Sigh, Home Sweet Home

We’ve only been home 2 days and I’m ready to go back. Yesterday was a fine day. I got to see my Nevadan Siblings for breakfast, then got a lot done at work. Did some texting with The Boy and set up the weekend plans.

Today has been another story. I got up early and pretty cheerfully and saw everyone off to school, then started some laundry. On my second attempt at switching to the dryer (do those timers ever really tell you how long it’s going to take?) I locked myself out of the house. In my bathrobe. Yes.

I managed to get back inside in less than half an hour. I won’t say how, but I was relieved. I’d envisioned waiting for the dryer to be done, getting some clothes and walking to the library to throw myself on their mercy to call The Mr. I didn’t want him to have to leave work or me to have to wait around until the dryer was done and dress in the basement…

That was annoying thing number one.

I did a couple more chores, then headed out on my bike to meet my friend Diva for lunch. The ride and the lunch went fine, although the topic was a sad one and by the end I was exhausted. I decided to ride right home instead of the longer training ride I’d planned. I sat on the couch, watched Castle and started coughing up a lung. The jury is still out if I am getting sick.

That’s somewhat annoying thing number 2.

I had to go get some sugar and a few other essentials a the store, and that’s when I discovered annoying thing number three. Poor patient Betty was vandalized. Her back little passenger side triangle window was broken out, three doors were left unlocked and as far as I can tell nothing was taken. It seemed both mean and dismissive at the same time. My imagination has come up with the story of a couple of ner-do-well young adults coming along, seeing Betty, thinking of a smash and grab then realizing they had the wrong car. They sat in her for a few minutes to get warm and moved on. I am a little surprised they didn’t take the hat I bought for The Boy in Mexico, but that was the only thing in there worth anything. The radio would be a real pain to get out of the dash, as are the speakers. They didn’t even take the change in the ashtray.

Anyhow, do you think that the universe will align to give me some sun for tomorrow?

Do you think Betty will forgive me for leaving her in the rain with a busted window?

Traveling

Nothing like a trip to Cable to make you want to blog. We are having a wonderful time in the sun.

The last is Chris and his sister st a great restaurant we found in Todos Santos, El Zaguan.

One Week!

One week from now, this time, I should be at the end of my first day of STP.  I missed my last semi-long training ride yesterday.  I thought I had the day off, but was sadly informed that was not so by a coworker the day before.  I have my priorities straight though, I did get off a bit early yesterday to go to the International Beerfest at the Seattle Center with a couple of friends.

The new Mr. rode in STP in previous years but told me he’ll only ride next year if we do it in one day. I did ask for a boyfriend that would challenge me ;)  He’s not riding this year, although he is meeting me in Portland on Sunday and driving me back on Monday.  He’ll get to attend our celebratory dinner as well.  The first part of the weekend he’s moving his sailboat down from Anacortes to a much closer moorage.

I’m currently missing him since he and the girls are camping at Mount Rainier and I am stuck here working.  Crossword puzzle lady has called twice, which would be great to break up the time if she weren’t so annoying.  Soon I get to go home and partake of a bbq that my housemates are throwing.

Paperback Riders Rule!

Alexsis’ comment on my last post reminded me that I should update.  The Paperback Riders did come in first, both in miles (widely) and percentage (barely).  I’m really proud of my team and I have heard from other staff that observing us participate in Bike to Work month has motivated them to start riding to work as well.  Which is really the goal, right? ;)

I’ve finally done some real riding on the Surly, and she is a beautiful machine.  Really light and fast.  I went on a short ride with the new Mr. a week ago and I blasted up a big hill, leaving him in the dust.  Evidently he didn’t realize I had it in me and had settled in for a long slow climb.  Oops, I’ve got to stop complaining about hills. It gives the wrong impression.

I just got back from a Union convention in LA, where the only exercise I got was swimming in the salt water pool on the roof of our hotel and lots of walking. And breathing, that felt like exercise in LA.

Salt water pool on top of the Standard

Now it’s time to start training again.

It’s been 4 months since my last post

That sounds like an admission of guilt or something.  In reality, I’ve just been living and not really had anything I wanted to write about.  Life keeps on moving.  The boy went back to his father’s house shortly after my last post, things got really busy at the library and my energy was needed for other things.

