more fun than a barrel of meat pasties and fried chicken

thursday was the last day of the summer reading club. our week of ice cream parties has finally come to an end. thank god.
this woman who used to be in charge of YA here, moved to another library, leaving little old me in charge of everything. which i love, because i get bored without a project to be working on. so i start planning the YA party, but unbeknownst to me this woman is planning the party from afar, even though she no longer works here. turns out she's planning on coming to "help" me. well, isn't that nice? who doesn't want help?
so she turns up and i fill her in on the plans i've made: ice cream sundae station, movie, pizza, certificates, lame prizes, etc.
"oh really?" she says, "that's not what i planned at all."
"oh," i say, wondering if i am in trouble or have over-stepped my bounds, "i didn't know you planned anything. no one told me anything, so i just went ahead and planned this." then i add, you know, to save my own ass, "the kids wanted pizza and ice cream. they're very excited."
"but what about the meat pies?"
"huh?"
"we were going to serve meat pies."

now, i don't know if this is a cultural thing or just the fact that i am a vegetarian but meat pies don't sound like a party to me. ice cream and pizza ... that's a party.
"hmmm, well i guess its too late for that. and the kids never mentioned it."
"oh ok," she says accepting that it is, alas, too late for meat pies.
so we chat for a little while and then her eyes brighten like she's just remembered something exciting is going to happen. she asks, "but you got fried chicken, right?"
"no," i say, starting to get a little annoyed. "just ice cream and pizza. you know ... fun party food."

soon, it becomes time to start setting up. i'm lugging big tubs of ice cream around and whatnot. setting out sprinkles and mini m&ms and heating fudgy toppings. where is the help from this woman? nowhere, she totally disappears. i find out later she had left to go buy her neice school supplies. on library time, of course. she conveniently reappears after i've delagated some teen helpers to scoop out ice cream and have gotten all the kids sitting quietly watching a movie. typical.

so i relax with my ice cream sundae (mini m&ms are the greatest invention. who knew?) and after a few minutes i begin to hear some chattering in the background with my supersonic librarian hearing. i look over and who should i see chatting up a storm ... the teens? no. its this woman, paid librarian, chattering away not exactly to herself but not exactly to anyone either. now, i don't exactly know how to tell a fellow employee to be quiet during a movie, so i just ignore her and try to focus on the fact that the kids are happily eating their ice cream and pizza and all is well.

eventually the kids start to leave and i dole out prizes and certificates, and this woman helps me clean up. as we're cleaning i begin patting myself on the back at a party well-thrown. and what does this woman say? does she agree? no. she begins to lament, yet again, over the lack of meat pies and fried chicken.

grrrrrrr.