Er...

Um. I don't know how to begin this. But this really happened.

I drove to work today. I KNOW I shouldn't have but it was cold and I was feeling lazy. When I left just now at the end of the day, I got into the Conference Center lobby (the Conference Center is the building across the street from the library. I park under it. On the very rare occasions when I drive. Most other people park under it as well) at the same time as a girl I know who also works at the library, though in a different division. She was in conversation with a tall, slightly attractive man. She saw me and started trying to include me in the conversation because she's nice like that. Problem: it's nearly impossible to come up to speed on a convo that's already been going on for a while when your only involvement comes when someone turns to you and says "Isn't that right? Don't the teams always need us?" WHAT TEAMS?!

Anyways, I did my best to fake my involvement. We got on the elevator and somehow I ended up between these two, still carrying on their conversation. She was getting off on P2, he and I on P4. After she got off, I started making small talk because, as I mentioned, he was not unattractive, OK?!

We arrive at P4. We take a few steps out of the elevator, still chatting. All of a sudden, it hit me. I'M ON THE WRONG FLOOR. I parked three floors up, on P1. So what did I do? Excuse myself and jump back on the elevator like a normal person? Don't make me laugh. I KEPT WALKING.

Not wanting to embarrass myself, I carried on the conversation halfway through the garage. Now. Consider. The Conference Center takes up an ENTIRE city block. I made it halfway through before I came up with a plan and took my leave. Luckily, we arrived at his car just as I made my decision. What was The Plan, you ask? Obviously, I did the only thing I COULD do.

I walked past his car, even further into the garage abyss, and, knowing he would be passing by on his way out of the building soon, and not wanting him to see me turning around, I chose a random car and pretended to unlock it until he was out of sight. I did no more or less than any reasonable person would have done.

Obviously.

I love the New York Times movie reviewers because...well, for lots of reasons, but because, while being oh so smart, they're not afraid to just lay it all out there. Each review ends with the movie's rating, and the reasons for that rating. Usually the reasons have been tweaked.

The coda to A.O. Scott's delightful review of "Anonymous" (you know, that movie that puts forth the old theory that Shakespeare's plays were written by a well-heeled noble supporter?) reads thusly:

"“Anonymous” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Swordplay, bodice ripping, bawdy speech and the cold-blooded murder of the truth."

Spectacular. With just that last sentence, Scott simultaneously rips the movie apart AND increases my desire to watch it.

I have a really passive aggressive desire to post only about quilting and other..."domestic" hobbies that take up my time from now on, but for now I will resist.

I spent my lunch break today reading Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness". It's October (I thought I'd let you know just in case that fact has escaped your notice for the last 26 days), so I wanted something slightly Halloweeny, and what says "Halloween!" more than H.P. Lovecraft? Nothing.

Anyways, I just started and had only gotten through 4 pages over the last few days, but after today I am COMPLETELY HOOKED. It was quite a trial to tear myself away and go back to cataloging. Have you ever read it? Or any Lovecraft? You probably should, he basically invented the horror genre. But he wrote horror as it should be, not trying to substitute gore for horror. I think true horror should focus more on suspense, on the terror of the unknown, than on known, conventional villains (like any slasher story). I. Can't. Take. Slasher films.

I don't really have anything intelligent to say about any of this. Mostly just, if you haven't read any Lovecraft, you probably should (especially if you're looking to read something scary that will still let you sleep at night). Once you do, you'll start seeing references to him all over the place. Christopher Nolan's Batman movies (well, anything from anyone about Batman really- for some reason Lovecraft pops up a lot), Guillermo Del Toro references Lovecraft all the time, I feel like anything involving a protagonist turning to old musty archives for answers to their deepening fear is a reference to Lovecraft (I don't know where that meme started if not with him). If I paid more attention to things, I could go on longer. But I don't, so I won't.

I know this is really goofy, but one of the quilts I'm working on right now...I really want to back it with this fabric. It's the right color and I love that it's vegetables for some reason. Maybe you saw the picture I posted on Fb? The top is all black and white and grey with some pink and green touches. But none of it has anything to do with vegetables.

I was also thinking about using this as a backing. The grey version of this print is one that I used in the top and I really love this print.

Or I could potentially use any of these because I used about half of this fabric collection in the top.