On to bigger and better things:

May is bike to work month and I’ve been going full swing.  My plan is to ride 100% to work this month and I’ve done it so far, with only a few days left to go.  I’ve got 227 commuting miles under my belt and have actually ridden at least 20 more (I stopped keeping track) for side trips before or after work.  My team is amazing, having ridden 1130 miles this month so far.  We’re beating our rival team by over 200 miles.

The boy and I went to the University Street Fair on Saturday and we got him a bunch of art supplies for his birthday.  I let him pick what he wanted, but was happy that he asked my opinion.  I’m not terribly artistic, but I’ve used most mediums at some point or another and have had artists as friends, so I was able to steer him towards some nice brush and thin tip markers and we got him a calligraphy set inspired by an artist we saw at an all ages show last year.

On Sunday we went to my dad’s and I put the new bike together…well, mostly.  It turns out I was missing a headset, so I’ve ordered that and I don’t think that will be hard to put on.  Then I’ll need to practice because I’ve never spent much time on a road bike.  It’s really different from the upright of a mountain bike.  I am so excited to ride this bike during STP.

And finally, I’m seeing a new special someone.  It’s only been a couple of weeks, but I’m optimistic (probably too much so).  I keep expecting someone to jump out at me and say “you’re not allowed to be this happy, give that back!”  He’s sweet and strong and fun and that’s all you get for now.

Ciao!

A whole lot of nothing and some snow

Wow, I haven’t been here for a while.  Lots of things have changed and every time I sat down to write all of it felt a little too heavy to drop on the page.  Nothing is bad, there was just a lot of life going on.

I suppose bad is relative though.  I did break up with the Mister.  Long distance relationships wear you down after a while, and for me, our relationship got worn down to nothing.  There’s no he said, she said, just an end and a new beginning.  I am happy being single and it isn’t that different from being in a long distance relationship.  At the moment, I’m happy being me.  Maybe someone else will come along that is also happy with me being me and we can be happy together.  There should probably be a law against using the word happy that many times in a paragraph.

Libraryland has been wonderful.  I’ve been participating in our programming committee and feel like this is a group who’s work will make a difference.  I got approved to have a Teen Space at my branch too, in addition to Teen Advisory, so now we will have a once a month hang out spot just for teens.  Reading Marathon is coming up in about a week and we go next week to the middle school to promote it at lunch hour.  I love having a specific program to promote–ok, I just love tabling and all the teens I see.  I feel like a mini celebrity bribing the kids with candy to love me (I mean, love the library of course). Oh and we got a new regional manager.  Yup, another new manager.

The Boy is very nice to have around.  He’s at an awkward phase where he wants to be a gentleman, but he forgets sometimes and lapses back into teen sas.  I am diligent in reminding him to “be nice” and he’s always pretty quick to come around.  Unless there’s school work involved, then it takes him a little longer.  He got a bit of a scare this quarter though, so even that attitude is changing.  For now.  I understand wanting to be in charge of your own life but failing school isn’t a good way of proving you’re ready to be a man.  Oh, and when it takes you two days to empty the dishwasher, that means I have to wait that long to do the dishes. (That’s an exaggeration, in case you’re wondering). We’ve been having a nice time together generally.  The power struggles have gotten shorter and we have some pretty good conversations when we sit on the couch in the evenings.

This snow is awesome.  I had Wednesday off to take The Boy to his doctor appointments, but of course they were all canceled.  I stocked up on groceries on Tuesday night and I’m super glad because I haven’t been outside for the last 2 days for more than taking pictures and taking out the trash.  I got the house clean and organized yesterday and now am enjoying the warmth and quiet.  I think I’m going to go hang out in my newly reassembled bed for some quality reading time.  Hopefully my legs will not atrophy before my 6 mile run on Sunday.

Educating the Public on the Net

I’m feeling a little guilty.  I just ended a google+ conversation with “You obviously know nothing about what libraries do, so I will just end this conversation here.”  And I added a little passive aggressive smiley face.

