Busy, Busy...

So, if you haven't noticed, when not at the library I have no time to blog being that my children are yelling for me. Which I love, except when Claire is screaming for chocolate milk. Unfortunately my two glorious weeks off have not gone exactly as planned being that Sweet Em has gotten diarrhea. Why doe the gods feel the need to do this to the kiddos? Poor baby, she was absolutely miserable Monday with fever and everything and not you would never know anything was the matter except for the 8 poops a day I am changing her!

In other exciting news, crazy, nutter co-worker has been forced to retire! Why oh why could they not have done this two weeks ago when I was still there! That would have been awesome! I just got the word yesterday, her last day is Aug.1! Whoopee! Crazy bio-tch! Of course it was not me that got her fired, but a culmination of things. When you piss off patrons enough that they complain to the asst. head of the library, you are just stupid. She had just been doing it for so long and getting away with it that I think she was actually surprised when someone called her on it. Crazy bitch; see ya, wouldn't want to be ya!

Have to go to bed. Start job on Thurday! Tres excited! Ok, I just realized how old I am. It is Friday night, 10:30 and I am going to bed!! Oh well, I love me some sleep!

Just Some Rambling Thoughts...

I am just sitting her, reading one of my favorite blogs and I look over so see if she has one of my other favorite blogs listed under her "Bloggers I Adore" header and see mine! I feel so giddy to know that the Happy Villian, my blogging idol has a link to my blog on hers, how cool is that! Ok, probably only cool to the dorky other librarian types who read her blog religiously, but it is an excellent blog so everyone go read hers http://libraryosis.blogspot.com/.

So something that has me a bit perterbed in the news right now is the arrests of the doctor and two nurses from Memorial Hospital in New Orleans. I know, I don't have all the facts; the patients had both a sedative and morphine in their blood that supposedly means that they were killed on purpose, the doc wasn't their doc and theses were critical patients. But something just doesn't sit right with me. I can't place it but I really think these are trumped up charges; that people are pissed because so many patients died and they needed to blame someone. Foti is coming off like an ignorant redneck asshole. I'll tell you who to blame: our glorious governor (Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Jindal!), the idiots who run the Department of Transportation and Development and the Department of Health and Hospitals and the Mr. Chocolate City himself. I liked Nagin before all this crap. He was nobody's lackey as he proved during the governor's election when he backed Jindal. The democrats threatened to freeze him out if he did not support Blanco. That pissed him off, he backed Jindal. Then he lost it after Katrina. I really did not lose faith in him until his stupid chocolate city remarks. My husband's family is from New Orleans, my father's family is from New Orleans; we have roots there and for him to say something as ignorant as that is offensive. Dumbass! But, as usual in Louisiana politics, when you have the choice between two evils, the lesser is the one whose family is not a political dynasty!

Anyway, as everyone can tell, the fault was everyone's. This outcome was continually spoken about since i was a child. People became complacent because every year we were told it could happen, and every year the hurricane went somewhere else. It is really sad. New Orleans is ingrained in me. I never lived there; Baton ROuge is my home but it's history is so vibrant and rich. It hits you as soon as you walk down Canal, or throught the Quater; go to the French Market or walk along the levee. I miss it, and hope the despair might soon be lifted.

Ok, just a rant. TWEVLE MINUTES UNTIL FREEDOM!!! WHOOPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Free at Last...Almost!

So it is 8:30am, I am here until 2:45 pm and I am bored out of my freakin skull. Nothing to do except look up a subject request for a prisoner that doesn't know how to write sentences. "Book about wilderness area of information on the blank mts. located somewhere in the Rockies cabin is the home to wild horses----WTF*#$!!! Of course, it can't be easy. My last one! Why God Why! That is the actual requests with the punctuation that this individual put in! I guess I shouldn't be so mean. He is in prison and not just any prison, The Farm, but ignorance just drives insane. When you are obviously intelligent enough to speak why can't you learn, not just learn but want to learn. Do you not care that you sound like a moron? Or look like one. I am sorry I don't get the whole pants around the knees thing. Some cop told me it was originally a sign that you had been in prison, I forget what the logic was but it made since. Now, just a lovely fashion statement for all of us to partake!

