oh what a ridiculous morning(s)

this week has been my week to "do the papers." as much as i hate doing the papers i do enjoy having that extra ten minutes to possibly add in something extra to my morning routine. preferrably some little treat that will make me happy.

due to the economic downturn, i have decided i can no longer purchase my beloved #6 combo at dunkin donuts: veggie eggwhite flat with a medium tea. i also wonder if my beloved #6 combo may have played some part in my recent weight gain (please read: unsvelteness). it is on the heart smart menu ... how could it be bad?

moving on ... yesterday i went to dunkin donuts anyway, because i had to get the papers and my throat was sore and i thought that an eggwhite flat might make me feel better. here is how this should go:

1. park car, pay meter
2. run into Te Amo and buy newsday, ny times, daily news and ny post
3. cross street run into dunkin donuts and purchase breakfast

4. return to car and drive to work

i get ten extra minutes to do the papers, and i have found that i can do all these steps in said alloted ten minutes. however, it's tight and there is no room for any unforeseen events. no wiggle room at all.

so i return to my car to see a large tropicana truck double parked half in front of me, half beside me. i would have been able to maneuver around this had a stupid SUV not double parked behind me. now, i can accept that due to the nature of brooklyn streets and the need to deliver stuff, large delivery trucks often have to double park. but SUV Man, you are just an asshole.

the man in the tropicana truck tried to back up so that i could squeeze ahead of him, turns out there was another delivery truck double parked in front of him. and as though i was watching in slow motion, i see the tropicana truck back right into the SUV. but damned, that SUV just bounced right back. for the most part. then one of the drivers came out and he gave all sorts of hand signals, directing me and the tropicana truck and eventually i got out of my spot. during this time, SUV Man returned and was not pleased to see his car had been dented. although, given how hard the tropicana truck hit him he really is lucky to still have an SUV at all. and miraculously i made it to work on time.

so that was yesterday.

then this morning i leave the house an extra ten minutes early, giving me a total of twenty extra minutes, and i decide to go into greenpoint so i can stop at my bank and not pay an atm fee. i go to my bank, then i stop at the polish newspaper shop and buy the papers. and then my little treat for myself was that i went to this bagel place that has a breakfast combo of oatmeal and a medium drink. i happen to love real oatmeal (not the stuff that comes from a packet) . so i got an oatmeal with honey and raisins and a tea all for like $3 and change. (this led me to the crazy idea that i could go to a food store and purchase oatmeal, honey and raisins and actually prepare this in my own home. shocking.)

but then i had my little upset. since i had no quarters on me this morning, i had to park kind of far away. this was my big time killer. so i speed walked back to my car with one bag of hot tea and hot oatmeal, and another bag of newspapers. then all of a sudden my foot slips out from under me and in order to save myself from falling (and to save my super cute dress from getting dirty) i do a sort of split, one leg going behind me and one leg crashing down onto the asphalt in front of me. of course several people witnessed this and everyone was asking me if i was okay, and i tried to brush it off as suavely as possible. oh yes, i'm fine. this is just how i walk. i like to do a little split every so often and then go about my way.

i had a sense of some sort of unfairness at play. as proven before, i do in fact know how to walk. so why did i suddenly lose control of my legs? then i look down and i see the culprit. a large piece of smashed pumpkin lying in the street, slicking the surface for innocent pedestrians. that's right, i slipped on a pumpkin and skinned my knee.

so when i got to library in the hood i was five minutes over the alloted time for getting the papers. however, people were very amused by my pumpkin slipping story and didn't seem to notice my tardiness. phew. getting the papers is tough work.

breakfast and bike racks

have you ever been excited by something, and when you wake up in the morning you remember this something and then you start your day feeling kinda good? i assume it's like christmas, but i've never celebrated christmas so i wouldn't know.

lately i've been waking up earlier than usual, and in this new found extra time i have added two things to my morning routine:

1. i email The Bolshevik
2. i go to dunkin donuts and get a flat bread egg white sandwich (have you tried one of these? i typically fear eggs from fast food places but this sandwich is pretty tasty. and only 260 calories!)

