I Can Be Your Hero, Baby

I should have had this blog written a few days ago. But it's been a busy few days, so it has been delayed. Enjoy listening to this little ditty as you peruse this most recent installment of The Nilla Life -- although I will confess, the song has very little (read nothing) to do with the post itself beyond the first picture of me, which was taken at All Staff Training Day for the library:

But library-wise, maybe I could be your hero :). Especially after my 3 break-out sessions. Of course the week was full of big events. On Monday, we got the new news at the funeral home about who will be our new sales manager and general manager. So things are definitely in flux at the funeral home as we settle into many changes. As always, I left a little early on Monday to head to Lea's for our Monday night feast. This week we had homemade Swedish Meatballs (kudos to Lea, because I never try anything that hard, and it was really good!) with egg noodles and a green salad using a tomato and a cucumber from my garden. And for dessert, I took S'mores Bars, which turned out much better than the last time I made them. And we watched something like 7 episodes of Scrubs. Tuesday I worked both jobs, and being that Tuesday is the busiest day at the library, there was plenty to do. They had gotten pizza at the funeral home, so Rebecca saved me a piece for my lunch when I got back. Which I thought was nice. I walked Tuesday evening with Sue and we had an enjoyable walk and talk. Lots of laughter. I made it an early night on Tuesday, because Wednesday morning I had to wake up at 6 to get ready for the day. Of course, when that happens -- the knowledge that something is important the next day -- I tend to wake up a lot and not sleep well. And so I woke up at 2:20 in the morning, thinking my alarm would sound at any minute. And so I was pretty tired at 6 in the morning. And the rain had returned to Washington State. What a nasty day to be driving. So I went and picked up Lea and we got on the road. We listened to 80s music the whole way and gabbed and laughed. And got lost. And in our defense! We had the world's worst directions from librarians! Thankfully we had plenty of time to spare, so we drove around Lacey, WA for a bit until we finally found our destination. On the way in, there was a group of people outside in what looked like a line. I thought it was the line for registration. So I asked, "Is this the line?" And then one person was like, "Would you like to wear a green ribbon to show support for negotiations?" This is union talk. Which is, as I told you, a huge thing up here. And one with which I don't even agree. So I was like, "No, I'm good." And I kept on walking. And laughed when I told Lea about it. Hahaha. So we got in line and got our name-tags. And somehow both of us didn't get our little super-hero cards that had the adjectives that described us. We were like the only ones! We think it's a conspiracy. Hahaha. So we found our table -- at the very front of the whole gymnasium full of librarians. Ugh. We didn't pick our table, for the record. And then we went and got breakfast. Granola, yogurt, orange juice, and blueberry muffin and almond poppyseed cake. Yummy. So we had our opening program stuff. And it was pretty cool. Well, except the Sirsi/Dynex stuff. That was boring. And so Lea and I laughed about vultures and Fraggles and other hilarities. And then we went to first break-out session. I signed up for a journaling one. Mostly with the thought that perhaps it will help me with my hopes of writing my memoirs one day. Then it was back to the gym for lunch. Which were healthy wraps and salad and soda and cookies, brownies, and -- at our table -- cheesecake for one of the lady's birthday. Now, on the table were these home-made stress balls. I was curious what was inside them, so I took them apart. It was a bag of bird seed. Which had a hole and started spilling all over the place. So I looked at Lea (knowing I couldn't manage to reconstruct the stress ball while trying to prevent seed spillage...) and said, "I may require your assistance." She busted out laughing -- I guess my facial expression was amusing. In the end, I didn't put the 3rd balloon all the way back on and instead decided to make my homie -- pictured below.

And here are me and Lea with our homie. Oh, and it has gotten colder in Washington again. Today I think it reached 70 degrees. But the summer is pretty much over. Hence our sweaters in September.

And here are those of us from my library branch that went to All Staff Training Day. We have Jenny (holding Bella the Fair, which is a story unto itself), Corene, Rona the birthday girl, Karen, Phyllis, Lea, and me.
After we ate lunch, we headed to our last two break-out sessions. My next one was called Romancing the Patrons. It was ideas for programming using the Romance genre. A published Romance author presented it, and I got her autograph in 2 of her books. I don't know if I'll ever read them, though. Not really my genre. But I think I gained a lot from it that would help me do programs for Romance. My last break-out session was "So That's Why You Drive Me Crazy?!?" And it was all about how we all have different working types. I'm a tie between an analyzer and an amiable. It was definitely interesting. So after this was all over, Lea and I headed home. And so we ended up in rush hour traffic. In the rain. And somewhere amidst all this, we thought it'd be fun to go to the Tacoma Mall. I don't know why we thought it would be fun. But we did. I haven't been there since 1995 when i didn't even know how to drive. And Tacoma is one of the busiest cities around here. So we didn't even find the mall! Which apparently is hard for some people to believe. Hahaha. We did find Costco and a Goodwill. And we started heading to the "bad" part of town in order to turn around and head back to the interstate. Hahaha. It was more adventure. Always fun. We laughed so much this whole day! So it was a really good day. We went and picked up some items at the grocery store that we had to get, and then we ate at Jack in the Box, and then I dropped her off at home and headed home myself. Thursday, Rebecca and I decorated alligator Bob's office for his birthday and she gave him a lava lamp. He was very excited about it. I worked both jobs again and that was fine. I picked Lea up for work and we had a fun day there. It was busy because we had been closed on Wednesday. Thursday night I ended up walking with Sue again. And we laughed some more as we walked and talked -- sometimes in the rain. Because yes, the rain has returned indeed. Friday was more of the same. Lea and I again worked the same shift, so I picked her up for work. It makes sense to car-pool, but I generally have to take my car, because most days I do the post office run for the library, and that requires driving to the post office. It's not conveniently across the street like at HLML. Friday was another fun day, at least the second half. Lea has a not-so-secret admirer at work, and it was pretty funny. Then I worked at the funeral home until 6. Then I came home, got a shower, and then went to watch Saria, Samuel, and Benjamin. That was fun. They are growing up so much. We watched Hot Lead and Cold Feet and read a Halloween book. I do love those kids. Today I worked at the library. It went pretty quick because we were -- for the first time ever since I've worked there -- short-staffed. So that was actually nice. Lots to do to stay busy. Then I went to the grocery store to get stuff. The day started out lovely and sunny. By the time I got home, it was raining again. Hahaha. But I picked my tomatoes, and you can see them below! I had to cut out spots on a couple of them. That big huge one that looks weird... It was apparently also attractive to the spiders and a snail. Gross. So I cut out the spots they were chewing on. I guess that's what happens sometimes... I'm about to have slices of them on a BLT for dinner :). So on that note, I say goodnight ;).