things you shouldn't have to say in a library

me: (speaking to assistant manager) there's a guy playing guitar over there, do you want to tell him to stop or should i?
am: where?
me: over there (pointing to the computer/reading area). you can't miss him, he's the one with the guitar.

just another saturday at the library

grrrrr

patron: habla espanol?
me: solamente un poquito
patron: que?
me: UN POQUITO
patron: no otra personas trabajando? (looking around at the injustice of having to deal with an english speaker in new york city)
me: no. solamente yo.
patron: (looks me up and down, then rolls her eyes) no.

and then dear blog readers ... she walked away. yup, after conversing with me in spanish about how i don't know much spanish she decided i was not worthy of helping her. yeah, thanks.

letter writing week

today we had a letter writing program, in honor of letter writing week. we're doing something this month called Every Day is a Holiday, and we are celebrating every weird random holiday we can find. bean day, kazoo day, penguin appreciation day, etc. anyway, told the kids we would be writing letters to famous people, and that hopefully said famous people would write back to us. several times i had to explain that michael jackson would be a bad choice because he can no longer read or respond to correspondence. urgh. anyway, i encouraged them to think of living people to write to, and then ask them thoughtful questions so that they would have something to respond to. here's my favorite letter:

Dear Barack Obama,

You are an awesome president. I'm so concerned on global warming. What are you gonna do about global warming?

Love you, awesome president!
From:

GC

P.S. Say hi to your family from me!

things i don't need ... stupid donations

fodor's boston 1988. yes, i appreciate the spirit of giving and all that, but really? what do you think i can do with this?

now that i think about it, the bolshevik and i were planning on traveling back in time to 1988 and visiting boston. thank god i have this book! i'm sure many of the patrons here intend on transversing the space time continuum, so that for their next weekend getaway they can re-live the glory which was bean town 20 years ago. this book is a life-saver.

p.s. i really like the old school fodor's logo they have here ... maybe i could ride that rocket they've used as an apostrophe and take it all the way back to late '80s.