Public Library

Do you value your public library? Why or why not?

I have always used and loved libraries. I read and they've got all the books for free. I like free.

In college I decided to get a masters degree after being unable to discover a job I could get with a double major BA in German and Linguistics. I wanted to get a Masters of Library Science but the counselor at Cal State Fullerton discouraged me because there were no librarian jobs available. If he'd known I was going to move to Oklahoma and have a librarian job dropped in my lap, maybe he would have let me get the degree I wanted. So instead, I got a Masters Degree in Linguistics. They don't even have any jobs you can get with degrees in linguistics.

Now I am happily a full-time school librarian and a part-time public librarian. The two jobs compliment each other and I feel very fortunate to have work that I enjoy.

Do you remember Arsenio Hall? He did a funny bit every show about "things that make you go Hmmm..." I went to work tonight and thought I was back in the early '90's in the middle of an Arsenio Hall Show. The city has decided not to replace the two aide jobs that are open. Hmmm... The city is going to have the library open fewer hours to save on electricity. Hmmm... Some of the options are particularly peculiar. And they are still looking for a new library director at 70 K. But they can't replace 2 minimum wage jobs? Hmmm...

Things are up in the air and crazy. I guess I'll just hold on and see what happens.

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Flexibility and a Sense of Humor

My pre-teaching class began their lessons teaching Pre-K students letter recognition and how to print their names. We were all set up, four centers for 11 kids.

At the long table was Dylan and his clay ready to help the kids form the clay into the letters of their names. At the other end of the long table was K'monica with cans of shaving cream to spray on the table. The kids could write their names in the foam and clean their hands at the same time. After writing in shaving cream, the students move to the floor where Lacey had letter flashcards laid out. The mission was to pick up a capital letter and find its corresponding lower case letter. Last but not least was Mark, set up in the library office. His lesson was sorting plastic letters by color and shape. Yes, letters are shapes.

I made lists for each station telling which kids would be there at what time. We would rotate every ten minutes. Kids' names were taped to the long table in their groups. Then we waited for the kids to get there.

Lisa, the pre-K assistant, was supposed to bring the pre-K kids to the library before my pre-teaching kids got there. After the pre-teaching students arrived and we'd waited for a few minutes, I sent two girls to go get the pre-Kers. The girls came back empty handed but with news that the pre-K class went into the special ed classroom, it looked like maybe they were going to get their eyes checked. Really?

It was unclear if they would come or not. I wondered why we weren't told there was a change in plans. Here's where flexibility comes in handy. We'll wait and hope for the best. It wasn't long till Lisa came in with three kids. Of course they were all from different groups. An impromptu new group was created for them and they started the clay activity. Then one more kid came in...sent him to Mark followed by the next two kids when they arrived. It kept going that way until we had all 11 pre-K kids in the library, plus one. Yeah, we got a new kid today. Eventually, all the pre-K students got to spend some time at each center and everyone had a good time.

The pre-k students were escorted back to their classroom and cleanup began. Did I mention a sense of humor? Instead of cleaning up, Mark got the shaving cream and transformed himself into Santa Claus. I'm quite sure these high school stuents had more fun playing with the shaving cream than the four-year-olds did.

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Reading

Stephen King told me in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft that one of the most important things a person can do to be a good writer is to read a lot.

I've always been a reader and a writer. My parents bought me comic book subscriptions and books and took me to the library. I also always had a diary and I wrote a lot of letters.

I'm still reading and writing. I always have a book on CD in my car. I was listening to Hunger Games in my car when I drove home from school today. It was such a good part that I sat in my driveway for ten minutes before going in the house. Even then I wanted to hear what would happen next so I changed clothes and headed to the gym (a 20 minute drive away, which isn't a bad thing when you've got a good book to listen to).

At the gym I listen to a book while walking on the treadmill. Currently I'm listening to Fire Sale (V.I. Warshawski) by Sara Paretsky on Playaway. Other times I listen to a downloaded book on my iphone.

More Hunger Games on the way home from the gym. I'd been told over and over again that it's a great book. I now know for myself what everyone else has been raving about.