so while i was parking the fancy mobile on graham ave i noticed this bus stop looking structure on the corner of graham and metropolitan. i was immediately perplexed, since i know that the bus stop is across the street on the other corner of graham. upon further inspection i realized that this is no bus stop. it is a covered bike rack area! how awesome! so if it is raining your bike seat won't get wet! i was ecstatic (even though i don't typically ride to graham since it's so close to The Paradise. but maybe i will start riding there!). anyway i knew that i had to take a picture so that ms. bitchcakes could see it.

also, it makes me proud of brooklyn, being the trendy trendsetters we are, creating useful bike racks. unlike those stupid david byrne bike racks, which are actually quite difficult to lock a bike to (i attribute these to manhattan). last i checked that was kind of the whole point of bike racks: locking your bike to them. also, i like how the website states that these faux-arty bike racks are "installed throughout manhattan and brooklyn." there is one on bedford ave and that is it. i hardly consider that "throughout" brooklyn. but whatevs, keep your impractical unimaginative pop art bike racks to yourself.

forever a third

hey miss dewey decimal ... how much of your novel do you have written?

why dear blog readers, thanks for asking. i am a third of the way finished.

really? only a third? why is that?

well, i'll tell you dear blog readers. it's because i love to procrastinate. here is a rough approximation of this evening's activities. mind you, when i left work i had every intention to go to the coffeeshop and write.
6:30 arrive home
6:32 change into tank top and shorts
6:35 have epiphany that i have enough ingredients in the house to actually cook a meal
6:40 begin cooking
7:10 sit down to watch tv and eat food which i prepared MYSELF
7:30 continue to watch tv even though i am finished eating
8:00 do dishes
8:10 realize that i am actually very tired and do not want to go to coffeeshop. decide i will stay home and begin writing immediately
8:15 after staring at hair in mirror decide to put back my purple streak
8:15-8:35 dye hair
8:40 walk to deli to buy soy milk and fruit. on an impulse, i purchase an iced coffee
(my 9th coffee!)
8:55 begin writing
9:30 pat self on the back for figuring out how to footnote within a footnote
9:45 decide to take pictures of my hair for the blog
10:00 go back to writing
10:30 check email
10:45 check out my mom's blogger profile
11:00 call mom to tell her blogger profile is hysterical
11:30 decide to write a blog post while simultaneously sending text messages

and that dear blog readers is why you will not be reading my novel any time soon. sorry. but look at how cute my hair looks! it was looking a little too light before, no? needed a splash of color, don't ya think?

lunch and laserdiscs

last night i was feeling tired and lazy, and i knew i had to work today so i decided i would do nothing. but i did not do nothing. oh no. i did so much more. inspired by a blog post by Ms. B Cakes, i decided to go to this large store where they sell all this food. maybe you have been to one of these? and then i purchased some food and brought it to my home. then i cut up stuff and sauteed things and baked stuff and lo and behold, when i was done i had prepared my own dinner! in my own home! pretty incredible, no?

then i drank wine and ate my yummy homemade meal while watching disc one of season 4 of 90210. donna, kelly and david moved into a beach house instead of the dorms! mrs. martin will not be pleased! donna and david bickered while setting up their fancy pants laser disc player! then andrea was the victim of anti-semitism when she tried to join a sorority. apparently, they don't have jews in california. really. in beverly hills. no jews. best not to ask questions. just go with it ... oh, what types of hijinks will these kids get into next?!

so this morning i was very excited to bring my own lunch to work. (did i mention i gained 5 pounds from my camping trip? five pounds! i was barely gone 48 hours!) so i packed a tupperware full of my delicious vegetarian enchilada casserole and i packed another tupperware full of strawberries. and i put it in a large plastic bag and placed it RIGHT NEXT TO MY PURSE so that i wouldn't forget it. i even said to myself, "self, do NOT forget this plastic bag which you have strategically placed right next to your purse." i think you can see where i am going with this.