Why do I feel guilty?  My fellow public librarians know.  I should be using the opportunity to educate the public.  I should smile and tell about all the wonderful services we provide to those who need them.  But when you tell me that “they” should take 25% of the public library budget to create a free 4G network so that people can download books for free?  How does that provide access for all?  That serves the upper middle class single male.

I should have told him about all the free digital books we already provide–for free–as well as about the great services we can provide him when he loses his cozy coding job over at Acorp.  Living out of your car?  Get a shelter address and you can have access to 90 minutes a day of computer time, take advantage of the free wireless and download books to the e-reader you bought just before you got that pink slip.  At least till you sell it for food money.  Don’t think it could happen to you?  Watch The Company Men.  The only thing saving Bobby Walker from life on the street is a loving family.

I recently read Rotters by Daniel Kraus.  It’s a hard to believe tale about a boy who’s mother dies sending him to live with an unknown father one town over who turns out to be a grave robber.  Yes, the story is a bit unbelievable, but the situation of going from a living wage family to being practically homeless is not.  This is what our middle class male that works in tech forgets.

And what about the other people they have to share the earth with?  What about the elderly patron who can’t use a mouse?  Those who can’t imagine reading on a screen?  Those who need audiobooks on CD because they are blind and can’t see the readout?  There are many more scenarios, but I think you get my drift.

This description applies to two of my brothers and my brother in law.  I find them to be a bit more enlightened about society than many, but they still don’t quite realize how good they have it.  Doesn’t everyone have extra money every month?  And I know I shouldn’t just pick on men, but they are the majority that have these blind spots and are in the tech field.

My excuse for not educating this guy?  Google+ comments didn’t seem like the place.  It would have taken too long and too much space on someone else’s post.  Internet etiquette (netiquette?) tells us to blast away on our own forum, so here I am.

Building Community

I’m terribly bad at following through with my promises on here, aren’t I?  I believe that I said I would talk about how programs and teen advisory groups build community.  When I mentioned that, I was planning a short post because I was hoping to give a presentation on it at WLA this April.  Instead I will be helping facilitate a round table discussion.  No more qualms about talking too much.

I absolutely love having a teen advisory group.  As I said before, I looked at a lot of programming ideas before I settled on on TAG (I’m a dork, I like to say “TAG, you’re it!” on publicity.  The teens forgive me.) but after talking to Jackie I just felt like this was the right fit.  Our branch has a lot of teens and younger kids, a lot of families.  We lose the teens for a while in high school because they just have so much gosh darn work to do–I don’t think I would have gotten this group if they hadn’t started out in middle school last year.  Now they are in high school and they bring in their friends.  That means more teens using the teen area and the homework table.  More teens being a positive presence in the library.

When we have programs, our meeting room is right in the front of the library and everyone looks in to see why we are having so much fun.  If it’s a TAG meeting, we get curious gazes.  When we have a program, I make sure to put a sign in the window so that everyone knows what’s going on.  We celebrated National Gaming Day on Saturday and we got about 15 teens right at the start.  Later, families started to show interest and as the teens were game, we invited them in to play with us.  Moms, Dads and kids all came in and played Apples to Apples and Mario Kart.  I got to tell them why gaming in the library is so cool and they told me how wonderful it was to do something on that rainy day outside their house.  I invited everyone back to our inter-generational game and craft day in late December.

Building these bridges with teens, kids and parents is invaluable at the library. Giving teens a library connection to hold onto when they get into high school is key to getting them to return as library users when they become adults.  Having friends that advocate and sell library with the air they breathe helps that happen, as does seeing that friendly librarian face as they’re racing towards the lunch room at school.  I table a couple of times a year and offer candy for library cards.  I revel in the teens that can recite their library barcode numbers to me.  The ones that don’t have them want to know what all the fuss is about so I end up giving out applications with a “you’re going to need this for school” talk.  Teen advisory group members stopping by to say hi helps pave the way.

