IHOP

About two and a half years ago, my best friend and I started going to IHOP together on Tuesday nights. Faithfully, we would meet every week and discuss our lives and what was happening. Sometimes different people would join us but the core would always remain the same. Sometimes we would talk about how work was going or any other unimportant topic. Sometimes we would have deep discussions about life and where we wanted to end up. If either one of us was upset about something, we knew that we could go to IHOP on Tuesday and talk about it. Tonight was the last IHOP night. Because I'm moving to Orem, Ryan and I won't be meeting up every Tuesday from now on. It is a depressing thought. So tonight we ended how we started: just the two of us in a booth in Layton. When Ryan told the waitress it was our last night, I started to cry. The waitress was suprised since she has been working there for almost a year and remembers us each time. Her name is Jessica. Before she started serving us, one of our regular servers was Shawn. Our first regular server was Karen. Sometimes, she would sit down and talk to us. I have so many wonderful memories of sitting at IHOP at 9:30 at night and eating breakfast with friends. I have a feeling that when the next Tuesday comes around, I will shed a few tears in memory of a wonderful two and a half years eating with my best friend. Have I ever mentioned that I hate change?

Stake Conference

Sunday was Stake Conference, at which a new Stake Presidency was called. After years of faithful service, Pres. Hess, Pres. Brunnette, and Pres. Child are getting a break. The new Stake President is Bro. Richins, with Bro. Heard and Bro. Barlow at his side. The conference was presided over by Elder L. Tom Perry. In his talk he discussed the importance of the priesthood, bearing witness to those around us, living within our financial means, preparing spiritually, and following church leaders. It was amazing to see him in person and stand within five feet of him when Mom introduced herself to him.

Wednesday through Saturday

On Wednesday, there was a going away party for me, Judy, and Suzanne. Suzanne is going to another branch to be a Children's Librarian, a job that I envy. I love childrens and young adult books and would kill for this job. Sadly, without a degree, I would never even be considered for the job despite my knowledge and experience. Such is life. Suzanne will do a great job. She is animated and enthusiastic. Judy has taken a part time job at Headquarters in the processing department. She is very detail oriented and knowledgeable and will be wonderful. Both of these great women will be missed horribly at Syracuse. I have another week of work before I leave for Orem. I can't help feeling bad for my boss Deanna. She has to find the replacements for three people and hire a new circulation person. Yuck; that is a lot of interviews. Anyway, at the going away party we had cake, ice cream, cookies, chips, and salsa. Wednesday was Judy's last day and Thursday was Suzanne's last day. Despite the sadness of the occassion, the cake was excellent and I did manage to get good pictures of both Deanna and Judy.
On Friday I had an interview for a secretary job in Provo. I must admit that I hate interviews. I know that I can do the job, but it is hard to convey this information to the interviewer. What I want to say is this: "I can do this job. If you hire me, you will be very pleased with the job that I do. You will never regret it and will be sorry when I leave for another job. Just give me a chance." Of course, you can't just say such things without sounding incredibly pig-headed and insane. Grrr.
After the interview I emptied my car of some boxes and unpacked some of my books. On my way back from Provo, I remembered that I needed to get an oil change. Luckily, the car dealership had an open appointment. After they had emptied my car of oil, they informed me that I had a rather large crack in my oil pan and it had to be replaced. Three hundred dollars and two hours later, I was on my way home with a new oil pan. Friday night I drove down to the Gateway and met up with Ryan. He took me out to dinner, then we went to the Planetarium for a light show. In the building is an amazing, complex, perpetual motion machine (pictures are included in this blog entry.) After the light show I was a little sick to my stomach so we walked around in the cold and talked. We ended up at the Skybox for a yummy cookie/ice cream dessert. I always love spending time with Ryan because he makes me laugh and think at the same time.
On Saturday morning, Dad and I went to the temple for baptisms. There were two big groups there so we only were able to do conformations. Dad and I realized that we wouldn't have time to wait an hour to do baptisms so we left and had breakfast. I got to work five minutes late and worked until 6pm. It was an insane day. One of the circulation people went home sick, so Suzy and I ran the last half of the shift. We stayed late and still left three full carts of books for Monday. There is nothing so scary as a busy library run by a skeleton crew. Because of the busy day and the fog, I got home 45 minutes late and missed the adult Saturday session of Stake Conference.