anyway, i was running early so i decided to stop at this new gas station in the hood in hopes of getting tea. (they do not have coffee or tea anywhere in the vicinity of library in the hood). anyway, this gas station was like a desert oasis. there was coffee and tea and drinks and fresh baked bread. and the two middle eastern guys who ran it were kinda cute in a just-got-out-of-the-israeli-army sorta way. so i bought a tea and a bottle of water to go with my fabulous nutritious lunch and that is when i realized that my fabulous lunch was not in my car with my purse, but was instead sitting on the floor of my bedroom, most likely already rotting in the 90 degree heat. grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

a day in the life of a gotham librarian

this morning i woke up confused due to a strange feeling of contentment. what is going on here? what is this feeling? is this genuine happiness? what gives?

job: satisfying. the kids are improving leaps and bounds, and my co-workers and i are just one little happy family.

writing: going well. everyone loves what i'm working on, which leaves me with a feeling of accomplishment.

socialness: i am just a regular social butterfly. you most likely will run into me while i'm out and about in the nabe.

romance: looking up. things are brewing. can i be more vague?

anyway, i woke up this morning feeling good despite the fact that it was SIX AM. you are most likely asking yourself, "why? why, miss dewey decimal? why would you wake up at that ungodly hour?" well, it was so that i could have a starring role (this is a huge exaggeration) in the upcoming punk rope dvd. so i made my way to one of greenpoint's finer drinking establishments where the punk rope dvd was being filmed. there i was, thank god, greeted with coffee and bagels. and i had my fourth cup of coffee EVER. (for those of you not keeping strict count of my lifetime coffee consumption it goes as follows: 1. accidental coffee from bodega, 2. coffee with my friend from england to prove to him that i can drink coffee, 3. coffee out of desperation at a meeting that didn't serve tea, and finally 4. punk rope dvd)

anyhoo, the first "scene" i am in was a warm up song where i show various stretches. i got to be right in front (i do love attention) and i looked pretty fab if i do say so myself. i was wearing my black skort from american apparel (possibly the only item of clothing that they sell that does not make me look like a fat whore) and my black and pink punk rope tank top. this ensemble was accessorized with my black and pink pumas, and my black and fuscia striped skull sock-it-to-me socks (which i blogged about previously here). super cute.

then after the warm-up scene i had a "librarian cameo" in which i had to look like a librarian. big stretch. but it did require a wardrobe change into a black knee length fitted skirt with this super cute gray blouse i bought with my mom on our last shopping trip. anyway, there were two people jumping rope: one jumping properly, and one jumping improperly. if your feet make noise when you jump rope then you are jumping improperly. so i walk behind the man jumping loudly (while holding a goldie hawn biography and a copy of love in the time of cholera) and i look at him with librarian scorn and then .... then dear blog readers i got to shush him! i was told by the crew that i needed to shush louder, which of course defeats the whole point of shushing, but whatevs.

then it was coming up on 9 am and i needed to leave to go to work. that's right, after spending two hours at a dvd shoot i then went to library in the hood. luckily i was already dressed as a librarian so i was good to go.

so now i am here on a saturday. it's so very very quiet here on saturdays. which is usually boring but today it is good as i am oh so tired (why did i stay up til 2:30 last night ... oh yeah, that's why. he he he) must nap before going out to punk rope post production party. sometimes its exhausting being me.

our little librarian is all grown up

don't worry, this won't be some sappy post about me turning 30 at the end of the month.

this morning i went to my new corner bodega, which i don't care for and try to avoid. you see, i kinda sorta live near the projects. i wouldn't even mind going to the projects bodega and enduring the friendly cat-calls. this morning someone called me snowflake! but in a nice way. i believe he first said something like, "damned i like the look of that girl (i have on a cute dress). ooooh, snowflake ..." anyway, i would tolerate this IF the bodega was like the kurdish bodega and was filled with all sorts of goodies for me to buy. but in reality this bodega kind of sucks and they don't have much of anything. so i went in there to get a tea because i couldn't make tea at home because i ran out of soy milk. so the guy gives my tea and i get into my car and drive away, only to realize that he gave me coffee instead. yuck coffee. i DO NOT drink coffee unless it is one of those chocolately frappaccino whipped cream extravaganzas that more closely resembles a milkshake. those i will drink. gladly. anyway ... i didn't want to go back so i decided to take a sip of the dreaded coffee. i have never in my life been able to drink an entire cup of coffee as i kinda find the taste to be completely disgusting.