I also try to draw the community into programs.  When we had the neighborhood scavenger hunt last session, some of the locations were local businesses.  I took the opportunity to talk with the employees and managers of the businesses to let them know that they would have visitors and that there is a library, right down the street.  I’ve made acquaintances with some of them–we nod and smile now on the street–and one place has become very connected.  The employees use the library and the manager has offered to help with some prizes in another program down the line.  Full disclosure; I’ve been buying coffee and doughnuts there for a couple of years now.  I don’t frequent the other businesses as much and my coworkers don’t talk about the library as much as I do (they probably think I’m crazy ;)  I wear my badge proudly and talk about books and services when I’m out and about.  Stalkers be damned.  But my point is that if I spread my spending money out a bit, I would probably have a wider impact.

I don’t have to tell you that community is the lifeblood of public libraries.  Some libraries get sleepy, though.  They forget.  They serve the people who come in their doors with excellence, but don’t take the extra steps to bring in more (and yes, even when we have more patrons than we know what to do with, we need more advocates, more users).  What do you do to entice people through your doors?

Libraryland: Extracurricular Activities

As I’ve mentioned, I’m in the mentor program at work to help me figure out if management is the right path for me.  I am reserving my opinion on that for the moment.  At the same time, I am pursuing other professional opportunities outside, or somewhat outside of my workplace.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a PhC student at the University of Washington asking if I would be interested in taking part in an educational project at a local high school.  A peer from my cohort recommended me; she is someone I see in my work neighborhood and knows a bit about my work with teens.  The volunteer experience entails giving instruction in database use and being a professional contact for students after they have chosen a research topic.

I also helped the PhC student get in contact with librarians at the county library system when I found out that the school would be in their area.  I was able to do this easily because I know their cluster manager. I gave her the information on the program and let her decide if it was something that was supported by the library system’s goals.  She conferred with the librarians and they decided to support it.

I met with the teachers and other librarians last week, then today I taught my two database classes.  The other two librarians are teaching tomorrow.  The biggest challenges teaching these classes had little to do with navigating the website.  One was to NOT show how much better my system’s website is than the county’s.  That wouldn’t help.  The second was to keep the workshop within a half hour.  The first one went over and the second one I left out authority.  I was sad when I realized that.

The good news is that I wasn’t nervous.  What I learned is that I want to get better at my delivery, so that is what I’ll be working on the next few months.  My poor adult computer learners will be my guinea pigs.  I’m sure they’ll love it.

Other things I do in my own time to supplement my resume?  Mentoring a teen in the juvenile rehabilitation system, taking part in my P-Patch government, being a board member for my union and participating in conferences–although that last one is partially on work time.  I say only partially because there’s a lot of effort that goes into getting myself to a conference.  Some of the cost is covered and some of my time is paid, but not all, and if I didn’t have a will, I wouldn’t find a way.  Over the next couple of years I plan to focus more on local conferences, as it will minimize the time I’m spending away from home and be a bit easier on the pocket book.  I’m looking forward to participating in the Washington Library Association conference this year, where I will probably be facilitating a round table discussion.

Going back to school

I was already planning on visiting my middle school on Monday, but because of timing and communication, I was just going to staff a lunch table, telling kids about library services and rewarding them for library cards. Then yesterday I got an email–can I come to 6 classes and talk about library searching, books and services?

I love visiting classes and my regional manager happened to be in house yesterday, so I was able to say yes. I have the weekend off, so I had to prepare that day. Luckily I found materials in my library that covered all three subjects that the students would be reading about (that’s really unusual) and I had the experience of searching for them using our catalog fresh in my mind, so showing the search mechanisms is going to be a snap. I’ve been wanting to do a Prezi for a while, but I can’t be sure of the internet filters and I really didn’t have time to do it right anyhow. Next time.

Life at home has been pretty normal. The Boy has a lot of homework, I’m at a new level of geekdom–watching The Guild–and crocheting a lot to try to get some projects done for the holidays.

What’ve I been reading? The City of Thieves by David Brnioff, Adult fiction with teen appeal. Lev Beniof is 17 and living in the middle of a Nazi siege of the city of Leningrad during WWII. One night a German soldier’s body drifts to earth and Lev is caught looting the body. Usually this means instant execution, but instead he and another detainee from the night, a deserter named Kolya, are sent on a mission for the Colonel. To find a dozen eggs in a land where bread is made of sawdust. Well written and intriguing, I’d recommend this book to almost anyone.