Oh well, I guess I should work on this request before I jet!

Sweet Em!

Oh, What a Weekend...

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. Claire had to get three stitches yesterday. My child is intent on breaking both Jerry and my record on who got stitches first. Jerry's was 3, Claire has him beat by about 4 months. She tripped on a stuffed animal at Ma Mere's and WHAM! right in to a corner of a wall that juts out. Not fun. Other than the intial shock of the gash and when they cleaned and stitched her up at the hospital, you would never know the child is injured. She is bouncing off the walls! But doing great.

3 Days and Counting...

God has been good this week! The nutter co-worker has been out, I can only hope it continues through next week so I may escape from her psychotic clutches without incident! It has become increasingly difficult to do anything resembling work here. I just finished reading Break No Bones (excellent Kathy Reichs latest installment in the Brennan series!) and am back to reading my pooh book. Pooh is interesting, just not as fast paced as Reichs. And I can guarantee that I will have the Evanovich book done by the time I leave this godforsaken place! That is one thing I will miss-being able to read uninterrupted. Definately won't be able to do that where I am going! Ok, so really not much going on, just thought I owuld say Woo Hoo! 3 days left and my daddy is cooking fried shrimp tonight!

More later...

6 Days and Counting....

I am very excited that a week from today, I will be up here on the reference desk, knowing that in a few short hours I will be sailing off into the sunset and away from this godforsaken crazy place. Sure I will be dealing with 970 pubescent boys in my new position, but being that most of them will be clean and polite (I hope!) and free from serious mental defect (i.e. the crazy nutter co-worker, serial sleeper, la pedamain) I will gladly take it! I am sick to death of this place and the irritating patrons. I am sorry but I actually got a caller the other day that wanted me to list the seven dwarfs. Apparently she kept forgetting Bashful, easy to do! That is not as bad as the lady who I swear, sounds sooo normal and then wants the mailing address, phone number, email for like 20 people...and she calls like once a day. We have all had to deal with her. And it is not like it is people that actually have their contact information listed. A lot of them don't and she just can't understand why you can't find an email address for Rupert Murdoch! I am serious. This is the type of info she wants. She is a sane sounding nutter and is driving me batty.

Anyway, life is good today, sort of. I really wish we could have gone to Tennessee with the rest of Jerry's family. I don't think we have been on a real vacation since 2002 when we went to CO. Hopefully we will be able to start going on more. We won a cruise so will be going on that in Nov.

Crazy nutter co-worker is out today, Whoo, Hoo! She is making me paranoid but I talked to a few of my other co-workers and we agree, she is really looney so I felt better about it. Arguing with a crazy person is not good for my immune system. Right now, I have 3 ulcers on my tongue, one under my tongue, one forming in the back of my mouth where the last one there just went away last week, and a huge one on the inside of my upper lip. It was smaller until my Sweet Em thought it would be funny to fall on me and kneed me right in the ulcer. Just so everyone knows, that causes said ulcer to bleed profusely and causes enormous amounts of pain. So Monday I looked like someone had punched me. I actually looked like I got a toned down version of Angelina Jolie's lips...interesting.

So that is all for now, I have wasted about 15 minutes and will now read some more of my pooh book. I should be getting the new Kathy Reichs and Janet Evanovich books in the mail today, Whoo Hoo!

Lesson for the Day...Don't Piss Off the Crazies

I guess based on my previous posts you could assume that I am referring to some of the nutter patrons we get in this joint. But, alas, I would, in this case, be refferring to one of my wonderful co-workers. This chick, is in her 50s, short, fat, loud, obnoxious, has no opinions of her own (they all belong to her husband, the crazy Latin American man), acts like a child basically. Well, typically, as discussions go with her, you have one opinion, she has another, and she will argue her point, typically using old wives tales and logic that has been disproven long ago. I mean centuries people, not years. So I tend to have to stop myself because I will get all worked up about something that she absolutely believes in her small-minded, ignorant head of hers. She has the manners of a genteel southern woman until you piss her off and then the nutter comes out full force. She loves you until this point and then it is all out war.