but what do you know? it wasn't half bad. it's not as nice as tea, but it was drinkable. so i drank most of it, but i didn't finish it because i was a little concerned i might become "hopped up" on caffeine and possibly lose control of my better judgement. luckily, i feel fine. but does this mean i am now a coffee drinker? like a real grown up?

i hear this stuff is bad for you. i don't want to get addicted. whenever i go to a doctor they're always saying not to drink too much coffee. and i always pride myself on being ahead of the game on that one. and then they say to eat healthy. check. done. and then they say to exercise regularly and get enough sleep. done and done. around this point i always wonder why the hell i have any health problems at all. i am practically vice-free.

in conclusion ... don't be surprised if you see me in your local coffeeshop hopped up on espresso acting the fool.

we have a winner

just in case you were wondering who would win the Unpack All Your Boxes moving competition, the official winner is ME! miss dewey decimal! yay! i officially have unpacked all of my boxes (although there are a few random things of mine laying around that the roomie and i packed last minute. and when i say packed i mean that we randomly threw a bunch of crap into a box hoping to sort it out later). anyway, here are the items that are officially missing, never to be seen again:
1. my OXO plunger - have you used OXO products? they are amazing. i also heart their garlic press.
2. my bathmats - luckily i purchased a new mat from the dollar store. i don't know if it is intended for bathroom use but it is blue with ugly pink flowers, so who cares?
3. my food processor - how do you lose a food processor? i don't know. but apparently, i've lost mine.
4. my medium sized saucepan - we have a small saucepan and then the large cauldron type pot i got as an engagement present back when i was engaged (oh how little you know about me! never knew i was sentenced to death ... i mean marriage), but where is my medium sized sauce pan?
so if you see any of these items, please alert me immediately.
otherwise things are good. ms. bitchcakes was nice enough to give me not one but TWO fiber one ceral bars last night. i had one for breakfast, caramel and oat, it was AWESOME! i must get more and make them a part of my new morning ritual. also, ms. b. cakes gave me this cool reading is sexy bumper sticker. ahhhh, miss b. cakes ... you make me smile. did you by any chance happen to see my food processor?

it's saturday morning ... do you know where your neighborhood librarian is?

ah, another saturday in the 'brary. but what is better about this saturday is that now that the senior clerk is gone, if i am imprisoned in the library on a saturday, i at least am imprisoned with our regular clerk, who is non-offensive.
i woke up early this morning so i could stop by dunkin donuts and get a large tea and whole wheat bagel (day one of my pop-tart-free existence begins!), then sang pretenders songs in the car on the drive over. then i came into a completely locked up library. let me tell you, there is nothing finer than walking around a dark empty library. everyone should have an abandoned library at their disposal. so i walked around in the dark, turning on all the computers. then i did the money, which i am now getting good at (because i do not suffer from any mental retardations, despite what ms. manager may think). and then the regular clerk came in and i was done with my library prep chores. la la la, so relaxing.
i don't believe i mentioned this, but thursday we did a science experiment. so exciting! we're making rock candy! so i went into the meeting room to check on the rock candy progress. so far, there isn't much going on. maybe by monday things will have improved.
oh, and yesterday i had a lovely day. first i went to a promising job interview at all all-girls school. it was very cool and not at all stuck up (i was worried about the stuck up factor). then i met up with my mom on strong island and we did some shopping. i found a very cute dress for the upcoming wedding. i also found a very cute dress that would be appropriate if i was going to a cotillion or if i lived in wonderland. it's betsey johnson. need i say more? anyway, i will post the pic i had my mom take in the dressing room. that is, if i ever unpack the usb cord for my camera.
and that dear blog readers is my exciting life thus far.