I wish I had a picture of the top to share, but it's really just kind of boring. And it's not done yet.

AND ALL THAT I CAN THINK ABOUT ALL DAY LONG IS QUILTING AND FABRICS THAT I WANT TO BUY. It is like a disease. I really have no idea where this came from because I never used to care.

So. My brain is weird, but you knew that already. A few weeks ago, I won a free dozen cookies from this amazing Etsy shop in a giveaway on a friend's blog. Seriously gorgeous cookies. I got to pick my choice and I decided on the Halloween Black Lace cookies, but the Autumn Flor ones were the runners-up. Seriously I've never seen such gorgeous cookies. So I've been waiting for them, they're supposed to get here today or tomorrow. Last night, I was thinking about and anticipating receiving my beautiful cookies (yum!) and I ended up having a dream that I received them. When I opened the box, they were sooooo disappointing. I was expecting these gorgoeous, intricately decorated red and black cookies, and what I got was red-frosted cookies with lazily applied black swirls and stripes- kid stuff that I could have done myself. I was *seriously* disappointed.

Yes, I dream about cookie regret.

I love that I can look at this picture and recognize the landmarks. I've walked through that gate. I stood, completely bewildered, on the street corner in front of that church. It was noisy. It was spectacular.

I can't wait to go back.

(photo taken from National Geographic)

Overheard at the reference desk (we are not a lending library)...
"Hi, can you check books out from the library?"
"No, but you can sit at one of these tables and read them."
"Oh, they just have numbers on them, so I wondered..."

How silly of us to put numbers on books if we're not going to allow them out of the building. There's no other reason imaginable why we would give them barcodes and/or call numbers. There's not any reason why we would need to keep track of them ourselves.

So lately I've been kind of (I mean completely) obsessed with quilting. This is A HUGE PROBLEM for many reasons, but mainly because I usually lack the follow-through to actually stick with such a large project from start to finish. The result? A build up of quilt tops and of unused fabric. The actual quilting and binding are always super daunting to me.

I'm feeling better about it now because I'm actually quilting and nearly ready to bind the first of this recent spate of quilts. After that I've got one finished top, one pile of fabric already cut and ready for sewing, and then a pile of uncut fabric ready to be turned into something fabulous. So that's four. BUT (and this is part of the thing that keeps me hopping from project to project) I get distracted by new patterns and fabrics very easily. My latest obsession? I reheheally want to make this pattern:

With these fabrics:

Oooooh preeetttyyyy.

Make me stop please.

Today on the Diane Rehm show, they were talking about medical insurance- do you need it, don't you, how companies are different, etc...

This guy called in to say "I don't have any health insurance, I haven't for a long time, I just don't think it's valuable to me- I've always been careful to use lots of preventative care, eat right, and I've been going to a chiropractor since I was like four."

Seriously? First, chiropractic care is not preventative care. Second, who takes a four year old to a chiropractor for heaven's sake?!

Also, no matter how careful you are, how well you eat, there is always the possibility that you could be in an accident or develop something terrible. Who's going to pay for that man's care if he gets in a serious car accident or discovers a malignant growth (or any one of a million things happens)? Because no one has that much cash.

Idiot.

I wrote a whole post about how I'm awkward but then tried to upload this gif to lighten the mood. And it did. By somehow deleting ALL of the text. He may look cute in a suit, but he is DEADLY.

I know this is my second post in a short time about Les Mis, but I can't help it. I have a Pandora station that started as "Wicked" radio and has been morphed by my careful curation until it only plays music from the following: Wicked, Beauty and the Beast, Little Women (the musical!), The Light in the Piazza (a musical that flopped but has an amazing score), and lots and lots and lots of Les Mis. AND I LOVE IT. There is nothing with which I would rather fill my brain while cataloging. NOTHING, DO YOU HEAR ME?!

You guys. Today I was on the reference desk and someone was trying to make a joke about me being the captain on the bridge- referencing Star Trek. Then he said "oh wait, you're too young for Star Trek". I assured him I wasn't too young to have seen an episode or two. What's weird about this? He is probably the same age as me, AT MOST 3 years older. I'm glad I skew young? I think.

Oh my word, you guys, I don't know what is wrong with me, but I think I just offended someone in the elevator again. WHY?!

