The future is now

That's the 6G iPod Nano. On a watch band. All those futuristic cartoons from my childhood are coming true. Now, where are the flying cars?

Have You Read It?

So, being the complete and utter book nerd that I am, I found this meme and just had to post it on here. Feel free to copy it yourself, if you wish.

These are 100 great books listed by the BBC. According to them, most people have read only 6.

Instructions: Copy/paste this list of books. Bold the ones you've read in their entirety; italicize ones you've read in part.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 

6 The Bible
(I’ve read all the New Testament and most of the Old Testament, but there’s probably parts of the Old Testament that I’ve never read.)

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott 

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
(Ugh, this book is so depressing)

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier (I'm planning on finishing this one at some point)

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
(Love, love, LOVE this book!)

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis 

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (and the 7 other books in the series)

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood 

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan 

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert 

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (The only Jane Austen book I haven’t gotten all the way through)

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov 

63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt 

64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold 

65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
(I read the first chapter once)

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
(We read an excerpt in my 10^th grade American Literature class)

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
(I’ve read the condensed children’s version, that counts as partial, right?)

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
(read the first bit, saw the movie, then didn’t want to finish the book)

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard
Adams (One of my favorite books EVER!)

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (But I think it was the abridged version)

That’s 45 I’ve read in their entirety! Almost half! And 11 partials. Wow. Maybe I have done something productive with my life, after all.

Weeding Funnies

I've been doing quite a bit of weeding at the library lately in preparation for a collection development project and sometimes, I find really funny things. Today, I pulled a couple of outdated computer books from the juvenile section and found this in the glossary at the end of the book, alongside other things like mouse, RAM, and printer:

Zorxyl: There really isn't anything in a computer called a zorxyl, but everybody knows you have to end a word list with "Z"!

That's from Kermit Learns How Computers Work: Starring Jim Henson's Muppets.

So, everyone, now you know that you have to end word lists with "Z"! Kermit the Frog says so!

What I Did Today

Woke up
Went to work
Messed around with the thermostat while at work (We're having difficulties with it)
Rejoiced as I got in my car and turned on the cold air full blast
Stopped at Walmart on the way home from work
Bought blueberries (among other things)
Got home and ate lunch (which did indeed include blueberries)
Watched an episode of Avatar: the Last Airbender on streaming Netflix (I love you, streaming Netflix, will you marry me?)
Played a couple rounds of DXBall while listening to iTunes shuffle my music library
Spent the last hour or more downloading new music (artists include London to Tokyo, The Alexandria Quartet, and The Veronicas, 500 points to anyone who knows what these artists have in common that made me download them all together)


Other Things I Have Done Lately:
Made a jellyfish out of a paper plate
Watched the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie (the only good one)
Saw Toy Story 3 at a midnight showing
Got my favorite pillow in the world back from my aunt
Made up a song about roadkill (specifically, dead armadillos)*


*Sometimes I get really really bored during my daily commute. And this one time, I saw a dead armadillo on the road. As this lady at the library said one time, "Armadillos kinda look like armored opossums." Man, that needs to be a line in the song.

So Confused...

So, I was browsing Barnes and Noble, just checking out their rare books section on the website, when I came across this complete rip-off. What?!? I didn't realize someone would actually pay that much for one of those. I definitely wouldn't. Not for an author inscribed copy, not for a first edition. Ever. Such bizarre things you find on the internets.

An historic account

I’m not sure how I became drawn to the genre of historical fiction. My mother left regency romance novels lying around the house when I was a teenager, and I pretty much devoured any fiction I could get my hands on at that age, so maybe that had an influence. Several non-romances had an impact on me as well. I absolutely adored survival stories: think My Side of the Mountain or The Island of the Blue Dolphins. (No wonder I love Lost so much!) Also, I was somewhat of a medieval junkie: enter my brief affair with Karen Cushman. When school librarians plugged award-winning books, I paid attention. There’s a reason those books win awards. My middle school library had the Newbery winners separated out from the other fiction and I’m pretty sure I read almost all of those. (The Nancy Drew books were also separated out, but I didn’t go so much for them. To this day I’m still not much of a mystery reader.) The Newberys I read included such historical fiction as Caddie Woodlawn, Adam of the Road, Johnny Tremain, King of the Wind (I had an affair with Marguerite Henry, too. Influenced by my elementary school librarian.), The Door in the Wall, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Bronze Bow, Julie of the Wolves, Sarah, Plain and Tall, Number the Stars, and The Midwife’s Apprentice.