Boxes #2

I found some more pictures of some boxes that I've painted. Once again, feel free to vote for your favorite.

Friday

I awoke on Friday with a stuffy nose and slightly sore throat. I got ready for my interview in Orem and drove down while listening to music. After what seemed like a rather short interview, I stopped at the apartment that I will be living in after February 4th. I measured my room and tried to decided what to take from my current room and what to leave. When I left Orem, I called Mom to discuss the interview and Alison answered her phone. It turns out that Mom and Sidney were still at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. They had been joined by Alison, Isaac, Jen, and Lauren. I stopped by for some fun at the museum. I did my best not to touch the babies, although I did hold Lauren for a little while. I was careful not to kiss either of them or their hands. I spent most of the time running around with Sidney.

By late afternoon, I was exhausted and my throat hurt more than it had in the morning. I decided to not go out and play and stayed home, packing up books and some clothes. After watching an episode of Greys Anatomy and taking some cold medicine, I went to bed.

Curtis is home!

After work on Thursday, I went down to the airport to welcome home a friend from Iraq. Curtis left in September and I have been praying for his safe return for months. Along with Ryan R., John, Ryan P., Kyle, Katie, Drew, and Doug, I welcomed home our conquering hero. His plane was almost an hour late. Luckily, we ate candy and drank soda pop to stay awake. I made friends with other people waiting for the plane, one of which took our picture once Curtis got off the plane. We were surprised because he left the plane in civilian clothes after an 11 hour layover in Minneapolis, MN. Because of the long layover, he was able to go to the Mall of America and buy some civilian clothes including the grey sweatshirt, jeans, and red shirt he was wearing. Curtis had been awake for two days after flying from Iraq to Qatar, then to Germany, Ireland, and then across the Atlantic Ocean to our grand country (I think I left out a stop or two, but I can't remember which ones.) After getting his lovely green duffel bags, we headed out to the parking lot. While almost everyone else took Curtis out to celebrate, I headed home because my nose was running and I had been sneezing all day. I am so excited Curtis is home safe and sound.

Library parents

There are three types of libray parents: good, the uninterested, and bad. The first is a wonderful sight to behold. They come at least once every few months, usually every couple of weeks. They pick out new and interesting books for their children and occasionally choose a video or DVD as a reward for good behavior. When their children come, they behave in a civilized manner. If they do not, their parents immediately discipline them or remove them from the library after a warning or two. They care what their children are reading and are able to engage the librarians in pleasant conversation when checking their books out. Oh, how these parents warm the heart of a librarian. Yesterday, two such parents came in with their two children. They came up to the counter and asked for a moment of my time so that I could talk to their three-year-old son. I came around and they had their son present a broken video. He said that he was sorry for breaking it and then presented me with a jar of pennies. He looked at the jar with longing, then handed it over as payment for the broken video. What wonderful parents. Even though the parents payed the difference, they were teaching their small child the importance of library materials and the consequence of his action. These are the type of parents that a librarian truly loves.
The second type of library parent are those who do not care what their child is reading or what happens in the library. Their children come alone to the library after school. They stay anywhere from 30 minutes to five hours. Their parents do not have library cards of their own, and only deem it necessary to enter the library if their child or children do not come out of the library at the appropriate pick-up time. While these parents are not harming their children or the library, I can't help feeling bad for these kids. I wish their parents took more of an interest in their reading. It is sad to see a second and third grader wandering around the library for an hour while they wait. While I realize that parents work and the library is a safe place to stay, I wish they would come in and check out some books for their children.
The third kind of library parent is a figurative thorn in the side of any patient librarian. They bring their children, then let them run free while they chose their own books, read the paper or a magazine, or sit on the internet. These children play tag, fight, pull many books from the shelves, scream, talk loudly on their cell phones, and generally bother other library patrons. We had two such parents the other night. The mother looking through the romance books for a half an hour while her three children created chaos. The oldest tormented the baby of the family. The baby screamed her protest every few minutes. The middle child pulled many books off the shelves, moved chairs, and ran around looking for her parents. The father of these three children sat on the internet, seemingly unaware of the situation. From my seat at the reference desk, I saw him check his e-mail, check his myspace account, and read the sports scores on the ESPN website. All this while ignoring his middle child's plea for his help in finding a book about rabbits. Another librarian took pity on her and showed her where she might find these books. I told the oldest child to stop harrassing his baby sister and the middle child to stop running in the library. After a half an hour, the mother finally checked out her many romance novels and six childrens videos. Only one children's books was checked out, and that was done without a glance at the title or subject. This last type of library parent drives me crazy. Why bring your children to the library at all if they cause only trouble and you don't bother to pay attention to them? Thus ends my tirade about library parents. I can only hope my siblings and friends are considerate and caring enough to be good library parents. My parents certainly were.