morning, interrupted

so monday as i was getting ready for a job interview, i realized much to my dismay that there is no outlet in my bathroom. this has caused quite an uproar in my morning routine, as i absolutely have to blow dry my hair every day. see, my old routine went as follows:
shower
brush wet hair
get dressed
return to bathroom to put in contacts, moisturize face, take vitamins, apply deodorant.
then, even though i would have just gotten dressed, i would then take off my top so that i could dry my hair in my bra. why do i do this? i have no idea. i just get too hot under that blow dryer i guess.
then i would redress, apply hair product, then slap on some makeup, if i was in a makeup mood.
then lastly i would put on my shoes as to not "clomp around" and wake the roomie.
but now everything has turned into turmoil, since i have lost the ability to dry my hair in the bathroom. i am making so many trips up and down the hall. furthermore, i wound up blocking the door from my bedroom to my closet (i will fix this over the weekend) so i am walking into the hall then back into my bedroom to get clothes. and my hanging clothes are very far from my underwear and mirror. so even getting dressed is taking longer as i have to walk back and forth. oh, the dilemnas of having a spacious home!
this morning i think i really tweeked my new routine. i did a lot of change-ups, but i think it worked:
shower
brush hair, then stay in bathroom to put in contacts and take vitamins
(then i changed the bandage on my latest sports injury in which i sliced my finger open with a scissors)
walk to closet and pick out outfit (i am wearing my marc jacobs flapper-print baby doll dress! as seen at my new year's eve eve party)
go into bedroom and put on undergarments
apply deodorant
dry hair (in "beauty area" that i have created in my bedroom)
get dressed (except shoes)
go to bathroom to apply hair product, moisturize face, then apply makeup
put on boots
walk out the door at 9:09 am
now my second problem is that i am now without the kurdish bodega (sob sob, i never even said goodbye!) so i don't know where to get my morning tea. graham ave is a little far to walk to and then walk back to my car. so i decided to go to the corner of kingsland, even though that is on the project side of my block. and lo and behold there was a bodega right there that serves hot beverages. however when i asked for a large english breakfast tea with milk and one sugar they looked at me like they had no idea what i was talking about. then i helpfully pointed to their display of teas which are obviously never used. they forgot, in all the chaos, to put in the milk and sugar but i'm sure over the next few days i can get them trained. they also had the cherry frosted pop tarts i like.
made it back to the car by 9:19, plenty of time! so i warmed up the car and then made the unfortunate mistake of reading the nutritional label on the pop tarts. i think my pop tart phase is now over.
but i made it to work with time to spare. so i think i am getting used to this new life of spacious luxury in which i now live.
i am thinking about buying a vanity dressing table type thing for my beautification needs.

snow day!

la la la, drove through the snow and over the river and through the woods to library-in-the-hood this morning. what? did you think that they'd close the library due to inclement weather?! never! they will keep the library open and pay for utilities and part-timers' salaries and only 5 patrons will come in, but god damnit we stayed open!

anyhoo, i had a nice morning where i bought the non-organic poptarts (the ones with the pink frosting ... yummmm, frosting) and had my cup of tea and cleaned off my car. then when i put my iPod on shuffle in the car "Good Enough" by Dodgy came on. it's this very happy upbeat almost gay brit-pop song that was a one hit wonder when i lived in england. i hadn't heard it in forever and it made me happy.

then ... when i got to the library i found out that the senior clerk isn't coming in until after lunch because of a meeting, which means i only have ONE AFTERNOON left with her. YAY! so then in her absence i had to do the money, but i was able to do it even though they refused to train me. how was i able to do it you ask? because i am not an idiot. that's how.

so now i am here with not much to do but watch the snow fall on the ghetto. ahhhhh.

p.s. has anyone noticed how i am now incorporating book covers in my postings? it's not easy you know, finding appropriate books. i hope you guys appreciate this bit of cleverness.

my bodega dreams ... broken

here i am, yet again, at the 'brary on a saturday. woe is me. woe is definitely me. le sigh. this morning i went to my favorite bodega for my morning ritual of tea and organic pop tarts (when will i buy more soy milk so i can go back to eating cheerios?) and you will never believe what happened when i got there ... the bodega was closed! i was appalled! and they left their flat screen TV on playing their strange shows in arabic. so of course i stood in front of the locked door for a while peering in, wondering when the nice kurdish couple might appear. then i even knocked on the door, thinking that if they were in the back of the store they might let me in. you know, since we're so tight and all. but alas, nothing. then i had to go to some other lesser bodega for my morning needs. oh, it was terrible. and then i was almost late, but luckily i rolled in exactly at 9:30, so no one can complain.