I have a book that I read in the bathtub. Right Now it's J.D. Robb's Innocent in Death (a Lawton Public Library Adult Book Club selection).

When I go to bed I'll read The Garner Files: A Memoir by James Garner that by daughter gave me for Christmas. I once had the Rockford Files theme song as my cell phone ring tone. Love Jimbo.

Is reading four books at once too many? Sometimes the plots of my multiple books get intertwined, which can be interesting. However, these four are different enough that they don't blend together.

What are you reading?

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Sunday at my Church

The story of Jonah and the whale may be one of the best known stories in the Old Testament. In July 2010 Jonah was the theme of a funeral in Indiahoma. I'll always remember that funeral when I come in contact with Jonah.

Today in church our preacher preached on "the end of the story." Jonah did not want to go tell the people of Nineveh that they would soon perish as a result of their evil, wicked ways. They were enemies of Israel. Why should he have to have any contact with them? But God wore him down and Jonah finally agreed to walk into and across Nineveh. It took 3 days! He preached as he walked, "In 40 days Nineveh will be destroyed."

Jonah expected the people to ignore him and God, but they didn't. From the king on down, every man, woman, child and animal fasted and cried to God for help. God took pity on them and did not destroy them.

Jonah's reaction was anger. Jonah went and told his enemies that his God was displeased and would destroy them. Then God treats his enemies like they are family. What's up with that?

And as usual, we aren't so very different from characters in the Bible. How often do we want God to crush our enemies? And why do we even consider other people as our enemies?

Our preacher challenged us to consider who our enemies are and instead of hating them, talk to them for God and maybe they will be spared the same way the whole city of Nineveh was.

Have you crossed paths with Jonah? I'd like to hear about it.

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Doing Nothing

I have a morning routine that includes watching short Jerry Seinfeld clips. 3 a day take 5 minutes or so to watch and I start my day off with humor, sometimes riotous laughter.

One bit that I've seen several times but always enjoy is Jerry relating how people ask him, "So what you doing now? You don't have a show anymore, so what do you do?" His answer is, "Nothin'." He goes on to explain that doing nothing is not all that easy. When you are doing nothing, you are free to do anything which can lead to doing something so you are no longer doing nothing and then you have to drop everything. It's really funny when Jerry tells it.

So here it is, Saturday morning with the whole day in front of me. I work 2-3 Saturdays a month so having a Saturday off is a luxury. I plan on doing nothing that I don't want to do (clean the house), somethings that I have to do (laundry, church newsletter), anything that I want to do (blog, read, watch a DVRed show or two, photoshop) and have everything my way today.

Wishing you a Saturday just the way you want it too.

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We Have Met the Enemy

and he is us.

A library patron told me this story. He said he read it in the newspaper.

Some guys were having a tailgate party that continued on after the football game was over. Everyone got drunk, some more than others. One guy passed out and his "friends" propped him up and surrounded him with empty beer cans and other decorative items. One drunk sprinkled him, but not with Holy Water. Meanwhile, pictures were being taken, posted on facebook and texted to friends. It went viral.

The patron asked me, "Did you ever read 1984?"

Oh my, we don't need to worry about Big Brother watching our every move, we are doing it to ourselves.

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Furry Fun

Happy Groundhog Day! Did the furry little critter see his shadow? He did! So now we have 6 more weeks of winter? Except we haven't had any winter weather yet. Does that mean 6 more weeks of no winter weather or will we finally have 6 weeks of regular winter weather?

I wonder if Punxsutawney Phil had anything to do with student behavior today. Some were loud and obnoxious, others were catatonic. I thought a student or two had gone deaf or perhaps no longer spoke English. Talking with colleagues after school, it seems their students were in the same state as mine. Let's just hope today isn't like the movie "Groundhog Day" because I can't take too many more days like today.

I'm off to my second job at the Public Library, hoping the patrons there have not been touched by whatever got my students.

Happy birthday to my friend Susanna whom I used to work with at the library. It's a great place for many reasons.