Boxes

I found some pictures of boxes that I have painted in the past and I though I would post the most interesting ones. Anyone have a favorite?

New Years Eve

For those who are new to reading my blog, New Years Eve isn't a really happy day for me. It is the anniversary of Caleb's death. On Sunday morning I thought I would be able to make it through the day without crying. I made it to sacrament meeting. It was very quiet in the chapel until a baby started crying. Then I started crying. After church I went over the Ryan's house. He held me until I stopped crying, his mom gave me food, then I fell asleep on the couch while his dad slept in the chair. It is strange how comfortable I am around his family. They are really like a second family to me.
I was home by 5 pm where I helped set up for our family get together. Our whole family (minus Jeremy and co.) was there along with the Wrights, Aunt Renee and Aunt Nancy, the Lowes, and Collings families. It was nice to celebrate life and those we love. It was a great way to ring in the new year. We ate lots of great food and played some games. After most people left, a few of us talked until 2:30 am. Happy New Year!

What kind of reader

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Literate Good Citizen You read to inform or entertain yourself, but you're not nerdy about it. You've read most major classics (in school) and you have a favorite genre or two.
Dedicated Reader
Book Snob
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Visiting on Christmas

On Christmas day, Mom, Dad, and I went visiting for almost six hours. First to Jeremy and family, Josh and Brooke, Jordan at work, to Salt Lake to visit Jen and family with Alison and Isaac along for the ride, and then we ended up visiting Grandma in the hospital. Here are some pictures of the day:











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Book review

In the last week I have finished two books. They were both good reads although very different.
The first is Magic Study by Maria Snyder. This excellent sequel to Poison Study is a fantasy novel about a women discovering her magic abilities after being kidnapped as a child, killing a man, and later becoming a food taster for a leader of the land. I found the characters to be believable, the plot to be engaging, and the fantasy well crafted. I would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy although, be forewarned, there are some fairly violent scenes in this book as well as one non-graphic love scene.
The second book is Dispatches from the edge by Anderson Cooper. This retelling of moments in CNN reporter Anderson Cooper's life can be hard to read. The suicide of his brother and his many stories of suffering people are vividly retold. The end of the book contains several chapters on the Hurricane Katrina storm and aftermath. Reading these chapters are sure to make the reader angry at the federal government and their lack of action. If you can read about Hurricanes, starving people in Africa, and war-torn countries, this book is very interesting. After finishing it, I just wanted to give Anderson Cooper a hug. His eyes have seen too much.

Super hero quiz

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 65% Robin 62% Spider-Man 60% Green Lantern 55% Supergirl 55% Wonder Woman 45% The Flash 45% Catwoman 35% Batman 30% Iron Man 30% Hulk 25%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...