I have just realized that I must go back and read some of those old Newberys. Also, apparently, I read a lot more historical fiction as a child and teen than I originally thought.

Anyway, as time went by, I suppose I lost touch with historical fiction. During high school and college, I don’t remember reading historical novels. I remember reading a whole lot of fantasy. And a smidgeon of science fiction. But then, one day, I picked up a little (hah!) book called Sarum by Edward Rutherford. It took me a while to get through the darn thing (and I’m not a slow reader: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in six hours! Woot!), but it sparked my interest and I delved into the genre again. I’ve become a fan.

There’s so much history to choose from, if I ever get bored with a time period, I can just pick something different. And I feel like I’m learning something, too, especially from the big fat novels with lots of research, like The Pillars of the Earth. I tend to neglect the classics, though I finally did get around to reading all of Jane Austen’s works. However, the classics aren’t really in the same genre. There, I found some justification for myself. I’ve also found some delightful little books that have become favorites like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. In conclusion, I don’t think I’ll be drifting away from historical fiction ever again.

At least until the next book in the Hunger Games series comes out.

Times When it is Totally Awesome to Work in a Small Town Library

1. When you get to ride on a float in a local parade (And there were, indeed, giant tractors)
2. When people buy you lunch from the local Mexican restaurant and bring it to you in the library
3. When people give you freshly baked chocolate chip cookies
4. When small children recognize you as the librarian outside of the library
5. When groups of old ladies walk into the library and flatter you with compliments about how nice the library is
6. When a small girl reads "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" aloud in the cutest little southern accent
7. When a little boy stands with his face right up against the glass front door of the library, looking inside

Numbers 6 and 7 are reasons why I really should have a video camera with me at all times.

Also, a little boy asked me how old I was today. I told him to guess. His first guess was...wait for it...70. Apparently, I am quite ancient to 7 year olds. This was one of the kids riding in the float with me. He kept asking me, "Where are we going?" and "When are we gonna get there?" and "Are we there yet?" It was the cutest thing! Then again, I'm sure when I grow up and have 7 year olds of my own, those same questions will be highly annoying and bothersome, especially on excruciatingly long 18-hour car trips.

Events

Let's see, what's been happening in my life lately?

Well, I recently went to Washington, D.C., for my cousin's wedding reception. I got to hang with lots of family on my dad's side and I visited the Library of Congress with an old roommate. We saw the amazing reading room and did some fun little learning activities around the exhibits. Very nerdy stuff. Perfect for me. Thank you so much, Maya, for taking me!

The town where I work is having a town celebration this weekend and guess what? I'm going to ride on a float in the parade. The Friends of the Library built this apparently awesome float with a giant book on it. I have no idea what it looks like, but the Friends have assured me that it is amazing. I guess I will see on it on Saturday morning.

Marie, one of the Friends, tells me that throwing things from the float is explicitly forbidden. Darn. I was going to suggest that I toss books at the parade-viewers. I really need to weed out the reference section.

From what I hear, this town really knows how to throw a parade. Years ago, when the local high school was still in town, people would line the streets for the homecoming parade. It was a big deal. In my head, I imagine tractors. Giant tractors. Like this.

Also, in random news, my library is adopting a sea turtle!

Yes, I know I've been gone awhile...

but I'm still here.

I just have some random thoughts today.
First, I absolutely love when the UPS man delivers packages to my library. It's just like Christmas! I open the boxes and inside are beautiful, wonderful, brand-new books. It's pretty much the best part of my job.

Second, spring is a glorious time of year. Today I drove over the mountain and smiled when I saw the gorgeous splashes of purple from the dogwoods. Also, it's not snowing. Yay!

Third, I'm super excited to see my nieces this weekend! Hopefully, Kate will like me more than the last time I saw her.

Buffy vs. Edward

I just started watching Buffy on Hulu. And then today, a friend of mine found this:

http://jezebel.com/5298683/buffy-shuts-down-edward-cullen-in-the-best-clip-ever

I love it! Brings out the creepiness that is Edward Cullen.

Awesome Bookends.

I want.

Argh. Must post update.

Yes, I know. I have been so sadly lacking in updates. Frankly, I don't think much in my life right now is worth blogging about. Plus, when I read other people's blogs, I realize how much better every other person on the planet is at blogging than me. (That is probably an overstatement. I mean, at least I strive to spell words correctly. That must make me better than some people on the planet.) Everyone else's blog entries are witty and well-thought. Mine are boring and dumb compared with them.

