further perils ...

She called again, my little old lady with a thing for 1950's Australian fashion. This time she has a name: Wendy. I had though being at a different branch today may act as a buffer. I was wrong. Not only did she find me at AN but she kept me on the phone for 15 minutes. If it had been a new enquiry I probably wouldn't have minded, as it was I spent the time looking for more informaiton on Bobo Faulkner. There wasn't anything new since Friday. Wendy said she'd call the State Library to see what else they could do, so she may end up coming across Miss A. Gotta share the love after all.

For now I have to brave "knifepoint" to get a birthday card for Miss T. She was 31 yesterday. After working together and sharing a house for two years, it is still strange not seeing her everyday. I also have to find something for Miss R's birthday between now and the 9th. It is always possible that I may find something while we are away, it I don't get distracted by the food. Red Hill market has awesome food. I'm still dreaming of the little japanese cakes I had last time; macha and red bean. So good. 

Must remember to pack the baggy pants.

more library love

Every so often the council like to check that those of us down at the library are servicing the community. This means that the "Feedback Tablet" makes it's way around the branches. Today it was at Alt. Most patrons have seen it before, and as such ignore it. Much easier than taking a few minutes to recognise just how much work the library staff put in to running their local branch. 

But, every now and then, someone actually looks at the thing while I'm putting their books through. This is probably one of the better conversation I had. 

Guy looks at it, "What's this for?" 
ME: "That's there to tell us all how much you love us."
Guy leans over, puts his hands on mine: "I love you."
ME: "As you should."

Now I'm sure that the little old lady who came in on the end of the conversation was very confused. The guy and I had a chuckle, I gave him his books and he went on his way. This is why I like public libraries. I don't see that happening in an academic or specialist library.

Do I stick it out with the public system and pray that a full time job will come up before I hit 40, or do I try my hand with the academics? Decisions, decisions. Either way, job hunting sucks.

Perils of the reference desk

Ok, so anyone who wasn't at Miss A's BBQ may not have heard of my marathon phone question late last week. Basically I spent 25 minutes on the phone with a little old lady (that I'm not certain is actually a member of my library) trying to find information on Robyn Fong (fashion, 1950s). NLA's digitisation of Australians Womens Weekly (May, 1972 edition) eventually gave me something useful. She decided to call NLA to see if she could get a copy. This was after I told her several times that I could print the information for her if she came into the library. But she got what she wanted, so that wasn't my issue.

That was the end of that ... until today. My branch team leader was on desk with me this morning. She answers the phone and then hands it to me. It's the little old lady again. Apparently she had tried calling for me the other day, but I'd gone home. She had another question for me: Bobo Faulkner (fashion/tv, 1950s). After 30mins on the phone, and much trawling through Trove I was again saved by NLA's digitisation of Australians Womens Weekly (June 1973). She did ask me when I'd be in again. I should have lied, I know, but by that point I just wanted to get off the phone.

So some time in the future she will call again. She'll ask for me, and the cycle will repeat. This is the danger of giving good customer service: they remember your name and then won't talk to anyone else. If you see a librarian walking around with an ice pack on his/her ear then the chances are they have a similiar patron of their own. If you work in information management you may even end up with one (or even more) of your own. Who knows? 

One thing I do know: this was not in the brochure.

Super pav

There has been much movement in the kitchen. Today is Miss A's BBQ. I will (of course) be bringing dessert. Given that it is Australia Day there was only one option: pavlova. But a plain pav wasn't going to be enough, after all I do have a reputation to keep up. So there was experimenting to be done. With the success of the practice pav, I made a few adjustments. The final result: three tierd pav. Top layer vanilla, middle layer is rosewater, bottom layer is chocolate. Stuck together with a mountain of cream, and finished off with strawberries, raspberries, kiwi fruit, and passionfruit. Epic pav. But don't just take my word for it. Behold the pav in all it's glory.

All that remains to be done it to get it to Miss A's without it collapsing in tranisit.

mood music

Ok, so I was trying to do some work while I manned the Children's Desk @ AN this morning, something that was not going well (and I didn't finish). No real surprise there. Plus between trying to get things done, multiple children/people wanting assistance, and running to the other end of the library every time the fucking bell went, my brain managed to throw Ms L into the works. This helped my mood no end, so by the time I got home I was ready for "angry" music.

