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Not from me even! Wow, I know you’re impressed. Went to the monthly BITS meeting this morning and seriously I have never seen so much anger over so little, every topic had people foaming at the mouth, ranting, screaming and generally behaving in a manner best reserved for politics, the state of the planet and affairs. I’m afraid it was very very funny, especially the dubious tangents (eg, talking about a new hardware system somehow ended up on casuals not being informed of system changes). At one point there was serious fury directed at me because my branch doesn’t use the cordless phone. I mean what a pointless thing to be bothered about.

Hair product is a new deal. When I was a smaller person - in height that is - there was spray, mousse and gel. Now there’s “Product”. Last time I got my hair cut the trendy young thing with the scissors asked me “Now, are you OK for product?”. “Um, yeah” i said because at that stage I didn’t use product. Now I do, in a non-trendy way. While I’m tempted to try the one that makes you look like you’ve just been out on the beach getting all salty and windswept, I am infact using one which calls itself “Anti-Frizz”. This is a perfumy smelling gloop that smooths hair down by simple fac that it’s very much like an oily scalp. In other words, it simulates dirty hair. For $7.99 I can pretend I never washed my hair ever. I’m a moron. :D

It’s always the way - I spent my day today from about 12:30pm till 8:30pm being incredibly tired and headachy and longing for sleep. Now it’s 11:23pm and I’m wide awake. Pfft!

Took the car in to the mechanic today as Dad discovered it wasn’t the water pump but rather the alternator that was causing the horrible noise. Now she’s running like a dream and all is good. She’s not even chugging when she idles - whoo hoo! Mum was horrified when she got in and shut the door at the cloud of dust that swirled in an artisic manner around her and is also not keen on the large and varied collection of cobwebs (after more than a year, the cobweb over the passenger door is now gone - it’s the end of an era).

Elise bear arrived home today to a small and refined celebration (I took her out of the envelope and put her on the PC. Celebration ends).

When I was in high school the school hired a motivational speaker to come out to our school camp at the start of the year 12. The idea was that as we were about to go through a horribly difficult year of exams, tests, marking etc and it was all counting toward our attractivness to universities, we should have some loud man with very white teeth shout at us for an hour. While I can’t claim to have passed year 12 (and therefore my VCE) at first attempt, I’m not sure it was because the guy wasn’t shouty enough - he was VERY shouty.

I’ve suddenly remembered this because I remember one line of advice he gave us which was “Do something difficult every day - you’ll feel like a stronger person for having tried”. Generally I count getting out of bed as my difficult thing for the day, but today it was eating a kiwi fruit while resting my feet on the server and reading journal entries of friends. I feel a stronger person for having tried (and coped with the hardship of constantly losing my spoon).

Rambling entry today, nothing new there I guess. I’ll start with the important ponder of the day which is what can one do when…

Story is simple. Small child of about 2 years playing with the lever on our watercooler created a puddle at the base of the cooler (this happens at least once a week, the cooler is right near the Children’s Area and most small kids like to play with levers and switches). I wandered up and got him to stop (in a nice way, I should point out) and went for paper towels. While I was kneeling on the floor mopping up as much of the water as I could the little boy stood watching me and his father came over and said “Did he do that?” I said “Yup, but not to worry, no harm done”. The father then grabbed the boy by the arm and dragged him over to his pusher while hissing (and i do mean hissing) “You’re an evil boy, an evil evil boy!”. I commented on this to Jackie, saying it was a bit harsh. Jackie pointed out that the child had a black eye, which I honestly hadn’t noticed. This is where we get stuck, because you don’t want to believe the worst about people and kids get bumped and bruised a lot anyway (Tracey’s little boy currently sports a large bruise from falling and bumping his head), but the way the father handled a minor mishap makes me wonder. Still, even with proof or stronger grounds to believe there is beating going on, there’s not a lot we can do as Library Staff. This was all looked into a couple of years ago when we realised the woman spending our entire open time on the word processors (10am - 8:30pm) was doing so without feeding her toddler. More complicated than that, but too depressing to go into really. You never do want to believe the worst.

Changes still coming from the new CEO who seems determined to make sure that the services we offer that people actually use and/or enjoy are removed, leaving us offering a bare bones service. Yes, OK, we’re a library and therefore the loaning of books and provision of information is our main objective. Blah blah management speak. Apart fromt he removal of the magazine swap box (which is still sending shockwaves through the community and that is only a slight inflation of the truth) we are to stop booksale as of next week. Now, the thing about booksale is that people really like it. The other thing about booksale is it means that books we no longer need are recycled in a practical way while raising funds for the library. We don’t make a huge fortune off the booksale - single items sell for between 20 and 50 cents and we’re selling plastic bags full of books for $3 each - but every little bit helps. Also, considering a lot of what we withdraw are items that we bought many copies of because of long waiting lists (Harry Potter for example) and can now weed down to a few copies, it’s a crying shame to dump them. Apparently we can still have “one off” or special sales from time to time, but the ongoing table is to be discontinued. This means that on Monday morning I have to pack it all up and throw a lot of it out, unless I bag it up and go around the opshops which I might do.

I have my annual review tomorrow morning, which I am about as prepared for as I usually am (which is Not At All Prepared, Oh Shit). Chances I’ll actually be fired are slim, but you never know :P

With apologies for the shonky quality there, that’s Alison’s arse as she is thrown from the bronco machine thing. There’s no reason for my putting it here (as I wasn’t there at the time and didn’t take the photo) except that she sent it to me so I thought I’d share because I’m that kind of person.

When I started my car tonight it went Ssssssssscccccccccccccrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeel and kept doing it all the way home, so Dad’s just had a look at it and the waterpump is not happy apparently. I’m taking his car to work tomorrow which I hate ‘coz I’m not the bravest driver anyway and not good at driving Dad’s car at all. Also, he’s just told me that if it rains I need to be way careful as the back tyres are bald. Gosh I’m feeling good about getting to work. Really :/