I'm waiting to hear about the new job. I applied for the permanent position out here at the tiny library where I'm working. I'm supposed to hear next week. So we'll see what happens with that.

I'm watching the X-files on DVD right now. I borrowed the first two seasons from Becca and I'm almost done with season 2. Which means, I might have to go up to Nashville to get the next couple seasons. I like watching tv on DVD. No commercials. And instant next episode.

I got Josh and Dad into Lost, too. Now I have someone to talk to about that show. Except they've only seen the first three seasons. I don't want to spoil things for them, but every time they watch an episode, I see things I didn't pick up on before. So, I'm constantly making "Ooohhhh, interesting..." noises in places I shouldn't be drawing to their attention. Bryan says it's a stupid show, but last night he said we need to get the fourth season. So he can watch it and make fun of it, he claims. I think he secretly likes it. I don't blame him; it's an awesome show. I can't wait for January and the final season!

Fairie Tale Fettish

One of my book fettishes is fairy tale adapatations. I love it when an auther takes a traditional fairy tale, then modernizes it, gives it a new twist, puts in a different setting, etc. By far, the most adapted fairy tale I have found is Cinderella. The whole plot is just so easily applied to any time period and any setting. I just read a book called A Countess Below Stairs, by Eva Ibbotson. I wasn't expecting it to be a Cinderella plot book, but was delighted to find one of my beloved fairy tales retold. (Also, I was delighted by how refreshing a read it was. Yes, it is what I consider a romance novel, but it also contains adorable characters and has interesting things to say about social classes in a English manor house post-WWI.)

So, in an effort to give myself a reason to blog more, I may start posting a feature about fairy tales and their adaptations. I'm not sure of the format, or if I will be motivated to post with any sort of regularity, but I'll try it, at least for a little while. Ok, first post, Cinderella.

Note: Anything that sounds factual probably came from the Wikipedia article on Cinderella.

There are countless versions of this beloved fairy tale told in various ancient cultures across the globe, including Greco-Egyptian (possibly the earliest version), Chinese, Japanese, Arabian and Celtic. Though I always assumed that the Brothers Grimm fairie tale was the original European version, I learned that Charles Perrault had written his own version in 1697 (according to the Wikipedia article) and that an Italian version had been published even earlier. Perrault, though, was the one who added the pumpkin turning into a coach, the fairy godmother, and the glass slippers. Grimm's version, which I prefer because it's more gruesome, has birds (Aha! Here's where those friendly woodland creatures come from!) and a magic wishing tree instead of a fairy godmother, stepsisters that cut off various parts of their feet to fit into the shoes, and pigeons that peck people's eyes out. Good stuff.

My Top Five Favorite Adaptations:

Disclaimer: All of the following is my opinion. Keep in mind that I am a silly fangirl at heart. Hence, many of the versions I love and enjoy are silly and girly and have no substance.

-Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (Any of the three movie versions, also the stage musical)
-Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (the book, NOT the movie)
-A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson
-The Brothers Grimm version
-Ever After (1998)

Honorable Mentions:
-The Glass Slipper (1955) starring Leslie Caron
-Faerie Tale Theatre's "Cinderella" (1985) with Jennifer Beals and Matthew Broderick
-Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey
-The Slipper and the Rose (1976)
There are about a billion others. Check out the Wikipedia article here for more adaptations. Make a comment if you have a favorite that I simply must read/see. Or make a comment to suggest what fairie tale to do next.

Small Town Stories

I have just decided that there are some great bonuses to working in a small town. One of the older residents of Gurley just told me a story about why Gurley has no jail.

So, this young man got tired of being locked up every weekend for being drunk, so he took a big chain from the lumbermill, attached it to a freight train and to the little jail building. The jail, of course, went flying down the tracks. A local farmer built a barn out of the remains. And the young man who did the deed was none other than the mayor's son!

Aren't small towns great?

