my love affair with the library is back on.

Have you been on the edge of the seat, wondering if my library card worked or not?  Well, IT DID!!! I got books.  yay!!!  So, I’m in love with the library again.  All is good in the world now.

So, after getting a buttload of books at the library, my dd and I went to the hot dog stand, because yay! it is open.  That’s the first sign of spring/summer – the hot dog stand being open.  Usually, the tulips aren’t up yet, but since the weather has been so nice, those are up, too, and everything just feels so right in the world.  I wish I could put my seeds in the ground.  I cannot wait!!!  Anyway, at the hot dog stand, which by the way my ds and I are volunteering at tomorrow (moneys go to his school!!!), an old lady came up to me and my dd and said, “two peas in a pod,” very matteroffactly.  ”Well, yes, indeed we are,” I replied.  And it’s totally true.  My mom says I am her best friend and I think my daughter is my best friend, too.  Doesn’t the thought of that just make you smile?

Well, and my ds is my bestie, too.

So, I decided to do a mini photo shoot:

Good or bad luck?

I decided to clean our “JUNK DRAWER” today.  I know, I was seriously motivated.  I should have done a ‘before’ and ‘after’ pic.  Anyway, you’ll never guess what I found.  My library card!!!!  Remember I was boycotting the library, because they said I had a humungo fine? (read the story if you want.)  Well, I wasn’t even sure if it was my library card so I went online to check if perhaps it was someone else’s card (and then I could use it. yipeee) and lo and behold it was mine, but the fine magically disappeared.  Um, what?  Okay, okay, so I said it right here, today, to all of you.  So, you are my witnesses (all 3 of you – thanks for reading, btw :):)) My fine is missing yet again, is this good or bad luck?  I have yet to find out.  So….I am going to the library and seeing what happens.  Oh the suspense.  Will I be able to check out books? Or not?  Hrmmm…Well, be sure to check back tomorrow so I can tell you what happens.

till then,

xxxoo Momma

library fines suck it

This morning, I checked my library account on line and I had a 14.50 fine. Yikes.  So, I paid it.  In full.  Usually, I always just pay a portion of my fines, but since I had a bit of cashage I thought ‘why not pay it all?’  Note how I say “fines.”  As in, plural.  Yes, I whole heartedly admit that I am a fine accumulator at the library.  I know I am not alone, so don’t judge.

But, see, not only do I accumulate fines, I lost my library card.  It just so happens that I memorized the number before I lost it.  And to avoid paying the replacement cost, I have been typing in the number at the express check out.  For, um, about a year.

At the beginning of 2010, they changed the express check out so that you can’t type in the number, you have to have a card.  So, faced with the fact that I lost my card, I have to go to the check out counter and go face to face with the meanie librarians (sorry if that offends anyone, but seriously! c’mon library people!  Just because you’re smart and you found the most perfect job for you doesn’t mean you have to be all hoity toity about it.  we get it, you read. a lot. woopty friggin do, so do I.)

Unfortunately, the last time I went to the library I also didn’t have my ID.  Okay, confession time: yes, I would lose my head if it weren’t screwed on.  So, the librarian had to find me manually in the computer.  Unfortunately, he found an account I had about a decade ago.  In which I owe 25 dollars for a lost cd.  I said I wasn’t paying it, as I have this other account now.  He said they’ll find me somehow.

So, really, that’s why I paid my fine in full this morning.  I had a plan.  Pay fine, get new library card.  And don’t worry.  BUT when I went to check out this morning, it was a apparent that the last librarian had written a message in my account stating the other account and its fine of 25.00.  Damn.

This librarian told me my account would be on hold then.  I could get a library card, but I wouldn’t be able to use it.  They told me to pay the 25.00 fine and I would restore my privileges.  I said, “it’s a matter of principle.   I have no problem paying fines, obviously!  But that was almost a decade ago.” And seriously, it should go on record that I basically pay their salaries.  They should have given me a break, right?

My dh said I’m just mad because I got busted.  Confession: the cd was not lost.  But I didn’t steal it, or I didn’t have any intentions to.  I’m so ashamed, but it was the Rolling Stones.  And I had it for a long time.  It could have been lost for a while.  And by the time I was to return it, the fine was over the cost of replacement.  So, I was going to pay for it, I swear.  I really do!   See, I moved to the suburbs and at the time they had a different library card system.  I didn’t realize that until they found me last month, because when I went to the library to check out about a decade ago, I had asked them if I had a fine (i.e. replacement cost).  They told me no!!!!!!!!!!  They said no.  So, see, it isn’t my fault!!!  See how now it’s a matter of principle?  I thought the fine was gone.  And it was.  Until they merged library card systems.