So a few months back, a few things occurred that irritated me so I complained to her boss, whom I am friends with. The boss is basically trying to make this person quit so is writing her up for everything and she got brought up to the second in commands office for a tongue lashing. Crazy nutter co worker somehow figures out it was me that told on her and just stops talking to me. Then the crazy onslaught begins. She comes over so she can ask me before she leaves what she did that was so horrible that I would have her hauled off to the bosses office. Instead of just playing dumb, I bit. And did I come up with all the logical defenses I had thought up all weekend. No, I became a bubbling, blustering idiot trying to speak over a nutter who kept muttering how nasty I am, she was good for me to take coins and stamps but I am so nasty to have done that to her.

She had to say something now. Why not next Monday when I only had to deal with her with a few more days. Now I have a crazy person telling, probably anyone who will listen to how nasty I am. So in my life, I have few regets, but one of them is not telling the crazy bitch off when she did what she did. I have come away with two bits of knowledge. I should have handled the situation myself, and the bitch is whack!

Your Hillbilly Name Is...

Your Hillbilly Name Is...

Lil' Pearl West

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What has happened to me?

Ok, I know some of you are going to be like WTF?! But I am in absolute love with Justin Timberlake's new song! I hated 'NSYNC (sorry mouse:( ) and thought his solo album was pretty good (especially his diss to Ms. Spears in the Cry Me a River video) but I heard his new song on the radio and I LOVE it! It is called SexyBack (one word) and I really think I am going to buy the album. I never thought I would buy a boy band alums album but it is really good song, very much not like his last album. To hear it, go to www.justintimberlake.com. I am also in love with Nelly Furtado's new song. I must be high or something!

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Your Superhero Name is The Light Blade Your Superpower is Mutant Your Weakness is Water Your Weapon is Your Wind Amplifier Your Mode of Transportation is Skateboard

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See Ya Suckers!!!!

I just quit! WHOOPEE!!!! I never knew how exhilarating it could be! I was going to tell them yesterday but sweet Em got the vomiting bug so I had to stay home. I was dying! All I wanted to do was get that over with and she got sick, a pretty nasty 24 hour thing too! But she is better today. No vomiting, just a bit fussy. Ok, I must work some since I only have 9 working days left at this stop on the misery tour!

Recipes!

The following recipe is one of my favorites. It is a different take on potato salad that I make often because my husband detests mayo, mustard and eggs; all of which go in the traditional potato salad. It is also a lot healthier that the traditional type, the sauce being made of olive oil and tarragon vinegar. Make sure you use PURE olive oil, NOT virgin or extra virgin. It will taste weird, trust me! I did not have pure one time and tried it with one of the other types--Yucko! It was nasty. Also I sometimes have problems finiding tarragon vinegar so I just use regular white vinegar and add some tarragon leaves and let it sit a bit. For those of you on weightwatchers, I put the recipe in the recipe builder on their website and it said it was 2 pts/serving! It serves 16. Anyway, just thought I would share with the 4th coming up and many BBQs occuring. Also, y'all should check out the latest copy of WeightWatchers magazine. There are some yummy recipes in there.

Italian Potatoes (from River Roads Cookbook by the Junior League of Baton Rouge)
Ingredients
15 medium cooked red potato(es)
1/2 cup parsley
1/2 cup green onion(s)
3 clove garlic clove(s)
1 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
8 oz pure olive oil
4 oz Tarragon Vinegar

Instructions
Boil potatoes. When done peel and cut in 1 inch chunk size pieces. Sprinkle parsley and green onion over potatoes. Make sauce from the rest of the ingredients; strain so there will be no garlic pieces in sauce; pour over potatoes. Stir well. Let stand all day. (At least 4 hours or longer.) Do not refrigerate. Serves about 16.

Is It Over Yet?

I am sooooo ready to be done with this place! I am sick and tired of the stupid meetings that should only last 15 minutes but drag on for 2 hours b/c my boss begins to regale us with stories about her children that I would be better off not knowing. You know like when her 35 year old daughter (who works upstairs and just moved out of my bosses house a few years ago) has gastrointestinal problems! Like I want to know this! We had a meeting about a week and a half ago to discuss the Leadership Team Meeting (this is what used to be called the heads, as in heads of the sections, meeting but with the new people at top, they felt a name change was needed. Whatever! This place is losing employees everyday but let us change something innocuous like the name of a damn meeting!)