Things That Make Me Smile About My Job

Gurley, the town where I work, has a street called Elvis Presley Blvd.
Half of the people that come into the library ask if we have the Twilight books.
The scenic drive to work, though a half hour long, is absolutely gorgeous in the spring.
I filled in at another branch this morning and got to work with one of my favorite people!
When I work at other branches, I get to ransack their DVD collections.
Old people tell great stories and gossip like fiends.
Apparently, I'm grown-up enough to run a branch all on my own. Scary. But a good scary.
Small children bring me handmade crafts made of sequins and popsicle sticks.
Small children ask me to read them stories.
Small children gaze in wonder at our awesome Brio train table.
I found a copy of James E. Talmage's Jesus the Christ in our small collection.
I think we have the entire series of The Waltons on DVD. At our one tiny branch.
I can change the background color on Workflows, and no one ever changes it back to blue!
When the computers were busted the other day, the IT people were so grateful that I was a young, technologically-inclined person.

Bookmarks

So, I found this page that has "cool bookmark designs," and thought I'd share. My favorite is the bookmark lamp. I seriously need one of these. Too bad my birthday's past already.

Flying Solo

I must be doing well with my new job.

I must be doing well, because they have me running a tiny branch for a couple weeks ALL BY MYSELF! It's all me. No one else. Scary.

Ok, well, I do have the phone-a-friend lifeline if disaster strikes. But still, for all the everyday things, I'm by myself. And I have been out here by myself for the past couple days now and everything has run smoothly. No angry patrons. At least, not yet. I hope I can keep it that way.

I've done a little organizing. I put the DVD cases in rough alphabetical order (all the movies starting with 'A' grouped together and so forth). Now I'm working on the discs.

I've helped people find stuff. Today, a lady was looking for some I Spy books and we found where those are. Yesterday I scoured the catalog for a book about haunted houses for this little boy. That was fun.

I've had some interesting conversations. Old people like to talk, I've learned. And they have opinions about everything.

Right now, this is a temporary situation. But it's not so scary as I thought it was going to be. And I've even enjoyed myself at times. It is rather intimidating to think that there's really no one I can pass the buck to, but I've handled it so far. I don't know if I've handled it well, but I have handled it.

And I do kinda like the drive out here. I get to drive over the mountain and through rural Alabama, which is quite pretty, even in the brown month of February.

Exciting Things!!!

It must be time for an update. Because I had exciting things happen!

First of all, I got a job! Yay for employment! I'll be working for the public library as an branch library assistant. It'll be part-time at first, but they're hoping to have me working full-time soon. They're gonna use me as a floater, sending me to whatever branch needs me, so I'll get to drive all over the county. Which meant that I needed...

A car!

I got job on Tuesday, so that afternoon, Dad and I looked at some cars online to see what was available and how much it would cost. I really really wanted a Honda Civic, but I knew one would be hard to find. Wednesday afternoon, Dad and I took a drive around town to see if we could find anything, but it was cold and dark and New Year's Eve. No one was open. We looked at a couple cars in the self-sell place and wrote down their information, but decided to go car shopping for real on Friday. So, this morning, we heading up to the Honda dealership and didn't really find anything in my price range. They had a Suzuki Verona that was a bit more than we wanted to spend, but it did have a lot of nice features: leather heated seats, big stereo in the back, V6 engine. Fun to drive around in, but not really the practical car I wanted. So we disappointed the salesman (he was really trying to push that car on us) and went to the Bentley Hyundai place to look around there. My sister and her husband had a Hyundai and they really liked it, so we looked at one they had there. This car fit the budget much better and ended up being the one we got! It's a 2003 Hyundai Elantra and only has 39,000 miles on it. An old man had just traded it in for a new one. Hence, the low mileage. Also hence, the long scratch down the side of it. We heard from the guy who did the paperwork with us that the old man had just come in earlier because he had dinged up his new car that he just traded for. So, yeah, my new car is a little "weathered". The moral of the story is when you get too old, you shouldn't drive cars anymore. I, however, look forward to many good times with my new car.

Me and my new car!

And also, the houses across the street. And also, the vertically challenged mountains of Alabama in the background.

Kiki and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I made it back to Alabama. It was an exciting trip. Exciting in a bad way.

