amongst the aloha shirt clad set of island yuppiedom sipping my coffee from the evil empire of Starbucks. To appease the inner child within, I opted for my butterfly covered iPod and finished watching the 40 year old virgin (I've been watching it in various stages for months now). I have to say it was a pretty good movie, except the lead character reminded me of Ex-- in the major action figure collector way. Ex probably owns some of the action figures that were being sold off on Ebay (not the GI Joes). It was scary.

The Hilo library is very cool. It reminds me of my first job working in a library. It's mostly open air and has that old building and old book feel. Their media collection is open for people to browse, I guess they don't have to worry about theft like we do. Every time I go to Hilo I feel like I've taken a step back in time. To a time when you could leave your doors unlocked and not be afraid. It's very laid back and you don't feel rushed. It would be a nice place to live, except it's too country for me and I would go nuts living on that island. As I left, we flew past a snow covered Mauna Kea. It was breathtaking and just beautiful.

Well, the last class of the year is taught. There is a possibility that they will extend into next year, but I don't have to worry about that for now. Just other various work-related end-of-year deadlines to worry about. At least my LA will be on vacation from next week, so we're free (did I ever mention how much we hate him?) for the rest of the year!

My mood: surviving, 3 weeks and counting...

Posted by Cora at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My throbbing thumb and I survived the day. You know when you bite your cheek and then keep biting the same spot? Well, the same theory works for the thumb. I managed to smash it in a book AND to somehow throw my book bag onto it. Not to mention the numerous times it's been grabbed by C-Man. Needless to say, I seem to bruise easily, so I expect my nail to turn black and then fall off any day now. That's always attractive.

My day did not start off well. I went to bed late last nite, as has been my usual lately. My insomnia wakes me somewhere between 3 and 4 in the morning and I no matter what I try, I can't fall back asleep. Of course, because I needed to get to Aiea by 8:30, I somehow managed to pass out and I suddenly jolted awake to the bright light of the morning. Shit. It was 7:00. Took the fastest shower ever, got ready, refilled the dog water bowl, fed them snackies, found foam coffee cups, green tea bags, cut a bunch of grapes into smaller bunches, woke the sleeping babe, changed him, made him pee and left the house by 7:35. No panic. I drove across town (it's not that big of a town) to drop him off at Auntie M's and was off. Fortunately, there were no missing hikers this morning and I did not encounter any accidents, large vehicles, or drivers adhering to the speed limit (I guess everyone was running late).

Made it to Aiea by 8:35. Managed to lug teaching materials, refreshments and my sorry ass up to the office. Musson is a dream. She had the coffee brewing, hot water hotting, and had a beautiful table for my Costco muffins and other assorted snacking devices.

Class went smoothly, I don't think anyone knew I was not really prepared. I can say, that I train well (or so I've been told and have been asked to do training on several software systems). I actually do enjoy it. I've been a little isolated in my rural library, so the requests don't come as often. I am in fear of losing my computer skills. I probably couldn't set up a network to save my life and I'm sure my HTML is antiquated. At least I still have my Hawaii & Pacific website to keep me busy. Tangent, I know...

Following the class, I had a nice lunch with Musson. I can breathe a sigh of relief for now. The next class will be in December on the Big Island. Not looking foward to the plane ride (actually it's the waiting for the plane ride that's a drag). Should be easier now that I have a better idea of the time frame of each exercise and the throbbing in my thumb should be pau.

Typing is proving to be quite difficult so I'll stop here.

My mood: enjoying the quiet before the holiday madness... need to find stuffing recipe...

Posted by Cora at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have had a headache for the last few days. Must be the weather. And the fact that my son is now 3. All of a sudden he's being such a pill and just not listening to anything I say. I guess that's not so different from before...

Booksale was hectic and just a mess. The good news is that we made $676. Not bad for 7 hours. It's over and I can rest until April. Not really. We need to work on our 30th anniversary celebration and our amitious ethnic cultural series for next year. They asked if we could do it. I'm fine with it as long as I'm not the one that has to do all the work. I did do the grant, we'll see what happens next. Packing up the booksale took forever (with only 3 people) and then I had to do my usual work. My office is a mess due to my absence for the last few weeks. I have a stack of mail that is literally a foot high and a few boxes of books to sort through, in addition to all the junk that was sitting there before I went to do those interviews. The weather didn't help any. Our phone lines have been either not working or are wet and have lots of static and our internet connection was mostly down yesterday and today. Oh, and I have to teach a Publisher class to a bunch of library people in 2 weeks. So I guess I better get started on it. Also on my plate, working more w/the future big boss. Sounds exciting, but tiring. Possibly more driving too, not looking forward to that.

Looking forward to my day off and the holiday weekend.

My mood: overwhelmed, drained, and in need of a massage.

Posted by Cora at 05:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have spent several days at my previous place of employment on an interview panel. I find it strange to be one of 4 who gets to choose who is worthy of employment. A job interview is such a life altering decision that you have no control over. I like to hear what's going on at the university from recent graduates. I am heartened by their enthusiasm and it rekindles me and makes me glad that I do what I do. For a brief moment I am washed with their optimism in life and the changes they think they will create in the world as adults.

I miss working there. I miss the company of colleagues (most of them). Not that I don't love the hard-working people I currently work with. And mostly, I miss the city life. I miss the Lebanese restaurant, the dim sum place, shopping, & running into ghosts from my past. It is fun to relive it for a few days.

For today, I am back to my rural library.

My mood: happy -- it's Friday!

Posted by Cora at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was a lovely fall morning and the country mouse had to go into the big city. She woke up very early and thinking she had a full hour and parking right outside the building, she set on her merry way. Little did she know that there would be a major traffic jam. She mumbled a few choice words along with her usual traffic mantra "Patience is a virtue" and called her loving sister to keep her mind off the long line of red lights that lay before her. It was long and tedious, but her sister kept her spirits high. Upon learning the reason for the lane blockage on the Pali, she wished the lost traveler well, but didn't see why it couldn't have waited until 9:00 for the search. Feeling little sympathy and now late for work, the country mouse finally made it into the tunnel and her way was free and clear. She made it to work only a few minutes late.

Woohoo.

My mood: tired

(can you tell, I've been reading vast quantities of children's books lately?)

Posted by Cora at 09:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)