I am tres tired right now so I may not be making much sense. Apparently I can't have coffee late in the day b/c it kept my brain running like crazy last night and then Jerry woke Emma up and she was up for like 2 hours so I am exhausted. Not to mention Jerry's snoring! God help me I was about to start beating him.

So I think there will be no working out this evening. I already did a pilates this morning and a walk away the pounds on my break.

More later....I am fading fast!

Ok, I am back...and somewhat rejuvenated! Jerry had a headache so I got to bring the girls this morning. Claire is too cute sometimes (well most of the time except when she needs to go in timeout!). I was flat ironing my hair and she says to me, "Mama make me pretty too" while holding a piece of her hair. It breaks my heart on one hand b/c what makes her think she is not pretty and then on the other hand it is kind of cute. As crazy as my kids drive me, I love them bunches!

Trying to get in as much reading at work as I could the last few weeks being that I won't be able to to that much longer! Just read And the Band Played on: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. My God, talk about thoroughly researched! As you can tell by the title, this was about the early years of the AIDS epidemic and how the disease was basically allowed to run rampant by the federal government, the medical community and even the gay community itself. The first documented case of AIDS was reported in 1981 but they did not know what it was. All the doctors knew that many gay men were coming down with a form of skin cancer that was a very treatable cancer, Kaposi Sarcoma, but would eventual die of just really weird and unsettling diseases; disease caused by bird droppings that normally had no effect on someone with a healthy immune system were killing these men.

What is so sad about this whole affair, and what upset me the most, was how the medical community seemed to dismiss other doctors when they said they had cases that were not in homosexual men. The pediatrician who knew he was seeing AIDS in babies born to drug addicts was written off, the drug addicts had to be gay, etc. This type of thinking from people with degrees and whom we trusted with our lives. It is gay cancer, it does not effect us. To me, it is logical to assume, that while it may have shown up in gays first, it would eventually spread. How many men were still in the closet in the late 70s and early 80s unknowingly infecting their wives, or bisexual men. And what really floors me is the attitude of the blood donor clinics. When the CDC had an inkling that AIDS could be spread through blood, they wanted to blood banks to begin testing the blood for the hepatitis antibodies. There was no HIV test at the time (they had not even found the HIV antigen that cause the disease). This was effective in getting 88% of the infected blood out. But the blood banks wouldn't do b/c of what else...MONEY! The banks said the CDC had no proof, just a few possible cases! What how many people have to get it before you do something! They agreed to ask the donors if they participated in any high risk lifestyles. What are they going to say "Yeah, I like to have sex with men!" Please, the donors would lie and then end up infecting the people who received transfusions.

The hoopla about violating peoples civil rights and their right to privacy was ludicrous and it was being touted by the gay leaders! Hello, thousands of gay men are dying b/c you won't close the bathhouses and you will not encourage the city to put forth any type of very direct educational programs b/c no one can tell you that you can't have sex anymore blah, blah, blah!

The book just sickens me. How the scientists had to fight and fight real hard to get any money from the Reagan administration who was trying to cut domestic spending. Ridiculous. The treatment of AIDS patients by the doctors and nurses assigned to care for them, in some cases was atrocious. I hope if I had been of an age where I was aware of what was going on, I would not have acted in this manner.

What was really heartbreaking was the knowledge that so many of these young men (and they were young) had just recently come out of the closet into a very hostile world. Many did not have the support of their families and died alone. The author was gay and also had contracted AIDS. He took the test about a year before he finished the book but did not want to know the results until he finished b/c he was afraid it would taint his reporting. He died in 1994.

This is and awesome achievement, well written and is seen by many as the definitive account of the spread of the AIDS virus in America. If you have seen the movie, I would read the book b/c there seemed to be a lot more in the book. It is not light reading, 600 pages, but it is fascinating.

Settle Down Kayne, Settle Down!