Thursday morning, my roomie, Maya, and I get in her car to make our way up to Salt Lake. We had plenty of time, or we would have had plenty of time if it hadn't started snowing like nobody's business! So instead, we slowly inch up to the Salt Lake airport. I make it about 45 minutes before my flight left. Still would have been fine if it hadn't been for the computers crashing in the check in line! And I was the person at the front of the line when they crashed! I was so close! So, I stood there for about 15 minutes. Now it's 30 minutes until my flight leaves. I get up to the counter and one of my bags is overweight! Argh!!! I quickly rearrange some stuff between my bags. Finally, I get my bags checked. However, I am still not checked in. They gave me a stupid little paper that informs me I have to check in at the gate. Great. Next is going through security. By this time, I'm feeling panicky. I know I'm going to have to run to my gate like a scene from a Home Alone movie. I rush through security as fast as I can, forgo putting my belt back on, cram my feet into my shoes, almost knock over an old lady in a wheelchair, hope that I haven't dropped anything or left anything behind and make a running start for my gate. Of course, my gate is at the very end of the terminal. When I get there, I'm completely out of breath. 5 minutes until my flight leaves. I made it, right? Wrong. I go up to the gate and the somewhat unhelpful man there tells me that since I'm not checked in, I have to go talk to the person at the desk. I turn around and looked hopelessly at the desk, which has a line of at least 20 people. No possible way I can make it through that line in 5 minutes! I was totally going to miss my flight. Completely panicked at this point, I call Dad and tell him that I'm afraid I'm not going to make it. And I really was afraid I wasn't going to make it. Nevertheless, I get in the line. Some of the nice people around me in the line (whose flights weren't leaving in 4 minutes) tell me to just go up to the front and see if I can cut. Desperate, I do so and a girl informs me that one of the people at the side of the desk is helping a group of people on my flight. So I just hand my paper to that person and she tells me to go ahead and board. Really? It was that simple? Why didn't the guy at the gate tell me that? Dad, of course, is still on the other end of my phone, so he's heard the whole thing. As I walk up the walkway thingy (what are those things called?) into the plane, I tell him that I got on the plane, it's ok, I'm gonna make it after all, etc.

So you'd think all my problems were over, right? Well, they were mostly over. Since I was like, the last person boarding the plane, I had to find a place in the overhead compartment for my carry-on. After much searching, and much whacking people in the head with my ginormous backpack every time I turned around, I find some room for it. Then I find a seat (I was flying Southwest) and promptly give a concussion to the poor guy in the aisle seat while crawling over him.

Needless to say, that was probably my worst airport travelling experience ever.

The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful and calm compared to the first part. I made it to Las Vegas, had a 3 hour layover, got a boarding pass for my connecting flight, then flew to Nashville. Surprisingly, my luggage made it to Nashville even though I checked in late. My brother-in-law, Peter, picked me up and I spent the night at my sister and brother-in-law's. The following day, I got to spend some time with my adorable niece and that evening, my dad and brothers came up and drove me down to Huntsville.

Wow, I've had quite the week!

Last Day

Today was my last day working at my beloved Harold B. Lee Library. My job, first as a desk clerk, then as a Holds/Recalls secretary, was such an incredible blessing. I met amazing people and did work that I absolutely loved. I can hardly believe it's over.

The last 3 and a half years have been great. I always felt so incredibly welcome in the Circulation department, from the very beginning. I remember being trained, feeling completely overwhelmed by all the information that I had to learn, then eventually getting a handle on everything. Working at the front desk was always so fun, especially with Sondra. She used to randomly survey random patrons. The only question I remember, though, had something to do with guys wearing pink shirts. I remember when Alexis got a promotion to TL and we had a running joke where I would show her the reserve book I was about to shelve. (This comes from when we were supposed to have another person check books we were about to shelve so as to cut down on non-reserve books being shelved in Reserve.) I remember when I worked with Tim one late night and he essentially gave me a home teaching message. I remember being sick and having someone send me home and cover my shift for me. I remember root beer float Saturdays with Lilia and Jennica. I remember many many deep conversations at the front desk when JoAnn overhear us in her office and join in the discussion. I remember the first day Camille left me alone in Holds/Recalls to do the work by myself. I remember teaching Austin about stealing Blackboard and encouraging him to write the best ever Blackboard theft post. I remember doing Book Processing with Parker when he read me Italian poetry. I remember really hating to call people about Reserve Recalls. I remember decorating the ginormous Christmas tree last year with everyone. I remember the day nothing printed out for Holds and Recalls and we had to do everything manually. There are so many good memories.

Today, Kristina (my dear former fellow Holds/Recalls secretary) commented that now that I'm leaving all the knowledge and information I learned at the library will be useless. Yes, some of it will be. But I hope that I've learned something more important than procedures and policies. Like learning how to be patient with people, learning to put myself in someone else's shoes, learning to respect other's beliefs and opinions. I hope that I'm a better person now than I was when I walked through the Reserve Door for my job interview over three years ago. I feel like I've grown up so much. And now it's time to do even more growing up.