So I got on with this really sweet woman who works in library services, and we said hi, and then to fill the silence, I guess, she said "You're wearing red!" Because I am. I'm wearing a really bright red sweater.

And I couldn't think of a response to that, so I looked at her (she's wearing a dark pink skirt and a lighter pink shirt with a khaki blazer) and said "so are you....sort of!" Meaning, of course, that she's wearing pink, which is sort of red. And she said "oh you know, I'm not really into that sort of thing" which puzzled me. And then I thought that she thought I had been referring to her mismatching and was insulting her, which obviously I didn't mean to.

And, you know what? As soon as I finished typing this, I realized that today the employee's association is having a "tailgate" party for lunch, and we're supposed to wear our team shirts. AND SHE THOUGHT I WAS WEARING RED BECAUSE I'M A UTE FAN. Which is even worse than inadvertently offending someone. I mean, I would never want to be mistaken for someone so uncouth as one of *them*.

(but I will let the previous story stand as a monument to my own ineptness in social situations and/or my attempts to interpret them)

haHA!

Success! So remember the last post I wrote about not recognizing the Director of Libraries here?

Well, today I had basically the SAME EXACT encounter with him that I had the other day. He didn't remember me, you guys! Not one whit! And so, it was JUST LIKE "Groundhog Day" where I got to repeat the situation until I got it right (which only took one repetition in this case).

And this time, "getting it right" meant (1) knowing who he is, and (2) not asking inane questions and slinking away like Gollum.

This day is an ALL-AROUND WIN. (because of that and also because of this- http://thebloggess.com/2011/09/dear-portlandia-really/)

Number of fire drills at work so far this week: 2
Percentage of which were legitimately planned exercises or started by actual fires: 0%

Fire alarms echoing in hallway covered in hard, echoing surfaces = DEAFENING.

Strobe light flashing above my desk incessantly for 10 minutes afterwards = seizure inducing.

Why do I do these things?

ALSO. I am an idiot. It's official.

I was waiting for the elevator and there was a man waiting as well who turned to me and said "I don't believe we've met, I'm [so and so]", and we went through the introduction thing.

He asked me where I work. I told him.

Then I said "and what do you do, [so and so]? I know I've seen your name on emails, but I can't remember off the top of my head."

His response? "I'm the director of the library".

Cue elevator door and my ashamed retreat.

Idiot.

(I really should have known, but in my defense there are so many levels of management and I've just never had reason to interact with him. But still. Idiot.)

UPDATED: Also, I just browsed the org chart (we have this really cool interactive one on the intranet) and realized that he's not over the whole library, he's director of a division that's basically parallel to mine. That alleviates some of my shame.

Adventures in reference

Also. Today I did my shift on the reference desk. A man came looking for an item- he said he just wanted to see if it was in the open stacks. It's not- we only have one copy and it's in the secure stacks. Then he told me he had written the book and wanted to know why it wasn't in the open stacks, because he saw lots of books on the same topic and they were, in his words, "corny".

So I gave him a bunch of reasons, but mainly just said that if we only have one copy, it stays in the secure stacks. He was unsatisfied, so I directed him to the "real" reference librarian sitting at the other computer. She chatted with him and he left looking happy with his answer, so I asked her what she had told him.

And guess what? She told him the exact same thing I did. Do I not seem trustworthy or something?

Things I've loved looking at today.

This dress.

I just discovered the Synagogue-a-Day tumblr feed. Images shared come from the William A. Rosenthall Judaica Collection at the College of Charleston Special Collections. An interesting mix of buildings from all over the world.

Listen to this Storycorps segment.

Like I really need another obsession...

So, maybe I haven't talked to you about it yet, but I am utterly obsessed with Pinterest. It's weird how something so simple can be so absorbing.

If you haven't ever used it, Pinterest is like a virtual pinboard. You can "pin", categorize, rearrange, and gawk at links and pictures you like. If you'd like an invite, let me know! I love seeing what friends are saving and sharing things that I love. It's like Facebook for the visually oriented. Or something.

Did I mention that I love it? Because I do. You can look at my boards and things that I've pinned, by clicking the red button at the top of the blog that says "follow me on Pinterest".

DO IT.