No one irritates me more than Kayne West. I hate his music, he can't rap for shit, and he grew up in the SUBURBS!!!! What the f($% kind of rapper is that!!!! I do however LOVE LOVE LOVE Carlos Mencia and he apparently would like Kayne to shut up as well. Too funny!

http://www.jokaroo.com/funnyvideos/carlos_mencia_disses_kayne_west.html

Friday...Yeah!

Finally, this week is over with. Knowing that I only have 5 1/2 weeks left in this dungeon helps to pass the absolutely boring days but the days seem to be dragging on longer and longer. I am about to scream. We have a new weirdo. I have dubbed him the Serial Sleeper. He originally would come in, sit at one of the desks behind the reference desk and read reference books, atlases, etc...you know, normal books everyone reads. He would do this ALL DAY LONG!!! I mean really, I think we all know that he was just trying to get out of the hot Louisiana weather. And we do have a lot of people that do that. But this guy is just creepy. He is basically here from 8-5 everyday. Like I said, he started at this desk which we had to pass to go to the bathroom and he would like stare you down as you passed him. He is stinky and I try not to make eye contact with him or even acknowledge his presence.

As he has become more secure in his surrounddings, he has moved into the serials room, started trying to make conversation with the staff etc. He calls the security guard sweetheart which I just find icky beyond belief. He routinely sleeps in the serials room, even going so far as to take off his shoes and socks and get mighty comfy. That is just too nasty and in really poor taste. I mean, how many people would walk into a public building and just take off their shoes and socks and settle in for a nap! I just do not understand how these people's minds work. He also will come in and out of the building for no apparent reason. He will be here for like an hour, walk outside, as if to smoke a cig and then walk back in like 1 1/2 minutes later, definitely not long enough to smoke. I figured out where he was going one day and one of the buildings and grounds guys told me there were some beer cans were back there. Great! He is drunk, that has got to be it. I wish he would just stay away. I am waiting for a full out crazy attack to happen with this guy and we will have to call the cops.

On a lighter note, apparently there was a big brewhaha outside of the capitol building today, lots of cop cars (we are located right in front of the capitol gardens which is in front of the capitol). My source in buidlings and grounds said the cops were attempting to corral a naked guy who was making circles around the aresnal (a museum). Not sure if they caught him, but I can promise you that he was probably one of our patrons! Thank God I am leaving soon!

Will the Dixie Chicks Shut up Already!

I just finished reading the Time interview with the Dixie Chicks. You know, I could really care less what Ms. Maines says about the president. He is irking me a little bit lately too. But what turned me off 3 years ago was what seemed like catering to a crowd to sell more albums and on top of that another celebrity actually thinking I give a shit about their political beliefs. I don't. I don't care what Streisand or Affleck or Clooney or any of these civic minded (ha ha!) individuals has to say in that arena. It is like once they become famous enough, they think the public actually votes based on what they say when in actuality, many people I know do exactly the opposite. What does a comment like "We are ashamed the president is from Texas" or whatever she said have to do with the music they were playing? Nothing because the last time I checked they did not exactly record socially concious songs. I was actually about to buy whatever album was out at that time and then she had to ruin it so all I heard was political crap when I played her music and that is not what I want to do when I listen to my music.

So, if you have not read this article, it is basically a liberal "journalist" (are there really any more of them out there) blathering over how wonderful they are, so anti-establishment, willing to speak their minds. It basically ends up coming across as 3 selfish, patronizing women who apparently are always right. They never make mistakes and everything they say is correct. Maguire not only disses Toby Keith (who they have a sort of feud with) but Reba who I was not aware had made disparaging remarks about the Chicks. Robinson says they ask theirselves now what would Bruce Springsteen do, as far as a talk show, would he do the View? No, so niether are they--ok, being that they have only been popular for about 8 years, I think comparing yourself to Bruce is a bit of a stretch! Oh, and did you know that Ms. Maines skipped school in high school to show that she didn't get caught but all the Spanish kids did so the truancy policy was racist? God, she has been soooooooo active in the immigration debate that it is totally believable that this spoiled little twit skipped school for such a noble cause and not because, you know, she did not want to go! Oh and when the reporter mentioned something about this album might tank, Maines said something to the effect that she was not ready to ride coach again. And they were also having some type of discussion about which one of their nannies were going to get some on tour this summer. Nice classy stuff. I certainly won't be buying this album...and this isn't called censorship Ms. Maines, it is called my freedom to not listen to something I find in poor taste.

