The Thrill of the Hunt

Today at work I was reminded of one of the reasons why I want to be a librarian. That being the thrill of the hunt. Let me explain.

Today was fairly slow, I had checked everything in, shelved things and was looking around hoping someone would come up to avoid cleaning the desk…again. Eventually this lady comes up, no books in her hand. “I’m looking for a book on tape.” Not a problem. Cue reference mode, as our tiny library has no reference desk nor reference librarian. We are circulation, we know where things are and how to handle them (including getting wasps out of the bathroom…but that’s a different story). I ask the lady which book on tape she’s looking for and her eyes glaze over. Awesome, she’s not sure. She replies with, “I’m not completely sure of the title, I forgot the paper at home. It had negotiate or negotiation in the title.” Well at least it was narrowed down some. Willing to help, I started to look up everything we had on negotiation. She kindly just asked where we kept them, willing to search on her own. This was of course until I pointed at an entire wall and let her know they were organized by author, not subject.

Suddenly a light bulb. “Is this non-fiction?” I ask. She replies it is and she is relieved to know that those are kept separate and there are only a few shelves of them. I lead her over to where they are kept and then see a giant empty place. Books on tape aren’t really popular anymore so we’ve been pulling them off and running circ stats on them to see what we can weed out of the collection. And you guessed it, today we were working on the non-fiction ones. So I explain we are working on them, but they are all available in the back and that I would gladly look for them for her.

Walk to the back and spend a few minutes reading every title. Nothing on negotiation.

Return to the counter where she explains that just yesterday the catalog said it was in. I verify that it was in fact OUR item and return to the computer to look up “negotiation”, like I was originally going to do. A simple sort by material type, and I was reading off the titles of the various books on tape and cd we have relating to negotiation. Most of the time she was saying, “Nope that’s not it.” but a few were maybes. Look at the record “On shelf”. With as many items as libraries have, it’s not uncommon for items to get lost, but a whole section of items. That’s not happening.

Return to the cart and explain to the director what I’m looking for. She gives a slight chuckle. She’s hunted before. Still nothing. Wait, here’s one on CD. Take it to her. “This is all I see. But there have to be more.” She’s sure thats not it. And is more positive on one of the others. So I write down the call number and head BACK to the cart. Now it’s personal. Look out book cart, cuz you’re mine!

One more look and I’m lost. So I hand it to the director. “This is what I’m looking for” She looked and smiles. “B.A. Basement” she says. I had wondered what the random BA at the beginning was for. Should have known something sneaky like that. I’ve only been at the library a couple months and this was the first time realizing that we keep stuff in the basement for check out. I guess that’s what happens when you’re a small building. There just isn’t room on the shelves.

So down the stairs and I find the whole missing section. I grab the ones she thought itcould be and head back up. She was patiently waiting, and I was smiling because the hunt was over. I had successfully went from “I’m looking for this one thing I don’t know what its called but it’s on negotiation” to handing her exactly what she wanted. Of course she then discovered that “Book on Tape” still meant actual cassette tapes and she doesn’t have a cassette player so she’d just take the one on CD she guesses….

Annoying? Yes. But I didn’t have anything else to do. Plus I found it fun. Like a mini scavenger hunt looking for just the right thing among the thousands of things we have available. Like I said, there was a thrill to the hunt. And that kind of hunt, you can’t really find anywhere other than a library.

I seriously fail at Blogging...

I've said it before and I'm going to say it again. I don't know why I keep trying to make blogs because I never actually write them. I just looked and my last post was in March. Geez. Failure.

But I'm going to try and get this going again, because I've got a lot going on now. Ok that sounds entirely backwards, busy people don't have time to blog. I hardly even have time to VLOG anymore. And that makes me seriously sad.

So what's going on in my life now?

I've got a job now...well 2. But I only have 3 weeks left at my temp job. But my non temp job is at a local library and in a few weeks I'll be taking over as the story time lady for children aged 1-3. Toddler time is fairly simple to do and the kids are really cute and fun. I am so excited to be working in a library again!!

Also, I'm officially registered and and going to be starting Graduate Classes at the end of August. My first classes in my goal of becoming a librarian!

Finally the big news is I got engaged. So a lot of my blog posts will probably be about me stressing about wedding planning. We originally picked a date and already had to push it back another year. Partially because of finances and partially because I was already stressing about planning and such.

I also learned an interesting piece of information today. The place I originally liked for the ceremony is 10 mins away, but across the state line. Whatever, it's America it's not like it's Canada. Apparently, in order to get married in Wisconsin you have to live in Wisconsin. What a load of bull. I checked for IL. No residency requirements. So unless we move to Wisconsin simply because we want to get married there, we're limited to places NOT in Wisconsin now. So odds are it'll be in IL.

I'm failing as a blogger again

Gosh, I was doing so well at updating, then it just stopped. I think it's because I lost my tabs on my browser and blogger wasn't open automatically anymore. But no worries, you haven't missed anything.

Still no job, still no interviews. Awesome. But it's sort of ok because my gpa has been sick again so I haven't had to worry about work and phone calls and all that.

I have also been failing at making videos lately. I just can't think of something to talk about. And I've decided they come out much better when there's a plan and not me rambling on about nothing. Hmm..I need to find that tripod.