Music has a big impact on my moods. I only listen to classical music while I'm driving, (anything else and I am prone to road rage/speeding). I play jazz/swing when I have people over for dinner and conversation. When I clean I play techno. When I'm fragile I play Ani diFranco. When I'm pissed off I play music appropriate to 14yr old boys, who hate the world and everyone in it (including themselves). 

So I was all set. I had the Spawn, Dracula 2000, Preaching to the Perverted, and Matrix soundtracks ready to go, mixed with some Nine Inch Nails and a little Rage Against The Machine. Before giving myself over to my music therapy I made the few phonecalls Miss R had asked to to make, and I checked the mail. Not huge, life changing tasks (thought finding someone to mow my lawn is starting to seem like the quest for the grail), but in the end I didn't need the angry music.

Now obvioulsy the gas bill wasn't going to make a huge difference to my mood, but the other piece of mail did. There seems to be a fair amount of gratitude floating around at the moment (which, given the amount of crap that has been circulating over the last six weeks, is a nice change). Last week chocolate roses, this week a card from the blood bank. 

To be fair, the nurses always say thank you each time I donate, and I don't expect a card from every single person who benefits from my donating plamsa/platelets, (38% of Australians have blood type A, so that's a hell of a lot of cards). I don't do it for recognition. I do it because it's the only way I can contribute. I never have any money to give to charity, and my schedule doesn't leave me time to volunteer, so donating for me is the best option. With that said I think I am entitled to feel a little proud that out of the 26 fortnights in a year, I donated in 24 of them. My arms may have more scar tissue that your average heroin junkie, and three quarters of the nurses may hide until I'm actually hooked up to the machine (the scar tissue makes getting the neddle into me rather challenging), but it's worth it.

No matter how big an arsehole people may think I am, or how terrible they may believe I've made their lives, the two hours I spend in that chair every other Thursday makes a huge difference to people all over the country (and their families).

And that feels fucking awesome.

family trials

So, the universe has decided that my life has managed to get too simple over the last week or so.  When I got home tonight I got the "Call your brother," talk from Miss R.  It seems Miss R and Miss H have been talking. As most siblings will tell you, when your partners start talking to each other there is usually trouble to follow. In this case it relates to our youngest sibling, my little sister.

Now, as everyone is aware we went north for a few days over christmas. Given the duration of our visit we did not manage to see my little sister. They have christmas at my Dads place (where my brother and I aren't welcome), and then usually have boxing day with my step-mothers family. Since we flew home the day after boxing day we didn't get to see my sister. In fact, (and I'm the first to admit that I'm in the wrong), I didn't even call to let her know we'd be there. In my defence, I was about 14 days into my funk, and really in no state to be making any judgement calls.

So, justifiably, her feeling were hurt.  But, having said that, she did not make any effort to contact any of us either. I will call my brother tomorrow and find out what been going on. If my sister has been in contact with Miss H (apparently full of tears and recriminations), then we will need to figure out what we will need to do to fix this. Everything is such a drama when you're 14.

I've also got my new laptop out of the box. Haven't really had much time to play with it yet. Hopefully tomorrow. Maybe after I've finished my long list of chores. Plus I've got the two most recent Buffy comics to catch up on as well. And a trip to JB to pick up the new Adele cd.

Could also do without the random thoughts of Ms L ... Stupid brain.

twilight zone

 

Today was one of these weird days. You know, the one where you're cruising along, minding your own business, and the next thing you know you find you've entered the Twilight Zone. 

Shifts out at AM library have always been interesting. I do tend to throw a lot of kids out of that branch. To be fair I only throw out the feral children, and they do get two warnings first. Being school holidays, I was more than ready for that to be the case today. There was one small incident, but otherwise the shift was drama free. This was weird for AM, but not completely unheard of. No, the weird thing was that after spending a considerable amount of time helping a library patron (not unsusal), this person said thank you. Always a rare experience, but it didn't stop there. This person actually left the library and then came back with a token to express her gratitude. I was stunned. Even now, hours after the event I am still stunned. I've left them on the bench so that Miss R can also be stunned.

Tomorrow I am off into the city to see the Doc, and to also get my new laptop. I need to be back for the staff meeting, so I will have to make sure I don't get sidetracked by any comic book stores on the way. A big ask, I know, but I will do my best. 

I had a momentary funk relaspe today. Nothing major, just a twinge. It's hard when someone you find beautiful doesn't see it themselves. It also sucks when you can't tell them, or make them see it, because they don't want to hear it (or at least not hear it from you). But such is life.

Not everyone can have an ego as big as mine.