Silly Patrons!

We had a pretty nice Memorial Day Weekend. I have decided to give weight watchers another shot and get rid of this extra 10 pounds that seems to have made a comfy home on my body. Emma has a molar coming in so she was a joy and, of course, where would be with the requiste bumping of the head and face continually all weekend. Poor Em, she must have bopped her skull on 4 different occassions. Claire is on the potty training trail so hopefully we will be able to report success in the next few months. She has been asking to go more frequently and even went when we went out to eat for the first time this weekend! It is so funny what can get you excited with kids!

Anyway, so I come out to the desk to weirdo grunting man and Connie Francis, who has thankfully left the building after going on a diatribe about how much paper he has in his apartment and they (who they is I am not quite sure!) told him he had to get rid of some of it and blah, blah, blah! I can stare right at my computer, cause occassionaly I have to work, and he will not shut up! Dear God man, leave me the hell alone!

So the first call I get is someone who needs the number to the Zachary library. The EBR library system feels the need to put their number in the yellow pages and no one has figured that out yet so they call us all day long to get these numbers. Three college degrees and bascially all the phone calls I get are transfers or someone wanting a phone number! Anyway, when one wants a phone number shouldn't one have the proper writing implement in hand to take down said number? Apparently, this would be logical and the people who call are not. They ask for a number and when I begin to read it, "Wait, wait! I need a pen!" Did you not just call me to get a number? Why don't you have a pen???!!! And then a lady coming in wanting a book on travel...and doesn't say anything else. So I ask "what about travel?" And she answers, "You know in Georgia." Ok, if you want travel books on Georgia, why not say "I need travel books on Georgia" and not I need travel books????!!!! Dear God, I need a valium and a drink otherwise there be some serious ass kicking going on! I mean really people, are ya that stupid that your questions can't be formulated in ways that will give you the info that you need and crave??!! Throw me a bone here! And God help me if the nut case that can't control his gas comes in today! He must have farted 4 times when I was on the desk, loud explosive ones. I get off the desk at 2:45 and leave at 4 and in that hour and 15 minutes, he managed to make all 20, 000 sq ft of the first floor smell like total ass!

Calgon take me away!

I Never Thought I would Say this...

Ok, those that know me know I absolutley detest Britney Spears. She is white trash, dresses like it and is married to it! And while I think she is an idiot relating to the child's car seat(every mother knows that the seat faces backward until the child is 20 pounds AND one year old, not OR), the newest debacle the media has placed her in makes me feel sorry for her. I know there have been many times where I was holding one of my kids and holding a drink and tripped. It happens to everyone. It is called multi-tasking. The press is making too big of a deal about this. She was trying to get through the crowd, she tripped, end of story, leave it alone. God help me if every minute of my life were under a microscope. I am sure someone would see me having a brain fart moment too!

Poor Bear Bear!

I had a relaxing Mother's Day until 11:30am. That was when Claire's face morphed into Angelina Jolie's for just a few hours! Jerry was swinging the girls in the double swing which hangs from a branch at his parents house. There was another branch close by that was broken so when he swang them high, the rope for the swing got caught on the broken branch and when it realeased it dropped the girls several feet. Both were screaming hysterically. I ran over and grabbed Emma because Jerry was trying to get both of them out which doesn't work tha well when both are freaked the hell out! Emma calmed down so I went to see about Claire and noticed blood was pouring out of her mouth. Ok freak out time! Her face had apparently hit part of the plastic swing pretty hard and pushed her top teeth into her gums which made them bleed but did nothing to her teeth, thank God! She also bite a hole on the inside of her lower lip. The top one was pretty swollen and bruised but subsided after awhile. Of course the nurse says no salty or citrus foods. We go over to my brother's later and we are having crawfish with lemonade! And she ate them! You would have never thought it, but the 2 1/2 year old LOVES crawfish! I thought it would be to hot, but she begs for it everytime we have some.