I've been spending way too much time on Farmville lately. I'm suddenly obsessed with mastering every crop.

I suddenly am hungry for reese's....dang. don't have any.

Cleo is sniffing the wall...I don't understand her brain.

Ok, obvious rambling is obvious. Talk to you all soon...

ohmigosh that's soon!

So today my mom sat down to read the Sunday paper, two days late, and saw an ad with a bunch of Valentine's day things. She asked when it was...turns out it's in 6 days. Crap. That also means that next Friday is my birthday. This is the first year that my birthday being so close slipped my mind. I kept thinking I had a few weeks left. They always say that birthdays become just another day as you get older. I guess I always imagined it being a few years from now that that would happen. You know after I had kids and such and their birthdays were more important than mine. Instead time has been taken up with the continuous job searching, being sick, my grandpa's birthday, the super bowl, etc, etc, etc.

The purpose of this blog? I no longer think there is one....I think I'll stop it here then. Happy Early Valentine's Day to all the couple's out there. And for all the singletons....Just remember there's a reason why so much chocolate is made for this day. So indulge yourselves. :)

Spread the Boredom

So I think the whole purpose of blogging is to post about the interesting/exciting things that happen in your life. However, I always notice that when such things are happening in my life, I never have any time to blog. Yet now, when my life is completely mundane, I can't stop making posts because I have nothing better to do.... So I guess I'm trying to just spread the boredom around.

Spend a good few hours looking for jobs today. Once again nothing for me. I found a lot of stuff for people with various nursing credentials and a lot of stuff in manufacturing. But even that they all want people with experience or engineering degrees.

The weather was nice and warm today. Around 40 so I let the cats venture outside again. Since it wasn't as cold, Cleo didn't protect being there as much as usual, and spent some time sniffing around and testing out the snow. The problem was Cleo and Kira kept wanting to go two separate ways and I was being pulled from both arms. Eventually, Cleo had enough again, let out a little meow at the door and I let her in. Kira didnt really stay out much longer, but she had fun jumping in the snow. Its so cute because it practically comes up to her belly. Below are a couple pictures from our adventure today taken on my phone. There are a couple more on my facebook if you'd like to see them.

Cleo trying to avoid the snow

Kira exploring.

Non-Productivity

Hey there readers,

There really isnt much to report right now. Job front is still well, where it was. I've applied to a few more places and I have a lead on a position that should open up soon, its just not actually posted to where I CAN apply yet. So, we'll keep checking on that daily.

Today and tomorrow are Zach's days off (or his weekend you could say) and those days never really seem to  be productive like I want them to be. I always have a list of stuff I want to get done, but what really happens is that we end up spending the day just enjoying being together, watching movies and such, because otherwise we don't really see each other often. Then just like that its Friday morning and he's off to work again and 2 days are gone. Oh well, it all gets done eventually.

Today we actually had a plan to do 2 things. 1: goto the DMV and get Zach his Illinois license and 2: make Zach a dentist appointment. Well, neither of them happened, but not because we never got to them. While researching the hours of the DMV, Zach learned that to change his license he needs his birth certificate, which is in Iowa. So, that has been put off until the next time we are in Iowa to pick that up. And the dentist was booked for a couple weeks, so they're going to call if someone cancels. So I guess you could say we sorta got them done? haha.

We took the cats outside again today. They now each have their own kitty harness and leash so they can be out at the same time, instead of taking turns crying in the window. Cleo still really doesnt like it and pretty much just plants her butt on the porch and refuses to go anywhere, pissing Kira off because now she's stuck too. So in the end Cleo gets to go back inside which is what she wants at the time, but then spends the rest of the time crying at the window to get out again....oh silly Kitty.

Kitty Cats and Snow

My cats are always crying to get outside. They love playing in the screen porch, but lately it's just been too cold. Not really for them, but for me because we have to leave the door open so they can come back in. So a few weeks ago I bought a small dog harness and borrowed my neighbors dog leash and put it on them. It was too big for Kira, but Cleo went out for about 2 minutes before she found a patch of snow and spazzed.

Lately Kira has been trying to dart out doors every chance she gets. So tonight I put the harness and leash on her and took her out. *Plop* right into the fresh snow. It went up past her elbows. She loved it. I mean she didn't like run around or anything but she loved walking in it and digging holes and eating it. She even plopped down and rolled around once. The only time she fought the leash was when i pulled on it preventing her from climbing a pine tree like a christmas tree. Eventually I saw she was shivering so I brought her back in.

Mom said Cleo cried the whole time we were out there so I put it on her and put her in it too. She sniffed a bit and wouldnt walk and actually turned and meowed back at the door...so i picked her up and *plop* out where i first dropped Kira. She took 2 steps then froze. I looked up and CRAP the neighbor dog was out side doing its duty. Cleo started back tracking and pulling at the leash. She had already managed to get it off once before and I didn't want her getting out of it then running from the dog, so I picked her up and carried the kicking and screaming Kitty back indoors where she promptly sat and began cleaning her feet. I think it seems safe to say that Cleo is not really an outside cat...at least not in the winter.

Sorry no pics, but its 930 PM so it was pretty dark outside.

Jen