All-Time Favorite

Here is what I guess is turning into my monthly post. Most of you know that one of my favorite past times is reading to children. I love story time, but I also go and read to kindergartners at the school at least once a week and I read to other groups whenever a teacher asks. Sometimes it's difficult coming up with books that you enjoy reading and that the kids enjoy listening to as well. I always try to find new books to share with them, but in the end everyone who reads to kids has the old favorites they fall back on. This is mine. Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude by Kevin O'Malley. I started reading this book when it came in my library five years ago when my son was in kindergarten. It was an immediate hit. (Back then I was still on the back of a bike, by the way.) I had to read the book more than once that year to my son's class. Since then it has always been a hit with whatever age group to whom I read it. The premise is a boy and a girl telling a story together for a class project. Of course it goes wildly different directions according to which one is telling it. At the end I always ask who liked the girl's or boy's story better. Inevitably, there are girls (like me) who prefer the boy's story to the girl's (blech!), but every once in a while there will be a shy little boy who raises his hand because he likes the girl's story better. I respect that in a man. I got a surprise this winter though when I subbed for my son's class for a couple of days. Of course, I brought books to read to them when we had time. What surprised me is that several of them asked for the motorcycle book. They were shocked that I didn't bring it. I thought for sure these grown up fourth graders were way too mature for a book that I had read to them in kindergarten. They were genuinely disappointed though, so of course I went to the library and brought it the next day. They were so happy. It also felt good to have my 30 seconds of being the cool mom. Who knows? Maybe someday I'll be reading this book to them as seniors. A librarian can dream, right?

Right place at the right time

We recently went to Florida for my son's spring break. It was time for a vacation and there is nothing that relieves stress more than screaming at the top of your lungs on a roller coaster. I mean there are many times I've felt like doing that, but nowhere else is it considered acceptable. Try that in Wal-Mart some time and see what happens. Anyway, while we were there we got to see an awesome sight. There was a space shuttle launch. I have been to Florida on numerous occasions and never had it coincide with this event. What makes it even more significant is the fact that there are very few of these left to take place. We knew the launch was around 7:30. We were at Universal's theme parks which closed at 7. We then made our way to the roof of the parking garage and waited. It was well worth the wait. Even though it was a good hour's drive away, we had no trouble seeing it and enjoying it. We ran into some other people there for the same thing. One couple we were talking to was from Canada and they said that the top of this parking garage was where they were told to go for the best view. And to think my Steve thought of that all on his own. I knew there was a reason I married him.

This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. For us, it was a once in a lifetime memory. We got to see it, enjoy it, photograph it and we didn't even have to sit in the three and a half hour traffic back from coast where it launched from. (Deep satisfied sigh...)

Staff Development gone awry.

Now I know there are a lot of cute pictures out there from our staff development in November. I have a post of one of them on this blog and there are more on my fellow CMRLSers' blogs. I just wanted to take a moment and share one of my favorite pictures from the day. Now I have not been able to identify who or what this is exactly. Perhaps you could help me. I have some theories. Whenever a lot of us women get together, health problems usually come up, so perhaps this was an attempt at a close up of someone's melanoma. There is also the possibility that it is some part of the decorations. Maybe a broken branch. An ant in a ten gallon cowboy hat and all we can see is the hat. It doesn't appear to be anything obscene. I'm positive about that since we have not added an open bar to the catering at our staff development yet. (Notice I said yet because I add that to the bottom of my suggestion sheet every year.) Maybe it is a black-eyed pea from lunch although I don't think that was on the menu that day. It could just be a scab, but don't ask me how I got a picture of that. All I know is that these accidental shots are usually a lot more fun than the planned ones. Let's see what you guys can come up with. Don't let me down!

Yelp!