today we will be having a program for the adults in which some musicians will be here performing motown hits. yay! motown hits! i hope the kid who hates hoboes shows up he entertains me on saturdays sometimes. and he loves ray charles.


oh and yesterday's hopping for heart program went really well. the kids LOVED it. they learned about cardiovascular exercise. can you say car-dio-vas-cu-lar? and they did stretches and jumped rope and complained of dehydration then jumped rope more then fell down exhausted. they really loved it. they were all smiling and goofing around and being happy kids. and then i showed off some of my jump roping skillz. that's right, skills with a Z! i did crosses, school yard step ... i was going to do running crosses but i was wearing one of my new banana republic dresses and i wasn't jumping as well as usual. if only we had played skip tag. it turns out, i am an AMAZING skipper. i can skip so fast it'll make your head spin. and i can change directions on a dime. A DIME! who knew?

paying it forward

i think i may have mentioned how much i love the kurdish people who run my local bodega. they have this son who is about 10 and sometimes he works the counter. he's a very bright child. very chatty. often he works at inappropriate hours, like 11 pm. but whatevs. the other day i came in and he looked at me all wide-eyed and he asked "you work in a library, right?"

"why yes," i said, surprised that i am now a local celebrity.

"maybe you can get a book for me"

"well," i explained, "my library is kind of far from here." really i could easily get him a book, i just don't trust anyone to return library items to me. i've been burned before. "what book are you interested in?"

"well," he began, "i don't know the title. but it's an adventure book. like action? but it's my adventure."

"you mean choose your own adventure?!" i exclaimed. "those are good." and then we had a lovely little chat about books and i pretty much told him that if any books mysteriously fall off a book truck they'll be his. i also suggested he visit the greenpoint library, but then he complained that they're never open. which is totally true. their hours suck. get it together greenpoint library!

now, one service we have here at the 'brary is that we give out these "explore the universe" passes to the museum of natural history. these passes get in one family of up to 6 people for FREE! (you must have children with you, so don't get any ideas) i always have a stash of these passes handy, but my kids can never use them. unfortunately, getting an adult to take them into manhattan to an educational institution is a very far-fetched scheme. at other libraries they are hot ticket items that people fight in the streets for. but here the passes just sit in my desk drawer collecting dust, waiting for the day that someone can actually use them. so sad, shed a single tear for the children of library-in-the-hood.

i took one of these passes and i gave it to the kurdish woman at the bodega this morning as i was getting my large tea and organic pop tarts. i have not yet told them that i am moving. i will miss them so much. so i go to the counter and present her with the pass and i try to explain what it is. sadly, her english isn't that great and i didn't think she was understanding what i was saying. so finally i just said, "its a really big museum in manhattan. your son will like it. they have dinosaur bones."

then she said something in broken english, i think it was that her son liked talking to me. then i said, "he's a smart kid." and i left.

p.s. just as a side note, yesterday morning the kurdish man offered me a job at the bodega. saying that i am very nice and they could use someone like me. i said i would keep it in mind if my current job doesn't work out. then he told me that i am very beautiful. and that, in fact, all jewish women are very beautiful. man, i am really going to miss this place.

free day!