So, great.  Me, the biggest fan of the library (Don’t they realize I love the library?) - argh, I was so irked.  All that effort looking up books and movies.  And then having to leave them at the counter.  I looked those meanie librarians in the eye and said, “I wish I didn’t pay my fine this morning.  I am going to the thrift store to buy books!!!”  And I turned, flipped my hair, and stomped outta there.

Looking back, I see I was wrong.  I’m so embarrassed.  My dh said he was going to pay my fine, that I’m being ridiculous.  I just thought the fine had disappeared.  Why was I so naive to think that?  I do owe the library and I should rightfully pay them.  But in the heat of the moment, I was mad.  And so I went shopping.

Lo and behold, you’ll never believe it!!  They were having a sale at goodwill.  On books, nonetheless.  All for 15 cents each.  FIFTEEN CENTS EACH!!!!  I thought it was the book fine karma shining down on me.  In the end, I didn’t get very many books, BUT I did get the Singer Sewing Book that I had eyed last week when it was 6.99!!!  For fifteen cents.  yipeeee.

I also got a dress for dd, a hello kitty blanket, and some fabric.  For less than what my library fine was. UGH!

THEN, when I got home, I had a magazine waiting for me in the mail.  I thought the reading karma was shining down on me.  I thought, ‘who needs the library when I’ve got smut?’

Am I bad?

Watch this video for some humor.

This is bananas.

Does anyone else think it’s ironic that I took ‘you’re writing sucks’ as ‘write more often?’  Ironically, I think of two things whenever I say ironic, which isn’t very often because of these things: 1. that song by Alanis Morissete and 2. that scene in Reality Bites.

I can just sense my mom reading this right now.  She’s saying, “move on dot org.”

Anyway, I had an overdue book.  Had.  I don’t have it anymore, because I brought it back to the library, because they sent a notice in the mail, because it was really, really late, because I really loved it and I think I want to buy it.  Makes no sense, right?  I’ve already paid for a portion of it.  Let’s see, about 14 days overdue at 25 cents a day equals 3.50.  The book is 11.20, new.  If I buy it, it will have cost me 14.70.

I can sense my mom reading this, saying, ‘why do you do this to yourself?’

Well, mom, move on dot org.  I see it as donating to the great socialist cause of the library system.  I mean, really, without all of my late fees, could the library system survive?  Um, I think not.

Anyway, when I went to drop it off at the drop box at the library – no way was I going in – I pulled in behind a big ol SUV.  The drop box is approximately 20 feet or less from where you stop your car.  (when are you gonna install some drive thrus, people?  This is exactly where I want my money to go. (kidding.))  The SUV lady turned on her car alarm!  This just floored me.  Who’d she think was gonna steal her car?  Me? Ha.

You want to know what the infamous book is, don’t you?

Knitting for Good!: A Guide to Creating Personal, Social, and Political Change Stitch by Stitch.

Ahem, honey, are you reading this?

Well, back to laundry.  I’m about to post a pic of my laundry piles.  PILES!!!  Good Lord.  I’m either really crackers for showing you this picture or for having this much laundry to do, or both!  Either way, I’m crackers.  Note: I used my handy dandy thesaurus for ‘crazy’ and this was one of the words.  I never thought of using cracker as ‘one that cracks.’  FYI, you can also say ‘bananas’.

(it’s in black and white, because everything looks better in black and white, wouldn’t you say?)

Some people got alotta nerve.

So, I went to the library this mornin’, my favorite SAHM activity.  My routine is always to check out the adult music, videos, and books before spending the rest of the time in the kids section where they usually have imaginative play toys (today, they had a lemonade stand.  how cute!).  My kids are usually angels, and I usually never have any problems whatsoever (I mean, besides occasionally having to remind them to contain their excitement).

Today, my dd sat on the stool and perused random books (at one point, she was reading to herself w/o knowing the book was upside down! lol.) while I researched for a great read to bring home.  I thought she was behaving amazingly, sitting there – and not running up and down the aisles (and I aint gonna lie, she’s done it before), reading aloud.  Then, she started a conversation with me:

dd: “momma, I love you.”

me: “I love you, too, honey.”

dd: “I love you when I am happy, but I don’t love you when I am grumpy.”

me: “well, I love you even when I am grumpy, because I love you all the time!”

dd: “I love you when I’m grumpy, too.”

That was basically the extent of the conversation, and mind you, it was not a loud conversation, but we weren’t whispering either, when a man (an old man!) stood at the end of our aisle and said, “This is a library.  She is being too loud.”

me: “are you serious?”

him: “yes, you cannot talk in the library.  Think about it.”

me: “well, how come I hear another conversation down a few aisles?”

him: “oh come on, think about it, it’s different.”

me: “well, I don’t think so.”

him: “keep her quiet.  This is a library.” and then he walked away.

Really?  That really happened?  Honestly, I thought he was going to comment on how well behaved she was and how cute and adorable that conversation was.  Some people!