I don't know how to begin this tale of woe. It starts out simple with such good intentions and ends miserably. I keep a bucket of water with Mr. Clean or something similar in it under my desk for cleaning the unmentionable books that often arrive at the desk. Today, I reached for the Handi Wipe in the bucket to wring it out and thought I felt something. Then, as I was cleaning the book, I moved the rag and there was a huge, albeit dead, cockroach (hear the Psycho music that is playing in my head right now for dramatic effect) stuck to the rag. I didn't really scream like a girl because I'm really a tomboy. I'd call it more of a yelp. After several seconds of doing the creeped - out shake, I retrieved it and placed it in the trash. Now the moral to this is not don't clean the books. Although I have to admit, that was my first inclination. Just check the bucket before you put your hand in. My question is why do roaches like the library so much? Should I call MLC reference and ask them? It doesn't seem to matter if the building is old or new, they still seem to show up. I even found one in the paper tray of my printer one day. (That definitely earned a yelp because it was alive.) I mean it's a library, not a grocery store. I know they can live like a year off the glue of a stamp or something crazy like that, but what are they living on here. I guess Mr. Clean when I'm not looking. The only food here is in the refrigerator or sealed containers. What's an entomophobic librarian to do?

Energy

I have heard through the grapevine that I don't post enough. Then I saw that it had been three weeks since I was on here and realized that they were right. So maybe I'll try to post more often no matter how trivial the material. I know I've talked about story time joys. I just can't emphasize enough the energy that comes from dealing with children. Every Monday I go to the school and read to three kindergarten classes. I have never left the school in a bad mood. I always try to pick a fun book. It's as much for me as them. Today I read Pirates Don't Change Diapers by Melinda Long. It's so much fun to do a pirate voice and watch their faces as they try to figure out which coins they need to make 27 cents. (I always ask them questions like that from the story. It legitimizes me being there.) I don't know though maybe it's just the ego trip. When you walk in the door and hear twenty kids go "It's Miss Selena!" or "Library Lady", I have to tell you it makes you feel like a rock star. I smile and say,"Hey guys! How are you doing today?", but in my mind I'm thinking "And the crowd goes wild!" Needless to say, I highly recommend volunteering at the school.

Storytime joys

I think one of my favorite parts of my job is storytime. Don't get me wrong. I hate planning it but I love implemeting it. Where else can you dance around and look goofy and you fit in without having to drink any alcohol? Also no one makes fun of my singing. It's awesome! It's like "Where were you people when I was in high school and I needed a self-esteem boost?" Anyway, yesterday I got the best of both worlds. I had to fill in for a fellow librarian and do storytime for her. All I had to do was the implementation part of it. That rocks! I had nine children to play with and we had a blast. Now I knew most of the children since I have done storytime there before, but there is one little girl in particular that I want to focus on for a moment. I've known her since birth since her older brother is in my son's class. When she was a baby, she loved me and then it took an ugly turn somewhere around 18 months and she didn't want anything to do with me. She wouldn't look at me or talk to me and don't even think about holding her. Please! She is almost three now. Yesterday at storytime everything changed. It was like she suddenly discovered a new toy. She wanted to dance with me and help me keep my hair out of my eyes. When it was time to color she wanted me to put her name on her paper and then mine too. Then she pointed at it and said, "That says Miss Selena". When they were walking out the door, she ran back to me behind the desk and said "I want to kiss you." Now at first I thought she said, "I want to kick you" since that is kind of how she felt about me in the recent past. When I got over the initial shock, I leaned over for her to plant a sloppy kiss on my cheek and then she ran out the door saying, "Bye, Miss Selena. I love you." Now that to me is worth more than any paycheck you can get. I will still be a little wary of her for a while to make sure this friendship thing is going to stick. Now that it has gotten started though it could very well be lifelong.

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted on here. Not that I have a ton of followers that are dying to know about my life, but I do hate to lose the few I have. If you have been following this blog, you know that back in October I went to the MLA conference in Natchez, MS. It was very informative and fun. An added bonus was getting to learn about a few sights in Natchez that I haven't gotten to see before. For our anniversary this year (19 years if you are keeping track) my husband and I took our motorcyles to Natchez and St. Francisville, LA. It was a lot of fun and I'm posting a few of the pictures from our trip. We got to visit some of the places I heard about at MLA. Steve said he enjoyed having a tour guide. Also I don't know if it is just me or if it is all librarians, but I love to stop at libraries in other places. I got to visit the St. Francisville library on our trip. The librarian there was so nice and they had a little lagniappe. There was a cat. She wasn't an official library cat, but she did allow me to hold her for a picture by the sign. I guess she's official now. It made me wish I had a library cat in Lake. Maybe someday... Sigh...