when i worked at hell's library, if you had a day off during the week, as i do today, it was called a "free day." and in the notes section of your time sheet you would write the word "free" so that everyone understood the reason that you did not come into work. library-in-the-hood has very similar time sheet rules to hell's library, so when i started working here i would write "free" on my time sheet, thinking that these two libraries shared the same lingo. and then after a few months (because everyone is so passive aggressive that they don't like to say things to my face) mr. assistant manager man (remember him? he was so nice) told me that people don't like it when i write the word free on my time sheet. sends the wrong message he said.
well $%&@ that.
i'm free! FREE! FREE!and i have woken up ridiculously early to run errands and finish novels. first i am going to the post office to return the ugly laptop bag i ordered during some sort of insomniac hallucination. seriously, i thought i had ordered something completely different. is this some strange sort of sleep walking type thing in which you purchase items online whilst only half conscious? then i am going to the dmv to make my fancy mobile (thank you bitch cakes for this fantastic term for my car) officially my fancy mobile. then i will have coffee with my bff so that we may gossip about glam rockers and the general state of affairs. and then i will have several hours of quality laptop time so that i may work on my first submission for my novel class. due tomorrow. (i have 9 pages!) and then i will go to punk rope, the greatest fitness class ever.
have i mentioned that i have convinced my punk rope instructor to do a class with the kids at library in the hood? they are very excited, as am i. they will be getting free jump ropes and buttons and temporary tattoos! yay!
also, have i mentioned that i have lost FIVE pounds from my decreased alcohol intake? now i am thinking maybe i should make this a permanent thing, as opposed to just a january thing. because really, if i have to choose between being drunk or being extra svelte .... i think i'm going to have to go with extra svelte.

it's a beautiful day in the hood ... won't you be mine?

i have to admit, i was not looking forward to coming in today, knowing that i would be coming back to a toxic work environment and all. but this morning i woke up surprisingly chipper and while getting dressed i decided that if people are going to hate me for just being me, i should really try to be as ME as possible. so i decided that i need to invoke my inner punk rock librarian. so i put on my knee high Sock it To Me socks with the black and fuschia stripes (shown at left, although i am not actually wearing roller skates. but if you would like to picture me skating around the library putting away books, possibly while whistling to myself, that's perfectly acceptable). so i have the knee highs, my dark denim banana republic skirt (this is actually an illegal dress code item, but i feel that since it is dark denim and it was pricey, its ok) and i am wearing a fitted black 3/4 length tee and my tall black boots with the buckles on the side. and my piece de resistance: my beat-up black studded belt that i bought in london back in '99. it's a pretty hot outfit if i do say so myself.
then i got my tea from my favorite bodega run by the kurds, and i got into my car and set my ipod to random. now this is always a risk as there are some rather varied things on my ipod. often i get chapters of audiobooks in between songs. but still, i felt it was a random ipod day so i went with it. and let me tell you blog readers it was totally worth it. let me tell you the awesome random playlist that my ipod created:
1. we can work it out by the beatles
2. you don't own me covered by rasputina (great band with two chicks who rock out on cellos)
3. magic by olivia newton john
4. like a virgin by madonna (i tried to sing along to this and although it sounded awesome in my head i'm pretty sure my never ending larygitis was holding me back from greatness)
5. jane says by jane's addiction
6. vaccuum boots by brain jonestown massacre
and then when i rolled into the hood a stone roses song came on and i parked my car happily, knowing that i quite possibly had just listened to the greatest mix my ipod has ever made.
but wait! my morning gets better! better you say? how is that possible?
so i came into the break room to hang up my coat and there was my only friend sitting on the phone chatting with her mother. she talks on the phone alot but i love her so i don't care. anyway, she was wearing this leather vest that was quite stylish and becoming and i think it is very important to support others when they are taking a risk outside their fashion comfort zone. so i said, "friend, that is a great vest you are wearing."
then her face lit up and she said, "really you like it?"
now it is important to remember i am conversing with a woman in her fifties who is often talking about being blessed by god. "yeah," i tell her, "it's really cool."
"oh thanks you know its part of a set that my husband got me. you know its all leather and i wear it when i gets out the whip when we're alone together. you know." and then she started miming whipping her husband while laughing hysterically.
"friend," i said sincerely, "you have made my morning."
but wait! there's more!
then i was called away to a phone call from my manager saying that she will not be coming in because her car died.
yes! greatest morning ever! so now i am here in charge of the branch and everyone is in a happy mood even though there is no heat. we are in something called "cold time" where we make overtime for being freezing. 54 degrees and loving every minute of it.

my super good day turned bad

sometimes i like to predict the future through random events, like i felt today would be good because despite waking up late in a heat-free (doesn't that sound better than saying it's goddamned cold?) apartment i made the B24, then the L was waiting for me in the station, and then i made the 1st ave bus. it was a hat trick, but better because i didn't have to watch any hockey. so it should have been a super good day. but it hasn't been.